What is Social Media Optimization?
Social Media Optimization is the online equivalent of meeting people at parties with the potential of some of them becoming your future clients/audience. Those who do nothing but introduce their business and hand out business cards are... bores, right? But if you never mention your business or practice you’ll have missed opportunities, even if you have a great time.
The same holds true in online communities. If you’ve been on Facebook or Twitter for a while you’ll have noticed that when people post nothing but announcements promoting their doings or even too much material that just doesn’t seem interesting, you eventually filter them out or unfollow them. And then you’re out of their range (even for announcements to which you might have responded).
So it’s a question of striking a balance and the most important part of it is to begin with creating online content that is of high interest and value to people in your community. If your content gives something to your reader, they will be inclined to watch you.
The next most important thing is to make that content easily sharable on social networks. “Share this” buttons and rss feeds are easily installed and allow people to share your content to all the social network pages available. We’ve all become addicted to one-click operations on the web and we look for those buttons now if we’re inclined to share some content on our social pages. The old way — copying a url, opening a social account, pasting and posting — is... well, time-consuming.
And then... participate in your community. Not just for your own benefit but because you belong there. Pay attention to others and support them. Build that community for everyone and in time (or no time) your own content-rich pages will attract the attention of those with whom you are interacting. And they will share them for you.
And once people start sharing your content for you, you’re off and running. That is social media optimization, working.
Make it fun for yourself and for everyone. Remember, we wish to meet someone fun and interesting, not a salesperson, when we go to a party.