Kari Rippetoe is a social media expert and in this interview she explains what social media optimization is, and how to properly optimize your social media accounts for business.
Bryan: To get started, maybe you can clarify: What is social media optimization?
Kari: Social media optimization (SMO) is basically optimizing your website and content to be as socially-shareable as possible. How easy is it for people to share your content via social media, and how present are you on social media so people can connect with you.
Bryan: How does social media optimization (SMO) differ from search engine optimization (SEO)?
Kari: SEO is a method by which you optimize your website content so it can be easily found in search engines. But, SMO factors greatly into your search engine visibility. As I mentioned before, SMO is about making it easy for people to share your content. Valuable and shareable content continues to be king - and how much your content is shared is becoming an important factor when it comes to search engine rankings. Run any search on Google and you see a +1 button on every result – a +1 for a certain result is a recommendation, increasing that site’s exposure. Any links you share within Google+ are also picked up in Google search results. So, while SMO is different from SEO, it’s also an important SEO strategy.
Bryan: What components are involved to properly optimize a site for social media?
Kari: I think the foundation of SMO is to create content that people will value and share. But what will people value? Listen to and monitor social media channels to find out what people are sharing and what they want to learn. Then, give them what they want. Use this data as a basis for creating content that will help them.
Secondly, it’s important to make sharing easy. Do your blog posts have social sharing buttons in an easy-to-spot place? Do you provide ways for videos, slide presentations and other documents to be embedded?
It's also important to proactively share content. It’s not all about you, all the time. Curate the best, most relevant content your audience will value and share it with them – even if it’s not yours!
Bryan: What role does SMO play in online reputation management?
Kari: It plays a huge role! Actively staying on top of your social media presence by updating it with relevant content (your own and from others), making your content easily shareable, and engaging with other people will help you build and maintain a positive online reputation.
Social media also allows you to monitor conversations about your brand and products, as well as address negative feedback in a positive way. I wrote a post about this topic – it’s a few years old, but still rings true.
Bryan: How do you measure the ROI of social media? Is there an effective way to track sales?
Kari: That’s a HUGE question that so many marketers have struggled with. We used to try and bypass the challenge by building engagement up as a metric and attempting to measure “Return on Engagement”; but this is no longer something we can rely on when it comes to achieving real business goals.
We can measure ROI, and the same basic principles we use for measuring it on other marketing channels can be applied; but we have to realize that social media is NOT direct response. We can track our social media activities through to specific, pre-determined conversion goals, though. If you use Google Analytics and are tracking conversions from other types of campaigns, you can do the same thing for social media activities. Set up Goals in Google Analytics for sales or lead generation activities visitors can perform on your website (buying something, filling out a contact form, downloading a white paper). Set up campaign tracking URLs for the content you promote through social media. Then you can look at how well traffic referred from social media sites is converting. This is just one way of measuring social media ROI. I’ve provided some other tips through a blog post.
Bryan: What do you offer to a small business owner? Why should a business hire your company instead of "going it alone"?
Kari: We realize that not every business or organization has the knowledge or resources to launch a full-fledged social media effort. At Tuvel Communications, all we do is social media. We can provide everything from planning, research and guidance/training to full campaign execution and management.
Bryan: How can you help an online business make more money?
Kari: While it’s important to have business goals for your social media marketing efforts and measure how well it’s converting into sales, you must also realize that social media is about being social – building relationships and humanizing your brand. We can help your online business utilize social media to not only find new customers, but to also build those all-important relationships with current ones.
Bryan: It seems like every day there is a new network being launched. And they are becoming much more specific. How can a business owner know where to direct their efforts?
Kari: Social networking fatigue can be a big pitfall, and it can be difficult for marketers and business owners to figure out where they should be. Basically, they should direct their efforts where it makes the most sense. Don’t feel like you should be everywhere in social media just because it’s new and available. Do some research to find where your prospects and customers are hanging out – this may even include surveying them to find out what social networks they use.
Bryan: What is the most overlooked social media tool?
Kari: Google+ is a platform you’re going to see an awful lot of in 2012. In terms of adoption, it hasn’t gained critical mass yet; but with the recent launch of Google+ Pages for businesses, it will become increasingly important for businesses to sit up and pay attention to what it has to offer.
Bryan: What tools do you use, to monitor and keep up with your social networks?
Kari: I’m big on Hootsuite. I think it’s the best social network management platform out there. I’m always on the lookout, though, for tools that can help me get a particular job done. I discovered Sprout Social this year, which is a good monitoring and reporting tool that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Bryan: What blogs are you reading?
Kari: Good question! I read individual posts from a variety of blogs I come across via Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. I subscribe to SmartBrief’s SmartBlog on Social Media, which is a great resource for the latest information in the social media space. I also read Mashable, Social Media Today and SocialTimes.
Bryan: How can you be contacted?
Kari: I can be found here...
- Website: www.tuvel.com
- Blog: www.tuvel.com/blog
- Twitter: @KariRippetoe and @TuvelComms
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/TuvelCommunications
- Google+: Kari Rippetoe and Tuvel Communictations
