Search Engine Optimization

Hopefully by now you know and accept the fact that social media is not going away. Having revolutionized the way we interact online, social media can be an incredibly useful tool for marketers and businesses. However, it’s not enough to just have the Facebook page or Twitter handle. Just existing on a social networking site isn’t worth much anymore, other than a few links to help build a link portfolio. If you really want to make social media work for your business, you have to get active!

Here are 5 reasons it pays to get more involved with social media:

1. Building an online brand
Your online brand is more than just what you say it is. Social media has allowed consumers unprecedented control over a company’s brand. How they perceive your brand and company is the only thing that really matter. Social networking sites are fueled by consumer opinions, thoughts, comments and complaints. If you aren’t active on these sites, how will you know what people are saying about you?

Social networking allows you to humanize your online brand. People want to do business with other people, not faceless corporations.

Social profiles can also rank on their own in the search engines, increasing your online brand presence.

2. Connecting with new, potential customers
If you don’t think your target audience is on social networking sites, you’re wrong. While different audiences use social media for different reasons and to varying degrees, just about everyone at least has one profile. The only way potential customers are going to find you is if you are active. You can’t sit there and hope they just show up.

3. Connecting with existing customers
It takes more money to get a new customer than keep an old one. If someone has purchased your product/services before, don’t let that relationship go to waste! Social networking sites are a great way to stay connected with your existing and previous customer base. You can keep them in the loop about product launches, updates, company news and so forth.

4. Promotion of content generates natural links
It’s no secret that links are the bread and butter of SEO. The more times a piece of your content is shared, posted, liked, Tweeted, bookmarked and so forth, that sends a signal to the search engines that your content is valuable and useful. Both Google and Bing have admitted that social signals impact how well something ranks in the SERP.

5. Increase website traffic from social networking profiles
Your website must always remain at the hub of your online marketing efforts. By choosing to check out your social media profile, a visitor is identifying themselves as your target audience. Your social profiles should encourage that visitor to keep moving through to your website where you can push them to convert.

It’s not enough to just have a social networking profile, you have got to be active! While a social network is a great place to build a quality link, social media marketing has much more value when you take the time to develop a real presence and build a community.You have got to be as active as it makes sense for your business and here are 6 reasons why.

Watch this week’s SEO video lesson here!

Like it or not, social media is here to stay. Facebook has over 600 million users worldwide; Twitter claims to have over 200 million and LinkedIn hit 100 million users back in March. Long before Facebook and Bing joined forces in May, both Google and Bing were incorporating social signals into their search results. Social profiles can rank in the search engines, increasing your online brand presence; trending topics on Twitter on complied in the RealTime results section of Google, Bing now shows you which of your friends have “liked” a link and more. There is no denying that social media will have a lasting effect on search marketing and SEO.

But just because social media seems to be heralded as the second coming, it is not the end-all-be-all magic bullet to your online marketing needs. A social networking profile is only as good and as useful as you make it to be. Just like SEO, social media marketing is not a set-it-and-forget-it marketing technique. Social media is 24-7, which means you better be an active participant if you want to make any headway. Social networking is all about making connections and establishing relationships. It is not the place to make a sales push. As a critical component of inbound marketing (along with SEO) social media marketing gives you the chance to connect with your consumers on a personal level, monitor your online brand reputation, build your brand presence and more. But you have to be smart about it!

I know that Wikipedia is never supposed to be used as a source, but there is a great list of social networking sites that you should check out. There are hundreds of social networking sites for every kind of niche audience! Which one do you think your consumers use, in addition to the big three?

While these smaller social networking sites may not have the reach or brand recognition of Facebook, that doesn’t mean they don’t have value. Being able to communicate with a very targeted audience is a boon for businesses. The more targeted your audience, the better chance your messaging has of having an impact and prompting action.

If you want to create a social networking profile, make sure you have the time and resources to really use that profile! While you could create the profile just to get the link, there is so much more value in building your online community on that site. The purpose of a social networking site is to network! If you don’t have the time, energy or desire to really make a space for yourself on any given social network, what is the point?

As social media matures, companies are realizing that it takes a lot of time and effort to run a successful social media marketing strategy. It’s not enough to have a profile anymore. Time to start using them or risk getting lost in the shuffle.

Social media has earned a lot of attention in the past year for being the latest “must-have” of any integrated marketing campaign. While social media marketing is extremely valuable and can be tailored to work for almost any company in any industry, it is not the magic bullet that some businesses seem to think it is. Having a strong social presence is just one part of a well-rounded marketing strategy. If you’re focusing the majority of your efforts and budget on social media marketing, you could be limiting your chance for success.

I’ll admit that I use social media marketing on behalf of my own company, and I find it useful in its own way. Twitter is a great place to link to great content, both blogs and articles that I write and to those that I find interesting/useful. I post the latest SEO video lessons to Facebook and am a member of Internet marketing, SEO and social media marketing groups on LinkedIn. All three social networking sites are a great place to build the Brick Marketing brand, but I don’t expect to get any real leads from my time spent on these sites.

When it comes to establishing connections, I consider getting social media followers/Fans to be of secondary importance. My primary goal is to get website traffic to convert; I want them to fill out a proposal form or sign up for the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter. All my social media marketing efforts are designed to drive traffic to the Brick Marketing site, not the other way around. That’s why I always recommend that clients place their “Connect with Us” buttons in the footer of their website. Why would you want to encourage someone to leave your site and Like you on Facebook? Isn’t it better if you encourage them to stay and get them to do business with you right then and there?

I’m not saying that having those relationships on social networking sites isn’t important. You never know what kind of affect your presence there is going to have on a potential customer. Think of it this way, say someone sees a one of your Tweets and follows it over to your blog. They read through a few posts and are impressed by your content, so they sign up for your RSS feed. After a while they connect with you on LinkedIn. They find out you’re going to be appearing at an upcoming tradeshow from a press release you sent out, so they make sure to stop by your booth. There, you get them to opt-in to your bi-weekly newsletter. Somewhere down the line they visit your site and finally fill out your proposal form. Which touch point do you attribute that lead to? They never followed you on Twitter or Liked you on Facebook, but you eventually converted them. Isn’t that the real goal?

Having 30,000 fans/followers is certainly impressive, but you have to look at the quality of those social networking connections. Did you run a Facebook promotion where consumers had to Like your page to get the special deal? How many un-Liked your page when the promotion was over? How many of your Twitter followers actually reTweet your posts? How many of those accounts are even active?

At the end of the day, your social networking activities need to help you build your brand, drive traffic to your site and help you convert visitors into purchasers. Having 30,000 fans/followers doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t help you achieve those goals.

There are many places online where you’ll have the opportunity to publish a company description (directory listing) or create a company profile (social networking site). Each of these descriptions/profiles needs to relate to one another, keeping the branding and messaging the same. By having a synergy across all platforms, your present a much stronger online brand personality and avoid confusing your audience with different messages.

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