Social Media Optimization – A Trend, Not A Fad!

Posted by Vaibhav

August 12, 2008

Today, the ‘buzz’ of social media optimization (SMO) can be seen and felt everywhere across the Web. However, this was not the case a couple of years back. Earlier, it was search engine marketing and SEO who had taken the driver’s seat and even today maintain their popularity. But, isn’t it true that the SMO craze is slowly overtaking them at present? It definitely is!

There is a clear demarcation between the two terms ‘fad’ and ‘trend’. While fad is something that is immensely popular for a short period of time within a specific group of people, trend is something that becomes popular over a long period of time within mainstream society.

Now the question arises – Will SMO survive and sustain in the long run, or is it just a fad? This is a valid question considering the fact that newer techniques and processes emerge along with technological innovations as the time goes by.

However, in the case of social networking, statistics have constantly revealed an upward movement with growing number of social media subscribers each day. Secondly, the role of social media sites is to bridge the communication gap between people, foster knowledge-sharing and connect friends with each other, which is a boon to any industry or activity at any period of time.

In addition, social networking sites like Digg, MySpace, Facebook, etc. have extended their presence beyond US and UK, and are well-accepted in several other parts of the world. Also, millions of blogs are created every day all across the globe, with more and more people wanting to be a part of the online social community.

Along with wide-reach, the minimum, or sometimes no cost of promotion through social media optimization is attracting not only online-based but also offline businesses to a large number, with several creating their own communities over the Web. For example, Pulsar, CBZ and Apache have established their communities on Orkut, with Pulsar community commanding over 10,000 members already.

So, why would anyone say that social media optimization is a fad? Rather, there is no doubt that it is a powerful trend that is here to stay for a very long time (if not forever), and will continue to influence many in the future as well.

Social Media Optimization