Beginners guide for smo

A Beginner’s guide to Social Media Optimization for the organization

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1. Introduction: Social media optimization (SMO) refers to increasing the awareness of a product, service or brand with the help of numerous social media outlets and communities to generate publicity.

Basically it includes social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and audio and video blogging sites like Tumblr and social media include RSS feeds, social news and bookmarking sites. In general, social media optimization refers to optimizing a website and its content in terms of sharing across social media and networking sites.

So before we dig deep into SMO, it’s better to get an idea about the Social Media. What is social media and what is its role ?

1.1 Social Media: Social Media are the tools which enables user to create, share and exchange information, interest, audio, video, career interests, chat, ideas in the virtual communities and network.

Basically, Social Media is capturing the image of what we do in our daily social life and then portraying it on World Wide Web with the help of computer mediated tools. It has brought revolution in the. It has established the connection between the two people on the virtual platform like never before. You can replicate your social life offline onto the online.

Not Only that it has bridged the gap it has enabled people to share important information, opinion, perception and action to other people. Everybody is connected to everybody.

Everybody refers to people present on the internet. It has facilitated   

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Individuals  Organizations  Communities 

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Whistle blowers 

Infogr aphics of social media platforms is st ated on the next page

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1.2 Role of Social Media: Social media, although a new phenomenon, is shaping up as one of the founding pillars for the marketing and client base development platform. It enables organization to market their product to masses and also reach out to potential ones. It is the cutting edge solution to the old day’s problem of the organization to maximize their outreach. Social media assists organization in various ways. Some of them are -

 Marketing: Social media enables firms to market their products and services. However, if the firm only pitches its product a user may stop following their product. For Example – If the firm sells clothing, then it should educate the customer of what to wear and when. The idea here is to make user read as much as possible

 Update (Real Time): It enables organizations to quickly update customers about their activities in real time.

It is very time saving way considering the fact; customer has to be kept in loop all the time. For Example- For an E-commerce company runs out of stock, it quickly informs them. Firms can organize online sales, provide discounts and inform the customer at the same time.

 Build Relationship: It felicitates firms to establish bond and bridge communication gap with their customers. A customer can like or comment on the photo and services; it can work as feedback as well to the business owner. Suppose you run online shop for selling gardening material like plants, seeds and related accessories, your customer can like personal photos of business owner and can share theirs as well. In this way business increases in the community form which retains its customer.

 Feedback: It works as feedback for the businesses. They get to know what customers think about the product or the services. Social Media has accomplished the task of increasing the outreach for the organizations. The information gathered in the form of feedback thrive organizations to create better products or services.

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1.3 Features of Social Media           

RSS Feeds Social Polling Tools Applications Like Button Bookmarking Sharing Button Video and Image Sharing Friend following options Discussion Participation Community

Profile Creation

2. SMO (Social Media Optimization) Social Media Optimization is basically making your content (article, blog, infographics etc.) ready for the websites like Reddit, Facebook, Twitte r, Pinterest and many more. The idea is to add a button in the footer of the content to make it easy to share on these platforms.

The Terminology which is associated with SMO is SMM (Social Media Marketing). So, it is advisable to look into it briefly to have a clear picture of SMO.

2.1 SMM (Social Media Marketing) It is about making the content appealing to the users. It’s about sharing the content of people you know, friends, relatives and other acquaintances. Here, other people find the content share them with their friends and colleagues, they can give their opinion by commenting or vote them or they can subscribe your blog with the help of either RSS feed or E-mail.

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These are the points essential for the success of any social media marketing campaign:   

To utilize the friends & relative available on the social media  To choose the correct platform from many  To get updated and responsive to the fast-track social media 

2.2 Techniques for SMO In order to get the best out of your business the content produced should be optimized according to the search engine and social network. The content layout should be properly structured to be found on the various social media networks. Here are some general technique(s): 

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Syndicating web page with RSS and email:  RSS (Rich Site Summary) benefits the user(s) who want to receive the timely updates regarding an information, blog or website. It enables publishers to syndicate the information automatically. It enable users to collect all the concerning data to one place so that it can be shared to other(s).Below is the pictorial representation of RSS Feed button:

By Clicking on the RSS Feed Button or by entering the contents one can subscribe and get updated with the information of the website .

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Mozilla firefox, Internet Explorer and Apple’s safari automatically detect the RSS feed, So that they can be subscribed. It can be noticed at the right hand side corner of the address bar of the browser:

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Adding Footer(s):  While preparing content (article, blog, infographics or more) footers are added so the content can be shared on the respective sites. It increases the visibility of an enterprise on the social media across desired networks which are the purpose of SMO. 

An example of social media button(s) of Facebook, twitter, Google+, Linked In

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Social Bookmarking:  The process of saving the address of website/blog of interest is known as bookmarking, whereas in social bookmarking one can share his bookmark(s) to other and can see their collection as well. So, taking consideration of social networking into bookmarking, social bookmarking was evolved. Famous platforms are- Reddit, Stumble Upon, Dig, Sphinn. 

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2.3 Famous Social Media Platform(s) for SMO 

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Facebook:  Facebook is the social networking giant with maximum numbers of user. You can share photos, videos, links and other content on this website. There are over 1 million small enterprises which are taking help of Facebook Ads. 

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Advantages of Facebook Ads:   Reach out to the targeted audience’s email list   Participation In various Facebook Contest   Can install custom tab.   Can target similar & parallel audience of same interest   Can Update videos and pictures   Enterprise-Customer Relation building 

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Twitter:  This site has truly revolutionized the media in the true sense. One can post the content in the form of tweets with the restriction of 140 characters it has made it even more interesting.  Advantages of twitter Ads:   Reach out to the followers with Promoted Tweet   Reach out follower similar to your with Promoted Tweet as well   Reach out to the people of a specific geographical area.   Promote the mobile app of the company   Organize a viral conversation with the help of Trending Phase 

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LinkedIn:  LinkedIn is the largest social media network dedicated to the professionals in the world. It has over 332 million user and every second 2 new people gets added to this network which helps to grow professional networks as well as engagement. 

 Advantages of LinkedIn:   It makes your virtual presence   It has Digital Business Card Feature to engage with active users.   Connecting to the professionals of same domain   Most Trust worthy network to build credibility for an enterprise   It Felicitates Brand Awareness and Brand Uniqueness 

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Google+:  It has monthly 300 million active users with 53% positive interaction between the users and the brand. It is commonly used for relationship marketing. 

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Advantages of Google+:   Enables better visibility it Google Search results   Increases reach on Search Engine with Author & Publisher Markup  Integrates with new platforms   Google provide quick and easy tips to new-comers 

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The efficient and smart use of these platforms can help to build; reputation, awareness, brand around your product or service. As the world is becoming tech savvy, more and more people are using these social media campaign. So building brands marketing strategy around these platforms can be fruitful for the enterprise.

Social Media is becoming the dominant force in the world of marketing than change mind, create perceptions, increase sales and shape the business. Ahead is the infographics showing the number of users active across various social media platform.

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Number of users are in million

There are several methods to increase the ways to get engaged to your customer which provide great feedback for the product or service. So that, products and services can be improved:   Encouraging the visitors to your site/blog to share  Rewarding those who share your link    Being an active Social Networker    Continuously commenting on the blogs of concern    Managing Privacy and Consistency of the Social Media profile of the brand    10

3. Advantages of SMO: The benefit of social media optimization is developing a good link profile of concerned enterprise to get quality and utmost traffic from Search Engines. It is a gradual process.

The importance of website becoming the member of online community is the critical to get for links to make social medial optimization a success.    

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SMO attracts niche customer(s)/client(s)  SMO gives better ROI (Return on Investments)  SMO works as putting face to an enterprise  SMO creates buzz about product(s)/service(s) for an organization 

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4. Conclusion: As digital bug has bitten a large number of audiences, those who are still left won’t be spared. Everyone is going to be engulfed by technology at some point of time.

Technology has travelled a long path in the journey towards becoming need from style statement. So, it’s sufficed to say that the social media presence for a brand is of critical importance if not compulsory. So is the building a great image for the brand on social media. SMO is the tool that empowers organizations with the same. SMO is the turning stone in the long journey for creating a face for product or service so to connect to a larger audience.

For More Information Please Visit us at www.ecreationsindia.com

Reference:   

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www.wikipedia.com  www.google.com  www.entrepreneur.com  www.inc.com  12