As we all know, social media outlets can be a quagmire, an overload, a jumble of messages. There is a LOT of content out there, and let’s face it: most of it is useless. It can be easier than you might think to make your business stand out in the crowd using social media outlets. I have seen as much as 80% of a website’s traffic streaming directly from Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter, so I know that it can be an extraordinarily effective tool, if used properly. If you plan to launch a social media campaign to boost your business, follow these rules to increase your chance for success.
- Social Media is a 24/7 task, not a one-time stunt. The most effective SM campaigns I have witnessed are those run by business owners who devote enough time to publish meaningful content at LEAST three times a week on any given outlet. It all takes extra time we don’t have, but if you want to get your return on the campaign, I recommend 3 posts per week, whether it’s blog, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter.
- It’s okay to drive people to your site, rather than Facebook’s. The whole purpose of social media, from an SEO standpoint, is to drive traffic back to your website. More traffic translates directly into better SEO for you. Create content on your site, then publish the title and feature photo on social media outlets that links back to your site. That way you are utilizing the best thing SM has to offer – traffic – and re-directing its attention to your business.
- Either update your page regularly, or delete it. There’s nothing worse than a blog page or Facebook wall where the most recent post was dated over a year ago. That shouts ‘abandonment’, and consumers immediately are turned off by such negligence. I know you are busy. Set a goal and make time for it anyway.
- Optimize your online content. In previous years, it was all about beefing up your content quantity, and now with the refined algorithms of our modern search engines, it’s now all about creating relevant, quality content. Find out what your potential customer are really interested in hearing about, how can you give them that information in a concise way, and how can you also use that info to generate interest in your products or services.
- Make your website and your SM profiles work together. Social Media doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It creates a seamless flow of information between users and URLs. Let’s use this to our advantage: create content that links your profile to your website, create cohesive graphics that brand your profile pages to match all other marketing materials your company is putting out there. Make Facebook, Twitter, Pintereste, etc, into extra arms of your marketing effort.
The above rules are taken from “The 36 Rules of Social Media”, infographic below, and are, in my opinion as a web and SEO professional, the most important 5 rules to which all companies should adhere.
