Category: Business

Mar 04

Social Media Optimization: An Overview

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the brother of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- they are both attracting customers to their website content, except SMO is attracting visitors to a company’s web site by using its social media pages or profiles on sites like Twitter and Facebook. In addition, creating a SMO-friendly website means making social media a core component of how users interact with content.

There are several different things companies can add to their site to make it SMO, thus increasing traffic and building links. Some of these include:

  1. Adding RSS feeds and making subscribing to RSS feeds by email easy (like the Feedburner Subscription box on the sidebar of The Social Robot.)
  2. Adding social media share buttons (like those found on addany.com or sharethis.com)
  3. Plugins and components that allow users to rate and comment on posts and content
  4. Widgets that pull in company tweets or facebook updates
  5. Easy customer engagement, like the ability to upload videos with their company feedback and thoughts.

In addition, there are also some social media optimization tactics that work as a ‘pull’ method to get users to come to the site.

  1. Guest blogging on other’s blogs with a link back to company website
  2. Commenting on relevant blog articles and including website address in the URL or comment itself (but only if it is topically relevant- otherwise would be spamming)
  3. Answering questions related to company’s industry on LinkedIn Answers or Yahoo! Answers, in addition to forums and message boards. Include link to company website in signature, if applicable and allowed.

Here’s some great posts on social media optimization from around the internet:

13 rules of SMO
social-media-optimization.com
16 rules for SMO revisited
The beginners guide to SMO

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Posted in Business, Featured, SEO, social media

Feb 22

How to Make Your Own Link Shortener

In 8th grade I was in a mediocre band, and I ran an equally mediocre website to promote that band. The one thing we had going for us was used cjb.net to shorten the convoluted URL Angelfire.com has given us. Maybe our abysmal Green Day covers weren’t turning heads, but at least we had a pithy URL. But that was 10 years ago, when URL shortening was all about style. Now it’s mostly about fitting those long URLs into the character constraints of tweets and text messages. But should link shortening be just about brevity? Some organizations are taking URL shortening to the next level by using their own, branded URL shorteners.

A lot of websites use link shorteners like Tiny URL or bit.ly to facilitate the tweeting or texting of links. Those services are easy to use. Enter a URL, and they’ll generate a shorter URL that points to the original. Sure, they’re brief but they aren’t exactly stylish. Depending on what service you use, the shortened URL will start with http://tiny.cc/, http://bit.ly/, and so on. You might argue that this doesn’t matter, because readers don’t care about what a URL looks like, as long as it’s short enough to fit into a tweet. You might be right, but I’m seeing branded URL shorteners popping up more and more.

Marketers love talking about brand equity, that intangible value your brand name provides its products. A branded URL takes advantage of brand equity,  evoking the reputation of the website it’s connected to. If somebody tweets a news story, you’re decision to click on it will be informed not only by the headline, but also by where the link will take you. The New York Times branded shortened URL is http://nyti.ms. If the URL begins with http://nyti.ms you might more likely to check out the link because of the positive association you have with The New York Times.

If you want your own branded URL shortner, there’s YOURLS. Check it out. It’s great tool that lets you customize your shortened links, with a URL that corresponds with your own brand. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Get a catchy URL and a place to host it. Learn from the nyti.ms example and try a domain that’s an abbreviation of your current one.
  2. Download YOURLS and follow the setup instructions.
  3. Since this is your branded link shortening device, make sure “private” and “custom” are both set to true. Otherwise, other people would be able to create links from your branded URL.
  4. Show off your tech savvy by creating branded, shortened links.
  5. Take advantage of all the extra goodies YOURLS provides, like historical click reports, referrers tracking, and geo-location stats.

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Posted in Business, Featured

Feb 12

Finding Useful Information on Article Marketing Sites

EZineArticles.com, as well as other article marketing websites, can be a great resource for anyone that is wanting to grab some content or great story ideas. You can re-post the content on your page if it includes the user’s bio at the bottom (however, this isn’t recommended, as it counts as duplicate content). Article marketing sites consist of free articles that people use for linkbuilding purposes. By including their own website link in the bio portion of the article, they get exposure while reinforcing their expertise in a certain area or industry.

Not surprisingly, a lot of articles on EZineArticles and other article marketing sites are simply keyword-riddled drivel that barely makes sense. However, if you take a closer look, a lot of the content is actually well-written, useful, and informative. To find these quality articles, do a search or look in the applicable section. You’ll find that the most useful articles have a longer word count (300-500 words), don’t include links or free offers in the article, and have unique and catchy titles (like the first example article below).

I’ve included a few quick links to a small sample of articles I feel can really contribute to the discussion on social media, the internet, and search engine marketing (SEM).
Is It Anti-Social Media for the New York Times to Charge Online Subscribers?
How to Use Social Media to Improve Your Rankings
AdWords Mistakes You Should Avoid at All Costs
Why You Should Care When Someone Tweets About His Lunch

If you are facing writer’s block when trying to write entries for your own blog or website, these articles can certainly get the juices flowing.

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Posted in Business, Et cetera, Reading List

Jan 18

How Real-Time Search in Google and Bing Can Benefit Customers and Businesses Alike

New, real-time, up to the minute search has become the next big thing in both Google and Bing. While many people are concerned that this may ‘cheapen’ the quality and value of regularly indexed search results, having tweets and Facebook profiles crawled almost immediately after their conception will not be detrimental to search engine results. And here’s why:

  • People want information. This means they aren’t just looking for an encyclopedia article or an IMDB.com entry when they type in ‘Avatar’. They want to know movie times, what other people thought, and if it’s even worth their time. This is why typing in a popular movie title in Google and Bing will bring up movie times at theaters in the user’s area. Creating smart search engines with real-time results bring people the results they want.
  • People are busy. This means they don’t want to have to sift through pages and pages of search engine results before finding a good review on a book or a critical perspective on using blogging to increase web traffic. The Internet was created to bring everyone information fast, and real-time search gives users the most relevant and up-to-date information, not just a 10 year old thesis paper because it has the right keywords.
  • People care about what others have to say. This goes back to point #1. Research shows that people are using social media to feel connected to others and to see what they are doing. If someone types in ‘Avatar’ into google and receives 5 tweets that say, “I loved Avatar!”, “Going to see Avatar with the family now”, etc., they are more interested in seeing it. The same goes for products, retail stores, and restaurants. Seeing positive (or negative) tweets or Facebook posts about something will make a person more likely (or less likely) to pay attention to that business or product.
  • Businesses can use this to their advantage. Real-time search results means current opinions about a business and their product. Businesses now have a unique perspective into what some of their customers are saying about their brand. As a result, they can improve their product, reach out to unsatisfied customers, and increase brand awareness with social media and Internet marketing campaigns of their own. Besides search engine results, using websites like Social Mention and Google Alerts (setting up an ‘alert’ to be sent to your email every time your brand name is indexed in search results) can also help companies stay abreast on what is being said about them.
While the list of reasons why real-time web and search is a good idea will continue to grow, believing in the power of social media, search marketing, and instant access into what others are saying can help everyone learn more about the world around them and what to do next.

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Posted in Business, Search Engines, SEO, social media

Dec 10

Did Social Media Save Black Friday?

Black Friday has come and gone, and so too has the constant flow of tweets, status updates, and blog entries exhorting us to “take advantage of special savings!” Experts predicted that purchasing would be down, but spending was actually up 0.5% from last year.  According to the Wall Street Journal, people spent about 10.66 billion dollars on Black Friday. Do retailers have social media to thank for helping Black Friday endure despite the recession?

While it’s hard to determine what impact social media had in terms of actual sales, it’s apparent that a lot of the major players (such as Office Max, Target, and Old Navy) put their faith in Twitter and Facebook to spread the word about their Black Friday deals. With advertising budgets hurting due to the economy, social media provided a cheap way for companies to reach a lot of people.

Consumers responded to this corporate outreach by visiting a whole slew of new blogs that cropped up. With names like Black Friday Ads and My Black Friday Deals, these blogs kept people (perhaps obsessively) up-to-date on retailers’ latest savings offers.

According to one pre-Thanksgiving survey, 1 in 5 shoppers planned to consult social media to find the best bargains. If businesses really did reach 20% of their potential customers through social media, this was money well spent. Having a person or small team to manage your Twitter and Facebook is going to be a heck of a lot less expensive than the money spent running ads in hundreds newspapers and websites.

The excitement was so great, that even the mainstream media picked up on the story. A few weeks before thanksgiving, ABC News encouraged readers to check Facebook and Twitter before heading out into the fray.

What About Next Year?

I think retailers will learn from this experience and continue to refine the way they use social media to interact with consumers. And if shoppers had a good experience using social media this year, the word will likely spread and make next year even bigger.

In the meantime, retailers now have their social media hooks stuck in shoppers. They can continue to capitalize on new Twitter followers and Facebook fans by keeping people aware of new sales.

In the old days, stores used to promise to “match or beat any price,” if you brought in a valid coupon proving another store was selling a product for less. I wonder if things are changing. Maybe we’re heading towards the day when retailers will be saying, “We’ll beat any tweet.”

6
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Posted in Blogging, Business, social media

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