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INSCMagazine: Get Social!

By Cindy Hawthorne

For far too long, SEO and social media have been handled as separate marketing entities.

Most brands running their marketing campaigns have different teams working on each one. However, time is ripe for these strategies to be used alongside each other.

If played out right, SEO efforts can amplify social media marketing campaigns. The reverse is true.

SEO is known for content distribution while focusing on key phrases. Social media, on the other hand, provides a perfect platform for link building.

Even more, it enhances the sharing of highly optimized SEO content, boosting user engagement and brand awareness in the process. However, the big question remains; how exactly do the two play along?

Is it possible to use social media to enhance organic search rankings?

The Power of Social Media Profile: As part of the registration process, brands must fill in their details while signing up social media accounts. For some brands, this is just a formality.

Simply typing the business name, address, and contacts is all they do and forget about it. Consequently, they switch to content generation and distribution.

Sorry Mr. Social Media Marketer, it doesn’t work that way. Profiles aren’t just for followers for Instagram to identify you. They are index-able contents that can have an influence in determining your ranking. Several third party sites gain brand information from social media profiles.

Google, in turn, compiles such entries to create standard formatting for local business. That reveals one thing; appropriately filling your social media profile can greatly enhance your search visibility and online accuracy.

Inbound Link Magic: Search engines mostly use two aspects in result rankings; authority and relevance.

Relevance, on one hand, focuses on how appropriate the given content matches the search query. Authority is all about credibility of the source. Authority is largely determined by inbound links. In essence, the greater the number of quality authority links pointing to you, the higher your site is likely to rank.

While the links on platforms like Twitter and Facebook might not influence organic rankings, their ripple effects definitely do. They have the ability to distribute relevant content to a larger audience. In effect, you can get quality authority links from such audience.

The charm of influencer marketing: Social media offers a platform for making new connections. It is where you build Instagram followers and Facebook page fans.

For a brand that is making its social media debut, you will realize that there are people who already have a great following and resounding reputation. You can work closely with such sources to publicize your highly optimized contents.

They will gain traction and eventual traffic to your website. Being able to attract users using such sources puts you in a better place of earning diversified SEO opportunities.

Conclusion: With SEO strategies and social media campaigns integrated together, brands can expect greater influence and enhanced brand awareness. Instead of focusing on social media marketing and SEO campaigns separately, the two should be incorporated to achieve better results.

Author Bio: Cindy Hawthorne is works with a California based SEO Agency. She has written several books on social media marketing, including best practices of gaining followers for Instagram.

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