| Internet marketing |
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| Affiliate marketing |
| Search engine marketing |
| Mobile advertising |
Social media optimization (also known as SMO or social SEO) is the methodization of social media activity with the intent of attracting unique visitors to website content. SMO is one of many online methods of website optimization. One of the many other methods is search engine optimization or SEO.
There are two types of social media optimization methods:
Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.
Social media optimization is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family but through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites. In a similar way the engagement with blogs achieves the same by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogosphere and special blog search engines.
Social media optimization is considered an integral part of an online reputation management (ORM) or Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) strategy for organizations or individuals who care about their online presence.
Social media optimization is not limited to marketing and brand building. Increasingly, smart businesses are integrating social media participation as part of their knowledge management strategy (i.e., product/service development, recruiting, employee engagement and turnover, brand building, customer satisfaction and relations, business development and more). Additionally, social media optimization can be implemented to foster a community of the associated site, allowing for a healthy business-to-consumer (B2C) relationship.
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According to search engine expert Danny Sullivan[1], the term "social media optimization" was first used and described by Rohit Bhargava. Bhargava's original five rules for conducting social media optimization were:[2]
Several authors added new rules to the original post. Today there are 16 rules, which were translated into French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, German, Japanese, Greek, Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew and recently also in Thai.
Four years after the initial post, Rohit Bhargava posted an updated set of five new rules.[3]
Around the same time, entrepreneur and blogger Ben Elowitz proposed as SMO as a broader set of online marketing strategies for all published websites in an era where social platforms are ubiquitous.[4]
Social media gaming is online gaming activity performed through social media sites with friends and online gaming activity that promotes social media interaction.[5] Examples of the former include FarmVille, FrontierVille, and Mafia Wars. In these games a player's social network is exploited to recruit additional players and allies.[6][7][8] An example of the latter is Empire Avenue, a virtual stock exchange where players buy and sell shares of each other's social network worth. In Empire Avenue a player's worth is linked to their social media influence and activity as well as that of the other players they have invested virtual currency in. This game design promotes social media interaction as a means to attaining higher value in Empire Avenue market rankings.[9][10][11]
Nielsen Media Research estimates that, as of June 2010, social networks and online games account for about 1/3 of all online activity by Americans.[12]