The Role of Social Media Marketing of Online Marketing

Social Media Optimization is usually considered as a part of online marketing, and is the optimizing of a site and its content to make it worth sharing on various social media sites. In short, we can say, SMO is making use of social media in order to promote a brand or a product or to generate publicity.

The Need for SMO

SMO is optimizing a website on social media. Just like SEO, SMO also plays a vital role in business development and its promotion because social media is one of the most powerful platforms to reach millions of people at once. Social media plays a crucial role in driving huge traffic as it allow your content to flow across the web globally.

The Various Types of SMO Techniques

There exists so many types of social media like RSS Feeds, social news, bookmarking sites, and social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc. The main motive behind such SMO techniques is to generate traffic and promote a brand. Here are some SMO techniques you cna use to utilize the different typesof social media wisely.

Develop proper strategies - No goal can be achieved without following a proper strategy, so make a plan, follow it step by step, and includes measurements so you know when you achieved your goal.

Increase your visibility by creating links - You can increase your visibility online by increasing the linkability of your content. Blogs can be helpful in this context as it will enhance your website’s visibility and credibility.

Tags and bookmarking - Additional features like buttons for like, share, tag etc. are the best way to increase the visibility of pages or product. So make sure that such pages include relevant tags, notes, or links, and don’t forget to tag your pages on popular social bookmarking sites.

Inbound links - Quality and high value inbound links serve as the measure of success of your site. Try to make a difference by employing a few SMO activities, which helps you in boosting quality inbound links because it will increase the demand of your products and services.

Let your content flow - Unlike SEO, SMO is all about flow of content and not changes in content. Let your content flow across the web. Share links, files, images etc. as much as possible.

Appreciate visitors and their thoughts - Appreciating others for sharing their views is the best way to leave a good impact on visitors. Answer their queries, appreciate their comments, and ask them for advice, as this will enhance your reputation.

Be creative and experimenting - Social media offers you a great platform to show your creativity and experiment with the changing scenario of the online market. So, be creative and be willing try something new to attract visitors.

The Advantages of SMO

Connect with customers - Social media helps you to get connect with your potential customers so that you can customize your services and products to your customer’s requirements.

Lead generation - Lead generation is an important factor for every business and SMO activities play a crucial role in increasing your return on investment.

Maintain your reputation - Social media is the best and cheapest platform to get an idea of your brand status and feedback of customers. This way, it helps you to maintain your online reputation.

Beat your competitors - Social media helps you to mark your presence in the online market. Thus, you can create your brand awareness by using SMO techniques.

Cost effective - SMO serve as the most cost effective way to advertise and market your business products or services.

Author Bio: Sumeet Gaurav is a web enthusiast and a technical guy who is currently working on the website Adda52.com. Adda52.com is an online gaming website for true game lovers where you can play online poker games, learn how to play poker and know about various poker tips and strategies.

4 Things You Can Post to Social Media (Besides Your Own Content)

Have you heard of the 50/50 rule? It's where 50% of the content you post on social media is your own, while 50% of it is other people's content. Yes, a whopping one-half of what you post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. as part of your social media marketing ought to be other people's content! After all, being social means talking about someone other than yourself once in a while. But, what kinds of content can you use to fill that 50%? To help, here are four things you can post to social media that aren't your own blog posts, web pages, or social media profiles:

Statistics

If you come across a really good industry statistic, or a new one is released, or if there's one that you use to convince potential customers that they need your service, then share those! It doesn't necessarily have to be a statistic that's jaw-dropping, or one that's released yesterday, it just has to be one that's of interest to your audience (and true). Below's an example of a statistic that we tweeted. Note our personal touch:

45% of marketers note social media has a below average cost-per-lead compared to other channels. That's always nice to hear!

Relevant Articles

You're not the only one saying great things, right? So, why not share some of the other great things that you find on blogs and industry publications? They don't have to be the blog posts of your competitors. It just needs to be something that your audience would think would be worth reading. Make sure that when you do this, that you don't just tweet the title and the link. That's boring. Add your own spin, or simply just say that this is a great article that you should read, or that the author did a good job (the author will at least like that and perhaps like your status or retweet your tweet). Here's an example of what we mean:

Need photos for your blog? Well, Getty Images won't give them to you for free:

Note: Articles that are about your company (like a press release), or that are guest posts on other blogs, don't count for this one. Although the content is appearing on a third-party site, it is still about you, and is still your own content. The point of posting other people's content is to give others some of the spotlight, especially since we all love it when other people highlight our content!

Someone Else's Post/Tweet/Update

Who says finding someone else's content has to take a lot of time and research? Why not simply find something neat that someone has already shared on social media, and share it again? All this one takes is a few minutes taking a look at the news feed, finding something interesting, clicking a couple of things, and presto! You've posted someone else's content! Depending on the platform, you don't even have to add anything else to the tweet or post. Just share it!

An Upcoming Event (Not Your Own)

Is there an upcoming trade show, webinar, or networking event that you or your company is attending and are really excited about? Then, talk about that! Share the link to the sign up page, or a link to an informational page, or the schedule of the event, and encourage others to attend with you. The more people that show up to this event, the more there will be to talk about once the event is done. It's a win-win!

Any Other Ideas?

What other kinds of content have you shared that wasn't your own? Videos? Photos? Tell us in the comments!