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Social Media Marketing, Emphasis on the Social

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Social media has an important role to play for every business. During COVID shutdowns more than ever we saw that social media serves a window on the world. It is an important place that we connect as people, even when we can’t connect in person.

Your marketing needs to honor and elevate this need for connectedness. Our brands need to be social. We need to connect with people as people, not just revenue sources.

How to Market on Social Media

Build relationships. Use social media to connect, build relationships and communicate. Ask your network how they are doing. Ask for their thoughts and ideas. Acknowledge the world beyond your brand and the stresses as well as the celebrations we have in common.

Be empathetic. Show that you care about things beyond what is immediately important to your brand. Share a funny meme, just because. React to what your network posts. Create moments of community.

Be transparent. Don’t try to hide your motivations. When you are looking to sell, be honest that is what you are doing. When you are promoting something because it benefits you, be open about that too. Your honesty is integral to your relationship building online.

Plan for Success

With the principles of relationship marketing in mind, create your social media marketing plan. Don’t think you will remember all these important elements. Don’t leave your success to chance.

Develop a written plan to guide you day to day, week to week. A plan ensures that you implement all your good ideas using best practices. It defines your goal and how you will measure progress.

The Right Stuff for Your Digital Marketing

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Where should you be online?  That’s a question that every business needs to answer as they develop a digital marketing strategy. There is no one right answer for all businesses. Here’s how you can find the right places for your brand.

Google Yourself

Know it or not, your brand likely has a presence online. Anything you have done online creates a digital footprint.

Start your research by Googling yourself to see where you are already online. Working with your existing online presence can give you good momentum online.

Understand Your Customer

Part of understanding your customer is knowing where they spend their time online. You also need to know what influences their purchasing decisions. That insight tells you where you need to be marketing.

Customer awareness will also give you insight into what to share in your marketing. You need to speak to your customers needs and interests. That helps you understand the forms your marketing needs to take to be effective.

Know Your Strengths

Your strengths are another important factor in deciding where to market online. If you love to create video, then video channels are going to work well. If you don’t like to write, a blog may not be for you. Your comfort and agility with your own marketing will influence perceptions of your brand. Focus on the channels that reflect you best.

Does Social Media Help Your SEO?

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Most brands spend time and effort engaging on social media. Does that also help the brand search engine optimization? Yes.

Google and other search engines know that people spend increasing amounts of time on social. They factor what happens on social into their algorithms.

Search Engines Look for the Most Relevant Results

If people are talking about you, online or offline, you’re relevant. That is what search engines are looking for. Search engines want to present users with the most relevant results. Having great content on your website and social media is a great way to gain attention.

If you’re sharing great content, people will share and like your content. Social media algorithms like content that other people like, so they help spread it further.

Social Helps You Be Found

Customers who have heard about your brand might look for you on social media. They expect reputable brands and businesses to be there. Make sure you have a presence on the social channels that your target audience most commonly uses.

You don’t have to use all channels equally. You can use your accounts to direct people to the best place to find your latest information. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have the option to pin a tweet or post right at the top of your profile. In that post, explain how to reach you.

Optimize Your Social Media Accounts

Make sure all your social accounts represent you well. Use a high-quality logo and cover image. Fill out all the fields completely. Above all, be consistent. Use the same brand name across platforms, so people (and search engines) know it’s you.

Social Accounts Showing in Search Results

Social accounts can show up when people search for your brand name in search engines.  For example, Google regularly shows an account’s latest tweets with other search results.  The more space you claim in the top search results, the more you push down other results, increasing the chances of people clicking through.

Social Media and SEO

Just being on social media won’t impact your rankings. However, people engaging with your content in several places online will impact your SEO.