Social media optimization

Social media  refers to internet -based   apps that allow users to create and share content such as text, photos and videos. 

Importance of social media 

1.Staying connected

2.News and trends 

3.Businesses and ads

4.Social media influencing

5. Jobs and making connections

Social media fundamentals -understanding the evolution

Stage 1 – Early days(Six degrees, friendster and Orkut)

Stage 2- Rise of giants(Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram)

Stage 3- Snapchat and Tiktok

Stage 4- Today 

Six degrees  was a social media networking service  founded in 1997 by Andrew Wreinrich.It was named after theory of six degrees of seperation.  A chain of friend of friend to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. It is also know as six handshakes rule.  

Freindster founded by Jonathan Abrahms  in California  in  2002.

Orkut was founded by a Google employee named as Orkut Buyukotten .It is owned and operated by Google. 

Social media channels Audience 

Platform Monthly active users (millions)    Focus 

Facebook   3030                                             Broad reach , diverse demographics

Youtube      2491                                               Video centric, engaged audience 

Whatsapp     2480                                          Private messaging , strong international audience 

Instagram    2040                                         Visually appealling , influencer marketing

Tiktok           1220                                          Short- form video, Genz and millenials focus 

Linkedin       424                                          Professionals , B2b marketing ‘

X(Twitter)    550                                       News, real time conversations , opinion leaders

Quora          300                                      Knowledge sharing ,niche communities 

Pininterest platform is used for product discovery.

Telegram is used for making channels. 

Terms

1.Followers -Users who see yor post,reels and storiesin their feed.

2.Likes- Approval , appreciation or enjoyment of a post acting as a quick engagement tool. 

3.Shares – Reposting or forwarding content like videos, articles, photos to your network .

4.Post reach -is the number ofunique people who have seen  a specific social media post counting each person only once.

5.Viral – a video circulated rapidly form one end to another .

6.Following-I subscribe to subscribe some users whom I  want to see. 

Key metrics to decide if a video has gone viral 

1. Rapid view growth – It is most visible sign . Views should spike exponentially  often reaching hundreds or thousands or millions within first 24-72 hours far exceeding creator’s average performance.

2. High engagement rate -Virality is drawn by a interation.

a.Shares-It is organic as indicates voluntary interaction  by viewers to their networks.

b.Comments -Content is sparking conversation.

c.Reactions- A surface level like metric , a high volume of like or strong  liketo view ratio (e.g. 5-10% on tiktok  )signals quality to platform algorithms.

Platform algorithms use artifical intelligence to rank content based on quality signals like experience, expertise , authority, trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) ,relevance.

d. Saves – Specially on instagram shows viewers find the content valuable enough to revisit , algorithm rewards it .

Social media creative sizes

Facebook

Profile photo -170*170 px

Landscape -1200*630px

Portrait – 630*1200pixels

Square – 1200*1200px

Stories and reels – 1080 *1920 px

Cover photo – 851*315px

cover photo – Large image at the top of a profile or page on social media platforms such as facebook, X(formerly known as Twitter) , Linkedin.Unlike profile photo cover photos are large  banner images that intorduces visitors to an individual or brand.

social media optimization  means improving your profile on social media platforms.