---

Social Media Management and Optimization.

​Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of a number of outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, service brand or event. Types of social media involved include RSS feeds, social news and bookmarking sites, as well as social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, video sharing websites and blogging sites. SMO is similar to search engine optimization, in that the goal is to generate web traffic and increase awareness for a website. In general, social media optimization refers to optimizing a website and its content to encourage more users to use and share links to the website across social media and networking sites. SMO also refers to software tools that automate this process, or to website experts who undertake this process for clients.

---

​Search engine optimization

Social media optimization is becoming an increasingly important factor in search engine optimization, which is the process of designing a website in a way so that it has as high a ranking as possible on search engines.

Relationship with viral marketing

Social media optimization is in many ways connected to the technique of viral marketing or "viral seeding" where word of mouth is created through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites

Implementation

The 16 rules of SMO, according to one source, are as follows:

1. Increase your linkability
2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy
3. Reward inbound links
4. Help your content to "travel" via sharing
5. Encourage the mashup, where users are allowed to remix content
6. Be a user resource, even if it doesn’t help you (e.g., provide resources and information for users)
7. Reward helpful and valuable users
8. Participate (join the online conversation)
9. Know how to target your audience
10. Create new, quality content ("web scraping" of existing online content is ignored by good search engines)
11. Be "real" in the tone and style of the posts
12. Don't forget your roots; be humble
13. Don't be afraid to experiment, innovate, try new things and "stay fresh"
14. Develop an SMO strategy
15. Choose your SMO tactics wisely
16. Make SMO a key part of your marketing process and develop company best practices

Social Media Strategy considers

Social Media Strategy considers

1. Objectives e.g. creating brand awareness and using social media for external communications.
2. Listening e.g. monitoring conversations relating to customers and business objectives.
3. Audience e.g. finding out who the customers are, what they do, who they are influenced by, and what they frequently talk about. It is important to work out what customers want in exchange for their online engagement and attention.
4. Participation and content e.g. establishing a presence and community online and engaging with users by sharing useful and interesting information.
5. Measurement e.g. keeping a record of likes and comments on posts, and the number of sales to monitor growth and determine which tactics are most useful in optimizing social media.