Harnessing SMO as a Marketing Tool

Compared to its big brother, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Optimization (SMO) is relatively new. A term first used by marketer Rohit Bhargava, SMO as defined is the process of making your content easily accessible across social networks. The process involves directing traffic to a website through social media channels, realizing that search engines are no longer the only sites that drive big traffic.

Think of SMO as word-of-mouth marketing translated into digital form. The social media platforms are your community, and your friends/followers are the members of that community. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest—these are all digital communities that you can use to spread your marketing message.

The main difference between SEO and SMO is that the latter promotes a practical shift from bringing more traffic to a website to ensuring that more people see the website. With SMO, people will consciously sift through a website’s content instead of being unknowingly led to it, a practice that turns a lot of customers off.

Put simply, if SMO is done right, you won’t have to drive people to your site. They’ll do so on their own. This is what marketers call ‘pull marketing’, which is basically a better way than the unscrupulous ‘push marketing’ tactics that many shady SEO companies employ.

To learn more about SMO and how it can benefit you, contact a professional online marketing firm in your area.