Facilitating Social Media Optimization (SMO): single button Bookmark or Subscribe to Feed

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the new watchword when it comes to getting links from sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, Technorati and Flickr. There is much talk about SEO blogs and forums on this concept. What it means, in essence, is that online publishers that visitors to bookmark their content, subscribe to their blog, news, products and podcast feed.

A current Google search for "Social Media Optimization (at time of writing) has post TopRankBlog Lee Odden on SMO to present a number for that search.

http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/08/new-rules-for-social-media-optimization/ ~ ~ V

Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy Public Relations said in Rule # 2 of his "Five Rules of Social Media Optimization" blog post in August, 2006

http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2006/08/5_rules_of_soci.html

"Make tagging and bookmarking easy - Adding content features like quick buttons to" Add to del.icio.us "are one way to make the process of tagging pages easier ..."

Until recently, doing "the process of tagging pages easier," was quite complicated and tedious for publishers. Collection code "chiclets" (logos) of each of the first service to facilitate links with social bookmarking and feed, and the publication of a mixture of these close links to web content to encourage visitors to subscribe to feeds or bookmark that the contents through any one of dozens of popular services.

But a new service was launched http://www.AddThis.com, which seems to resolve the complexity for publishers and reduces clutter "chiclet" by providing a button for bookmarks and a single button for RSS feeds, for allow bookmarks and feeds through one of the most popular services.

What follows is a Q & A with co-founder of Sun AddThis.com Vonarburg

D) Most interviews end wondering if there's anything else you want to add, what specifically would you like people to know AddThis up front?

A) AddThis.com is a new service that helps web surfers collect information online with a single click, and send it to your favorite bookmarking service, feed reader, wish list service, podcast service, etc. AddThis also helps to promote their publishers web content (web pages, feeds, products, podcasts, etc.) online, making it easier for visitors to gather, store and distribute it to social services. AddThis was launched in September at the DEMO conference, the launchpad for emerging technology.

Q) Do you see AddThis as a potentially important player in the Social Media Optimization (SMO) phenomenon since making it easier for web publishers to get their favorite sites, blogs and podcasts and their subscribed feeds?

A) We started working on AddThis back in March 2006, even before the term was coined SMO. The idea behind AddThis was and still is, to completely eliminate all obstacles web publishers have to distribute their content to visitors and social media services could use. Our internal term that was initially social SEO but I like to Social Media Optimization better.

We think AddThis will be a very important player in the space SMO, as it is the first service to provide a generic gateway for the collection and distribution of different types of content. AddThis acts as a bridge between the web publisher, you are web services and social media.

D) Have you added a new angle to the game of bookmarks using the "Products". If off, it seems that would be great for e-commerce sites, in particular with the communication attached. I have not seen this elsewhere. What made you bring the product into a corner of Button AddThis product?

A) "Products" was the next logical step for us after bookmarks, feeds, and podcasts. People want to collect and compare products and services that are on-line e-commerce sites want to facilitate this process. With the addition of "Product" buttons to their pages, e-commerce sites are more likely to be included in the final purchasing decisions of their visitors. The button also helps to distribute these products to other people through social bookmarking and social shopping websites (Kaboodle.com, Wists.com, ThisNext.com, etc..)

Q) You are offering AddThis as a free service. Is there a plan to switch to a higher floor level to monetize this? I noticed your participation in the DEMO conference in which companies seeking venture capital and start-up funding. Were you looking for funding and were successful?

A) Yes, the service is free and will continue to be free. Starting early next year, we will also provide a premium version of the service. I will not say too much at this point, but the premium service will offer many attractive features for web publishers, one of which will be more advanced statistics. Our primary goal with DEMO was to increase the launch of AddThis. We also received the attention of several investors.

Q) Please provide statistics was a step that probably increase the cost and complexity of AddThis. What made you take into account reporting to publishers as an important part of a free service?

A) The statistics was a fairly simple feature to add, and we think that adds a lot of value for web publishers, especially for products. For example, with statistics, online publishers can find out which products are the most interested visitors, which receive less attention, etc.

D) Is there any connection with ClickAbility.com? ("Email This" "Save" and "Print")

A) Clickability is different in that it provides its own system for saving information. AddThis does not impose any destination for the contents collected.

Q) has been the domain AddThis.com already your own, or from an existing owner bought? It shows in domain records were registered in 1998, but the Wayback Machine of Archive.org shows only a single page with nothing on it since 2002. So the story on the newly available domain. AddThis has been in the works since 1998?

A) The domain was not ours, we bought from its previous owner in March 2006.

Q) Most bloggers that provide RSS feeds for their users did their best to each of about a dozen of those "Chiclets" allowing subscriptions through the most popular services posted in the margins of their blogs. Many bloggers are now relying on the FeedBurner service and moving to a single feed logo. How does the service compare to FeedBurner feed AddThis.com? You see FeedBurner as a competitor?

A) FeedBurner is the primary business is the hosting and management of feed. Feeds are only one type of content supported by AddThis, we support and will support many other types. We think our general approach to the collection and distribution of content is really unique. So we do not see FeedBurner as a direct competitor.

Publishers Q) Most 'great and now thousands of owners of small websites and bloggers are starting to add Del.icio.us and Furl and Reddit logos and links on their pages in hopes that site visitors bookmark their pages on social services bookmarks. Some have chosen to add a little 'of links to some of the other bookmarking services, but go just beyond the top 5 social bookmarks site links. I see that AddThis Bookmark service offers 16 social bookmarks services. How did you decide what you refer? Some level of popularity?

A) We have chosen the most popular bookmarking services based on popularity and visibility in search engines. We only stopped at 16 because of time constraints, but many others will join them in the future. Leaving AddThis maintain the list of bookmarks and power buttons, the web publisher can better focus on their content.

D) Do you have plans for a tie-in with Digg? Popularity as a news site, have a different objective from that of the RSS feeds and social bookmarks, but the editors of the site including many "Digg This" link from their web pages as part of a "social media marketing" plan. Your focus with AddThis stick to bloggers, product retailers, bookmarks, and podcasts, or you consider the expansion in the news and other areas?

A) Social news is also a logical candidate for AddThis. We have also added other types of content based on user adoption.

D) Is there anything else you want to add (a) this? ;-)

A) We think AddThis will play an important role because it makes a lot of sense for both web users and web publishers. You can think of as the sister AddThis.com social AddMe.com, or its extension Web2.0. Each service lets you get a different kind of visibility.

As editor, I was upgrading to a new model WebSite101 and had also considered Furl, Reddit, Del.icio.us and Digg, but it came through the story of AddThis Demo launch and dropped from the mix and to Furl Reddit AddThis favor of the link "Bookmark", since AddThis supports all bookmarking services with just one button.

I'm keeping the Del.icio.us and Digg links for now, but I think once publishers begin to realize that they can simplify bookmarks and if users understand that you can use any service using AddThis social bookmark, you'll see strong adoption of the service.

Good luck with the adoption AddThis range of both public and publishers Dom, I wish you good luck with your contribution to Social Media Optimization!

Mike, I want to thank you for this opportunity to answer these questions and describe our vision for AddThis.com; your questions were right on target!

Interview with Dom Vonarburg of AddThis.com,
October 10, 2006 by Mike Banks Valentine...