Page 305 - Social Media Marketing

effort. Again, consider a comparison to traditional media and the factors that drive 283
advertising effectiveness. At GSD&M, we did a lot of work to quantitatively under-
stand the relationship between what someone was watching and the types of advertis- ■ ╇ U se S ocial O bjects in B usiness
ing that would likely be of interest to that person. During adventure programming, for
example, we’d place advertising for the Air Force that built on one’s sense of accom-
plishment in overcoming challenges

The same relationships apply on the Social Web, and in particular in the com-
munities that you build around or those you create yourself. Because there is a central
theme (arising out of or facilitated by the social objects associated with the commu-
nity), you have a direct path to a stronger connection within that community. Dell’s
“Digital Nomads” program relies on this aspect of community design to create a strong
link to one segment of its customer base. By creating a place where tech-savvy individu-
als can talk about their own use of technology, Dell has a created a natural conversa-
tion around its own products. Note, however, that at no point does Dell interrupt or
highjack the conversation for its own purposes: Instead, the community platform facili-
tates an engaged conversation that includes and references Dell products.

Get Found

With the social object in place, the next objective is building your audience. This
means being “findable” through search. Author Brian Solis, known for his work at the
intersection of social media and Public Relations, has often stressed the importance
of using the Social Web and social media as a part of your overall search optimization
program. Because the photos, videos, blog posts, and similar content associated with
social media can be tagged, described, and linked they can all be optimized for search.
Don’t make the mistake of dismissing this as a little more than a tip, trick, or technique
to be implemented by search engine optimization (SEO) firms (although a good SEO
specialist can really help you here). Instead, step back and consider the larger idea that
Brian and others making this same point are conveying: People search for things, and
they discover relevant content in this way. If great content—and the community that
has been built around it—can’t be found, then that content effectively does not exist: In
that case, the community won’t be found.

This much larger view of SEO makes clear that SEO applies to everything you
do on the Social Web. Too often SEO is applied in a more narrowly focused application
of page optimization or site optimization against a specific set of commerce-related
keywords. This works, and it’s better than nothing, but the real gain comes when each
piece of social content is optimized in a way that promotes self-discovery and, there-
fore, discovery of the entire social community. As portals and branded starting pages
give way to a search box or a running discussion, how people find things on the Web
is changing dramatically. In the portal context, or the big, branded community, the
assumption is that a preexisting awareness—perhaps driven by advertising—brings