Tag Archives: social media marketing

With the world of Internet marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) always changing, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with what is relevant now and what will be relevant next year, or even next month. Search engines are only getting more complicated and the key to SEO success is to stay updated on the latest techniques. Here are three factors you should pay close attention to in order to maintain high search engine rankings in the future.

Local Search: Local search is huge and will continue to become even more popular in the future. Today Google says about 30% of all searches performed have local intent. Back in 2007, local searches only accounted for about 10% of all searches. Google tailors your search results to include businesses that are in your local area. These businesses show up in the Maps results, usually above the organic search results. Typing in a keyword such as “plumber” in your search box will retrieve results that reflect listings for plumbers in your local area. This is why optimizing your business listings and website with local keywords is important. You must also submit your business to local directories such as Google Places, Yelp and Merchant Circle to increase your online presence and the chances that your local consumers will find you online.

Social Media: Social media has been steadily on the rise and now it’s affecting rankings and grabbing the attention of your potential customers online. Building your brand online and creating an engaging environment for customers will encourage them to mention you to their social circles. The more social mentions you receive, the higher you will appear in the rankings. One social media network to pay attention to is Google+. Google will start using this network to tailor its search results and show its users the most relevant results for their searches based on the information they gain from their Google+ profiles. Twitter tweets are now being indexed and displayed in Google search results. This provides Twitter users the chance to optimize their tweets in order for their brand to appear higher in the search rankings.

Internet marketers, watch out for:

Personalization: The search engines are constantly retrieving large amounts of information from their users, which allows them to tailor the search results especially for them. These personalized results can present a problem for SEO because Google will display different results to each individual based on their previous searches, their interests and more information that is gained through cookies and even Google+ and the +1 feature. In fact, Google+ updates are now being incorporated into the search results and depending on your account, you may already be receiving more personalized results than you did before. Internet marketers need to take this new personalization factor into consideration when preparing for the future.

Although Twitter is used by many businesses, it’s not currently offering businesses a way to verify their accounts. This means that potentially, your competitors could create a Twitter screen name and pretend to be you, tweeting on behalf of your business. This is a scary thought. However, there are ways business owners can increase the visibility on their Twitter accounts as well as make it more clear which account is official. Follow these tips provided by Mashable to protect your company’s identity today.

1. Link all of your social media accounts. Since Twitter’s user name policy doesn’t allow people to reserve user names, companies with a more generic name might find that their desired user name is already taken. According to Mashable, this might be a better opportunity for those businesses to better distinguish their brand if their business name is very common.

Another way to verify that your account is the official business account is to add a link to your Twitter account on your official website, Facebook, Foursquare or Google Places pages. Writing “official Twitter account for _____” in your Twitter bio is also a great way to indicate that this is indeed your business’s Twitter identity.

2. Customize your Twitter profile to make it more obvious that this is the official Twitter account of your brand. An impostor wouldn’t spend the time (or money in some cases) to customize a false Twitter account with your brand’s logo, colors, etc.

3. If you have a trademark over your business name or logo and another Twitter account is causing identity confusion, Twitter can step in. You can submit a help ticket and Twitter will examine the situation. If it finds the other account(s) is trying to cause a problem, it will likely suspend the account and give you ownership. However, this only applies if your name or logo is trademarked, otherwise Twitter cannot do anything.

Following these steps will help your brand keep its identity safe while social media marketing. When used properly, Twitter can be an excellent platform for reaching new customers, keeping existing customers engaged and enhancing your company’s image.

Social media is the most popular online activity. It’s even more popular than Web browsing, according to Jay Baer’s webinar, “7 Steps to Create Winning Social Media Strategies.” During the webinar, Baer shared useful information for companies who want to utilize social media for marketing purposes to help promote their brand and drive business to their website and location. Here are 7 tips from Baer to develop a winning social media campaign for your company.

Recognize that social media impacts your business in ways that nothing else does. Anything that happens to your company (whether it’s good or bad) has the potential to become public through social media, whether your company wants it to or not. When it comes to social media, it’s smart to get suggestions from people in all departments of the company. Everyone in the organization should take some ownership and participate in social media in order to keep the company’s image positive.

Listen to online conversations. People are already talking about your company online. Listen in to those conversations by exploring Facebook, Twitter, review sites and more to see what people think of you. Once you figure out what’s being said about you, you can use that information to guide your marketing strategy.

Set your goals. What’s the point of your social media campaign? Do you want to educate others, raise brand awareness, generate sales or increase customer loyalty? Maybe you want to do all of those things. The best thing to do is pick one to concentrate on. Once you’ve mastered that, then you can take on another goal.

Get people excited about your business. Think about who your customers are. How do they use social media? What is their age, gender and location? These are important things to think about when posting on social media networks. You want to make sure the information will appeal to them and encourage them to get excited about your company. The customer relationship looks like this: Unaware (have never heard of your company)à Aware (have heard of your company but never tried your service/product) à Trial (have tried your service/product once) à Repeat/Enthusiast (use your service/product frequently) à Advocate (encourage others to use your service/product). In order to move people from “unaware” to “advocate,” you need to get them pumped about your product or service.

Figure out what your “one thing” is. Find one thing that’s special about your company and use your social media to highlight that unique thing. If every company in your industry has the same special offer as you, what makes yours so special? Example: Apple = Innovation, Disney = Magic, Volvo = Safety, You = To Be Determined. Until you find out what your “one thing” is, it’s going to be hard to get people psyched about your company.

Find your “home base” social media network. Instead of trying to conquer all of the different social networks (which can be a daunting task,) find out which social media outlet is the best to connect with your customers. This will be your social media home base. Then use the other social media networks to drive people back to your home base. For example, Jay Baer said he uses his blog as his home base then uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. to drive traffic to his blog.

Track your progress. Use reporting to figure out which methods are working for you and which are not. Without reporting, you may be wasting time on some social media networks or marketing techniques that don’t work. Make sure to review and analyze your reports so you can see what’s working and what doesn’t. Then you can keep revising your marketing strategy in order to find success.