social media

What is Social Media Optimization?

November 30, 2011 by Kari Rippetoe

Bryan Haines of About Online Business/Hosting recently interviewed me on social media optimization. This is an excerpt from his post. You can read the full interview here.

Bryan: To get started, maybe you can clarify: What is social media optimization?

Kari: Social media optimization (SMO) is basically optimizing your website and content to be as socially-shareable as possible. How easy is it for people to share your content via social media, and how present are you on social media so people can connect with you.

Bryan: How does social media optimization (SMO) differ from search engine optimization (SEO)?

Kari: SEO is a method by which you optimize your website content so it can be easily found in search engines. But, SMO factors greatly into your search engine visibility. As I mentioned before, SMO is about making it easy for people to share your content. Valuable and shareable content continues to be king – and how much your content is shared is becoming an important factor when it comes to search engine rankings. Run any search on Google and you see a +1 button on every result – a +1 for a certain result is a recommendation, increasing that site’s exposure. Any links you share within Google+ are also picked up in Google search results. So, while SMO is different from SEO, it’s also an important SEO strategy.

Bryan: What components are involved to properly optimize a site for social media?

Kari: I think the foundation of SMO is to create content that people will value and share. But what will people value? Listen to and monitor social media channels to find out what people are sharing and what they want to learn. Then, give them what they want. Use this data as a basis for creating content that will help them.

Secondly, it’s important to make sharing easy. Do your blog posts have social sharing buttons in an easy-to-spot place? Do you provide ways for videos, slide presentations and other documents to be embedded?

Bryan: What role does SMO play in online reputation management?

Kari: It plays a huge role! Actively staying on top of your social media presence by updating it with relevant content (your own and from others), making your content easily shareable, and engaging with other people will help you build and maintain a positive online reputation.

Bryan: It seems like every day there is a new network being launched. And they are becoming much more specific. How can a business owner know where to direct their efforts?

Kari: Social networking fatigue can be a big pitfall, and it can be difficult for marketers and business owners to figure out where they should be. Basically, they should direct their efforts where it makes the most sense. Don’t feel like you should be everywhere in social media just because it’s new and available. Do some research to find where your prospects and customers are hanging out – this may even include surveying them to find out what social networks they use.

Read the rest of Kari’s interview here!

Presentation from “Doing More With Less: Social Media Tips and Trends for 2012”

November 1, 2011 by Kari Rippetoe

We gave 2 seminars today at the Foundation Center-Washington called Doing More With Less: Social Media Tips and Trends for 2012 – the first time they’ve held 2 sessions on one of their technology seminars in one day. The attendees were very inquisitive and we had some great interactions with them! In fact, a few of the questions that were asked will make for some interesting blog posts – so stay tuned for those in the very near future.

Here is the presentation we gave, including a full appendix of tools (with links) we discussed. Big thanks to everyone at the Foundation Center (Pat, Laura and Jereme) who helped to make it happen!

Doing More With Less: Social Media Trends and Tips for 2012

View more presentations from Tuvel Communications

LinkedIn’s New Features: 2 BIG Missed Opportunities

October 13, 2011 by Kari Rippetoe

I’ve been very excited to see the new features LinkedIn is rolling out for companies. For a long time, they were missing the social media boat in so many ways in an effort to stay true to it’s business networking and job search roots. In the past year, they’ve made strides at creating a more social hub for members, and now their latest features aim to increase value to marketers and brands. But my question is: why have they been so slow on the uptake?

While I’m not complaining about their latest changes for the better, I think there are still major missed opportunities:

Make company pages more dynamic: We have apps for profiles, why not apps for company pages? As LinkedIn continues to build and roll out new features for company pages, they should think about ways to make them more dynamic and spotlight content such as videos, presentations and upcoming events.
Pay as much attention to event pages as they are to companies and individual profiles: Not much has been done to change the way event pages work on LinkedIn. Perhaps this has to do with a lack of traffic to those pages – members just don’t use them as much as other areas of the website. However, therein lies an opportunity to make them more interactive and valuable to event organizers, marketers and event attendees alike. Ways this could be done include embedded videos, Twitter streams, links to event social outposts, and even discussions from a related event group on LinkedIn. Also, why not allow event page admins to send messages to those who have RSVP’d – with the ability to segment by who’s attending and who’s interested, industry, even title.

Perhaps with LinkedIn’s new Certified Developer Program we’ll begin to see changes like these come down the pike. What do you think and what do you want to see on LinkedIn?