Social Media Optimization

The platform for success is in place, the engine is ready run. You have a blog, the blog has been search engine optimized, you are aggregating content to create a rich experience and syndicating content to affinity online partners. Now it’s time for SMO or Social Media Optimization. Everything to this point has been about creating the foundation to be successful leveraging social media.

Social media websites such as FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn allow you to build a network of people and share elements of your life, your business, your organization or your cause with them. What was originally thought of as a way for friends and acquaintances to stay in touch more regularly has evolved into a true promotional medium of it’s own. Businesses, philanthropies, charitable causes, religious groups and government organizations are using social media sites to build a base of fans or followers and communicate with all of them simultaneously on a personal level. Social media is transcending communication formats such as direct mail, email marketing and newsletters by increasing the frequency of communication, the relevancy of the communication and virtually eliminating the cost to reach an unlimited number of interested people who have self selected or chosen to belong to a specific social network. The applications are limited to only our imagination.

Which Social Media Sites are Right for You?

FaceBook is the largest social media website on the planet and boasts nearly 70 Million unique monthly users and 1.2 Billion monthly visits. The number of people using FaceBook is increasing by 15% each month. The site is becoming increasingly more involved in the convergence of mainstream media and digital media by allowing for audience feedback during live television broadcasts such as the Presidential Inauguration. FaceBook users tend to be older than MySpace users falling into the 25 – 54 age demographic.

MySpace is the original social media portal founded in 2003 and was the largest social media website in the world until overtaken by FaceBook in April 2008. MySpace caters to a younger demographic typically 18-24. Users are attracted to MySpace due to the ability to customize the look and feel of the pages to reflect their personality or online persona. MySpace currently has just under 60 Million unique users and 800 Million monthly visitors.

LinkedIn is the largest business networking website in the world. While the audience is much smaller than that of it’s mainstream competitors, it’ target is more narrowly defined and limited to professionals. LinkedIn currently has 11.25 Million unique users per month and is growing its audience at a rate of 20% monthly making it the 3^rd largest social media website. LinkedIn provides great opportunity to connect with past and current business associates allowing for a large group of buisiness contacts, referrals and resources.

Twitter has gained in brand recognition at an amazing rate following its founding in November 2007. Twitter is referred to as a micro-blog and is merely a place where people post snippets of information about something they are experiencing most often in real time. It’s unique in a manner that is tough to describe but try complaining about your cable provider or latest trip on an airline and see how fast they respond. Large businesses are expanding customer service departments to monitor “Tweets” and respond to customer care almost immediately. In 15-months, Twitter now boasts 6 Million unique users per month and 54 Million monthly visits. Twitters audience is increasing by an average of 35% monthly showing the largest potential for growth and has increased its audience by 800% in the past year.

Next Generation

Friendfeed is a very new social media platform that combines traditional social media principles found on FaceBook with the ability to aggregate content from over 40 websites such as Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. Friendfeed currently has about 1 Million unique monthly visitors but is growing its audience by 27% month over month and has increased traffic by 3,300% in the past year.