March 9th, 2010 by Susie

Using social media optimisation (SMO) effectively is one of the most valuable SEO skills around. It’s both easy, in that a single well-placed forum comment can create a wave of positive results for your website in a few minutes, and very difficult, because it needs to be the right comment in the right place in the right way, or the net result (no pun intended) is probably zero.

The trick is to be part of the community. This applies not only to a community of interlinked websites, but also to the other social and interactive parts of the internet. Blogs, forums, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, all those places people hang out, chat about what interests them, and ask each other questions. Obviously, joining a forum and leaving a comment on every conversation that says ‘Buy my stuff at www.stuff.com, it’s sort of relevant to whatever you’re talking about’ is not going to cut it. Worse still is pretending to be a satisfied customer with ‘I found this really great site called stuff.com’. Nothing looks more like spam if someone new and unknown comes out with that, making this method very poor SEO which won’t do you any favours.

To be credible, you need to have a history at that forum. Start by choosing relevant ones where you have something on offer that other users might be interested in. Fill out the profile information and be honest about your affiliations. Add some extra info about you and what your main areas of interest are. Sometimes you can even link to your website and have it on your signature line, and there are two lovely little link building strategies right there. Lurk for a couple of days, watch the forums and take some notes. What are the hot topics? What are the questions beginners are asking?

And here is the main question to ask yourself. What value can I add to the discussion? If there are free tools on your website that can help forum users, or information that would be useful to them, that’s great. If not, think about writing some.

Start by commenting without mentioning your website. Making friends is the best SEO there is, so don’t be afraid to chat about other topics if the time is right. Earn a place in the forum before bringing your site into discussion. Remember that SMO is all about giving value, and if you have something good to offer, success will flow on from that.

The other great thing to do is ask for help on industry forums. You don’t have to come up with fake questions – get yourself skilled up instead. Ask technical questions, ask for people’s opinion on current trends and events. One of the great things about the internet (and what makes social media marketing work) is that people are happy to talk not just to their peers but also to experts, and the majority of those experts with a noticeable web presence will answer. It gets your name and your url out there (again, put it in the signature so it shows up when you comment).

It does take time, tact, and commitment, but that’s effective SEO for you. The potential benefits of social media are enormous, so get out there and get involved in the communities that are relevant to you.

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