Can SMO Really Help Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Today, many companies are purchasing social media optimisation (SMO) packages, without giving a second thought about whether it would really be a beneficial digital marketing option for their business or not. Likewise, companies are blindly paying for pay-per-click advertising on Google Adwords, when there are numerous other digital marketing options available in the market, such as display advertising, Kontera links, location-based search, and social deal websites.

It is important for companies to realise that the digital marketing basket is like a sophisticated toolkit, with a range of advertising and product promotion tools. While the benefits of social networking websites and Google Adwords cannot be denied, it is also important to keep abreast of other digital marketing options, to get your digital marketing campaign to perform even better.

There are two sides to every story, so it would be wrong to paint a completely bleak picture about social media websites. We all know that they are useful, especially from the angle of customer engagement, product promotion and online reputation management. Lots of study needs to be done, before anyone makes any opinion or recommendation. Here are some developments that offer a reality check about SMO:

. Facebook can help target affluent audiences better than other digital marketing options. Though there is no way to strictly target job titles or income, high-income people can often be targeted through their age, profession (owners, lawyers, surgeons), interests and place of residence.

. A 2010 Report by Harris Interactive-RightNow learnt that social media profiles can create strong brand advocates. In fact, about 66 percent of customers who posted a negative review about a brand, and were contacted by the brand, ended up posting something positive later, which directly negated their damaging original message.

. A new study by Forrester Research says that most B2B advertisers do not believe in the effectiveness of online display advertising, but rather prefer LinkedIn Ads, which bring them greater success. This study also mentions that B2B advertisers cannot simply transfer their print media practices to the online world, and expect them to work.

. While product manufacturers struggle to leverage their newly created Facebook business pages and Twitter profiles, they forget that a single video demonstration of their product on a top video-sharing website like YouTube is a must-have.

. While many small businesses have discovered the benefits of social deal sites like Groupon, many others have wasted money, and lost loyal customers through the same avenue.

As you can see, social media is definitely useful for overall digital marketing strategies. However, it is important for digital marketing advertisers not to be consumed by the hype surrounding this tool, and only use it if it is appropriate for their particular business, industry, and company goals.

Qudos Digital is a leading digital marketing agency and can be contacted on 020 8891 2077 or info@qudosdigital.co.uk.

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