Social Media Optimization
Everyone has heard of search engine optimization, but what is social media optimization? Just like search engine optimization increases the ranking of of a website on a search engine, social media optimization increases your ranking, or level of visibility, on various social media websites like Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. The fact is, if your business isn't optimizing itself for social media, you're losing out on traffic and as a result revenue. Customers gained through social media don't just buy from you, they become your brand advocates and actually work for you.
The Benefits of Social Media Optimization
The main benefit of social media optimization is increased traffic to your website. More particularly, this traffic is targeted, meaning visitors are more likely to convert. When someone shares your information with their social network, you are instantly vetted; this is word of mouth at the fastest pace possible, and if you can prove your business worthy of sharing, you will have no problem gaining traffic. What this ultimately means as well is that you save time and money because you have to do less to reach a set amount of potential customers.
Successful SMO Strategies
There are a lot of SMO strategies that can bring you more targeted traffic, but below we've listed a few of the best. Remember that the overall strategy is driving referral traffic to your website.
● Social Commenting: When people comment on your website, or Like it on Facebook for example, you gain knowledge about what they're thinking and can use that to better tailor your offerings.● Social Sign In: When you get visitors to register with your website, all the important metrics go up and the bad ones, like bounce rate, go down; visitors spend more time interacting with what you have to offer, and they are more likely to talk about your business and buy from you.
● Content Sharing: It's simple -- we all read content we like and we share it accordingly; this spreads the word about your business.
● Widgets: A widget is a small application that, when installed on a website, gives users additional but limited functionality.
The Importance of Options
When it comes to how you engage your visitors, it's crucial that you give them options. Don't just give them one way to share what you have to offer. Some methods of interaction include: voting systems and user polls to gain data and interact based on it; sharing buttons such as the popular Facebook "Like" button; news stories that tap into what people like to share, such as those featuring cute animals; as well as blog pages to improve your Google rankings and get the word out about your business.
Conclusion
The bottom line of social media optimization is simply: do everything you can to interact with your visitors. Social media optimization now in fact affects your search engine ranking; if a business is talked about more, Google considers it more relevant. On the other hand, if you neglect your social media optimization and get left behind, how relevant can your business possibly be?