Social Optimisation (SO)! A new trend is taking shape : advertising without advertising ! WIth a question, is advertising going to become free ? What you need to know is that you will no longer need to pay for media, but rather use social network resources because we are media!
A lot of writing has been done on the subject but which touches more upon the tools and technologies without giving details on the real means and methodologies of tapping qualitfied traffic using SO.
Certain observers even predict a fundamental change in the SEO industry (Search Engine Optimization).
SO could take over known referencing practices within 1 year and create new specialized businesses and a new profession (SO expert). Why? Because SO integrates the referencing and the SEM in a single tool.
That being said, SO doesn’t have anything in common with SEO. SEO is a closed universe of Google and other search engine’s algorithms, which explains the success of SEM (Search Engine Marketing) which allows a greater freedom of action.
SO is a disruptive model that doesn’t follow the rules of traditional communication and even less so with SEO. To get a good ROIM (Return On Intelligence Marketing) the perception of this type of communication must be changed, and usual routines and words avoided such as « Social Media, viral, Buzz ».
SO is a form of digital advertising, with a difference – it’s free….well nearly, because only the SO experts will need to be paid.
Today I am going to focus on Twitter, which, in my opinion, offers greater efficiency in this area than Facebook. This model, organised in 5 main principals, is applicable for all types of online commerce and services. For example : Twitter.com/mybrand, Twitter.com/products, services, promotions, etc…,Twitter.com/support
Principal 1: Competition
Follow all of your direct or indirect competitors. Two big advantages, you could follow their communications on Twitter and they will know that you follow them…If they have the «Social new generation» spirit, they will follow you too…if they don’t, they won’t be a competitor for long… Because of this, and if you are a serious competitor, you are also going to influence their communication.
Update : Pepsi et Coke :Coke was first to say a "gracious (but competitive) hello" to Pepsi and follow its rival. Later Pepsi responded with its own greeting, tweeting "Can rivals and tweeps coexist? We’re willing to find out" Both are now following each other. You know what they say about keeping your friends close and enemies closer. (source Adage).
Principal 2 : The influencers
Numerous sites give the ranking by category of Twitter influencers, often based on the number of followers. Choose those who communicate the most often in your area of activity.
Principal 3 : The Ecosytem
These are the actors that gravitate around your activity, banks, financing, partners, valuechain, recruitment, etc….Here also, it is advisable to follow the main actors in order to show them that you are active and that exchanges are possible very easily within your ecosystem.
Principal 4 : The vertical news
One of the advantages of Twitter is to relay real time information in your area of activity, coming from journalistic, economic or UGC sources.
Principal 5 : The Long Tail
Once the 4 preceeding principals are operational, you are going to naturally attract the long tail of prospects and clients, that is to say, a potential of several million users who will see your communications via the decoupling of intermediaries that you have put in place.
To finish, the most important action, once these steps are put in place, is to have the Twitter accounts managed by an internal or external SO expert. The role of the SO expert will consist of monitoring this new form of advertising communication in real time, reacting to the offer and the demand:
The heart of SO : The RT function “retweet” should be used generously, do not hesitate to RT your competitors when they are speaking about general subjects that interest your followers. On the other hand, have yourself retweeted with quality content produced by an SO expert. However, avoid direct messages which are associated with Spam.
The time has come, therefore, to broadcast your promotions but in an appropriate manner :
1- Two to three tweets out of 10 are reserved for promotion (product promo couponing)
2- Adapt a persuasive and non-intrusive language, the promotions must be in line with your non-promotional tweets.
3- Make the tiny urls arrive on pages that correspond exactly to the Tweet content, already true for SEM.
In conclusion, the success of SO campaigns is going to depend on parameters that must be well managed, but with a great advantage which is that there are no CPC or CPM costs and the performance can go beyond those of SEO and SEM strategies, all while adding an informative and captivating dimension. The tracking of links and other statistics is done with the same tools (for ex : Google Analytics and bit.ly), but also linked to internal ERP or CRM.
It’s a big revolution! read: Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business and Free: The Future of a Radical Price de Chris Anderson.
Perhaps the future of digital advertising and marketing is to be free ? where one no longer relies on limited paid media in order to find an audience, but rather through millions of free medias.
