Social Media: Set Up, Syndication And Audience Building

Many online companies and websites will automatically think of SEO and website content when it comes to marketing their business online. However, their social media accounts generally do not receive the same level of finessing.

Today, search engines like Google and Bing increasingly use social media indicators in their ranking algorithms. Websites and companies that are not prepared with social media may be losing out on a major ranking and traffic driver. In light of the advancing algorithms, a good marketing strategy is not complete without a social media component.

Socially Syndicating Your Content

First and foremost, online marketers should register the websites and companies with all of the major social media players. Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and maybe Youtube, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Not only will these platforms interact positively with search algorithms, but these sites will also broaden the audience reach and drive website traffic. Additionally, social media platforms are typically easily integrated with existing websites.

Because of this integration, it is easy to push information through to all platforms as once. There are many tools to do this, one example being Hootsuite. The content can be syndicated through all of the platforms from one dashboard which will save you time and deliver your useful information to the audience on the different platforms.

You can even connect your blog to many of these platforms, often through simply adding your blog’s RSS feed. There are also several apps that work with your social media platforms to connect your blog via RSS. RSS Graffiti is one of the popular ones. When a new post is published, the integrated platforms will automatically update the social accounts with the new information.

Make Your Content Easy To Share

On the website, the social media buttons should be displayed and information should be easily shareable, often with calls to action. With a click of a button, the targeted audience can share the website’s information with their targeted audience and so forth. This is perhaps one of the greatest features of social media usage. Not only will the original content get a ranking boost by the social signals, but it can easily reach a large number of people when it is shared by multiple users.

Content, Content, Content!!

This brings up a very important point: Content, content, content. The main goal should be to always deliver interesting content! Although social media is a must-have for successful digital marketing, developing a social media account is not the end goal.

The content is what drives social media success. Also, consider unconventional content such as photographs with short captions known as memes. A shocking, funny or emotive photograph, catchy and relevant captions, and a link back to the website is a great way to drive traffic.

Why You Need To Have A Social Presence

Social media marketing and SEO is not easy and it is certainly a time commitment unless you outsource to an social media and SEO company, in which case it becomes a financial commitment. However, with a successful social media campaign, the return is certain to be exponential. Through the social media sites, marketers can build authority profiles that generate a following and therefore positively affect rankings, reach and ultimately your business. There are tremendous benefits to positioning yourself as an expert authority in your niche.

In the past, SEO strategies have largely ignored social media platforms, but in today’s climate, websites cannot afford to continue this strategy. As consumers increasingly refer to social media for product information and consumer reviews, websites without a social media presence are likely to take a backseat to competitors that do. People today expect to see your business have a presence on social platforms and if it does not then expect to lose trust.

Don’t Make This Fatal Mistake

You wouldn’t do very well at a party if you went there and were all “me, me, me . . “. Not many people would want to stick around and this is the same on social media platforms. You need to engage with your audience and share things that they will be interested in (not just your own stuff either). Don’t simply talk about yourself all the time and definitely don’t be promotional. People on social sites do NOT like being “sold” to.

Search the web and find things that your audience will be interested in and post and talk about them as well as your own content. This could be things like news, video, blog posts, things from other social channels, infographics and just about anything you think your audience will enjoy. The web is overloaded with content so now, the ones who will be rewarded and followed are the ones who can find the best content out there.

Get people to follow you, then get them from your social network to your website and let your website do the selling, not the social page. Keep the social page . . well . . social!