What Are the Best Practices for Social Media Optimization?

SMO is the thesaurus used to refer to the concept of Social Media Optimization. The idea is to use social networks as a catalyst to increase and consolidate your brand’s online visibility through specific techniques.

For better understanding SMO, you must keep in mind the unprecedented growth that social networks have shown in recent years. The platforms like Instagram, in which 80% of profiles follow at least one brand account, increasingly attract investment from companies that see their potential.

These channels are becoming the central parts of Content Marketing strategies carried out worldwide, which causes side effect. The volume of content production reached stratospheric levels. That makes it difficult to come up with the original and relevant posts for the persona.

The important thing is that, with this growing wave of companies investing in social media, Google has acquire its algorithm to consider the engagement of your page as a ranking factor.

Below, you will find the techniques and strategies that give the best results in optimizing the social media.

Find the optimal posting frequency

It’s no secret that knowing the right frequency of posting to your social media profiles is essential to an effective way of strategy. Posting too much post can tire your persona, while a low volume of posts can make you be forgotten.

Of course, there is no magic formula for finding the perfect balance between too many or too few posts. Therefore, there is only one solution: perform tests and more the tests.

To carry out these experiments, you can adopt the following strategy: first, for the network that you test, schedule your posts with a predetermined frequency, like two hours.

Keep this frequency for a week, during which you should closely monitor your metrics, such as clicks, level of engagement. In the following week, reduce your frequency and continue to follow the numbers.

Do this week after week until you have enough data to compare and find out which posting frequency has maximized your results the most. You will better understand the persona’s behavior and identify the frequency levels that cause the most positive results.

Find the best time to post

In addition to calculating the optimal posting frequency, you must try to find the best days and times to post on every social media channel. You can follow strategy similar to the one you used to identify the posts’ ideal regularity.

To begin, first create a list of all your old posts. Add the main metrics for them and the date and time of each post. When evaluating this list, you should be able to identify trends related to the time of posting.

If you notice that 7 out of your 10 most liked posts on Facebook were posted between 1 pm to 2 pm, this is a good indication of the best times to make your posts.

Strategically reuse content

Doing Social Media Optimization also means being smart with your content on the social media. The concept of content shock showed us that creating great material to publish on your content on different channels is an increasingly challenging task.

That happens because only with really sensational content we’ll have the same return that we would have with good content a few years ago. That said, we know that it’s impossible to create excellent posts every day and still maintain the desire level of frequency.

So, you need to reuse your content intelligently. That article for which you have dedicated a lot of research and time can serve as a basis for creating pieces in other formats, such as infographics, webinars, and ebooks. That way, you better distribute the focus of your content.

Integrate social media with other marketing channels

We have already said that it’s fundamental to integrate your social media with other channels to be successful. And when we talk about other channels, we are not restricted to your blog or website.

You will boost your open and conversion rate by incorporating a button linking your social media channels to your emails. Also, it will make it clear to your contacts that there are other places on the web where they can engage with you.

Another interesting place for introducing a link to social media is your landing page‘s thank you page. It’s worth remembering that the landing page text must not have any kind of link. Your only goal is to get the lead’s contact information. In the thank you pages, on the other hand, the idea is valid.

Create shareable content

Getting your content shared is essential to increase the post’s reach. Therefore, the creation of viral content is a strategy often adopted by companies in their digital approaches.

That said, take care to not signal to the audience that you are looking for going viral. At the slightest sign of this intention, the public may have a negative reaction and end up distancing themselves from your brand. Therefore, always focus on meeting the audience’s needs and desires.

After all, there is no need to go too hard on encouraging sharing. It’s easier to capture the public’s attention and increases engagement chances by using visual elements such as images, GIFs, and videos. So, as long as within the context, do not hesitate to use this feature.

Another interesting technique to increase your chances of going viral is the simple use of a CTA, which is a short text stimulating action by the public. Add a direct share button to your page and suggest that the visitors use it. Not everyone will indeed do it, but asking subtly does not harm.

It doesn’t matter if the social network most used in your Digital Marketing strategy is Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or another. The Social Media Optimization concept to guide the page’s management is essential to increase ROI, reduce the effects of content shock, and maximize the relationship with the public.