How Does Social Media Optimization Help Your Internet Business?

Social media optimization or SMO is another of many internet marketing strategies geared towards boosting the exposure of products and services on social media sites. Such sites cover network blogs, online communities, and other community sites, including Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, and so on.

SMO differs from search engine optimization (SEO) in such a way that SEO is focused on boosting search engine rankings. However, the two methods are related to each other because a solid SEO campaign is highly supportive of SMO strategies.

SMO Strategies

Social media optimization, though not as popular as other forms of Internet marketing, has proven to be effective by internet marketers who have been diligently pursuing the processes involved in SMO.

SMO is instrumental in online reputation management (ORM), also known as search engine reputation management. From the name itself, ORM is a general strategy that involves activities focused on boosting the online reputation of individuals and organizations.

SMO methods usually applied include adding RSS feeds at the end of articles and other content. A “Digg This” button could also be affixed. Iinternet marketers also use blogging, photo slides created via Flickr or Photobucket, YouTube videos, and other third-party community functionalities.

The power of SMO partly relies on the most part to the online concept of what is known as “word of mouth.” Through photo and video sharing and bookmarking among social media users, a product is promoted as the ad is spread along. The strength of the ripple effect is therefore dependent on how engaging a product, an ad, or an article is.