IXI

As we mature in our understanding of the social portals and human behavior in these environments new theories are emerging on how to effectively use these mediums for marketing purposes. We already see some early indications of the heavy search engine involvement with this medium, more notably with $ arrangement of Google and Microsoft with Twitter, which leads to believe that the importance of the social media online is growing exponentially. What does this all mean for a website owner?

Social Media Optimization – SMO is a collection of techniques designed to bring traffic to your website through social media channels. SMO is separated into 2 parts (just like SEO) one is onsite and the other is offsite. Some of the techniques used on your site are RSS feeds, polls, rating systems, news systems, public opinions, image sharing systems and so on. Offsite techniques includes building social profiles, blogging, blog commenting, forum participation, community discussions and so on.

Social Search Optimization - SSO is a collection of rules enabling social media entry to be able to be included and ranked highly by the social search providers. These rules and techniques are very similar to onsite SEO practices but are more focused on the capabilities and options of the individual Social Media portal systems.

Both SMO and SSO have a very large component which is not that important in the SEO – behavioral patterns. While we talk about the onsite experience and preferences of the visitors in traditional SEO, the SSO more so than SMO is an application of our understanding of social behavior and how we can provide the channels which would overlap social and professional interests. 2010 will be a year where we discuss in depth ability of social media drive business traffic and how to manage and improve the quality of this traffic in order to be more successful at our business.