14. May 2007
In the last few months community websites or blogs became increasingly popular. Everyone wanted to share his or her thoughts or experiences with the world by posting blogs, comments, pictures or even videos. The best known websites are such as YouTube, MySpace or Flickr.
Due to the high attention those pages get, companies got the idea to use them as a part of their online marketing mix. They post news articles linking back to their website or even submit short ad movies on YouTube.

To make it easier to integrate a website in these Social Media services, it needs to be optimised (Social Media Optimisation = SMO), which includes the offer of RSS-feeds or the integration of flickr-galleries or YouTube videos. The result of those marketing strategies is to achieve a higher brand visibility and to increase the traffic on your website. However the kind of users who will click on your website might not necessarily be 100 percent the right target group. SMO on its own is not enough to raise your business to the next level - but combined with other classic marketing activities, SEO and/or Pay Per Click campaigns you will soon be able to see the rewards of your work.

Read your Do's & Don'ts list to ensure that your SMO campaign will be successful:

Do's

• Participate in the community and build a good reputation
• Build friendships within the community
• Spread outlinks ; people might link back
• Choose the right time of the day to submit your article; it is said that mid-day during the week is the best time

Don'ts

• Don't publish biased information
• Don't cheat by buying votes; in the long term it won't work and you will loose credibility and your reputation
• Don't break any rules in the community
• Don't publish irrelevant content

Contact Tetridia on +44 (0)20 8144 6655 for more information on how to raise your marketing to the next level using Search Engine Marketing.