The term Social Media Optimization was coined by Rohit Bhargava. It denotes various means of generating public opinion through use of social media like online communities, websites and various other medium of communication over internet. This process is similar to Search Engine Optimization. SMO is similar to viral marketing in technique and results.
SMO is useful to drive people to a website and can make or mar an idea. Popularity over internet is very crucial for any venture on internet and SMO just like SEO helps gain top positions. As indicated by Rohit, there are six primary rules to generate SMO buzz. They are:
- Increase your link ability
- Make tagging and bookmaking easy
- Reward inbound links
- Help your content travel
- Encourage the mash up
- Get communities connected
Small businesses also need SMO as it helps in managing knowledge. Various applications of social Media Optimization are
- New product and service development,
- Recruiting of new bright employees,
- Existing employee engagement,
- Brand building over internet,
- Customer Relation and Management ,
- Sales and business development
In each of these areas Social Media Optimization plays an important role. Websites like Facebook, Wiki, Digg fit this bill. They all prove immensely helpful in increasing social awareness about various websites, people and business ideas. One can find professionals who specialize in this area and can turn any website in a winner suing various techniques. Social Media Optimization works on Pull Marketing Principles. There can be no Push Marketing Strategies. Social Media works when owners and users both participate in it. It can’t be one way street. Business owners need to know the target population very well. All social media can not be deployed on all populations. Each segment favors a particular media.
Social Media Optimization favors originality and will find out fake ideas and people very fast. It is not a good idea to employ SMO if the baseline idea is not solid. Social Media Optimization is a new marketing idea. It can be termed part of Marketing 2.0.
