Social Media Optimization (SMO)

What is Social Media Optimization (SMO)?
Social Media Optimization (SMO) refers to the creation of online content that is likely to be shared through social networks. Social media optimization is more art than science, as it can be difficult to come up with a consistent formula for creating shareable content. However, social media optimization is gaining in importance as social sharing is increasingly integrated into search results.
In the broadest sense, optimizing social media involves two basic steps: creating sharable content and adding social sharing tools to make it easier for users to share in real life. However, SMO is much more involved.

Successful websites have found that the title of any piece of content is an important key in getting a user to see it. After that, the strength of the first paragraph affects how much is read by those users.

However, releasing content to a user depends on the quality of the piece - and this can often trump a weak title or misleading first paragraph. Finding the right balance between attention, headlines and interesting information is just one of the challenges of social media optimization.