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5 Social Media Optimization Techniques
How’s your social media campaign going?
If your organization has a social presence across multiple platforms, it’s possible your results aren’t as good as they could be. It’s understandable. There are many challenges involved in maintaining an effective social media strategy over time.
In this article, we’re going to explore five social media optimization techniques that really work. Implement all of them, and you’ll see engagement and visibility go through the roof.
What is social media optimization?
Social media optimization (SMO) is an umbrella term that covers a number of techniques aimed at improving the results of your social media campaigns. It comprises both tech-first approaches and more human-centered ones.
One way to streamline your efforts is to manage all social media in one place using tools that allow you to schedule posts, analyze audiences, and engage with your fans across multiple platforms efficiently.
Most businesses have some kind of social media presence these days, but not all are doing social well. Too often, they make a number of classic mistakes that can easily be avoided. If you think your organization could be falling into this trap, it’s worth taking some time to assess the situation. Could you be doing more?
Let’s have a look at some of the best SMO techniques that you can implement now to increase awareness and boost your reach.
1) Include calls to action
If you don’t know where to start, start here. This one’s easy to do without any special tools. Including calls to action is a classic technique used by content creators everywhere to increase audience engagement. Think of how many YouTubers say something like “What do you think the best thing to put on toast is? Let me know in the comments! I love hearing from you guys!”
If you’ve ever suspected they’re not as enthusiastic as they seem (and probably don’t want to read 5,382 different suggestions about what to put on their toast), you’re spot on. They like the number of comments though. High audience engagement helps with the algorithm—and it can give your business a boost too.
As well as open-ended questions, try posting interactive material like quizzes and polls. Instagram has a useful question sticker tool that makes popping A/B questions into your Insta stories a cinch, for example. Look for opportunities to draw your target audience in by getting them to do something fun.
2) Post at the right times
There are two elements to this one. There’s the question of when to post—but also of how often.
It can be tricky to judge this because the right time to post depends both on your audience and the platform you’re using. You probably don’t want to be posting to Twitter at 3 am. No one will see it, and your campaign awareness will plummet. So, think about where your target market is and schedule accordingly.
When it comes to the optimal frequency of posting, it again depends on the platform. An ephemeral space like Instagram stories gives you an opportunity for quick-fire engagement, and because posts don’t hang around, you can put them up more often. You need to be a bit more circumspect with platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn, so you don’t irritate potential customers by over-posting.
On the other hand, if you don’t post often enough, social media algorithms are likely to downgrade your explainer videos or behind-the-scenes vlogs and show you to fewer users, so there’s a balance to be struck. These ballpark frequency figures for the main platforms should give you a rough guide:
- Twitter: four to six per day
- LinkedIn: two to five per week
- Facebook: four to eight per week
- TikTok: four to six per week
- Instagram: three to four per week in feed, about three to five a day in stories
Free-to-use image sourced from Unsplash
3) Take advantage of analytics tools
One great aspect of social media marketing is that you can access a lot of data about how well it’s working. Social platforms track engagement using various metrics, which can include likes, shares, comments, and so on. Keep an eye on these to get ongoing feedback about which posts are performing well and which could do better. This will help you adapt your strategy and achieve better results as time goes on.
Digging deeper into these figures is a good idea. There are plenty of innovative analytical tools available to help you track engagement data, provide insights in your social media, and gain feedback on how effective your social advertising campaigns are.
4) Master hashtags
The great thing about hashtags is that they represent a useful solution to a classic problem. Businesses that are trying to grow have always faced the issue of not knowing who all their potential customers are. A target audience is just that—a target you know exists. But what if your business is missing out on other potential customers you don’t know about?
Using hashtags in content addresses this because it links you into the social ecosystem in a direct way. Hashtags help you organize your content and make it more easily searchable, which is good news when it comes to reaching out beyond your known target market. That’s because hashtags give content an immediate visibility boost. Instead of you finding new customers, they find you.
Top tips for using hashtags include:
- Keep them relevant. Generic hashtags can get your content marked as spam.
- Don’t use too many at once. About five per post should be the limit.
- Mix it up. Use a combination of branded and non-branded hashtags.
Free-to-use image sourced from Unsplash
5) Optimize your content
Make it good. Make it bright and colorful. Make it funny. There’s a reason why people say content is king. Although it’s often treated as a business product, you should never lose sight of the fact that it’s all about making a human connection.
If you can provide content that’s actively useful, so much the better. Try to make it relevant to your product. If you sell design software, you might decide to produce a guide to making a digital brochure, for example. If you supply meal kits, posting videos where people make and try the dishes would be ideal.
Get your social media campaigns on track
No matter what line of business you’re in, social media optimization can work for you. These techniques will give your visibility a boost in a crowded marketplace and drive audience engagement, whether you’re sharing a fashion vlog or a product launch communication plan.
There’s a whole world out there ripe for the taking. With a little careful planning and imagination, your social media campaigns can help you to access it.