Social Media Optimisation

As always it seems a new development in Internet marketing gets a bad rap! It is not just a negative attitude of the british either - it is across the world. It seems that a storm has grown over the term social media optimisation... MyBlogLog Brands All Social Media Optimizers As Schmoes.

I have two opinions on this, a) it is a bit late in coming and had been much discussed within hallowed halls for many years and b) what is all the fuss about, as it is inevitable that people do things in new areas - as true pioneers, incorrectly... it is a classic!

The fuss is basically about people who post comments, or who use robots to post comments on other peoples blogs with links back to thier sites in them. If it is valid and reasonable then fine, if not and you want a link from a given site, then sponsor the site, show your support, demonstrate that it is worth having and acknowledge that you will derive value from it and pay for it. It is not that difficult to create content on your site that is genuinely worth while linking to... it just takes some thought.

Although as Jaap Favier of Forrester Research said just a few days ago (see the link?) contact is king, not content - and he is right. We still need to learn to engage and the passive watching of a video does not do that. As a result of what Jaap said to me, and to you if you watch his video, you will be seeing a site design change over at Weboptimiser soon. But no need to throw video out with the wash water...

There is more to this debate than meets the eye and well done for bringing it up again, it is something we should consider, as the whole concept of social media optimisation needs consideration, it needs to be worked out, it needs to be understood and nurtured. If it should be employed commercially, it should be used honestly and ethically.