Strategies for Harnessing the Power of Social Media

Social media optimization can no longer be overlooked. The old saying “maybe if I ignore it, it will go away”, if put into practice, will likely cost you visibility and customers. Despite this fact, most SEO firms know nothing about social media and do not offer social media optimization services. It is important, then, to educate yourself as to what exactly social media is, how it can help your site both in the search engines as well as being a direct source of qualified traffic, and the types of social media optimization techniques that prove to be effective.

What is social media?

Social media is Web 2.0 at its best. Defined, social media is any type of user-driven content. In other words, any site that allows users to create content, instead of the webmaster himself, would fall into this category. Examples would include Wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Blogs and Forums, Digg and other bookmarking sites, any other sort of web site that allows user contributions of content.

What is social media content?

Social media content is any content that is generated by users. It can range from edits on Wikipedia, to music or audio clips, to video content, to comments and postings in blogs and forums, to articles uploaded to article distribution sites. If it is created by a user, and made available on the web, it is social media content.

How can social media help my business?

Social media can improve your business in many ways. It is a great source of direct traffic, get a buzz going about your business, and people will visit your site. Typically these visitors are highly qualified and interested in your products or services, which translates into conversions.

Social media can be a great source of “link love” as well. Involving yourself in social media can generate high quality inbound links to your site from a variety of sources. Increasing inbound link popularity is an important factor in ranking high on Google and other engines.

What are some ways in which social media optimization takes place?

Remember, social media is all about content. If you are producing content, in any of the forms described above, and getting the word out about that content through social media, you are getting the job done. Placing videos on YouTube or other video sharing sites, networking via MySpace, Facebook, or other social networking sites, offering freebies, blogging (product reviews, industry news, and top 10 lists always prove to be popular), offering audio clips or images (for example free backgrounds), and social bookmarking through sites such as Digg are all great ways to get involved in social media.

Start on your social media optimization campaign today.

We can assist you with all of your social media optimization needs. To get started, please call us toll free at 972-693-1709 request a free Internet marketing consultation.