Using social media for business is great and has come to be a necessity in any business model. No matter what industry you’re in, there is a platform and audience that is looking for your content. With social media growing daily, it can be challenging for your audience to notice your content and to make your business stand out among competitors. That’s where social media optimization comes in.

What is Social Media Optimization?

Similar to search engine optimization, social media optimization uses social media platforms as a part of their digital marketing strategy to maximize their online presence. It can be a catalyst to your company by generating leads, enhancing your brand, and connecting with your audience. To maximize your social media optimization, you’ll need to have a distinctly defined goal or objective. Pair it with your search engine optimization, and your brand is well on its way to seeing success in online presence.

1. Optimize Your Profile

In search engine optimization, you know to optimize the content on your website, so your brand is more likely to be recommended to the user. The same goes for social media optimization. You will need to optimize your social media platform’s profile’s so your audience can find you and that your profile will appear alongside related brands or content. Your social media profiles will be the foundation on which your strategy will build on. Here’s where your social media optimization experts recommend starting:

  • Profile Photo. If you are business, try using your brand logo. Entrepreneurs, freelancers, etc. can use a headshot.
  • Cover Photo. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook come with the option to add a cover photo on your profile. This is a great place to display any current sales you’re having or anything you want to bring special attention to. You can say a lot about your brand with the vision of your profile.
  • Your Username. Ideally, you will want to use your company name or version of your company name that will be easy to find as your username. You should aim to have the same username for each platform you will be using.
  • Your Bio. State what your business or company does that clearly defines your brand. Add your website link to drive traffic, hashtags of relevant topics, and add a cover photo.

Depending on your platform, there are additional fields you will be able to fill in for your brand’s profile. For example, you can add “Our Story” onto your Facebook business profile to give your audience background into how you got started or what the goal of your brand is. The more information you provide to the platform to develop your social media optimization, the more likely your account will show up in relevant searches.

2. Optimize Your Strategy

Social media optimization starts with having a clear strategy with an objective. It can be easy to look at your competitors or other accounts and implement what they are doing, but that doesn’t mean their strategy will fit your model or audience. Take a look at your business and see what areas you may want to improve on. Do you want people to know about your new online booking tool? Maybe you’re a local startup and want to establish your local presence. Regardless of where you are on your journey in social media, there are always new goals you can accomplish.

3. Optimize Your Posting Schedule

When you’re scheduling your content or deciding on what content you want to share, you’ll want to make sure your target audience is online when you post. With algorithms continuously changing, you’ll want to keep an eye on how your content is performing. What’s the post of sharing that beautifully created Instagram photo if no one will see it? After you’ve identified your audience and what platforms they’re on, you’ll want to search what times they are actively online. If there’s not enough information for analytics yet, don’t fret, an easy Google search will tell you everything you need to know. Each platform is unique in the way its users communicate and how often. A rough guide to how many times to post per platform:

  • Facebook: 3-10 times a week
  • Twitter: 5+ times a day
  • Instagram: 1-2 times a day
  • LinkedIn: 2-5 times a week

Your Social Media Optimization Experts

The ever-growing social media giant can be a lot to take on. It takes devotion to understand the inner workings of each network and what performs best on each. As it continues to develop, the learning never stops. At CloudMellow, we take the hassle out of keeping up with your social media optimization for you. We can help with you building your profiles and recommending strategies for you to move forward with or even take it a step further with fully managing your presence. From building and planning, to scheduling and growing, we can help brands represent themselves in the best way possible online. Contact us today.