Embrace your potential stop hiding in SEOs shadow
January 15, 2008 — Tim NashThis is a plea to all those who would consider themselves Social Media Optimisers, Linkbaiters and Copywriters and perhaps maybe even those who consider themselves SEOs.
You are more then a sibling
Social Media Optimisation may have been born out of the need for links for search engine optimisation but that was a long time ago. Today SMOs are some of the most versatile and clever marketers in the industry brilliantly crafting pieces that regularly appear on the front page of all the major social media news sites. SMO has gone along way from SEO link baiting, it has its own set of metrics on which it determines results and its high time that SMOs took credit and stepped out of the shadow.
Search Engine Optimisation has only one metric of any note (forget PageRank and everything else) that is the position of a given site or page within a SERP. Social Media through linkbaiting has changed the way many SEOs conduct their day to day link building campaigns and many firms now have one or more people dedicated to the task of writing content to generate links.
These dedicated people not only attract links, but unique visitors, new subscribers, buyers and a whole range of other conversions they are more then a part of an SEO strategy they are part of a much larger Internet Marketing strategy.
In much the same way the first SEOs (true SEOs) were web developers who noticed that when they used html in a certain way page rankings increased, the first SMOs came from the SEO community. But you are now so much more.
SMO is not SEO2.0
Social Media is not the next version of SEO, an SMO does not optimise a page for a search engine this is a very simple and easy definition. A SMO can provide links to provide assistance in a search engine strategy but to claim that is all they do is to degrades them. I find it worrying that what is now a young vibrant industry hides behind SEO constantly attempting to compare the two it’s like trying to compare an Elephant and a Lion, both have unique and unusual traits and you would not like to be in a fight with either. To say the Lion is Elephant 2.0 is to detriment of both the Elephant and the Lion. 
Accept you are different, move on
Stop hiding, stop pretending, Social Media Optimisers rock! Many of you might have been SEOs many of you traditional marketers but you are now unique and totally interesting bunch of people. What I find staggering is that you still hide behind the term SEO a term that comes in for a lot of abuse and misunderstanding I would have expect such pioneering folk to have already tried to shed the perception.
Be different but work together
I do not favour SEO over SMO or vice versa though its a question I often get asked they are different creatures and different skill set even if it might be the same person doing the jobs they are still different jobs. When SMOs work with search engine optimisers they can be a powerful combination and when search engine optimisers, social media optimisers and Internet marketers combine a site is sure to succeed.
Don’t let a minority dictate your industry future, shed the old burdens adopt your own standards and for god sake stop calling yourselves SEOs
Subscribe to The Venture Skills Blog by Email
All our Posts are audio subscribed for more information see here, and to access the podcast feed here
This blog is moving soon, make sure you move with us by using our Feedburner RSS feed, if you have used the autodiscovery button in your browser you may need to swap feeds, simply delete the old feed and add, http://feeds.feedburner.com/VentureSkills For a more detailed explanation on feeds and recieving our content in various formats click here
Subscribe to our Feedburner RSS Today!
Subscribe to our Odiogo Audio Feed
January 15, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I think you made a great poin the key is to work together and find that happy medium where the client can reach as many customers as possible with both SEO and SMO.
January 15, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Huzzaaahhh Mate. I am really not much of a SMO guy, still treading the water of SEO most days, but I do agree. While some aspects of SEO can cross over into SMO, they are 2 different worlds and should be treated as such. SMO is certanly deserving of its own place in the tool kit.
As with most forms of marketing, the ability of the various disciplines to interact is massive. Non Co-operative marketing programs are a waste.
L8TR :0)
January 15, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Ah see we all getting on lets have a group hug!
oh wait perhaps not that co-operative huh
Cheers gentlemen I hope people take away the 2 messages one about the fact SMO needs its own identity but two that just because they are separate entity shouldn’t mean they should not be part of the much wide strategy indeed the opposite.
January 16, 2008 at 1:30 am
My take is that SMO has emerged from within SEO as the web has moved towards Social Networks. So it is not per se a component of SEO, but of SEM, or as Tim points out, part of the overall web marketing strategy.
Within SEM firms, you now have different specialists such as:
Link Builder
Usability Specialist
PPC Expert
etc
So SMO would be just another one of those sub specialties.
My 2.0 cents.
January 16, 2008 at 5:25 am
I love this post Tim. You wear your heart on your sleeve. Thanks for the great perspective.
January 16, 2008 at 11:17 am
@Anthony I choose not to use the term SEM simply as I wanted to really push the idea that social media optimisers do so much more then search engines. Internet strategy really covers well everything. the post however feels like it acronyms heaven!
@Marty not sure I would put it quite like that, their are plenty of things to get passionate about I’m not sure semantics of definition is one but I hope people can see the need to separate the two components even if I need to shout it.
January 17, 2008 at 9:46 am
[...] many people still assume that SEO 2.0 is just a mislead term for SMO/M (social media optimization/marketing) it’s plainly put not true. In SEO 2.0 you still in [...]
January 22, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Tim, excellent article! I totally agree with you in fact I’ve been saying for years that link building is not SEO it’s web promotion. “Get more links” as an answer to a ranking problem is THE mindset that will kill this industry! That’s like saying to someone who says they are hungry and the cupboard is bare to “get something to eat”!
SEO is the onpage stuff all the other tasks may influence ranking but we’re talking skillsets and seldom have I seen anyone do all of it well. Most who do all are mediocre at some tasks excellent at others and terrible at others. IMO, figure out how you do at a task and sub the rest you’ll be a little poorer but you’ll have less headaches!
SMO is a skillset I’m still trying to figure out where it fits. I definitely get YouTube and have had some real winners there raising both conversion and visibility way beyond my hope. The News and Social Networks. A complete waste of time and dough! Facebook, MySpace and Digg etal are where losers and layabouts go to waste time! They aren’t looking to buy so if it’s branding then it might help but IMO, it has to tie into offline and other media campaigns to be effective. Then to I’m likely the only Ca. not on Facebook, so maybe I just don’t get it!
January 25, 2008 at 8:30 pm
No… It’s not all about the SERPSs. It’s about how your search position converts to outcomes you want.
Some people aim for a #1 position for one big keyword that gets a lot of hits. Other sites are built from scratch to hit millions of keywords in the top ten, then convert like hell.
January 25, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Paul read your comment then tell me what you just described in one line… oh wait its all about positions within SERPs
Or to put it another way the metric for your given goal is defined as your position in the SERPs be it lots of keywords and making front page or a single keyword the way you define success is the position within the SERP you were aiming for.