“Hmmm…so 140 characters…How many of my keywords can I stuff into that space?” If you find yourself asking this question, you are likely missing the point of social networking and definitely missing the boat on social network marketing, but you just might have a clue about search engine optimization. Posing the question of when does the marriage between SEO and social network marketing have your campaign walking down the aisle and living happily ever after?
Breaking Down the Search Marketing Strategy
Perhaps it is because social networking has been bundled into SEO by many professionals that do-it-yourselfers of the world get confused on where keywords do and do not belong in their social encounters. Search engine optimization has on-site elements like keywords, Meta tag optimization and quality website content and then eventually moves to off-site elements like link building and content marketing that help to reinforce the relevancy of the on-site efforts.
A lot of off-site optimization elements fall more under the social media marketing terminology while also working to help deliver more relevancy to the on-site SEO aspects. Social media marketing can include everything from social bookmarking to building profiles on different professional and social networks. The actual act of ‘being social’ is more of the marketing part of the equation. Confused?
The Simple Social Strategy Breakdown
Setting up profiles on social networks provides the valuable opportunity to link to your website, to tastefully include your keywords in your profiles and to dominate more organic search placements with custom urls for varying networks, but your actual engagements on those social networks should be more about making connections with customers, strangers, employees and even your competition. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for your keywords in your posts and links to your site, but it shouldn’t be your daily mission to figure out a way to use your keywords in every status update. Only once you stop focusing on pushing keywords and links will you truly see the rewards of social media marketing in your search marketing strategy.
Ultimately, once an optimized profile is set up on a social network, your main goal should be to share relevant content that uses great anchor text to show the search engines that the website at the other end of the train is relevant to this topic. As your website gathers more links from social networking sites, it is going to gain positions in the search engines. The big BUT here is that your followers, fans, likes and retweets aren’t going to come if all you are sharing is link after link after link. Be real. Post for real. Avoid making a link fest to your website. Include content about you and your business, but ask other people in your organization to write posts, share information about employees (at their discretion please), about clients, about failures and successes and just get involved with conversations.
The Best Button for the Job
One great way to increase your social circle online is to make it easy for your website visitors to find you on the social platforms that they are a part of. With free Social Media Buttons, like our favorite, the SocialFollow button, you can easily lead your visitors from your website or blog to your online profile where they can get an inside glimpse of your organization and see what you and your business is really all about.
