Social media started with the purpose of connecting people. The main agenda was to share, introduce, re-connect and express. Gradually, it created a worm whole for brands to track their targeted customers within the industry.
Now, the social media networks are occupied with almost half of the world’s population. It’s now a multi-billion dollar industry and increasing!
Hence, business worldwide are not heavily focusing to enhance their presence on social media.
Social Media Optimization Methods Explained
After all, it brings money, reputation, and grows business quicker than any other medium.
In this post, I will cover 11 methods which every business is using to increase their brand recognition on social media.
Set the entire matrix for your goal
Let me ask you a simple question, what is your aim on social media? What do you want social media to deliver?
These are the questions you ask yourself before you step in to social media networks. Identify your goal and set the perfect Matrix. Here are some of the most common matrix for every brand.
- Growing followers– Do you want more people to follow you on social media?
- Increasing like– Do you want more people to like your offers or appreciate?
- Making people talk– You want them people comment on your proposals and express their views?
- Sharing your offers– You want people to share your offers amongst them?
So which one of this is your goal? Or you want to achieve all of them?
Depending on your goal the optimization plan will be built. Hence, it’s crucial that you go through this first to make the most use of your social media traffic.
Be real, original and accurate
Okay, how do you react when someone pretends to only sale you something?
Cheap, ignorant and dodgy could be the answer 🙂
So would you like to be labeled the same?
One of the crucial social media optimization element is having REAL, VALID and ACTIVE data on your profiles.
Social media is full of skeptical people. An only wrong, fake or ambiguous information can kill your brands name instantly.
Before any technical or core optimization attempt you must make sure your social media profiles are updated with valid data.
Select your targeted audience
Let’s assume you are manufacturing high tech mountain bikes for extreme rides. Your targeted audience will most likely be boys under the age of 25. Mostly going to high school or university. Hence, you have to find out users on social media who will be specifically from that background.
A mistake in getting the right user on board will cost you lose both your effort and money. For example, a majority of users subscribed to your page are people aging above 50, professionals who barley have time or people of different background.
Even if you have millions of subscribers, you won’t find a growth in your sales and neither on your brand recognition. This is because majority of your audience are not interested in your offers. Let it be sale!
Select the right channel
You need a boat to travel on water not a car! The right transport takes you to your destination easily. Likewise, choosing the right social media channel to optimize your brand is crucial. For example, if you are a B2B player, LinkedIn and Twitter is your playground. If you are a B2C warrior, Facebook, Tumblr and Stumble upon can be your Colosseum !
Here is a quick checklist that will help you to select the right channel.
- Determine your business type i.e. B2B or B2C
- Demography analysis i.e. the age, gender, location, ethnicity of your customers
- Compare which social media has the maximum users fits to your demography analysis
These steps will help you to choose the right platform to optimize your brand correctly. However, make sure you are done with the first 3 steps I explained earlier before you do this.
Divide your audience properly
Your audience base is full of users having different mindsets. In order to entertain them you need to be as personalized as possible. So in order to do that you can follow the steps bellow.
- Fix how you want to part your audience base. It will be by countries, languages or net worth?
- Use localization features to short list your audience. Major social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn have impressive localization features.
- Use the localization feature for status updates that will show up on the timeline of segmented users
You can do manual works like sending different DMs to various people on your page with variations in your offers. The primary objective of parting or segmenting your audience is DO NOT TREAT ALL USERS THE SAME.
Generate great content
Content are like your brands cloths on social media. It carries your elegance, mindset, objective and temperament. Hence, mistakes here can strip your brand off from its reputation. While sharing contents the following aspects must be considered.
- Your content is FRESH and UNIQUE
- Delivers a message that helps not sales
- Content is backed by good visuals (Images, videos etc.)
- Provides information and not a price quotation
- Make your content keyword optimized
So how do you create and share materials like this? Here is a quick checklist for you-
- Find trending contents on your niche by using tools like Buzzsumo, Google trends, Buzzfeed and Google search.
- Follow your top competitors and analyze what they are sharing with their audience base. DO NOT COPY PASTE. Use similar but something new to offer with your audience.
- Get images from sources like Pablo, Pixbay and other FREE platforms. You can create customer images by Photoshop too and make your content look cooler while sharing.
- Add the benefits that can bring your offers in the content. Do not highlight your pricing. Focus on explaining how helpful the offer can be.
- Do not attach multiple links in your content. One is more than OK.
- Keep your contents short and concise. 80 to 100 characters is COOL!
Cross sharing and promoting
This basically means developing your contents across different channels in both inbound and outbound way.The inbound way is sharing your content in your own profiles on various social networks. For example, you posted something on Facebook and then shared it on Twitter and LinkedIn. The outbound way is asking different groups, pages and their admins to share or promote your contents.
Few techniques you can use to ease this optimization process are-
- Remain active in various groups and pages. Share others content and others will share yours 80% time.
- Build personal connections with the admins of the groups and pages. Help them now and then as much as you can.
- Create accounts in the top ten social networks and keep sharing your contents there. It’s important to share your materials in all the channels to get the link juice.
Feature your fans and team members
Attention is a magical feeling for every human. Your audience is human and like all others they would love to be noticed. When you let your fans have the focus they will engage with you more.
Here are few practical ways you can do it.
- Respond to all feedbacks negative or positive regularly. Answer questions and encourage your fans to ask.
- Share posts which the fans posted when they tag your page. However, do make sure that fits the niche and does not violate the community guidelines.
- Share stories of your colleagues, team members or employees. Their success stories and information will create trust amongst your fan base.
- Hold quiz contests and announce the winners name on your page. This encourages other fans to participate and engage.
When you are giving attention, importance and value to your audience you will get it back from them.
Scheduling your posts correctly
People on social media are their own boos. They are active when they want and do what they want. You can’t control it as a brand. So you have to adjust yourself with your audience’s requirements. As a brand you need to know what is the right time to reach your fans is and when it is not!
According to CoSchedule blog, the recommended time to share on Facebook is.
- 12-1 Pm on Saturday
- 1-4 Pm on Sunday
- 3 Pm on Wednesday.
The best time to share on Twitter is-
- 5-6 Pm on Wednesday
- 12-3 Pm and 5 Pm on Monday.
The best time to share on LinkedIn is-
- 10-11 Am on Tuesday
- 7.30-8.30 Am, 12 Pm and 5-6 Pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The best time to post on Instagram is-
- Best Time: Friday, 7 PM.
- The best Engagement: Sunday, 5 PM.
- Best Days: Friday & Sunday.
- Hashtags: between 0 – 3
- Length: less than 9 words.
Adjusting the CTA
CTA stands for call to action which instigates, motivates and encourages the visitor to take an action while visiting. Placing the CTA correctly with the right message is vital for conversion. Not all social network has the option to design CTA buttons. But the CTA feature of Facebook is super easy to work with.
If you want your audience to engage more you got to make them take action. The proper word choice and motivational messages is crucial for this to design the right CTA.
Monitoring analytics regularly
The steps I have explained so far needs the right execution for the desired result. Though it doesn’t always bring the exact effect and may not be satisfactory. The reason is not because the strategies are wrong. It is because the execution and follow through might have lacked or the market might have changed in several aspects.
Analytics platforms can give you the edge to prepare yourself for the worst outcomes. You can always check how your strategies are working in social network analytics. Almost all social networks offers feature. Here are the links for you
LinkedIn analytics can be viewed from the company page. StumbleUpon has its analytics as well. So you can always monitor how your audience are reacting to your activities easily.
Wrapping up
Optimizing brand on social media is thrilling. It’s like James Bond mission where your strategies will be the key to success. In this post, I have explained 11 of the most result driven strategies that can help you accomplish this mission. So keep optimizing and be a social media winner.
4 Comments
It’s really good article. And it’s very helpful.
Using social media networking with your blog is a natural fit to build blog traffic. Use social platforms like Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and more to share your longer form writing and help your ideas spread. I look forward to seeing where you can take the two together!
Nice article. Thanks for sharing awesome social media optimization tips.
Great tips for social media optimization Harshil. Content is indeed the most important factor in a good blog. We must also know who our targeted audience is and optimize our website accordingly. Good write-up!