Did you notice that your traffic has dropped significantly after the Google’s Penguin 4.0 update? It is because Google does not like your content anymore, but people do like your content and how do you know? They used to comment and share your content. But how can you get those people back? Social Media Optimization is the real deal here. It's become way too hard to rank in Google nowadays because they’re constantly updating their algorithm and you cannot rank there for a long time because others too are trying to get the same spot on which you are. You need to be popular in order to rank and sustain there until someone else becomes more popular than you.Popularity cannot be achieved through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it can only be achieved through Social Media Optimization (SMO). So, forget SEO and say hi to SMO. Let’s start forgetting SEO. I’ve laid down some points through which you can completely forget SEO and start applying Social Media Optimization (SMO) or the SEO alternativesfor your blog/website. • Start building and connecting with people on various social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc. The best way to start is with your friends and family, ask them to share your statuses, photos etc.And make sure that all the content that you ask them to share is related to your blog/website. • When you put the keyword in the title and the first paragraph of your content just for SEO, it seems like you’re writing for robots and not for the humans (unless you craft it well). Make sure that the title is catchy even if does not contain the keyword. If you are popular on social networks, you will surely rank in the search engines. • Getting ranked in search engines is like a popularity contest, the more popular you are, the more easily you will be able to rank in search engines. • You don’t have to get links from blogs/websites, start focusing on getting links from the social media accounts of the influencers in your niche. • If you are investing in paid advertising, consider investing it on social networks. The ROI on social networks is far better than the search engines. • If you haven’t started a blog, start using social networks and connect with the people before launching it, so when you launch your blog, you already have the people you want. Why do I want you to forget SEO? Its fairly simple, people spend a lot of time, effort and money to get ranked in search engines and then find out that they have to have the popularity on social networks in order to rank and then they eventually do the same thing that I’m going to mention here in a minute. So, instead of wasting time and money, start doing what you should be doing in the first place. BYE BYE SEO, HELLO FACEBOOK, TWITTER & YOUTUBE. Now that you’ve figured out how to stop being a slave of the search engines, lets get started with the Social Media Optimization, but let me tell you a short story about a guy who lives a DOT COM lifestyle and what happened when Google banned his primary website stating that he was getting an unusual traffic. His name is John Chow. He learned the hard way, but he did his homework and now said a big good bye to Google when his site was completely banned resulting him in a huge loss. Now you might notice on his blog that he no longer optimizes his blog for search engines like many other people but instead uses his time to optimize his blog socially.All this to say? It doesn’t matter when and how you learn that SEO is not a substantial way to get your blog/website famous, you will eventually have to seek knowledge about the Social Media Networks and how to optimize your blog for them. So make sure you do your homework by reading this article and applying the techniques that I’m going to mention below so that when you get kicked by Google (I don’t want that to happen but if incase it happens) you have everything in place to fall back on. I’m assuming that you already have an account on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. So, the very first thing to do is: • TO OPTIMIZE YOUR PROFILE: Make sure that your profile is perfectly optimized, showing what you do and your work. Try to link to other influencers in your niche or if you don’t want to link then try to link to your work that you’ve already done. • DESCRIBE AND SHOW: Be as descriptive as possible. Tell them what you do for a living, why you do it and how you do it. Many people will be fascinated by it and will send you a friend request/follow you/subscribe your channel if they have a similar interest. Make it personal, people should feel that they are personally connected to you. • OPTIMIZE IT FOR THEM: When you write content, make sure that you are writing for a human and not robots. Keep that in mind and you will naturally write a good article. Make sure that it is easy for the reader to share your masterpiece. • EVERYONE LIKES THE WORD (FREE): If you want more subscribers to your channel or more Facebook friends or more Twitter followers, make sure that you give them something for connecting with you. Let it be an eBook on a topic related to your niche, or an open source software or something like that. Make sure that it is valuable, or people will just go away. • FOLLOW THE 7 SECOND RULE: You read it right, you only have 7 seconds to grab the attention of a person on any social network. So make sure that you utilize that precious seconds well. Optimize your headlines, show what the benefits are, use images etc. To grab that valuable attention of the reader. The most important thing about Social Media Optimization is that, you get the chance to deal with real people/customers and you don’t have any middle men. It's just you and your customers, so make sure that you provide the best experience to them and they will in return pull out their wallets for you. Now that you’ve completed your homework partially, make sure that you apply all of the techniques above in order to be independent of the search engines. Think of it as a quest to bring in the democracy, and like most of the Hollywood movies, you’re the only person who can do that. So don’t back off, you have to face it and do it. http://www.flexsin.com/ If you’ve already optimized your blog/website, make sure that you help others with the tips or techniques that you’ve applied so that others too can join with you in the quest and what you get in return? You become their leader. So comment below your best tips and become a leader. Read more Social Media Optimization