Social Media Optimisation (or Search Marketing Optimisation) is the process that links SEO with social media. Any online business cannot prosper if it doesn’t link its online visibility with customer interaction. This is precisely what SMO focuses on. It goes without saying that social media can be one of the greatest tools for improving the organic search results of your website. Thus, if you can connect with people in various online platforms, you can extend the outreach of your business. At the same time, you can increase the opportunities for people to link with your website. SMO helps you connect all your social media accounts in a consistently branded network in a cohesive manner. Moreover, it aids you in directing your target audience to the place you want them to go to.

Yet, it is worth highlighting that SMO does not involve having massive numbers of links to your website from all possible social networks. For instance, joining every group on Facebook or LinkedIn for seeding links to your content is not going to yield much. On the contrary, such a move could well be counterproductive. Search engines prioritise social shares when they emanate from external sources. As such, you will need to focus on:

• Engaging with the relevant social audiences
• Contributing to conversations and,
• Sharing authoritative content for your industry online

By enhancing the SMO of your website, you could:

• Enhance the Visibility of Your Brand: Many people use social media networks. When these individuals express their ‘likes’ or patronise a brand on these networks, it serves to highlight the brand positively.
• Connect with Your Target Audience Effectively: People typically visit pages of companies on Facebook and LinkedIn to enquire about products or services. By liaising with them, you get to connect your brand with your customers directly. You could use this to ensure that your customers remain loyal as well. After all, if a customer is receiving prompt responses to queries online, they will not think of going elsewhere.
• Remain Accessible: Social media platforms remain available at all times. As such, anyone can access your brand at any time from any place.
• Improve the Flow of Traffic to Your Website: When paired with SEO, you could use SMO for leading greater numbers of people to your website
• Deliver information quickly and update it easily as well

In addition to the above, SMO is yet another cost effective online-marketing strategy. As such, you could easily harness it for making your business more profitable.