In 1997, Six Degrees became the first recognized social media platform. It allowed users to connect and upload pictures. In the early 2000s, we saw social media explode and gain massive momentum. More platforms came into existence and allowed us to reconnect with old friends. Although social media started as a means for people to stay connected, it has evolved into something more powerful. In today’s era, social media is used as an essential marketing tool. With 42% of the world’s population using social media, businesses understand that it is an excellent place to interact and find potential customers. As more marketers invest time and energy into mastering the platform, social media has transformed into a space for sourcing and purchasing products. According to recent statistics, 54% of customers research a product on social media.
Moreover, if the company has an interactive social media, 71% of consumers are more likely to recommend the brand to others. Despite its massive popularity, experts believe that social media has not reached its peak. As it is only expected to grow, it becomes crucial to companies to take complete advantage of this powerful tool. We have curated a list of the top social media optimization (SMO) tips to help improve your business.
1. Optimize Your Business Profile : An essential element of an account is its profile. Although it is easy to create a profile, businesses do not take the time to optimize it. A strong foundation is necessary to develop an effective social media strategy. There are a few elements to focus on while optimizing your business profile; they are:
2. Username: While selecting a username, keep it simple. The easier a username is to search, the more people will remember.
3. Profile photo: As profile photos are usually the first element users interact with, it is important to add a photo that showcases the brand logo.
4. Cover photo: Often, companies use cover photos to exhibit their motto, employees, or services. It is a great way to represent the company and make the best first impression.
5. Bio: A crucial step in completing your business profile is filling out all the necessary information. State what the company is about in simple language. Use relevant keywords and add the website link for additional information.
6. Optimize Content: A great author once said, “Content is fire, social media is gasoline.” A simple yet powerful statement that perfectly explains the relationship between content and social media. Content is not successful; it is not distributed, whereas social media cannot survive without content. When content creating, it is essential to create quality content that is relevant to your audience.
7. Keywords & Hashtags: To gain more visibility and higher rank results, it is essential to use appropriate keywords and hashtags. Successfully integrating both these elements will help your content reach a wider audience. However, ensure not to exceed the maximum limit in the number of hashtags you use. Having too many hashtags may result in your content being recognized as spam.
8. Create Sharable Content: While creating content, try to create something that professionals from your field would love to share. Ensure that it is high-quality and visual. As more people skim through their timelines, it is not surprising that about 91% of users prefer visuals over written content. Moreover, if your content has amazing visuals, the desire to read it increases by 80%.
9. Video is King: Apart from designing great posters, experts now believe that videos are the future. Although countless videos are flooding the market, statistics reveal that 72% of users prefer learning about a product through videos. As videos are a popular marketing tool, social media platforms promote businesses to post more videos.
10. Attractive Incentives: Hosting a competition or a giveaway are effective tactics to increase followers and engagement. According to statistics, 94% of the time, participants share the promotion immediately, and around 62% of users invite their friends to participate in the contest. Therefore, including competitions are a great way to gather more engagement.
11. Optimize Social Media Strategy: Social media is continuously evolving. The trends and algorithms that worked in favor of your business today might now work tomorrow. Therefore, it is essential to monitor the platforms regularly. You need to keep track of various elements to create a successful social media strategy.
12. Posting Schedule: Before creating content, ensure that it is relevant to your audience. Understand when and how often you need to post to gain maximum reach. Each platform is different; for example, Facebook promotes one post per day. Meanwhile, Twitter prefers around 15 tweets per day. Similarly, the time of posting is different for each business sector.
13. Analytics: Experts regard social media as a science, where the goals are mostly the hypothesis. While carrying out a social media strategy, it is mandatory to analyze the available data to understand what works well and what does not. Factors like conversion rate and ROI needs to be monitored carefully.
As you can see, there are multiple elements to optimize to create a successful social media strategy. If you do not have enough time or labor to invest in this powerful tool, we suggest hiring an SMO agency. Contact Infobahn Consultancy; we are the leading SMO agency in Dubai, UAE. With over 13 years of industry experience and 6,000 satisfied clients, we guarantee to perfect and simplify your SMO journey.
