Social Media Optimization

What is SMO?

Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of social media sites to manage and enhance an organization’s message and online presence. As a digital marketing strategy, social media optimization can be used to increase awareness of new products and services, connect with customers, and mitigate potentially damaging news.

Understanding Social Media Optimization (SMO)

For many years, search engine optimization (SEO) was the predominant strategy for digital marketing efforts. It involves increasing the quality and quantity of a website’s traffic by increasing its visibility via a web search engine, especially Google Search.

 

More recently, social media marketing has come to the fore, coexisting with SEO as a way to strengthen a brand, conduct lead generation, increase a company’s online visibility, and connect to an audience. Many social media platforms are used for digital marketing, including Facebook, X, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok.

 

Social media optimization often directs the public from these social media platforms to the company’s website, where more information can be found.2 For example, a campaign to raise awareness about a new vehicle model on social media may direct the visitor to a company webpage that provides information about local dealerships.

Why Is Social Media Optimization Important?

There are hundreds of millions of websites out there. How does anyone draw attention to one of them? Two primary strategies are currently in use:

  • Search engine optimization focuses on tweaking the content of a website in order to win a coveted high-level position in the results displayed by a search engine, particularly Google Search.
  • Social media optimization involves creating unique content for a social media site that attracts followers to the website for more information or to purchase.

What Is the Primary Purpose of Social Media Optimization?

Companies that use social media want to drive traffic to their websites or sell products directly on social media. Often, they’re doing both.

Many companies create a presence on multiple sites to reach various demographics. Some social media sites, such as Pinterest, lend themselves to attractive product presentations. Others, notably Facebook, are used by the broadest range of people.

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