Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Good SMO involves getting your little ole' site to the top of the blogosphere, social networks and search engines. Once it's there, it's a matter of having consistent, new content that people enjoy reading.

Not easy, to say the least.

It involves almost a constant effeort of updating and submitting, unless of course you have some sort of built-in readership.

SMO revolves around 3 things:

People having discussions
Lot's of high traffic websites
You getting involved in those discussions and subsequently getting some traffic of your own

The key is to talk about something alot of people care about. Sex for example. Everyone cares about sex.

If you can't talk about that, talk about Britney Spears. Or Jeep repair. Or maybe how to care for your horse.

it has to be real, transparent and authentic. And if your little marketing message that goes along with it isn't to blaring, but just honest, maybe a few (million?) pepple will check it out.

Britneymerica

"It's Britney Bitch" the video starts out.

It then rolls to what seems to be MTV's recent VMA awards in Vegas.

Obviously a spoof, but great entertainment, this video is among many that have spread instantly around America, and the world.

From nothing to millions, this video spread from person to person.

So what is it that caused this video to spread? As marketers, this is they type of activity we want to happen to our site. It's not likely that a video describing your boring old product or service would ever get this kind of attention.

But it seems there are things we can learn from this. First of all, the event itself caused the buzz....almost an anticipation. Britney's almost childlike performance started getting talked about from day 1.

More importantly, the key is that the content and the topic had great relevance to a large number of people to start with.

That caused it to spread naturally, and that was the key.

As a marketers, we can learn to anticipate these events, and focus our content around what is being searched for, looked up and passed around already.

To market to Britneymerica sometimes involved less yelling at the consumers, and more talking with them.

More social media research at Yovia.com

The Power of "Runaway Content"

One of the most important things in any kind of viral marketing is the content itself. Even the best well-planned SMO campaign will fail if the content or message you are trying to spread is not strong, funny, controversial or emotional. People don't repeat boring things. Rather than force your next SMO campaign, watch and see what is popular, what gets passed around already and focus on that type of content. A lesson learned for us over and over. SMO starts with the content.

Pirates vs. Ninjas

I remember seeing the first Ask a Ninja and Axe a Pirate on Youtube about a year ago. Now, somehow, these 2 fictional characters have made their way into our more and more of our lives each day.

Both true social media (SMO) success stories.

But why? What was it that made them stand out and get passed around to everyone, until eventually probably even you saw them?

From Facebook, to network TV, these guys are everywhere. And likely making money from it.