Internet Marketing Consultants – SEO and SMO

Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing have changed dramatically over the last few years with the arrival of Social Media and Social Networking. Although SEO’s have adopted it and used it to enhance their existing practices, SMO and all it stands for, is undoubtedly the future of internet marketing…

Its time to make your content count and start building natural authority in your market place by actually connecting and reacting to your customers and sharing with your peers. Find out where Social Media Optimisation and traditional Search Engine Optimisation are heading and what it means for your future online strategies.

What is Social Media Optimisation 

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media sites, online communities and niche/community websites. Popular SMO techniques include

RSS Feed Syndication
Article Marketing
Blogging
Contributing to online forums and communities
Sharing content through social bookmarking
Incorporating 3rd party media such as video and images
Press Releases 

Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus being on driving traffic from sources other than direct search engine results, though improved search ranking and authority are direct benefits of successful SMO.

Social Media Optimisation is essentially a form of viral marketing where ‘word of mouth’ is duplicated through networking in social interactive sites. 

The real trick is wiring these accounts together, produce fresh content and use it to leverage your online exposure, ultimately attracting streams of targeted visitors to your main site. This is where the Search Engine Optimisation techniques come in to play -but generally the focus is on content promotion and reputation building.

interaction is the key here, there are no instant results to be had(are there ever?), social media is about networking with your peers online, as you would do at an offline industry event. Business forums are a great place to start by answering questions and sharing your experiences with like minded people Don’t try and promote your self straight away (or leave tacky irrelevant  links everywhere- its bad taste!) Just be …yourself and share what you know.

If you have articles, conference materials or research papers stashed away, these are a great way to publish content, promote your business and generate authority for your company site. Fresh material encourages natural linking and helps with your search engine rankling. You can use this to expand your keyword range to incorporate a wider range of phrases and thus attract more traffic.

Social Media Optimisation enables you to attract quality, relevant traffic without worrying about your Search Engine Ranking which Google likes as it cuts down spamming and promotes natural good content.      

Social Media For Marketing and Customer Interaction 

Consumers are so bombarded by marketing and corporate jargon they no longer pay attention to mainstream advertising and why should they? How often do you take on a new product or service only to be disappointed by the customer service/support as soon as something goes wrong. We are all sick of cold calling and blanket mailing campaigns and as a result, our friends in Direct Marketing have seen a rapid decrease in conversions from traditional mediums.

Social Media Optimisation allows companies to connect with existing and prospective customers on a neutral platform whilst  gaining invaluable insights into how they are perceived and where they need to improve. Think of it this way…which are you more likely trust…a corporate campaign telling you to buy something or a recommendation from a trusted friend? 

The internet moves at a frightening rate and most marketing decision makers don’t have the time to keep abreast of the latest Web 2.0 developments let alone separate whats a fad,and whats going to show you a good ROI and generate long term business. This also means internet marketing consultants are having to evolve at a rapid pace to keep abreast of the most effective techniques so its worth knowing a thing or two when seeking suppliers.

Common SMO Questions

-How do I find prospects online?
-How do I attract prospects 
-How do I engage them and keep them interested?
-My ‘Decision Makers’ are not going to be using Face Book or Myspace so how can it help me?
-How do I use it Social Media to to generate local leads?

Interaction is the key here, there are no instant results to be had(are there ever?), social media is about networking with your peers online, as you would do at an offline industry event. Business forums are a great place to start by answering questions and sharing your experiences with like minded people Don’t try and promote your self straight away (or leave tacky irrelevant  links everywhere- its bad taste!) Just be …yourself and share what you know.

If you have articles, conference materials or research papers stashed away, these are a great way to publish content, promote your business and generate Authority for your company site. This authority and fresh material encourages natural linking and helps with your search engine rankling. You can use this to expand your keyword range to incorporate a wider range of phrases and thus attract more traffic. This include long tail phrases and geographically targeted keywords.

Social Media Optimisation enables you to attract quality, relevant traffic without worrying about your Search Engine Ranking which Google likes as it cuts down spamming and promotes natural good content.

Summary

SEO is often split into ‘white hat and black hat’ otherwise known as the ‘good’ and the bad. However, the end goal of all SEO tactics are to fool search engines into achieving higher search engine ranking which has led to a spamming of the internet. What do we mean by spamming? Joining a forum and leaving pointless unhelpful posts with the sole purpose of gaining a back link to your site is a prime example

The search engines are wise to this and with this in mind, the way to optimise your site, improve search engine ranking and connect with your market will be to create useful content that serves your market creating loyal and genuine followers. Optimisation will be a more personal and tailored process where the company will focus on using there internal marketing documents to leverage web side authority.

We could even see a shift in the traditional job roles associated with internet marketing consultants as internal departments take control of their SEO content production and design. This would certainly provide give them more  control whilst rewarding visitors with more relevant material.This move could spell the end for factory style seo and the spamming we are all so sick of.