I’ve been playing a lot more with social media lately and although I have read it many times before, it never really hit-home until I had personally experienced it. SEO, Social Media (and unfortunately most things in this world) is very-much a popularity contest.

Celebrity Endorsement

Most major companies will pay good money to have celebrities endorse their products, and as consumers, we’re constantly sucked-in to believing a product is good simply because a sporting star or actor said it was.

Social Media Endorsement

Social Media is the same (well with one minor exception which I’ll go on to explain a little later). If you can reach some of the Social Media Celebrities, the ones who submit the most articles, vote and comment on the most posts and are highly regarded in their social media niche, then you’re chances of making it to the top are significantly increased.

Why? Simply because all the other users of that network trust what that person says, and if they said you were worth reading/subscribing to… then you’re IN.

I’ve personally tested this theory by submitting a great article I found, only to discover that not long after my submission, another user had submitted a very similar post which discussed and referenced the article I had found. My article never received any more than a few votes, but the other article (which was written by a slightly better known blogger and submitted by another well known social media celebrity) hit the front page within a few hours.

Appealing to Social Media Celebrities

The one thing that separates conventional product endorsement and social media endorsement is that in the off-line world – companies have to pay the celebrities money before they’ll endorse a product. In the online world of social media, the only thing you have to pay the top social media celebrities is a little attention and have something that’s worth promoting.

It’s important to understand that no one likes being spammed – so I’m not saying that you should simply start voting for every article that person submits and then email them a list of your own articles for them to promote… it doesn’t work like that.

How to connect with Social Media Celebrities

Caveat: The following techniques have worked for me, but I cannot guarantee that they will work for everyone.

The first, and most important step is to find a community that:

1. You are interested (or even better, passionate) about
2. Will help you reach your goals (be it: more exposure, more authority, more subscribers, more links etc. etc.)

Social media can take-up a lot of time (if you let it), so you need to be sure that you enjoy what you’re doing and know why you’re using it in the first place.

Once you’ve chosen a social network that you’re interested in, start participating. Read what articles others are contributing, read the comments people are adding, see what people are voting for, see what seems to get the community talking etc. etc.

Start contributing by voting and adding comments of your own. If you think someone has said something interesting, then give them positive feedback about it. Credit the author or submitter of articles you’ve particularly enjoyed.

After you’ve spent some time getting used the the community, start asking for some help – send messages to some of the top users introducing yourself and asking for advice on the best way to submit articles, how to interact with other users in the group, what types of things are acceptable and what does the group tend to dislike… and anything else you would like to know.

The great thing about a social media community is that the users do tend to be quite social and are generally willing to give help and assistance to newer users.

Now that you know what the community likes/dislikes, start to look around for some appropriate content to submit (and try and submit other people’s content before your own).

If you’ve been commenting and communicating with some of the community members, there’s a very good chance that they will give you a few votes. Don’t expect your first few submissions to hit the front page – it will take time.

Depending on the social media site you’ve chosen, will depend on how much time, how many friends and how much effort it will take to reach the top.

After you’ve achieved some success and exposure, you can start testing the waters by asking other users to vote for your articles. Do this with discretion, do it politely and never make the person you are asking feel like they HAVE to vote on your post.

Some social media sites will bury a story if you submit something you’ve written yourself – other communities won’t mind so much if the article is of decent quality.

I personally wouldn’t suggest promoting your own work until you have a strong foothold in the community, if even at all. Often the reputation you’ve built for yourself will be enough to encourage other users to submit your work for you.

Which sites do I recommend?

If you’re reading this, then you’re most likely interested in search marketing, social media and other such online technologies… so chances are, we probably both frequent similar sites.

If you are interested in connecting, you can find me at Sphinn, StumbleUpon, SEOMoz, Twitter, Facebook and Digg… I don’t really do much Digging to be honest, but the other sites I’m on daily.

So drop me a line and say ‘Hi’ and if you have any other social media advice / suggestions or even just to share your feelings or experiences you’ve had with social media… add a comment or two below.

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