social media optimisation (SMO)

With the rise in popularity of social media, marketers have found an effective and exciting way to market businesses. The benefits of social media include a wide audience reach, the ability to build brand awareness and brand loyalty, international marketing and a marketing strategy that is, in the words of Facebook, “free and always will be”. 

Optimising for social media differs from SEO in minor ways. An effective SMO strategy is harder to maintain than an effective SEO strategy since SMO involves more user input, especially if you use a micro-blogging platform like Twitter. 

SMO differs from SEO because you are dealing with human beings and not computer programmes. People can see an ugly background or an image that takes too long to load. You also have to appeal to the whole community and not rely on domain strength.  

The first step in your SMO efforts must be to create an account that has a link to your website. When creating your account you must always remember to create content that people will want to share. If you do create engaging and useful content, your message could go viral. To get the most out of your Facebook page, just updating your status is not enough. You need to add photos, videos and links to engage with your audience. 

You should also create engaging content on your website. You should also add a Facebook ‘like’ button , a Twitter ‘share’ button and a Google ‘+1’  button. This way your readers can share what they like in real-time. Other ways to optimise your website using social media is to incorporate a live Twitter feed into your website and to use live feeds or upload YouTube videos. Always remember to keep any updates or videos relevant, family-friendly and politically and religiously neutral.