Social Media Optimization Be

If you notice, SEO for websites and SEO for blogs is not any different. SEO is SEO. It makes a big difference with blogs because every blog post is a separate web page. That makes your blog an ever-changing SEO tool, unlike your web pages, which are static content pages. For ongoing SEO, there is nothing better than a well-written and optimized blog.

But social media optimization is slightly different. Sure, you can SEO your web pages and your blog posts the normal way, but even the most perfect SEO won’t ensure that you get tagged and Digged. I mean, Dugg.

Nevertheless, social media optimization is important if you want your message to have a viral sting. If you want it to travel very far outside of your own circle then you’ve got to give it some  juice. That means going beyond mere SEO. It’s called SMO, social media optimization.

According to Rohit Bhargava, the first person to use the term SMO, the five rules to follow for social media optimization are:

Increasing linkability
Making tagging and bookmarking easy
Rewarding inbound links
Assisting your content with its travel plans (and I don’t mean luggage)
Encouraging the mashup

So what does all of that mean? Well, first it means focusing on SEOing your content properly. Until you get that right you shouldn’t even think about SMO. But beyond the SEO, you need make sure your content is unique and provides extraordinary value to your visitors. If your visitors see that value then they’ll tell others and you’ll increase your chances of getting the links.

For tagging and bookmarking, you need to put the AddThis button, or a similar tool, on your content pages - blog and web pages. That will go a long way to getting you there.

But how do you reward inbound links? There are several ways:
Start an affiliate program
Offer free downloads to anyone who links to you
Offer a link back to them, either as a reciprocal link or from another site you own
Provide a service or newsletter subscription for a link
There are several ways you can encourage links. Get creative and provide value. That’s the main thing.

In terms of helping your content travel, send out press releases or queries to popular bloggers in your industry to check out your content. Ask them to bookmark and tag it if they like it or find it useful.

Finally, you want your content to appear in as many places as possible. Provide a way for people to RSS your content. That way, they can subscribe to your content and integrate it with their own as well as with other people’s content into one running feed. Get your content out there, man, and mash it up.