Social Media: September 2008 Archives

The power of Search Engine Optimization has considerably improved the performance of many sites on organic search listings. The efficiency of SEO in increasing the amount of traffic that a site gets has impressed many. However, this is not the only technique used in social media marketing.

The term Social Media Optimization (SMO) was coined by Rohit Bhargava and is basically referred to as the act of designing the website and optimizing it so that it would attract internet users who are into Social Networking. SMO operates on the premise that websites are to be made to look as attractive as possible so visitors would bookmark them and eventually share them in other Social Networking Websites. This technique seeks to optimize a site by implementing changes on both the design and the content so that it can be more linkable and visible to social media searches on custom search engines (such as Technorati). Highly optimized websites become more visible when they get featured on blogs and podcasts. 

There are five rules under Social Media Optimization.  These rules are: (1) increase your linkability, (2) make tagging and bookmarking easy, (3) reward inbound links, (4) help your content travel and (5) encourage the mashup. The most common forms of social media optimization is the addition of unique and valuable content, links, bookmarks and RSS feeds. Social Media Optimization analyzes the website traffic objectives of their clients and provides strategic recommendations to expand online reach and visibility.

The strategies used in SMO are quickly gaining speed as the the availability of networks and affiliate programs continue to expand, authorizing connections between like-minded folks to occur more frequently. Most online businesses today have adopted this Internet Marketing strategy because it clearly provides several bonuses. Social media resources can provide great link popularity, bringing in more traffic and promoting businesses in a massive way.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) can provide instant visibility and credibility to companies that are still beginning to conquer the business arena. For established companies on the other hand, SMO aids in both the strengthening of services currently offered and assists in the exploration of ways to further increase the company's ROI. SMO is a very useful strategy that can be utilized by businesses to reach out to a wider range of audience and be able to link to a larger network of bloggers, businesses and even casual web surfers. The key to social media optimization is finding out how to influence others to agree or subscribe to your plans and purposes.

Adopting the SMO strategy can solicit a great amount of traffic or audience to a website. It involves directing traffic to a website through new channels because search engines are not the only sites that could generate traffic to company sites. Although SMO is not yet as popular as SEO, it sure has the potential to become a powerful strategy in order for your business to reach its much coveted success. Reaching out to social communities in order to promote and advertise your brand is not a new strategy.

To do effective SMO, you will need to consider the type of site that you are trying to market. You should understand that surfers focus on the design and the content of the site that they visit. It would be better to create campaigns that are focused on one social media site rather than create a campaign directed towards the Web in its entirety.