With more than 2 billion monthly active users on Facebook alone, social media optimization has never been more important for benefiting your business.
Social media continues to dominate how we communicate with one another, express our preferences, and share our ideas. Successful businesses know the potential that such interaction with customers provides.
Let’s get into how you can take advantage of your social media strategy today!
Identify Your Goals
When it comes to social media optimization, you need to have some clear focus on what you want to achieve. This will help tailor a plan that’s right for your business, and no two businesses are equal!
Start by asking yourself what you hope to achieve with enhancing your social media strategy. If you could achieve one goal right now, what would it be?
Are you looking to increase your online presence? Gain new followers or fans? Sell more products or services overall? Improve your reputation or company image.
Chances are, your answer is all of the above. With that in mind, you need to focus on one of those questions to tackle first. This helps solidify your goal and create your marketing strategy.
Study the Competition
What do all successful business owners have in common? They know their competition, and they know it well!
This is where it’s important for you to audit what your competition is doing on social media. What kind of statuses do they post? Are they sharing interesting tutorials on Youtube? Creating product launches on Instagram?
Even though you may not intend to follow their suit, it’s wise for you to take stock of what is and isn’t working. After all, if they’re racking up tons of followers and you’re still barely scraping by, this information might have something to offer!
Understand the Benefits of Each Social Media Platform
When it comes to your social media optimization, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. The method you take in boosting your Snapchat may (and probably will) fail miserably if you apply it to your company’s Facebook.
Consider the following cheat sheet.
It’s the most popular platform to date. Facebook is great for building your brand identity. Do this by sharing relevant videos or pictures with thoughtful statuses.
And, don’t forget to take advantage of the user’s location information that users provide for you. This allows you to engage in targeted advertising, which can help narrow down your audience.
Hashtags matter and wit is usually a winner when it comes to dominating Twitter. With Twitter, you need to be sharp, attentive to detail, and willing to show a bit of your personality!
Pinterest continues to grow, as more and more consumers desire visual content when looking to purchase products or services. Use Pinterest to develop your brand and highlight your company’s mission and goals. Create boards to show off your company’s unique personality.
Hashtags will also be your friend when it comes to social media optimization with Instagram. You’ll want to make sure that you use the highest-quality photos and integrate useful captions with a call-to-action for each of them.
Those are just a few of the popular social media platforms today, and that cheatsheet only covers the bare essentials. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with how to take advantage of each platform, you might benefit from speaking with a social media expert.
Optimize Your Existing Accounts
If you’re already on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, it’s time to make those profiles work for you.
If you just automatically set up a page without giving it too much attention, you can’t expect to garner much of a following, right?
Focus on implementing these key points:
- Establishing a cohesive and identifiable brand
- Changing URLs to reflect your brand or company’s name
- Completely fill out all necessary contact information
- Completely fill out the about/bio section with appropriate keywords
Social media optimization isn’t just about the glamour of going viral. It’s about getting your basics down, so take the time to get them right.
Create Calls to Action
When you implement calls to action, you encourage your audience to interact with your and your company.
In a nutshell, a call to action instructs the reader to, well, take an action! When it comes to optimizing that strategy, focus on keeping it small and simple.
An easy, share with your friends or comment with your thoughts below is sufficient enough to get people buzzing and talking with you.
Don’t overcomplicate your call to action- you don’t want to come across as needy or desperate for people to respond. That’s a definite way to backfire your social media optimization goals.
Use Social Media Buttons
Your website should have social media buttons that easily allow your visitors to follow, share, or like items directly. It’s best to make them visible and on every page- you want people to find them as quickly and directly as possible.
Furthermore, take it one step further by adding share buttons to content on your site so visitors can share your articles, videos, or images.
This improves your website’s exposure and will likely drive increased traffic to your site. It’s a win-win for everyone!
Final Thoughts on Social Media Optimization
Social media isn’t just for sharing funny videos or talking with your grandma. Today, it’s a lucrative tool for promoting your business and connecting with potential leads.
Are you interested in learning more relevant social media tips and tricks? Be sure to check out our blog today!
