Social Media Optimization

If you ask any expert to help you get 100,000 visitors to your website, they will tell you it can't be done, or at least you have to spend a lot of money to do it. If you use conventional methods then this is true. But let's think out of the box. What if you could get your message in front of millions of people for free? What if you could do that instantly, for free, and as often as you want? There is a brand new frontier for Internet marketing and it's called Social Media Optimization, or SMO.

So what is Social Media Optimization (SMO)? SMO is using social media web sites to promote your own web site, products, or services. Social media websites are all those websites where you can create a profile page and interact with others users with messages and videos. Sites like www.myspace.com, www.facebook.com, www.youtube.com, www.plaxo.com, www.linkedin.com, www.twitter.com, www.craigslist.com, www.ebay.com, www.wikipedia.org, and many more. Social media optimization is the art of using those sites to promote your own site. It takes a little practice, but master the art of SMO and you'll have more traffic than you can imagine.

Objective #1 - Target Your Audience!
Your website must have products or information of interest to your audience. If you have more than one target customer, then you may need more than one "landing page". Your landing page should captivate the visitor. If you are selling an e-book on marketing that caters to musicians, for example, then build a page that that touts that book and creates urgency for them. If you sell a similar e-book on marketing that caters to used-car salesmen, then create an entirely different page for them. Then promote the different pages separately. Have an entirely different campaign for each e-book.

Objective #2 - Sell Them Now or Lose Them Forever!
Urgency is the key to Internet marketing. Just assume that if your customer leaves your website then they are gone forever. Your marketing pages should sell a product, give away a product (in exchange for contact information), or collect their contact information for an email, blog, or newsletter. Don't let them get away.

Social Media Marketing Basics
Nearly all of the social media sites allow you to add a link to your own website. You can add links to the profile page on most sites. You may be able to add links in the descriptions of videos you upload. Many popular blogs allow you to add links when you write comments that add value to their blogs. Start with youtube.com, then add your own site(s) on digg.com, del.icio.us, and other bookmark sites. Put links like [digg this], [add to yahoo.com], and RSS subscribe links on your blog pages. The concept is simple. You want a link to your website to be created on those popular sites. Master that art form and you will see your traffic explode.

I know you want to know more about this. It is a learning journey at first, but before long you will be a master. There are tips all over the Internet that can help as well. Now that you know about SMO you are well on your way to being a master Internet marketing.