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| Courtesy: http://www.socialannex.com |
In 2016, social media
= revenue. A simple tweet or Facebook post can push customers to buy your
product instantly, learn more about it for a future purchase, or simply know
you exist! However, you MUST have a great landing page to make any of that
social media marketing even work! As author David Meerman Scott says in his
book “The New Rules of Marketing & PR," “if you want to be found on the web,
you need a unique identity for yourself, your product and your company to stand
out from the crowd and rise to prominence on search engines” (Scott, 2015, pg.
401). That’s right, you read that right, search
engines. So, besides earning dollars through effective social media and a
great landing page, you must have the right keywords that get you noticed on
search engines and get people to those websites and to your great Facebook page, Twitter account, and YouTube videos.
The company I work
for is in the top 5 when you type in a host of keywords in Google.com. Granted, it is
a specific category, but still, it comes up on the first page. That’s what you
want. To be found right away.
10 steps to help you
get noticed from Idealware – a group that helps nonprofits make smart softwaredecisions:
1.
Ensure Your Site Has High-Quality Information
2.
Help Search Engines Find Your Site
3.
Encourage Others to Link to You
4.
Identify the Keywords For Which You'd Like to Be Found
5.
Place Keywords in Prime Locations
6.
Ensure a Search-Friendly Web Site Architecture
7. Keep Your Site Fresh
8.
Consider Google Grants
9. Be Patient, but Keep Checking In
10.
Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labor
Now that you have
search engines figured out, make sure you keep records and track your progress.
My company tracks each month our social media progress specifically and how many
people viewed our website from an app or from a desktop. I know our company
uses a tool called Social News Desk to help track the website and social media.
Other tools our Social Media Manger uses, I am unsure. I do know that it is
effective and can be correlated right back to dollars and cents. The more people who tune in,
the more who are seeing advertisements. Example, besides seeing the numbers of likes on Facebook and Twitter followers increase, at my company data shows around 4 million people view the website on a desktop each month (average). Companies need to know those numbers, so they can better cater to who
is stopping by!
Options for tracking and search engine advertising:
1. Google AdWords
2. Bing Ads
3. Yahoo! Search Marketing
4. Google Analytics
5. LikeAlyzer
6. Simply Measured
So, find the best keywords and track your presence online to get noticed!
References:
Quinn,
L. S. (2008, March). 10 Steps to Being Found on Search Engines. Retrieved March
02, 2016, from http://www.idealware.org/articles/found_on_search_engines.php
Scott, D. M. (2015). The
New Rules of Marketing and PR. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Allison - Some really great suggestions for getting noticed and for tracking. I also really like that you included search as an essential piece of the puzzle for the optimal analytics. While search engines aren't usually directly impacted by social media activity (minus blogs and youtube) there are a lot of ways in which they work together. In this article by Angie Pascale she outlines some legitimate ways the social media impacts SEO (https://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2342211/7-legitimate-ways-that-social-media-impacts-seo) like link potential, traffic and site engagement and volume, and profile rankings. It's a really interesting comparison and definitely a must-do when creating robust tracking or ROI calculations.
ReplyDeleteNow that we've been blogging for a few weeks and encouraging users to check out our posts what have you found to be the best outlet for sharing your message? Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ ? Taking from your list above about ways to get noticed are there any of those that you think you could apply to your blog to increase viewership?
Reference:
Pascale, A. (2014, April 30) 7 Legitimate Ways That Social Media Impacts SEO. ClickZ viewed at: https://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2342211/7-legitimate-ways-that-social-media-impacts-seo
Colleen,
DeleteThanks for that link! It's interesting because I have to post a lot on my work social media accounts, so I have been using what I have learned in this class for that. I have seen growth there, but as for these new one I have started, not so much. But it is hard to start social media from scratch and see big returns right away (in my opinion). But, my work accounts are thriving and I have been able to use our new knowledge to try and have a stronger presence on social media!
Allison,
ReplyDeleteTracking is so important! The ability to know real-time how to adjust a campaign or to do more of something is so important. We do more Q & A's online because the data has shown that people like them!
Jumping in on Colleen's comment above, I've noticed one of my biggest drivers to my blog is Facebook - which I assume is from our group. But next is redirects from Colleen's blog! I noticed that, like me, she listed the team blogs on her site and I am getting a good amount of traffic from her blog. I have to assume some is her clicking through, but as she expands her reach, I am benefiting also. I think it shows that linking to your "favorite" blogs helps drive traffic.
Trista - I actually took my que from you on that as I saw your page posted our links and thought it was a good idea. I'm getting views coming from you as well, so it's reciprocal. My biggest leads seem to be coming from LinkedIn actually, so I think co-workers and former business associates (a lot of whom are marketers or pr people) are the ones jumping in, which makes sense as that's my largest network of "like-minded" individuals. My contacts on Facebook don't care so much about marketing and I haven't amassed much of a twitter following although I'm been trying to attract more readership with hashtags and group tagging.
DeleteI'm not sure I agree with a landing page being an essential part of a social media campaign. I think it depends on what your goals are. Many of the small businesses I work with don't have the expertise, time, or money to make or have made a website for their business. My salon operates entirely on Facebook, where she posts client pictures, talks about new techniques, shares openings in the schedule or warns us how busy she is, and even has a plugin to take the bookings, all from her Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteThe greatest thing about most of the popular social media tools is that they have built-in analytics, so even the most tech-averse person can get data on how they're doing. The real trick is sorting through the vast amount of noise between the various platforms and all the numbers you can pull to show you something useful, and to help you reach your goals. And for that, you need to establish solid goals that are more than just the numbers we've been reading about for this entire program.
Good point. I hadn't thought of that, thanks for sharing! I do know a lot of companies now are using Facebook as their main point of contact with people, so I guess, that would replace the idea of the landing page!
Delete