Over the years, social media has become an essential tool for businesses to promote their products and services. Perhaps one of the most appealing aspects of social media is that it costs nothing to market on these platforms (aside from ad campaigns), but this makes it highly competitive.
There are so many hoops you have to jump through to make your presence on social media successful. With constant algorithm changes and competition increasing relentlessly, getting noticed is becoming more challenging all the time. One way to rise to that challenge is to implement a solid social media optimisation strategy.
What is Social Media Optimisation?
Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a process that helps businesses and content creators get the most out of their virtual presence. Without optimising your social media profiles, your work on these platforms will go to waste.
Tactics that will help you optimise your social media presence include making small changes to your content, like asking more intriguing questions in captions, using creative imagery, tweaking your call to action, and most of all, using thumb-stopping jokes! Then there are the more long-term changes like redefining your brand’s tone of voice, bringing out a new logo, updating the colour scheme, and adding more videos – in other words, altering your whole presence to attract a wider audience based on your business’ needs.
That being said, social media optimisation should always be based on performance analysis, competitor research, and social listening insights. You cannot make changes based on your own preferences – it must be based on what your audience wants.
Optimisation is a complicated process that needs time and attention, and you will most likely not see results instantly. However, if you’re consistent with it, you will see results eventually.
Benefits of Social Media Optimisation
Even if your social media strategy is working fine for you without optimisation, it’s not working to its full potential. If you already have good engagement, imagine the results you’ll get from multiplying those numbers.
Here are some more specific benefits you can expect:
- Engagement with your audience on a deeper and more personal level
- Spreading awareness about your brand
- Reaching a wider audience
- Getting more quality leads that convert
- Engaging with the correct audience and selling more products
When you reach your audience organically through social media, it gives your business a lot of credibility. You can always use paid advertisement in the beginning, but organic is best.
Instagram is changing all the time which is exhausting to keep up with. It wants people to interact with new features, so its algorithm pushes accounts that use these features. Remember when Instagram reels came out and accounts that used them saw rapid growth? It’s the same with all features, and the only way to beat algorithm changes is using the latest features that Instagram introduce.
#1 Update Your Bio
People are going to judge you on the basis of your bio so please make it effective. Use hashtags here as it makes it easier for people to find you, and keep it short and sweet – no need to overcomplicate it. Just mention what you do and how you can make a difference in your audience’s lives.
#2 Make “Saveable” Content
Instagram does not measure content based on likes or follows – it ranks content based on the number of saves it gets. To make people save your posts, you must create content that is informative – people are most likely to save this type of information so they can revisit it later.
#3 Reels
Most businesses and creators do not engage with reels because they are too “busy” (guilty as charged). Apparently, there is never enough time for making reels.
Facebook is a powerful tool that caters mostly to men and women aged 35-44. It is an excellent platform for business as the audience has more purchasing power than on Instagram. 70% of people using Facebook earn more than $75k a year, and 73 % of college-educated internet users frequently use Facebook. For advertisers, Facebook’s highly educated and high-spending audience is a valuable source of potential, especially for brands selling high-ticket items.
Facebook is a powerful tool that caters mostly to men and women aged 35-44. It is an excellent platform for business as the audience has more purchasing power than on Instagram. 70% of people using Facebook earn more than $75k a year, and 73 % of college-educated internet users frequently use Facebook. For advertisers, Facebook’s highly educated and high-spending audience is a valuable source of potential, especially for brands selling high-ticket items.
#1 Use Effective Imagery
The phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words”, is relevant now more than ever. The imagery you use, especially for your cover photo, can greatly impact the attractiveness of your brand. It should reflect your brand’s purpose and style, and show the audience your credibility.
#2 Use the Call to Action Button
Under your cover photo, you can add a call to action button that directs users to your website or helps them learn more about your business. For example, if you represent a bakery, you can have a “call now” CTA that takes people to your contact details, or to a landing page where people can order directly from you. The call to action button is crucial and can make or break your customer journey.
#3 Claim Unofficial Pages
If you are a big brand, you will naturally get a lot of fake pages that try to emulate you. The best way to counter this is by claiming ownership of all the unofficial duplicate pages, so that your audience does not get confused. If someone looks for “Bani’s Flower Shop”, it should not show any other unofficial pages that use your branding and page’s appeal like, “Bani’s Flowerss Shop” or “Bane’s Flower Shop”. Sometimes, there might also be duplicate pages created using your business’s name. In such cases, you can claim ownership of the page and merge your audiences (this only applies if your page is verified on Facebook). Find out how to claim pages here.
Twitter is not a simple social media platform where you can get a bunch of likes just for posting your pictures – instead, you have to make an impact in just a few words. Every day, around 500 million tweets are sent, equating to 350,000 tweets per minute or 2 billion per year. 50% of social media users use Twitter on a daily basis, and 30% want to see brands use it more.
#1 Pin Your Most Popular Tweet
Pinning a Tweet to the top of your profile is an often-overlooked optimisation function. A pinned tweet gives your audience an idea of what kind of content they can expect from you and allows you to highlight your most valuable material. I would suggest pinning your most popular (yet meaningful) tweet so that it gives you some credibility.
#2 Keep Your DMs Open
It’s important that you seem approachable as a brand. Remove the privacy from your direct messages and make yourself more accessible to your audience. Do this by scrolling down to the direct message section and select “receive direct messages from anyone.”
#3 Add Your Location to Your Profile
If you are a business trying to attract a local audience, adding your location to your bio or profile will help you become more discoverable. By doing this, you are making the algorithm’s life easier and it will connect you with the correct audience.
YouTube
YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google – this is your indication to set up an account and start uploading.
I know a lot of brands hesitate when it comes to video content. I understand that it takes a lot of time and money to make polished videos, but you can start small. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on your setup – start out with simple videos shot on your phone and improve the quality over time.
#1 Improve Your Titles
You have to get the title right. You need to approach this from the perspective of the viewer by asking the question – what might they search for? Even before making a video, think about whether this is something that your target audience is searching for. Titles like “How to manage multiple social media accounts” are a great fit for someone in the digital marketing sphere.
#2 Make Playlists
All the content that you have should be categorised into different playlists, as it is a very helpful way to encourage your audience to watch more of your videos. Make their life easier by making a dedicated playlist for each topic or series that you often talk about on your channel.
#3 Thumbnails
Without a good thumbnail, the likelihood of someone clicking on your video is reduced. You have to take the time to design your logo, and make sure you are using your brand colours here as well. You could even try dabbling in clickbait here, but don’t overdo it.
TikTok
Don’t dismiss the power of TikTok – everyone is using it these days. (You might have to dance around a bit but it’s worth it.) Millennials mostly rely on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook to research products but TikTok is preferred by 30% of Gen Z for this purpose.
#1 Find Your Niche
Make sure your content targets the correct niche. Each individual’s ‘for you’ page is based on the kind of niche they fall within, so make sure you have your targeting set up correctly.
#2 Act More Gen Z
The audience on TikTok is a mixed bag, but many users are part of Gen Z so it’s important to know how to cater to them. Now, what does it mean to act more like Gen Z? It’s mostly about getting the vibe right, being politically correct, and using a whole lot of cool emojis.
Hopefully, you now have a clearer idea of how you can start optimising your social media profiles. Every brand has the potential to “make it big” on social media – just remember that it takes time and consistency.
The ultimate goal of social media is to generate leads that are relevant to your business and rich in quality, so if you haven’t already optimised your social media, I recommend starting right away, as the competition will always keep growing.
If you need any help, my team and I can optimise your social media on your behalf. To find out how, click here and book a free consultation call with me.