With 4.7 billion users on social media, it’s critical to stand out amongst your competitors. Social Media Optimization (SMO) tactics are simple changes that can seriously boost your online visibility and growth. The term social media optimization (SMO) may sound difficult but in reality, it’s quite easy to do.
In order to achieve the best results, it’s important to learn how to optimize your channels. So, let’s dive in so you can make your social media channels work for you!
What is social media optimization?
Much like other digital marketing tactics, social media optimization (SMO) is the ongoing process of testing, analyzing, and adjusting your content. By consistently reviewing and optimizing your content and online accounts, you improve your content and boost visibility.
SMO also allows you to connect with your audience on a deeper level. Furthermore, it can help you achieve your key performance indicators (KPIs) more efficiently. All in all, social media optimization can:
Improve your visibility online
Attract your ideal customer more easily
Strengthen your brand voice
Enhance the performance of your content
Assist with your online reputation management (ORM)
Are you ready to boost your social media marketing efforts? Keep reading to uncover the 7 SMO methods to further strengthen your online presence.
RELATED ARTICLE: SEO or Social Media Marketing: which is better?
Optimize your content strategy
Social media is constantly evolving, so your content strategy should be tweaked and adjusted to match these changes. It’s also important to assess and update your goals as your business grows. Here are a few items to consider, while optimizing your content strategy:
What are your current goals? Are they measurable?
How often are you posting and when? Should you increase or decrease your frequency?
Can you cross-post any content? What about repurposing past content?
What assets do you need to create each month to fulfill your content schedule?
How to optimize your profile
First impressions are everything. If you want to attract the right audience to your social media channels, you have to optimize your profiles. Your profile should answer who you are, what you do, how you can help them (aka. your audience), where they can contact you, and it should establish your brand voice.
Consistency is key to success here, so make sure each social media profile has the same profile picture and username if possible. Your bio or profile description should also contain relevant keywords that your audience may be searching for. Make sure you also include a CTA (call to action) that tells your audience what you want them to do. For example, signing up for a free webinar, downloading an e-book or guide, or booking a consultation.
Optimize for search with hashtags
Hashtags are a fantastic way to increase the visibility and overall reach of your posts. This means that hashtags can help your content be seen by more people. Each social media channel may have slightly different guidelines, but most of the practices remain the same. For every post make sure to always include:
Hashtags within each caption
A mix of popular, niche, and branded hashtags
Highly relevant hashtags that fit your subject matter
The correct number of hashtags (don’t use too many!) per channel
Please be strategic with how you utilize hashtags. For more insights on the power of hashtags in social media, read our other article below.
RELATED ARTICLE: Understanding the Power of Hashtags in Social Media
Optimize your content
Most social media platforms now recommend the use of keywords to drive organic search. Using keywords within your captions, bio or profile description, and hashtags can seriously boost your discoverability to put you in front of the right people. Here are a few additional things to consider when optimizing your content:
Be consistent with your brand voice
Always include titles, sub-titles, auto-captions, and alt text wherever possible
Ask questions and for feedback from your followers
Use engagement tactics (like Instagram Stickers – polls, quizzes, emoji slider, etc)
Include relevant keywords and engaging CTAs
Try A/B testing headlines, visuals, and captions
Collect User Generated Content (UGC) from your audience
Partner or collaborate with influencers or other businesses (non-competitive, of course)
Know When to Post
The number of posts you distribute on each channel and the time you post can have a huge impact on your performance. Make sure to review each channel’s analytics to determine the best time to publish your content. The goal is to release your posts when your audience is online. Knowing when your audience is online will help maximize your engagement.
It’s also important to determine the frequency of your posts on each channel. As a general rule of thumb, 1-2 posts per day should be sufficient. Although you should look into the suggested posting frequencies for each channel and test what works best for your audience. Here is a brief breakdown of Sprout Social’s industry averages as a general reference:
Instagram – 1 to 2 posts per day
Facebook – 4 to 5 posts per day
Pinterest – once per day
LinkedIn – once per day
Twitter – 3 to 4 tweets per day
TikTok – 1 to 4 posts per day
Optimize Links with UTMs
Link optimization is highly underrated. It may not seem relevant, but it can be extremely useful in understanding your audience’s engagement and behavior. By setting up UTM parameters – a custom code that gets added to a link – with a URL builder you can easily track the success of your social media content (ie. clicks) and web traffic.
Review Key Metrics to Optimize Performance
Now that you’re aware of these social media optimization tactics, the final objective is to optimize your overall performance. This involves an ongoing review of each channel’s analytics. If you’re hitting your goals, then your strategy is working well! However, if you’re not hitting your goals you need to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t. Then make some adjustments to your strategy to help get you the results you’re looking for.
Final Thoughts
Social media marketing is just one piece of the puzzle. With these optimization methods, you can start building a solid foundation that will further enhance your marketing efforts. Pay close attention to analytics and don’t be afraid to test out different methods! Every business is unique, so what works for one company may not work for another.
Still not sure how to get started? Fear not! Book a call with us today so we can help you drive better results with your marketing.
