HubShout | Online Marketing Solutions

Managing Social Media: The Reseller Advantage

Controlling almost 67% of on-line searches, Google dominates internet ranking. As a consequence, SEO is almost entirely organized to improve a client’s ranking in Google. However, Social Media is emerging as such a significant aspect of corporate internet presence that Social Media Optimimization will soon rival SEO in Internet Marketing Management. This doesn’t mean that Google is losing importance rather it indicates that this new aspect of marketing will double the attention, focus and energy that you provide to your clients then SEO alone.

The Importance of SMO

New data has emerged that show the increasing stature of social media for corporations:

· 58% of Fortune 500 companies have an active corporate Facebook account. 62% have an active corporate Twitter account.
· FaceBook is the most popular social networking platform being used by 92% of businesses. Next is Twitter (84%), LinkedIn (71%) and blogs (68%).
· 23% of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog.
· 43% of marketers report an improvement in sales due to social media campaigns.
· 47% of customers are “somewhat likely” to buy from a brand that they follow and like.

These facts are persuasive. It’s evident that social media is working for companies.

Resellers Emerge

When SEO began as a business it was dominated by independents such as in-house agency people, web masters, art directors and designers. They found themselves doing the work mainly because their customers demanded improved rankings, not out of any special skills or aptitude. Later, Google began implementing evermore complex algorithms and strategies for improving customer searches. Many of these conflicted with the early SEO techniques and made the whole process very difficult. Those folks who mastered Google’s obstacles and tactics quickly realized that reselling SEO was a business opportunity. Many SEO providers just didn’t have the time or skills necessary to master the details of successful SEO. They needed to find someone with the tools and expertise they lacked. Reseller programs flourished. The best ones have proven themselves by achieving top ranking in SEO searches.

Double the Effort

Successful SEO is intricate, time-consuming work. SMO will require an equivalent investment in energy, attention and commitment.

At minimum, every company will require a public presence on the top 5 social networking sites: Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tagged, Bing, Hi5, etc., whatever is appropriate for their niche. Following creation, each platform must be opened and optimized providing these minimum services:

Professional Profile Creation: Design, lay-out, easy access/navigation, etc. Bookmarking each Profile to ensure SE indexing Profiles must be keyword optimized to act as proactive reputation management by indexing in the search engines whenever the client company is queried. Maintaining content and updating-- similar to Google SEO. Image Optimization of each Profile Customer Review Input Tools Video implementation for each Profile where appropriate Blogging Forums

As SMO evolves to be a component of Internet Marketing equal in importance to Google ranking it is apparent that resellers will have a big advantage. Those companies that supply SEO/SMO to resellers have the staff, the training, the programming and the reporting tools that maximize performance and customer satisfaction.