Two digital marketing strategies that mainly target social media networks include social media marketing (SMM) and social media optimization (SMO). Studies prove that more than three billion people are active on social media channels. Both SMM and SMO enable businesses to access the powerful impact of this online promotional platform.
Christopher Lee, WNY Holdings LLC Marketing Manager, helps clients track and understand how their digital marketing efforts help their businesses thrive. Lee also assists clients with all their digital marketing needs, from content marketing, web, and graphic design, media creation, SEO, all the way to Facebook advertising. Being familiar with both SMM and SMO, Lee breaks down the differences between the two.
What is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
SMM is a method of promoting content and is a marketing step taken after SMO. SMM helps businesses boost brand awareness on numerous social media platforms like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube. This specific marketing method is a long-term process that focuses on posting updates, branding activities, social media campaigns, and social media customer services. The steps that the process of SMM requires includes research, identifying opportunities, studying impact, prioritizing options, reaching prospects, addressing queries, then reviewing and reporting.
Social media strategy is a necessary part of SMM that is followed throughout the process of SMM. It helps to decide factors such as associated metrics, goals, appropriate social media networks to utilize, most effective time to publish posts, as well as the most influential connect format that will successfully connect with the audience.
Analysis of social media competition is a vital piece to SMM. During this procedure, competitors are analyzed and monitored along with their community to assess a business’s proper plan. Social media tools to assist with this part of SMM include Facebook Fanpage Karma, Twitonomy, Similar Web, and BuzzSumo.
What is Social Media Optimization (SMO)?
SMO is a step ahead of SMM and is streamlining or optimizing a website before exposing it on various social media platforms. It is similar to the concept of search engine optimization (SEO). SMM’s optimization helps any content posted on social media to be adequately promoted. This procedure is extensive as it involves working on a company’s website and web pages so that these online pages can perform on social media in an optimum way. SMO’s crucial techniques include increasing linkability, creating simple tagging and bookmarking, rewarding inbound links, helping content travel, and encouraging the mashup.
SMO requires constant refining of content as well as consistently updating and adapting social media changes. On top of creating shareable content and always sharing content, SMO involves starting multiple social media interactions. Doing so increases a business’ social footprint on media platforms and brand awareness.
Compared to SMM, SMO is website oriented where SMM is marketing activity on social media outside of the website. SMO was introduced to businesses in 2006 and is a more modernized marketing technique over SMM, introduced in 1986.
About Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee is the Marketing Manager at WNY Holdings LLC -a digital marketing company that was started in 2018 to provide industry-leading marketing services for small businesses. Christopher Lee goes above and beyond for clients, helping them make data-driven decisions that will increase their keyword rankings and visibility to attract and convert more customers.