How to Optimize Your Social Media
Posted on 10/20/2021 at 10:00 AM
How to Optimize Your Social Media
No matter what your business is offering, a social media presence is a requirement for success in today's digital environment. In a competitive landscape, simply having a social presence isn't enough. Content on your social media needs to be optimized differently based on not only what platform you are using but also by the audience you are targeting.
Targeting the Right Audience
Ideally, you should be active on more than one social media platform but which ones you choose should be based on the audience you are targeting for your social media marketing. Facebook and Google My Business are two social media platforms that every business should utilize, beyond that lies the importance of audience targeting. If you sell clothing or home decor, Pinterest would capture an audience that would be interested in your products. But if you are offering a service, YouTube or LinkedIn would be a better choice than Pinterest. Demographics like age and income are important to consider when deciding where and how you post.
Things Every Social Media Platform Should Include
Regardless of which platforms you chose, there are a few essential features that should be present.
Bio
The necessity of having a bio for your profile is clear but there are a few tips to keep in mind when writing your information. Make sure that it is clear and specific what your business does/sells in a concise sentence or two. The second section of your bio should differentiate you from your competition and identify why your product or service is unique.
Link to Website
Another feature that should go without saying is including links back to your website. This is critical to have in the bio but also important to include within posts as well. Your website homepage should be linked in the bio but inserting links to a variety of pages on your website throughout your posts is a great way to distribute the traffic driven to your website.
Optimized Posting Schedule
A consistent and well-timed posting schedule is often overlooked when it comes to getting more followers and engagement on social media. A good strategy is to set a goal number of posts per week so you are not posting too much or too little. Spacing posts out and posting on different days each week can also help capture different audiences using social media at different times. Utilizing relevant hashtags can also help users find your account who do not already follow you. Just make sure the hashtag you are using is one that is popularly searched.
Varied Content
No matter what you are selling or promoting, it is important to share a variety of content. Naturally, it is important to share your products or services but sprinkling in different kinds of content keeps your social media profile fresh and more engaging. Great examples of mixed content to share could include customer reviews/testimonials, promotions, staff highlights, or "behind the scenes" posts that share more about your business's culture, history, and story.
Call to Action
It is important to include a CTA (call to action) in your social media posting and to switch up your calls to action. This could mean anything from "shop online now", "learn more", "comment below" to anything that invites the audience to engage with the post.
Performance Monitoring
As with any digital marketing strategy, it is important to monitor performance and adjust when necessary. Looking at your social media analytics/insights provides a valuable peek into what is working well and what is not. Note what type of posts get the most engagement, when the best performing posts were published, and how people are engaging with different posts.
We know that not all businesses are on every platform, so we've included a platform-by-platform breakdown of optimization tips. For easier navigation feel free to jump to the platform of your choice!
Facebook Pinterest Twitter Instagram Youtube Google My Business
We recommend always using Facebook as one of your social media platforms as there are around 2.89 billion active monthly users across a wide range of demographics. Below is a list of 5 essential tips for optimizing your Facebook business profile.
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Category Tag: When setting up your Facebook business page there are 6-page types to choose from that automatically give you a page template with the most relevant information options to fill out for your business. You can also select category tags for your page to identify what offerings best fit your business. This allows people looking for something that you offer to find you more easily as well as helping with SEO.
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About & Additional Information: Your About section on Facebook should be a straightforward description of what your business sells or offers, and it should not be the same as the Additional Information section. Additional Information gives you the opportunity to tell more about the "story" of your business such as history, values, or what makes you unique. Make sure to make the most out of both of these sections by giving important and interesting information without being too wordy.
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Linking: Another simple way to improve your social media presence is by making sure to not only include the link to your website in your page info section but also link your other social media accounts. This is a good way to drive followers from one platform to another, where you may post different content or gain different forms of engagement.
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Contact Info: Another often overlooked detail is including various methods of contact information. You should not only have both a phone and email provided, but a call to action encouraging viewers to get in touch with questions or comments. To this point, it is also important to make sure you are responsive to messages you get not just by phone or email but also on Facebook Messenger.
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Services: For businesses that provide a service the "Services" tab on Facebook is a great opportunity to market and gain customers. For example, if you are a car service center it would be beneficial to list each service you offer and what it is/why it is important.
This can not only advertise all your services in one convenient spot but also show consumers other services they may not have initially known about or been interested in.
People often look to Pinterest when seeking ideas on what to buy and things to try! It's great for e-Commerce platforms and building your overall brand.
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Rich Pins: Rich pins are a more detailed, SEO-friendly way to pin products. With these types of pins, you can add more HTML text (more keywords!), pricing, availability, and direct links to the products page. Rich pins not only make your posts easier to find but also easier to shop.
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Boards: Curated, themed boards are a great way to organize your products in a meaningful way. Creating boards of similar products or aesthetics make it easier for users to find things they would be interested in, in one easy place. Users following or saving your pins also serves as free marketing since their followers will now see your pins when they originally may not have.
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Products Tags: Each post can have up to six product tags, which can be an effective way to drive sales. Instead of just posting a shirt or bedding set you sell, you can pin an entire outfit or bedroom decor layout. This can drive more sales by showcasing how a number of your products can come together to create a specific look.
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Cross-promote: Well-curated, themed boards are a great opportunity for cross-social media promotion. Advertising a themed board on your Facebook or Instagram not only drives viewers to your pins but also incentivizes them to follow boards that include content they are interested in.
Twitter is a platform that is great for quickly sharing concise content and is also a great way to engage as a business.
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Location: If you are a local business it is important to include your location in your profile so that the Twitter algorithm can match up your content with your target local audience.
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Pin a Tweet: Pinned tweets are the first tweets a user sees when they view your account, so you want to put your best foot forward right off the bat. Make sure to pin a tweet with a strong visual, good information, and a link back to your website.
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Images & Videos: Tweets with an image or video are 3 times more likely to get engagement, so utilize visuals over text to catch the reader's eye and keep them engaged. Twitter is also an opportunity to share more unique, different content than you post on your other profiles.
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Retweeting: Twitter makes it easy to engage with other users and possible consumers in an extremely simple way. Retweeting replies to your tweets or utilizing the "quote this tweet" option to share relevant news/info with your own commentary attached.
With the many features available on Instagram, there are plenty of ways to make your profile stand out and draw consumers in.
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Business Account: As with other platforms it is important to make sure you set up your Instagram as a business account and not a personal one. This way you can have a category tag, the ability to boost posts, utilize Instagram shopping, and access performance insights.
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Highlights: Story highlights are a great way to organize your content in a categorized way so users can easily see the type of content they are interested in at the very top of your profile. Highlights are a great way to promote customer reviews or testimonials. If a customer makes a post/story using your product and tags you, you can add it to a story highlight to show actual customers enjoying your product.
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Caption Length: Instagram captions should be shorter than Facebook posts and have an eye-catching first line to make the consumer stop and look at the whole post and not just the picture. Even though captions should be shorter than on Facebook they should still include relevant hashtags and a call to action.
YouTube
You may not think YouTube is not the right platform for your business or that it is not worth the effort, but you may be wrong. YouTube videos are a great way to display your content in a new way and can be a useful marketing tactic.
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About & Links: As with every platform make sure that your account information is fully filled out with an about section, contact info, and link to your website.
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Variety: No matter what industry you are in, YouTube can be a useful tool to add a wide variety of content. E-commerce, manufacturing, medical, and every service provider in between can benefit from having a YouTube channel. Easy types of video to publish include staff/customer video testimonials, behind-the-scenes tours, "our story" videos, interviews, answering FAQs, and so much more. A variety of videos will help your channel content pop up in suggested videos for users how are watching similar content.
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Playlists: Once you have a good variety and number of videos it is important to organize them into relevant playlists. This also drives up watch time which is YouTube's top-ranking factor. Note: focus on making the first 10-15 seconds of the video eye-catching and interesting as this is usually the length of time viewers sit through a video before deciding if they want to watch the rest.
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Descriptions with links: Don't neglect the video descriptions, every video should have one! Not only should the description provide keywords but every description should also include the following elements: a link to a page on your website, contact information, and a call to action.
Google My Business
Having a Google my Business account is a must even if you do not have a physical location for your business. Google My Business accounts are among the first results that pop up in response to a search query. Accordingly, it is crucial for improving web visibility for your business. It also boasts the benefit of having all of your information in one, convenient, visible, and user-friendly spot.
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Business Information: It is important to have all of your business information filled out. This means having an about section, location, contact information, website, hours, business category, and more. If you provide a service, you should utilize the option to put an appointment link that leads right to your scheduling page or contact us section. If you are selling products, you can still utilize this option and have it lead to either your contact page or request a quote page (if applicable).
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Photo: You should have at least three photos on your GMB account. If you are in a physical location, make sure at least one photo is of the exterior of your business. For services like doctors or lawyers, it is good to also include a staff photo. For e-commerce, include your logo and high-quality product shots.
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Reviews: Aside from the obvious impact reviews have on building brand trust and reputation, they also have an impact on SEO. Having more reviews on Google My Business actually factors into the Google ranking algorithm. It is not only important to have reviews but to actively respond to them. Thanking customers for positive reviews makes the customer feel appreciated and adequately responding to negative reviews can show integrity and dispel any negative perceptions a potential customer may have after reading a bad review.
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Services: Similar to Facebook, GMB allows you to list the services you offer. This is a great way to advertise all that you have to offer without a user even having to visit your website.
LinkedIn is a great way to build your brand and establish a professional reputation. It is a great platform to share any awards, recognitions, certificates, or publications your business has earned. Since LinkedIn is a well-known and powerful platform it factors into Google's ranking algorithm and can help boost your visibility higher in search results. It is also a great way to find and recruit new employees and connect with industry resources.
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Brag a Little: LinkedIn is a prime platform to show off all of your business's achievements. Highlighting awards, publications and achievements build your reputation and establish credibility. It is also great to re-share any other accounts posts that mention anything about your business or any relevant news.
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Employee Highlights: Spotlighting employees and their work and achievements give viewers an insight into the people behind the business that make it excel. It also shows potential employees or customers that you value your staff and their achievements.
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Link: Again, make sure that most of your posts link back to your website. Include links not just to the homepage but to various other pages to drive traffic to different areas of your website.
Strengthen Your Social Media Presence Today
No matter the social media platform results come from the combination of strong content and researched-backed strategy. Take the heavy lifting and guesswork off your plate with the expert team of digital marketers, graphic designers, and web developers at Global Reach.
