Yet, while the rest of the web publishing community flounders, magazines are ahead of the curve – tying into print issues with relevant content has been the driving force behind the majority of the industry’s online strategies.
In terms of magazine media, likes,
comments, and posts to a page wall are the most valuables actions a Facebook user can take. The best way to garner such interaction? High-value content.
Consider: The Atlantic, a magazine
which was, until recently, facing closure, now boasts 13.4 million monthly visitors. How? One of the key reasons was by bumping up its online presence with unique content created by columnists with strong followings, such as James Fallows.
Scott Havens, senior vice president at
The Atlantic Media Company told Mashable last year. “Truly, [our writers] are not really thinking about SEO anymore. Now it’s about how we can spin a story so that it goes viral.” Bob Cohn, the editor of The Atlantic Digital, added, “Before it seemed Demand Media was going to own the internet by assigning stories based on search returns. It was a cynical approach to journalism… We’re no longer writing to get the attention of Google algorithms. We’re writing to get you to share it, to Digg it.” In other words, The Atlantic beat Google to the punch.
the reserves to create new sites to increase online ad revenue or debut a hit TV show, there are measures every brand can take to up their SMO game. Regular blogging (at least weekly), regular social media updates (particularly on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest), easy-to-find social sharing buttons (such as those on Mashable and The Huffington Post) are excellent foundation builders. Most importantly, though, is the online marketers’ mantra: content is king.
“I think the foundation of SMO is to
create content that people will value and share,” said Kari Rippetoe, social media and community outreach manager for Tuvel Communications. “But what will people value? Listen to and monitor social media channels to find out what people are sharing and what they want to learn. Then give them what they want…[and] it’s important to make sharing easy. Do your blog posts have social sharing buttons in an easy-to-spot place? Do you provide ways for videos, slide presentations and other documents to be embedded?”
Another key point in creating a strong SMO strategy is distributing content across a variety of channels. Despite the groans of many online marketers, Panda, Penguin and the rise of social media optimisation do not represent the end of the internet; rather, they represent the beginning of a new age of valuable, curated content, a field where magazines traditionally shine.