Contents
- What is SMO?
- Why do companies need SMO promotion?
- Differences between SMO, SMM, and SEO
- Basic rules of SMO
- Tools for Social Media Optimization
- User Journey in SMO
What is SMO?
Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a process that helps optimize a website for users coming from social networks. SMO promotion involves working with content, design, and site interface to make it more appealing to the audience of social platforms. As a result, elements characteristic of social networks appear on the web resource's pages, such as likes, comments, and the ability to share posts with friends.
One simple example of SMO optimization is integrating a social media account login feature, which significantly simplifies the login process for users and increases their engagement.
Why do companies need SMO promotion?
The audience coming from social networks is significantly different from users who arrive via search engines. They have different interests and needs, as well as different ways of perceiving content. Attracting users from "VKontakte" or Instagram is not as difficult as keeping them on the site. The main goal of SMO is to make the site interesting and convenient for visitors who come from these platforms. Ideally, such users should stay on the site, share content, and become regular visitors, which in turn leads to increased traffic.
Many news portals actively use social networks to attract audiences to their sites, demonstrating the importance of SMO in modern digital marketing.
Differences between SMO, SMM, and SEO
SMO is often confused with other terms like SEO and SMM; however, these concepts have their own characteristics:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the optimization of a website for search engines to attract organic traffic. SEO specialists work on both internal and external optimization to ensure the site appears on the first page of search results.
- SMM (Social Media Marketing) is marketing in social networks. It involves promoting accounts directly on platforms, working to increase reach and other metrics.
- SMO is the optimization of a website for users coming from social networks, which implies adapting content and functionality to their preferences.
Basic rules of SMO
SMO is a relatively young field, and its popularization began with Rohit Bhargava's publication in 2006, which outlined five basic rules for optimizing websites for social networks:
- Create content that users will want to share, increasing the number of external links.
- Simplify the process of adding tags and bookmarks for easy content saving.
- Provide rewards for linking to the site, such as bonuses or discounts for referred users.
- Encourage the dissemination of content on third-party resources with a mandatory link to the original.
- Promote the creation of applications and services that utilize your content.
These principles form the foundation of SMO and have been expanded upon by other authors. The main thing to remember is the necessity of maximizing content distribution on social networks and motivating users to share it.
Tools for Social Media Optimization
Various tools are used for effective SMO optimization, connecting the web resource with popular social platforms:
- Social media buttons: many social networks offer buttons to install on websites, allowing users to rate posts, share them, and subscribe to updates.
- Social media plugins: these are software solutions that expand the site's functionality, allowing users to comment and participate in polls.
- Developer tools: provide the ability to develop applications and widgets through APIs to enhance site functionality.
- Social materials: posting content with links and hashtags to increase user interest.
- Links in social media: posting announcements and links to new publications in groups and communities to attract traffic.
User Journey in SMO
To ensure all marketing channels, including the website and social networks, work cohesively, it is necessary to build the user journey. By observing how users interact with your content, you can identify bottlenecks in SMO. For example, if you place a link to the website in the middle of a social media post and then add a call to action, it may distract users and lead to a loss of focus.
The user journey should be clear and logical, and your strategies should not contradict each other. This will allow you to use resources as effectively as possible and increase audience engagement.