What is a vanity URL

A vanity URL is an easy to remember URL that points to a page that is related and indicated in the name of  the URL. The main purpose of vanity URLs is for advertising campaign or to promote a product, event or service.

This means instead of having a long & ugly default URL (https://facebook.com/pages/yourbusiness/7724434522218) assigned by Facebook when you created your account, you can now personalize your Facebook address by selecting a unique username and have a short and memorable address to direct fans to, e.g. https://www.facebook.com/username.

Several things for you to remember:

• You need to be admin of the page in question
• You can’t change the username of your page once you set it.
• You can’t transfer the ownership of a username to another party.
• You can’t violate anyone else’s trademark rights.
• If you are acquiring a username to sell it in the future (squatting), you will lose it.
• Usernames may be reclaimed for other unauthorized usages.

Facebook lists the following restrictions:

• Create a username that is as close as possible to your public figure or business name (e.g. ThieryHenry, McDonalds).
• If you own the rights to a given name, make it your username so that others cannot obtain it.
• Usernames can only contain alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) or a period (“.”).
• Choose a username you will be happy with for the long term. Usernames are not transferable.
• Your username must adhere to Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities
• If your trademarked name has already been taken, you can notify Facebook of this intellectual property infringement.
• For more FAQ, check out the Usernames for Facebook Pages Help Center.

How To Create Your Vanity URL/Username

1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/username.

2. Choose the page you will like to create a vanity URL for by selecting it using the drop-dowm arrow.

3. Enter your desired username in the box opposite.

4. Click on Check Availability to see if the name is still unsed. If your desired username is used then play around with the word until you are able to get an available username.

5. Read the notes on the Username Available window and then click on Confirm to continue.

6. Click Okay on the Success window to complete the process.

Your vanity URL will now be displayed with a note that you can direct your fans to that web address.

Vanity URL Tips

• Make your vanity URLs memorable & easy to remember
• Keep them short
• Consider including descriptive keywords that accurately describe the page or the product.

Have you recently implemented this process to create your Facebook vanity URL? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Google’s plan is for the button to show up in search results, on non-Google sites, and in ads. For example, you might see a +1 button for a Google search result, Google ad, or next to an article you’re reading on your favorite news site. Your +1’s and your social connections also help improve the content you see in Google Search.

By clicking +1, you publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1′s can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.

For now, users can opt into the +1 button experiment (will be open to everyone else later) in Google Labs using their Google account and after will start seeing a +1 icon next to each link in Google search results. Your +1’s are stored in a new tab on your Google profile which can be made public or private.

Below is a video that explains +1 in more detail.

Facebook

Clicking the button by users now will be a long thought out action as the liked post will be very conspicuous on their walls. But on the other hand, publishers will be very happy with this change as it will increase traffic to their websites given the prominence of posts on Facebook profiles walls. As this is still a new functionality, there is a mixed feeling about the way it will affect its use.

70-80% of the time my answer is yes, as almost any business can benefit long-term from participating in social media the RIGHT way.  It occurred to me today, however, that I rarely document the occasions when I advise businesses to steer clear of this form of marketing.

After looking through some meeting notes, here are some common reasons for a business to stay away from social marketing:

1.  Your company and/or management team does not believe in social media.

This is always a tough one to handle.  On the one hand, if everyone followed this rule then this form of marketing would be dead already, as most proponents start out as non-believers.  On the other hand, if you are supposed to be the champion of the program and you don’t even believe in the benefits of social media, you’ll never sell it internally and if you do, you’ll never execute with passion and consistency.

2.  You’re not willing to build even a simple strategy for social media, or you’re not willing to figure out how social media fits into broader marketing and organizational goals.

If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, I telegraphed this one for you.  Tactics without strategy will eventually fail.  Say it again.  Tactics without strategy will eventually fail.

3.  Your business bases everything on strict cost-benefit analysis, and defined ROI is expected quickly.

Much of what you can expect to execute in this realm is going to be experimental initially.  Very few organizations have found a concrete way to tie social media investment directly to revenue increases or cost savings.

If your CFO or Controller or even your VP of Marketing is going to treat an investment in social marketing like an investment in direct mail or pay-per-click search engine marketing, it’s probably not going to work out for you.

4.  You or those you report to are going to base social media success on the number of followers, friends or connections you accumulate.

Pet peeve alert!

Unless you are representing a universal or nearly universal consumer product, stop counting followers, friends and connections.  Do the smart thing.  Identify a segment of the audience that you want to reach, and make the focus of your social marketing program reaching as many members of that segment as possible.  Rinse and repeat with the next segment.

If the focal point of your strategy is to accumulate as many friends, followers or connections as possible, you’ll fail in social media eventually.  Or you’ll become very annoying to your audience, and they’ll start tuning you out…which I suppose is the same thing as failing.

5.  Your company’s executive leadership and/or thought leaders aren’t part of the social media effort.

Certain types of social media are not inherently meant for corporate representation.  They were built for individual representation, with the obvious benefit of creating a platform from which you can share business interests and news.

Many companies abuse social media properties, and part of this abuse lies in the lack of participation from the real personalities that reflect the brand.  See Will’s recent post on Zappos excellence in marketing and customer service, and in particular the involvement of their CEO in all social media efforts, for an example of the way this should be done.

There are some Twitter business users with massive followings that remind me of Paris Hilton.  Never accomplished much, famous for being famous, annoying as hell to listen to…and then the clincher comes when I hear that they have interns or assistants representing them on Twitter.  That’s crap.  Plain and simple.  Ghostwriting is one thing, ghosttwittering is quite another.

6.  You can’t write well and can’t find someone that can write well.

Again, if you’re a frequent reader of the Marketing Trenches, you know that we believe writing impacts the quality of everything.  This applies to social marketing as well.  Write poorly, and you give people reason to tune you out.  Write well, and you at least have a chance to reach and engage your audience.

7.  You don’t have proprietary content, don’t want to author proprietary content, and aren’t willing to recommend or share others’ content.

Like most marketing efforts, in social media content is king.  You’re going to need web pages, blog posts, press releases, case studies, research reports…you get the point.  To really take advantage of social marketing, you need to either produce that content internally or be willing to share content from outside sources that you deem valuable.

8.  Your business doesn’t have a tolerance for open, back-and-forth, sometimes unfiltered conversation.

Social media has a way of enhancing some strengths, and more importantly exposing some weaknesses.  Since social marketing does tend to represent a more open platform than the rest of your marketing programs, do a reality check first.  If your business can’t handle the idea of some dirty laundry or even just some moderately dirty laundry being exposed, stay away.

9.  Your business is trying social media because it is viewed as a low-cost, low-effort marketing program.

First of all, if you’re doing social marketing right it’s not low effort.  It can be low cost as compared to the media dollars laid out for a search campaign or fees paid for a public relations effort, but that’s only because companies tend to put cheaper junior staffers on the social media beat.

There’s nothing wrong with experimenting or “testing” social marketing.  If low cost or low effort is what finally moves you to try it out, it’s probably not the right move to begin with.

10.  You’re going to hand your social media program to an intern because you think social media is the domain of the young.

Will does a great job of explaining why this is a mistake in a recent post on Marketing Misconceptions.  While an intern may understand the ins and outs of each property better than you do, guess what?  They don’t understand the business implications of your social media strategy better than you do, and if they do…maybe you shouldn’t be sitting in the seat you’re sitting in.

Mike Sweeney is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing (http://www.rightsourcemarketing.com). You can view more articles like this one on the Marketing Trenches blog (http://www.marketingtrenches.com).

Author: Michael J Sweeney
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

The benefits of social media for your small business are numerous, but let’s review a few of the best reasons for incorporating social media efforts into your business plans.

1. Social media provides a simple way for customers, and even potential customers, to comment on your products or services, or to ask for more information. Because it leaves all the interaction up to the buyer, customers feel more comfortable looking for the information they need. When they are ready to share, or need your services or products, they will let you know!

2. Social media provides an outlet that can “go viral” far more quickly than typical advertising opportunities. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, “go viral” in the online world is when a blog, or article, video, or other social medium, is picked up by enough online outlets that it receives literally millions of views in hours. This doesn’t happen too often, but when it does anyone in close vicinity would like to be on the bandwagon.

3. The days of waiting on hold for a telephone customer service representative to pick up and answer your question about a product are over! Today’s online medium allows for enhanced and far superior customer service options which put less strain on customers and service reps alike! Social media can enhance customer service options by providing up-to-the-minute feedback on products and services that can be disseminated to multiple customers at one time. Best of all, social media allows even small businesses to provide quality customer service without a huge customer service telephone system or department expense.

4. And finally, social media can provide the opportunity for increased sales. This is most especially true for small businesses, whose global advertising reach may be limited.

However great the advantages of social media efforts, businesses should keep in mind that these are not static solutions. One of the advantages of social media is the ability to disseminate up-to-the-minute information, but this fact can also be a drain on resources if not properly implemented. With so many options for information, a social media website should include daily or at least weekly updates of either written text, video or audio content, or other interactive materials.

So how do you get started adding social media to your business?

First, you should have a website. You need a place where customers can “land” regularly, and where you can provide your information and updates. All your social media pages will then link to this website.

Second, you need to research your market objectives and determine who you are trying to connect with. If you sell toys for pre-schoolers, your target market might be Moms between the ages of 25 – 40. Or maybe you have a toy that would appeal specifically to the male interest – in which case your market demographic would be different.

Whatever your target market, you need to identify it so you can determine the best social media sites to use. Facebook is great for moms and dads between the ages of 26 and 35, while MySpace is better for younger age groups, and singles. The bottom line – if you don’t know who you are trying to reach, you won’t get the best results from your social media efforts.

Third, once you know who you want to target, then you’ll need to develop a plan. The plan should include which social media outlets will target the market you need to reach the best, a plan for how often to update and interact, and how best to tie your social market pages to your website.

All these efforts will take some time, but if done properly, many can begin generating leads within a few months. Not all leads will result in a sale, but you won’t have any sales without leads!

Finally, you’ll need to develop a plan to watch what works and what doesn’t. Your website should track statistics for who visits the site and where they come from. You won’t be able to generate specific statistics from the social media sites, but with a good statistics program you will be able to know what site generated the visitor, and what pages they viewed once they got to your site.

As with any marketing effort, all your time could be wasted if you do not plan appropriately. Additionally, all the planning in the world may still not generate the results you had in mind, but if you are not monitoring the results, you will never know if it is working or not!

The best social media efforts, just like big marketing campaigns, will saturate many social media areas at once, to include video, podcasts, and other interactive elements. But these can often be time consuming and resource heavy.

I recommend to my small businesses that they start small and work from there. Determine which one or two social media efforts will offer the biggest return on invested time and money, and focus on those for a few months. Monitor your results, and decide if they are meeting your goals. If they are, great! You can expand to add more media, or just increase the frequency of the efforts you are already doing well with.

If the results end up not meeting your expectations then start from square one, but this time you will be armed with information from the previous effort, which should help you avoid pitfalls.

Ultimately any social media effort will take some time, but as with any successful advertising campaign, it will be well worth the effort once you begin to see results!

Roxanne Weber is a professional web business developer and consultant residing in the Midwest. She has over 12 years of business analysis and web development experience, in addition to her years as a professional business consultant. You can find her at http://dimensionsolutions.com/, see more articles at http://www.allvoices.com/users/onlinebusinesswoman

Author: Roxanne Weber
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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People have definite opinions about social media marketing and about the tools used to execute a social media strategy. I started writing some of them down so that I could, as now, address them in an article to debunk some of the myths or preconceived ideas about social media as a whole. Enjoy!

To succeed you have to be on the four main applications

This generally means Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and a blog. The tools you use to engage your audience vary greatly according to what business you are involved in. There are times when I’d recommend a client to make more use of Foursquare and article distribution on Wiki than Facebook. What I would say, in every case, is that social media application begins with a blog. All other tools used depend on that hub and ideally, none of them stand alone. As in traditional marketing, social media tools need support, even Twitter!

Social Media costs nothing

All media activity costs. Whether it’s in terms of time, resource, people or actual media costs there is an investment made by the user. Yes, a lot of the applications can be accessed for free i.e. costing only your time, however if you don’t know how to use them properly they will cost you more than time in the end. I advise clients with small budgets to learn how to use each application (which can be done in hours) but it is very difficult for anyone with little or no marketing experience to understand each application in the overall marketing picture and that’s when mistakes are made.

You wouldn’t try to develop your own traditional media campaign would you? You’d generally employ marketing consultant or an advertising agency to ensure that you get the most ‘bang’ for your ‘buck’. Whilst few people can claim to be social media experts there is a definite advantage to using a social media consultant with good writing skills and a history in advertising and marketing.

If you really want to utilise the tools of social media yourself then you need to be trained to get the most out of them on a daily basis, to see the bigger picture and you need to ensure that you have the time to use them.

Writing Articles is easy

I always giggle when I hear a client say they’ll write their own articles for online distribution. Not because I doubt their writing ability but because online writing differs from the usual hard copy writing. There’s a different tone used and the layout has to be just so. Keyword density comes into it as do parent headers and sub headers. The angle taken to promote a business because you can’t blatantly promote yourself if you want publishers to use your article, what degree to niche your topic, embedding links and resources – it’s becoming rather technical.

Then there’s how to use your article online. It won’t work if it’s not distributed for online use by online publishers!

Setting objectives for your Social Media Campaign

It’s not just about registering with all the social media tools and waiting for your sales to soar. Social Media tools are used as part of a marketing campaign whether it’s on or offline and objectives to measure it by are important. Each business has their own objectives but sometimes it’s difficult to apply those objectives to social media activity as the tools are not always measurable. A good social media consultant will help you set realistic goals and attain them.

All campaigns begin with Facebook

Not at all! Facebook is a great social networking tool and does allow you to have a business page too but it’s not the mainstay of a social media campaign, a blog is. If you are going to use Facebook as a marketing tool and start a business/fan page you need to have a reason for doing so. Like all social media tools it’s no good starting on Facebook if you’re going to abandon it after a few weeks.

If however, you have a need to develop a community in the consumer market, then Facebook would be one of the tools I’d recommend.

It doesn’t work for business to business organisations

I hear this one a lot as everyone thinks in terms of consumerism and Facebook. Social Media marketing works just as well for B2B as it does for B2C. You just need to use the right tools. LinkedIn offers many variations between contacts and allows you to leverage contacts through your own community.

YouTube is great for B2B in terms of offering ‘how to’ videos, visual product trials and endorsements. There are many ways each tool can be adapted to suit the business need just as in traditional media marketing.

You have to have a gimmick

Yes, a ‘wave’ works wonders but isn’t necessary. There are ways to attract attention with the tools offered without having to be the coolest business on the block. You just need to think outside the box.

It’s all automated so why do I need a content manager?

Whilst some of the tools can be linked for ease of use you can’t automate your whole campaign. The whole point is to engage with your own community, one you built (by you I mean your business/brand/product etc) and for that to work successfully your community or audience needs to believe you are the person/business that they are talking to. Sure, we all need to save time but people respond best to personal communication. They want to be thought of as that number one client.

Commissioning posts and articles is fine but for goodness sake make sure it’s relevant content and well written. Google is penalising bad content now and that won’t help your marketing efforts. Besides reading a badly written article or post that barely makes sense because the author doesn’t speak your language properly or is briefed to gain a certain keyword density, will only serve to put people off you.

Content managers listen, engage and advise constantly on how you can best use social media to enhance your marketing efforts.

Why use traditional advertising if I’m using Social Media?

Yes, there is increasing resistance to traditional forms of advertising and sales eg: telesales and billboards, however in most instances social media work best when supported by traditional advertising techniques like radio or print advertising. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve and who your audience is. Mixing the two often increases results.

You can’t measure ROI

Of course you can, but first you must outline your objectives to measure the activity and spend against. Yardsticks for measurement will be more about the number of people/businesses you have reached and how many of them you are engaging with rather than hard sales figures but they are measurable objectives. Even articles can be tracked and content and response analysed. Google analytics can be successfully applied to your blog and PPC adverts. Increase in sales can be measured against performance without using social media tools. Just be more inventive!

A powerful tool for today’s businesses

In short, social media offers all businesses a powerful tool for use in today’s harsh climate but to use it correctly you need to learn more about it and adapt it to achieve your objectives successfully.

Jane van Velsen – The Right Writer offers clients a full social media marketing service including researching, writing, distributing articles and posts, conversion into press releases for online distribution and to hard copy publishers, creating databases for social media use, creating website site maps, content and overseeing set up, business blogs from inception, design and content to monetising, 3rd party advertising and guest authors, sourcing articles, and linking to social media for maximum visibility online, client service between client and other service providers such as web designers and SEO experts, Pay per click advertising, Facebook advertising campaigns, review of analytics, strategic input.
http://www.therightwriter.co.uk

Author: Jane Van Velsen
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Thanks in part to the transformative impact of online social media, that brand/customer relationship is experiencing a sea-change.. As increasingly informed and savvy consumers begin to demand more transparency and honesty from businesses they support, companies are no longer able to hide behind an ability to fully control the message. Steadily, businesses are now leveraging social media as both an offensive and defensive means to forge new and solidify existing relationships while building trust through transparency. The most successful of these organizations are now doing much more than simply monitoring the consumer pulse… they are engaging and interacting on a real-time basis with existing and potential customers, throughout the entire buying cycle.

In some respects, today’s businesses face the same challenges that early marketers experienced with emerging print and electronic advertising mediums, the most important of which is building meaningful and lasting relationships with new and existing customers. The key difference this time around is that successful marketing efforts increasingly hinge on the ability to reciprocate, in authentic ways and real-time ways, with a growing and increasingly sophisticated online consumer audience.

That’s why, planning for consumer engagement through social media is an increasingly central consideration for today’s business owners!

However, the pitfalls of a poorly or ill-conceived plan are myriad, and social media and conversation marketing by themselves are only a part of an integrated marketing solution. Although it’s important to stress the value of building relationships through social media, it’s incredibly difficult to achieve success when you’re developing those relationships in an unstructured fashion.

Thus, social media is not to be performed in a haphazard way. Rather, it works best when applied in a logical sequence using a more structured approach. The mistake that most often leads to frustration and ultimately, abandonment, is not having a plan of attack!

Instead of thinking of social media as a freestanding tactic, first consider how you can add social media components into your existing marketing plan. Before you begin any social media campaign, you should think about incorporating these three elements specific to these marketing channels:

1. Know what you don’t know.
2. Determine how much time you have to commit to a social media campaign
3. Understand your audience objectives within each social network
4. Dovetailing social media objectives with where your customers “live”.

Know What You Don’t Know

Social media and conversation marketing are not ends unto themselves… like traditional marketing, they are simply tools, albeit transformative tools, to building brand, market affinity and sales. And while it may be too much to expect even the wisest “old dogs” to learn to master all the nuances of these “new tricks”, true wisdom stems from surrounding yourself with people who get it. Don’t let fear control, instead become intellectually engaged in ways that leverages your knowledge of your core business, customer and products and work with teams who can help convert your vision into the social media and conversion marketing space.

Social Media Time Commitment

It’s essential to understand how much time you have to devote to social media. The online world is a vastly different place than the traditional advertising space largely due to the lightning fast and highly reciprocal communications the web presents. In terms of product marketing, people now have the ability to share experiences, provide recommendations and promote products and services with speeds unmatched in other forms of media. Positive experiences, as well as bad ones, are shared easily and can make their way through the online landscape with an immediacy never before experienced.

As a result, dipping a tentative toe in social media waters without knowing how to swim (or at least tread water) is a prescription for looking at the sky from the bottom of a pool. Nor is it right to spend time developing valuable online relationships, only to appear and disappear like a social media ninja. The best results are often achieved with steady participation, constant communication and engaging interaction with your audience. People will want to hear what you have to say as long as it provides real value to the community.

But note, online communities can spot an online poacher from a mile away! Savvy users of social media know what this term means but for those of you who don’t, online poachers are only there for one thing: to use social media merely as a platform to broadcast their marketing messages in much the same manner as they would with traditional media. Don’t fall into this trap. Make sure that you are prepared to get involved in more than a one way communication.

Ultimately, the only way to succeed is to make time and commit to an on-going online relationship campaign. Know that once you decide to engage your customers in the virtual world, there should be no turning back.

Understanding Audience Objectives Within Each Social Network:

What is the audience objective within each social network? The great thing about social networks is the ability to pinpoint with precision special interest groups that dovetail nicely with your company’s mission. But beware the trap of hitting the “right” audience with the “wrong” message.

For example, professional networks like LinkedIn are not really the best place to deliver your sales pitch as they often fall on deaf ears. For instance, if your company sells women’s high fashion clothing, you’ll likely miss your mark with a buy now sales pitch on the 1,550+ entertainment groups found on LinkedIn. Here, you’ll be better served offering helpful content relating more to industry news, trends, jobs and advice. On the flip side, Facebook’s 100,000+ entertainment groups offer a tremendous opportunity to find and interact with audiences that may already be talking about your products. This may sound like marketing 101 stuff but no social media plan should be undertaken without understanding network- specific audience objectives.

Dovetailing Social Media Objectives with Where Your Customers “Live”

This said, where do you go online to find that audience? Social networks, much like traditional marketing channels, do tend to cater to specific audiences. However, unlike offline marketing mediums, social networks require companies to engage with consumers on their own terms. Therefore, it’s important to do some research to find out which social networks are right for your business’ message.

At a high level, social networks like LinkedIn focus more on professionals while Faceook and MySpace are more informal and cater to X and Y gen audiences alike. But the real value (and opportunity) with sites like LinkedIn and Facebook rests in the ability to get involved with a variety of mini networks such as Groups, Pages and Causes.

Here, businesses can find and interact with consumers in a highly relevant setting. Say your company sells high performance mountain bikes. There are currently an amazing number of Facebook Groups (3,600) devoted to mountain biking and over 35 on LinkedIn! Your company’s target audience is here and might already be talking about your products so why not join in the conversation?

Facebook allows companies to create a free Fan Page where your product evangelists can “Become a Fan” and get breaking news, tips and even special Fan discount offers. In addition, Fan Pages can be marketed to other Facebook users much like the way Google’s AdWords paid search service works. If your company doesn’t already have a Facebook Fan Page, it is highly recommended to start one now.

The internet marketing era may have only come about in the decade or so but the rate of evolution is, to put it mildly, a revolution. We haven’t yet reached the pinnacle nor can anyone say for sure where social media will be or what role it will play in business communications in the coming years but one thing is certain, having the right plan and committing to its proper execution will place your company at the forefront of the new age of digital communications.

Jim Gibson is the Publisher of Online Media Today, the business owners magazine for online marketing. Jim is also a principal at GibSEM Group, a boutique internet marketing firm located in Los Angeles, CA.

Find us online:

http://www.youtube.com/Onlinemediatoday

http://www.facebook.com/Onlinemediatoday

Author: Jim W Gibson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

SMM = Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is strategically using the big social sites to spread your brand name or drive traffic back to your web presence.

SMO = Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization is adding key elements to your websites or content that make them easy to spread across the big social sites.

Rohit Bhargava Developed Social Media Optimization Rules 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

1. Increase your linkability

Linkability is the willingness of other websites or articles to link back to your site. One way to increase your natural Google listing is to increase how many authority sites link to you, so to increase your linkability with social media optimization is to make your site more informative and useful to others. You can do this in many ways; blog, white papers, press releases, keyword targeted articles, RSS feeds, etc. This is the most important step in Social Media Optimization and should be your first priority.

2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy

The act of tagging is to bookmark the website to social bookmarking websites. For example, if you like the content or services provided at a website you tag it. This will show others that you approve of this site and they will check it out, making viral traffic. To include social media optimization tagging on your site, you can add tagging links such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Technorati, etc. Also, add the tagging links to other pages in your site (not just the homepage) and when visitors click the tag button make sure that there is a suggestion box to help your visitor list a relevant tag and notes.

3. Reward inbound links

As I mentioned before one way to increase your natural listing with Google using social media optimization is to get more back links. You can do this by rewarding people/websites that link to you (inbound links). Inbound links are links that send people to your site from somewhere else. One way to reward people for linking to your site is to have a “Recently Linked” that lists all of the websites that have linked to you.

4. Help your content travel

Social media optimization focuses on providing useful content to your market. When you publish content such as an article, video, or audio file you must help it reach as many people on the web as possible. You can do this by submitting to relevant high traffic websites. When the word gets out about your great content (no matter what format) you’ll receive backlinks to your site.

5. Encourage the mashup

To mash up is to use two websites content and mash them together. For example, Youtube makes it easy to mash their content (videos) onto your site. In addition, because it is so easy you have added a video to your site that has a Youtube logo on the video as well as a link back to you tube. So to encourage a mashup with social media optimization is to make it easy for other websites to use your content and reference it to drive traffic back to your site.

Jeremiah Owyang Developed Social Media Optimization Rules 6 and 7

6. Be a User Resource, even if it doesn’t help you.

One thing all visitors appreciate is honesty. With social media optimization you should include links to other websites that will help your visitor reach their goal or find the information they want. Do this, even when it doesn’t benefit you. By linking to competitors or information not created by you, you reap the benefits of having the all inclusive information on a particular topic. In the end, more people will link to you because you have lumped all information (or links) on a topic on one location.

7. Reward helpful and valuable users

Valuable users are your best friends. A valuable user can be determined in many ways; they may send traffic to your site, add valuable content to your site, or assist visitors at your site. No matter what their doing, if it benefits you, your site, or your service you need to reward them. This could be by sending a personal message thanking them for their dedication. Other ways to reward your valuable users is to create reward systems, advertise for them or promote their efforts on your homepage.

Cameron Olthuis Developed Social Media Optimization Rules 8, 9, 10, and 11

8. Participate

With Social Media Optimization you can participate by joining on the conversation about your topic (or targeted keyword). Simply posting articles and sharing content isn’t going to keep the buzz going. You should continue to share information on other websites. This participation will share your knowledge with more people. One way to do this is to find people that are blogging on your topic and to give input on the conversation. Also, participate in forums or other social groups that are discussing your topic. Read comments on your articles, videos, and audios and respond to them.

9. Know how to target your audience

Social media marketing is about sharing content/information. Not everyone is interested in your topic, so be sure to do your marketing research and post your information and knowledge where it will be understood and appreciated.

10. Create content

Content is considered to be any form on information that benefits a visitor. Content can be a white paper, article, video, audio, widget, the list goes on. Your job is to find a piece of content that will spark interest in visitors. No matter what market you enter there is always a form of content that they will share with others. Find out what it is and give it to them. This will in turn have them coming back for more useful content. If this happens, then you know that your social media optimization is successful.

11. Be real

Internet users are searching the web for specific content. If you are providing content that links back to a website, be sure that the website is relevant. You will not be rewarded for coaxing a visitor to a site that has nothing to do with the content they just read (or watched depending on the type of content you provided).

Loren Baker developed Social Media Optimization Rules 12 and 13

12. Don’t forget your roots, be humble

It’s easy to let popularity get to your head. When you become the shining star in your market be sure to recognize those that helped you get to the front of the pack. (this ties into #7 a little)

13. Don’t be afraid to try new things, stay fresh.

Any one on the internet knows how quickly things change. Keep up with new media content, new types of websites, and new interests in your market. By staying on top of new information you can maintain top rankings.

Lee Odden developed Social Media Optimization Rules 14, 15 and 16

14. Develop a Social Media Optimization strategy

Social Media serves multiple purposes. You need to identify what your purpose is and then publish content that will promote that purpose. Some purposes for Social Media Optimization include: branding, reputation, charity, increase traffic, build reputation, increase sales, credibility, etc. Make sure that as you develop content that you are publishing and creating with that purpose in mind.

15. Choose your SMO tactics wisely.

Of all the content available on the web only about 10% of people on the web are content creators. The other 90% are consumers and are willing to share your content. Make your content easy to consume and spread. Also be sure to create content that will have the most impact on your original purpose (which could be any of the following: branding, reputation, charity, increase traffic, build reputation, increase sales, credibility, etc).

16. Make Social Media Optimization – SMO part of your process and best practices.

We all know that there are specific Search engine optimization tactics that every website should include. Just as you include keywords in your title tags and keywords in your H1 tag, you should find ways to include social media optimization aspects into the building of your website. This can be small details like including social bookmark tags on your site or encouraging incoming links with the “recently Linked” list I covered in #3.

17. Don’t be afraid to let go of a message or idea and let others own it.

Finally, when you create a movement, spark and idea, or develop a new topic don’t be afraid to let others run with it. Collaboration is key. Others can improve upon your original idea and give you credit for the start. Be sure to give credit where it’s due.

Justin Brooke started with just a $2/day marketing budget and grew his business past 6 figures in just 1 year. At just 25 years old he has been Vice President of a multi-million dollar company and nominated “Best Marketer of 2007″ by the American Business Awards. Justin’s award winning social media optimization company wants to handle your social media marketing needs.

Author: Justin Brooke
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

The New Value of Social Media and The Social Media Firm
More recently social media has spawned a new value proposition, which is the business applicability of the vast user-bases these social networks have created. Regardless of which side of the valuation fence you sit on, it can be said that social media holds vast utility for businesses looking for a new way to reach out to customers and engage in two-way communications. This has never been done before from a traditional marketing, advertising or public relations perspective, and has given rise to a new business model: The Social Media Firm. This brings forth the argument of whether or not The Social Media Firm is a good investment. Is The Social Media Firm a fad that will die out in the coming years, or is this a long-term, sustainable industry that will one-day drive obsolescence to the traditional methods of advertising, public relations and marketing?

Given the state of the current economy, Venture Capital and angel funding sources have been keeping their portfolio dollars close to their chest, reserving investment only to businesses with a decent operating history, solid revenue streams and unlimited growth potential. Does the Social Media Firm fall into this category? My answer is yes. The bottom line is: social media is not going anywhere. Social media has become a staple of the lives of younger generations, and the fastest growing adopters of new media are people over the age of 30. Since the recognition of the business potential that social networks holds, large Fortune 500 firms are devoting a good portion of their marketing budgets to social networks and new media campaigns. For instance, Pepsi has devoted $20 Million of their marketing budget for a social media program called Pepsi refresh, and many large firms are beginning to follow suit. Needless to say, the earning potential for The New Media Firm is substantial.

Is it sustainable?
As mentioned earlier, new media is not going anywhere. For the most part it has become a standard part of the Internet experience similar to email. The sites that are considered the gorillas in social media may churn; however, there will always be something new to which these Internet-based communities will migrate. For example, the social media migration to-date has gone from MySpace to Facebook to Twitter, and the next major shift and/or addition to this massive online social sphere is likely just around the corner. The long-term sustainability of The Social Media Firm is largely dependent upon these companies’ ability to identify and pre-empt the next big shift, and to develop effective methods of leveraging both the old and new platforms for the sake of driving revenue, profitability, sales volume and identity to their clients.

Why Outsource to The Social Media Firm?
One question that may arise is: why would large companies hire a social media agency when they have the monetary resources to do it in-house? The answer to this is the simple fact that it is cheaper to outsource a new media campaign to a firm that has a skilled team already in place and is intimately familiar with navigating the complex world of new media. In the same manner that large companies hire advertising agencies to design traditional media campaigns, this approach can and will be taken for new media. By hiring The New Media Firms, companies can eliminate both the administrative burden that comes with hiring a multitude of new employees, as well as the learning curve that will inevitably be present when trying to integrate those employees into their corporate culture. It is more cost effective, in both monetary and administrative respects, to outsource these campaigns to professional teams that are fully adept at leveraging the potential of modern media, navigating the codes of conduct of these online communities and staying ahead of the curve when it comes to identifying and exploiting the latest new media trends.

Closing Remarks

In summary, I do believe that investment in The Social Media Firm holds great potential for many funds; however, it is imperative that when vetting these agencies, Venture Capitalists and Angels need to ensure that the company contains the correct personnel and management team to fully exploit this budding industry. The ditch is full of one-man shops and so-called social media experts that are no more than victims of the recession who happen to be adept at Facebook or Twitter. It is imperative that the architects of new media campaigns are familiar with the intricate details of new media, and the vast array of assets that exist online for a business to take full advantage of the social media world.

Utilization of the lesser known social media outlets such as Digg, BrightKite, hi5, Xanga and countless others could be the difference between a full-scale robust campaign that shows real results, and an ineffective and unorganized attempt at new media that wastes marketing dollars.

Due to the infancy of this industry, there are few companies out there that truly know how to unlock the value of new media for business. The ones that do will quickly rise to the top, and if sufficient due diligence is done, these companies are ripe for investment. A strategic infusion of capital is likely the boost needed to take these companies from a sustainable cash-flow business to the next industry giant with A-list clientele.

Boom Media, Inc. is a new media optimization firm based in San Diego, California. New Media is the culmination of all online assets (such as social networking, blogs, micro-blogs, bookmarking and video sites) and tactics that can be used to drive revenue and identity for businesses. With a proven track record for success, the Boom Media team delivers results with innovative and measurable campaigns. Learn more at http://www.mymediaboom.com

Author: Eric A Rice
Article Source: EzineArticles.com