Insight: Optimising your business
Is social media optimisation replacing search engine optimisation?, asks Creative Lead, Robert Fransgaard.
“Enjoy your New York hotel stay by taking in the sights and sounds of the wonderful city of New York. The Bluebird, a top-class New York hotel that gives you easy access to several New York attractions, is the perfect way to enjoy yourself in ‘The Big Apple’ of New York.”
You’re right: it doesn’t sound good and nobody’s going to ever mistake the hotel for being in Pittsburgh. But the above is one example of ‘search engine optimisation’ – in this case, repeating certain keywords so when you type in ‘New York’ ‘New York hotel’ or ‘New York attractions’ in a search engine your business has more of a chance of finishing higher up in the results.
For years, all kinds of businesses have used search engine optimisation through using the right keywords, links, meta tags and more, to gun for the crucial top spot in the search engine results.
Now, the concept is evolving. It’s time to welcome in the era of social media optimisation.
Recent years have seen a massive explosion in social media channels. The freedom of opinion on these sites has allowed for a culture of sharing and recommendation to blossom. Indeed, recent statistics tell us that Facebook has overtaken Google in providing traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN.
Surprised? Perhaps you shouldn’t be. Last year Nielsen reported that social networks are more popular than emails. You don’t need to be Alan Sugar to see there’s huge potential in what some people still label ‘a passing trend’.
So what can social media optimisation offer you? Well, the key difference between search engine optimisation and social media optimisation is that the former looks at your content and what it says, while the latter also looks at what the users do with your content.
It’s no trend – there’s real value to be found here. The question is: are you going to discover that for yourself? Or is your competitor?
