Social Media for SEO

The development of internet technology changes quickly. In business, more and more companies market their products and service online. At this time, SEO is the traditional way for product and service marketing and propaganda.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can put a website or a web page in the front ranking in a search engine. In this way, users will visit such website or web page more easily and frequently, which will increase the reputation and of the product or service of a company as well as conclude transactions in the end. The searches used for SEO include local search, image search, video search, academic search, industrial vertical search and news search. It has been a popular and useful way ever since.

However, the advancement of social media or social network is changing this pattern. Especially social network like Facebook and Twitter occupy a large number of visits on the internet, which also impact commercial service. For this reason, SMO emerges in response to this trend and requirements.

Social Media Optimisation (SMO) adopts plenty of social media websites to generate publicity and increase popularity of products, service, brands or events. The social media involved contain social news and bookmarking sites, social network sites, RSS feeds and video and blogging sites. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Youtube are the most famous social media websites. Social media optimisation often shares contents about the products or websites through those social media and networking sites, which can be regarded as an important part of the search engine optimisation. It greatly accelerates publicity of products or service and improves the result of SEO results.

However, SEO and SMO are so different. Nowadays social media exerts more and more influence on the traditional SEO. First of all, content share through social media becomes the new type of link building. Secondly, relevant keywords will increase from the content shared and profile of the author on social media websites. Even in the social media optimisation, keywords are still the crucial factors related to the products or service directly, so it shall be well integrated into the contents. Except for keywords in the high quality contents, the name, URL and biography shall also contain the keywords to show the products and improve the search results. Thirdly, It is better to rank for social connections and followers. The quality connections, followers and friends on the social media website are the most important resources for SEO because the huge social network is the value for the marketing and publicity.

In order to utilize social media for SEO efficiently and successfully, some useful tips are given as below:

– Publish high quality targeted contents in writing, photo or video

– Share the content on social media websites frequently and easily.

– Use more images to show your products or service and match the writing contents

– Measure and analyze the performance of social media

– Analyse the big data collected from the social media website and adjust the social media strategy

Social media has been a mainstream way for SEO now and in the future. The flexible utilisation of social media will improve the function of SEO greatly.

 

How to Properly Use Social Media to Fit Your Business Strategy

In our increasingly connected society, building a social media presence is as commonplace as getting a driver’s license. Personal Facebook profiles, LinkedIn accounts, and Twitter handles are common among students and professionals alike. However, frequently updating your Pinterest boards does not necessarily equip you with the tools and experience that you need when crafting a social media strategy for your budding business.

Whether you are operating a brick-and-mortar company, or a more tech-heavy startup such as my business, thoughtfully employing social media can help you increase your visibility, profits, and number of customers. One key is carefully linking your social media activity to your business strategy. How can you do so? Here are three pieces of advice:

1. Choose the right platforms and practices
It might be tempting to follow the social media trends that are considered “hot” in popular culture and jump on whatever platform is being talked about the most. Maximizing your social media use means choosing those platforms and practices that suit your core business strategy. For instance, it may or may not make sense for your company to update its Twitter account every hour; what works for another company may not have the same effects for yours.

One strategy could be to first determine which platforms your customers and leads use, and then build your social media presence with those outlets in mind so as to achieve predetermined and measurable business objectives. Even if revenue impact is hard to measure, you should have specific key performance indicators in place that will help you evaluate the extent to which you are doing a good job and generating meaningful value for your company.

In many cases, the objective of a social media strategy is to increase the reach and visibility of your company. Therefore, it would make sense to consider fostering a social media presence on most – if not all – of the major platforms to maximize those reach results. For instance, Facebook may be the largest social media platform, but Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram have the highest growth rates. Which outlets are likely to benefit your business most, both in terms of the users you’ll reach and how you do business? Twitter users, for example, often expect near-immediate responses when they mention a company. If you do not have the resources to answer quickly, Twitter (and other similar platforms) may not be ideal for your company’s social media strategy.

2. Set goals for your social media use
The location, purpose, and size of your business will naturally affect your social media goals. However, many companies use social platforms to:

• Increase referral traffic to their website
• Drive lead generation or e-commerce purchases
• Increase company credibility
• Demonstrate a corporate identity and culture that makes people more likely to want to work with as consumers or employees
• Increase the quantity of feedback that they receive from customers and leads.
• Offer an additional avenue for customer service interactions. Your clients may find it more convenient to compose a Tweet or write a Facebook post than to call or email you. It may even help them like you more. One survey found that 43% of customers are likely to recommend a product or service to others when that brand responds in a timely manner on social media outlets.
• Media outlets may even consider your online presence when deciding whether to feature your company in a piece. The stories that you portray of an exciting company through social media may help you connect with reporters and writers who are looking for interesting businesses to profile.

Whenever possible, track how your social media use influences your lead flow and customer conversion rate. Ultimately, good use of these platforms should be impacting your revenue and profit figures.

Read the Full Article Here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckcohn/2015/01/23/how-to-properly-use-social-media-to-fit-your-business-strategy/#4c3658e5474e578d2de25474

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