Social media marketing can be seen as branding a business and its association with keywords on social media.
Blogs, forums, and microblogs are effective ways to share information with your clients or clients. Savvy business owners will leverage these networks and efforts by using keywords and structuring their message appropriately so that search engines and search features on other websites direct traffic (and targeted prospects) to the company website with no additional advertising costs.
It is for this reason that the profile you create on each of these sites with which your company interacts becomes important. These profiles effectively become the Internet version of a business card and should be created to be compact, informative, and keyword-rich.
The key to creating an effective social profile is to use the keywords chosen for the company and the product, at key points in the text. Like creating an effective title for an article, keywords should be used up front and spread throughout the rest of the profile. Be careful not to abuse keywords – aim for about 1 keyword for every 100 words.
Your profile is almost a mini sales letter – it should be attractive and include a call to action for new and existing contacts.
For instance; “Smith and Son’s Office Supplies” may be an exact title, but it is just that and does not describe what the company actually does. A more effective mini-profile would be, “Office Supplies For Your Small Business – Smith and Son’s Office Supplies is the preferred provider for small businesses in the Vancouver area.” This wording places the keywords in the key position, provides the company name, and gives the target audience some depth.
It is essential to link back to your business website, although you should ensure that you follow the guidelines and Terms of Service (TOS) of the social media site. Make sure each link leads to specific information on your profile; You may have a different landing page on your website for each of your social profiles.
Let’s expand our example; “Office Supplies for Your Small Business: Smith and Son’s Office Supplies is the preferred provider for small businesses in the Vancouver area. We offer free office delivery and warranty service for multi-brand office equipment. Call us at 1800 876567 or visit our website http://www.smithandsons.com today and find out how you can lower your office supply costs. “
This simple set of phrases, along with a web address and toll free number, can be put on Facebook, Linked In, and multiple other networks to send traffic to your business. The advantage of “marking” a presence on these networks is that your company can interact directly with the target audience. The downside to social media can be the volume of work required to maintain your profile and connection requests. This is where a virtual assistant becomes an invaluable resource.
If you add a status update that announces a new product or promotion, the link should direct visitors to that information on your site. Sending visitors to the home page is more likely to annoy visitors than anything else.
While the concept of online networking may seem time consuming and overwhelming, well-done social media provides a powerful set of tools that make your marketing investment stretch that much more.