This afternoon, I sat in on a webinar with Brian Solis, FutureWorks principal and author of Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web.

Solis spoke about how social media optimization is the new version of SEO (search engine optimization), accelerated by the integration of social tools into search, and the increase in popularity of social sharing tools. Some key takeaways from the presentation:

- The key to optimized content is not just making it findable, but making it shareable.
- Social objects are the future of marketing (via @gapingvoid) -- Why? "Because it works." -- Solis
- When it comes to social sharing, people don't like a lot of options -- pick two or three. Refine your choices. Buzz, Twitter, Facebook Share/"Like"
- One-click sharing tools are king
- The success of social sharing is fed by a psychological component: the feeling of missing out. Social sharing tools like Topsy incorporate a number that shares the number of real-time shares/retweets. The larger that number grows, the more readers think they need to share it too, and creates a snowball effect.
- Measurement is incredibly important, but work beyond the "usual" methods of measurement. How many products did we sell? Then work backwards -- How many viewed? How many clicked? How many went through to purchase? Benchmark those numbers against social objects.

If you had only one minute to talk with someone influential to you, what would you say? Would you talk about yourself, or would you share something noteworthy that they might find interesting? Which do you think would make them think of you later on?

Chris Brogan and Laura Fitton find success because they understand deeply the difference between talking and sharing. Talk less. Share more.

See also:
- 10 Essential Rules for Brands in Social Media (Ad Age)
- Don't be that guy (Shannon Paul)

Last weekend, I snapped this photo of a dog who had been perched onto a seat on the T by his owner, and sent it to Twitpic. When I came home that evening, I saw that it had gone viral -- being shared by at least a dozen people, some of whom had seen it through somewhere else.

That past week, I had shared many links on Twitter which I thought were relevant to my followers, along with thoughts and quotes that spoke to me on a personal and professional level. Is it frustrating that the thing people finally latched onto was a dog sitting like a person on the train? A little.

You can't dictate to your customers or your peers what they should like the most, nor can you always predict which things you share will be shareworthy. Sometimes, it's a blog post about your latest project, but other times, it's just going to be a dog picture. The key is to enjoy it when it happens, and then keep sharing.