Link Building.net

Posted by sam on March 12th, 2010 View Comments
Posted in Social Media |

With everyone on the lookout for the next world-changing trend in online communication, it comes as no surprise then that tools that draw people together to form niche communities would be right along that chart. Then again, as they say, the tool is only as useful as the mind who wields it. This points out how crucial creating such a strategy based on the principles of Social Media Optimization (SMO) is. Think of it as the influential phenomenon of “Word of Mouth” on a massive global scale. Quite the gold mine, right? Although Search Engine Optimization (SEO) came earlier, they are by no means mutually exclusive — in fact, they are best employed together. SEO’s holy grail is the first pages for certain search keywords of the megalithic search engines Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

SMO has another primary agenda; As the person who coined the term, Rohit Bhargava, explains, is to make the target article/website/blog “…easily linked to, more highly visible in social media searches on custom search engines, and more frequently included in relevant posts on blogs, podcasts and vlogs.” It is, simply put, to make your material the talk of the town by enabling people to share it conveniently according to their preferences. Indeed, as a recent survey conducted, participants from 50 countries—a conclusive 90%—say that online endorsements of their friends/colleagues are something they consult with/trust (Nielsen Global Online Consumer). That figure singlehandedly points out the already obvious advantages of making linkability a marketing priority. Here are a few pointers to note:

1. Add clearly visible buttons; The easiest step would be to add clearly visible buttons to make sharing any material almost reflexive, whether on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon or any industry-specific site (i.e. Technorati). Enabling tagging and comments also make for a productive interaction with netizens.
2. Creating quality content; For those who are already applying optimal SEO practices to their own online presence, chances are they already understand the value of creating content that is not only a shout-out to search engines but is also compelling. In other words, content that is easy to read, relevant, accurately verifiable, and interesting. That makes for material people will actually want to share.
3. Community; The importance of grasping “community” can never be understated. This translates to being actively involved not just on a blatantly commercial, “I’m here to sell” approach. Participating means providing positive contributions to the group — case studies, constructive comments, guides to help make certain informed decisions, updates on matters that the community is passionate about (hobby, campaign, and if all goes well, your BRAND). Keep this in mind as community members protect their own; any spamming or obvious exploitation of their networks can lead to considerably backlash.

The success of an SMO strategy is very much like its nature — both quantitative and qualitative. Setting defined indicators of success, an individual/organization will find not only increased traffic or comments or links to their site. More importantly for some, it enables them to keep an ear quite close to the ground. A product/service’s pre-, current, and post-development can constantly be given another direct source of insight — the consumers themselves. This is but the start of something that will doubtless be a force to reckon with, no matter the industry.

Tags: campaign, link popularity, Paid Link Building, ranking, SEO - Search Engine Optimization, smo, social media optimization

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.