Content plus Social Networking for SEO

There used to be a time when the only reliable way to find information online was to use a search engine. After the advent of the latest thing on the internet, i.e. Web 2.0, which can also be explained as “dynamic and interactive websites”; people can use recommendations of other people to find information.
Social Bookmarking is a very good example of this genre. Websites like Digg, Furl and Del.icio.us are used by people to share their favorites and users tag these websites with keywords that they feel are appropriate.
People prefer this way to search for information as it has a human touch to it. The most voted website definitely comes on top.
Other social bookmarking sites are Technocrati for blogs and MySpace. YouTube and BlogTalkRadio are other powerful social media networks which are revolutionizing audio and video. However these are untapped as of now. They are going to change the face of the internet and marketing.
The truth is that Social Networking is going to eclipse the major search engines like Google and Yahoo!. If you do not have a position on any of the popular social networks, your website or company will suffer.

If you are familiar with working with media, you should find social networking easy. The principle by which media operates is to give a good enough story, or a resource or tip and soon an army of satisfied people spread the word about your business. This translates into referrals and sales. This is the human touch. It works much better than search engines because referrals from social media convert into sales at a much higher percentage.
You can use articles and blogs. The content should be very interesting and should capture the imagination and interest of your target market. Then promote these articles using social bookmarking and blogging networks. One way to do this is by using popular bloggers who will write about your product and company and this will generate traffic. If your target market is young, networks like FaceBook, MySpace can be used for your promotional campaign.

SEO for social networking is simple. Internet users use tags to find information. The tag is your keyword. You need to use tags that are relevant to your business to dominate your niche.
You need to creatively use both social networking and search engines much like land based business use cold calling as well as media. Search engines are the traditional old way of doing internet marketing and social networking is the new trend. A mix of both will be excellent for your marketing strategy. Using social networks like Digg and MySpace will definitely help increase your search engine ranking. Google will take note of your popularity and will put you on the front ranks as an authority in your niche.