SMO, or Social Media Optimization, is one of the latest Internet marketing strategies. Social media websites have become vastly popular, with the dawn of Web 2.0 being seen as the dawn of the social Internet. Static websites that are rarely updated are becoming less desirable and, in their place, websites that offer user interaction of some description are becoming the more popular destination for the world's surfers. Effective SMO contains a number of elements that are often associated with other forms of online marketing. Link building and viral marketing are a big part of SMO but still only a portion.

Linkable Content

Persuading others to link to you or bookmark you as a resource means providing linkable content. While interactive web developments certainly create a buzz and make it very easy for others to link to, anything fresh, unique, innovative, and even controversial will help you build links. Reports, ebooks, and white papers are still popular offerings that other social sites and surfers will reference.

Offer The Right Tools

At the most basic level, an SMO campaign requires the addition of tagging buttons to linkable content. This ensures that you can use your visitors to promote your site because you are offering a way to do so in just a single or very few clicks. Also offer code for text links (this also allows you to have some control of the anchor text used) and other social media buttons and options.

Make It Viral

In some respects, SMO can be considered a form of viral marketing. The intention is to get your website or blog seen by other surfers who will, in turn, relay the details of your site to others, and so on. The more appealing your content and the more of a reaction it invokes, the more people will naturally hear about it but will often be down to you to start the ball rolling. Submit your content or bookmark your pages yourself, if they provide something genuinely useful or valuable to surfers.

Be An Expert Or Resource

Don't think that sending your visitors to another page of another site will be to your ultimate detriment. By becoming a resource and linking to other valuable resources, you will gain in stature and users will bookmark you as being a major resource for a particular topic. This instantly increases the level of trust they believe they have in your service, and it may encourage links back from those resources you list.

Social Media Is A Two Way Street

Be a part of the online community you are attempting to tap into. Social networking is far from being a new marketing technique but it remains popular because it is successful. However, don't do it just for the sake of promoting your site. If you post on other blogs (with a link to your own) then ensure that you don't spam but do leave insightful and relevant comments. When others link to you from their blog or website, visit that site and see if you can become involved or even return the link love.