1. Focus your efforts on the right places

Most businesses will assume that they need to have a presence on everything from Facebook to Pinterest, but that’s not necessarily the case.

Your audience may not have a presence on every social media platform, so why waste energy? Choosing which network to focus on is easier than you think.

2. Optimize your social media profiles

Earlier I drew a connection between social media algorithms and the ones used by search engines like Google. When we create content for those engines, we optimize it with all kinds of on-page SEO tactics.

Well, turns out social media is the same way.

Every aspect of your social media profile can be tweaked for better visibility and optimization. If you want to be a social media rockstar, you need to know the ins and outs of these elements.

Many of the tactics you know and love work here, too:

An easy to remember username

A recognizable photo/brand logo

Keyword-rich descriptions (that still sound natural)

A trackable link back to your website

When posting, use these same factors to decide which images you use, what keywords you include, and how you phrase your call-to-action. This applies to any and all social media platforms.

3. Post evergreen content

“Create evergreen content” is one of those things that’s easier said than done. A typical post on social media, especially on giants like Twitter or Facebook, can have a widely varied lifespan.

These posts also need to be engaging. You may, work in a boring or dry industry, but you can still find a way to make your posts stand out despite the subject matter.

4. Work smarter, not harder

Facebook themselves have said that the average user is subjected to over 1,500 stories per day. To increase engagement, the news feed only displays about 300 of these – those that are most relevant to the user.

With this knowledge in hand, we now know that posting more isn’t the answer.

organic social media

No, instead we need to focus on posting high-quality, relevant content. In this case, it’s literally quality over quantity. Posting less with higher quality will increase organic reach more than spamming your page with everything you can get your hands on.

While there’s no exact science to this, the Buffer blog suggests you post twice per day. Always remember that your business is unique, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different frequencies.

5. Use targeting to maximize organic potential

This tactic will vary from platform to platform, but tweaking the settings of your posts to target specific members of your audience can give you a boost in organic potential. For Facebook, you can use organic post targeting to tweak who will see it.

There are eight options on Facebook you can use:

• Gender

• Relationship

• Status

• Education level

• Age

• Location

• Language

• Interests

• Post end date

The same type of options are available on Twitter. For example, with their use hashtags, which allow you to categorize your posts. Take any opportunity you can to better target your audience so the right people see your posts.