Social Media Trends 2009: Optimize

Client-side marketers are optimizing social-media efforts this year, says Karen O'Brien, Partner, Interactive Services, Crimson Consulting. I asked Karen to describe the social-media trends among her big-brand clients.

Optimization is a big trend, she says.

Companies are optimizing social media by:

• setting standards and goals about how many members, RSS subscribers, friends, etc. they'd like to have on social-media channels

• setting standards and goals about conversations they want to target on social networks

• consolidating multiple presences on social networks, such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace (often, big companies have several profiles on various social networks, each profile representing a different product line, brand, or service)

"From a customer standpoint, it's confusing to see a bunch of different [presences] unless they're clearly labeled," Karen says.

About 70% of consumers consider social-media sites to be sources of information that will influence purchasing decisions, according to research data in MarketingSherpa's 2009 Social Media Marketing & PR Benchmark Guide.

Now is more important than ever to optimize. Make sure your brand is not only meeting its goals, but also consolidating its social-media presence and clearly labeling each one.

FREE EXCERPT - MARKETING SHERPA - SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2009 - CLICK HERE!

By Natalie Myers, Reporter - MarketingSherpa.com

Social Media Profiles Help with Ranking

Unless you work for an extremely popular business or company, your website or blog doesn't rank as well as online social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. These sites also made changes to their title tag structure and now ranks really well for names. Building online social profiles in a variety of sites that match your interest in industry is key to increasing your traffic and overall presence. It's important to Keep your social profiles current and active even if simply accomplish this with RSS feeds or online social publishing tools like Chi.mp. At the end of the day...this really means you are borrowing their search engine juice.

Blog. On Your Site And Off

Steady content creation and short bites of news and updates is key to staying ranked high with the search engines. I read somewhere online that BLOG is actually an acronym for Better Listing on Google? Did you know that? You didn't, because actually not true! Ha! But it could've been, because steady blogging works. It's the best way to organically drive traffic to your website without paying a lot of money to a search engine specialist or marketing firm.

What so many people seem to be missing and often simply just don't understand .... is the value of blogging off site. When you take the time to post comments and blog posts outside of your own they will often get picked up by other news aggregators. You will also enjoy the benefit of organic search engine optimization. When you post outside of your own site. ALWAYS include a link back to your own which helps with your own site optimization.

Guest Post On Several Blogs and Podcasts

I've personally have guest posted on several different blogs and podcasts as well as in some of the top social network communities. This has increased my own search engine rankings for my professional website at www.LisaLibutti.com.

So get out there, have some fun and be visible. Hop into the game of online networking and start contributing content! And remember...content can be pictures, videos, news, events, comments, reviews, feedback. You get the picture.

Finally, remember the goal. Ranking for your site for a specific term is the big win. When that's difficult or impossible, try to surround it with links to places that do link to you. Think of them as breadcrumbs that can lead people to you. Sprinkle as many as you can.

Abridged: Ignite Social Media