How Social Media Helps SEO

*Special Guest Blog post by Sachin of websudasa.com

Social media is one of the most popular marketing trends these days. Social media can easily help anyone to raise brand awareness as well as to generate more targeted visitors to your website. Have you ever thought how social media can help you in SEO? 

Let’s explore some of the most famous websites in social media like facebook, twitter, YouTube, digg and many more. Click here to find list social networking websites. Yes, there are hundreds of social networking & bookmarking websites available which can help you in SEO. 

Generate Quality Links with Social Media

There are so many SEO activities we do for link building but social media is in one of most effective ways to build genuine one way links. As you know one-way links are of utmost importance in search engine optimization. 

Here’s an example

You can do a search on knowem.com for your brand.

“Search over 575 popular social networks, over 150 domain names, and the entire USPTO Trademark Database to instantly secure your brand on the internet.”

Let’s talk about some of the most famous websites. How these websites can help us in SEO, see the image below for your reference

We actively started focusing on some of the most popular social media sites to generate some quality one-way links.

So let’s talk about some of the most famous social media sites.

How to use facebook for SEO

Some of the activities we follow to generate quality one-way links from facebook

1.       Submit website link in facebook business page

2.       Website link in facebook profile

3.       Write facebook notes to generate some targeted traffic and links

4.       Share one or two links or status update in profile or business page

How to use twitter for SEO

1.       Create your company/blog business profile & add your website link in profile

2.       Share your blog or website links on twitter. As soon as your tweets became popular or get a good number of retweets, they become good links.

How to use YouTube or other Video Sharing Websites for SEO

1.       Create a company profile or personal profile where you can easily add your website link.

2.       You can keep adding some of the videos related to your products or. Add your product or website link in descriptions.

How to use Social Bookmarking Websites

1.       Create your personal profile as well as company profile on most of the social bookmarking websites.

2.       Maintain your account by adding some friends to your network.

3.       As soon as you publish any post on your blog you can bookmark those articles on these websites.

4.       You can exchange articles with your friends to submit different articles from your account.

5.       You should get some votes for your articles to get permanent links from these websites or they will remove your link after sometime.

How to use Webmaster to Track Social Media Links

1.       Login to your Google webmaster account.

2.       You can check traffic -> links to your site - >more where you can see all domains that have links to pages on your site.

3.       Here you can easily find social networking and bookmarking websites.

4.       You can click those websites for more details & found what kind of content is getting maximum links. Write that type of content for your blog.

As many genuine and targeted one-way links as you can generate for your website will give you higher chances to get top ranking for your keywords in search engine.

Author Bio: - Sachin Bhutani, Internet marketing consultant and founder of SEO company in India. Writes articles related to SEO, PPC, blogging and making money online. Email info@websudasa.com if you’re interested in having Sachin write a guest article for your website.

Social Networking and Every Day Products

How are marketing teams using social media to communicate with the people using common, every day products? Check out these insightful examples.

Facebook

Pepto Bismol noticed a stagnating in sales. Someone eventually noticed social media updates on Saturday and Sunday morning. Those who overindulged mentioned their appreciation for the pink liquid. (P.S. This is why you sometimes need an outside consultant. What may be clear to others is hard to see when you’re too close.) Procter & Gamble, the product’s maker tried a campaign on Facebook called, “Celebrate Life.” They desired to lure customers before weekend partying and saw an 11% market-share gain!

I really like the mattress company, Sealy, and their marketing campaigns on Facebook. If their “in bed” tagging app doesn’t get you, their fun Schwag Shop just might.

Twitter

P&G struggled with how to get people engaged on Twitter. People don’t usually tweet about their deodorant. The campaign by Secret, “Mean Stinks” was an anti-bullying drive that attracted attention and sales to the brand. Addressing issues important to their target market was key. By using celebrity spokespersons, cheeky blogs, and advocacy campaigns, P&G has gotten people talking. The company says it’s increasing spending on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Attracting the Right Audience

Women 25-54 make up most of Procter & Gamble’s buyers. (We do control most of the checkbooks.) Women this age group (especially those with children) spend more time online. Bloomberg Businessweek recently cited that women 25-54 spend 14% more time on social networks than other users. Hmm… pretty obvious how to target moms with checkbooks. 

Which brands do you network with on social media? Please share who and why in the comments below.

30 Marketing Experts to Watch

These marketing experts really hit the mark. Yes, I realize it may not be practical to follow 30 marketing experts, but from this list you should be able to find at least a few that you really like – and that’s what’s important. I’ve divided them by where I follow them, although most can be found on multiple networks.

Blogs

1.      Directory Journal’s Search and Social Media

2.      Fluent Self – motivational

3.      22Michaels.com – marketing articles written by an entrepreneur (shoe store owner)

4.      Adsoftheworld.com – very visual view of new ads

5.      Dailyblogtips.com

6.      Guerrilla Communication Blog

7.      Brian Solis – technology, culture, business

Twitter

8.      Jennifer Mattern – blogger, business writer

9.      Pete Cashmore - @mashable, enough said

10.  Chris Brogan – social media blogger

11.  Julien Smith – coauthor with Chris Brogan of Trust Agents

12.  Liana Evans – social media marketing expert

13.  SocialMedia Revolver – tips for SMM

14.  Direct Marketing News

Facebook

15.  Wildfire Interactive – for SMM

16.  Duct Tape Marketing – for small business

17.  imFORZA – web design and internet marketing

18.  Mirror Communications

19.  Prime Social Marketing

20.  Marketing Savant

21.  TMA E-Marketing

Google +

22.  Jason Falls - Social Media Explorer

23.  Ann Smarty – My Blog Guest

24.  Google + for Business

25.  Rand Fishkin – SEOmoz

Pinterest

26.  Penny Sansevieri – author marketing expert

27.  Isabelle Duarte – follow her marketing infographics

28.  Sara Wingfield – PS Web Design, boards for infographics, brochures, branding, etc.

29.  Lori Randall Stradtman – social media humor, online reputation management

30.  If you made it all the way through this list, congratulations! Reward yourself by following me on Twitter @TerraLFletcher, Facebook.com/FletcherFreelance, LinkedIn and my blog.

Why Facebook WON’T Help Your Business

Yes, you read that correctly. This article is about why Facebook won’t help your business. I’ve been meaning to write this blog since I wrote, Why Twitter Won’t Help Your Business. And many of the reasons are the same. 

Overpopularity, Noise, and Content

There’s just too much noise. It’s hard to sort between the useless “I’m just getting out of the shower” and “I’m having an omelet for breakfast” and actual useful morsels. Because so many Facebookers update from their phones the site is becoming even more bogged down. No one cares about the mundane details of your daily life! (Or maybe that’s just me. I guess if you like reality TV and wouldn’t mind reading it instead of hearing it…)

Many businesses believe that Facebook is just about the numbers. It’s all a competition to see who can get the most likes. In my world, it is quality that counts, not quantity. Everyone knows that the closer you get to your target market, the higher your conversion rate will be. Why waste your time broadcasting to the world when you could be having smaller conversations at a deeper level?

Popularity is a double edged sword. When something is really popular, it isn’t cool anymore. Facebookers have a tendency to assume that everyone reads their every post. This can result in a faulty, inflated sense of self. People also forget that it is quite possible that everybody did read their post (reminder, check your privacy and security settings). So, you thought you were having a conversation with a couple of close friends? Nope, I read about it, too.

Time Waster

Let’s not even discuss the time waste factor. There is a huge learning curve and Facebook is always changing. Many marketers will tell you that most of the network’s changes are not in favor of business pages and marketers.

You can have success with Facebook. Anyone who knows me understands that I’m a firm believer in the power of Facebook for business. Just ease into it, get to know the pace and rhythm. Learn the rules, written and otherwise. You have to use the tool properly for it to work for your business. The more powerful a tool the higher the risks.

If you have found success marketing your business on Facebook, I’d be happy to hear how you did in the comments below.

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Why Twitter Won’t Help Your Business

Allow me to repeat, the title of this blog is “Why Twitter Won’t Help Your Business.” I’m sure I could write a blog where the reverse is true, but today I’m telling you why Twitter isn’t my favorite social networking tool (and yes, many of these same cons could apply to other networks).

Overpopularity, Noise, and Content

There’s just too much noise. It’s hard to sort between the useless “I’m just getting out of the shower” and “I’m having an omelet for breakfast” and actual useful morsels. Because so many twitterers tweet from their phones the site is becoming even more bogged down. No one cares about the mundane details of your daily life! (Or maybe that’s just me. I guess if you like reality TV and wouldn’t mind having no pictures and reading it instead of hearing it…)

Much of Twitter is a numbers game. It’s all a competition to see who can get the most followers. In my world, it is quality that counts, not quantity. Everyone knows that the closer you get to your target market, the higher your conversion rate will be. Why waste your time broadcasting to the world when you could be having smaller conversations at a deeper level? I think this social network is anti-social. People forget to be where they are physically; they’re too busy living life virtually.

Popularity is a double edged sword. When something is really popular, it isn’t cool anymore. Twitterers have a tendency to assume that everyone reads their tweets. This can result in a faulty, inflated sense of self. (I have tens of thousands of followers. I had a conversation with a celebrity.) People also forget that it is quite possible that everybody did read their tweets. So, you thought you were having a conversation with a couple of close friends? Nope, I read about it, too.

Character Limit

As a copywriter, it’s hard for me to say this, but some things just can’t be said in 140 characters or less. And as a writer I have a hard time even texting. I just don’t like to see words spelled wrong!

Time Waste

Let’s not even discuss the time waste factor. If you thought Facebook was bad…

But hey if you’re interested in trying to fit in your own shameless self-promotion on Twitter, that’s fine with me. Just ease into it, get to know the pace and rhythm. Learn the rules, written and otherwise. And if you have success, I’d be happy to hear how you did in the comments below.