Social Media Optimization (SMO)

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What is SMO?

Social media optimization or SMO isn't a new term or a new approach, far from it. As the Wikipedia definition of SMO explains, it's been around since 2006 when the search engine marketer Danny Sullivan first used it and Rohit Bhargava developed his 5 rules of SMO.

With many companies now having social media marketing in place, SMO is a logical next step to improve the effectiveness of social media marketing.

What SMO is not?

If you’re looking to improve your SMO, it’s important to keep in mind that having huge numbers of links to your website scattered across social networks is not optimization. Joining every Facebook industry page, Google+ Community, and LinkedIn group just to seed links to your content is actually counterproductive, to both SMO and SEO.

Social shares carry a lot more weight when they’re coming from someone else. In addition, indiscriminate link-spreading without engagement and participation will get you unfollowed in your social networks—which in turn drives down your authority.

Steps to improve SMO

  • Reputation - build your reputation as a reliable qualified source
  • Engagement - encourage more engagement, sharing & reciprocate
  • Authority - become a notable authority in your field of expertise
  • Leadership - harness originality & creativity, be a Thought Leader
  • Social - be social, find and engage sociable experts in your field
  • Media - know your social media platforms to maximize influence
  • Optimization - improve technical aspects to increase optimization
Social Media Optimization (SMO)