Many people misunderstand social media optimization with creating a business page or profile by hitting next next like installing software. This is an educational post to share some meaningful information about social media optimization so you can either optimize your page / profile appropriately or understand the worth of investing in a social media marketing company that optimize your social pages.

As a social media marketing experts I often discuss social media marketing requirements of my clients and 80% of them tell me, “The page is ready, you just need to start running campaigns.” This article is to educate you about social media optimization and its worth.

Social Media Optimization involves more than next next.. next.. finish!

Social media can be really beneficial for a business and it can directly or indirectly contribute in increasing leads and brand value. When someone with no knowledge of social media marketing creates a page, they just fill in some info and just hit next till the finish. However, the social media optimization is more than this. For me, it is tough to share all best practices of SMO for a business within this single post because for different industry and business, the technique of performing social media optimization is different. Still, to give you a hint of complexity and worth of professional social media optimization, here is the checklist to optimize your business page on social media. Different social networking platforms may have different fields, but I’m highlighting the most common and important criteria that need to be optimized on different social pages. Also, this article shares some best practices that you can follow to optimize your business page on social channels.

1. Name of the page

• Use your company name only. You shouldn’t add any number or tag while writing the name of your company in the social business page.
• The name of the company must be same on all different social networking sites.
• Don’t try to stuff keywords in the name of the company such as, Digital Marketers India: Best Full Service Digital Marketing Agency. The name of the company has to be just the company name, i.e., Digital Marketers India.

2. Social handle / URL for business page

• Social handles also known as custom URL / Username of the business page will let you stand out, so make sure you get your company name in the handle.
• Avoid habit of stuffing keywords in the handle.
• Keep your social handle same on all different social networking platforms until and unless you have no option.
• If the social handle with your company name is already taken, you can add words like “official”, “real”, ‘”the”, etc. at the beginning. However, avoid using a funky name like “killer”, “cute”, “best”, etc. Don’t add random later or digit to get the handle.

3. Profile picture and Cover photo

• The profile picture and cover photo must have the allowed size of. Each social network has different size and you must follow the allowed size rule.
• The profile picture should be the logo or favicon of your company.
• The cover pic should be an image that is high quality and reflect any one of following
  • Key services
  • Key products
  • Vision and Mission
  • Values
• Use professional image than a heavy graphic in the cover page
• Some social media sites like Facebook allow putting a video in the cover image area. Put a short video of introduction or similar theme without any fancy music.

4. Description

• The social networking site has short and / or long description. You must write an elegant description about your business.
• You can talk about the offerings, but don’t pitch a lot. Put your USPs in the description.
• Use your SEO keywords naturally in the long description / story.
• Use the character limit wisely.

5. Links

• You can add one or more links on the business page and you must put all relevant links.
• Never forget to put the business website URL.
• Put an active blog link. If you are not updating your blog regularly, then avoid putting this link.
• Put links of business page on the other social networking sites.

6. Team Members

Some social media platforms let you add team members on the business page in one way or another. It is one of the best ways to show your strength and manpower. It also helps in creating an impression of having a reputed company. Encourage your staff to link to your business page as team members.

7. CTA (Call to Action)

This is the most important part of any effective digital marketing strategy. You must educate your visitors about the next step they should take.

• Facebook allows adding a “CTA” button in the page. Don’t forget to add it.
• In LinkedIn and other social networking platform, there is no as such provision of adding CTA separately at the moment. Here, you need to use the space of your description to write an effective call to action.

End Note
The above mentioned 7 major criteria must be optimized well. Along with these seven, there are some more things such as, customizing theme of the page, adding products on the page, etc. that you can optimize with the best practices at the time of business page optimization on a social networking platform. Also, never use hashtags in the description, name or other fields of the business page.

Hope this post help you in the SMO process of your business. Still, I recommend taking help of an SMM agency or an SMM expert to perform SMO as they can optimize your business page more efficaciously.

Feel free to leave your thoughts, feedback and questions in the comment section.

Need help with social media optimization of your business pages? Contact us.

About Author: Ash Vyas

Ash Vyas has 10+ years of practical experience in digital marketing and international business development. She has written 100s of articles on various topics to live her passion of helping people with her knowledge and expertise. In addition to directing Digital Marketers India, Ash also delivers keynote sessions and holds key positions in some international companies as a consultant, director of operations and mentor.

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