Social Media Tips: 5 Steps for Creating Great Social Media Optimization Content
There have been lots of blogs and discussions about developing website content for SEO, but what about creating content for social media optimization? Just like website content can be optimized as part of an SEO program, so can social media content. This is often referred to as SMO, social media optimization, and while SMO is strictly about social media it is also an important part of a comprehensive SEO program today.
Done right social media content can help your search rankings, drive traffic to your website, and more importantly engage and develop a loyal audience for your brand. Done wrong your tweets, blog posts, and Facebook page will be ignored or worse viewed as Spam in which case your social media campaign could actually hurt your brand. Below are some Social Media tips for creating great content.
- Before you start develop a Social Media Strategy: There is nothing worse than starting a social media campaign without a strategy. Because the tone of social media is casual many take a casual approach to it and do not take their social media campaign seriously initially. Take the time up front to understand what your audience wants, their style and most importantly how their interests in your brand.
- Identify your Personality, Tone, and Style: This is a vital part of social media that many overlook. What is your social media persona? Yes, your brand has a personality in social media. Consider for example the Redbull Facebook page and Twitter vs Coke. Both are beverages and the similarity ends there. Their social media personas are completely different. It is important for you to define how your brand will interact and behave with your audience. For now I will leave it at that as this can be an entire blog on its own!
- Quality Content: This phrase gets used a lot often with no explanation of exactly what “quality” means. Your blog posts, tweets, and Facebook posts should offer your audience something interesting and useful. Note that this is different for each platform. On Twitter it might be as simple as a discussion between tweeps. On Facebook it could be responding to a question or post, or posting a link to an informative blog or article (not necessarily your own). And your blogs in particular should offer great content and be informative.
- Keep your content spam free: Again this relates to quality content and again it merits a separate mention. If your content is an overt or obvious advertorial or stuffed with keywords over and over no one will finish reading it, they will never come back, and they will never recommend it or share it. So much for the social part of your content! In addition if the content is overtly stuffed with keywords the Google algorithm will likely detect this and penalize you for it in the case of a blog or webpage and in the case of other content it will just be deemed Spam.
- Use long-tail keywords: Simply put Long tail keywords are a specific phrase. While long-tail keywords have lower search volume, the searches are more specific and thus more relevant than broad generic keyword searches. So in creating your content be specific and focus on one topic for each blog post or Facebook post. When you tweet about the blog post again be specific about what the blog is about and consider using a relevant #hashtag.
- Cast your social media net wide: Social media is lumped into one singular topic, however, each social network is very different. For example some users may follow you on Twitter, but not your Facebook page even though they are also on Facebook. It is important to participate at a minimum on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus; and in some cases LinkedIn as well.
- Get Hooked Up! Connect your social media and networks to your website and blog. Connect your social networks to your website so you can immediately publish new blog posts. Also make sure you set up Open Graph Share-Like icons, RSS, Twitter tweet icon, etc. so visitors can share your content with their friends.
