Social Media Optimization

SMO is a form of search engine marketing that generates publicity through social media including Forums & Online Communities (e.g. Twitter), Blogs, Social Networks (e.g. Facebook, MySpace), Multimedia Sharing (e.g. Flickr, YouTube), Diggs, Social Bookmarking (e.g. del.icio.us) and RSS Feeds.

SMO is a way other than search engines to drive traffic to a website. It is a new and powerful marketing strategy involving products and services placement at the social networking communities. It generates the web traffic from the social media sources such as blogging, tagging (e.g. Digg), bookmarking, Videos or Photos sharing and RSS feeds. SMO makes a website more connected or interlaced with these social media websites or communities. It is a viral marketing technique creating word of mouth through effective use of social networking.


Comparison of SMO & SEO

SMO
SEO
Similarities
1. Linkability
  • Give others a 'good' reason to link to you and so to visit your website.
  • Keys to linkability are: Content, Design & Usability.
2. Good Content
  • Have good content that does things besides giving people a good reason to link.
3. Pull Marketing
  • Have good content that does things besides giving people a good reason to link.
Differences
1. Channels Social Media Sources: blogs, bookmarking websites, media sharing websites etc. Search Engines, primarily the Big3: Google, Yahoo & Microsoft (GYM).
2. Target Audience Attract broader range of audience Attract people who look for specific products and services
3. Goals You might be looking to build community. Both SEO & SMO can also share the same goals You might be looking to sell something. Both SEO & SMO can also share the same goals
4. Participation Actively participate in the same activities that your audience does Not much participation.



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