by samSocial Media Optimisation (SMO) is “the method of social activity that attracts visitors to a website through an elevated search rank”. Sounds like search engine optimisation? SMO is part and parcel of any good SEO strategy. Today, social media optimisation is really coming into its own.
As the influence of social media has expanded, it has become less important to send visitors straight to your website and more important that they see your worthwhile, interesting content wherever they find it. Yes, you still want them to arrive at your website, but if they can see attractive information through social media on their phones then they are more likely to sit down that evening and Google your site. In September 2013 Google released the Hummingbird algorithm which prioritises content over links. This benefits SMO, which relies on content, as opposed to a more traditional style of SEO focusing on link-building.
Obviously, SMO requires engagement with social media. We’re not just talking about the big hitters, either. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and the like should be essential to your strategy, but it also pays to keep track of people talking about you in forums and blogs.
We also don’t mean for you to rush to sign up and post links to your website everywhere. That doesn’t make you look reputable or authoritative in your area, and it’s not attractive content that users might like to share with their friends.
So what should you be doing?
If you don’t already have a sizeable audience on, for example, Twitter, then you need to develop one. This doesn’t mean creating fake accounts to follow yourself, or paying other people to do so. Google frowns on this. It means organically growing your social media brand. Get involved in conversations with other businesses in your area, and respond to your customers’ tweets.
Online reputation management applies here, of course: be gracious and appreciative about praise and stay calm and polite if addressing complaints. Receiving a direct response from a business should make that user feel personally acknowledged and increase their loyalty to your brand. When you next create content for your website, promote it on your feed. Link to other business’ content, too. It’s less directly beneficial for your website, but if people like the post and share it then your name and brand will be on people’s newsfeeds! Images are also very useful for social media optimisation, as they catch people’s eyes. However be very careful if you intend to use a meme, as they can change at a frankly ridiculous speed and being behind the times can make your meme fall on its face …
One of the most important reasons to consider hiring someone to do this for you, such as a social media optimisation agency, is that they have expertise in this area. You or another staff member may enjoy using all types of social media: you may even have a large number of followers. Do you know how you attracted them? Could you replicate it? Businesses require a different audience to a personal blog, and using social media for marketing is much more targeted than your average casual blogger likes to be. SMO agencies have a lot of experience in building social media campaigns and creating content for social media, and they know what is likely to net you the results you need.
Another reason that you should consider a social media optimisation agency is time. Particularly if you want to engage directly with your customers, clients, and potentials, you really need someone monitoring and contributing to your social media accounts somewhere between daily and all the time. The last thing that you should do is put links on your website to your social media sites if they have almost no content and the last time you added anything was a year ago. You will be immediately dismissed by potential followers as a waste of time. Monthly updates are too slow to keep your brand at the forefront of your followers’ minds. Even only a week between posts will bury your output under more prolific businesses. Hiring an agency frees you from worrying about spending so much time on this essential part of your marketing strategy.
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What is SMO? is part 5 of our “What Is …?” series. This series gives the reader a brief introduction to the basics of digital marketing. Check out the rest of the series for information on SEO, PPC, CRO and ORM with more to come.
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