How to Improve Your Marketing & Digital PR Skills With Social Media Optimization

 

The advent of online social media sites has produced a significant change in marketing over the internet and this has led to what is known today as social media optimization (SMO). The massive amount of users of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter has made this kind of paradigm shift over the internet something that must not be ignored by any marketer.Social Media Optimization Tactics!

SEO being an important element of internet marketing is also being molded keeping in mind the social media elements. Social media optimization, or call it SMO or social SEO optimization, is a method and technique being adopted by online entrepreneurs to get unique visitors or traffic using the social networking platforms. Therefore this new online technique called the social media optimization blends well with SEO to gain high, organic and search rankings.

In this article, we want to focus on how you can use social media optimization to boost your marketing skills and digital PR.

Why Social Media Optimization (SMO) Matters A So Much?

The reason why social media is considered to be a serious thing nowadays by internet marketers is the fact that the social networking sites have recently become a huge source of free website traffic. By using SMO in the right way you will be able to substantially generate a deluge of targeted unique visitors to your website/blog.  From recent studies it can be confirmed that there is a significant shift in searching pattern right now. The shift is moving from using the popular search engines to social networking sites.

You definitely must noticed that a sizeable amount of people now use the social media sites in various ways including being referred by their friends. With this increase of social media activities, Web entrepreneurs and bloggers who are involved in social media optimization are better positioned to generate traffic to their blogs and websites.

The Inside Story of Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Social media optimization is an online marketing idea connected with search engine marketing, though it is pretty different in a couple of ways. The fundamental difference is the fact that you get traffic from social media and not from the search engines. But with a good SMO you can achieve a good search ranking for your websites as well.

SMO is related to the techniques of viral marketing in a number of ways, where you can see the word of mouth happening not through your family or friends but with the effective use of networking in video, bookmarking and photo sharing websites. Your business blog plays a significant role here too as it could be used for content sharing through RSS (Real Simple Syndication) with which you can distribute your content throughout the blogosphere and other specific blog search engines.

SMO is Advantageous In Many Ways

Social media optimization is not just confined to brand building and marketing activities. Of late, smart businessmen are incorporating social media participation as an integral part of their knowledge management strategies including business development, employee recruitment, product or service development, PR, customer satisfaction and so on.

Furthermore, you will find SMO being used sometimes to promote a community within a website which helps to build a healthy bond between the business and customer.

Final Word

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a new phenomenon emerging as a method for drawing unique traffic to your business on the net. Thanks to the growing number of users actively engaged in using the social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and so on. Through the activities of virtual friends encouraging and recommending websites and blogs to their friends, you will be able to use SMO to gather a tangible amount of people to visit your websites. In this way your websites/blogs will be generating a more refined kind of targeted audiences. You must aim therefore to structure a well planned SMO strategy to market your business online because it  will also improve your search engine optimization (seo) and help build your digital image or brand.

[Editor's note: The topic of social media optimization is one that should really interest you considering the fact that Google on 11/03/2011 announced it's Freshness Update which will be driven mostly by social media. I've just downloaded a free social SEO guide book that is specially prepared to help you understand the best ways to integrate your social media marketing and SEO efforts. This free ebook is now my guide better understand the social media of a thing. If this article has inspired you to know more about SMO I recommend that you download and read this free social SEO guide book. Click here to download a free copy.]

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16 Comments
  1. Yes, you are right. Social networking sites have developed into something that most people cannot live without. Even old people have facebook accounts. When somebody gets online first thing they check are there social networking sites. I know, because that is what I do and I have observed most people I know do the same. The influence of this sites should be utilized. It is a mistake for an entrepreneur to overlook the potentials of SMO.

    • @Reese,

      There is no doubt that online social media is changing the way things are done in our lives. Like Alia mentioned in post, we can really apply social media to better build our online reputation. Thanks for the comment.

  2. SMO has become more important since major search engines start considering social media sites trends while deciding keyword rankings. It means more popular things on social media may rank high in search engines easily. I have downloaded this ebook and read it soon. Thanks for sharing. 🙂

    • @Aanchal,

      The importance of social media is really being brought out right now with what the search engines are doing. Most traditional seo are realizing that optimizing social media is really the way to go for now. Using out dated seo tactics will only affect you negatively.

  3. Yeah I agree with you that social media optimization is very useful and important now a days, I heard that so many people are addicted of social website face book, but I faced two times virus problem at face book, after that so many people ask me what you share, which I have no idea, for me it’s not so addicted, Although these search engines are very useful SEO.

    • @Removal Companies,

      Indeed, the issues of virus and other spam activities could be frustrating when using the social media sites. However, with the recent happenings with the search engines, ingoring social media in your business marketing suicidal. I’ve just done a post on this. Follow the link referenced on the commentluv link to read it.

  4. Through the activities of virtual friends encouraging and recommending websites and blogs to their friends, you will be able to use SMO to gather a tangible amount of people to visit your websites. In this way your websites/blogs will be generating a more refined kind of targeted audiences

    • @maricel,

      The power is really in the sharing and recommendations. If you have a good number of people doing this for your content, then the search engines would pay more attention to your content. And the end result is better rankings for your business site/blog.

  5. Social media are irreplaceable in everyday life and business as well. However it is very important at some time not to addict (like I am) But I guess that if a person just optimize the way he uses social media everything is OK and I am sure that he will be more successful in business as well:)

  6. SMO which stands for Social Media Optimization works a lot for getting the useful traffic and building credibility to the site, it is gaining much popularity in internet marketing in order to gain free traffic towards the site.

  7. I always believe that social media has a great impact in our online business since it is the most visited site in the internet today. Optimization is really important and will definitely help in increasing our sales.

    Frank @ solar power for the home

  8. Great resource. Thanks for sharing. Any online marketer really needs to know how to do social media optimization – to improve business’ visibility and popularity.

  9. Hi Alia, thanks for your post, excuse my english, i’m a french blogger.
    Could you please explain me how to insert CommentLuv below comment fields?
    Best Regards

  10. Thanks for sharing the information, Search engine web marketing is very important if you want to enhance your small business easily in a quick time without much effort. Sometimes it can be very costly and frustrating. If you want to be successful in your online marketing small businesses, you need to have three basic things i.e. money, effort and time.

  11. Informative post. Social media is a best resource for promoting our brand in online as the same time we will receive more traffic from it. I personally believe search media optimization is a half of the part in search engine optimization. Thanks for given introducing more about smo.

  12. I have to agree with the other comments and you that SMO has taken on a life of it’s on. SMO is the number one fact I teach to my clients. The sole purpose of networking on the social media channels is to draw traffic back to your headquarters. Great article. Thank you for the information.

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