One way to effectively orchestrate you campaign is to identify the key groups, one of which you’ll one to influence and one which you’ll get little or no leverage from.

Influencers: will punch way above their weight. As opinion leaders the inclusion of your URL on their blog or web post could potentially send tens of thousands scurrying to your site.

On the other hand, you’ll want to avoid excessively using the Herd crowd. They’ll tend to parrot what the influencers say, and have little leverage themselves.

Again, the quality measure is much more important than just the quantity of people you’re able to reach out to.

Is social traffic/social media optimization just a gimmicky trick as Jason Calacanis declares “Anyone who hires an SMO firm is an idiot” in a recent post?

Granted there are SEO/SEM/SMO firms out there who do the equivalent of link or trackback spamming, but at the same time to make a blanket statement like that makes for sensational headlines, but as for reflecting the truth?

I think not.