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If you’re a marketing professional, then you can’t ignore the power of social media. When used correctly, it’s an important tool to increase web traffic, brand reputation, and visibility online. But how can you be sure you’re using social media correctly? How can you get more out of your social media efforts?<\/p>\n
The first question to ask yourself is what role does social media currently play in your marketing program<\/a>?<\/p>\n If you answered \u201cAll of the above,\u201d then you\u2019re an organization with digital marketing maturity and you\u2019ve run out of low-hanging fruit. So what are you planning to add to your social marketing strategy in 2017? Is it to be smarter, stronger, and faster?<\/p>\n And how will you strategically integrate your social media strategy into all the other components of your marketing mix? After all, social media is just one part of an overall marketing strategy. Your marketing mix likely includes everything from SEO to paid media, social, mobile, content and more.<\/p>\n So, here\u2019s your 2017 social media power play. This year, make it a priority to integrate your digital marketing efforts. You can make gains by applying what you learn from search marketing to your social media efforts and vice versa.<\/p>\n 2017 continues to be a year of integrated digital marketing programs. Social media, paid search<\/a>, display, SEO, content, PR, email \u2014 they\u2019re all levers of a big-picture marketing machine.<\/p>\n In this article I will:<\/p>\n First, let\u2019s tackle the conversation about how social media and SEO work together. Many misconceptions exist regarding the effects of social media on organic search rankings.<\/p>\n For years, people have been trying to figure out if, and how, social signals impact search rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Back in 2014, former Googler Matt Cutts said social signals were not part of the ranking algorithm<\/a>. Again in 2016, Google\u2019s Gary Illyes confirmed it<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Bing has stated that it uses social signals as ranking factors<\/span><\/a>. From the Bing Webmaster Guidelines help files, we read:<\/p>\n \u201cSocial media plays a role in today\u2019s effort to rank well in search results. The most obvious part it plays is via influence. If you are influential socially, this leads to your followers sharing your information widely, which in turn results in Bing seeing these positive signals. These positive signals can have an impact on how you rank organically in the long run.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In addition to being a factor in ranking algorithms, we know other ways that social media marketing can impact organic search.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s something to ponder: it\u2019s no secret that Google Analytics uses aggregated data<\/a> across industries from companies that opt in to help you benchmark.<\/p>\n We can imagine a world in which Google could<\/i> use the social referral data to see how much traffic is coming to a particular website from social, and make inferences about that brand.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying Google is doing this or even has an interest in it, but the data is there for the taking, should they ever want it.<\/p>\n OK, now that we\u2019re clear on how social media can impact organic search, let\u2019s talk about evolving your social media strategy.<\/p>\n Much of that is going to depend on being where your audience is, and not trying to be everywhere at once \u2014 or be where you think you should<\/i> just because your competition is there.<\/p>\n For example:<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not sure where to start, leverage the research of others. Nielsen<\/a> and Pew Research Center<\/a> have a fair amount of data on social media platforms and who uses them for what.<\/p>\n What if you sell toilet plungers or some other obscure product or service? Well, social media isn\u2019t for everyone.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have<\/i> to be on social sites to fulfill some digital marketing checklist. Go where your audience is. And if that\u2019s a \u201cToilet Plungers of America\u201d tradeshow and not Facebook, that\u2019s perfectly OK.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve refined your social media targets, test, test and re-test.<\/p>\n Test your presence on your chosen platforms on both the paid and organic side of things. Paid social advertising is usually going to let you see results faster (meaning, if a campaign\u2019s messaging is working or not) and target better.<\/p>\n And know that every social platform has its own algorithms for surfacing content, like Facebook <\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and so forth.<\/p>\n Even Google has its own method for how it indexes tweets in its search results, so just like SEO, you want to get familiar with those social algorithms in the places you want your brand to be.<\/p>\n We know that marketing efforts do not exist in a silo. Using data across your marketing channels will help create a more cohesive experience for your target audience.<\/p>\n Here are five ways to use social media data for your marketing efforts:<\/p>\n 1. Discover web content ideas from customer service activity on social media.<\/b> Knowing the real-world challenges your target audience is dealing with can help you create content that answers their needs.<\/p>\n 2. Find web content ideas in social communities, comments and most engaged posts.<\/b> What is your target market talking about in your various social media platforms? Use this knowledge to help inform your content strategy for your website, on your key landing pages and in your blog.<\/p>\n 3. Get remarketing audiences from the website\u2019s cookied users and similar audiences from the email team\u2019s lists.<\/b> You can use this data to do some retargeting advertising<\/a> of the people who have already expressed interest in your brand, products or services, or who may be very interested in what you have to offer.<\/p>\n 4. Use social media advertising results to inform search advertising efforts, and vice versa.<\/b> Use best performing messaging in social media ads as test creative for search ads.<\/p>\n 5. Derive link magnet ideas from trending topics on social media.<\/b> The beauty of social media is that it allows brands to be a part of the real-time conversation. Find out what\u2019s trending, and think about the content you can create right away to attract users to your site.<\/p>\n More than 5,000 marketers weighed in on the benefits of social media to their businesses in the 2016 \u201cSocial Media Marketing Industry Report<\/a>\u201d by Social Media Examiner.<\/p>\n The top two benefits cited included increasing exposure and traffic.<\/p>\n In fact, improved search engine rankings was a prevalent concept. From the report:<\/p>\n Improved search engine rankings were most prevalent among those who’ve been using social media for 1 year or longer, with 54%+ reporting a rise. At least 59% of those investing a minimum of 6 hours per week in social media marketing saw improvements in search engine rankings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What type of social media involvement does it take on a daily basis to see an impact on web traffic? According to the report, it\u2019s minimal:<\/p>\n A significant 79%+ of participants found that increased traffic occurred with as little as 6 hours per week invested in social media marketing. And those who’ve used social media for 1 year or more reported substantially better results (73%+ reported benefits), compared with those with less experience.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Social media (and digital marketing in general) is a bit like fishing. And to catch fish, there are two things you must do: 1) Use the right bait and 2) Fish where the fish are.<\/p>\n And since social media is just one part of an overall marketing strategy, be sure to integrate social media efforts into other marketing channels in ways that make sense for you.<\/p>\n Evolving your social media strategy this year is really about understanding how much social plays into reaching your audience and into the other facets of your digital marketing strategy.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve figured that out, you can determine how much effort needs to go into which social media activities in order to see a return.<\/p>\n I want to know your biggest challenges with social media marketing in 2017. Tell me in the comments below.<\/i><\/p>\n Let us help you drive and track traffic to your website with integrated search and social media marketing solutions. Our strategies are tailor-made to match your business goals and audience. Let\u2019s talk about your 2017 digital marketing goals<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’re a marketing professional, you can’t ignore the power of social media. When used correctly, it’s an important tool to increase web traffic, brand reputation and visibility online. But how can you be sure you’re using social media correctly? How can you get more out of your social media efforts?<\/p>\n The first question to ask yourself is what role does social media currently play in your marketing program?<\/p>\n \u2022 Customer service If you answered \u201cAll of the above\u201d then you\u2019re an organization with digital marketing maturity \u2014 you\u2019ve run out of low-hanging fruit. So, what are you planning to add to your social marketing strategy in 2017 to be smarter, stronger and faster?<\/p>\n And how will you strategically integrate your social media strategy into all the other components of your marketing mix? After all, social media is just one part of an overall marketing strategy. Your marketing mix likely includes everything from SEO to paid media, social, mobile, content and more.<\/p>\n So, here\u2019s your 2017 social media power play. This year, make it a priority to integrate your digital marketing efforts. <\/p>\n\n
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The Relationship between Social Media and SEO<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nHow to Be Where Your Social Audience Is<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n5 Ways to Integrate Social Media Data with Other Marketing Channels<\/h2>\n
Success Stories of Marketers Embracing Social Media Integration<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Your Social Media Strategy Starts Here<\/h2>\n
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\n\u2022 Lead generation
\n\u2022 Sales
\n\u2022 Data gathering
\n\u2022 Ad targeting
\n\u2022 All of the above<\/p>\n