SMO :: SoundBiteBlog.com

Welcome back to the 8th episode of our informative series,

“Developing a Social Media Strategy”

If you’ve missed out on the previous installments, here they are:

“Social Media is a Conversation, not an Advertisement!”     “The ‘WHY’ of Social Media?“

“Taking AIM”      “Social Media Sushi“      “5 Keys to Having a Killer Blog!“

“Top 10 Ways to Feed Your Blog.”      “What’s in Your Social Media Tool Belt?“

In this next part of our series, we’re going to take a bold step….

“Beyond The Blog”

At this point, we’re going to assume that you have a blog and that you’ve been diligently posting good quality content there on a regular basis. The content that you generate can be one of the most valuable and effective marketing resources that you have. Think of your blog as the publishing house where your wealth of professional knowledge, advice, and experience is skillfully formatted and attractively packaged for consumption by your intended audience.

Your Blog Content is Like Cow Manure

In order for your valued blog content to be most effective and achieve its fullest impact, it needs to be spread around. The next successive step or key in your social media strategy is selecting the best tools/methods to spread/push/distribute/syndicate links to your prized content, thereby exposing it to the largest audience possible. Fortunately, given the tremendous amount of inter-connectivity being offered across multiple platforms, we have an abundance of viable venues to choose from.

Before we identify a few of those venues, allow me to make a couple of helpful suggestions as you’re evaluating potential sites:

Push Come to Shove

Don’t push or syndicate your content to a site unless you intend on actively participating on that site. In other words, don’t just automatically post a link from your blog article to your Twitter account if you never or rarely engage in actual conversations there. As with traditional ‘Interruption-Style’ marketing/advertising, your links simply become elevator noise to be ignored.

If You Blogged in the Woods, Would Anyone Listen?

Ensure that the platforms you choose are relevant for your content subject matter as well as your intended audience. Few things can be more frustrating than spending an inordinate amount of time and energy attempting to converse with a brick wall. Do the people you’re hoping to attract through your writing frequent the targeted site regularly? Are they actually being exposed to your articles? Obviously, this is where some good analytics need to be consistently employed and evaluated. We’ll discuss that in more detail later.

Go to Where the Conversations Are

While there are the obvious choices of highly popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. there may be other smaller regional or even local platforms you can access as well. Does your local newspaper have a web presence with community bloggers? Or perhaps the Chamber of Commerce or Regional Visitors/Convention Bureau? Even hyper-local Neighborhood Blogs/networks are becoming more and more popular. You need to have an intimate knowledge of the ‘webscape’ of your specific market area and know what platforms/networks people are frequenting to connect and converse.

Stay Focused and Disciplined

When accessing social networks, it’s very easy to become sidetracked and lured away into time-consuming activities that offer very little, if any, return on your investment, i.e., Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc.. Even on networks such as ActiveRain we can become overly absorbed in chasing points or engaged in heated debates over politics/religion. Develop a consistent daily time-frame and task schedule for your social media involvements. Being focused and disciplined will allow you the time necessary to accomplish all of your traditional methods of marketing.

The Usual Suspects

It’s relatively easy to identify the more popular sites currently being used for effectively expanding one’s digital footprint and engaging in meaningful connections/conversations with your Sphere and potential clients. I’m going to name a few here, and in our next installment, I’ll begin to break each of them down individually, demonstrate how they can be incorporated into your social media strategy, and used  to effectively grow your business.

~    o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~

DISCLAIMER: The author of this series is not a social media guru. Any similarity to such title, character or history of any said individual is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

An avid blogger since 2005, Rich has published over 1000 articles, most related to real estate. He enjoys using the tools of social media to brag/boast about the quality of Life on the picturesque Kitsap Peninsula in scenic WA State. He is a licensed real estate professional providing knowledgeable empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, ActiveRain, Crabbing in the Hood, Everyday CK, Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

Share on Facebook

Posted in Social Media for Small Business | 3 Comments »

Tags: SMO, Social Media for Small Business, social media optimization, social media strategy, social networks

In today’s Web 2.0 environment, the skyrocketing growth of New Social Media and it’s ongoing impact/influence on our culture is a force that cannot be ignored. It is a power that can be unlocked and effectively harnessed for expanding our sphere of contact, increasing our Internet presence, and promoting our message.

But first, it’s important for us to define our terms. “Web 2.0” is the term given to describe a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to generate, collaborate/share, publish/distribute information online. It basically refers to “the transition from static HTML Web pages to a more dynamic/interactive Web that is more organized and is based on serving web applications to users.” Some examples of the improved functionalities of Web 2.0 includes open communication with an emphasis on Web-based communities of users, and more open sharing of information, such as blogs, wikis, and web services. Simply put, Web 2.0 is a new movement or trend within the World Wide Web that shifts the focus away from static webpages to dynamic and shareable content.


In the past, people would simply access static websites, and be exposed to a ‘read-only’ environment. It was a limited, one-sided conversation. And unless your static content changed regularly, there was very little ‘stickiness’ that encouraged visitors to come back.

But in today’s Web 2.0 arena, web/blogsites have become ‘dynamic’ and encourage greater interactivity with their visitors. Conversations have moved to near ‘real-time’ and allow visitors to participate in the process. Content is being syndicated through multiple media streams, including video and podcasts, to provide portability and appeal to user preferences.

Next, let’s consider another popular term, Social Media. Social Media refers primarily to the Internet-based tools and technologies that enable and facilitate the Web 2.0 generational shift – the creation, publishing, and distribution of user content for the purposes of encouraging meaningful interaction, sharing, and conversation among human beings. Hence the term, Social Media.

For most people/organizations who have used the Internet for marketing purposes, their primary focus has historically been on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). These are strategies of site construction and content generation that help to ensure efficient indexing and high page rank by the search engines.

But now, with the growing availability of various social media tools, applications, and networks, additional focus is also being placed on SMO (Social Media Optimization). These are strategies for identifying viable, relevant tools, applications, and networks, and implementing effective methods  to consistently promote a businesses/organization’s message/services.

In its most basic essence, unlocking the power of social media is simply going where the conversations are, and utilizing the tools and applications to engage others, and become a meaningful part of those conversations.

Like any meaningful marketing effort, SMO takes time, strategy and commitment. It requires a basic, current understanding of what tools, applications, and networks exist, and how they can best be utilized.

Developing an Effective SMO Strategy

The first step in establishing an effective SMO strategy is to identify those tools, applications, and networks that offer the greatest relevance and highest measure of exposure.

The second step is determining what message/information/content you want to communicate, and developing a consistent strategy for effectively spreading it across multiple venues.

A few key elements to keep in mind:

1.  Your branding must be consistent. You must develop a library of logos and images that can be used to convey the essence of your organization’s vision/mission.

2.  Your social media efforts need to be consistently maintained. Readers/visitors need to be engaged and responded to quickly. Fresh content is the key.

3.  If your business or organization has a website, you need to incorporate a blog into your site as soon as possible. This will allow for greater transparency from your management team, and allow the public to have more meaningful access to your organization.

For addtional reading:

Ten Ways that Non-Profits can start Leveraging Social Media

Share on Facebook

Posted in Business Bites | 1 Comment »

Tags: SMO, social media