Using SEO Principles in Your Brand's Social Media

I was reminded of the long history of content marketing while listening to a Webinar earlier this week. We tend to think that whatever we have discovered on the net is brand new, or at least only as old as the nineties, when the net revolutionized our world.

Remember John Deere? Right, tractors, those huge farm machines that none of us can name? The John Deere company is still the company associated with farming equipment over 175 years after its founder began the company.

In the late 1830's, John Deere developed a steel-tipped plow. A blacksmith in Illinois, Deere well knew the value of a steel tip to the local farmers who battled with sticky mid-western soil in creating the furrows needed to plant. His first year, he sold 10 of his new plows and began to triple his sales each year.

How did he market?

Deere set up classes for the local farmers who were hungry for knowledge about better ways to farm, and then he created a magazine still in circulation today: The Furrow. Good, even great content marketing involves the creation of compelling stories which reach a customer's pain points. John Deere capitalized on the need for knowledge; by becoming an expert in farming, Deere began to make himself- and his products- essential to his customers.

You are thinking that this story does not apply to and to us in this information saturated 21st century? Think again.

Yes, we are saturated with information, constantly... from our phones, media and from our friends and colleagues. But how much of what we hear and read is useful? How much can we apply to ourselves, to our financial and physical well-being?

How quickly could your business grow if you started a daily, weekly or even monthly blog or newsletter about health? Or exercise? Or anything that you are interested in-curious about?

Dr. Lin Wilder is a former Hospital Director, now full time internet marketer and writer. If you liked this article, Lin suggests her new book, Secrets to Email Marketing- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0083KDUE2. Lin can be contacted at lin@linwilder.com.

Lin invites you to join her mailing list by sending a blank email to leadzine@aweber.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7420890

Social media and SEO are actually more closely linked than most companies realise. When consumers are researching your brand, products and services online they are not just finding out information through your tweets, posts, and other social chatter - they're finding your content that has been spread throughout the web and posted to other sites in organic search results.

Google and other engines are monitoring and indexing what's happening on social networks today. Public Facebook pages, trending topics in Twitter, blog posts, as well as photos, videos, and all manner of content that gets shared and created on social media platforms are now being viewed and scanned by search engine crawlers. For this reason, the running of your brand's social profiles will benefit greatly by employing some SEO-know-how to your social chats and sharing. Here are four things that will make your social media more optimised and thus more successful in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Choose your target terms much as you would do with SEO

In order to optimise any content that is associated with your brand whether on your website or your social profile it is essential to identify your high-value key target terms or keywords and phrases. Focus on the top 50 to 100 most popular and relevant terms related to your brand - too many unrelated keywords will effectively water down your SEO strategy. Be specific and make a concrete list of terms that you will be aiming to target.

Use your target terms, hashtags, and links liberally in your updates, tweets

As mentioned above tweets - especially promoted ones or those by high profile accounts - are definitely being indexed by search engines. Make the most of the opportunity by including your key words whenever it seems relevant. Remember, no one wants to hear the same words being repeated over and over - you are not a spambot and no follower wants you to sound like one. Always use keywords at the right time when it is logical and relevant to do so.

Use your target terms and links in your blog titles and copy

Since social media is one of the most popular channels through which to share any kind of content your brand creates, it makes sense to include your valuable key terms in that copy wherever you can. Blogs are a great place to create and showcase branded content and will be the primary place where you will have full control over what copy, tags and images to use. Blog posts that will eventually be shared via social media needs to optimised and keywords in the heading, links and tags are a good place to start.

Use your target terms and links in all of your content posting descriptions

Many social media sites allow users to post descriptions about the content that they are sharing. This not only makes the content more understandable and user-friendly for the other users who see your post, but also makes it more visible to search engine crawlers. Include thorough descriptions using your most valuable keywords in:

• The 'about' section on your Facebook page
• The 'about' you section on your Twitter profile
• video titles and descriptions in YouTube
• Pinterest pins

Social media plays an important part in any SEO strategy and by incorporating tried and tested SEO principles into your brand's social media, you'll be increasing your chances of popping up in the SERPs.

About Digital Fire

Digital Fire, an email marketing and digital media specialist with a head office in Cape Town. Digital Fire specializes in full service opt-in email marketing, email data rental, email database management, social media consultancy and management as well as Search Engine Optimisation. We provide cutting edge digital marketing and advertising solutions for our clients locally and abroad. Contact us today for digital marketing success http://www.digitalfire.co.za/contact/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7413365

Social media and SEO are actually more closely linked than most companies realise. When consumers are researching your brand, products and services online they are not just finding out information through your tweets, posts, and other social chatter - they're finding your content that has been spread throughout the web and posted to other sites in organic search results.

Google and other engines are monitoring and indexing what's happening on social networks today. Public Facebook pages, trending topics in Twitter, blog posts, as well as photos, videos, and all manner of content that gets shared and created on social media platforms are now being viewed and scanned by search engine crawlers. For this reason, the running of your brand's social profiles will benefit greatly by employing some SEO-know-how to your social chats and sharing. Here are four things that will make your social media more optimised and thus more successful in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Choose your target terms much as you would do with SEO

In order to optimise any content that is associated with your brand whether on your website or your social profile it is essential to identify your high-value key target terms or keywords and phrases. Focus on the top 50 to 100 most popular and relevant terms related to your brand - too many unrelated keywords will effectively water down your SEO strategy. Be specific and make a concrete list of terms that you will be aiming to target.

Use your target terms, hashtags, and links liberally in your updates, tweets

As mentioned above tweets - especially promoted ones or those by high profile accounts - are definitely being indexed by search engines. Make the most of the opportunity by including your key words whenever it seems relevant. Remember, no one wants to hear the same words being repeated over and over - you are not a spambot and no follower wants you to sound like one. Always use keywords at the right time when it is logical and relevant to do so.

Use your target terms and links in your blog titles and copy

Since social media is one of the most popular channels through which to share any kind of content your brand creates, it makes sense to include your valuable key terms in that copy wherever you can. Blogs are a great place to create and showcase branded content and will be the primary place where you will have full control over what copy, tags and images to use. Blog posts that will eventually be shared via social media needs to optimised and keywords in the heading, links and tags are a good place to start.

Use your target terms and links in all of your content posting descriptions

Many social media sites allow users to post descriptions about the content that they are sharing. This not only makes the content more understandable and user-friendly for the other users who see your post, but also makes it more visible to search engine crawlers. Include thorough descriptions using your most valuable keywords in:

• The 'about' section on your Facebook page
• The 'about' you section on your Twitter profile
• video titles and descriptions in YouTube
• Pinterest pins

Social media plays an important part in any SEO strategy and by incorporating tried and tested SEO principles into your brand's social media, you'll be increasing your chances of popping up in the SERPs.

About Digital Fire

Digital Fire, an email marketing and digital media specialist with a head office in Cape Town. Digital Fire specializes in full service opt-in email marketing, email data rental, email database management, social media consultancy and management as well as Search Engine Optimisation. We provide cutting edge digital marketing and advertising solutions for our clients locally and abroad. Contact us today for digital marketing success http://www.digitalfire.co.za/contact/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7413365