Social Media Optimization or SMO can be referred as the methodology of creating viral publicity for elevating the awareness of a product or brand by using social media outlets or communities. It can also be termed as a digital strategy in which various social media platforms are used by an organization or brand to connect with customers and to establish brand identity.
The central concept on which SMO relies is to optimize a site in such a way that it is more highly visible in various social media searches and is easily linkable.
In response to a search query typed or spoken, SMO redirects the searcher to a company website from the social websites so that more information can be provided. It gives social media managers the opportunity to reach specific groups of people and to offer them services depending on their demographic and geographic profiles.
Most of the times, the purpose of SEO and SMO is considered the same – targeting traffic for a website or brand. But, there is a fine line between the both. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) targets keywords to improve the ranking of a website. It refers to both off-page and on-page optimization whereas Social Media Optimization targets on social media to increase the traffic and is often on-page optimization.
