SEO Meet SMM (Social Media Marketing) was the most information-dense seminar that I attended at SMX Advanced, a multi-day conference geared for advanced web marketing professionals. As a result, it has taken a while to view my footage and pick out all of the best tips to share with you. The SEO Meet SMM seminar was paneled with an all-star cast of Rand Fishkin, Neil Patel and Cindy Krum. Between these three incredibly bright people, and my own experience and research I have put together this whitepaper on how to use social media marketing (SMM) to your advantage. I believe this is the most current (timely), accurate and cutting edge information available for those who want to start marketing in this field.
The ConceptSocial media marketing is a method of promoting your brand (be it yourself, a product, a service, or a company) by strategically making your presence known across various social media networks (such as Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Myspace, etc). This may seem overly elementary but “making yourself known” is the kicker because each category of social media has a different, sometimes intricate method for effective promotion.Business from Social Marketing is IndirectA key concept to social marketing is that it is not designed to immediately provide business but instead it provides the visibility your brand needs to ultimately convert fans into buyers. I often get clients saying “I don’t think being on MySpace will sell anything”. The truth is that often they are correct.
Having a commercial presence on MySpace that provides great content and interesting free tools (aka. widgets) serves to raise the awareness of your brand so that users remember your service for later and/or provides you with a podium to share the benefits of your brand. In short, it is important not to forget this essential concept: social media marketing drives brand awareness which later translates into sales.Social Media Categories and Associated StrategiesHere is an introduction to the various top portals segregated into their appropriate categories and mated with a recommended strategy. Please keep in mind the following is only a partial listing of some social media sites.
If you want a more comprehensive (but unorganized) list check out this list of web 2.0 sites which includes social media properties (very extensive list).I have organized Social Media Marketing into the following categories or themes:A. Social Networking SitesB. Business Networking SitesC. Social (Collaborative) Bookmarking SitesD. Content Voting SitesE. News Sharing SitesF. Collaborative DirectoriesG. Video Sharing Sites, andH. Photo SharingWe will discuss parts A through D in this segment and parts E through F in the following.
A) Social Networking SitesThe following social networking sites experience a volume of activity unrivaled in the social media marketplace. These sites provide it all; personal blogs, videos, music, classifieds, mail, and much, much more.1. MySpace: this site offers the widest variety of tools and social networking capabilities.2. Facebook: great for connecting with old classmates and creating a personal profile.Associated Marketing StrategyEach of these sites allow you to create a powerfully diverse and engaging web presence complete with photos, articles, and bookmarks.
MySpace even provides the ability to ‘skin’ your profile! In other words you can actually brand it to make it totally unique; a powerful marketing capability (To view a great example see [url=http://www.myspace.com/starbucks]Starbuck’s MySpace account[/url). Assuming the site is already done it is best to then start linking to the site from key areas of the Internet so the search engines will have no problem finding and indexing it. You can do this by linking to it from a social media section of your website; a section that I believe will be part of the status quo structure (as ubiquitous as the About Page) of all new websites in the near future.
B) How to Market on Business Networking SitesThese sites are devoted to networking business people and provide direct access to upper level management / executives for sales people and for those looking to create industry connections.
1. LinkedIn: the premier business networking site where job profiles are shared, jobs posted, questions asked and then answered by industry professionals (my current favorite).
2. ZoomInfo: a search engine index of company names and people. Find yourself (if you are there) and claim your space or create your profile.
3. Spoke: a database of contact information for people at all levels of business.
4. Jigsaw: a database of virtual business cards that can be traded and shared amongst members.Associated Marketing StrategyCreate a personal profile on each of these sites and connect, connect, connect. The concept is so simple I could almost stop there but it is important not to forget that some of these services also allow for interactivity in forums and Q&A sections. I recommend participating as often as possible in these interactive sections in order to gain positive references and to further expand your network.
C) How to Market on Social (Collaborative) Bookmarking SitesHere are a number of websites that specialize in social bookmarking. When you register with the service the service will collect and organize the sites that you choose to bookmark and allow you to share them with other others. The social concept allows each service to create content-specific directories of user-selected content; which states (theoretically) the content is of a high quality.
1. Del.icio.us: bought by Yahoo in 2005, Del.icio.us is the web’s leading bookmarking site.
2. StumbleUpon: in the past when my best content got ‘stumbled’ by users I found this community to offer the highest quality response in terms of traffic and buzz.
3. Yahoo! MyWeb: Yahoo’s huge following has made MyWeb a popular bookmarking property and a top property for promotion.
4. Backflip: started in 1999 (or possibly earlier) this site is the one of the granddaddies of bookmarking but it came on harsh times and was sold to passionate employees who maintain it now. This is not a leader in the industry but it was my first bookmarking site way back in ’99 so I feel I owe Backflip a little time in the limelight.Associated Marketing StrategyCreate a personal profile on each site and then spend some time using them as though you were a potential customer of your own service. In other words, search for terms you target in your SEO campaigns or ask questions you or your target market asks regularly.
After a while you will see a trend in the results you receive that you can use to your advantage.For example, after typing in “marketing tips” on StumbleUpon you may notice that many of the articles that are getting positive reviews are written like tutorials whereas the other articles are getting little or negative feedback. This type of observation will give you the insight you need to write quality articles that are more likely to get positive ratings; which ultimately translates into increased traffic to the article source (your website perhaps).
In addition, you can go back and bookmark tutorial content you have already written (as long as it is still viable).If you are not writing your own content at the moment it is still advisable to find other great content and bookmark it for your profile. Why? If you create a reputation for providing excellent bookmarks it is more likely you will get additional, positive attention when you ultimately feature content of your own.
D) How to Market on Content Voting SitesThe following are the top sites used for people to vote ‘on the fly’ for any content they find useful online. The resulting vote then adds the content or increases its visibility within each resource so that others have a chance to read the content. Once something has received a certain number of votes (this is a moving target) the visibility of the content may gain momentum as others have a chance to read and vote on it.
1. Digg: currently one of the most popular social media websites in the world and has been known to show a high degree of technology-based news.
2. Netscape: is in many ways a successful clone of Digg but Netscape has been accused of providing more entertainment news rather than technology news.
3. Reddit: the news here is more politically inclined and the site has a very strong following.Associated Marketing StrategyFirst a caution: it is crucial that you pay attention to the etiquette of these content voting sites; otherwise your promotions could backfire and/or you could be banned. To read up on etiquette visit the associated help files for each site (i.e. How Digg Works) and the FAQ – these will give you the necessary background info to get you started.To make these sites work for you I recommend participating in each group for a while in order to pick up on what articles do well and don’t do well in your selected industry.
In addition, creating a respected profile by bookmarking new and interesting content and posting thoughtful comments on other people’s bookmarks will go a long way to improving your chances of success on these sites. Once you have a respected profile you can ask other respected users to check out your new content to see if they deem it worthy of a thumbs up.
Whatever you do, I do not recommend voting on your own content due to the obvious bias and potential damage it could do to your profile’s reputation.In the second (and last) installment of this series we will examine:
• News Sharing Sites
• Collaborative Directories
• Video Sharing Sites, and
• Photo Sharing Sites
Source:www.stepforth.com
The ConceptSocial media marketing is a method of promoting your brand (be it yourself, a product, a service, or a company) by strategically making your presence known across various social media networks (such as Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Myspace, etc). This may seem overly elementary but “making yourself known” is the kicker because each category of social media has a different, sometimes intricate method for effective promotion.Business from Social Marketing is IndirectA key concept to social marketing is that it is not designed to immediately provide business but instead it provides the visibility your brand needs to ultimately convert fans into buyers. I often get clients saying “I don’t think being on MySpace will sell anything”. The truth is that often they are correct.
Having a commercial presence on MySpace that provides great content and interesting free tools (aka. widgets) serves to raise the awareness of your brand so that users remember your service for later and/or provides you with a podium to share the benefits of your brand. In short, it is important not to forget this essential concept: social media marketing drives brand awareness which later translates into sales.Social Media Categories and Associated StrategiesHere is an introduction to the various top portals segregated into their appropriate categories and mated with a recommended strategy. Please keep in mind the following is only a partial listing of some social media sites.
If you want a more comprehensive (but unorganized) list check out this list of web 2.0 sites which includes social media properties (very extensive list).I have organized Social Media Marketing into the following categories or themes:A. Social Networking SitesB. Business Networking SitesC. Social (Collaborative) Bookmarking SitesD. Content Voting SitesE. News Sharing SitesF. Collaborative DirectoriesG. Video Sharing Sites, andH. Photo SharingWe will discuss parts A through D in this segment and parts E through F in the following.
A) Social Networking SitesThe following social networking sites experience a volume of activity unrivaled in the social media marketplace. These sites provide it all; personal blogs, videos, music, classifieds, mail, and much, much more.1. MySpace: this site offers the widest variety of tools and social networking capabilities.2. Facebook: great for connecting with old classmates and creating a personal profile.Associated Marketing StrategyEach of these sites allow you to create a powerfully diverse and engaging web presence complete with photos, articles, and bookmarks.
MySpace even provides the ability to ‘skin’ your profile! In other words you can actually brand it to make it totally unique; a powerful marketing capability (To view a great example see [url=http://www.myspace.com/starbucks]Starbuck’s MySpace account[/url). Assuming the site is already done it is best to then start linking to the site from key areas of the Internet so the search engines will have no problem finding and indexing it. You can do this by linking to it from a social media section of your website; a section that I believe will be part of the status quo structure (as ubiquitous as the About Page) of all new websites in the near future.
B) How to Market on Business Networking SitesThese sites are devoted to networking business people and provide direct access to upper level management / executives for sales people and for those looking to create industry connections.
1. LinkedIn: the premier business networking site where job profiles are shared, jobs posted, questions asked and then answered by industry professionals (my current favorite).
2. ZoomInfo: a search engine index of company names and people. Find yourself (if you are there) and claim your space or create your profile.
3. Spoke: a database of contact information for people at all levels of business.
4. Jigsaw: a database of virtual business cards that can be traded and shared amongst members.Associated Marketing StrategyCreate a personal profile on each of these sites and connect, connect, connect. The concept is so simple I could almost stop there but it is important not to forget that some of these services also allow for interactivity in forums and Q&A sections. I recommend participating as often as possible in these interactive sections in order to gain positive references and to further expand your network.
C) How to Market on Social (Collaborative) Bookmarking SitesHere are a number of websites that specialize in social bookmarking. When you register with the service the service will collect and organize the sites that you choose to bookmark and allow you to share them with other others. The social concept allows each service to create content-specific directories of user-selected content; which states (theoretically) the content is of a high quality.
1. Del.icio.us: bought by Yahoo in 2005, Del.icio.us is the web’s leading bookmarking site.
2. StumbleUpon: in the past when my best content got ‘stumbled’ by users I found this community to offer the highest quality response in terms of traffic and buzz.
3. Yahoo! MyWeb: Yahoo’s huge following has made MyWeb a popular bookmarking property and a top property for promotion.
4. Backflip: started in 1999 (or possibly earlier) this site is the one of the granddaddies of bookmarking but it came on harsh times and was sold to passionate employees who maintain it now. This is not a leader in the industry but it was my first bookmarking site way back in ’99 so I feel I owe Backflip a little time in the limelight.Associated Marketing StrategyCreate a personal profile on each site and then spend some time using them as though you were a potential customer of your own service. In other words, search for terms you target in your SEO campaigns or ask questions you or your target market asks regularly.
After a while you will see a trend in the results you receive that you can use to your advantage.For example, after typing in “marketing tips” on StumbleUpon you may notice that many of the articles that are getting positive reviews are written like tutorials whereas the other articles are getting little or negative feedback. This type of observation will give you the insight you need to write quality articles that are more likely to get positive ratings; which ultimately translates into increased traffic to the article source (your website perhaps).
In addition, you can go back and bookmark tutorial content you have already written (as long as it is still viable).If you are not writing your own content at the moment it is still advisable to find other great content and bookmark it for your profile. Why? If you create a reputation for providing excellent bookmarks it is more likely you will get additional, positive attention when you ultimately feature content of your own.
D) How to Market on Content Voting SitesThe following are the top sites used for people to vote ‘on the fly’ for any content they find useful online. The resulting vote then adds the content or increases its visibility within each resource so that others have a chance to read the content. Once something has received a certain number of votes (this is a moving target) the visibility of the content may gain momentum as others have a chance to read and vote on it.
1. Digg: currently one of the most popular social media websites in the world and has been known to show a high degree of technology-based news.
2. Netscape: is in many ways a successful clone of Digg but Netscape has been accused of providing more entertainment news rather than technology news.
3. Reddit: the news here is more politically inclined and the site has a very strong following.Associated Marketing StrategyFirst a caution: it is crucial that you pay attention to the etiquette of these content voting sites; otherwise your promotions could backfire and/or you could be banned. To read up on etiquette visit the associated help files for each site (i.e. How Digg Works) and the FAQ – these will give you the necessary background info to get you started.To make these sites work for you I recommend participating in each group for a while in order to pick up on what articles do well and don’t do well in your selected industry.
In addition, creating a respected profile by bookmarking new and interesting content and posting thoughtful comments on other people’s bookmarks will go a long way to improving your chances of success on these sites. Once you have a respected profile you can ask other respected users to check out your new content to see if they deem it worthy of a thumbs up.
Whatever you do, I do not recommend voting on your own content due to the obvious bias and potential damage it could do to your profile’s reputation.In the second (and last) installment of this series we will examine:
• News Sharing Sites
• Collaborative Directories
• Video Sharing Sites, and
• Photo Sharing Sites
Source:www.stepforth.com
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