Social Media Optimization (SMO) is an online marketing tool that is a combination of strategies used in search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing.  Internet marketing companies are now offering this service as part of their online marketing strategy. Your business should be able to address critical customer behaviors such as online visibility and customer interaction.  SMO is designed to increase brand awareness by maximizing social media outlets and communities.  Your goal is viral publicity in order to drive traffic to your website.

When used effectively, social media can extend your company’s reach and increase the opportunities for people to easily link to your main business website.

SMO can make your site highly visible in social media searches and included more often on relevant vlogs, podcasts, and blogs. All your social media accounts will be cohesive and will consistently deliver the same message that your brand wants to achieve.

Here are some important guidelines in conducting an SMO for your business’ website. These are the same strategic guidelines that industry experts use to assist clients in building an effective SMO base:-

Linkability Boost

Instead of having a static website, it should contain “links” that people find relevant and useful, and would possibly want to use as reference in a post or blog of their own.  Your website should contain linkable assets such as blog posts, think pieces, or aggregates of other related content. These linkable assets should be quality content that people would want to share.

 

Hashtag Properly

Hashtags are used to find your posts on Instagram and Facebook and tweets on Twitter easier to find.  When you use a hashtag for your posts, it helps reach new audiences on social media and therefore helps boost your brand.  When using a hashtag, keywords that are relevant to your brand should be used.  Some businesses use at least two hashtags.  This allows them to check which hashtag works best for their customers.

Tagging and Bookmarking

Your SMO strategy should also include features to make tagging and bookmarking pages simpler.

Palatable Content

Just like in Search Engine Optimization, great content is still needed in SMO.  Content should be tweetable, share-able, like-able, and pin-able.  In short, they should create enough buzz in social media sites to create brand awareness.  Not only should content be engaging and relevant, they should also be written well with great visuals so that people are encouraged to share them.

 

Social Media Profiles

Your company’s social media profiles should be optimized.  Your profile should contain all relevant information about your company such as the URL to your main business site, address and phone numbers.  You should also complete all the fields in the profile.

There is nothing more off-putting for a first time visitor than incomplete company information.  You should also ensure that all content, images and formats are all the same across all social media profiles.  You should also have a network-specific and dedicated landing page.

 

Mash-ups and Calls to Action

Social media marketing thrives on giving users the opportunity to create their own content.  Your company should be open about letting other users re-use your content through RSS feeds or YouTube.  After all, this exposes your content to a new audience.

In the spirit of co-creation and interactivity, your social media posts should be able to gather feedback from customers and followers. You can ask them what they think if they have suggestions or ideas to make the brand better, or you can even tell them what to do next.  It should be very specific such as “Please share” or “Please Re-tweet” or “Help us reach 10,000 followers by liking this page”.

 

Be active and participate

Many users are still pleasantly surprised when the owner of the webpage responds to their comments and queries.  You should be able to create an ongoing conversation in your social media accounts.  After all, the main goal of social media is to keep you connected to your current and potential customers.

Another great thing that you can do is to show appreciation to your most active promoters and bloggers who constantly use your content on their own sites.

You can send an email or private message that shows them your appreciation.  What’s even better is when you could give them an incentive or reward for actively promoting your site.