The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Optimization

There's a great sense of relief when you finally admit to yourself that, though it sounds cool, you have no idea what it means to Digg, Stumble or Spurl. That you spell delicious without random periods and that, in your world, Reddit is two words and not at all spelled like that. As an average Web user, you don't have to be a fan of social media optimization. However, as a site owner, you do need to know that it exists and be aware of the effects and potential benefits it could have on your site.

Social media optimization has become the hot new buzzword over the last 12 months, similar to the way "the long tail" dominated conference speak before that. If you're a frequent blog reader or conference attendee you've probably heard about sites like Wikipedia, Digg, and del.icio.us, but you may not know why getting there could be crucial to the success of your site. Who cares about Furl and Reddit anyway? Well, your customers might. And if they do, being there will keep your brand name in the front of their mind and could send you thousands of new visitors.

What Is Social Media Optimization
If search engine optimization is about breaking down crawling barriers to help the engines fully index your site, social media optimization is about knocking down site walls so content can be easily found, distributed and shared by the community. This process may simply mean embedding a "Digg This" button on your site blog or it may mean spending hours to create a piece of compelling content, aka linkbait, that could either drive thousands of visitors to your site or have no effect at all.

The right link magnet, presented at the right time, to the right audience can bring an unimaginable amount of traffic to your site. For a company just starting out, getting on the front page of Digg can offer instant visibility and credibility. For an establish company, it can strengthen your brand and turn you into a household name. The key to social media is knowing how to leverage it. And your ability to leverage it depends on your ability to attract, engage and convert new visitors.

Reaching out to social communities to bring attention your brand isn't a new concept; however, thanks to today's technology, when done right, the power, effect and benefit of social media optimization is huge. In a recent article entitled Anatomy of a Super Digg, Daniel Tynski shared his company's experience with a client who spent ten minutes creating a throwaway article specifically targeted towards social media. The article was submitted to Digg and in 7 days the client was rewarded with more than 3,000 backlinks, 532 links from del.icio.us, an enormous swell in Alexa rankings, and an impressive (though temporary) surge in rankings for many of the client's targeted keywords.

What's the benefit to SMO?
The benefits of social media vary depending on what you're looking to do. For some sites, the greatest benefit to SMO is the instant exposure and influx of inbound links it creates. With any luck, a significant portion of your new links will be coming from quality sites in your field. However, if not, these effects are often short-lived and traffic alone doesn't equal conversions and increased revenue for most sites. You need to be able to capture those first-time visitors and convert them into loyal site community members.
The real benefit to optimizing your site for social media is it inspires you to create excellent, keyword-rich content, which in turn can help build your online and offline brand, increase quality inbound links over time, make you a subject matter expert, and expose your content to thousands of new visitors. It reinforces what you should be working towards through your search engine optimization campaign.

Getting Started and Establishing Your Goals
As with SEO, most sites can benefit from some form of social media optimization but your strategy needs to be designed to compliment the specifics of your site.
When determining which site/s are right for you, you need to consider the type of site you're trying to market. If you're a technology company with a great blog, submitting posts to Digg may be beneficial for you. However, don't assume Digg is automatically a match simply because it's the only social media site you've heard of. If your Web site specializes in customizable baby apparel, the college-aged, tech savvy crowd at Digg is not your core demographic and your post will be buried. In this scenario, you're probably better of tagging your content at one of the social bookmarking sites or creating a community profile on Flickr.
Without knowing your audience there's no way you can offer them a great tool or a compelling piece of content. You need to consider what actions will produce the strongest reaction and use the least amount of resources. Take into account what your desired outcome is. Are you looking for increased conversions, traffic, links, industry credibility, brand recognition, something else? All of this will be vital in helping you plan your attack.