Social media optimization

Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of online platforms to generate income or publicity to increase the awareness of a brand, event, product or service.

SMO is similar to search engine optimization (SEO) in that the goal is to drive web traffic, and draw attention to a company or creator.

[2] SMO is used to strategically create online content ranging from well-written text to eye-catching digital photos or video clips that encourages and entices people to engage with a website.

Common examples of social media engagement are "liking and commenting on posts, retweeting, embedding, sharing, and promoting content".

[3] Social media optimization is also an effective way of implementing online reputation management (ORM), meaning that if someone posts bad reviews of a business, an SMO strategy can ensure that the negative feedback is not the first link to come up in a list of search engine results.

Due to personalized search results, location-based social media presences on websites such as Yelp, Google Places, Foursquare, and Yahoo!

This helps in lead generation (finding new customers) and contributes to high conversion rates (i.e., converting previously uninterested individuals into people who are interested in a brand or organization).

An effective SMO campaign can harness the power of viral marketing; for example, 80% of activity on Pinterest is generated through "repinning.

This allows businesses to build an online following and presence, all linking back to the company's website for increased traffic.

Online activities such as consumers' evaluations and advices on products and services constitute part of what creates a Social Commerce Construct (SCC).

Additionally, social media optimization can be implemented to foster a community of the associated site, allowing for a healthy business-to-consumer (B2C) relationship.

Bhargava believed that by following his rules, anyone could influence the levels of traffic and engagement on their site, increase popularity, and ensure that it ranks highly in search engine results.

According to author and CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, Lee Odden, a Social Media Strategy is also necessary to ensure optimization.

The Social Media Strategy may consider:[13] According to Lon Safko and David K. Brake in The Social Media Bible, it is also important to act like a publisher by maintaining an effective organizational strategy, to have an original concept and unique "edge" that differentiates one's approach from competitors, and to experiment with new ideas if things do not work the first time.

[4] If a business is blog-based, an effective method of SMO is using widgets that allow users to share content to their personal social media platforms.

By using relevant and trending keywords in titles and throughout blog posts, a business can also increase search engine optimization and the chances of their content of being read and shared by a large audience.

A report by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism described how a 'second wave of disruption' had hit news organizations,[14] with publishers such as The Economist having to employ large social media teams to optimize their posts, and maximize traffic.

[citation needed] People frequently obtain health-related information from online social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

These platforms provide researchers with data sets and surveillance that help detect patterns and behavior in preventing, informing, and studying global disease; COVID-19.

An example of the latter is Empire Avenue, a virtual stock exchange where players buy and sell shares of each other's social network worth.

By posting links to websites or social media sites in the profile 'about' section, it is possible to direct traffic and ultimately increase search engine optimization.

Once a customer base has been established through a paid approach, businesses will often run promotions and competitions to attract more organic followers.

The engagement rate (ER) represents the activity of users specific for a certain profile on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or any other social media.

The flow and proliferation of content and link shares via social media lead to greater search engine optimization.
Due to its popularity and widespread use, Facebook is a useful channel for social media optimization.