What is SMO and why do you absolutely need it?

Have you heard of SMO?

According to Statista, it’s expected that by 2025 there will be more than 245 million social media users in the United States ALONE. 

And what's more, more than 70% of those users are currently researching brands and their products through social media.

The social media market is the most flourishing, the most thriving, and one of the most promising markets today. 

But to position yourself in such a large market and with so many competitors, strategies are indispensable, especially SMO (Social Media Optimization), one of the best strategic approaches for social networks.

And here we will tell you everything, absolutely everything you need to know to start implementing SMO in your strategies.

What is SMO and why is it so important?

SMO refers to all the strategies, approaches, techniques, and hacks to make your social networks work at full speed - and generate the results you are looking for.

This concept encompasses technical modifications as well as strategic approaches and agile methodologies. In short, everything can boost the performance of your networks. 

It also brings together approaches and strategies to optimize your social networks through other channels, such as websites, print media, magazines, and traditional marketing media, such as ads and commercials. 

SMO vs. SMM, SEO, SEA, ASO & SEM

If you're just getting started in marketing and social media, you may have already noticed that there’s an infinite list of acronyms everywhere you look. 

To make things easier for you, to avoid confusion, and to provide you with more strategies, we’ve grouped together the most important concepts - not to be confused with SMO. When talking about networks, these are the acronyms to remember:

• SMM: Social Media Marketing. It covers direct and indirect marketing strategies within social networks.

• SEO: Search Engine Optimization. It’s based on strategies to position websites, as well as their respective blogs, articles, and landing pages at the top of search engine results pages (e.g., Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.).

• SEA: Search Engine Advertising. This brings together everything that has to do with PPC (Pay Per Click) ads on search engines. In other words, the ads that appear when you make online queries or enter a website.

• ASO: App Store Optimization. This only focuses on the positioning of applications within the App Store and Google Play. 

• SEM: Search Engine Marketing. It encompasses SEO, SMO, and SEA and encompasses all marketing strategies (especially ads) on search engines. 

Each and every one of these approaches is invaluable when developing your marketing strategy. 

But with a holistic strategy, one that incorporates the best of these approaches, you will have a better chance of positioning your brand in different markets, through different means.

With that said, let's take a look at the benefits this strategy can offer you.

4 Advantages of SMO

1. You optimize your positioning

What better tool than social networks to gain visibility, position your brand, and put it in front of your target audience?

Through SMO, you can optimize your accounts to increase their visibility on social networks fivefold, attracting more users to your brand and boosting your sales opportunities. 

2. You increase organic interactions

Or in other words, more users really interested in your publications, users that will help you position your brand, expand your community and attract many leads to your accounts... Just by interacting. 

3. You multiply conversions

Because in the end, marketing strategies are based on selling.

SMO will allow you to attract more leads to your networks and maximize your number of conversions. In addition, it will allow you to build solid network strategies that continue to generate conversions over time. 

Thanks to SMO, you will also be able to broaden your community and expand your network of followers and keep producing conversions organically.

4. You scale your brand for the long term

An SMO strategy can also be invaluable for scaling your brand in the long run. More customers, more followers, more interactions, and better positioning are key to expanding your brand to new horizons.

Therefore, if you’re looking to grow your brand to mind-blowing levels on social media, SMO should be part of your strategy and business goals.

Types of SMO Tools and how to use them

When it comes to SMO, the fundamental pillars on which the tools are based are:

• Design: tools to facilitate and accelerate everything related to the creation of audiovisual content.

• Monitoring and analysis: to record your publications, and track their positioning, interactions, and performance over time. Fundamental to study the effectiveness of your strategies in the short and long term.

• Automation: to eliminate all those repetitive tasks that slow down workflows. To improve the productivity of the team and its members. Also, to program alerts, messages, publications, and specific actions. 

• Toolkits: software to centralize all the above tools in a single platform, along with all your social networks. Thus, facilitating both day-to-day network management and content strategies, campaigns, access and analysis, and monitoring tools.

If you manage to incorporate all these pillars in your SMO strategy, you will be able to exploit all aspects of social media optimization. And thus, improve the performance of your brand in different channels.

Best SMO tools to strengthen your repertoire

Since there are a whole host of tools to optimize your social networks, we have compiled the most interesting and best supported by users. Let's take a look at them.

1. Buffer

Buffer is perfect for integrating accounts from a large number of social networks, scheduling posts on all your networks, and tracking their performance and interactions. 

It also has an app for mobile devices and a browser extension and allows you to interact on all networks without leaving the platforms. 

2. Canva

Canva needs no introduction.

This has become the preferred tool for social media posts -and all kinds of visual content- thanks to its templates and, above all, the fact that you don't have to be an expert designer to use it. 

It has a wide repertoire of templates for all kinds of posts, perfect for slides, infographics, carousels, cover photos, and collages, among others.

3. AgoraPulse

AgoraPulse is another SMO favorite.

This platform aims to be the all-in-one for social media management. This toolkit has all kinds of tools: analytical tools and reports, interactions, templates, and automated responses, among other features. 

And of course, it is compatible with a wide variety of social networks and is designed to simplify the entire network management. 

4. Zapier

Zapier is the first choice of millions of marketers, developers, and teams around the world when it comes to automation. It’s perfect for onsite and remote teams and essential for optimal social media management. 

This software has all the tools you need to simplify and accelerate workflows, increase your productivity and that of your team, 

And of course, it's perfect for eliminating repetitive tasks and time-consuming tasks, such as data entry and manual integrations.

5. Vista Create

Vista Create is perfect for integrating into your SMO for all types of posts for basically all of your social networks. 

It’s ideal for editing and perfecting photos and videos in all formats, such as TikTok, Instagram stories and reels, ads, YouTube videos, and even for creating GIFs.

All of these tools will help you take your SMO to the next level. However, there are no better tools than the analytics your social media accounts provide you with.

And if you really want to perfect your networks from a strategic and marketing point of view, the best option is to know your users, constantly study their interactions, and interact with them.

How to SMO all your social networks

1. Check the formats

A fairly common problem, and one that often goes unnoticed, is that of incorrect formats, both in photos and images as well as in audio and videos.

In addition, formats vary according to each network. Images on Instagram may pixelate on LinkedIn, and so on. 

These formatting issues are the ones that do not escape users and can damage your brand's image.

Therefore, a simple but very effective step is to make sure that your content fits well with the proportions of the platform. 

Check the proportions and formats recommended by the platforms in their help and support pages. At the same time, make sure that the network is well configured so as not to ruin the quality of your content. 

2. Analyze the different algorithms

All networks are governed by the same principle: 

More interactions = better positioning.  

However, all algorithms are governed by different standards, different patterns, and different positioning factors.

To improve the performance of your SMO strategies, you should also analyze and above all test what favors your publications the most according to the different algorithms.

3. Keep your records updated

This is a fairly simple step, but indispensable for your SMO and your social media presence.

An outdated registry can cause all sorts of problems with your social media tools, integrations, extensions, and paid services.

In fact, some paid providers may close your accounts because of problems with your addresses.

4. Complement your networks with other channels

You can use a whole arsenal of different channels to complement and even maximize the performance of your networks. 

Websites and blogs, backlinks, forums, communities... All possible means within digital marketing are excellent options to complement your SMO.

On the other hand, if your brand also has a website, be sure to include links and buttons on your page so that users can access your networks. Likewise, link to your web pages from your networks so that both channels complement each other.

And of course, influencers.

Marketing is growing all the time. And it's a great way to bring audiences who don't yet know your brand directly to it.

Influencers... And as long as their content is current, you will continue to receive visits on your pages and social networks. 

And if you want to specialize in social media, you can check out our digital marketing training programs. 

You will have the best specialists, you will learn to master digital strategies and tools and how to take advantage of them to generate better results. 

SMO strategies will help you position yourself in today's most promising market and boost the performance of your marketing strategies. And if you complement them with other strategies, you will have excellent opportunities to scale your brand in the short and long term.

Now it's your turn. Tell us what you think about SMO and how you plan to use it. And if we missed anything, tell us all about it in the comments. 

We also invite you to check out our marketing section. And if you're up for it, you can also check out our digital marketing training.