Using Social Media To Turbocharge Your Traffic

SMO, or Social Media Optimization, helps build website traffic by using social media 
based websites. The dawning of web 2.0 has seen many different social media websites
crop up in an equally large number of different guises. Content sharing, social bookmarking,
and collaborative websites form the basis of this initiative and it is these types of website 
that you need to use in order to leverage the power of the social web.
 
SMO As Guerrilla Marketing
 
The nature of Social Media Optimization is such that it could be considered form of 
guerrilla marketing. Website owners and blog owners have the choice of either investing
money or their own skills and time in order to generate traffic from social sites. As long
as your efforts are directed appropriately, the more work you put in the more reward 
you will reap.
 
SMO As A Link Building Technique
 
Social optimization also has a happy side effect - it helps to build your link profile so 
you will usually gain search engine traffic in the long term. Becoming a part of an online 
community is essential to your social optimization and this, in turn, will naturally provide 
links to your website. The links will usually be from relevant pages based on a similar to
pic to that of your own page. The more popular social sites are also given a lot of weight 
by certain search engines.
 
Optimize Your Existing Site
 
Create genuinely interesting, intriguing, or informative pages. Includes images, links, video,
and collaborative tools so that visitors really get involved when they do visit your site. 
SMO is basically digital word-of-mouth and if your website doesn't offer some kind of 
appealing experience to your visitors, then it simply won't attract the positive word-of-
mouth that you want.
 
Add new pages, if necessary, so that you can include more information. However, don't 
just add pages for the sake of it - ensure that each page really does have something 
unique to offer. A website still needs to be well structured.
 
Start A Blog
 
Add a blog. Every website has potential blog posts in it so find yours and start blogging 
regularly. Blog posts tend to attract links from other blog posts and those in turn will 
spread the word of your website. The more popular your blog becomes, the more value 
it is perceived to offer and the more visitors you will continue to get.
 
Be active in those blogs that are within your industry and use your link where permitted 
and relevant. Don't spam because that will lose you more friends than it will make but if 
you offer relevant information and a forum or blog allows you to link to it, then offer an 
insightful comment and provide a link.
 
Continue to Be Active
 
Being active is a vital part to your whole SMO campaign. Simply registering with social 
bookmarking sites and content sharing sites is not enough. You need to be involved, 
post regularly, and generally become a part of the community. If you don't have the time 
or the inclination to do this then find somebody else to do it instead.
 
Some Social Sites To Join
 
You really do reap what you sow in terms of SMO. Determine the sites that are most 
suitable to your website, join them, and become an active member. Choose some broad
topic sites as well as some that are specific to those interested in the industry in which 
you operate or topic that you cover. Look at social news submission sites, content 
sharing sites, bookmarking, and networking sites and try to get a broad coverage of all 
of them. Here are just a few of the sites you should seriously consider using:
 
Social News/Media Sharing Websites
 
* Reddit - Reddit is a very popular social news website that boasts a lot of subscribers 
and covers a wide range of topics.
 
* Digg - Initially, Digg was reserved to technology and related topics but is now a broad 
topic news site that again has a lot of subscribers and regular readers.
 
* Newsvine - Not as popular as the two above but offering a slightly more formal tone 
to its content. Again, a good range of topics are covered.
 
Social Networking Sites
 
* MySpace - It may be largely riddled with spam but there are still too many genuine use
rs for you to ignore MySpace. You don't have to be an unsigned band to take advantage
either.
 
* Facebook - Has caused quite a stir and offers users the chance to create and distribute 
their own applications as well as content. Another very popular site.
* LinkedIn - LinkedIn is a social networking site dedicated to professionals and businesses. 
It can really help to build a huge network of partners, customers, and other useful contacts 
in a business network.
 
Social Bookmarking Websites
 
* del.icio.us - Register, store bookmarks that you find useful, and include a bookmark 
to your own website and use a public profile.
 
* Stumble Upon - Same again. Alternatively you can add a Stumble icon to each of your 
pages, blog posts, and other media and let your readers do the walking for you.
 
The Social Internet has opened up a whole new avenue for promoting your business, 
but it needs to be done properly and carefully. Simply tagging, bookmarking, and sharing 
every page you have regardless of its quality will not bring you the desired results. You 
may find that it does you more harm than good in the long run.