Social media marketing and what it entails in terms of proactive tasks and activities you need to add to your existing independent publisher workflow is the focus of this video interview with SEO expert Massimo Burgio.

Massimo Burgio - Photo credit: Burningmax

As I recounted yesterday, I have met this great, outgoing and positive character named Massimo Burgio, out of having spontaneously done what he himself strongly recommends in this video interview: share before asking, give out something good before taking or expecting from others.

And while I am no-one within the social media universe and have spent next to no resources to work my way through this new social ecosystem, I can perfectly identify with the underlying philosophy that, in his words, makes social media marketing work so well.

In this second part of this video interview I asked Massimo Burgio :

What is the core advice that social media marketers would give someone if they could chose to share only one recommendation?

What is the secret method to get your content more visible and palatable to social media outlets?

What are the specific recommendations that you could give Master New Media?

And finally, as he led me to it, with no pre-planned agreement on this, I asked Massimo to explain a bit more in depth the international organization devoted to search engine marketing and optimization that he works for: SEMPO.

Intro by Robin Good

Social Media Marketing - Beginner's Advice from Massimo Burgio - Part 2

Social Media Marketing: Key Advice from the Insiders

If you want advice from people that really know about it, I will give you a little metaphor:

You are in a group of people and you hang out together - whether you go dining, to the cinema, dancing or for a hike.

If, every time you get to this group of people, you do not have anything interesting to say to the rest of the people, and you just stay silent on your own, you do not laugh, and you do not make any comments to other people's jokes or stories - in a very short time, you will be the last person in the group.

Maybe they will not even want to call you to invite you to the next dinner again.

But if you are a person that participates with the group, either real or virtual, and every time you have a lot of stories to tell, you are very interested in what the other people say and you push initiatives that can find consensus and interest of all the other members - that is the way to go.

In a short time, perhaps you will not become the leader of your group, but you will be one of the most relevant persons that participates with that group.

The Secret Formula for Content Marketing

The secret method is premium content, is very relevant content. If your content is good, people will Digg it, people will StumbleUpon it. People will absolutely RSS and republish your content if it's good.

So the secret and the key is good content. That's the only one thing.

Then again, people wouldn't place a del.icio.us bookmark on some cheap post. If the post is very relevant, you make sure that you have a lot of del.icio.us bookmarks there.

So, good content, good content, good content.

Online Marketing Tips for Robin Good's Master New Media

Robin, it is not true that I do not know your site. I do not know you, but I know your site.

You are very popular, and I was checking out your site even a few minutes ago, before coming. You have the latest big post on Google "Open Social".

Also - this is very interesting, and thank you very much on behalf of the industry - you are publishing expert tips, and you are doing a lot of stuff on basic SEO, basic paid search and SEM. That really helps. I believe a lot of people get a lot of value from the stuff you publish.

So my advice to you is: you should focus a little more on search.

Social networking - yes it works; it is very trendy.

Wikipedia was trendy a couple of years ago - but search engines rule. People still search a lot.

There is a lot of search and contextual activity going on online. People now even search from their portable devices.

Search is still a key activity when people interact with the online world.

More and more people - especially in Italy, as well as the rest of the world - will need to get more knowledge about search. ... and I believe you have a very solid knowledge, even if you look at 360 degrees in the digital world, you have a very good knowledge of search.

I would ask you to, please, talk more about search. Maybe also about "SEMPO", the changing market and professional organization, that I represent.

SEO - What is SEMPO? Massimo Burgio explains it

"SEMPO" is the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization that started in 2003. Now we are almost in 2008, as it is December, 2007. So we have been here four years now and we did a lot of stuff.

We started with very few search marketers and now we aggregate more than 600 members. We have individual members, as well as big companies like HP, IBM or big agencies.

SEMPO is a space for all the players in the search marketing industry. We aggregate search engines, search marketing agencies, or even companies who have their own in-house team, and they operate and invest in search marketing.

Therefore, the value of our organization is pretty big.

For a very small amount of money for the subscription fee, you basically get a lot of value in return. If you intend to attend big events, like: search engine marketing, search engine strategies events, "Up Tech" or SMX - as a "SEMPO" member, you also get a discount.

We already calculated that if you go to two events per year, you already get the money back from the membership. Plus, you get a link-back from "SEMPO", access to resources, webinars, and to the "SEMPO" Institute.

The "SEMPO" Institute is a platform for distance learning on search marketing, that we just released, and it is going very, very well.

Robin Good: What is the cost for that?

Massimo Burgio: It is not very expensive. I think it is from about $800 to $1,300 - depending on the modules. That is in dollars, while we pay in euro - so it is very convenient for us.

If you enroll in the "SEMPO" Institute, and you, for example, do the paid search course - at the end of the course, you also have the included Google AdWords Professional certification. in a very short time, we will be also including the certification from Yahoo! "Ambassador".

It is a one-stop - fits all. You get the knowledge, you participate in the industry of peers or search marketers, and you access a huge organization that can give a lot of value in terms of resources, discounts and networking. At the same time, you get yourself a profession - which goes back to the original question you asked me.

"SEMPO" Institute is a solution for somebody who is really interested in search marketing and has just got a degree and does not know what to do - maybe they can learn 'search' and turn to be a SEO or a SEM, or they will get professional stuff to re-sell themselves to an agency and say: "I am certified from "SEMPO"."

Robin Good: Cool.

Massimo: So, join "SEMPO": www.sempo.org. [laughing]

Social Media Marketing - Beginner's Advice from Massimo Burgio - Part 1

Original interview recorded by Robin Good for Master New Media and first published as "Social Media Marketing - Beginner's Advice From Massimo Burgio - Part 2"