Social Media Optimization: What It Is and Why You Need It

There has been a lot written about conversion optimization and landing page optimization, but not as much about social media optimization (SMO), which is equally as important. SMO is the process of optimizing your site and content so it’s more likely to be shared and discussed. It will allow you to reach a wide audience and engage with them, which, in turn, will demonstrate your relevance and authority to the search engines. There are many different ways to optimize for social media—read on for some simple ways to ensure that your site and content is as social as possible.

The first thing you must do in order to execute SMO effectively is to make sure that visitors to your website are aware of the presence of your social media profiles. You can accomplish this by prominently displaying your social icons in the upper right hand corner of your site, where they can’t be missed. By placing them in this location, they will be distinctly separate from share or follow icons. Only display the icons of the accounts that are active and that you regularly maintain. You will also want to place these social icons in the footer, adjusting the size and look of them so they won’t seem redundant. Be sure to clearly group together all your RSS and email subscription forms, podcasts, mobile apps and blog information in the same place so none of this important information can be missed. One last thing you’ll want to do on your site is to place social widgets in the sidebar. These modules provide information about your followers on your various social networks, which will lure others to join.

Now that your website is socially optimized, you need to focus your attention on your blog. The ultimate goal of social media optimization is to make it extremely easy for others to find and share your content, so take some time to make your blog as shareable as possible. On the home page of your blog, provide only a sneak peek of your articles, keeping the summary of each one so that several posts are visible above the fold. You should also include a thumbnail image for each blog, which may or may not include the title of the post. These eye-catching graphics are more likely to entice visitors to click through to your article than if there was no image at all. Make sure you include a clear call to action that compels readers to click to keep reading. Also include social proof by displaying the number of shares, comments and votes your article has received.

The governing principle behind social media optimization is to make it very simple and tempting for others to share and comment on your content. There are many small things you can do that won’t take a lot of time that will have a dramatic effect. For example, optimize your title for optimum sharing by making it descriptive, to the point and no more than 98 characters. You want to make sure that your title makes sense outside of the context of your website while making sure it’s not too long to be easily shared on Twitter. While not all that crucial for SEO purposes, crafting a good meta description is extremely important for your SMO efforts. For one thing, you want your content to stand out in the SERPs so that users can’t help but click on it. The meta description also comes into play when someone clicks on a share button; this text will automatically be pulled and displayed on whatever social sites you have an icon for. If you don’t fill out the meta description, you will have no control over what text will appear when your content is shared. Avoid this by coming up with an enticing, informative meta description that summarizes the main points of your article while drawing in readers.

If you aren’t already doing so, now is the time to start optimizing your site and content for social media. If you are interested in increasing awareness of your business or brand, leveraging social media is THE way to go. By doing just a few small things, you will be able to greatly increase your likelihood of getting shared and going viral. So, make sure you’re doing everything in your power to be “social”!