Social Media SEO: 5 Steps to Make It Easier for Your Ideal Audience to Find You
By Michele Peterson

Social media is about being seen, being heard, and being connected. But, before any of this good stuff can happen, you first have to be found. And, not just by anyone, but by your ideal audience.

Easier said than done. Unless you know how.

Before we jump into the how, consider this …

As of June 30, 2018, Facebook had 2.23 billion monthly active users. That’s 2.23 billion people creating, consuming, and sharing content.

There are 55 million status updates posted and 350 million photos uploaded every day.

That’s a lot of media your ideal audience has to sift through to find you and your content. But, of course, they don’t sift through all of it. They type what they’re looking for into the search bar and rely on Facebook’s algorithm to yield the most relevant content.

Sounds a lot like what we do with Google, Yahoo, and/or Bing, doesn’t it?

The fact is Facebook is more than a social platform. It’s a media database with billions of pieces of content. It’s a search engine in its own right.

This is true not just of Facebook, but of every social media platform out there.

So, by optimizing your social media content for search, you’ll make it easier for your ideal audience to see, hear, and connect with you.

5 Steps to Optimizing Your Social Media Content

1. Determine What Keywords and Phrases for Which You Want to Be Found

What is your ideal audience interested in as it relates to what you do?

For example, let’s say you specialize in writing email copy. Your ideal prospect wants to get more people to open their emails. The conversation going on in their head is along the lines of, “What the heck do I need to do to get people to open and read my emails?”

In this case, your keywords and phrases might be “email marketing,” “getting emails opened,” and “emails that get read.”

TIP: Do your own search on social media for the keywords and phrases you’re considering using. Is there an existing conversation happening? Ideally, there’s a conversation already going on, but it’s not saturated to the point you can’t get a word in edgewise.

2. Use Those Keywords/Phrases in Your Social Profiles

Help new prospects find you on social media by using your keywords and phrases in your social profiles. In your bio on Facebook and Instagram, your headline on LinkedIn, your description on Twitter.

Our email copywriter from earlier might write something like this for their social profile: “I’m an email marketing expert who helps [insert ideal client] with getting emails opened and writing emails that get read.”

3. Use Those Keywords/Phrases in Your Content

The more content you post using your keywords and phrases, the more relevant the social media platform will consider you. The more relevant you’re considered to be, the more your content will be shown to users on the platform.

So, our email copywriter would publish social media posts like, “The secret to getting emails opened is …” or “The easiest way to send emails that get read is …” or “This week’s email marketing expert tip is …” In other words, posts that use the keywords and phrases in the copy.

Just as you weave keywords and phrases into the SEO copy you write for websites in order to improve search rankings, do this for your social media content, too, to make it easier for your audience to find you and to see your content.

4. Use Those Keywords/Phrases in Your Hashtags

Social media management powerhouse Hootsuite explains that hashtags “categorize content and make it more discoverable.” While your SEO metatags work behind the scenes on your website, they’re right out in the open on social media in the form of hashtags.

By the way, just so we’re clear, a social media hashtag is simply your key phrase run together with no spaces between the words and preceded by the # sign.

For example: #emailmarketing #gettingemailsopened #emailsthatgetread

You’ve already determined the keywords and phrases that are important to your ideal audience. You’ve used them in your profile and in the content you’re publishing on social media. Don’t skip the easy, yet powerful, step of using them as hashtags.

5. Use Those Keywords/Phrases Consistently

The more you talk about a specific topic, the more authority and credibility you build for yourself around that topic.

So, once you find keywords and phrases that get you noticed and get people engaging with you … keep using them! Find creative, interesting, valuable things to say about your topic using these specific words and phrases.

Your audience will sit up and take notice. So will the social media platforms. And, more people will start seeing your content.

Not just by more people. Once you start using your keywords and phrases consistently, more of the “right” people will start to see your social media content. It will be easier for your ideal audience to find you.

It’s only after they find you that you can start building relationships with them. Being found is the first domino that sets all the rest into motion, leading to your success.

I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below and tell me what you think about using this social media SEO strategy to make it easier for your ideal audience to find you.

This article, Social Media SEO: 5 Steps to Make It Easier for Your Ideal Audience to Find You, was originally published by Wealthy Web Writer.