Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Last Updated on Thursday, 15 October 2009 19:03 Written by Anthony Calzadilla Thursday, 15 October 2009 17:16

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Social Media Optimization (SMO) is that part of Internet Marketing that focuses on human response; this is in contrast to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which has major focus on the “crawlers” or Search Engine Spiders. SMO, in essence, is largely the Publicity Strategy of online marketing. This strategy employs an ever-growing set of processes using the Social Media as its medium to generate awareness, publicity, public relations, product announcements, customer and community forums, as well as news of any relevance to the targeted audience.

The Social Media

The Social Media involves websites that are dedicated to social interaction and activity as an effective means for individuals to share information and create or augment personal and social relationships relating to any common interest. The most popular of these websites are:

  • YouTube – over 25% of all online inquiries for information occur on YouTube. This site is perhaps best known for its use of video and audio content which can be posted and shared by anyone. YouTube currently gets about 1,000,000,000 views per day.
  • Facebook – currently the #2 most visited site provides a common location to connect and re-connect with family, relatives, friends, professional colleagues, past and present.
  • Twitter – the fasting growing website today now with an Alexa Rank of 13. Twitter is a microblogging site; the site asks its users to Tweet (Micro blog in 140 characters or less) what you are doing. This has grown into quite a phenomenon as many millions are tweeting about all things worldly and personally. It is growing a reputation for breaking news; even the traditional media is using it as a news source.
  • LinkedIn – while not quite as popular, LinkedIn provides more of a professional social network that focuses on professional relationships rather than personal or familial ones. Nonetheless, LinkedIn is an oft used source of information for business professionals for the purposes of networking, sharing information and information verification.

Social Media Optimization Tools

There are many individual tools and tactics that SMO can use to generate publicity, a buzz or even become viral.

  • RSS (Really Simple Syndication) – this is a set of “feeds” for delivery of information for websites, blogs, et al that are frequently updated. This makes it simple for interested readers and viewers to stay up to date without having to remember to go to each and every website of interest. With RSS, you can get all of the information you want delivered to you in one central location; like your own electronic magazine rack. So the SMO uses RSS to syndicate new content automatically to those that subscribe.
  • Social News Links – SMO involves the addition of buttons or links included with content to make it easy for readers to share content of interest with others that may be interested.

Content

Social Media Optimization however is only as good as the content i.e. the quality of the message it is carrying. All online marketing is about content and Social Media is no exception. Content is the real substance; social media is the delivery system (the newspaper boy of today). SMO is the expertise and processes to get the content delivered to the most people and the most targeted people.

Content is still the core substance of online marketing. At Optimum7, for those who cannot produce their own steady stream of content necessary for success, we provide Optimum7 copywriting services to fill this void. As all Optimum7 clients already know; CONTENT IS NOT AN OPTION. It is the most essential element of all Internet Marketing including Social Media Optimization.

Contact us to learn more about Social Media Optimization strategies and how it can help your business.