Yes, and one of the best strategies in attaining your digital aspirations – reach, clicks, leads, and even search engine rankings – is optimizing your social media presence.
Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a digital marketing approach in using social media platforms to increase brand awareness, digital visibility and website traffic. Well-optimized social channels benefit your brand in several ways:
- Expanded Digital Presence. Active and optimized social media will boost digital visibility. An established social presence fuels brand awareness.
- Stronger Brand Loyalty. Making a positive social media experience with your audience connects them to the brand. Engagement and interactions build trust and keeps your brand top of mind in the customer journey.
- Enhanced Search Engine Rankings. Social media interactions play a valuable role in SEO. Content that’s interreacted with and shared numerous times reaches a broader audience and contributes to a potentially higher website search engine ranking.
Increased reach, brand loyalty and SEO are all great reasons to do an SMO check on your accounts. Reap the benefits with optimization best practices. Here are a few simple tips to get you started:
Complete Your Social Profiles
Check each account to ensure complete profiles. Not every platform has the same data fields, but many include a headline, bio, profile picture, cover photo, contact information, location, and an About section.
Stay on-brand
In your profiles and content, it’s best to stick with brand colors, style, and logo. Consistency is one of the best paths to recognition.
Post original content
Original content is something that has never been published before. Considering that users share 95 million photos and videos a day on Instagram alone, it’s worth a brainstorm on how to make your content stand out. One of the best ways to post original content is to share stories about people. Try sharing customer success stories, staff spotlights, or anything that involves a person who has had an experience with your brand to share.
Hashtag Use
When you use a hashtag you are digitally “entering the chat” of the topic of that hashtag. Use relevant hashtags to reach the audience you want to connect with. The best way to identify how people intereact with a hashtag is to search it for yourself. Note how often the hashtag is being used and who is using it.
Engage
Social media is…social. In this two-sided relationship, you need to interact with your audience. Simple ways to engage are to share user generated content, and respond to comments and direct messages. Take it one step further by engaging with other accounts, influencers, and potential clients.
Timing
Though there is no “best time to post” you should aim to schedule content for when your audience is online. Your insights/analytics will tell you when they are most active.
Increase Posting Frequency
Consistency is key to signaling to social media algorithms that your brand is active and relevant.
Promote Content
How is anyone on Facebook going to know you just published a new blog post? You need to let them know! Repurpose and promote content onto all of the platforms you’re on. Lure them in with a teaser and make platform hopping exciting for the user.
Watch Your Analytics
Pay attention to which content resonates with your target audience. Social media analytics can provide insight to what type of content gets more clicks and shares.
There are 5.04 billion social media users in the world. Engaging that audience is probably the reason you started your organization’s social accounts. Social Media Optimization gives you the right strategy and tools to thrive in the digital landscape. When SMO is done right it will boost your digital presence and lead to improved results with clicks, leads, website traffic and conversions.
Our team of marketing experts can set your organization up for success with SMO and develop strategies to advance your SEO. Contact us today.