Social Media
SEO Checklist
The final way to build your organic search presence is to focus on social media. Over the past decade, social media has played a larger role in our society than search engines like Google and Bing ever could have imagined when they started.
Therefore, a good social media strategy can help businesses with both connecting with their customers and driving traffic to their website.
Step 1: Complete Profile on each major social network
- Facebook -The major social network in the United States is a great place to build your social profile. Fill out all the basic contact and about information for your fan page.
- Google+ -A full social network like Facebook. You can also connect your Google Plus account to your Google Places account you set up earlier.
- Twitter – Complete your Twitter description and profile along with a link to your website.
- YouTube – As long as you sign up for Google+, most of your YouTube account is set. The profiles overlap, but you might have to add some filler information.
- LinkedIn – Create a professional company page on LinkedIn. The company page is great for creating content, and you can include specials as well.
Step #2: Build your social network.
Once you have your profile, you need to build your social network. To do this, choose your favorite three social networks.
Base this on what type of preferences your customers have about their lifestyle, and not your own personal preferences. Remember the idea here is to use social networking to build up a network interested in your business services.
These people are also the ones who are more likely to share your content on your website to help you generate search juice.
Here are a few ways you can build your network:
Contact your current offline network – The first thing you want to do is contact your current network about your participation on whatever network you join above.
Join Social Networking Groups – Next find relevant social media groups interested in your services. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ all have strong group functions.
Take an active interest in these people’s lives? Respond to their posts and engage with them before you promote your own content.
Create Value – Finally, create massive value for your network. Discover what you can easily give to them for free. Most marketers use information, since it can be used to demonstrate your authority on a subject and are more likely to be shared than products you sell online.
Creating value leads us to the next step.
Step #3: Create valuable local content.
The biggest challenge most small business owners face is what type of content can they conceivably create to help their target audience. However, helping customers fix toilet leaks from the base of the unit become invaluable in a pinch. The more you become the trusted resource, the more likely you receive the calls from customers asking for help.
Here are a few common types of content you can publish on your website and share on social media.
- Event – Do you host live events or webinars for your business? Then share this information on your blog and social networks to spread the word about the upcoming event.
- Tips – For every business, you will find numerous tips that can be provided to consumers to help them with their challenges.
- Ideas – When tips alone are not enough, resort to ideas your prospects can use to enjoy your knowledge and expertise.
- How to news – Also, provide how to information for all the latest ideas. This eBook is a perfect example of how to content with the latest information about search engine optimization strategies for small business owners.
- Special promotion – Finally, do not be embarrassed to promote your business from time to time. While over-promoting can be bad, you are on social media to increase your revenue. If you don’t ask, how will customers know what to purchase?
Furthermore, you want to post daily on social media. The more valuable content you create, the more customers are interested in your business. They become accustomed to your posts and check on them regularly.
Step 4: Next, use smartphones when you are away from the office. While this is an optional step, it can be invaluable on social media.
Post photos on Pinterest and mobile network Instagram. Then post short videos to Twitter and Vine (subsidiary of Twitter).
Photos help you promote your brand to whatever event or meeting you go to during the week. They are also very engaging for subscribers and easy to incorporate into your social media posts for consumers.
Step 5: Engage with them as well. Answer their questions, and like and comment on their information. The best way to create long-term growth through social media is to engage with your audience. Make them like you, and they continually share your content and help their planet.
And you like them by listening to them. Unlike most techniques with search engine marketing where you are communicating to your target market, this requires you to pay attention to others besides for yourself.
This can challenge some businesses used to telling customers what you do. However, the more attention you pay to others, the more benefits you receive.