Social Media Optimization Strategy For 2021

Brands have been making use of social media channels to interact with their customers, advertise their products and services, generate leads, grab opportunities for sales, and earn revenue for a very long time. However, witnessing the surge in the number of users, it has become more significant to refine and update the social media optimization (SMO) strategy for marketers.  

However, for several years,  Search Engine Optimization or SEO has been at the forefront of Online Marketing. Users look at achieving almost similar goals through SEO or SMO which is to generate high-quality traffic and create brand awareness. However, SEO is focused on enhancing a brand’s visibility or ranking on a search engine result page so that users are likely to spot it easily. 

SMO is becoming equally popular amongst social media marketers and in some cases, they consider it more effective in strengthening a brand’s position by creating awareness, generating leads, and enhancing its visibility in the digital world.

The most popular platforms in recent times for Social Media Marketing include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc.  

Through Social Media Optimization, marketers can redirect their target audience from their social channels of a brand directly to its website. More information about the business can be offered to potential customers once they are on the website. For instance, an automobile brand may run an advertisement campaign on their social channels to educate consumers and when they get redirected to

As social media is growing day-upon-day new trends are emerging with respect to SMO strategies. And, it is imperative that marketers stay abreast with trends in order to ensure a maximum online presence for their brand through social media marketing.

In view thereof, we have interviewed our social media marketing experts. And, we are presenting their insight on Social Media Optimization Strategy for 2020. These strategies are very fundamental, easy to implement, and exhaustive. By implementing these expert social media optimization strategies to businesses, marketers can ensure highly relevant traction, conversions, and returns.  

So, let us proceed towards discussing these strategies: 

It Is Not Enough To Have A Strategy

Yes, that is right. Almost 28 percent of brands think that not having a strategy for social media optimization is a challenge. The reason is that SMO is relatively not as popular as SEO. However, that is not where the problem ends.  Social Media is versatile and extremely dynamic. Hence, it is important that marketers also map and refine their strategies from time to time. In order to achieve this, it is important that the strategy is laid out with clear goals and objectives. 

Besides just focusing on an optimization strategy focused on increasing presence and generating leads it is pragmatic to aim for scalable results. Here are 7 steps by considering which marketers can ensure a fail-proof SMO strategy:

1. Ensure that a strategy is created with a focus on solving challenges.
2. Spread efforts horizontally across the organization.
3. Concentrate on channels that can generate relevant results.
4. Figure out opportunities for business on social platforms.
5. Do not avoid, instead engage. 
6. Gauge, refine, and endorse the initiatives. 

Once a strategy is created, marketers should map their performance against it. Wherever the strategy is lagging, they should add action points in those gaps.

Keyword Research Is Important   

Most of us understand the relevance of keyword research. For the unversed, it includes researching the key phrases that your potential customers are likely to use while submitting their queries on search engines so that you can include them in your content. 

Keyword research for Social Media Optimization required you to identify what hashtags, topics, or phrases your audience is likely to use so that you can serve them content which is highly relevant. Including them in the content will increase your rate of visibility when a user searches content that is similar to your brand’s. 

For instance, you own a restaurant specializing in Continental Cuisine in India. The users posting content using hashtags related to #continentalrestaurantindia, #continentalcuisine, #india on social platforms like Instagram are your target audience.  Hence, you should post content on social media with the aim of showing up in the search results of your these target audiences. 

So, how can you do keyword research? 

Keyword research can be done using tools such as: 

1. Google Adwords: Keyword Planner
2. UberSuggest
3. SEMrush
4. Soovle

By researching your keywords you will be able to create content that correlates with the queries of your potential consumer base. It is pragmatic to include those keywords which have a high search volume. By high search volume, we mean those keywords that are highly searched by users.  However, that does not imply you should not focus on keywords with lower search volumes. The key is to include a combination of keywords with varying search volumes to get the best results.  

Update Social Media Pages 

It is important to properly optimize a website in Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine crawlers determine the content of your website. Whenever users search for topics similar topics, search engines recommend your website to them. Likewise, social media optimization includes the optimization of your brand’s social media profiles in order to increase its visibility to the users.  

For the users interacting with your business through social media, your profile page will be the first-ever touch-point for them. Hence, it is important that you create an engaging first impression on them. Although, a seemingly simple task, most businesses fail in creating an effective profile page. Here, what must be kept in mind:  

1. Profile Picture: In case your profile page represents a business, it is wise to include the brand logo.  Freelancing professionals or consultants can include their headshots.
2.  Username: This is rather simple. If you are a business then you may use it as the username. We agree that username availability is becoming a challenge. In case your username is not available, try including keywords with high search volume relevant to your business. 
3. Profile Bio: Your bio needs to be a precise and crisp description of what your business represents. It is wise to include a website link in your bio to redirect your audience. Including relevant keywords will enhance your visibility. 

Although, filling out the information in profile pages on social media platforms can be tedious, make sure you complete it. You may want to skip questions but if you will believe us that is not the best thing to do. Think of it this way – every question you leave is every potential customer you are likely missing out because it may just impact your visibility.  

Keep updating your profile page from time to time and see if any information is missing. 

Take Care To Optimize Your Content 

We cannot emphasize enough that “Content is the King.” Whether it is Search Engine or Social Media Optimization, this saying is true in both cases. Until you are sharing quality and relevant content, your business is not reaching places PERIOD! 

The two types of content used on Social Media platforms are: 

1. Original content
2. Curated content

For a fail-proof optimization strategy, a balanced mix of both is necessary. 

So what is Original and Curated Content? 

Original Content: Original content specifically includes the content that is created for social media usually as a part of any campaign. Consider Netflix’s example of the #NetflixCheating campaign. Everything from the graphics to the content was original. 

Curated Content: Curated content includes identifying interesting content for your audiences from diverse sources on the web and sharing it on your page thereafter. However, there is more than just re-tweeting or sharing such content. For achieving the desired results from curated content, it is important to ascertain its relevance for your target audience.  Focusing on quality is the key while sharing curated content on your social media page. You can make use of digital analytics to find out which kind of content can lead to maximum engagement with your audience. 

Fortunately, content curation for social media has become relatively easier than in the past few years. You can make use of various content curation tools available online. One such tool is the “Curator” by Twitter. 

When you are publishing content on Social Media platforms, consider doing the following things: 

Tweak the Headlines: When you are resharing your posts on Facebook or Twitter, don’t use the same headlines again and again. The readers who have read it once are likely to ignore it the second time around.  And, maybe they would think that your feed is faulty. Hence, consider tweaking your headlines every time you are resharing the same post again on your social media page. 

Enrich with Graphics: Using images is one of the best ways for optimizing social media content as per this post.  

So you know, it is useful to include images in your content whenever you get the chance.  Various resizing tools are available using which you can resize the graphics to fit the feeds of different social media platforms. Make sure you are not including pixelated graphics in your posts or content. 

Include #Hashtags: Hashtags are the easiest ways of enhancing the visibility of your content. They can be used on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and almost any other platform you can think of. Using #hastags in your post makes it easy to include trending topics in your content or categorize it according to the interests of your audience. For instance, your business does Event Management. In case you are arranging the event for a celebrity singer and he/she is supposed to sing rock music in the concert, using relevant #hashtags such as #RockMusic or using the name of the celebrity singer as #hashtag can get your posts quality traction.    

It may seem that very little to know efforts go behind selecting #hashtags but marketers have to indeed plan a strategy before including the. Here are a few things you should keep in mind while choosing #hashtags for your posts: 

1. Follow influencers in your domain to determine the hashtags they are including in their posts.  
2. Follow other trending hashtags and see if you can correlate them with your domain or brand.
3. Create unique hashtags for enabling your audience to track specific campaigns. However, make them relevant.  

Mind the post lengths: Platforms like Twitter have a word limit for each post (280 characters). It is obvious that you do not have to go beyond that but is it necessary to consume the limit entirely? It is important to determine the length of each content that you share. This will help in increasing the engagement rate between your audience and the content. 

Use Analytics for Tracking Progress

Last but quite obvious. It is important to map the progress of the Social Media Optimization initiative just like Search Engine Optimization. There are several digital analytics tools available for this purpose. The most preferred amongst marketers is Google Analytics. Based on these reports you can optimize your initiatives or campaigns for the best results.  

Besides just tracking your initiatives, you must also determine how many of these opportunities are leading into returns to determine the real impact that your campaigns are delivering. 

Do spend some time analyzing the performance of your content that may include blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc. You can then determine which kind of content is being largely consumed by your audience and include that in your strategy more frequently.  

So, with that, we have approached the end of this article. Including the above-mentioned steps in your social media optimization strategy will definitely enable you to exceed your objectives. The key is to refine your approach and the ways to do that are endless.  However, starting with these fundamental steps will give your guaranteed results. 

Do let us know your thoughts and tips on how you optimize your social media strategy. If you liked this article, do not forget to share it with your colleagues.