Help and Tips

The 16 Rules for Social Media Optimization as penned by five of digital marketing’s go-to professionals are an excellent springboard for review and innovation of strategies. Rohit Bhargava, who has been credited for terming Social Media Optimization or SMO, outlined the bulk of the list with:

1. Increase Your Linkability. The key performance indicator of any social media campaign revolves around link building. The simple commitment to maintaining a blog for one, can do wonders for increasing linkability.
2. Make Tagging and Bookmarking Easy. Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon are names to be recited by online marketers as sacred. The easier it is to share your content, the likelier it is to be spread.
3. Reward Inbound Links. Positive reinforcement works in most cases, but in building your credibility, also bear in mind that not all inbound links ought to be automatically reciprocated.
4. Help Your Content Travel. Through RSS feeds, newsletters, social media updates, and downloadable files, content that can conveniently be communicated expands your reach.
5. Encourage The Mashup. The fact is, your content will be available for most of the world to see. Encouraging your followers to add their own take on the matter will make for an entirely productive interaction.

Enumerating two important points, Jeremiah Owyang, emphasizes the need to:

1. Be a User Resource, even if it Doesn’t Help You. Well, doesn’t help “directly” — it will return in the form of recognition as the go-to authority for information on your field of expertise.
2. Reward Helpful and Valuable Users. Following the Pareto Principle of 80-20, forming relationships with your influential VIPs are a valuable investment.

Four things that Cameron Olthuis shares never to underestimate are the value of:

1. Participation. Being involved, belonging to a community to which you significantly contribute to — that is what social media is all about.
2. Knowing How to Target Your Audience. To ignore this piece of advice would be folly.
3. Create Content. Real content is different from space-fillers in being relevant, informative, and reliable.
4. Being Real. Sooner or later the truth will prevail. Fakers, scammers, hypocritical identities will backfire no matter the short-term advantages.

Creating a difference is simplified by keeping in mind the two things contributed by Loren Baker:

1. Don’t Forget Your Roots, Be Humble. Do not forget the people who have one way or another brought you where you are today.
2. Don’t Be Afraid to Try New Things, Stay Fresh. Be critical, yet open-minded about opportunities to constantly improve.

Lee Odden completes the list by focusing on Social Media Optimization with the easy to understand advice to:

1. Develop an SMO Strategy
2. Choose your SMO Tactics Wisely
3. Make SMO part of your process and best practices