As we continue to dive into 2023, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about what business owners can do to ensure their social media presence on different platforms is as optimized as possible this year. With so many platforms to juggle on top of the demands of running a business, social media can be overwhelming. That’s where we come in!
Check out our comprehensive social media optimization checklists below to help you stay ahead of the game. Whether you’re on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn, these tasks will help you maximize your online presence and give you the best chance of reaching your target audience. (Note: You can apply some of these tips to other platforms, such as TikTok and YouTube, too!)
Optimizing Instagram Business Page Checklist
- Create a visually appealing Instagram grid that reflects your brand. This includes using your brand colours, fonts, and as much original content as possible. Here’s a great example from one of our favourite brands. Make sure your profile picture and bio are up-to-date and aligned. This may change a few times a year for you!
- If it’s relevant for your business, get verified on Instagram. It’s easier to do if your business has received PR mentions recently.
- Stay up to date on the latest trends being used in Reels and Stories. Here’s a great source for that: The Best Trending Reels On Instagram To Try in 2023
- Create a frequently-asked-questions highlight icon and use it to store helpful stories that answer popular questions you get from customers, such as hours of operation, delivery options, where to buy your products, etc.
- Mention others (customers or businesses) in your posts and tag them to increase your reach and engagement even more.
- Take advantage of location tags in Stories and Posts so that locals can find your business easily.
- Add some user-generated curated content into the mix. An easy way to get more original content from your customers is to create a unique hashtag for your brand and encourage them to use it, and repost the ones you’d like to appear on your feed. Here is an example: Rainmaker Wine’s #MakeItRainmaker
- Use relevant emojis to make your Instagram captions more fun and get people to stop and take notice. Bonus: A few well-placed emojis can help increase your engagement rate.
- Post during optimized times. Instagram’s business accounts offer analytics to let you know what the best days and times are to post for your particular audience, so that you get the most organic engagement possible.
- Make sure you’re incorporating niche hashtags to extend reach. There’s been much debate as of late, but according to recent research done by the folks at Later, maxing out on the 30 hashtags allowed still seems to be the most effective strategy. However, Instagram has come out and suggested using only 3-5, so you really need to test it out and see what works best for your account.
- Clean up your followers’ list so that it’s relevant and authentic to your brand. This includes unfollowing accounts that don’t follow you back, and removing any bots that may be on there.
- Respond to comments and direct messages in a timely manner to show your followers that you’re listening and care about their feedback. If you’re networking with other accounts that your business follows, make sure you never leave the same comment on multiple posts as you will risk Instagram restricting your account for spam.
- Keep track of your performance with Instagram’s Insights. Use the data to adjust your strategy and make improvements as needed.
- Use a visual planning platform like Later to preview what your grid will look like before posting. This helps ensure a visually cohesive feed.
- Ensure your 2FA is set up – the last thing you want to deal with this year is being hacked!
Optimizing Your Facebook Business Page Checklist
Note: Many of the tasks above for Instagram, such as responding to comments and messages, also apply for both Facebook and LinkedIn so make sure to apply those to all pages.
- Review your Facebook business page’s name and ensure it’s intuitive for your audience. This is what people will be typing into the Facebook search bar to find your business, if they’re looking.
- Make sure that your cover photo is visually enticing and sized properly.
- Double check that your Facebook business page is up-to-date with the latest information about your products, services, hours, and contact information. Prioritize the “About Us” section so that new people who come across your page can quickly make a decision on whether or not your page is relevant to them or not.
- Utilize all of Facebook’s unique tools, such as Facebook Live, Groups, and Stories to engage with your audience and show a different side to your brand.
- Use Facebook’s targeted advertising options. A little bit of budget goes a long way. We always recommend at least boosting a few posts a month to ensure you’re reaching your target audience. Organic reach on Facebook is very low so this is the best way to get in front of your followers.
- Add different tabs and sections to your Facebook business page so that your page is easier to navigate for your customers. We recommend 5-6 tabs that include your products, services, customer reviews, contact information, and any upcoming promotions
- Make sure you’ve enabled reviews on your page, and respond to them, whether they are positive or negative.
Optimizing Your LinkedIn Business Page Checklist
- In order for the algorithm to work in your favour, ensure that your page is active, posting at least every couple of weeks. Share content that highlights your business and provides value to your target audience that is on LinkedIn.
- Utilize LinkedIn’s unique features such as Articles, and Groups to engage with your audience in this platform and show your expertise. An easy way to make use of the Articles feature is to share blog posts.
- Pivot your strategy for LinkedIn and try to use it to network with industry professionals, potential customers, thought leaders, and your employees. Highlight employee achievements and tag them to ensure their networks see the posts too.
- Add 2-3 relevant hashtags to your posts so that they are associated with certain ongoing conversations and existing communities. Do some research beforehand to see how you can participate in these conversations.
- Engage your employees regularly by mentioning them in posts as an easy way to increase your reach and engagement. Team members love shoutouts!
- Create a newsletter to grow your page awareness if it makes sense for your business and you don’t already have an external newsletter. Once you’ve published your first newsletter, it will post as an article and notify your page followers making it a great tool for expanding reach.
- Boost your page’s best posts to reach an even larger targeted audience.
And there you have it! Bookmark these checklists and refer to them throughout the year so you’ll be able to stay ahead of your competition in 2023 and maximize your online presence as much as possible.
Good luck and happy optimizing!
