Social Media and Search Engine Optimization

No matter how important Social Media is ,Search Engine Optimization must be a part of your strategy for a successful web presence. The goal of Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) is to get various components of your online presence to appear near the top of search engine results- preferably in the top 10 .

You can accomplish this by selecting keywords , optimizing your content and by structuring your web page or profiles so that they are search friendly for your selected search terms . Thankfully you can optimize your Social Media profiles and blogs very much the same way you optimize a webpage.

TIPS : 

• Optimize your website and all your Social Media for the same search terms

• Use Social pages to grab a good position for some rare search terms that your website doesn't use. 

• Put your standard search terms on Social Media profiles and the more rare ones on individual posts or as photo captions or updates . 

• Ignore those spam emails about submitting your site to 2,000 different search engines, and concentrate on the top three (Google , Yahoo and Bing )

SEO Started Guide @ https://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Social Media Monitoring

Social Media Monitoring is finding our what is being said about your brand, your products, servics and your reputation .

If you didn't have more important things to do you could choose to monitor everything , but that is not at all realistic, so it is important to set constraints. It is important to start with your goal and ask yourself what you want to accomplish . For Example, you may want to :

• What negative or positive things are being said about your company , products and or services
• What negative or positive things are being said about your competitions brand , products or services
• Stay up to date on what is going on in your specific industry 
• Watch for trends of mentions , topics of interest or volume of comments
• Monitor infringement on trademarks or intellectual property
• Obtain customer feedback to improve your products and services

After you decide your goals , it should be obvious what information you want to monitor . This list might include:

• Your Company Name 
• Your Domain and or Company URL's
• Your Competitors Name, Domain or URL's
• Names of staff who may have an impact on the organization
• Specific Products and or Services you supply
• Industry Keywords or Phrases

A few of the Social Media Monitoring Tools you may use for this purpose are listed below : 

• Google Alerts
• Google Trends
• How Sociable
• Klout
• Social Mention

Social Media ABC's

Find a word missing ....comment below and we can add

Aggregation - The process of gathering and remixing content from blogs and other websites that provide RSS feeds. 

Alerts - Search engines allow you to specify words or phrases that you want checked periodically, with results of those searches returned to you by email. 

Archive-  Refers to topics that has been closed but saved for later reference. On blogs, archives are collections of earlier items organised by week or month.

Authenticity- The sense that something or someone is “real” or factual.

Avatars- Are graphical images representing people or brands. .

Blogs -  Websites with dated items of content. 

Blogosphere -  A term used to describe the totality of blogs on the Internet, and the conversations taking place within them.

Blogroll - A list of sites displayed in the sidebar of blog, showing who the blogger reads regularly.

Bookmarking-  Saving the address of a website or item of content, either in your browser  or on a social bookmarking site. 

Browser- The tool used to view websites, and access all the content available there onscreen or by downloading. 

Categories- Specified ways to organize content . 

Chat-  Interaction on a web site, with a number of people adding text items one after the other into the same space at (almost) the same time. 

Comments- Blogs may allow readers to add comments and may also provide a feed for comments as well as for main items. 

Communities- Groups of people communicating mainly through the Internet. 

Community building is the process of recruiting potential community or network participants, helping them to find shared interests and goals, use the technology, and develop useful conversations. A number of different roles may be involved.

Content- Any text, pictures, video and other meaningful material that is on the Internet.

Content management systems- They are software suites offering the ability to create static web pages, document stores, blog, wikis, and other tools. 

Download- To retrieve a file or other content from an Internet site to your computer or other device.

Email- Electronic mail is messages transmitted over the Internet. 

Face-to-face- Used to describe people meeting offline. 

Facilitator-  Someone who helps people in an online group or forum manage their conversations. 

Feeds-  The means by which you can read, view or listen to items from blogs and other RSS-enabled sites without visiting the site, by subscription. 

Forums- Discussion areas on websites, where people can post messages or comment on existing messages asynchronously – that is, independently of time or place. 

Friends- Contacts whose profile you link to in your profile. 

Groups- Collections of individuals with some sense of unity through their activities, interests or values. 

Instant messaging- A chat with one other person. 

Links- Highlighted text or images that, when clicked, jump you from one web page or item of content to another. 

Listening- The art of skimming feeds to see what topics are bubbling up, and also setting up searches that monitor when you or your organisation is mentioned.

Logging in- The process to gaining access to a website that restricts access to content, and requires registration.

Lurkers- People who read but don't contribute or add comments to forums. 

Mashups- The smart mixes that techies do to combine several tools to create a new web services.

Membership- Belonging to a group. 

Networks- Structures defined by nodes and the connections between them. 

Online-  Being connected to the Internet, and also being there in the sense of reading or producing content.

Offline- Not being online, that is, not connected to the Internet. 

Peer-to-peer- Direct interaction between two people in a network. 

Permalink- The address (URL) of an item of content, for example a blog post, rather than the address of a web page with lots of different items.

Photosharing- Uploading your images to a website.

Platform- The framework or system within which tools work. 

Podcast- Audio or video content that can be downloaded automatically through a subscription to a website so you can view or listen offline.

Post- An item on a blog or forum.

Profiles- The information that you provide about yourself when signing up for a social networking site.

Registration- The process of providing a username, password and other details when seeking to access a website that has restricted access. 

RSS- Short for Really Simple Syndication, this allows you to subscribe to content on blogs and other social media and have it delivered to you through a feed.

Sharing- Offering other people the use of your text, images, video, bookmarks or other content by adding tags, and applying copyright licenses that encourage use of content.

Social media- A term for the tools and platforms people use to publish, converse and share content online. 

Social networking- Online places where users can create profiles and socialize with others using a range of social media tools including blogs, video, images, tagging, lists of friends, forums and messaging.

Tags- Keywords attached to a blog post, bookmark, photo or other item of content so you and others can find them easily through searches and aggregation.

Terms of services- The basis on which you agree to use a forum or other web-based place for creating or sharing content.

Threads-  Strands of conversation. 

Tool is used here as shorthand for a software applications on your computer, and also for applications that are Web-based.

Topic- An idea, issue - talking point - in a conversation that is made up of threads.

Upload- To transfer a file or other content from your computer to an Internet site.

URL- Short for Unique Resource Locator and is the technical term for a web address

User generated content-  Text, photos and other material produced by people who previously just consumed. 

Voice over Internet Protocol-  Also known as VOIP enables you to use a computer or other Internet device for phone calls without additional charge, including conference calls. 

Widgets- Stand-alone applications you can embed in other applications, like a website or a desktop. 

Whiteboards- They are tools that enable you to write or sketch on a web page, and as such are useful in collaboration online.

Wiki- A web page - or set of pages - that can be edited collaboratively.

Cons of Social Media

It is becoming increasingly difficult to gain visibility among the millions of social media users . The biggest downside for companies is the time they will need to invest in order to see results . Always consider how much your time is worth and determine whether it is best for you to manage your own Social Media Marketing , to hire a dedicated employee or to contract a Social Media Company like Social Admin .

How to pick a good Social Media Manager

A good Social Media Manager will have a extroverted personality , enjoy interacting with others and take pleasure in conversation. You want to look for someone who :

1. Write content quickly and in the right tone for your audience
2. Communicate knowledgeably about your company and services
3. Adapt and evolve with new social media  trends and  mobile technologies

Hit your target !



Need help with Market Segmentation?

After you can identify your customers, where they live, and what social channels they use your'e in a better position to focus your social marketing efforts on those more likely to purchase your products or services. It is important to target one market at time and not to dilute your marketing budget by trying to reach to many people at one time . Always go for what seems to be the biggest market first or the easiest one to reach.



Making Time for Social Media

"Get A Social Life"

After you have created your Social Media Marketing plan , the next biggest task you have is implementing and managing it . One of the hardest things about Social Media is finding the time for it . Most small business who cannot afford to hire help will have to cut out of time already allocated to other marking activities, unless of course they want to add an additional 2 hours to their workday.

As we all know , if something doesn't seem important enough it usually never gets done . Social Media can easily be swallowed up by your day to day operations but you must learn to set aside time and utilize the following tips to ensure you stay on track .

1. Set a time frame for your Social Media Marketing and stick to it - Social Media can become addictive and might find it difficult to avoid the temptation of continually logging in. Stick to this time frame for a month and adjust as you see fit. It is important to remember that Social Media is only a part of your online marketing effort and online marketing should only be a part of your overall marketing.
2. Set a specific time slot each day to your Social Media Marketing . The time slot you choose usually doesn't matter unless you are offering a time dependent services. Otherwise you can utilize Social Media scheduling programs which we will talk about later . 
3. Utilize a calendar software like Google Calendar or spreadsheet to schedule tasks and keep you on track 
4. Using a Social Media Dashboard like Hoot Suite allows you to put various functions at your finger tips as it provides easy access in one location to all your social media accounts tolls and metrics. 

Call and ask about Social Admin's affordable Marketing services Today @ 403-890-8142. We offer competitively priced personalized Social Media Marketing Services for Calgary Small Business.

Online Marketing for Calgary Small Business

Social Media Marketing Solutions

Social Media should only be a part of your overall marketing campaign and is not to be mistaken for the whole part. You should consider Social Media as a strategic choice to supplement your other online marketing which should include your website , email newsletters , and pay per click advertising.  Social Media is not merely sufficient enough to meet all your online marketing needs . However you can use Social Media to meet unmet marketing need, to increase access to your  target markets, open new doors to niche markets and improve the overall experience for your existing customer base.

Why should my business use Social Media ?

"Social Media for Calgary Small Business"

Social Media has many benefits. One of the most appealing is that you don't have to pay for most social media services. However , most of these services do require a significant investment of time to initiate and maintain. Following is a list of Social Media Benefits:

1. Large Audience - In 2012 Facebook claimed almost 800 million active users, half of which logged in on any given day.
2. Brand Awareness-Social Media creates recognition , visibility or top of mind awareness . You want people to remember your company when they are in need of your service. 
3. Build Relationships- New relationships lead to direct sales or word of web recommendation leading to new sales opportunities
4. Improved Business- Allows you to obtain customer feedback and input on products and promotly detect or correct problems or complaints
5. Search Engine Optimization - Search Engines like Google recognizes appearances on Social Media sites which can improve the page rank of your website 
6. Saving $$-Although time is money , if you are a start up small business chances are you cannot afford many other traditional marketing.

Why does my business need a blog ?

"Don't get left behind"

 

Blogs provide a way to engage your customers and drive traffic to your website. Google loves blogs that are updated frequently and recognizes this by giving that content higher placement in search results. Aside from Google loving blogs, which is good for Search Engine Optimization, below are reasons why a company should create and maintain a company blog:

1. Blogs provide low-cost, long-term venue to continuously bring your brand to life. Blogs build an identifiable group of audiences to connect with and build credibility.
2. Blogs provide an informative resource for anyone seeking information relating to your industry. When someone searches for something related to your brand, you want them to receive that information directly from you rather than your competition.
3. Social media and blogs are the fastest growing category in lead generation, and continue to be categorized as the lowest cost lead-generation channels.
4. Readers may leave comments on your blog giving you valuable market intelligence and endorsement.

Call for your FREE Social Media Consultation Today @  403-890-8142