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SEO for Social Media
With the advent of the latest improvements in Social Media, Marketers are now flocking to harness the potential of people in the social media networks. However, social media is different in terms of SEO as compared to the traditional web sites which filters out based on keywords, content and authority.
SEO for Social Media or what we will call Social Media Optimisation focuses on people and their activities power. Social Media Optimisation also effectively pulls in search engine rankings which will yield better results to customers wanting to gain higher traction with both social media and search engines.
Joshua Berg developed a model for an effective SMO model which we will follow for this reading. This seven step model is ideal for application for any social media of choice but it would be best to have multiple social media accounts which complement each other to have a “holistic” approach to people in each of the social networks.
- Reputation
An essential facet of the online world is to establish credibility as a person or as a brand. This will be further discusses in the next reading but I will briefly discuss it in here.
As a brand, you must act and think like your brand. Posers are very much present in social media too so it is best to have your account verified or to have your posts have water such as posting discount rates that are to take effect. Once people distinguish you as the credible brand or page owner people will most likely trust you and your content.
Some bloggers show their expertise in their social media accounts and share some of their knowledge tidbits in Twitter which surely helps their followers. The followers in turn do a word of mouth marketing by sharing it and to remember the person sharing the information.
- Engagement
Engagement is a measure of marketers to know whether their campaign is relatable and inciting enough interest. The best ways to find engagements is the replies, re-shares or re-posts of the content. Likes are also counted under this category but as much marketers like the “likes”, it isn’t showing engagement or commitment to you.
Imagine going to a stand up comedy bar. If the stand up comedian isn’t able to make the audiences laugh, he panics and thinks of several antics to crack the crowd. This is what we are after with engagement. We need to gain feedback from them with the help of the social media.
- Authority
Apart from registering under Google Authorship, social proof also shows as a credibility proof in social media and search engines. Having very active social media accounts along with a number of active followers merit a spot in search engines. Be aware of your privacy settings as some have disabled public views which will make the page not show in the search engines (which you want in the first place).
- Leadership
In other words, content curation. Keeping the content up to date and replying to the comments help you become an established online go-to person. Some brands just post their information and latest products on their social media pages but not helping in replying comments much like a one-sided communication for the parties. This is not helping optimise the social media to its full potential.
Through conversing with commenters, some valuable information might be discovered and a possible necessary upgrade for the brand.
- Social
The best thing about social media is that you can “friend” whomever you want and reach out to popular complementary brands which tie-ups might be fruitful in the future. Not only can you do some great B2B marketing but you could also guest up and coming people like celebrities and popular people who will eventually bring “juice” to your cite.
- Platforms
A brand does not need to be in any platform. It HAS to be in a platform where its mileage will be heavily utilized. The basic social media channel is Facebook and Twitter for brands. Pinterest and Tumblr might cater more on the artsy, designer niche and Instagram is good for photographers, photo bloggers and the like.
- Optimisation
Here comes the meat of the article. This utilises your social media presence into a SEO- social media account. Social Media is the ultimate link building device digital marketers can have access to these days. Here are the things that can be crawled or indexed by Google on your Social Media Sites.
- Shareable Content
Since you have a public profile, try to make a visually appearing or emotionally appealing content to raise your virality in social media. The Shared Content will help you boost the brand’s image and identity.
- Rich Snippets.
Don’t forget to put your summarized content in your social media pages so that searchengines will become familiar with it. Especially with your good keyword triggers.
As the old adage goes, customers are king, SEO in Social Media fans the same principle :Satisfy your online users, you’ll get your SEO rankings.