Social Media Optimization and You: Networking to Grow Your Online Business

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a term coined by Rohit Bhargava and refers to the optimization of a website in order to make it more accessible, visible and linkable in social websites and search engines. The central focus of SMO is to structure a website so that its content and ideas can easily be transmitted virally through media like blogs, podcasts and vlogs.

Bhargava came up with a list of 5 rules for social media optimization, which provided some guidelines on preparing a website for rapid and continuous exposure in a wide variety of social networks.

These 5 rules gradually expanded into 17 rules, with the help of notable bloggers like Lee Odden, Cameron Olthuis and Loren Baker and Jeremiah Owyang.

Here’s the full 16 points as taken from the NewPR wiki on social media optimization

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
    

Four Steps to Self-Optimize for Social Media

While we could delve into abstruse details about the virtual and physical self, self-optimization for social media is actually a fairly straightforward process.

It simply refers to creating an online persona that is open and accessible through various social networks. This includes four steps:

1. Join several popular social websites and networks which are relevant to your website/business.
2. Create a social media bio which lists your professional affiliations and social website profile or openly encourage audiences to reach you through these channels.
3. Explore alternative forms of communication with your audience.
4. Develop two-way interactivity with your audience by enabling them to contact you easily through different platforms.