You’ve invested a boatload of cash in your website!

Does this sound a little too familiar: You’ve invested a boatload of cash in your website – and it’s looking good! Now you sit back and wait to see the fruits of your investment. And you wait. And wait.

And wait some more. (Cue sound of crickets chirping.)  

You’re unhappy, to say the least, with the results. Google Analytics shows lack-luster traffic growth. Inquiries from your response forms are all but nonexistent. All the emails and phone calls you imagined getting remain just a fantasy. And direct sales? (Cue toilet flushing.) 

You and your colleagues are now asking one another this: Where do we go from here?

LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT A POWERFUL TRAFFIC BUILDING TOOL: SMO

Social Media Optimization (SMO), as Wikipedia puts it, “refers to optimizing a website and its content in terms of sharing across social media and networking sites.” Ah, that sounds simple enough, right? But here’s the reality: If you haphazardly head down the SMO highway with no real plan, you may burn up a lot of gas – and get nowhere.


First, let’s start with the bad news: You probably don’t have the time, staff, or money to do it all, if by all we mean pouring effort into Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+, as well as Pinterest,  Yelp, Google Places, Foursquare, and Yahoo. (Alas, that list is by no means exhaustive.)

But actually, the bad news ain’t so bad. Here’s the good news: You don’t need to do it all. Remember, you have a unique target audience. Let me put that another way: your target audience is not “the world”. With thoughtful consideration of who you’re trying to reach and a set of well-defined goals, you can establish which SMO strategies are best for you. Then with some basic calculations, a focused effort on a few carefully selected strategies, and the use of sound analytics and sales tracking, SMO can become a manageable, efficient route with tangible indicators that you’re actually getting somewhere.

With thoughtful consideration of who you’re trying to reach and a set of well-defined goals, you can establish which SMO strategies are best for you. Then with some basic calculations, a focused effort on a few carefully selected strategies, and the use of sound analytics and sales tracking,