SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION

Rohit Bhargava was credited with inventing the term SMO.[1] His original five rules to help guide our thinking with conducting an SMO for a client's website are:[2]

“The concept behind SMO is simple: implement changes to optimize a site so that it is more easily linked to, more highly visible in social media searches on custom search engines (such as Technorati), and more frequently included in relevant posts on blogs, podcasts and vlogs.”

  1. Increase your linkability
  2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy
  3. Reward inbound links
  4. Help your content travel
  5. Encourage the mashup


These five rules have evolved, due to the contributions of several internetmarketeers, into the following seventeen rules:[3]

1. Increase your linkability

2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy

3. Reward inbound links

4. Help your content travel

5. Encourage the mashup

6. Be a User Resource, even if it doesn't help you

7. Reward helpful and valuable users

8. Participate

9. Know how to target your audience

10. Create content

11. Be real

12. Don't forget your roots, be humble

13. Don't be afraid to try new things, stay fresh

14. Develop a SMO strategy

15. Choose your SMO tactics wisely

16. Make SMO part of your process and best practices

17. Don't be afraid to let go of a message or idea