Using SEO in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media marketing is everywhere, and if you listen to the “experts” it’s the new face of the marketing world. What then, is an SEO marketer to do? The simple answer is to combine the two. SEO and social media marketing are really just two powerful weapons in the marketer’s arsenal, after all.

SEO and social media marketing are two forms of so-called “inbound” marketing. For those readers who aren’t familiar with all the technical terms of the marketing world, inbound marketing is anything that the customer goes to, as opposed to outbound marketing that goes out to the customer. So, SEO articles and other optimized content such as web pages are part of the inbound marketing crowd. Social media marketing also runs with that crowd, as customers find blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts, YouTube videos and all the other boys in the band that is social media marketing.

SEO is used in conjunction with social media marketing then to pack a double power punch. Not optimizing social media content is like loading the gun with rubber bullets. If a customer or potential client can’t find your great social media content via search engines, what good is it? If a customer or potential client doesn’t realize that the great social media content they are reading or watching or following is your brand, what’s the point? Using SEO tactics along with your creative and awe-inspiring social media content is putting the hollow-point, full metal jacketed shells in the gun. It says you mean business and you intend to blow your competition away!

Using SEO with blog post content is relatively easy. You simply use all your best SEO strategies when writing the post – keywords, density, themed SEO content, backlinks, etc. Optimizing other social media content may take a bit more work and creativity. Strategically building a social web presence that promotes sharing of content and audience participation isn’t an overnight operation. You have to begin by knowing your client base and what types of social content they prefer using. Once you get your customers playing along, joining in and generating some buzz, your battle is half over, as the search engines will pick up on all that chatter and name dropping. Then, your rankings will start to climb.

Using SEO strategies without some sort of social web presence isn’t too smart in today’s marketing world, either. Your wonderfully optimized content isn’t much of a tour de force without the power of social media behind it anymore. The inbound links from all that sharing, voting and commenting literally can’t be bought! Your devoted fans generate more and more fans as they unknowingly target other members of your audience just like themselves. The exposure and traffic they can provide is invaluable to your marketing efforts – it’s word of mouth marketing at its finest.

SEO and social media marketing shouldn’t and really can’t, be seen as separate entities. One without the other is leaving half your troops in reserve. Combining the two makes the best sense in today’s tough marketplace minefield.

Blogs are a growing tool for businesses. And for good reason. It’s a platform that offers organizations much more flexibility than traditional communications and other social media outlets. Blogs are engaging, authentic, and effective at persuading and influencing customers.

Is Blogging for you?
If you are a business owner, corporate executive or solopreneur, your blog offers an opportunity to drive dialogue in personal and insightful way.  Other advantages to business blogging include:

Credibility
Sharing knowledge about your business, industry, services and laws lets prospects know you are not only selling something, you are a credible resource; a fountain of knowledge in your field. Let’s face it, they are evaluating you against your competitors and looking for a thought leader who understand their needs and responds.

Speed
Updating your website, branded marketing materials, email and direct mail materials take time to update. If you are launching new products or services, breaking news or sharing new industry developments, what a better way to let your readers know quickly through a blog.

Boosts Web Traffic
Adding new content to your blog, using keywords, brings search engine spiders to your blog where a link to your website.

Sales
Blogs are excellent way to draw attention to your ecommerce site where you sell products. Whether you’re selling via your private website or online stores like Amazon or Ebay, promoting your products with a photo and optimized content, you are adding more SEO dimension and casting a wider net.

Getting Started
Today, setting up a blog is much easier now for non-technical web users. There are several free- hosted blog sites to choose from. Depending on your needs and requirements for control, the most popular free blogging software includes Blogger.com, WordPress.com and Typepad.com. Of course, if you have IT programmers on staff, they can retrofit embedded blog functionality into your existing website.

To keep on track and ensure you are blogging regularly, developing an editorial calendar and assigning one main blogger and several guest bloggers will be first call to order. Once you start fleshing out a list of topics for your editorial schedule, you will be surprised at how easy it is to come up with content.

Attracting Readers
Your blog on its own can spur traffic through browsers if you optimize your blog content to include your most relevant key words. Other ways to draw in readers to your blog is through your website, blog directories and social media tools.

Set up a business profile on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In and link to your blog and website. Research blog directories focused on your target audience so you can cast the net even further.

Keep your reader’s interests in mind. Be authentic, be accurate, and be informative.

You’ve learned how to leave your ego at home by not advertising to your audience and providing them with interesting content. Keep your audience interested in your content and continuously coming back to your site by following these simple steps.

Engage Your Audience
The next step would be to ask questions or post comments that your audience can respond to. You could say things such as, “Listen to ((Band XYZ’s)) track and let us know what you think!” or “The singer from ((Band XYZ)) used to be the lead singer in ((Band HIJ)). Which sound do you prefer?” Engaging the audience is a key part of social media. Let your followers know that you care about their opinion and give them a chance to voice their thoughts. Using your social media sites to spark conversation may set you apart from others in your industry.

Listen & Respond
After you ask questions of your followers, don’t think that your job is done. There is one key step that many companies can forget, and that’s responding to the answers your followers are giving to your questions. Just like in conversation you don’t want to ask a question, get a response and leave it, this would kill the conversation and doesn’t make your company seem interested. Once your audience has given an answer to your question, respond back. Let them know you are paying attention and genuinely care about what they think.

Frequency is Key
After these steps have been implemented, repeat. It’s important to keep updating your content, providing new information and keep your site current. These are the things that keep your audience coming back and commenting on your posts.

Remember you can give information about your company, after all people are following your company because they like you, but just be careful the content you’re providing doesn’t sound like a sales pitch. Rather your content should be informative, but also include a place for people to learn about your industry, voice their opinion and carry on conversations with you. Having all these components may create a well-rounded social media campaign that could keep people checking your site and responding to your questions.

How to Use Social Media in Network Marketing without Involving Your Ego– Part 1

You’ve created a social media profile, now what? Unless you are one of the biggest brands in the world such as Coca-Cola or Apple, people most likely haven’t heard of you and attracting brand advocates is going to be difficult. This means it will take some work to get noticed and as well as keeping visitors coming back.  However, with these easy to follow tips, you’ll be on your way to success.

Leave Your Ego at Home

Most sites won’t maintain a solid following base if they only put out egocentric content. Avoid this ego trip by providing current content that will allow your followers to gain insight into your business and industry without being plagued with messages and advertisements about your company.

Don’t Advertise

It may sound counterproductive, but you don’t want your postings to sound like you are advertising to your followers.  Just like you don’t like to follow people that talk about every little thing that goes on in their life and never give you a chance to respond, people don’t like to follow a business that is egocentric. People log into Facebook to be entertained and to create and maintain relationships, so sending them your advertisements may make your followers annoyed. If your followers see that all you are posting are things about your company and boasting about what you have accomplished people may get bored and either block or unfollow you.

Provide Interesting Content

Instead of creating all of your posts to let people know about what is going on at your company, use this space to post about things that relate to the industry you’re in. This means, for instance, if you’re in the music industry and there is news about a band, you can inform your followers of the current event. This could also be something as simple as hearing that a band is giving away a free song download; you can let your audience know about it and provide a link to the download site. (If possible, it might be a good idea to make the link open in a new tab to ensure the customer isn’t straying away from your site).

Stay tuned– Part 2 will include the final three steps that may help bring your social media marketing plan full circle without drowning your audience in egocentric posts.

Social networks are for far more than kids. Social marketing is a science with many useful strategies for monetization and building value. How can you show value with your social marketing campaign? You might be different. You might be personal. You might get technical, answering questions. You might walk readers through what you do in a day. In other words, you get creative.

Here are a few useful strategies to get you started building value with social marketing.

Take Risks
This may seem obvious, but many of us forget social marketing was made popular not just when teenagers started using it, but when businesses started. Some early adaptors had huge success with Facebook and Twitter by taking a risk and trying something different. Think beyond your business page and today’s status update and do something complete out of the norm. Come up with a campaign that will utilize its interactive and viral capabilities.

Get Personal
The myth is that being personal is bad. Another myth is that you have to show what is happening in your life every moment. Unless you’re an entrepreneur living a vicarious life, this is unnecessary, but you can build value by showing happy moments you had with family. Instead of looking like a corporate suit out for money, you can appear to be a regular person living life. This boosts your value and makes you stand out from the competition.

Answer Questions, Or Ask
If your business is in a more technical field, perhaps one where customers don’t exactly understand how you help them, you might show them how you do certain things. If you run a computer design company, you may answer common questions about faults in computer designs, or how much it really costs to build a computer, or even how you build them in the initial stages. On the other hand, you may ask questions of your customers yourself. You may ask for complaints or how they use your product. You may ask how you can help them save money rather. These are the types of strategies that build value.

Video
While creating an entire video can seem daunting, just about anyone can do it for cheap. And YouTube commercials actually get viewed, especially if you can somehow add humor. Just as some movie trailers have taken off on YouTube, your product on safely downloading music with the right program may become a hit. This happens more often than you might think.

Get Creative
Bottom line: Have fun with your social marketing campaign. Don’t follow all the rules you read online. Get creative and try some new ways to market your product or service and you’re sure to build value.

Is Twitter better than Facebook? It may sound like a crazy question. The fact is Twitter can be much better for marketing strategies, while Facebook is a more personal platform.

In a recent PC World article by Barbara E. Hernandez, it’s noted that Twitter allows for “more return on investment, less time for more exposure, a quick-hit approach to conversations, a more savvy population and few distractions from the endless streams of information.”

This is an incredible point. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of using Twitter.

Twitter Pros

1. Room to Grow
Twitter is growing, and many marketing professionals are using it. This is not the case with Facebook. Some are turned away by the mess of content on Facebook and all the novelties it offers. Twitter is an Apple computer in one small frame, while Facebook is a PC with a lot of connections. Both have their purpose.

2. Simplicity
Twitter also has a unique interface. Do you really need a Trapper Keeper or will a simple folder do the job? Sometimes back to the basics is better. Twitter’s interface is fairly new, and offers unique ways for businesses to have messages spread and use videos.

3. Community
There is a unique community on Twitter. Facebook has a unique community too, as do all social sites, but Twitter appears to be more professional. If you connect with the right people, your message can spread fast. The simple system of retweeting helped build relationships. These relationships have built communities. These communities have found companies buyers and buyers jobs.

Twitter Cons

1. Size
Twitter is smaller than Facebook. It is going to take some time for it to really catch up with the social giant. While the owners of Twitter see it reaching billions of users, it will take quite a long time.

2. Attention
Twitter users have no attention spans. The “send your message in 140 characters or less” has been made valid. If you have a lengthy point to make, you must use a link to connect to it. And even then, Twitter folk tend to only partake in quick news bites.

3. Down Time
Twitter goes down all too often. The system is still in its infancy, and just about anyone who has used Twitter can recall several “down times” where you could not post messages. If this occurs at a crucial time for your marketing campaign, it can definitely hurt.

Twitter is, in the end, a marketing platform with no equal. It’s smaller, you have to be brief and you cannot always depend on it being up, but you can count on making more of an impact with each new follower you get and Tweet you share.

If you want the secret strategy to marketing success, it may be “try until you succeed.” In the real world, we fail and fail until we get it right. We build relationships. We send emails with typos. But there are some strategies you can utilize – many of which can open up brand new marketing ideas for you.

Selling Experience, Not Products
Here is a common marketing mistake: “We have been in business for 20 years, with a combined 50 years computer science experience.” Instead of showing how your product will help the buyer, you go over your resume. While this mistake is common, many still make it again and again. You can use your experience to build credibility – sometimes it can really help. But do you want your first message to a buyer being how long you’ve been in business, or how you can help them?

No Frequency
You should stay in contact with prospects, especially online. Email marketing reminds buyers you exist. Blogs add some creative touches to your business message. Facebook can let you personalize your brand. Twitter can link to interesting releases about your company. Press releases can explain how your product is helping, or about this brand new product you have. You need to stay in touch. While you don’t want to send messages to buyers every day, staying in touch can help you get the sale or simply explain you are having a sale.

Originality
You may think this is going to say, “Be original, stop copying,” but let’s look at both sides. Originality is almost impossible in marketing, making old school ideals strong – just get your message out. On the other hand, originality in marketing can set you apart in a world clouded with the same messages. There are no hard rules about originality. You can consider your competitors so you can differentiate from them, or you can simply sell your product like a good McDonald’s store. Marketing can be about dynamic ideas, but they are not required.

Get Action
Instead of explaining how long you’ve been in business, explain how you helped a young mother finance a car. Instead of saying “please buy,” you might say, “you can save $100 today.” This is somewhat of a direct mail strategy – where you have all these elements working. If you show benefits and ask for a sale, you are ahead of many.

Sales Hat Off
You don’t always have to sell to buyers; sometimes giving value is a better sales tactic. While business is run by selling and selling again, sometimes you want to show buyers some Christmas spirit, or explain how your husband just beat cancer. Let them get to know you; you don’t always have to be a smiling salesman.

Ignoring
Get involved with your social media campaigns. You are the CEO, but you should still post occasionally on your business Facebook page. Why? You can listen to what buyers are saying – the good and the bad – and adapt to it. The best businesses listen. If you listen, and some random problem comes out, you can address it.

We all make mistakes, we all fail. But… how does that go… “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” The worst mistake we can make when it comes to marketing is not doing anything. So keep trying. Try new, cutting-edge strategies, try old, tried-and-true strategies. Just keep going until you find what works for you.

Your social networks maybe more valuable than you think. Chris Crum on WebProNews recently posted a useful article on how you can apply Facebook and Twitter to your search engine marketing plan, explaining how search engines are now using the social sites in determining organic rankings. Everyone knows social networks are hot, with millions using Twitter and millions more using Facebook, but the connection between search engines and social sites can be confusing. While the Crum article does not give any final answers on how to use the two together, it does posit some interesting points that can help you develop your own strategy.

Google and Social Networks
Google treats Tweeting and posting much like PageRank does, in that the more relevant the content, the more popular it is, the higher it gets ranked. If you get a link re-tweeted 100 times by some big movers and shakers, you can be assured this will affect your search engine ranking and your ranking will grow. If you get a few Tweets by some regular fans, you of course get less of an affect. Facebook works the same way for Google as Twitter, where authority counts – only that wall postings mean nothing. If you get 10 movers posting on your Facebook wall, it will have less of an affect than a regular Facebook post which gets attention. In other words, it is the link sharing that counts for both Twitter and Facebook on Google.

Bing and Social Networks
According to Crum, “Bing decides when links should carry more weight based on the person who re-tweets it.” So this is a more subjective determining of how Tweets and posts will influence your search engine ranking. Essentially it works on the same level as Google: the more clout the person who re-tweets or shares your message, the better it will help your search engine score.

Facebook and Search Engine Rankings
Facebook seems to be second banana when it comes to search engine rankings, but don’t let that stop you from using it. Both Google and Bing admit to using Facebook for search engine rankings. The only problem is that Facebook is not a public interface, where Twitter is. You can only access so much on Facebook. However, with so many more users on Facebook, it is still offers a great deal of sharing potential to spread your message throughout your target audience.

Twitter May be King
Twitter has more public respect from search engines. In the Crum article, Twitter is brought up first, and then Facebook as though to finish the thought. In other words, Twitter is the first place to go if you want to boost your search engine rankings with a social network. You can get immediate buzz on your blog post. Your new product launch may take off when some big movers and shakers tag along. You may even boost your page rank.

The Future of Social Marketing
Despite that fact that both Twitter re-tweets and Facebook share links are no follow, search engines are beginning to see and credit the weight these social sites offer. Google and Bing both looking at these links in determining organic rankings just goes to show that having a strong social presence can benefit your entire internet marketing campaign. As Facebook and Twitter gain more clout with search engines and businesses as real marketing tools, it will be interesting to see where the future of social marketing leads.

It’s been a great day at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in sunny Las Vegas, NV where 1000’s of exhibitors and attendees hang out and talk about the latest in digital mediums.  Of particular interest, we met several exciting companies ranging from eBooks to CPA networks.  Below is a short recap on some of the exciting announcements and companies we met:

Borders Books Releases a New eBook Publishing Service in Conjunction with BookBrewer
We had the pleasure to meet with Kelly Peterson (eBook Manager for Borders Books) and Dan Pacheco (CEO of BookBrewer) that spoke to us about an exciting new service that will allow eBooks and Blogs to get easily published in newly distributed digital channels such as the Kindle and Nook.  Book publishers can choose from two affordable publishing packages starting at $89.99.  Service will be available on October25th.  For more information, please see their corporate site at http://borders.bookbrewer.com.

CoTweet (by Exact Target) Exhibits its Robust Social Media Management Platform
A quick pass by the CoTweet booth (acquired by Exact Target) revealed a powerful enterprise social media management tool…and oh yeah, a free tee-shirt if said you loved their service @cotweet on Twitter.  Although the free teeshirt was a nice touch, under the hood of CoTweet is serious social media management tool for enterprises to manage all of their media with one tool, report on engagement/sentiment, and monitor your brand across all the major social media networks.  Meg Clark (pictured), provided a great demo on the power of their tool which conveniently also integrates with SalesForce.  More information can be found at http://www.exacttarget.com/cotweetenterprise.

CPAWAY, a Cost Per Action Network for Publishers and Advertisers
Last, but certainly not least was CPAWAY’s cost per action network who’s roots go deep into the affiliate marketing world.  If you are new to CPA networks, these are great “no risk” channels that offer generous commissions to publishers and a no “cost per click” channel for advertisers.  Simply put, if you are looking to generate purchases or leads and only want to pay when those actions occur, CPA networks are for you.  Where many CPA networks require minimum spends or set up fee’s, Thomas Dietzel, President of CPAWAY, explained that their network is literally risk free with no upfront fees.  Cost per action does vary by industry, but the bottom line is that if you know your ROI of your products or services, this one really is a no brainer.  More information can be found at http://www.cpaway.com.

That’s it for now, but we look forward to catching up in the near future.  Now off to the Aria Hotel for another BlogWorld party:)

Social marketing has made millions for those who adapted early, but it’s not too late to jump on board and benefit from the marketing potential social media have to offer. You may be wondering why social marketing is so powerful. Well, mostly because you’re able to reach prospects in new and creative ways on their terms, giving them a sort of home field advantage, if you will.

Buyers have fun on Facebook; they enjoy networking on LinkedIn. It’s their choice to include you, to follow your twitter posts, to like your Facebook page, to invite you to send them marketing messages. That alone provides a receptive audience no other media can offer.

So, how do you harness the marketing potential of social media. The most important factor when it comes to social marketing is your audience. If they’re not on Facebook, social marketing probably isn’t going to work for you. So assuming your target audience is on Facebook, or at least some segment of it, you should consider the following reasons for advertising to prospects through social media.

Profit
The main goal of most marketing efforts is to produce capital, and social marketing is no different. Yes, it can be fun, but the bottom line is that for businesses social marketing can be a boon.  Social marketing allows you to create interest, showcase your benefits, educate buyers, and can even close the sale. There are a variety of ways to efficiently sell on social media sites. Using Facebook apps, links on twitter, coupons as status updates, etc, you can close the deal without buyers ever even reaching your main website or picking up the phone.

No More Cold Calls
With a new client base found socially, you can take the surprise out of the message. It can also save a lot of time. Calling 10,000 people can take weeks even with a decent sized staff, while posting 5 messages on Facebook every day can take a matter of hours and be read by even larger numbers. This is not to say cold calling is obsolete; the numbers say otherwise. The real point is you can save on man-hours and reach a receptive audience by using social marketing.

Go Viral
Messages go viral on the social web every single minute. The big example used in marketing circles today is Blendtec blender, which, with a crazy-low budget, used YouTube and social buzz to boost the company bottom line incredibly with its Will It Blend? campaign. Blendtec simply showed how its blender could cut through anything, from cell phones to marbles. It went viral on the social web, turned a small budget into tens of thousands of blenders sold, and now it’s history.

How Cheap is This Approach?
That depends on what’s more valuable to you, time or money. Social marketing is very cost effective in terms of ROI. It can cost nothing to set up a Facebook business page or a twitter account. But the one thing it does take is time. It takes time and a lot of effort to build a quality following. Sure, you can attract a thousand fans with a free give-away or buy a cheap program to build your follows, but is that going to help you build a receptive following full of real prospects? For social marketing to pay off, you need to be willing to invest a great deal or time, or hire a company to manage your social profiles for you.

Engaging New Clients
Many companies use professional social marketing campaigns to find new clients on a daily basis. It’s a good investment for creating interest from all ranges of prospects. When combined with other forms of online and offline advertising, social marketing can be a valuable venue for marketing to new prospects. Create content, interest and even more buyers with social marketing.