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Social media optimization is a way for individuals and organizations to generate publicity through social networking tools like Twitter and LinkedIn, online communities like MySpace, and automated tools like TwitterFeed and Ping.fm. The term “social media optimization” was originally coined by SEO consultant extraordinaire, Rohit Bhargava, the senior vice president of Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence and author of the Influential Marketing Blog. (Bhargava’s work was so groundbreaking, Jeremiah Owyang, another social media optimization expert, even dovetailed a few of his own rules to the original work.)

Social media optimization is basically a way to promote your blog, website, or even your company’s brand, through social media, without being obnoxious or overtly commercial. Sure, you can blanket sites like Twitter with “Want to lose weight? Download my free report, ‘19 Ways to Lose Weight Fast’” repeatedly, or brag about your latest affiliate paycheck, but that’s not going to get you any followers. At least none worth talking to.

Bhargava terms these people”Twankers” (people who use Twitter for one-way broadcasts about their own greatness) and “Twidiots” (people who only tweet insignificant things like their latest press release or what they had for breakfast). If you’re just having one-way conversations and telling people about the minor, mundane details of your company, you’re not providing any value, and your SMO efforts will be wasted.

Whether you are an SEO consultant or you are new to social media marketing, there are a few rules you need to follow in order to be effective. Bhargava’s five rules of social media optimization included important things like increasing your linkability, helping your content travel, and encouraging the mash up. To that, we would add our own four rules.

* Focus on a few networks, not many. Many social media optimization beginners make the mistake of joining as many social networks as they can, and getting a few followers in each. The problem is you’re getting 10 or 20 followers in 10 networks, rather than 400 or 500 in 2 networks. If you take this narrow route, chances are you will attract the same followers in each one.

* Find people in allied fields, not just your own, to improve your social media optimization. Think referrals, not customers. If you’re in the financial services industry, don’t just focus on finding people who need to invest. Connect with people who can refer those same people to you, like lawyers, real estate agents, bankers, and anyone else who has clients who will need the financial services you offer.

* Provide real value to others. Telling people how they can earn money while they sleep, or “Lose Weight Fast!!!” is not valuable. Steering people to a recipe site for people who are trying a low-carb diet, or writing a blog post about the top five fat-burning foods is valuable social media optimization. Refer people to helpful websites, even if they’re not your own. And don’t be nervous about asking questions of your own. It makes you look like a real person, and not just a know-it-all.

* Commit to a social media optimization program for the long haul. It’s not enough to just use it a few times and be done with it. This is an ongoing process. You wouldn’t take the time to cultivate a new friend and then never hang out with them, would you? Some of these contacts will become your friends online. Ignore them, and you’ll waste all the effort you put into your social media optimization and developing those relationships. Remember, social media marketing is actually about building real relationships, not just broadcasting one-way information. That’s what a TV is for.

By starting a social media optimization program, you’ll accomplish two things: 1) You’ll become a thought leader in your chosen field, and 2) your expertise will lead to more and bigger clients or job opportunities.

Social media networks are shaping a new era in the online community. The number of visitors and subscribers are increasing tremendously as we speak. A perfect example of the success of the social networks was Facebook’s increase in the number of visits by 50% during the last year.

The reason behind the success of these websites is due to the human touch they add to the digital world . Everybody is looking for old buddies from school , a friend they haven’t seen for a while or even get to know new people in their same profession or share the same passion .

Many charities and fundraisers have realized the unbeatable effect of social media as compared to any other online or offline marketing tool. Many have started to build their own websites and started to build social presence in the major social sites , build groups , post articles and become active members in these sites.

“Too poor to donate? Digg to help sick kids! Let’s raise Awareness!” Awareness caught my attention while I was using digg a social media site . This charity project used digg to promote their Christmas campaign for gift donations for sick children. They were asking for the visitor help to digg their post to reach as many people as they can and a generous contribution will be appreciated .

On Facebook you can easily find hundreds of charities building their groups to raise awareness of the visitors and invite them to contribute. These groups are at finger tips away from you , All what you need to do is search the groups for charity or fund raising and then the decision is up to you.

Social websites were also built with the sole intention of funding charities and raising the awareness of online visitors of the importance of the social contribution to the success of any charity project. Squidoo is a social network that came to existence with thoughtful understanding of the commitment of any business to their community while maintaining the limit of profits to maintain their on going activities. They provide a mutual interest for the visitors and the charity projects. Squidoo enables anyone to build a page on a subject that they have passion about ,write as many pages as they like, then Squidoo uses advertising on these pages. The revenue is these advertisements is shared between the page creator and a charity project. They also offer the choice of donating all your income to the charity you choose from a list of charities that they sponsor.

Donations are the back bone of any charity and fund raising which originate from the social contribution to the mission and the work of the volunteers dedicating their time and effort to its success. No doubt that social media networks made it easier for them to reach people at the ease of their homes. They can easily add a smile on a sleepy face feeling that they did their dues to the society.

In conversation with other marketers, I am often asked how Social Media Marketing is useful to a website. I realize that not everyone understands how social media marketing (SMM) can affect a websites page rank, traffic, sales (the list could go on).

Content is an extremely valuable resource to all web users. By putting it to work for your website you can find yourself as the “Reliable Content Provider” also known as an “Authority” on that topic. You can use social media to give you that authority.

Recently, I implemented just a few of the social media techniques taught my Social Media Rockstars and promoted my website to top ten Google rankings – making it an authority site for a keyword related to my business. Here is my example of how social media marketing affects the natural search listing.

1. First, I had a business website that needed more traffic (what website couldn’t use more traffic). This is already a successful website for a few other keywords, but I wanted to spread the valuable content provided with this website.

2. I then researched a high traffic, low competition keyword that was related to my business website. You only want traffic that is looking or searching for what you can provide them. I do not want to falsely advertise with irrelevant content otherwise all my efforts with social media marketing would be a waste.

3. Next, I researched my market to find out what they were looking for and how I could best provide valuable content to the web searchers looking up that keyword.

4. Then I created multiple forms of content – content is information provided to a website searcher; this can be text, video, or audio. *Remember that relevant content is what you want to create.*

The content was broken down into one short video and 12 articles. 3 of the articles were 1000 words, and the remaining nine articles ranged from 300-500 words. Note: be sure that this content is in someway relating back to the main site that you wanted to increase traffic, sales, or reputation. Whatever your purpose, be sure that this content is helping.

5. Now you need to spread the content across the different social media sites. I added the larger articles to the more popular social media sites.

Of course the video went to you tube. And for the social media sites that allowed me to share a video along with my content I added the video to it.

These 12 articles and one video spread across 13 sites drove traffic back to my businesses website. The key here is to post your content on a site that has a high page rank. This will tell the search engines that the content is coming from a reliable and valuable source. In return, those high ranking sites give your site higher rankings (or a more trusted reputation) because it’s being promoted by a high ranking website. (Sort of like the popular high school student introducing the new kid – you start off on a higher social status).

Don’t stop there! With social media marketing you need to share the content. You can so this by using social bookmarking sites, posting the information to a blog and sharing the article links in a forum. People are always looking for free information. Share your free information with everyone you can. If it’s valuable and relevant to the web users you shared it with they will also bookmark it on social bookmark sites creating viral traffic.

Now if, you remember form the beginning my main purpose was to increase traffic to an already published website. I now have 12 articles, loads of social bookmarks, and a video linking back to my website. If I did my social media marketing correctly this will definitely increase the traffic coming to my business website.

But that’s not my only result: because I have all of these popular authority sites sending traffic my way, the search engines now see that I am providing valuable content. In return for providing this content and sharing it through social media marketing tactics I have boosted the listing placement of my original website. Now in the search results for my targeted keyword I have dominated the top 5 pages with articles, social bookmarks, videos, and more importantly my main business website.

With my recent efforts in social media marketing (with in the last month), I moved my business website from the 21st position in Google to the 8th. On top of that, I hold 14 other positions in the top 30 search results for my targeted keyword. All this and I didn’t use half of the resources available with social media marketing.

GILL Media a successful North American Internet Solutions Firm has launched their much anticipated Partner Program.

The GILL Media iGSM® Certification Program allows individuals and businesses looking to expand on their service portfolio, access to the GILL Media Partnership program.

Partners are trained to provide Internet Solutions ranging from Web Hosting, Web Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Internet Advertising (such as pay-per-click) to small, medium and large businesses in their area. GILL Media provides all back end systems, including design, programming and implementation; therefore no technical ability is required of their partners.

GILL Media Partners are able to take advantage of the already established marketing, Help Desk Support and credibility that GILL Media has in place. The iGSM® Certification program also teaches Partners dozens of ways to effectively market GILL Media Internet Solutions within their community, ranging from networking, cold calling, referrals and print advertising.

About GILL Media

A division of GILL Solutions Management, founded in 2000 with headquarters in Peterborough, ON and Tampa, FL, GILL Media is a leading provider of Internet Solutions for small, medium and large businesses. GILL Media is unique in that it offers the option of convenient monthly payments and bundled Internet Solution packages, allowing businesses that previously could not afford to be online the ability to market online with minimal up front costs. The company offers a full range of media services including Web Hosting, Web Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Internet Advertising (such as pay-per-click).