Social media is no longer a trend or phenomenon in our society. It can be compared to the utilities we require to feel comfortable and satisfy our needs. People socialize, meet their future spouses or friends for trips, they get rid of routine and have a chance to be noticed. Therefore, many companies implement efficient SMO strategies to reach their main buyer personas.According to HubSpot statistics, 74% of people use such a social media network as Facebook for professional goals which is quite logical since the content consumption on Facebook solely has increased up to 57%. Many bloggers loudly claim that social media optimization (SMO) can do anyone without special expertise compared to search engine optimization. However, it is not enough to place posts 4 times a day. Taking SMO responsibility you should apply particular worthwhile approaches to drive traffic to your website.Building SMO Strategy Based On Its Essential Components:Visual attention grabbers take the first place because social media users consume content with their eyes first.High-quality interesting content that includes some useful facts, tips, resources will draw attention better than just a selling offer.A well thought-out title and headline will help catch your audience’s interest and make people click-through.Unlike SEO texts which are specifically created for the engine spiders and top rankings, social media content must be readable, easy to understand and bring some value to the reader.To receive a good audience of regular followers, content for social media must capture your buyer personas attention with each new post.To hold the followers’ interest longer, you must make SMO analysis on regular basis. This will become your source to generate strictly targeted content types.Focus on creating a new experience for the reader. For instance, you can use Facebook live streaming to organize a workshop or a discussion useful for your audience.The Most Shareable Content Types Your SMO Strategy Should Involve:To operate with facts more than guesses you should experiment with the types of content as well as study the annual statistics based on particular networks.Infographic:According to CoSchedule, the most effective is an infographic that not only offers to-the-point content but simplifies the processing of information by the human mind. Most often, this type of content is used on Pinterest. Among their topics prevail educational, entertaining, psychological, how-to infographics etc. The thing about infographics on Pinterest is that a user usually opens at least one of them before conducting a search. This is the most differentiating feature of any infographic. Its benefits are catching visuals, original structure, and icons that draw the reader’s attention.Since a new generation of content consumers can easily tell the difference between promotional post and the one that carries particular value, emotions or information, creating infographic becomes indispensable from an efficient SMO strategy. This is what your readers need when appealing both to their need in valuable informational content and the fact that the attention span has decreased to 8 seconds. There are different types of infographics you should study before creating your own piece.Informational (emphasis on the facts, stats, and words);Timeline (chronological representation of events, the development of an idea or a project);Charts (mostly used for comparison of some data);Here’s an example how to combine several ways of presenting data from different surveys in one comparison and informational infographic. Here’s an example of how Preply.Com used bar charts, pie charts, column charts and other ways to deliver complex blocks of data to their audience.How to (you can easily turn the whole article based on guidelines into an infographic);Process (the structure is similar to timeline, yet it involves stepwise actions of decision-making process);Comparison or contrast (to oppose two objects the infographic seems the most relevant), etc.Native Videos:The study performed by SocialBakers confirmed the fact that organic reach depends on native videos and not promotional commercials or pre-roll ads.Generally, native advertising is less intrusive and it’s in-feed. There are always some users who will not be interested in watching a piece about cats, for example. With native videos, they can always skip such a video or occasionally peep at its content in the right corner of the screen while scrolling the newsfeed. It is contrasted to the pre-roll videos which have autoplay and irritate users when the skip icon is hard to find.Moreover, the subject related video content that covers a particular theme, audience or an issue is the main tool to get the most of shares.Memes:If you want your posts to go viral, include a few memes into the publishing schedule. Although the meme marketing is no longer a fad, yet this satirical image accompanied by a short phrase is still the major type of content spread on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Mostly, marketers regard memes as a content type for the specifically young audience. However, with their help, some companies also target the adult audience aged 25-30. The reason is that memes are easy to read and understand, they are most likely to be shared, always in trend and make a user laugh which is a positive emotion related to your brand name. However, using memes makes sense if they are original and genuinely fit into your brand’s newsfeed. Also, you should consider the short lifespan of all memes and the lack of valuable information most readers expect from them. Hence, memes shouldn’t prevail on your brand’s social media page since they add a sort of flippancy to the status of the company’s name.Gathering all the tips in a short summary to read, social media optimization can be considered as the most appropriate way to reach those generations of users that spend the most of time on social media networks. However, SMO does not completely exclude such traditional ways as search engine optimization, because it is aimed at strengthening your overall marketing strategy.About the Author:Arnav Sachdev is a passionate Blogger and a Content Writer. He also works with Preply.com. You canFind Me On GooglePlus | Facebook | Twitter
