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The first, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), achieves this by focusing on the client’s own website and addresses issues such as keyword selection, suitability for crawling and URL structure.
Social Media Optimization (SMO) on the other hand promotes and publicises a client’s products and services by utilising off-site third party social media.
SMO is related to search engine marketing (SEM), but differs in several distinct ways, but primarily because the focus is on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, although it should be emphasised improved search ranking is also an important benefit of any successful SMO implementation.
SEM is usually interpreted as a Google AdWords campaign these days although it does in fact cover email based activities, affiliate marketing and just about everything else online not counted as SEO or SMO. Although it is in reality the over-arching generic term for all activities including SEO and SMO.
Most established website designers are acquainted with the basic SEO principles, however when it comes to SMO they are usually less well qualified and rarely will have ready access to the requisite tools, such as inhouse blogs, community portals and directories, to implement successful SMO strategies in a reasonably short time frame.
As the web and social media become increasingly mainstream, interaction between people and organisations via social media channels are becoming increasingly important.
According to Social Media Outreach Sydney social media websites like Facebook and Twitter influence more and more buying decisions every day. A social media campaign should be an integral part of any online marketing strategy, and is now being described by some practitioners as a "recession proof marketing" method. SMO comes in many forms. For example, it could be creating professionally written reviews which highlight the best features of a product or service, sponsoring a free online service or event or opening a conversation with an online audience about an important issue.
While advertising pushes a particular message, SMO seeks to involve people as part of that message and will extend your brand as part of the online community.
Andrew Connery is currently completing a PhD at the University of Wollongong, School of Computer Science and Software Engineering and his proposed thesis addresses website performance and related optimization methodologies. | 
