Like this:

Social media skills are increasingly important for business. Twitter is an ideal resource for companies, celebrities and anyone who feels a need, to build an online presence and engage with customers or fans.

Being able to provide instant feedback on products or direct complaints to a listening ear is an invaluable service. Simply registering with Twitter isn’t enough. You also need to properly manage your presence, and ensure that you are responding to any tweets directed to your company.

(A) It is possible to see what other people are tweeting without becoming a member. Twitter is free to join. Register at Twitter.com. Choose your Twitter account name carefully – you want customers to be able to find you.

(B) Publicise your Twitter account to attract more followers. Key areas include your website, blog and email signature, but you should also add your Twitter address to your company letterhead, business cards, advertising and any other marketing materials you may produce.

(C) Make the most of your Twitter Feed. Provided that majority of tweets are relevant, consider adding a feed to your blog or home page. If you use WordPress, you can drag a Twitter widget into your blog.

(D) Link your company’s feed using the @ tag. You can also use the @ tag to grab the attention of particular Twitter users.

(E) Squeeze as much information as possible into your tweets. Although URLs will appear shortened, the longer version still uses upto 20  characters of a tweets 140 character limit. A URL shortening service like bit.ly will leave you more characters for your tweet.

(F) Use generic terms that other users may be searching for.

(G) If your company is showing off its wares at an event , use hashtags to attract people who are interested in or visiting that event. A hashtag is a generic search term prefaced with a ‘#’ symbol. Clicking a hashtag within a tweet will call up all tweets that contain it.

(H) Crosslink your website and Twitter feed. Regularly mention  your blog or website, as well as any products of particular interest. However, your followers are likely to drop you if they think you are only interested in marketing.

(I) Tweet regularly. If you want to keep hold of your followers and hopefully attract new ones, you must maintain a strong presence.

(J) Schedule your tweets. Rather than uploading a number of tweets at once, spreading them out will help your company stay at the top of your followers’ feeds for longer.

(K) Engage with your followers. Respond to your followers tweets regularly. If someone complains about your service or products, or asks for help, a response is essential.

Like this:

Local businesses need channels and platforms to connect with their future buyers. Let’s take a look at a few of the most popular options for local web marketing on the market today.

Local Search-based Advertising: consumers research products or services online before they make purchasing decisions. Since “search” is users’ primary tool of choice for finding information, local business owners should aim to position themselves within the online channels providing search functionality to end-users.

Google Places and Local.com, for example, both prove to be valuable options in their ability to drive results-so consider starting there if the aim is to increase online visibility and website traffic, as well as foot traffic into a brick-and-mortar
store.

Business owners can enhance their local profiles by upgrading their listings and advertising to audiences on these sites. While Google Places listings are free and payment won’t influence position, Google now offers Adwords Express, a locally targeted advertising program designed specifically for local businesses wanting additional exposure.

Google is clearly the main source of traffic for websites but there are others which can supplement a Web marketing campaign’s traffic acquisition objectives. When a business upgrades its listing on Local.com, for example — which reaches, according to the company’s own count, more than 20 million consumers a month, driven in large part by its distribution network of more than 1,000 partner sites — a business can all but assure itself of greater exposure and do so on a variety of sites.

Local business marketers can accelerate their exposure by further expanding their locally focused ad campaigns beyond vendors such as Google or Local.com. There are many options which deserve consideration including SuperMedia, CitySearch and YellowPages.com. These directory-based advertising platforms offer small businesses a cost-efficient and effective way to position themselves in front of their prospects.

Daily Deal Promotions:Daily deal sites have risen in popularity with the faltering economy and consumers are hopping on board in droves. Groupon has transformed the way local businesses market themselves around the world, harnessing the power of the internet to successfully grow their businesses. Groupon you know these customers are going to come through your door and hopefully find a reason to come back.

Although creating a deal on a site like Groupon exposes a business to a large and new audience, it’s not always a good fit.
If you’re willing to take the risk and have the ability to convert one-time visitors into long-term customers, daily deal vendors including Groupon should be in your local Web marketing mix.

Local joins Social Advertising: As for advertising on social media sites, by now everyone should know that social media provides businesses with an extremely large audience and for many that has been the primary draw towards participation. Aside from setting up multiple social media accounts — such as a Facebook page, Twitter account and a LinkedIn group, businesses should also advertise on these wildly popular Web destinations.

Creating an advertisement on Facebook is straightforward and relatively inexpensive. Businesses can choose their budget as well as define which audience the ad will reach, such as location, age and interests. Twitter too, while still evolving its advertising options, is gradually releasing more “promoted tweets” into the Twitterverse.

Like this:

With Googles’ fresh update, retailers and marketers hoping to boost their natural search rankings in the coming months, this new year could be dubbed the Year of Content. The relationship between original, updated and popular content on an e-commerce site, and potentially higher search rankings for a brand, merchant or product page, is hardly unknown.

In 2012, however, is how Google’s'  latest major update to its search algorithm—those mathematical formulas that carry so much weight in digital marketing—is pushing retailers to offer stronger content on their web sites, update that content more often and encourage those in-bound links that signal page quality to the search engine.

With relatively little original content most retailers are scrambling for more, while those web merchants that have long had staffers producing how-to articles, product demonstrations and the like are working toward improvements.

Another Google update called Panda was designed to punish what Google views as low-quality web sites, which includes those with unoriginal content, such as retail sites that rely on the same manufacturer product descriptions that many other e-retailers display. It also sought to downgrade sites that web users seemed to find of little value.

E-commerce site are likely to be downgraded if it fails to attract links from reputable sites, without paying for them. Paid links are worse than no links at all—if a retailer gets caught by Google.

Retailers used  manufacturer-supplied descriptions on its site instead of original content.  Retailers have worked to improve rankings by hiring  copywriters to write original product descriptions that contain keywords that consumers use when searching for products.  They also removed content that caused pages to load relatively slowly—another negative signal that can depress a site’s position in Google organic search ranking.

But now retailers will have to do even more  than they did to protect themselves from demotions in search rankings under Panda. Fresh is meant to help shoppers find the latest product information— and that points to all kinds of content-related improvements for e-commerce sites.  That includes, for instance, a steady stream of new user reviews on product pages. Merchants should rethink both their own product descriptions and also make sure that user reviews are happening whenever possible, especially when they are good reviews. Retailers should continually update content, starting with best-selling products and pages that already rank high in search results.

Google’s fresh update will kick in around April or May, after Google finishes testing the changes. But retailers need to prepare their content efforts now. By studying what consumers search for, along with comments left by consumers via Facebook, e-mails and even phone calls to sales agents.

That old wisdom of search engine optimization hasn’t changed too much with Fresh, but the update, with its emphasis on new content, drives home how important a social media campaign and retailer-produced blogs are for retailers. engages consumers on  Twitter and Facebook, the search engine update will require even  more posting and communication via those social networks. It also underscores the importance of paying attention to Google+, the search engine’s own social network. A strong social presence, one that demonstrates a loyalty among consumers that can translates into links, is another sign of good content, and therefore another way to earn the good graces of Google.

Retailers are on the right SEO track if they are putting more effort into social media. The ‘freshness algorithm’ is Google’s attempt to continue to provide more relevant, real-time results for search queries, further highlighting the need for marketers to accelerate their focus on integrating SEO and social marketing practices to ensure pertinent, up-todate content is accessible to Google. Retailers can maximize the impact of their content by making sure they have the “social
share” buttons embedded on their sites, enabling consumers to pass on appealing content to friends and other shoppers on social networks, which also encourages links and builds credibility.

Retailers and marketers are increasingly using a variation of this mantra as both social networks and updated content assume more importance within e-commerce: SEO is social media, and vice versa.

Besides participation in social networks, retailers hoping to keep ahead of Google’s changes will want to invest in such marketing services as price optimization—technology that can help a retailer better compete with competitors’ off ers—and display ads based on consumers’ behavior.

Whatever the effects of the algorithm change over the next few months, retailers hoping to keep up or improve their rankings should embrace another concept besides fresh—speed.  That means getting fresh content onto a site quickly.

Like this:

As  people get connected online, and connect to others, their social profiles grow. Facebook and Twitter have millions of registered users, and Google starting Google plus services  that will increase social interaction and an obvious relationship  in social media and search.

Google and Bing both use Twitter to determine search ranking. Bing also receives data from Facebook to rank pages for users who are logged into Facebook profiles. From a search measurement standpoint, the key things to measure are Facebook likes, tweets and retweets on Twitter and +1s on Google.

The challenge of using social signals is that there are many ways to consider their influence over a search result. A tweet from one user may be more valuable than many tweets from other users, and a tweet that is retweeted may have a stronger influence than it did when its author wrote it. But what impact do several tweets all linking to the same page have versus a single retweet of the same topic.

Much as PageRank was developed as a measure of a page’s relevancy and authority, the same will likely happen in the social space, with stronger social voices carrying more weight than weaker voices. A strong voice may be defined as someone who is repeated a lot (retweeted). It may also be someone who has many followers, but who does not follow a large number of people. The Klout Score (http://www.klout.com) is one metric that is already in use,  it measures influence based on data collected from sites such as Twitter and Facebook regarding the size of a person’s network, the content that person creates, and how others interact with that content (likes, retweets, etc.).

Personalization and Social Media: recognizes people in your social circle and provides results that these people have shared and the sources from which they have shared them.

Bing has partnered directly with Facebook to tap into Facebook data to provide personalized results. These personalized results are slowly popping up and will be influenced by how many of your friends are active on social media. The same happens with Google and Twitter, with Google giving emphasis to results that friends of yours have retweeted. These results are based on the experiences and actions of your friends or people you follow. Essentially, you are getting personalized results based on the activities of other people in your social circle and the influence people in that circle may have over you.

With personalized results becoming more and more prevalent, you may be able to affect your rankings not only through your optimization efforts, but also through your social influence and impact. It may not be surprising to see rankings change dramatically from one person to another, based on differences in their social circles and the different influences social sharing has on results.

Like this:

As people interested in growing website traffic, it is important that we understand social media and SEO. SEO is the one that, through time and understanding, will bring you the most traffic, most consistently. But social media can do some surprising things for your business.

The main way that SEO and social media intersect is in the area of links. Social media sites have them, and SEO needs them. You can use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to generate inbound links from popular, high-TrustRank websites. You could use social media campaigns to attract links from news sites, social bookmarking sites, and popular blogs.

Social networks like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter represent the masses. And while a single link or status update on one of these social networks has no significance, there is great power in numbers. If you post a link to a video you took, and it strikes a chord in the average person, she will share it with her friends, who will share it with their friends, and so on. If you are the creator of a piece of content that goes viral, your website can get links rained upon it. This is why social media is a powerful complement in the world of SEO. In the future, SEO and social media will evolve together to incorporate our profiles, preferences, and relationships into search results.

The flow of information: Traditionally, the most powerful ways of getting exposure have been advertisements, press, and word of mouth. Although these tools have always been the backbone of marketing, the rise of social media websites has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for online marketers.

In the past,you might see an ad in a magazine, stare at it for a few seconds, and then either remember it or forget about it. Now the same company might place an ad on Facebook. Recognizing the company, you might click Like underneath the ad, indicating your acceptance of the brand. The next day, because of that “like,” you might get a status update showing you a YouTube video that the company made as part of a campaign for a new product. Finding the video interesting, you might then post it on your friend’s profile page. His 1,000 friends might then see it, and 3 of them might post it on their friends’ profile pages. An additional 2 of your friend’s friends might tweet about it, exposing it to their 800 combined followers. One of those peoples’ followers might then submit it to a social bookmarking site such as Digg, where the best content of the day gets posted on the home page. If enough people voted for this video, it would hit the front page of Digg, get 150,000 additional views and 550 comments, and even more sharing would occur. Because of the Digg exposure, 15 blogs might repost the video, including a major outlet that gets millions of visitors per month. And on goes the sharing. That entire journey started with just one click.

The significant event, SEO-wise, in that story was the part where the blogs reposted the video to their sites. If 15 blogs repost a video, that’s 15 links to a single web page. In this case, the web page hosting the content was on YouTube, but it could easily have been hosted on your website. As you know from earlier chapters, acquiring a link can be pretty tough in an age when most webmasters understand the value of linking.

Like this:

Social location marketing has the ability to impact the purchase decision cycle at all points—brand awareness, brand elevation, brand consideration and purchase. The concept of the purchase decision cycle is best defined as the continuous loop through which customers become aware, consider, select and finally reconsider purchases.

In the pre-social media market place, the purchase decision cycle involved much less influence from strangers. Purchasers were influenced by a closer network of people. Purchasers were also unable to take part in the level of comparison shopping that they are able to do now. With the advent of the internet the travel requirement declined but it still took time to visit all the websites and make notes on which product had which features and which site was offering the best prices.

Price comparison sites quickly became popular with members posting coupon codes and special offers as they became aware of them. Social media took all of this to the next level. Twitter and Facebook users can post a question and receive hundreds of responses about the best deals, perhaps even getting responses directly from brands themselves.

What differentiates social location sharing from much of the rest of social media marketing is that it is specific to allocation. It happens as someone becomes or is in the process of becoming a customer,visitor, or user. When users check in at a specific location, they are publicly declaring an affinity with that location. Wittingly or unwittingly, they are making the statement that they use this location as part of their lives. Whether it is a grocery store, a clothing shop, a restaurant, or a hair salon, the effect is the same. They are telling the people in their networks, all of whom they have selected to share with, that this is a place they go to.

Perhaps at times they want to promote a local business because of the great service they have received from them. They believe that by announcing this location and its great service, they are helping to promote and prolong the business. All of these motivators can be leveraged by marketers and all have their place within the purchase decision cycle.

Brand Awareness: Making the target audience aware of the existence of the brand. This is traditionally something that is associated with advertising, but in the current environment of a society that is more “word of mouth aware,” getting existing customers to be your advertisers/advocates is a much more common effort. Social location sharing tools are
most definitely achieving that. These tools broadcast the fact that the user is not only grocery shopping but is shopping at a specific grocery store.

Brand Elevation: Making the target audience aware of a brand is not usually enough to trigger a purchase. Rather, having made the target audience aware of the brand, the next step is to move the brand into the consideration stage of the purchase decision cycle. To do that, the brand needs to position itself as a better choice than its competitors. Again,
social location sharing tools play their part here. Having an advocate in the form of a social location sharer share her decision to make a purchase at a location immediately aids that business in providing a reason why it is different from its competitors.

Consideration: This stage can be immediately before purchase or can be several months, even years ahead of purchase. Much of this depends on the immediate need of the purchaser, the price point of the product or service, and the amount of information available. A customer looking to buy a pair of jeans is unlikely to spend the same amount of time in the consideration phase as a customer buying a new car or even a home. However, social location sharing tools can and do play a part in all these decisions. Users checking in at the Apple store, for example, are stating a preference for a particular brand, but they are also stating a preference for a particular type of technology.

Purchase: Checking in at the time of purchase, and announcing that a purchase has been made, is obviously the most powerful use of these tools. Each of the tools allows for this in different ways, but at the most basic users can tag their check-in and in doing so start a conversation on other platforms such as Twitter.

Like this:

You’re probably familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) tactics for improving your website’s search rankings in Google and other major search engines. But have you thought about how to incorporate social media into your search strategy? Optimizing for Facebook and search engines is benefits overall search rankings.

Facebook can be a valuable asset for search results. The volume of content and variety of places to add keyword-rich content can help you attract new Page members on Facebook, while providing more natural search results.Facebook is indexed by search engines and also has deals with Google and Bing to display social search results that include posts from your friends.

In the more general natural-search realm, a well-optimized Facebook Page can help you overtake a competitor by providing a second set of Pages (in addition to your own website) to display on the search results page. This can also be helpful when you’re looking to do some reputation management. A Facebook Page can also give you the opportunity to add a few more keywords that didn’t work as well on your website.

Places to Put Keywords:

Page name:    Your Facebook Page name or title is one of the first things both users and search engines. Create a keyword-dense title, but make sure it’s clear who you are and what you do.

URL:    You can also choose a vanity URL for your Page, which is another great place to include branded keywords like your company name. Facebook Page URLs are a large part of optimization, as content space is limited.

The Info box:    This small, 250-character box located below the Page icon is an underused gold mine for both traffic and SEO purposes. It’s one of the first things a current Page member sees when looking at either the Wall or Info tab. The keywords you use in the Info box can go a long way in search. With its prominent placement, the Info box is a great place to optimize a little info about your Page, because it’s the highest place in the Page code that allows custom text. You can even put a clickable link in there. You just need to include the http:// part first.

Keywords on Facebook Tabs:

The Facebook tab structure creates a helpful hierarchy of information and the ability to add lots of keyword-rich content. Facebook offers several standard tabs for your Page, including the Wall, Info, and Photos or Videos tabs. You can also add your own custom tabs.

Default landing tab:    Facebook allows you to choose a specific landing tab for new Page viewers. This is the first tab they
see, and its primary goal is to encourage them to click Like for the Page. It is also the first Page crawledby search engines. This default tab can be a custom tab you create, so make sure it contains relevant text that explains to both search engines and Facebook users who you are and what you do.

Info tab:  The standard Info tab has fields containing important descriptive data about your Page. It’s important to fill out all fields, as they provide an opportunity to include keywords and links for both local searches in the Location field and more general product or service queries in the Company Overview section.

Other Content:  

It almost goes without saying, but it’s important to continually share interesting content on your Facebook Page and always use all available descriptive fields on each type of content shared. Facebook allows nearly every piece of content to be indexed by search engines, so use the tabs, tools, and input fields that Facebook provides to your full advantage.

Media:   Post photos to multiple albums and include keyword-rich descriptions of the album and each photo. Every event or topic should have its own album for easier searching. Allow Page members to post their own photos and comment on or tag your uploads.

Events:  Use the Events feature for both real and virtual events. Always fill out all fields with a full description of the event, and make it open to the public.

Status updates:  There is a lot of debate about the extent to which updates help with search engines, but it’s clear that they are a big factor in Facebook searches. Take your time when planning content and include keywords; this is the bulk of what Page members will see on a daily basis.

Increased Interactions:
User interaction is a crucial yet elusive factor in optimizing your Facebook Page and improving search presence. Facebook views interactions with your Page (likes, comments, and posts) much like a searchengine views links pointing to your site. A user interaction is a vote for the content of your Page.

Facebook’s focus on user behavior and interaction extends to visits, clicks, and Event RSVPs as well. The exact weight or algorithm the site uses to calculate interaction is unclear, but the higher the engagement on your Page, the higher you will rank in Facebook searches and the more prominent your placement in a suggested search.

Encourage interaction on your Page by posting frequently and including lots of content that asks users directly to interact.

Like this:

Social media’s widespread usage and popularity, the influence  of online communities on people’s purchasing decisions is more pronounced than ever.  Like never before, when people are in the research  phase of the buying cycle, they have access to a wider audience of current, past, or prospective customers worldwide that they can consult before making their decision.

One of the primary sources of product research is the review website, whose overall goal is to help consumers make informed decisions about buying a product or service. There are two broad categories of review sites: those run by single individuals or groups of editors and those run by communities where members perform peer reviews. On peer-driven review websites like Yelp, Epinions, or Amazon, anyone can post his or her feelings about a product or service for all future buyers to see. As a business marketing yourself on these channels, it’s essential for your brand reach to be featured
on online review websites. While your product or service should inherently be good enough so that you believe in it, there are several strategies for engaging with your customer on these forums. If you do it right, review websites can be an
excellent tool for converting a prospective buyer into an actual customer. There are industry specific review websites, such as tech review sites and travel websites. Having your product reviewed and spoken about on these niche review
websites is a good way of exposing your brand to a more targeted audience that is specifically looking for your product.

Businesses with a physical presence can list their details on the Yelp site for their city—for example a restaurant, clothing store, movie theater, or dry cleaner. Once the business’s details have been added to the site, Yelp users can write reviews on the service and give a rating of between one and five stars. Due to its large user base and geographic reach, Yelp is a powerful channel of word of mouth within the community, which means that it can have a powerful effect on your brand’s reputation. A positive review, for example, can result in a significant increase in customers. Yelp also attracts external traffic from search engines, and so listing your website as part of your Yelp business profile can be another channel by which to drive traffic to your site. On the other hand, negative reviews can have an equally strong impact on your business, and so it’s important to have a strategy to deal with bad reviews too.

Yelp: Yelp are based on a strong social networking platform. Via internal e-mail, members can connect with each other to share photos, compare reviews, blog posts, and more. This social networking aspect is fully integrated into reviews on the site: when you read a review, you can click on the reviewer’s profile to read all the reviews he or she has created and to add the reviewer as a friend on a site.

Yelp are based on a strong social networking platform. Via internal e-mail, members can connect with each other to share photos, compare reviews, blog posts, and more. This social networking aspect is fully integrated into reviews on the site: when you read a review, you can click on the reviewer’s profile to read all the reviews he or she has created and to add the reviewer as a friend on a site.

Claim Your Profile:The first step in establishing your business’s presence on Yelp is to claim your profile. Enter details about your business, including your business’s name, physical address, Web address, and hours. Also select a category for your business, which will affect how visible you are in search results for users looking for a business in your industry, as well as how visible you are when they browse by category. You will need to confirm that you’re the business owner. Yelp verifies that you’re the owner of the business through phone verification. When you add a new listing and add your
associated phone number, the system will call that number and provide you with a code that you’ll then enter into the site as confi rmation. Once the verification process is complete, take the time to fill out your profile comprehensively
beyond the basic details like your business hours and contact details. By adding things like a history of your business, photos of your location, and information about special offers you’re currently running, you create a better hook for people viewing your page that encourages them to leave a review or visit your website.

Once you’ve claimed your business, you’ll receive e-mail alerts when a  new review is written about your business, and you’ll be able to respond directly to reviewers via e-mail. As a business owner you’ll also be able to see statistics on who has viewed your page.

Solicit Reviews:Once you’ve listed your business, the next step is to start getting reviews preferably positive ones.

Ask your customers: Even if you have happy customers, they may not think to write a review about their experience with your business on Yelp. Let them know you’re on the site by linking to your Yelp profile from other online channels such as your blog, website, e-mail signature, and company newsletter.

Ask your network: You can also ask people with whom you have an existing relationship, such as your friends, suppliers, partners, or vendors, to leave reviews. Rather than e-mailing them all at once, e-mail different subsets of people around once a month and ask them to leave reviews.

Use Your Account Information: Once you’ve set up your business account and are starting to get reviews, there are several other ways you can use your profi le to connect with the Yelp community.

Update with offers and announcements: On the “offers and announcements” page in your Yelp business account, you can upload details about news, events, and special off ers that your business is currently running. In addition to improving your brand image, keeping your profile current increases the chances that people will return to view it, as well as to share it with others they know.

View stats: In the summary tab of your Yelp business owner account, you’ll see statistics showing you how many people are viewing your Yelp page. This can be an effective way of measuring how successful your marketing efforts are in marketing your Yelp page. For example, you can track how many people view your page immediately after you post your Yelp profile on your Facebook page.

Install your badge: Installing a Yelp badge on your website or blog encourages your existing readers, or customers buying products off your site, to visit your Yelp page and leave a review.

Like this:

While SEO tends to be more technical (at least it is perceived to be so), social media optimization (SMO) leans more toward developing a process to establish quality relationships where trust and confidence are the aim. It can be argued, however,  that the techniques and tactics employed in each practice are universal and interchangeable. It is difficult to deny that a tremendous opportunity for profit exists when we employ common SEO best practices and apply them within our social media world.

To make the most of the current Web landscape, a formal plan is required — one that provides an understanding of the audience to which you are marketing your products and services, takes into account the quality and quantity of content you will need, and establishes measurable goals for the benefit of your business. SEO in a social media world provides you an opportunity to make a more meaningful impact on existing users and prospects than either practice alone, making your enterprise more genuine and providing the ability to explore channels that may have previously seemed walled, inaccessible and alien.

SEO Failings: Most websites struggle with SEO, and it is not just the Internet mom-and-pops. More than half of the companies had almost no natural search visibility with their targeted keywords, defined as not ranking within the top 100 natural search results. Sound similar to your own troubles? Only two percent of the domains surveyed (those associated with the actual companies) showed a significant number of their keyword terms in the top results. The worst part for Web professionals is that regular Web users are turning a blind eye to corporate social media and its real-time nature. Online marketing firm OneUp-Web’s recent eye-tracking study revealed some interesting findings about real-time and perhaps, in many respects, the impact that “social” has on search results.  Social media may have peaked and you have a perfect storm that is sure to upset the balance of promotions on the World Wide Web. It’s not off base to think that most consumers have no idea that social is making its way into search.

So how do we apply the SEO principles that we know work for generating competitive first-page rankings to social media, and vice-versa? In short, it comes down to how content is developed and shared. But first it’s necessary to discuss the basics of getting social with SEO. A common and damaging misconception is that SEO is separate from the marketing strategy of a business. In reality, integrating SEO into existing business practices is essential these days.

When it comes to SEO and SMO, reaching your objectives requires that as much attention be paid to the content you provide as to how the broader community will interact with it. Since it is the content that people will ultimately discover and share first, if you are publishing the wrong type of content, you will arrive at the wrong destination.

Content Development: Developing content-based promotions for our current or prospective audiences requires
being familiar with their behavior, those users’ preferences and how they will share and publish content within their own network and among the social graph they have established. One way is to use social media monitoring software, like that
provided by Radian6, to stay on top of conversations and the influencers who initiate them.

But you don’t need to be a creative genius to come up with innovative ideas for content. Many top e-commerce websites rely strongly on leveraging user-generated content. Amazon.com is an excellent example. Notice how strongly they leverage user-generated product reviews and recommendations, allowing them to display unique content for nearly every product, on an ongoing basis. Somewhat similar to expert product reviews, but at the category level, are buyer’s guides — informative, unique articles designed to educate potential buyers about particular product categories or industries.

What about informational and service-oriented websites? Nothing works better than an education or information section. Simply add a section to an existing website and publish unique and linkable content related to your company or the
industry it serves.

You will find when creating content that its eventual success does not always rely on the quality of the content, but how it is presented — offering it to users in creative, interesting ways. For this, you will need to take the time to brainstorm. Think of ways that you could change your users’ experiences that would be so interesting or helpful that others would want to link to your website, and/or share that content with their networks. Example: a humorous video of a pet playing with a popular toy could be embedded on a social network, sent via a Twitter update and posted on YouTube — complete with a description of the product and a link where it can be purchased.

But it’s not just the quality of content, it’s increasingly the quantity (as well as its frequency) that matters. This finding coincides with common sense: out of large chunks of business-relevant content (one post per weekday), blog readers will likely find something engaging and proceed to learn more about a company. They might even share that content with their peers.

As important as it is that content resonates with a Web audience, it won’t mean much if that content does not in some way satisfy the objectives of an enterprise. Those objectives can differ greatly per industry or by the type of site that you own
or operate, but they are routinely website traffic, brand exposure, inbound link generation or actual leads and sales. While companies have historically been reliant on SEO to drive marketing or sales, social media requires a different tack.

Multi-channel SMO: The role of SEO in a social media effort is to directly influence discovery of social communities or content via search. For example, search for a popular brand term today and it is likely you will find YouTube channels, Twitter accounts and Facebook Fan Pages on the first page of search results where negative reviews, complaints and brand squatters once ruled that real estate.

What this means is that to succeed with SEO in a social media world, we need to think long and hard about how to distribute content and create a tactical approach to user sharing. While you can foster the sharing process with tools like
ShareThis or AddThis, many companies are turning to Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect to take their communities (as well as the inevitable sharing that goes on with the right content) to a different level. These solutions, while still new, are being widely adopted and present a noteworthy opportunity to shore up support within an existing network. But what about outside of your own site — how do you ensure that your message is shared across your social graph in a way that is consistent with the original meaning and intent?

Social community platform Awareness Networks launched some intriguing multi-channel publishing features on its platform which puts content directly on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and others without the manual legwork. Often, publishers have great content to share but it needs to be managed like a corporate asset. For example, who can access certain social media channels and what kind of content can or should go there? In essence, companies looking to optimize social marketing channels face significant control issues surrounding brand image and messaging across multiple channels.

But perhaps the biggest problem with SMO is measuring the effectiveness of multiple platforms. Efforts tend to become an ROI “black hole” with no empirical data to make informed business decisions. Therefore, it’s critical that businesses set
a formal plan and utilize even the most basic of analytics to measure how each platform is performing. Should Twitter, for example, outperform Facebook in terms of generating traffic and increasing time-on-site, then efforts and perhaps budget
should be shifted accordingly. However, this would not mean that Facebook should be abandoned. Social media is a moving target.

Keyword Optimization: ne of SEO’s most tried and true practices is the use of keywords to help search engines index content. And it’s no different in the social media space. Profile descriptions and content, as well as updates to networks, should include keywords and phrases that are directly related to the content a user can expect to find after clicking a link, or reading the rest of the update. However, this is not to suggest that updates are to be keyword-stuffed. Remember that social media is intended to appeal to humans. That means using keywords mixed with a conversational tone to appeal to both search spiders and people. Anchor text in links must use keywords as well — both those links pointing to your website and to other social profiles.

Most popular keyword tools will provide information on what users are searching for, but why reinvent the wheel? SEMRush provides content marketers valuable insights into the keyword visibility (organic and paid) for any website. HowSociable is a useful tool to quickly gauge the social presence of a particular keyword or brand name but there are others (of varying levels) such as PostRank, Trackur, Social Mention, TechrigySM2 and even Google Alerts to understand the depth of presence for social media campaigns.

It could prove to be immensely valuable to know for what terms and content the competition is optimizing. Gathering that data (whether manually or through a service) at the start of any optimization process becomes integral not just to SEO efforts but also to SMO campaigns.

Generating Links: SEO’s golden child is the incoming link. While one might not think of SMO as a legitimate link-building strategy, the opportunity is most certainly there. Start by linking all of your business’ social profiles together, and to your website. This will help your brand dominate the search results pages for a branded search, as well as give users immediate options as to where they would like to connect with your business.

But the best opportunity for generating links is in your content. Social is built on sharing and that means sharing links. While, at this time, links originating from social profiles is not weighted heavily by search engines, that will likely change. The simple fact is that users are spending more time on social media and, as a result, obtaining more information from these sources. A bonus is that, invariably, high-quality social content will generate links to your website from outside the
social world, too. You can bet that just about every blogger, PR firm and news source is plugged in to social media — and they are looking for content to publish, and to link to from their own sites

By involving SEO insight in a social media marketing effort and vice-versa, marketers, public relations  professionals and advertisers can extend the value of their promotional investment. Well-optimized social media content marketing efforts can attract new network participants via search and through social networks, and facilitate links to websites directly and indirectly.

Like this:

Mention the phrase “social media” and most people automatically think of Facebook and Twitter. But if you have any dealings in the corporate world – whether you’re a CEO, salesperson, human resource manager, administrative assistant, or anything in between – you’ll want to take a closer look at LinkedIn. You will find it a useful tool to make your business relationships more meaningful, and more profitable.

Before you dismiss the idea of using LinkedIn because you only know it as that “bland” social media site where people go when they’re looking for a job, realize that currently there are 90 million LinkedIn users worldwide. One new user joins every second of every day. And unlike social media sites like Facebook where many people use the site for entertainment, all LinkedIn users are business minded. That means the connections you develop on LinkedIn are more likely to positively impact you or your company in some way. Therefore, if you want better or more professional business relationships, LinkedIn is the place to be. Even if you have a business profile on Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn makes a perfect addition to your personal or business branding efforts.

Business Resource: The key to making LinkedIn work for you and your company is to use the site regularly. That means posting something, either an update or a question/answer, every seven days at a minimum. Why? Because the more you use any social media site, the higher your “Google Juice” will be – in other words, Google’s algorithm will notice your regularity and you’ll get a higher ranking with Google than you would otherwise. Additionally, the more you interact and post on LinkedIn, the more prominent you’ll become within your network – your name recognition will grow.
Fortunately, staying active in LinkedIn and a regular user is simple when you understand how LinkedIn can benefit you professionally. Use the following ideas and suggestions to make the most of your LinkedIn account.

Skills: It’s as easy to set up your profile in LinkedIn as it is in Facebook. Make sure your profile is well written and that it highlights what you currently do, what you have done, your strengths, your talents and your education. Remember that people will access your profile for many different reasons (recruitment, background information, professional contacts, etc.), so be thorough and always make your profile public. Since your LinkedIn profile is essentially a mini resume, keep it updated, tasteful and accurate. Additionally, you have an opportunity to display recommendations for you. As a point of etiquette, when you ask someone to write a recommendation, you must reciprocate.

Meaningful: By posting status updates that contain valuable content, you show your network that you are a team player and that you care about other people’s success. Remember that status updates are not the place to advertise your company’s products or services, nor is it a conversation group. A better idea is to share a best practice, announce a seminar/event you’ve been to or are going to, or give a quick tip.
If you can’t think of anything to post, it’s perfectly acceptable to post a meaningful or motivational quote. The key is to post something interesting and relevant to your network. And always remember that what you post stays on the Internet forever. So if you wouldn’t want your comment on the front page of the newspaper, don’t post it on LinkedIn.

Conversation Starters: LinkedIn is a great place to get an inside glimpse of people. For example, you can look up potential clients or vendors on LinkedIn and see what kind of books they read, where they went to school, what their main interests are (based on the groups they belong to) and so much more. Now you’ll have more to talk about when you meet the potential client, potential vendor, or potential networking friend. Think of LinkedIn as a gateway to have a professional relationship with someone much quicker. In fact, some estimates show that by using LinkedIn to research the people you plan to interact with, you can have a six-month head start on the relationship.

Spot Trends and Hot Topics: There’s an amazing amount of real-time information available on LinkedIn. By being a member of various groups that interest you, you can see what people are thinking on a certain topic by the questions they’re posting and the responses they’re getting. You can then use the information you discover in your
own company.

Get an “in” with Top Companies: Whether you’re looking for new clients, new vendors, or even a new job, with LinkedIn you can search the companies you want to work with and see who in your network has connections there. You can then ask that person – your connection – for an introduction to a decision maker who can help you. Even if you find that no one in your network has connections with a particular company, perhaps someone in one of your groups works there. That’s why it’s important to belong to every group that interests you. Continually build your
LinkedIn relationships and make those key connections before you actually need them.

Missing Link: Even though 82 percent of people use some kind of social media regularly, social media itself – including LinkedIn – is much like the Wild West. It’s not tame yet, and best practices are still being formed. With that said, if you’ve spent much of your time on other social media sites and feel they aren’t working for building professional relationships, then it’s time to give LinkedIn a try.

The key to making LinkedIn work is to work it regularly. Commit to spending at least 30 minutes per day on it, posting your ideas in updates, asking and answering questions, participating in groups and reaching out to potential connections. Yes, it’s one more thing to schedule in your calendar, but by building relationships and gaining new information on people and topics, it’s something that can make your company better positioned.