What is social media optimization (SMO)? It’s a programmatic strategy for building and engaging community through social networks, and in this issue of Library Technology Reports, you'll receive practical guidelines for implementing this flexible and comprehensive community-building model. Authors Doralyn Rossmann and Scott W. H. Young structure this report around five interrelated objectives: create shareable content, make sharing easy, reward engagement, proactively share, and measure use and encourage reuse. Ideal for both libraries who are just starting to implement a social media strategy and those looking to enhance current efforts, this guide will help you employ SMO principles to create a self-sustaining online community of engaged users who regularly use the library and its spaces, services, and collections. Rossmann and Young provide:

an effective social media guide that you can adapt for your institution
advice for implementing SMO to connect users with relevant content and build sustainable relationships
practical guidelines for creating shareable content that relates to your users along with concrete examples of social media posts
instructions for adding social share buttons and implementing social media cards to your websites to enhance content sharing
strategies for raising awareness of your library’s resources and services; and
an overview of quantitative and qualitative approaches for measuring and evaluating the success of social network activity.