SMO, or social media optimisation, is a term that has been floating around the web for a couple of years now. Property Ad Guru first looked into what SMO is and why it matters in early 2010, but as the social web has grown and changed over the past year, we thought now might be a good time to revisit this aspect of online marketing.
So what is SMO, again?
Social media optimisation boils down to two main factors: making your online content is shareable by others, and taking the time to spread the word about your website, service or product through social channels. So the “share/save” button at the bottom of this post makes it shareable, and when we post a link to this article on Facebook, we’ll have optimised it even further.
What hasn’t changed:
- Share/save buttons haven’t gone out of style - in fact they’re expected for blog posts. If you haven’t added one yet, check our how-to guide for WordPress users here.
- Beyond blog posts, you also need to make sure the rest of your content is shareable. Can someone link to your most important content easily? Can your videos and pictures be shared without any fuss?
- Staying part of the conversation is still key. People need to be familiar with you and your message before they will be confident in sharing what you have to say.
- Strong content is still the most important factor. For real estate agents, this means up-to-date local content that positions you as the expert in your market niche.
What’s new in SMO:
- New social tools appear online all the time, but the biggest new player is undeniably Google+. At the moment it’s all about creating networks on a personal level, but here’s what Google had to say about when Google+ will be rolled out for business users.
- People can tell when you’re commenting just for the sake of links. This has probably always been true, but people’s tolerance for “great post!” comments with a link back to your site is only getting lower by the day.
- Video and images are just as acceptable as text. You don’t always need to spend hours editing a 500-word blog post - an interesting video or even a photo with a few lines of text will often be just as effective.
- Social media is no longer an extra - it’s an expected of any company’s online portfolio. So if your content isn’t optimised for and taking advantage of social platforms, you really are missing out.
What are your tips for SMO? Let us know in our comments.
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