Recently, a variety of social services are widely used in the Internet space. Because the sites are quite popular, gathering a large number of visitors, there are ways to promote and attract visitors to the main page. But the question of promotion worries not only the avid website owners, who are in the top 5 positions in the search results in Google. Sites-newcomers are also in great need of promotion. They use many ways to stand out somehow.
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Key to promoting your site, there are two concepts – social media optimization and social media marketing. What is social media optimization? And what are the most effective ways to promote – read in the following article.
What is Social Media Optimization In Simple Words?
SMO is website optimization for social networking tools. It involves adding social network elements and optimizing the site content, so users want to share it on social media.
What are the Key Goals of SMO?
The main goals are to increase the page’s popularity throughout the Internet and create a specific community with the visitors who will return repeatedly. It also involves getting liked by an audience that comes not from search traffic but effective social media. And not only win its sympathy but also turn it into a regular guest. Such optimization has a positive effect on a site’s ranking. When the site is referenced, authors are quoted, content is shared, people like it, write comments, spend a lot of time going from one page to another – it’s great.
Why Companies Started to Engage in Social Optimization
People who come from social networks are the target audience. They are more active in navigating through pages and commenting on articles. One of the main benefits of SMO is that visitors are in no hurry to leave the site.
With proper optimization, an avalanche effect is achieved: users repost content, share with friends and followers, those – with their friends, and as a result, the site becomes more popular.
Search engine marketing work brings results, but they can be enhanced by social traffic. It is important because users spend a lot of time on social networks. The best way to achieve success is to combine SEO, SMM and SMO strategies.
What is the Difference Between SMO and SMM?
Many Internet users consider these two concepts almost the same, but still, their difference is quite obvious, and to know it is the most important aspect for further work on the project. SMM is a set of activities carried out directly in the social services or networks. They are aimed precisely at promoting the site. SMO, on the other hand, involves appropriate work inside the page. This work is focused on its change to catch the attention of visitors, who could then more often refer to this resource on various forums, social networks, and blogs.
What is the Difference Between SMO and SEO?
Quite often, SMO is confused with SEO. But still, they are different ways of promotion in fact and actions number. We have social media optimization and search engine optimization. From their names, it is clear that these are the two types of optimization of the site for different traffic sources. SEO is a technical tool aimed at interacting with search engine works. It allows the site to rise in search results. And SMO is primarily oriented to the user. It seeks to analyze user behavior, implement a user-friendly and understandable interface, and deliver useful and relevant information.
Social Media Optimization Features
Social media sites are just as useful and necessary a source of traffic as search engines. But the audience coming from Twitter can be very different from the ones from Facebook. These are different people with unique interests and views on how your site should look and work.
And while the amount of traffic from social media platforms is growing, keeping a newly arrived audience on the main resource is difficult. It takes someone who can optimize the site to attract the user from social media networks, retain them and get to share content in other sources.
The SMO procedure implies filling the resource with materials that will interest your target audience, allow you to connect with them more closely, evoke trust, increase the overall level of loyalty and bring more traffic.
How can Social Media Optimization Affect the Website’s Promotion?
First, it is a free source of traffic. The better you promote a social network, the more free traffic you will get. Search engines will analyze the structure of transitions from social networks and perceive the site as to the quality and verified.
Second, search engines use a real-time algorithm. It means that when a search is done on Google, for example, there is a chance that the latest relevant publications, news, and social media discussions related to the search query will show up in the results.
And lastly, the statistics on achieving business goals are on the social media site. According to SocialMediaToday study, companies that have used social media regularly have increased potential customers number by more than 71%. Plus, companies that took the time to develop a solid social media strategy communicated better with their customers, which led to higher overall customer satisfaction.
How to Optimize Social Media Campaigns?
So, we realized that social optimization is, first of all, an increase in your brand recognition. Secondly – increasing user loyalty. Third – traffic growth. All in all, it’s a great communication channel. Now let’s understand what the ways to achieve audience engagement are.
Your Content is Interesting.
The site must be filled with relevant and exciting information. Remember the three main rules:
- content wants to share,
- it is easy to share,
- it looks attractive on social networks.
All text and pictures must be unique. Prove to the user that your offers are exclusive. Use the best graphic bundles, and search for fascinating methods to successfully interact with the audience. It can be a wide range of tools, a huge selection, the best photos, videos. You need to encourage the visitor to share your content, proposed material, and, of course, he/she must have such an opportunity.
Call to Action.
Do not forget about the notes of provocation and calls. Besides the content, you must provide the reader with the desire to share the proposed content with their friends. Present your ideas, products, and thoughts correctly so that the customer is eager to spread the word.
Regularly Updated Content.
New material is an excuse to post it on active social media and discuss it with readers (if it raises questions). A new post every 1 or 2 days is enough. If the information is updated once every 2 weeks, you will be ignored. If 5 times a day – it will be considered intrusive and people will not read the news and articles. Post new information at a suitable time for the target audience. It will help your subscribers promptly find out information. For example, you can use the checking users’ active time (day and time of visit) in Google Analytics. This indicator should be regularly monitored because it will vary as the number of users grows.
Speak Clearly.
Sometimes a specific “language” is formed within a company, the terms of which are not familiar to the regular user. Using industry jargon, complex language, and facts widely known in narrow professional circles may turn your content incomprehensible and boring to the reader.
Other Information.
Do not put messages only with one advertising topic. You need content that is interesting and diverse. Try to look at the topic from different sides. Provoke a user and make he/she should not only leave a comment but also send the information to their friends and post it on the page.
Sharing Opportunities.
The key to the success of your promotion is, of course, a user-friendly environment. Allow not only to read articles, posts, and other information but also to share it. Use the social networking buttons. Usually, they are placed under the text, offers, service. See and share – everything is clear and simple.
Need Feedback.
It is a key method to increase loyalty. Most importantly – it will allow you to hear the users’ opinions. Place widgets for comments on the pages. Its presence under articles builds credibility with readers. One of the reasons why social networks have become popular is giving the opinion to others, even strangers. Of course, there will be negative reviews, someone will not like your site, and some are just trying to attract attention by shouting negative statements. But if you respond to them reasonably, handling any objections, you will also benefit from such comments – you will increase reader loyalty.
Social Media Presence.
Create groups and provide the ability to join or subscribe to group news. It simplifies the interaction and helps build a trusting relationship with the audience.
Place Links.
Regularly updating your social media page, do not forget to put links to the site. It is important to have unique content everywhere, on every social page, in every post and group. Even if you have information about the same event, it’s better to write briefly and offer a follow-up to read already on the site.
Pinpoint the Best Content.
It can be popular, recently published, or articles that get a lot of likes and reposts. People like to check out the top and trending content above all.
Quizzes and Prizes.
People like to participate in different competitions. Therefore it is one of the effective ways to keep the interest and activity of your readers.
Do not Forget About SMM.
You can optimize your resource perfectly for users, but what prospect from this if there will be none. To avoid this, use SMM. Create your own blogs or pages in various social networks, reach the target audience, and then gradually entice them to the site: publish new material announcements, post the news, inform about promotions, etc. Together SMM and SMO give much better results.