3 Baby Steps to Social Media Optimization
July 18, 2007
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If you want to optimize your website, one of your first considerations should be “Social Media Optimization“, or SMO. Similar to Search Engine Optimization, SMO employs social media tactics to drive more users to your website, provides more ways for users to link to your site, increases user interaction, and overall allows your site to appear higher ranked in web searches.
Spend a few minutes researching SMO, and you will realize there are countless methods to optimize. Rohit Bhargava first termed SMO and created the 5 rules of Social Media Optimization. Since this post, readers commented and added to these rules bumping them to nearly 17 rules of SMO.
With numerous tips and suggestions out there it is natural to feel a bit overwhelmed. Where do you begin?
As the psychologist in the movie What About Bob said, “Relax……take baby steps.” Below are a list of the three suggestions to start you on the right track and guide your SMO efforts.
1. Analyze your situation. Before beginning anything, if you aren’t using an analytics tool - get one. Programs like Google Analytics and Feedburner are free and easy to use. Through them you can help you see how your readers get to your site, popularity of your articles, effective search words, and more. This will give you a base of comparison for your SMO efforts. And frankly, if you’re not studying the analytics, there’s simply no way to optimize.
2. Set Specific SMO Goals. Everyone dreams of increased readers and higher search rankings - but setting out specific goals will further help set your SMO strategy. Do you want readers to interact with your site? Do you want to gather information?
3. Remember Resources. SMO takes time. In order to accomplish your goals will your SMO efforts be daily, bi-weekly, or a one-time only? We know from our own work that there is always something else that you can do with the site to improve it. What’s going to get you the most value? What can you afford? What return do you expect and what will you need to do to get there?
Comments
3 Responses to “3 Baby Steps to Social Media Optimization”
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You’re right about setting goals, because you can optimize 24/7. I’ve noticed on my blogs that all traffic is not the same. Sometimes, you get a very popular post on Digg or Reddit or the like and you get huge traffic, but your bounce rate goes through the roof.
All traffic is not created equal!
[…] Lisa posted on the 3 baby steps to Social Media Optimization, listing step 2, “Setting SMO goals”. Expounding on that thought, I found a wonderful […]
As I think about how I might want to structure my own blog, this information is helpful to consider.
And I am extremely impressed with your “What About Bob?” reference.
Great job, Lisa!