Top Social Media Tips
Social Media can be an key element of SEO as well as a specific and effective touch point in reaching both current and prospective customers but it takes a plan and some basic knowledge in order to be as effective as possible.
1. Every Social Media platform is different which means that you should have a different strategy for each one for the most part. In a lot of cases, Google Plus is for techies or specific professional disciplines/groups (but has a lot of weight if you rely on reviews). Facebook has a different demographic and may in some cases be an older demographic. Your Twitter message needs to be short and sweet and possibly allow for someone to add to your already short message. With something like Instagram, you may actually be able to duplicate some efforts here or the obvious format of additional visuals/pictures may be the way to go.
2. Choose to place your efforts on the Social Media platform that will get you the biggest return if your time and financial resources are limited. Don’t just have a Facebook account just because you were told to.
3. Do your research on each social media platform. You may be wasting efforts by placing original content on each and every platform. Some platforms may have better times to post content than others. In the case of Twitter, if you only post once, your post may very well become buried after just a couple minutes in a lot of people’s feed.
4. If at all possible, get to know your followers. If you are able to target those who will increase your reach that is great but you may also want to identify influencers, not just people who ‘like’ everything.
5. Since Social Media is a key element of Search Engine Optimization, original content is extremely important. Since original content is a drain on your time/resources, focus on having quality content over just posting a large amount of it. Quality beats out quantity every time.
6. To go along with quality content, please, please, please make sure that you check the accuracy of your content. Inaccurate content can be easily found out for what it is. Even more basic than this, ensure that the spelling and grammar (minus where shorthand is acceptable) are correct. Aint’ nuttin’ worst than crappy speling and funny talkin’ words.
7. Make sure you are open and responsive to your social media platform being an avenue for two-way communication. This will show your customers and prospective customers that you are responsive and aren’t just blasting your marketing message out there.
8. If you use hashtags (which you should be where applicable), make sure that you actually have taken the time to build either more in-depth or matching follow up content on your website. This not only improves the SEO value of both your social media platform but the SEO value of your website from a number of different points.
9. Keep things short and sweet. Users of social media don’t want a novel on your idea or message. If it is a topic that is conducive to those doing research, feel free to summarize it and send them to your website for more information. Remember your audience and how they want to utilize the information/message you are sending out.
10. Revisit your strategy every so often. Always be open to changing your focus or at least the allotment of time on each SM platform. Social Media is in a constant state of flux and what is hot today may not be sustainable over the long term.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us to discuss how your social efforts should dovetail with your SEO efforts in order to gain the most traction/interest, and therefore eyeballs on the products and services that you offer versus your competition.
