Social Media helps in understanding what your target audience really cares about and is a critical tool in content distribution, its content that drives your entire social success. You need crackling content that will attract the attention of your readers and make them sit up and want to listen to you.

Social Media Optimization

Most marketers are familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on some level. Using the reach of search engines like Google and Bing to fuel your marketing campaign has been a successful strategy for years. But as social media grows as one of the top platforms to reach consumers, new approaches to digital marketing have emerged. One of the top strategies used by business looking to maximize their reach online is SMO (Social Media Optimization).

What is SMO (Social Media Optimization)?

SMO is essentially using social media as a catalyst to grow your company's online presence. Where some companies tend to just set up a profile on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to be where their customers are, SMO is about strategically creating, building and maximizing your social media plan to connect with your target audience. SMO allows you to:

  • Strenghten your brand
  • Generate leads
  • Get more visibility online
  • Connect with your audience

Why SMO Is Important

The lines between SMM (Social Media Marketing) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) are becoming increasingly blurred. In the past, the two were looked at as separate and distinct aspects of marketing. But the reality is that they are more intertwined than you might think.

While getting 1,000 Tweets on an article won't magically boost your rankings on Google, SMM and SEO are both stronger together. One survey found 50% of companies that are not succeeding with SEO are not integrating SMM.

Aside from that, the benefits of SMM have been well documented. If you want a solid overall approach to online marketing, you need a healthy balance of SEO and SMO.

While they are not exactly the same, there are a lot of lessons SMM can learn from SEOs to better optimize for social media. Here are 6 tips you can steal from SEOs to improve your SMO:

1. Optimize Your Strategy

A lack of social media startegy has been a roadblock for companies for a while now. Partly because it is still fairly new, and also because social media is always changing. Twenty wight percent of brands feel that a lack of strategy is the top barrier keeping them from becoming a social business. In order to optimize your SMM campaigns, you have a strategy with clearly defined goals and objectives.

A SMO strategy should focus on growing your presence and achieving measurable results. This post outlines how to setup your strategy in seven steps:

  1. Ensure Your Social Goals Solve Challenges
  2. Extend efforts throughout your organization
  3. Focus on Networks that Add Value
  4. Create engaging content
  5. Identify business opportunities through social
  6. Engage instead of ignore
  7. Track, improve and market your efforts

When you have a documented strategy in place, you measure where you stand and make improvements wherever necessary. We will touch on that topic more toward the end of this post.

2. Do Keyword Research

One of the core competencies for SEO is the ability to do keyword research. Keyword research is all about identifying the phrases and topics you target audience is searching so you can create relevant content for them. The same thing applies for SMO.

You need to know what topics, hastags and keywords you target audience uses so you can share content that is relevant to their interests. Keyword research will also help you learn which hashtags and phrases to use in your social media posts so you have a higher chance of being found when people search for content relevant to your brand.

3. Optimize Your Profiles

For Search Engine Optimization, optimizing your website is crucial. The content on every page helps search engines understand what your website is about. So when people are searching for topics relevant to your site, search engines know to recommend your content. SMO is very similar but instead of optimizing your website, you need to optimize your profile.

Profile Photo: Your profile photo should be your company logo. You can use a head shot of yourself if you are a freelancer, consultant or personality.

Username: Use your company name. Social media username availability is starting to become a big factor for brands when they are choosing a business name. Using your brand name makes it easier for customers to find you when they are searching for your profiles on social.

Bio: Clearly state what your company does. If possible, place a trackable link back to your website within your bio to drive more traffic. Using relevant keywords in your bio will also give your page more visibility in search.

Most importantly, fill out your ptofile completely. Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn let you enter a lot of information about your company. Unfortunately many businesses leave these fields incomplete because they rush through the process but the more complete your profile is the more your page will stand out.

Pro Tip: Dedicate a block of time for completing your social media profiles 100% so you can give it the attention it deserves.

4. Optimize Your Content

You have probably heard the saying, "Content Is King" when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Well the same thing is true when we are talking about Social Media Optimization. Content drives social media. You can not succeed with SMM without sharing quality content.

There are two types of content that you can publish on social media:
1. Original Content
2. Curated Content

Original content is content that is specifically made for social media, and is usually part of a campaign. Curated content is content that is shared from various sources around the web.

When you are publishing to social media, here are some tips to keep in mind:

Text Headlines

When you send out a Tweet or Facebook post, do not just use the same headline each time. Some headlines will work better than others. Plus, using a variety of headlines makes your feed fresh. Your followers probably do not want to see the same exact Tweet or Facebook post from you five times in a row.

Use Images

A study from B2B marketing mentor found images were the most important tactic for optimizing content for social media. Include high quality images in your social media updates whenever possible. You can use our very own images resizing tool, landscape for free to make sure all of your images are sized correctly for each social media site. There is nothing worse than having a bunch of pixelated stretched out images in yout Twitter feed.

Pro Tip: Include a featured image in all of your own blog posts. Whenever people share your content on social media, the images will automatically be included.

#Hashtags

Hashtags have become synonymous with SMM. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and pretty much all other top social media sites integrate hasgtags in some fashion. They make it easy to track trending topics, categorize social media posts and they can be entertainig. Hashtags help with SMO by giving your posts more reach, and making it easier for your content to be found even by people who are no following you.

Post Length Matters

Twitter gives you upto 280 characters per Tweet but that does not mean you have to use them all. Knowing the ideal status update length can increase the likelihood of people engaging with your content. We actually created an entire post with the ideal length of every social media post.

5. Optimize Your Posting Schedule

The time you post is just as important as what you post. What os the point in sharing an amazing photo on Instagram if nobody sees it? Here are some tips to optimize your social media posting schedule.

Best Time to Post on Social Media

The optimal posting time depends on your audience and the social media site you are using.

How Often to Post on Social Media

The second part of timimg your social media posts is choosing the right frequency. You want as many people to see your posts as possible, but you do not want to completely bombard your followers streams and timelines. Here is a breakdown of the optimal social media posting frequency for different social networks according to research from constant contact:

  • Facebook: 3-10 times per week
  • Twitter: 5+ times per day
  • LinkedIn: 2-5 times per week
  • Pinterest: 5-10 times per day
  • Google+: 3-10 times per week

6. Track and Improve with Social Media Analytics

Just like with SEO, you should track your SMO efforts with social media analytics. Some of this can be done through Google Analytics using UTM codes. UTM codes and shprtened URLs allow you to attribute the traffic your website gets from social media to a specific channel or campaign. In addition to that data, use the reports you get from your SMM tool get a full picture of the impact of your campaigns.

1. Conversation Rate: The average number of comments and replies your posts get

2. Amplification: The average number of shares and retweets your posts get

3. Applause: The average number of votes your posts get +1, favorites, likes)

4. Economic Value: You social media ROI

SMO can drastically improve the way you approach marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media sites. Start taking a strategic approach to SMM and amplify your results.




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