How do you balance the frequency and quality of your SMO content to avoid spamming or boring your audience?

Social media optimization (SMO) is the process of creating and distributing content that attracts and engages your target audience on various platforms. SMO can help you increase your brand awareness, generate leads, and drive traffic to your website. However, SMO also requires a careful balance between the frequency and quality of your content, as you don't want to spam or bore your followers. In this article, you will learn some tips on how to achieve this balance and optimize your SMO strategy.

1 Know your goals and metrics

Before you start creating and posting content, you need to define your SMO goals and how you will measure them. For example, do you want to increase your followers, likes, shares, comments, clicks, or conversions? Depending on your objectives, you will need to use different tools and methods to track your performance and adjust your strategy accordingly. For example, you can use analytics tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or Twitter Analytics to monitor your traffic, engagement, and conversions.

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2 Understand your audience and platforms

Another key factor for balancing your SMO content is to understand your audience and the platforms they use. You need to know who your ideal customers are, what their pain points, interests, and preferences are, and how they consume and interact with content. You also need to know the strengths, weaknesses, and best practices of each platform you use, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube. For example, you might want to use more visual content on Instagram, more professional content on LinkedIn, and more timely and relevant content on Twitter.

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Amanda J.

Brand Strategist at Harvard Bioscience
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Whether you're onboarding (a new client) or auditing socials for an existing one, the topic of "platforms" always comes up one way or another because content creation has become commonplace in business as a sales tool as well as an organic engagement tool. Generally speaking, I'd say anyone looking to promote their business on social media should prioritize YouTube. I'd add that it doesn't hurt to be incredibly well-versed in each platform listed above (+ a few more).

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3 Create valuable and diverse content

To avoid spamming or boring your audience, you need to create content that is valuable and diverse. Value means that your content solves a problem, answers a question, educates, entertains, or inspires your audience. Diversity means that you use different formats, styles, tones, and topics to keep your audience interested and engaged. For example, you can use videos, images, infographics, podcasts, blogs, ebooks, webinars, or live streams to deliver your message. You can also use storytelling, humor, emotion, or controversy to spark curiosity and conversation.

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4 Plan and schedule your content

To balance the frequency and quality of your content, you need to plan and schedule your content in advance. This will help you avoid posting too much or too little, as well as maintain consistency and relevance. You can use a content calendar to map out your content topics, formats, platforms, and dates. You can also use tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, or CoSchedule to automate and optimize your content posting. However, you should also be flexible and adaptable to respond to current events, trends, or feedback.

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Amanda J.

Brand Strategist at Harvard Bioscience
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(for corporate programs): automation and optimization is great, but having a 'breathing' program should also heavily prioritize bringing employee advocates, partners, and stakeholders along with you by generating internal engagement and buy-in to the social media program; which of course has to be tailor-made to fit the teams you're working with. Employee advocacy actually moves the needle (and can also be a quality HR function).

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5 Test and optimize your content

Finally, to balance the frequency and quality of your content, you need to test and optimize your content based on your results and feedback. You need to analyze your data and metrics to see what works and what doesn't, and what you can improve or change. You also need to listen to your audience and their comments, questions, or complaints, and use them to create better content. You can also use tools like A/B testing, surveys, or polls to experiment with different content variables and see what resonates with your audience.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How do you balance the frequency and quality of your SMO content to avoid spamming or boring your audience?

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1 Know your goals and metrics

2 Understand your audience and platforms

3 Create valuable and diverse content

4 Plan and schedule your content

5 Test and optimize your content

6 Here’s what else to consider

Social Media Management

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