Social Media Optimisation (or SMO) refers to any activity which is aimed at improving results from social media. It is the social media equivalent of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Typically paid ads on social media are not considered part of this activity.
Posting content on social media isn’t enough to get good results. By both optimising your content for social media and optimising your content on social media you can vastly improve what you gain from your social media marketing. This is important as Social Media Marketing is an “always-on” activity – meaning it takes up a lot of time. Make sure that is time well spent.
Like SEO, SMO is vital to maximising results from other digital marketing activities. Making sure your social media marketing is both appropriate and effective will have positive knock-on effects. This includes every strand of marketing but particularly for branding, as social media is so visible to the public.
Types of SMO
As with SEO, there are several types of SMO.
- On-Page SMO – This is any activity taken on a webpage to make it more likely to be shared by visitors, and that the page looks good when it is shared.
- Technical SMO – Means making sure there a page can be shared without technical issues. This work can include adding share buttons to pages, as well as making sure meta-data is editable.
- Post SMO – This means working to improve what your posts achieve. It typically includes activities such as working out the best times of day to post, what topics to post on, what sort of images or videos to include, which hashtags work best, and more.
- Profile SMO – Making sure profile pages are filled out fully and optimally can improve how both visitors and the social networks themselves see you.
- Community Building – the equivalent of link building, community building means increasing your follower (or equivalent) count so that more people see your content. This activity also includes tending to your community by replying to and moderating comments on your posts.
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