For high traffic, one of the premier things webmasters do these days is social media optimization. They try to promote their content through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, etc. The traffic generated from popular social channels can be high as well as valuable. Social media can also help good content go viral and fetch some permanent, high-quality links. In this article, you will find ten important things to follow in social media optimization.

 

1. Make It Easy to Share and Like Your Content

Within your website, you should have a social media sharing widget. This widget can be either below the title or on a floating pane that moves as you scroll. A sharing widget will increase the number of social shares for your content. Sharing widgets are provided by services such as AddThis and ShareThis.

 

2. Mention All Relevant People

When you are sharing your content on a social media site such as Twitter, make it a point to mention one or two people who may find your content especially important. For instance, let’s say you created a blog entry about a popular person; while sharing this entry, why don’t you put an @reply to that person’s Twitter ID so that he knows that you are talking about him? This may motivate him to like the post or re-share it in his network.

 

3. Find Ways to Go Viral With Your Content

In social media optimization, your content does not need to be within your website to be effective. You can submit your article or presentation as a PDF file to such sites as SlideShare. You can submit images, logos, videos, and infographics to various sites. The content you create may eventually bring some useful links and traffic to your site.

 

4. Participate and Provide Value

It is important for you to participate in group discussions, forums, and communities. In LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+, there are a huge number of such active discussions going on. Find discussions in which you can contribute effectively, but do not ever spam these communities.

 

5. Reward Your Genuine Followers

Are there people in your network who always like and share your content? Why not reward them once in a while by linking to their websites or re-sharing their content. This sort of community engagement will always help you grow.

 

6. Target as Many Relevant Social Channels as Possible

When it comes to social media optimization, you cannot consider only one network as the right one. A business blog can share content over at Facebook and a recreational blog may find value on LinkedIn. The correct way to go is identifying any community, forum, or group that may benefit from your content. A little bit of initial research may help you find all the communities from major social networks you can participate in.

 

7. Encourage Others to Use Your Content

How do you come up with a detailed blog entry? You may come across a number of images, infographics, or videos on other sites, and you may include them within your blog entry with appropriate credits. Why not let others do the same with your content? Encourage video embeds, content embeds, and image sharing. Helping others with content may eventually be more beneficial to you.

 

8. Target Mobile Platforms

When optimizing your content, think about millions of smartphones and tablets out there. Make sure your content can be easily shared across these devices.

 

9. Do not Bombard Social Channels

Although you should keep your social media channels active, you should not bombard them with one story after another. Make sure that a post reaches enough number of people before another is promoted.

 

10. Research Well

In order to keep your social media stream clean and without wrong information, research all content you share. In the last few years, many urban legends went viral on social media. To protect your reputation, any story you come across should be thoroughly validated before sharing.

 

Conclusion

Social media optimization may be a daunting job. But if done properly, its benefits may be outstanding. It is also possible to formulate new strategies involving some special social media sites, which are involved in niche topics.