Social media optimization (SMO) is growing immensely in recent times with companies looking to enhance their presence on the web. New and new methods for SMO are being explored; in fact people are trying to implement both SEO and SMO for increasing visibility over the web space. One thing which I can say with my experience after playing with both of them for a while is that SEO and SMO are interlinked and implementing only one of them cannot sustain the top web visibility for long. One should be careful when targeting SMO as it requires a lot of care. A few tips and guidelines before you start SMO assignment for your organization are mentioned below

Try and be active on the popular domains and blogs related or unrelated (with good participation and high page ranks). Even if they do not directly relate to your interest try your hand on them rather posting on inactive though relevant blogs or domains (You will often find relevant domains are not much active anymore). It gives results quickly in terms of visibility and the people noticing you may be much more. Never duplicate content on the web, try to be a shade different every time even if posting the same content, this increases the counts for the same content because only a human mind can locate the similarities in the two and not the machines. Start commenting on a few popular blogs and leave your url/website as your signature which is a common trend these days (Although many of them do not allow search engines to follow your link). But try to be precise and meaningful as much as possible and remember the golden rule “First impression is the last impression.” Improper or highly irrelevant comments can lead to ignoring or even banning of your account on such sites. Start building your network on popular social networking sites (This is presumed to be the easiest but in fact it is one of the toughest part.). I think I need not name any and if you have read till this point then I can safely assume you must be aware of them. Take your time, don’t be stupid by sending mass invitations, and keep building your account over a period of time (probably a few weeks). Press releases are one sure shot way to increase your popularity as the results show up instantaneously. A few popular PR sites would pop on top list of search engines with keywords such as “Free press release”, “submit press release” etc. Do remember Tip #2 before publishing your content on the web. Social bookmarking: One of the most important ways to get noticed, it is easy if your brand is popular and may act as patience tester otherwise (Infinite wait for approval if you looking for free submissions). Many social bookmarking sites exist and the popularity varies in different parts of the world. Target the social network which your business is trying to focus on, be specific that is the key. Article writing is one way many top SMO writers promote but personally I am not an advocate of such philosophy. Article writing is like a lottery if your article gets accepted and appreciated by a few people (a very low chance) it may drive much of your traffic (thanks to mouth publicity) but if it doesn’t work out it’s a total waste of time and resources.

The key to SMO as I mentioned in the title itself is patience. Keep doing your part and wait, results would show after a little while. Just remember all this would yield results in some time, but if not properly supported by an equally good Search Engine Optimization(SEO) they may soon fade out. At this moment I would really love to look at the smiles on the faces of those who read this article just after or in between their SMO assignment, I am sure they have a story to tell.

For other good articles on IT, SMBs/SMEs you can also refer Dr Subbu Murthy’s blog.