The advantages of social media marketing are many for businesses today. For one, more than four billion people in the global population now use social media. Therefore, marketing without a social media presence is like leaving money on the table. Moreover, social media provides unparalleled exposure and may be the easiest way to enter a new market.

Unfortunately, many business leaders have not been sold on the need for social media optimization yet. Although they are keen to publish Facebook posts and share blogs on Instagram, they rarely optimize content.

This can be a big mistake. You can gain more power and generate more leads by optimizing your content for social media. The following are just a few of the benefits of optimizing your marketing content for social sharing.

SMO BOOSTS RANKING

The first reason why you should optimize your content marketing for social media networks is the SEO benefits. According to the Social Media Examiner, 58% of marketers who optimize content for social media sharing within a year are guaranteed to boost search engine rankings. The reason is that Google’s algorithms highly value social signals. They evaluate social shares, upvotes, and engagement, when ranking sites.

CRITICAL FOR TARGET MARKETING

Marketing is about picking your battles. Instead of trying to please everyone, find your niche and create targeted content to appeal to the selected demographic. Optimization is the only way to achieve targeted social media marketing. SEO allows you to choose keywords and phrases that are popular with selected demographics. Then, you can send targeted marketing messages that resonate with the audience.

IT BOOSTS ENGAGEMENT

Social media marketing primarily pursues engagement. Many organizations now attempt to close sales directly on their social profiles. However, the goal of social media marketing is to drive engagement (likes, shares, comments, etc.) to generate more leads and ultimately more sales. Optimization helps you reach the right people with the right messages, thereby directly impacting clicks, likes, comments, shares, etc.

Improves Visibility

Brand visibility is one of the biggest marketing factors. In fact, some of the biggest brands use visibility to drive sales and profitability. Social media optimization is a great shortcut to increased brand visibility. With optimization, you can ride into new markets to reflect your brand name and products. As we have seen, optimization also increases engagement. Increasing your engagement often means better brand and product visibility.

Improved BRAND Loyalty

You may be wondering how. Why, it’s straightforward. To enhance brand loyalty, you need to go above and beyond to show your customers that you really care. That’s why brands often offer redeemable points and product discounts. These “goodies” send a message of care. Optimization can also help you show that you care about your brand. How? By providing real solutions. Don’t just publish content for its sake. Instead, create content that solves your audience’s real problems. They will love you.

EFFECTIVE OF COST

Finally, you should consider search engine optimization as it reduces the cost of marketing. Think for a second how much effort it takes to reach a million people on Instagram. For a small business with only a handful of fans, you are considering hiring an influencer. You pay them to like and repost your content to their audience. However, you may have difficulty, even paying, to reach people who have no interest in your products. Optimization allows you to focus on a smaller target audience with an established interest in your brand and products.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Search engine marketing is important for your overall marketing campaign. However, informed optimization is required to truly benefit from a social media marketing campaign.

Mike Gingerich is president of Digital Hill Multimedia (www.DigitalHill.com), a Goshen web design, web software and social media marketing firm. He is also a business blogger in tech, marketing, and growth. Find out more at www.MikeGingerich.com/blog/.

Mike Gingerich is president of Digital Hill Multimedia (www.DigitalHill.com), a Goshen web design, web software and social media marketing firm. He is also a business blogger in tech, marketing, and growth. Find out more at www.MikeGingerich.com/blog/.