Social media optimization (also known as SMO or social SEO) is methodization of social media activity with the intention of attracting unique visitors to the website content. SMO is one of many online methods of website optimization. One of the many other methods is search engine optimization or SEO.
There are two types of social media optimization methods:

Social media features added to the contents of the, including: RSS feeds, social news and sharing buttons, user rating and polling tools and integrate third-party community functionalities like images and videos
Promotional activities in social media away from taking the content promoted, including: blogging, comment on other blogs, participate in discussion groups and posting status updates on social networking profiles

Optimization of social media are related to search, search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.

Optimization of social media is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family, but through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing sites. In a similar way achieves engagement with blogs the same by sharing content using RSS in the blogosphere and special blog search engines.

Social media optimization is considered an integral part of an online reputation management (ORM) or Search Engine reputation management (SERM) strategy for organizations or individuals who care about their online presence.

Social media optimization is not limited to marketing and brand building. Smart companies increasingly integrate social media participation as part of their knowledge management strategy (i.e. product or service development, recruitment, employee engagement and revenue, brand building, customer satisfaction and relations, business development, and much more). In addition, conducted social media optimization to promote a community of affiliated site, allows for a healthy business-to-consumer (B2C) relationship.