Most companies now have some form of involvement within social networking sites. The common mistake people make is that they believe it is simply a case of applying the same methods they would use on their personal social networking pages. Although the basics of social networking are the same in every sense, your approach from a business point of view should be tackled differently.
One of the things that fascinates us the most at SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk is the profile user names which companies use for their social networking sites. When you are creating a personal profile you can be a bit risky and tongue in cheek, however when you are creating a social networking profile for your business it is important to remember your place. This is your business, your livelihood and your opportunity to show thousands of potential consumers what you stand for, so choose your profile name carefully. It does not necessarily have to be your company name, but at the same time it should be recognisable to users and they should instantly know that it is you. Contact us for expert advice on your SMM strategy.
The main task involved in social media optimisation is status updates and micro blogging. You should do these on a regular basis as you want to keep people interested, but at the same time you should not post things overly often as you run the risk of looking like a serial tweeter who focuses too much on quantity rather than quality. Although people use social networking sites in a regular basis, the last thing you want is for a user to miss a complete string of micro blogging because you have been doing it too frequently.
What you are posting is also important and your posts should follow a pattern. Stick to two or three topics at once so you are consistent and can build up a rapport with your audience. You need to be really involved in your social media marketing strategy and respond to comments and re-tweets as efficiently as possible and never ignore them if they require a response, even if it is not the most positive comment.
Do not focus on keywords. You probably thought you would never hear those words from a web optimisation company; however social networking is not primarily about driving traffic to your website. Social media is more of a branding exercise and is all about building up relationships with your audience and creating and maintaining a positive brand and company image.
With so many companies involved heavily in social media now, it is important that you offer people something over and above your competitors. Rather than just randomly post comments, try to have a defining strategy behind what you are posting and check out your competitor’s sites to see what you can do better. Educating people is a great tactic, even if you have a tip of the day or something similar. It is also a good idea to try and mix your formats up, so post videos and images on occasion, or even incorporate these together by offering tutorial videos.
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Posted by Phil.
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