SEO Archives

Tips for Incorporating Pinterest Into Your Social Media Marketing

December 28, 2012/by Corey Padveen

How can you leverage the appeal of Pinterest in your social media marketing strategy?

Shortly after its launch, Pinterest exploded as the fastest growing social network and, more important, the first of its kind. This first mover advantage meant that an entirely new demographic now had a social network that differed from all others. What did this mean to marketers? It meant that social media marketing strategies had to be tailored to include Pinterest along with the majors. At first glance, marketers may shrug off the idea that Pinterest is a crucial tool for business. After all, it is simply boards with a collection of themed (or not so themed) images for people to share, right? Wrong. Pinterest is a traffic driving juggernaut that is quickly moving up in the ranks to be among the top sources of referral traffic from social networks. The image below from Shareaholic back in February 2012 shows just how quickly Pinterest is moving up, and there are no signs of slowing down.

So how can your brand leverage the referral power of Pinterest by incorporating it into your social media marketing? Below is a set of tips that can help you benefit from all that Pinterest has to offer, and take your social media marketing to the next level.

1. Create a Pinterest Business Page

Back in mid-November, Pinterest launched business pages. For the first time, a business was able to set up an account separate from a personal account and include some information that was otherwise unpublished on the social network. Creating or converting an existing account into a business page is as simple as opening the “About” section and selecting “For Businesses”. Once there, you will be able to select the appropriate option, and customize your business page for Pinterest.

2. Don’t Forget the Links

People are constantly clicking on images in Pinterest, but if they are not going anywhere, then you’ve missed an opportunity to drive new traffic. After loading an image onto one of your boards, you can edit it to include a link back to your site, or blog, or store. It’s as simple as typing it in. These links will help drive traffic directly from the social network as opposed to hoping the individual viewing the image will visit the site organically. Oh, and did we mention that links benefit SEO as well?

3. Keep SEO in Mind

Just as with the links for your images, keyword-rich captions and properly categorized images will help with your SEO. Simply posting an image onto your board with no description or category is the equivalent of posting an image on your site with no alt tags – it makes it much more difficult for search engines to find. Furthermore, a caption will also engage your audience, and as we never tire of pointing out, engagement is crucial to the success of your social media marketing.

4. Create a Catalog

Did you know that Pinterest is a phenomenal source for driving traffic to your online store, particularly if you are using Pinterest as an online catalog? And it doesn’t take much tweaking either. For those looking to drive customers to a store of advertise items for sale, Pinterest automatically includes a small price tag in the top left corner of a pinned image when the caption ends with $X.XX. So next time you’re looking to showcase a product at a great price, do it on Pinterest!

5. Engage!

We noted briefly that engagement is crucial to the success of a social media marketing strategy, and that holds true for Pinterest as well. It is one thing to pin thousands of images, but if you are simply posting the images and leaving them to be seen by Pinterest users, you are missing out on one of the most important aspects of brand growth on social media. Post comments on other pins, engage with users who comment on your images, and share pins from your followers.

Pinterest is as important as any other social network, even if you may think it “doesn’t apply” to your industry. Anyone can be using the social network, and the numbers show that it is an essential tool for driving referral traffic from social media.

How are you using Pinterest for your business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

5 Tips to Optimize Interaction in Your Social Media Marketing

December 27, 2012/by Corey Padveen

What are some ways you can optimize your interaction to maximize your social media marketing efforts?

Social media marketing is about one thing: being social. It is one thing to have a Facebook page, a Twitter or YouTube account or any other social profile, but if you are not engaging, you are not reaping the benefits that social can offer. Perhaps what is most important is to realize that your social media strategies and social interactions should not be confined to the individual social networks alone – you need to incorporate your social media strategies into your web strategy.

Below are a few helpful pointers that you can use to optimize your social interactions and get the most out of your social media marketing strategies.

1. Incorporate Social Media Into Your Site

It may sound intuitive, but you would be surprised to find how few brands incorporate their social media into their websites. If you are looking to optimize interaction with leads and clients, your social media marketing efforts must go beyond social networks themselves. By simply incorporating social media into your website, you are extending the ability to interact with your brand beyond social networks themselves, and opening up a whole new realm of possibilities when it comes to lead engagement.

2. Don’t Forget the Little(r) Guy

Everyone knows about the Big 4: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. But there is a ton of potential when it comes to smaller, or less frequently used social networks like Google+ and Pinterest. With the growth Pinterest has seen in the last year, it won’t be long before it is added to the Big 4 to make it the Big 5, but until that happens, it is still one of the most overlooked social media networks despite the tremendous potential it holds when it comes to growing your brand.

A little while back, we posted an article about the benefits of Google+ to your business. With the added benefit of being integrated with both YouTube and search giant Google, Google+ offers certain benefits to SEO that other social media networks do not. So remember, as your social media marketing grows, don’t forget the little guys.

3. Focus On Your Blog

HubSpot conducted a study some time ago and put together a few impressive marketing statistics that should not go unnoticed. One of their key findings was that companies that blog get 55% more web traffic than companies that don’t. Take a survey of every brand in the world, and we bet that increasing exposure by 55% is something every one of them would agree they want to do. Now, operating a blog with consistent and engaging content being published is not the easiest thing to do. It takes a time and resource commitment, but the numbers show that it is one of the most effective ways to increase your audience and get them engaged with your brand on-site.

4. Reward Your Fans

People like being rewarded for their efforts. By rewarding fans for their engagement, you prompt a much higher interaction rate with your brand than if you simply wait for engagement to increase organically. There are a few ways of doing this, like caption contests, promotions on different social networks, and there are even plugins with different CMS tools that allow you to reward fans for high levels of engagement. One example of this is Achievements for BuddyPress offered on WordPress. This is a simple app modeled after the concept of achievements and rewards available in video games. It is as simple as fans engaging with a brand and receiving badges and awards for high engagement rates. And putting this campaign together is as simple as installing the plugin.

5. Any Press is Good Press – Especially if it is Good Press

Review sites are a great way to get found. Reviews are taken into account heavily by search engines, and the more positive they are the better. This last tip is a bit of a two-fold pointer. Social media is a great way to conduct customer service. It is a public forum, and if done right, people will want to work with your brand is they see you are professional, courteous and helpful when it comes to helping your customers in real time on social media. If you can do this, encourage your audience to post reviews on sites like Yelp!. Again, these are very helpful when it comes to getting found, and the more positive they are they more authority your brand has.

Can you think of any other ways brands can optimize their engagement using social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Marketing Trends in 2013 [INFOGRAPHIC]

December 20, 2012/by Corey Padveen

Where should you be focusing your social media marketing efforts in the new year?

Social media marketing evolves constantly with trends in social media. Knowing what social networks and what media are working well is essential to success when it comes to social media marketing. This infographic does a great job of detailing how social media is trending and where we can see it going in 2013. Have a look below and let us know, is this where you expected to see social media marketing trending in the coming year? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Optimizing Facebook Social Media Strategies for SEO

December 19, 2012/by Corey Padveen

Social media strategies are crucial to the performance of your search rankings, so how can optimize Facebook for SEO?

Back in November, we posted an article on the importance of social media when it comes to SEO. With the ever changing rankings criteria at Google and other search engines, there is no question that your social media strategies will prove to be all the more important in 2013 when it comes to getting found. But while you may know that social signals are important to your search rankings, you may not know how to optimize Facebook in order to ensure that search engines pick up your social networks. Below are a few helpful tips to help you optimize your social media strategies in order to increase your search rankings in 2013 and get found by potential customers on Facebook.

There is no shortage of tips out there with suggestions on how to optimize a Facebook fan page for SEO, but there are really only a few main areas of focus one should look to when it comes to optimizing a Facebook page so as not to waste time on unproductive tweaks. Below are three tips that are sure to increase your exposure to search engines from your Facebook page, and should be key components to your social media strategies when it somes to Facebook optimization.

1. Obtain a Vanity URL

Once a fan page reaches 25 ‘Likes’ , it is eligible for a vanity URL. What is a vanity URL? Well, when you first created your Facebook page, you might have noticed that the page title was something like, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Your-Company-Name/1234567890. Considering the weight put on URLs by search engines, a title like the one provided by Facebook is doing little to benefit your exposure. Once your page has reached the coveted 25 ‘Like’ mark, visit https://www.facebook.com/username, select the page you wish to provide a custom URL for, and type in your new URL. This will give your Facebook a much cleaner URL that search engines will recognize.

Now for the worst case scenario: your company name is somehow taken. This is unlikely, but the more generic your company name, the higher the likelihood. Not to worry – if this happens, then choose a URL that describes your company. This will also benefit your search rankings due to the keywords registered in the URL. So, if your company name is John’s Store, and you see that …/Johns-Store is taken, then choose something like …/Johns-Car-Parts-Store.

2. Keywords Are Important…In Certain Areas

Posting regularly on Facebook might garner attention from other Facebook users, but regular posts might not necessarily mean more attention from search engines. Unlike a website with thousands of indexed pages, search engines do not index Facebook posts the same way. So, while you might have one of the most active accounts on Facebook in terms of regular posting, it does not necessarily mean that search engines can find you.

There are a few areas on Facebook, however, that search engines categorize the same way they would a web page. Your page title is registered as both your SEO Title and an H1 Tag. Your page’s description in the About or Company section registers as the Meta Description. These are two areas on the page that are extremely important for SEO, and what you include should be well thought out.

Once these areas are optimized it is important to optimize the beginnings of your posts. The first 18 characters of a Facebook post register with search engines as meta descriptions for those posts. So, if, for example, your company’s focus is web design, the first words of your posts should focus on the web design keywords you wish to focus on.

3. Backlinks Are Still Key to SEO

Don’t leave your posts to wither away on Facebook alone, build links back to your posts. These serve as backlinks to your page, and the more backlinks you have, the greater authority your Facebook page is given by search engines. Despite the growing force of social signals in SEO, links are still the most relevant criteria, and Facebook is one of the easiest ways to build a network of backlinks to your page by sharing posts across the web.

Helpful Tip: This is also a great way to build exposure and increase search rankings for your website. Include links to your site in your posts and encourage the sharing of those links. Shared links are recognized by search engines as backlinks to your site, and will help increase both the exposure and the authority of your site much faster than conventional link building.

You social media strategies are proving ever more important to getting found. Facebook can be a phenomenal resource for increasing your exposure, and optimizing your Facebook fan page for SEO should not go overlooked by any brand.

Social Media Marketing in 2013: The Essentials

December 18, 2012/by Corey Padveen

What does your social media marketing strategy need to have in 2013 in order for it to be successful?

Social media marketing has, once again, proven to be a crucial tool for a brand’s growth in 2012. The marketing medium has made tremendous strides over the course of the year, and it is sure to grow even larger in the next. As we approach the new year, we thought it might be helpful to take a look at some of the most important items to address with regards to your social media marketing strategy for 2013 in order to see your success grow, too.

1. Set Your Goals and Your Road Map for Achieving Them

As with any venture, social media marketing requires a strategy in order for it to be successful. The concept of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is one that no longer applies in the conventional sense. (RIM, the makers of BlackBerry are a perfect example of this.) The contemporary version of this theory falls more in line with, “if it’s working, figure out a way to get the most out of it” – and that is exactly where your goals should focus if that’s the case. Below are a few pointers to consider when devising your social media marketing strategy for the new year:

Who is the audience you are looking to target with your social media?
How effective was your social media marketing in 2012?
What aspects work, and where does your social media marketing need improvement?
Are you studying the right data when it comes to analysis of your program?

These pointers follow a general theme, and that brings us to our next point.

2. Before Anything, Evaluate Your Social Media Marketing in 2012

As the pointers above may suggest, evaluating the performance of your social media marketing in 2012 is going to be crucial to the success of your strategy in 2013. Where did you benefit? Where did your stretegy fall short? What were your goals for 2012? Did you achieve them? Why or why not? These questions all need to be answered before devising a strategy for your social media marketing in the coming year. And there are quite a few ways you can go about doing this.

The first aspect you need to look at are your goals in 2012. Using some of the insights tools available both in social media networks (e.g. Facebook insights) and external tools, you can see where you reached your goals and where you need improvement. Then evaluate each social network individually to see what strategies you employed that were either a success or a bust. Build off of these in order to get the most out of your social media marketing in 2013. Trim the fat where it is necessary and devote those resources to areas that saw success in order to maximize the efficiency of your strategy. Social media marketing is not about quantity necessarily, but about quality. Don’t forget, despite what some people might suggest, social media is not free, and if you are draining resources into something that is not benefitting your brand, you are losing considerably more than you might think.

3. Take SEO Into Consideration in Your Evaluation

SEO has long been a cornerstone of web marketing. And social media plays an integral part in your SEO efforts. In a post last month, we noted why social signals are an ever-growing part of the Google algorithm. It stands to reason that social signals will continue to factor into SEO in a significant way in the coming year, so evaluating your SEO strategy and aligning it with your social media strategy will prove to be crucial in finding success.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ directly impact your search rankings, so look to your keywords to find out how you can capitalize on this reality. Shares and retweets with links work the same way as a backlink, but they make the link-building process infinitely simpler. So use your Google Analytics Webmaster Tools to find your best keywords, and optimize accordingly.

4. Make Sure Your Entire Team Believes in Your Social Media Strategy

What is the biggest hinderance to the success of a social media marketing strategy? Skepticism. For marketing divisions and firms alike, hesitation by management to accept social media as a crucial avenue to a brand’s success has proven time and again to be biggest hurdle when it comes to reaching al of your goals when it comes to social media marketing. So before moving forward, take the steps necessary to ensure that everyone, from the highest level executive to the mailroom clerk believes in the strategy, and you will be able to move forward faster than ever before.

Can you think of other points that will be crucial to the success of your social media marketing strategy in 2013? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Why Content is Crucial to Successful Social Media Strategies

December 7, 2012/by Corey Padveen

If the goal of your social media strategies is to get found, then content is crucial.

We know this seems like a given when your goal is to get found and convert those leads into sales, seeing as how a site without content won’t attract too many clients. What we mean is the quality of your content will directly impact the success of your social media strategies.

One of the most powerful ways to create engaging content is through a blog. An industry-specific blog with focus on keywords relevant to your industry’s top searches will surely result in an engaged audience coming back for more. The added benefit is that the content is continually updated, which stands to benefit your search rankings. But be warned, new Google algorithms Panda and Penguin monitor blogs and content-driven sites and penalize sites that focus only on keyword stuffing and never creating authentic, engaging and insightful content for visitors. So, if you think you have content people want to see, then take a look below to find out why it is crucial for your search rankings.

A recent study done by a UK-based SEO group noted that 70% of consumers prefer reading about a company through articles posted as opposed to reading about it through advertising. Furthermore, 60% of consumers feel more comfortable with a company after reading customized content on their site or blog. One can safely assume, then, that strong, engaging content leads to more conversions, and who would say no to that?

So, what do we mean by ‘engaging’ content? This is where your social media strategies come into play. Integrating social media into your blog and web activities is crucial to expanding your reach and increasing your search rankings. Through the content on your site, propose ideas and ask for feedback. Comments are a great way for leads to engage on-site, but there should also be options for them to get in touch with you on other social channels, like Twitter or Facebook.

With great content and the integration of said content into your social media strategies, you stand to benefit greatly both in your search rankings and with increased conversions.

What Does SEO Cost? [INFOGRAPHIC]

November 17, 2012/by Corey Padveen

Ever wonder exactly how much SEO really costs? This helpful infographic breaks it down nicely:

Top 10 Industries Spending on SEO

November 10, 2012/by Corey Padveen

In which industry should your agency be focusing its efforts to find new SEO clients?

A recent article by Larry Kim on SEOmoz detailed some of his findings after conducting research on a billion dollars of paid advertising spend. The article is packed full of tons of great information on AdWords spend and the future of AdWords spending on Google, and he concluded with a breakdown of the top 10 industries spending money on paid advertising. This is a powerful list if you’re looking for the right industry in which to find your next SEO client, so have a look at the industry, some key players, and the average cost per click below.

Finance ($3.09) — State Farm, Geico, Quicken Loans, Capital One, Bank of America
Travel ($0.29) — Expedia, Hotels.com, Booking.com, Priceline.com, Kayak
Shopping ($0.25) — Amazon, eBay, JC Penney, Walmart, Sears
Jobs & Education ($1.80) — University of Phoenix, Monster.com, ITT-Tech, Devry, Kaplan
Internet & Telecom ($1.11) — AT&T, Sprint, T-mobile, Verizon, Comcast
Computers & Electronics ($1.39) — Bestbuy, Apple, HP, Microsoft, Newegg.com
Business & Industrial ($1.67) — Yellowpages, Staples, uline, Vistaprint, Office Depot
Home & Garden ($0.76) — Lowes, Home Depot, Servicemagic, Kohls, Pottery Barn
Autos & Vehicles ($0.97) — Edmunds, KBB, Autotrader, Ford, cars.com
Beauty & Fitness ($1.11) — QVC, Walgreens, Sephora, Underarmor, Maybelline

The Importance of Social Media in SEO

November 5, 2012/by Corey Padveen

How much weight is given to your social media efforts when it comes to improving SEO?

This has been a major point of debate in the world of online marketing. What value do search engines give to social signals, and how will your social media efforts affect your search rankings? Social media has been around for a few years, social media for business a little less, but search has dominated the web since (or close to) its inception. When social media began to pick up steam for companies a coupled of years ago, the focus when it came to improving search rankings was link building. However, right around the 2011 new year, Matt Cutts revealed that social signals do play somewhat of a role in search rankings. How much? Well, we’re not exactly sure, but whatever it is it should not be ignored.

So, how exactly do social signals factor into your search rankings to help you get found? There is no one answer to this question, as we do not have all the insight into how search engines rank these signals, but it would be sage to assume a few factors that play a role. Facebook Likes, Google+ circles and Twitter followers are one aspect, but the real driving force when it comes to social is your content being seen. Facebook ranks atop the social networks most closely watched by Google for increased rankings. And if your content is floating around Facebook with links, you are in a great position. Searchmetrics posted an article a few months ago that detailed some correlative data between search rankings and social signals. One of the graphs they put together can be found below:

Time and time again we stress that content is king, and this statistical analysis shows it. When your content is shared or retweeted (particularly if it contains links to your website) you stand to benefit greatly when it comes to search. Of course, there is still the issue of keywords and backlinks outside of social media, and top brands stand to benefit the most from this, but if you choose your keywords properly and get your content circulating on social media, you could end up seeing some incredible results with your search rankings skyrocketing.

Community review sites like Yelp! are also a major factor when it comes to search rankings. The number of reviews and the positivity of those reviews is something that search engines take into significant consideration. So in addition to getting your brand on social networks like Facebook and Twitter to increase your social rankings, get fans to post on review sites. This will help increase search rankings in the best way possible: happy customers touting your brand!

So, what should you be watching for when it comes to social signals in determining your ranking on search engines? Google is still working on their ever-evolving algorithms to optimize social signals in their search results, but within a few years, we can expect social signals to be the most dominant factor when it comes to Google rankings. While links are still the dominant factor, social is well on its way to surpassing it, and should certainly not be ignored by any company looking to get found.

Have you taken all the steps necessary to maximizing your social media efforts so as to increase your rankings potential on search engines? Tell us about your strategies below or on Twitter!

4 Social Media Strategies Businesses Should Be Employing

September 20, 2012/by Corey Padveen

What are some social media strategies you can use when getting started?

One of the biggest mistakes many businesses make when starting a social media campaign is doing so without any viable social media strategies in place. There is much more to social media than simply sending out tweets and posting to Facebook every now and then. Social media is an investment of both time and money (that’s right – social media isn’t free). Below are a few social media strategies businesses should be taking advantage of or at least considering when deciding to expand into social media.

1. Successful Social Media Is Not ‘Free’

As we noted above, using social media is not free. Of course, signing up for a social network such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn is free of charge, but managing these networks and driving business as a result of this activity will take investments of both manpower and capital. This is why the implementation of thoughtful social media strategies is an integral part to their success. You are going to need to know what your goals are, the appropriate channels to take advantage of, appropriate amounts of investment (e.g. activities such as Facebook Ads) and what metrics you wil be looking at in order to generate the highest return from your social media efforts. So while jumping onto a network might be free, getting the most out of it, like anything in business, is going to take a serious investment and commitment.

2. You Are Not the Center of Attention

Social media is about one thing and one thing only: being social. So, what will be the result of endless self-promotion on social networks? You’ll find your accounts on the island of abandoned brands. This is the last place a business wants to be, because it means that all of that investment we mentioned in 1 will be wasted. So how do you avoid this? Focus on others. Social media is about engaging with an audience. Tout yourself as an expert not by simply stating it in a tweet or post, but by helping others with their questions or issues. Do you know everything there is to know about web design? Well, instead of simply repeating that throughout the day hoping someone will call you, give tips, lessons, webinars or answer questions for people when they come up. This is a surefire way to generate business from the leads you find all over the social web.

3. The Customer Is Not the Only One in the Customer Experience Anymore

The customer experience now includes the entire network on which that experience took place. So when a customer announces that they hate your brand and product and will never buy from you again, use it as an opportunity. What? That’s right. Over 70% of customers who leave a brand do so because of poor customer service. However, a positive experience with a brand will result in that customer telling an average of 42 other people about it. On social networks, that number can be much higher. Don’t focus only on the good and try to hide the bad. The bad is what can help build your customer loyalty. Social offers an entirely new means of retaining clients, and the best way to do that is to take on poor customer experiences head on.

4. 10 Million Followers Does Not Equal 10 Million Sales

It’s a lot of fun to see your follower count grow, and it may be a point of pride to tell your friends that your brand has 2 million ‘Likes’ on Facebook, but how many of those followers or fans convert into sales? While a fan-base is a metric that should be looked at and evaluated over the course of a program, it is certainly not the most important metric one should focus on. After all, what good is having ten thousand guests at your party if you’re sitting alone in the corner because you don’t know anyone? A focal point for growing your fan-base should be specificity. Follow people who would be interested in what you have to say. Garner ‘Likes’ from people who are interested in your message. At the end of the day, you may not have as many Twitter followers as Lady Gaga, but you’re followers will be more likely to open a dialogue with you and possibly be converted into clients than millions of nameless faces.

Building up a social media program can take time, money and tremendous efforts, but if done correctly, it can easily be the most successful pillar of your business in terms of customer service and driving sales. What other strategies do you think would be helpful for a business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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