Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization

A number of big industry players and knowledge seekers have reported recently on various aspects of search and social media.

Forrester reported in The Future of Search Marketing, there are a number of things we can expect in regards to search and social media:

* More content and ways to search
* Richer search engine interfaces and ads
* Overlap with social and mobile
* Increased automation
* Improved analytics

What does that mean in terms of maintaining and refining your search marketing and social media strategy?

According to Rohit Bhargava’s 5 NEW Rules Of Social Media Optimization, businesses can

1. Create shareable content
2. Make sharing easy
3. Reward engagement
4. Proactively share content
5. Encourage the mashup

1. Create shareable content
Four years ago, increasing your linkability was key because links were the main currency of the web. It was a search web vs. a social web. Today content can be retweeted, often helping content get indexed faster in search. Don’t focus only on links, focus on content people will want to share, which leads to links, likes, digs and forwards.

2. Make sharing easy
Tagging and bookmarking are only a few of the ways that people share content. Today they can “post a short link to their profile, embed a video, send out a tweet or create a hashtag for a conversation.” If you have persuasive, shareable content, make it intuitive to share with easy buttons.

3. Reward engagement
In the days of search, inbound links were golden. Today the real currency is social engagement, which ranges from comments and discussion to posting or sharing content. Overall, this is a richer linking experience. Remember to reward this behaviour by RTs, thank yous, posting additional comments and engaging with that audience.

4. Proactively share content
I’d rename this to re-purpose shareable content. If you have compelling content, don’t just post it as a blog post or newsletter article, think about how it can be shared in slides via Slideshare or in documents on Scribd or Google Docs. Perhaps there’s good video opportunities, mobile apps or whitepapers. Think multiplatform and multipurpose.

5. Encourage the mashup
“The concept of the ‘mashup’ where people take and remix your content by adding their own input and voice.” If you can inspire your audience to speak on your behalf, in their own words, the influence of the crowd goes beyond the power of your original materials.

See Rohit Bhargava’s explanation of his 5 points here.

Before summer is over, think about social media optimization and search engine optimization. Revisit your search marketing and social media strategy for ways to refine and integrate the two.