Treating Social Media Optimization as Another Distribution Channel

Jan 27, 2007 Michael Brito

Social Media Optimization is one element of being omnipresent on the Internet, or as Rohit Bhargava states “helping your content travel“. It could be compared to that of a manufacturer who adopts a comprehensive channel marketing strategy to distribute their product.  For example, if I am looking to purchase a Sony laptop, I can easily get on online at Sonystyle.com (if I am comfortable making online purchases), or take a drive to the local Best Buy, Circuit City or even Sony store and buy it there too.  From a consumer’s point of view, they can get a Sony laptop wherever they feel comfortable buying it.  In essence, Sony laptops are omnipresent, even though they are not very good.

The same can be said for social media optimization.  As a marketer who adopts a social media optimization strategy, it’s imperative that your content (whatever it may be) be visible in digg, delicious, stumbleupon or myspace to name a few.  It’s basically another distribution channel to help your content reach your target consumer.  The fact is that social search, while it may not replace search engines yet is a growing channel and flow of informational content.  What that means is that more and more consumers are using these sites to find relevant information; and if you are not present in that channel, you are losing out on valuable web traffic, revenue and brand awareness.

Of course, being omnipresent isn’t just about social media; there are other marketing channels that must also be accounted for such as paid search, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, retail partners, etc. However, as broadband adoption is still exponentially growing and as web users are growing more savvy by the hour, social media, social bookmarking, social networking are all emerging Web 2.0 channels that have the ability to take your small business to the next level.

Technorati Tags: social media optimization, smo, socialmediaoptimization, social media marketing


Related Articles

comment    cat Posted in Social Media Optimization
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please subscribe to my blog!
  • John
    Great info, thank you. But would you have to hire someone to distribute your content on these sites or just optimize the site and pray that your content somehow becomes viral?

    - John
  • If I might, I would address John and say, no, you don't have to hire someone to handle SMO. Frankly, what we're looking at in new and revolving market trends are new names to existing and organic entities of marketing. I'm in the midst of writing an article for the Journal of Services Marketing relating the technologies of SEO and the age-old processes of personal, services and product marketing. Successful marketers will find that in this day and age, what works best is flying below the radar and utilizing marketing practices that most would consider antiquated. We've come to a point in time where we've actually optimized "old-school" marketing tactics.

    So, to answer your question more concisely and precisely, if you're out to market your blog through social means, have a set of good friends submit your blog post through agrigators and feed systems manually. Never submit your own. Call friends and family and have them read your post and spread the news to their friends. The multiplicity of social networks is what makes them so successful. Optimizing them is purely doing your best to broadcast your message. Write meaningful, respectful and well-written comments on other blogs while maintaining your personal blog link. Search for other ideas, innovate on what's been created for SMO. Think like and entrepreneur and NEVER use your own money, if any money at all, to promote SMO or SEO. If others can do it without money invested, so can you. Consult with those who have already done it successfully. Use non-tech methods of getting your message out. To be truly omni-present you need to be outside of the Internet and on paper, through phones, etc. Be creative.
  • Maureen
    Brendon - I agree. I would also say that if you have great content that value, it will spread like the Ebola Virus.

    Also, something to consider is that most viral videos, blogs, etc., were never meant to be viral. It usually just happens without planning.
  • The problem with metrics, that I have, is that while science and mathematics are all a part of business and life, not everything is calcuable. Thus, measuring SMO or other methods, may come in new forms. Numbers may be worthless in these scenarios.

    That being said, my feeling is that true metrics of organic nature comes from CSI's. If you want to know your advertising, marketing or other means are working, ask the customer. They'll tell you and you can easily convert persons into numbers, though, there is little or no substitute for a well formed opinion - it's not numerical in value and should not be.
  • Jason Yee
    Brendon - you are absolutely right. It becomes more difficult when you are trying to measure the effectiveness when conversions or sales are not a part of the plan.

    The question remains...how do you measure engagement?
  • Well, we have to take a look at qualatative data instead of quantatative data. It comes down to clicks. With my blog, I know I've had a certain number of Digg users reading my content by the Digg count. There is a margin of error, but in whole it's a pretty decent idea of where I stand. The reason I consider this so is because those that have Dugg my post are obviously qualified consumers of my content. Otherwise they wouldn't spend the time to read and then use the Digg function. Others may read my material but not post. To me, these are not necessarily my target because they're not interacting with me. I want an audience, or target group, that is involved in what I'm doing. This allows me to offer products that my target group will be more apt to use or purchase because they've already displayed their interest in my material.

    If you really want to measure, keep a time log of what you've spent on your optimization and then log the unique visitors to your page, or users who've commented or users who are registered on your site, calculate your ROI by your time invested versus your user rate. That's all you can really ask for before you actually offer a tangible, or electronic-intangible good.
  • Jason Yee
    Brendon...great stuff. thanks.
  • I still can't help but worry that maybe one day we'll hit a tipping point. At first, there was MySpace, and now, aside from competitors, there are countless other niche specific options. Unless some kind of order comes to this chaos of growth, the industry might spin-out into just another fad.

    Never the less, I have my eye on NIng. They might just be the ones to offer a model for coherence. But who knows.
  • Niagara -

    Maybe this will keep you from worrying.

    Revisit some physics and remember that energy cannot be destroyed, only reallocated. Thus, even if there were to be a "tipping point," and social media went south, it would only reappear as a new form of media in another space.

    With that being said, you have to remember that the web and anything web-based is completely from organic roots and, fortunately, remain organic. Blogs, as we know them, originated as a developer's tool to help communicate and collaborate on programming projects. The original intent was not for web logging to be a form of social media.

    What I suppose I'm trying to get out (wordy as usual) is that you should not concentrate on the hopes of a static social media, rather anticipate and begin to plan for an evolving, organic social media.

    Remember that what makes social media is people. People are organic and don't stop changing, so why would their media be static. All media changes, though, the web faster than most.
  • Swan - excellent point. Social Media will never just wither up and fade away but IT WILL CHANGE. Think back when SEO was all about spamming the hell out of the meta tags and look to see how it has evolved today (and still evolving). Brendon is right when he states that “social media’ is about people; and when we (the people) evolve, so will the channels that marketers use to reach them (or us).

    Then again, Google might just acquire all the social media channels today and finally conquer the world; and then we will continue to play the guessing game while trying to figure out that damn Google algorithm.
  • Haha! Oh yeah, I forgot about the "Google factor." Damnit, Google!