Social Media Marketing

You can't have failed to notice the increasing number of Internet users who are choosing to identify themselves with social networks. In fact, 20% of regular Internet users are said to have visited social networks in the past 30 days alone.

We’ve all heard of social network sites, such as Facebook and Myspace but have you heard of Social Media Optimisation (SMO) or Social Media Marketing? Social media optimisation is becoming more and more mainstream and is the art of creating a buzz about your brand and trying to generate and control the conversation via social media sites (some call it online PR).

There are lots of tools within the SMO toolbox including blogging, bookmarking, adding RSS feeds, social news buttons, and incorporating community building functionalities such as forums.

However, there should be some serious warnings attached.... this strategy is not for the novice as it has the power to make or break your online marketing campaign. Normal marketing and advertising rules do not apply and communities are highly sensitive and protective of their unique code of conduct - a behavioural pattern that needs to be respected at all times. If you post a blatant advertising message that is completely out of context, not only could your product go down in flames, but your reputation too.

That’s where we can help. We take your objectives and turn them into workable campaigns, reducing the associated risks to you by utilising our extensive experience of this area. We generally work in the following way: 

• Research (your business, your consumers, environment, competitors)
• Identify best distribution methods and target sites / contents
• Create a proposal and media plan containing full costs and deliverables (full transparency)
• Offer ongoing performance reviews
• Continue to analyse and optimise
• Achieve Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

The Social Media Landscape

Social Media Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing

Social media optimisation is often related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways. SMO primarily focuses on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit.

Social Media Optimisation and Viral Marketing

Social media optimisation is closely related to viral marketing where word of mouth is created through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo-sharing websites. In a similar way the engagement with blogs achieves the same by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogosphere and special blog search engines.

Online Reputation Management

Social media optimisation is considered an integral part of an Online Reputation Management (ORM) or Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) strategy for organisations or individuals who care about their online presence.