According to recent research, a whopping count of 212.40 million brands globally leveraging social media platforms to grow sales, increase engagement and reach new customers. However, surprisingly, only a few have cracked a strong strategy of optimization. And that’s because comprehending the technicalities along with stripping a sense of creativity is not a cakewalk. The good news is that optimizing the social presence of your brand is doable on endorsing the right strategy.
Undeniably, social media marketing is topping the funnel. With more than 4 billion active users, there is immense potential to create some insane awareness and voice your brand.
A gist of social media optimization:
To begin with the mark of social media marketing, it is the process of promoting a product/service or an idea in order to boost sales, drive traffic and create more engagement. Although the exercise of marketing on social media platforms is constantly evolving; the objective for every brand remains the same- to meet the target audience. Nevertheless, it is important to establish the fact that the strategy for every social media platform differs.
Speaking of social media optimization (SMO), it basically dictates which content performs best on a particular channel. The process is directed towards enhancing your content in order to derive better engagement, conversions and increasing followers. While optimizing social media posts, it is important to look into competitor strategy, performance analysis, audience expectation and so much more.
The crux of social media optimization is to analyze and adjust an online presence in order to upscale the growth. To rightly conclude, creating a social media platform is not enough, optimizing is the key to boost the digital side.
Benefits of Social Media Optimization:
Optimizing content on social media requires SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-framed) strategies; to which we will get to in a tad-bit. Let’s have a moment to discuss what it can do for you.
- Enhance your engagement rate.
- Boost your audience reach.
- Increase customer interaction.
- Gain customer loyalty.
- Escalate brand awareness.
- Sell more of the product/service/idea.
- Spread the word faster to a wider audience.
Trending Social Media Platforms
Unquestionably, Instagram has taken the world by a storm. At present, a large population is habituated to shop for products, look through services and gain some solid knowledge on this platform. And therefore, cracking your content on social media is taxing but at the same time the most important thing to do. Also, Instagram has stolen the show with its visually compelling content.
To put it rightly, Facebook is the most established and the largest social media platform. Since its launch in 2004, it has become an indispensable medium for business to grow organically and surpass expectations.
- YouTube
Statistics suggest that YoutTube is an incredibly popular platform with more than 50% of the populace using the stream to market their products. In fact, it is not just an entertainment platform anymore. It has now become a vital channel for building a brand or a community.
Pinterest is no more just for baby boomers, it’s now a platform for every era. This medium is great for brands to get noticed and narrate their journey visually; thereby leading to conversion.
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Master Social Media Optimization!
- Identify your target audience
It’s almost impossible to strategize without identifying your target audience. So, go all out to comprehend them closely. Get to know your audience demographics but predominantly understand what ticks them. Do an intricate research on what can ideally resonate with your audience before crafting your content. It is important to do this at the initial stage.
- Analyze your competitor
Once you know your audience, get a sense of your competition. A competitive analysis helps in understanding what’s making the industry leaders thrive. Even though your targets would differ, you ought to discover some spot-on opportunities and untapped spaces that you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Also, you can watch what flops and not repeat the same mistakes. In a snippet, this is a quick way of analyzing audience reaction without much experimentation.
- A content bank and schedule
More than 50% of the brands don’t do this, and lead to dwindling sales because of it. Don’t just go with the flow, begin with creating a content bank. This will refrain from wasting your time and feeling lost. Once your content plan is ready, prepare a schedule.
Bombarding your followers with too much content will most certainly tank your engagement rate. Moreover, posting very rarely will also spawn a loss of interest. And therefore, striking the right balance is pivotal. For instance, posting thrice a week on Instagram is a good idea. Whereas, Facebook would demand a daily post. Also, for Twitter and LinkedIn, you can post more than once a day.
- A catchy bio
Believe it or not, a catchy bio can do wonders for you. It’s literally the first thing to hold the attention of a potential lead. So yes, a brand bio must be polished, concise and optimized. The latter would help new people find your insta handle. An attractive and concise bio can help significantly in conversion. So, how to go about creating an appt bio?
- Mention your forte
- How you have helped brands grow
- Speak about your story
- Captions, hashtags!
In a visually obsessed world, you would be surprised to explore the power of captions and hashtags. Unfortunately, marketers have been abusing hashtags and not playing it too smart with captions.
Here’s a secret on how to fiddle with the captions. Connect with your audience emotionally. Tell a story. Ask questions and preferences. All of this would help in engagement and encourage loyalty. Speaking of hashtags, don’t go overboard with it. Use only relevant ones and avoid overly generic ones.
- Analytics
Conducting social media analytics is as necessary as optimizing it. It is an important part of learning and evolving while channelizing advanced strategies. So, keep a tab on the metrics to figure out how well your strategies are doing. Start small by eyeing the follower count, reach of your post and what your engagement rate is. Also, getting the timing right is crucial. Make sure to evaluate what time and day works best for you.
- The perfect blend of visuals and text
The deal is that too much of anything will only lead to a negative effect. Too much text and no visuals, or too much of visuals and no text will kill your social media profile sooner or later. This is why getting the right blend of both is required to strengthen your brand image and a positive reaction from your audience. The perfect combination of visuals and text is the best social media optimization technique.
- Go big on trends
Here’s a thing you can’t take a backseat with. Stay updated with the latest social media trends and boost your social media presence like never before. Undoubtedly, the social landscape is constantly changing. So, take the plunge to show your followers you’re in loop with what’s happening around. For instance, go big with reels and be more noticeable.
Conclusion
As a bonus, make sure your images and videos are shot in a high-quality, be active on every available platform to grow your reach, identify keywords and then conduct an audit, partner with the right brands, adopt an analytic-driven strategy and most importantly end your post with a CTA!
With so many brands being active on social media, the process of cracking it may seem super demanding, but it isn’t. Social media is a natural extension of marketing. Approach it the right way and be pleasantly surprised with the results.
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