Social media is an extremely powerful marketing tool. It has leveled the playing field between mega-corporations and small businesses. When used properly, it can enhance brand awareness and engagement with the target audience much more effectively than any other traditional advertising strategy. But if it isn’t optimized, it won’t be as effective.
If you are a business owner, then using social media accounts isn’t just good enough. You need to optimize social media to be effective in social media marketing campaigns. This blog post discusses nine effective social media optimization tips that’ll help you in your social media marketing endeavors.
1. Create a content calendar and stick to it
A social media content calendar can help you plan, organize, and schedule your social media posts across various social media platforms. It will also assist in sticking to the posting schedules.
As per data revealed by B2B Content Marketing, 2021, more than 70 percent of successful businesses and digital marketers have admitted to using a content calendar in the previous year. Another stat reveals that in over half of the businesses, only one person manages the content calendar.
This tells us that not only do profitable and successful organizations find it essential to rely on content calendars but they can be organized and managed by one person. When crafting a social media strategy, create a content calendar and stick to it. If you want you can involve your marketing team to create a practicable and effective calendar.
2. Find out your most successful posts and take inspiration from those
Let’s get real. No matter how hard you try and how much time and effort you invest to be consistent with your social media posts, there will be a few that will be far more successful than the rest. Instead of treating them as flukes, observe them closely and find out what resulted in their extraordinary performance.
Look out for the posts with the most views and engagements from the target audience. Find out what’s so distinct and special in them and how you can craft your upcoming posts to be similar to those. Take inspiration from the best posts and keep them as the benchmark for future posts.
3. Use short videos
Just imagine you want some urgent information. After searching for it, you found one all-text content and an entertaining short video. Which one are you more likely to watch?
Short videos are more likely to get watched and shared than text posts. As per a study by The Marketing Helpline, social media posts with videos receive nearly 50 percent more views compared to text posts. Another stat reveals that video posts on social media get almost 1200 percent more shares than plain text posts. Tweets with videos get ten times more engagement.
Short videos are perfect for social media posts due to several reasons. Many users have shorter attention spans and want to consume a lot of information in a short period. A majority of people would like to watch entertaining and engaging videos instead of text posts.
While creating videos, keep these things in mind. Make sure the entire video’s duration is not more than five minutes. Try to make it as entertaining and engaging as possible. Craft a crisp and precise script and stick to that. Don’t post YouTube links on social media.
4. Add alt text to images
Did you know that some social media platforms allow you to add alt text to images? Several top social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn have specific fields to add alt text to images and GIFs.
The alt text describes the image and helps visually-challenged people to know what the image is all about. It enhances user experience and accessibility. So make sure to add alt texts to all image posts in your social media accounts.
5. Engage with your community members
Are you looking for reasons to engage with your online community? A popular study revealed that more than 85 percent of Fortune 500 companies said that their online communities gave valuable insights into customer needs. Another data showed that social media communities can help businesses enhance engagement by up to 21 percent. Likewise, many stats support the benefits of engaging with community members.
This is the most basic yet most important technique to enhance engagement and build goodwill. While interacting, try to find out what customers and members think of your business and what they expect from you. Amid all the positive comments, you may find a few negative ones. Don’t panic and delete them. But engage with them and try to provide a positive experience to the users.
6. Showcase your products
Did you know that more than half of social media users use various platforms to look for products and services they want to buy? As per data by GlobalWebIndex, nearly 55 percent of respondents said that social media platforms have helped them to research products and make informed purchasing decisions.
Over the last few years, some social networks have added the marketplace feature to enable businesses to set up a virtual storefront. Use it to showcase your best products and offerings. Use the stories and feeds section to give product demos.
7. Host social media events
Social media events enhance engagement, offer immense value to attendees, and build goodwill and loyalty. One latest study found that more than 70 percent of successful businesses that participated in it organized at least one social media event to engage with their community members. Another research by Skift Inc. found that nearly three-fourths of event managers leveraged social media to organize successful events.
Some social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have the feature to create and promote events. Use them to host events and create countdowns. Mention the highlights and attractions to show what the participants can expect from the events.
8. Use hashtags optimally
Hashtags are extremely useful to enhance a campaign’s visibility and reach a wide number of target audiences. Many social media platforms have different limits on the usage of hashtags. While Instagram allows users to use up to 30 hashtags, Twitter recommends using two or three at the most.
But using too many hashtags looks spammy and reduces the engagement rate. That’s why before using any hashtag make sure it’s relevant to your brand and the message you’re trying to communicate. If you’re trying to create a new hashtag, invest adequate time in research to come up with extremely relevant and targeted ones.
9. Partner with influencers
Over the last few years, partnering with influencers has become an extremely crucial social media marketing strategy. As per one latest stat, nearly half of customers look for influencers’ recommendations while making a purchase. This has led many businesses and marketers to team up with several influencers and micro-influencers as well as increase their investment in influencer marketing. As per a recent Influencer Marketing Hub study, nine out of every ten marketers found influencer marketing to be effective.
To optimize your social media marketing strategy, join hands with one or more relevant influencers or micro-influencers. Use social media to find who can be suitable for your campaign. Set specific goals as well as a reasonable budget for the campaign.
Overall, it may be said
Even though social media provides massive opportunities for businesses to build brand awareness and reach out to their target audience, optimization is the key. Once you know how to optimize your social media accounts and strategy then nothing can stop you from getting the desired marketing outcomes. The nine tips will be extremely valuable as you embark on the journey to optimize your business’s social media accounts.
