How Does Social Media and SEO Work Together?

• Category: Case Studies, Marketing, SEO, Social media
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In order to make your on line website be as successful as it can be you need to understand and use both social media and SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is a means to attract clients to your website. When you set up an SEO optimized website by using strong keywords and good content, you allow search engine websites to find, evaluate and appropriately index your site. The end result is your business showing up at the top of search engine results in your niche.

Social media is a means of on-line networking that has become the forefront of advertising on the web. Everyone from politicians to charities and businesses need social media to be successful. It is how successful businesses and other entities are able to gain contacts and followers.

Today, both SEO and social media combined drive businesses to success. When the two are intertwined and used together to promote your business, results can be amazing.

Here are some things you will need to do in order to optimize your success from SEO and social media:

Link your social media networks to your website

Depending on the social media network or networks that you are using, there are different ways to do this. Post it on your page and/or make sure that you always provide a link in your signature. Links to your site from social media networks can be very powerful in driving traffic to your site.

Optimize the content on your website

Optimizing your content will be essential. If you are going to be directing traffic from social media sites to your website you need to have excellent content. If your content is less than stellar, this could hurt. Many social media sites have areas to comment or grade your site. If your site is not up to par this could hurt your reviews and diminish your chances of getting new customers.

Work to build your following and fan base from social media sources

When you build a twitter following, accumulate face book fans and develop good relationships with high profile bloggers your website content will get seen more. The more your site is seen, the higher your ranking on search engines.

Provide links on your site to all of your social media platforms

You want your current customers to find you on Facebook, follow your on twitter and read your blogs. When they become your fan on Facebook their contacts will see that and may check you out. When one of their contacts becomes your fan then all of their friends will see you and so on. The possibilities are endless. Having followers on twitter, blogs and other social media sites can provide the same results.

It is easy to see how SEO and social media can work together to help build your client base. Making sure you are connected to a variety of social media networks and follow great SEO practices is vital to your success. If one area is lacking, it will not work as effectively with the other. The most successful companies, organizations, etc effectively work to connect the two.

Using Facebook Twitter and Linkedin to Promote Your Business

• Category: SEO, Social media
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If you own a business and are looking for ways to expand and market it, look no further than Social networking. Even if you have no knowledge or what a tweet is and have never heard of Facebook, it is time to learn. Staying proactive in new marketing strategies can ultimately make or break your business. As we look to the future, the new wave of being a successful business is hopping on board the social networking bandwagon.

Your best bet will be to start with the three most popular social networks Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. While each of these social networks will help to promote your line of work and help you to gain new clients, they do so in different ways.

Twitter is a social network that allows you to post short messages, under 140 characters, as often as you like. These short messages are called tweets. Once on the Twitter network you can follow other people’s tweets and they can follow yours. Businesses uses twitter to connect on a personal level with their clients, as a means to build their name, to pass on word of mouth advertising, to get product and service feedback and so much more. You can also keep clients updated on new products and services, current promotions and anything else you deem important.

Another social medium you can use to promote your business if Facebook. Facebook actually offers a variety of options to maximize your results. To begin you will need to sign up and create a profile. You can use the profile to market your business. Be sure to include in it links to your company website and blog. Another option is to set up a Facebook group. On both your profile or group page you should update your status often, using this feature to promote what is going on in your business currently.

Facebook also offers the option of buying add space. They even provide you will the necessary tools to create your ad and to target it towards specific demographics. This allows you to advertise to those individuals who would most likely be interested in what you have to offer.

Linkedin is another option that has been successful in helping many people grow their businesses. Linkedin is a professional network. When you join, just like Facebook, you create a profile. In your profile you will be summarizing what your professional experience is, what you can offer potential customers and so on. You will also be able to develop a tag line to go under you name. Be sure to use strong keywords to help drive traffic to you. Once you are on the network others on the network can connect to you and you can connect to them. You can add links to your company website, blog, etc.

In conclusion, social networking is the future in advertising. While it may sound complicated now, with a little effort you can be connected to potential customers all over the globe.

3 Top Content Marketing Strategies to Build Your Business

• Category: Content, Email Marketing, SEO, Social media
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If you are looking to build your business by having a presence on the web you should look to content marketing as a way to get started. Here are three of the most successful content marketing strategies.

Blog Posting

To begin with you should build and maintain your own high quality blog. This is a great way to start getting your name out as well as a means to show your expertise in your niche. It is one of the best way to convey to current and potential customers how and what you do. It is also a great way for search engines to pick you up.

It will be important to keep you blog updated regularly with quality content. Weekly at the very minimum but is better to post a few times a week, if you can. The longer the blog posts, the less often you will need to post.

Always make sure that you are accurately presenting your company in your blog posts and do not be afraid to show your expertise. Make sure the tone of your posts matches the business you are promoting.

After you have your own blog up and running it is also a good idea to do guest blogs on other sites. This expands your internet voice and allows you to reach even more potential customers.

Podcast and Video Blogging

Podcast and video marketing is up and coming and proving to be very successful. It allows you to target customers who do not like to read but would prefer to watch or listen to what you have to say. It is a more time consuming content marketing strategy, but generally worth the effort. Once you get used to making the podcasts they will come easier and be less time consuming. It is important to note that you do not need to update podcast and videos as often as written blogs. Updates once a month, especially at the beginning, are fine. As you get used to doing them you may want to update more often.

Email Newsletter

Email newsletters are one of the oldest forms of internet content marketing, but are still a viable means to maintain customers and obtain new ones. It is a great way to keep in touch with current customers, letting them know new products you may be offering and different promotions.

Build your email contact list by obtaining emails from all of your current customers and having a link on your blog where potential customers can sign up for it. As you are preparing your email newsletter make sure that it has good quality content. A great marketing strategy is to offer some type of promotion or discount with the newsletter. Email your newsletter out to all the customers in your email data base and consider posting it on your blog as well.

With all three content marketing strategies make sure that customers have a place to post or send feedback and comments. This can be a great way to learn what content customers like and want more of and what they just simply may not be interested in at all.

Jazzing Up Your Social Networking

• Category: Content, Social media
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Starting a business buzz is ultimately the goal of any successful marketing campaign and with the advent and popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter, it can be relatively easy to get attention if you put the work into it.

Creating a successful social network campaign involves a lot more than just setting up a nice looking page and entering some facts about your company. It also involves dedication to social interaction with your target customers and potential clients.

There are some simple ways to shed a little more light on your social networking pages. Here are 4 tips to energize your social campaigns and have the work pay off in profits:

Create Your Strategy

There is an art to establishing a strong social network. You don’t set it up and forget about it. Instead, you need to take a time out and plan your strategies. Identify the business objectives you hope to conquer on your social pages and then list ways to meet those objectives. Some business goals to consider include:

• Connecting with existing clients and customers to develop another channel of feedback and communication

• Start discussions about product enhancement, new ideas, or to generate feedback about current inventory or services.

• Connect with other industry-relevant individuals and use your pages as a networking tool in the industry

• Start a distribution list to send press releases, announcements, and sales events.

• Once you have started to identify your business goals and steps to achieve these goals, start talking.

Understand Your Customers/Clients

You will have a great opportunity to see where your target audience hangs out on the Internet when they are not buying your products. You can see what other interests they have and understand your customer base better than ever possible without social networking. Once you understand preferences and dislikes, you can focus your efforts on what your customers and clientele are looking for from your company.

Be Who You Are

As a consumer, it is likely you aren’t attracted to fluff. Your potential customers likely feel the same way. They want to deal with real. Be yourself, create the voice of the business and keep honesty in your program. If you fluff up all of your posts, people will begin to see right through you. Since you have to sum up big issues in small posts, you’ll need to be direct with what you say and ensure everything you say is projecting a positive, professional image.

Interact and Monitor

There is absolutely no point in setting up a social network campaign if you do not intend to interact socially on a regular basis. It takes time to grow a business relationship and your consistency in posts and interactions will benefit your efforts. Be sure to check on all comments and feedback information. Be sure to make your own comments and answer people’s questions and concerns. The more engaging you are, the more likely you will be able to not only develop quite a following but also be able to measure your success in profits.

Mind Your Internet Manners or Lose Business Profits

• Category: Marketing, Social media
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It has become customary for many B2B transactions to start, develop, and end without any personal interaction outside of technology. Email marketing and email correspondence are a part of everyday life for many thriving businesses. However, those who overlook the importance of conducting electronic business as they would in person-to-person business can easily lose out on profits.

What Is Internet Etiquette?

Just because you are not able to look at a person in the eye when doing business, doesn’t mean you can forego basic manners and civility. How you present yourself online and through emails makes as much of a difference as it would if you were standing in a room of people. Email etiquette is important for any business and there are many ways a business can fail by acting improperly.

Avoiding Electronic Pitfalls

People who interact online are often more open because there a certain sense of anonymity with the Internet. Business owners, especially new ones, are eager to meet people and let them know about their products and services. However, many times their efforts are disregarded because they fail to remain professional and in some instances actually are offensive to potential clients or customers. Since many online business have little chance of creating a personal impression, it is crucial that online business marketing and communication be conducted in the utmost professional manner.

Here are some tips to get you started to better Internet etiquette:

Use Common Sense and Discretion

This is a popular topic for many. Funny jokes and silly forwarded emails may be hilarious to you and your friends. But think twice before sending it out to your customer database. What you may find funny, others may find offensive. Use common sense to control what you are putting out to the public as it all comes back to represent you and your business. If you have a particularly good relationship with some customers, use your personal email to send jokey messages and keep work email for work-related information.

Keep It Simple, Clean, Professional

Unless you are promoting your art or very specific creative services, you’ll want to keep your websites, emails, and blogs simple and to the point. Creativity is fine but don’t use several types of fonts, colors, pictures, and other designs on yourself if they will take away from the meat of the matter. You want people to focus on your professional business experience and not on your gallery of cutesy photos or crazy fonts.

Get to the Point

When you are sending out email marketing materials or announcements, write what you want to say in a concise manner and get right to the point. Don’t send your email list page long missives and large attachments. Make your content clear and easy to read. Don’t talk over people’s heads. Be personable and informative but know when to stop talking.

Tone Matters

While it may seem like emails are just a bunch of words, people do clearly hear the tone in other’s writings. You’re objective is to let people know how your business can provide solutions. It is not meant for you to brag on and on about how great your company is. Speak respectfully in your writing and proof it before sending to make sure the right message is getting through.

Different industries will have different etiquette standards but overall politeness and professionalism are the two most crucial parts of communication when representing a business voice. Practice your etiquette with every email and social media action because you just never know who might be listening.