What is Social Media Optimization and Why Does it Matter for Your Business?

According to a recent survey by consulting firm McKinsey, 50% of consumers who had a bad experience with a company said they would openly complain about it on social media. If they didn’t receive a response to their complaint, 81% said they wouldn’t recommend that company to their friends. This finding is one of the several indicators that show the increasing importance of not just managing social media accounts for businesses but also optimizing them for the desired outcomes. So what exactly is social media optimization, and how does it impact your customer experience? Read on to find out.

What is Social Media Optimization?

Social media optimization is the effective use of social media channels to grow a company’s online presence by assessing, monitoring, and improving various aspects of its social media marketing. Here are some common examples of social media optimization:

1. Directing social media visitors to a company’s website
2. Customizing content based on audience demographics
3. Using various tools to schedule content and track and respond to queries

Importance of Social Media Optimization

Many businesses have started using a variety of social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok, to build their online presence by posting relevant and high-quality content. However, it is important to ensure that a carefully crafted social media strategy is in place that helps businesses achieve the desired outcomes, whether generating leads or increasing brand visibility. This is where social media optimization comes into the picture. It helps ensure that there is always a purpose and direction to the social media activities a business is executing.

Social Media Optimization Examples

By optimizing your social media marketing strategy, you will be able to reach more potential customers and boost your business as well as make your company stand out from your competitors.

Here are some examples of how you can incorporate social media optimization:

Use a Common Profile Picture Across All Social Media Channels

Your profile picture can be made up of your brand logo or your picture if you have a personal brand. Having a consistent look across all channels will make it easier for your audience to recognize you.

Create an Attention-Grabbing Bio and Adding Relevant Keywords

This can include your company’s tagline or the type of services you provide. Make sure to keep it short and crisp. Adding relevant keywords will help your audience find your company easily.

Add a CTA and Website Link

Adding a Call To Action (CTA) will help you convert some of your visitors into leads. This can be in the form of a phone number, an email id, a third-party form, or a link to your website.

Strategies for Social Media Optimization

In an era when millions of brands compete to grab people’s attention on social media, it is important to use effective strategies such as the ones mentioned below to maintain a competitive edge. 

Identify and Define Your Social Media Goals

Identify what you want to achieve by building and optimizing your social media channels. This can include growing your outreach, increasing engagement with your audience and gaining more insights, and generating leads for your business.

Once you have decided on your end goals, you can brainstorm the steps you need to take to achieve maximum results. Make sure your goals are specific and have definite targets (for example, increasing online sales to $100,000 per month).

Complete Your Profile in its Entirety

Basic steps like uploading a high-quality profile photo, typically a brand logo, an informative bio that tells your audience what kind of business you are into or what products or services you offer, and a CTA are a must.

It is important to add your location details to make it easier for your audience to find you. It will increase the chances of your business appearing in local searches too. Do not forget to mention the operational hours so that people know when you will respond to their messages or queries.

Include Calls-to-Action (CTA)

Calls-to-Action (CTAs) are an effective way to get your audience to take the action you want. It helps generate leads for your business. Be specific with your CTA, and make sure it is properly highlighted.

Create a Content Strategy

Create a suitable and effective content strategy to help establish your company’s unique identity. A good way to capture your audience’s attention is by creating content that invokes certain emotions. Creating relatable content will help increase your engagement rate.

Work with Influencers

Social media influencers build their identity over many months or years, which leads to building trust and close bonding with their followers. By partnering with these influencers, companies can get access to a targeted group of followers, thus increasing the reach of the business.

Add Social Media Links to Your Website

Allowing visitors to discover your social media channels via your website will help grow the reach of your social media channels.

How to Optimize Social Media Content

Creating high-quality content is the key to social media success and adopting this strategy can rarely go wrong. First, determine your target audience, what they are looking for, and what value you can provide them. Create a strategy that includes new or curated content, but don’t limit it to promotional materials.

Generate content that will help solve your followers’ problems. You can design simple infographics which are informative and visually appealing as well as craft engaging posts to invoke emotions in your audience which will make them likely to comment or share with their friends.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Optimization

Advantages

• Faster and consistent growth in the follower count
• Creation of a unique brand identity
• Better quality of leads
• Increased engagement rate with your posts
• A better understanding of your audience’s needs

Disadvantages

• Risk of public backlash in case of fake reviews
• Heavy reliance on paid methods to grow faster
• Time and resource-heavy activity
• Dependency on platforms that may cease to exist
• Limited accessibility to various audiences, such as old people and individuals with limited internet access

ALSO READ: What is Social Media Marketing? How Does it Boost Business Growth?

Social Media Optimization vs. Social Media Marketing

While social media marketing consists mainly of creating engaging content for social media platforms, social media optimization focuses on making social media marketing initiatives more effective by improving content, implementing online reputation management, and designing an influencer strategy, among other actions. 

Must-know Tools for Optimizing Social Media Content

• Marketing automation tools like HubSpot, Marketo, and Salesforce
• Professional designing software such as the Adobe suite, or apps like Canva
• Scheduling apps such as Buffer, MeetEdgar, and Sprout Social, as well as built-in schedulers offered by social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook

Accelerate Your Marketing Career with Emeritus

With millions of users worldwide using various social media platforms, the importance of social media in the marketing strategy of businesses is only going to grow. If you are a marketing professional looking to understand various avenues of digital marketing, including social media optimization, these digital marketing courses offered by Emeritus, in collaboration with global experts, will help you get started in the right direction.

Write to us at content@emeritus.org