Social Media Optimization or Social Media Marketing has evolved as an important mix for search engine marketing and optimization.

Social Media Optimization, meaning “the process of refining a website (optimizing it) so that it’s awareness and content are easily spread through social mediums and online communities by users and visitors of the website.”

Social Media Marketing (SMM) combines the goals of internet marketing with social media sites such as Digg, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube and many others.


You need to leverage all the links and marketing value you can get from social and business networks. The industry in general is finally beginning to realize the strength of Social Media. And, big brands will begin to adopt Social Media Optimization as a part of their ongoing marketing planning and execution.

Social Media is almost mainstream and it's no wonder why big brands like Dove are all over it. The challenge for companies who want to play ball in this space is that they cannot control their marketing message.

Social search can never replace search engines as we know them today, but the rate of growth for major search engines will certainly be affected by the growing number of niche tools and media specific channels such as social networks, social bookmarking sites, personalized search, tagging, podcasts, video blogs, regular blogs and other "social media".

SEO has grown out of it's mainly technical roots and become more of a creative discipline. There will always be technical issues to solve though, since web sites and servers are technical things. It's the creative and multi channel aspects of "pull marketing" that are defining the future of SEO.

Some of the Viral lists are MySpace, Digg, YouTube and other viral tactics.

Digg	Del.icio.us
Wikipedia	Flickr
Reddit	Newsvine
StumbleUpon	Technorati
MySpace	Yahoo! Answers
Ma.gnolia	Yahoo! 360
LinkedIn	Squidoo
Wikihow	Ning
Frappr	Furl
Wetpaint	43 Things
Shoutwire	Shadows
YourElevatorPitch	Jotspot
BlinkList

MySpace: The high school cafeteria of SMO, MS is a great way for marketers to reach teens and young adults. If you go about your marketing too blatantly, however, the community backlash could leave you running for the nurse’s office. Developing a persona related to your product and giving away free stuff via ‘bulletins’ has worked well for me personally in the past.

digg: A social voting site, digg allows its community to thumbs up or thumbs down pages and articles submitted by others in the network. It is tough to get ahead in digg, with lots of duplication and very fickle power players. It’s no wonder that their demographics are described as “25-34 year olds with incomes greater than $100k per year”. That’s a very valuable audience, and if you can figure out how to crack the nut with great content submissions (top 10 lists do very well on digg) you’ll be laughing.

del.icio.us: A social bookmarking site, del.icio.us is especially good for research and collaboration. Anything you store and tag can be utilized by friends, colleagues or the entire network. Typically an older crowd with less direct marketing potential than other SM sites - but if your site features good, original and objective content, tag it and get it up there.

Types of Social Media :

There are various types of interaction a business can have with its customers:

Identity-based Interaction is your declaration of your value, who you are, and where you can be found. Your customer happens upon your online identity that you, as a provider, define and declare. This is anything from your About Us pages on your blog or website, to your MySpace profile, to your Naymz profile. Here, there is very little interaction outside of your own declaration, but this becomes critical in defining how you can benefit your marketplace.

Association-based Interaction is your customers’ opportunity to associate themselves with you and you with your customers. Most obviously, this is accomplished through things like becoming “Friends?? on MySpace, you and your customers’ BlogRoll, or through their social bookmarking. This is your customer wearing your company’s logo proudly – Like Andy wears his Beatles shirts. The most explicit form of allowing for this ability is through social bookmarking sites. I say this, and not social networking sites, because this is the sole funciton of these sites. Make it easy for your customers to bookmark your site, blog posts, etc with their favorite tool.

del.icio.us
Furl
blummy
Ma.gnolia
StumbleUpon
BlinkList

User-initiated Conversation is your users’ opportunity to create their own declarations or questions, and your opportunity to respond. This is your opportunity to be there and cater to them. Here, you serve your customers. Perhaps the most cut-and-dry examples of this lie in messageboards, forums and “groups?? sites such as Google Groups, Yahoo! Groups, community sites, etc. So, how do you find these conversations? Andy Beal’s Online Reputation Monitoring Beginner’s Guide. Here, he walks you through, step-by-step, how to find out what conversations are being initiated by others online.

Provider-initiated Conversation is your chance to find out what your customers think, feel, love and hate about your product. Ask them. Challenge them. Present yourself to them, but do so respectfully. As much as it’s an opportunity for them to tell you what they love and hate about your product, it’s also their choice whether to do so or not. Be kind. Be respectful. Appreciate their time.

In-Person Interaction is the pinnacle form of interaction with your customers. You’re interacting with them online, why not in person? Does it get better than that? This is where relationships are built and authentic conversation is had with so much more input, feedback, collaboration and communication. I had a seven hour conversation with a good friend last night. It was one of the best conversations I’ve ever had about so many things, and I could have never had that quality of a conversation online. Nothing beats face-to-face.