The Risk of Social Media Mania
Doing Something vs Doing Something Correctly
I have been spending two hours a day for the last four months on Facebook and I have not made a single penny from it.
Unfortunately, I have heard this to many times before: struggling small business owners wasting countless hours on a marketing channel that yields no revenue while draining valuable time, energy, and morale. In the end, they give up because “it did not work.”
The reality is, doing something and doing something correctly are altogether two different things.
Think about this: a brand new BMW “will not work” if you don’t fill it with gas.
When people first get a new smart phone or computer, how many times do they say “it’s not working,” only to realize they just had not yet fully learned it’s capabilities.
The same applies to marketing channels and tactics. Most of the time when you do them properly and figure out the right mix, they will work for your business. That includes Social Media.
Do the following things gradually, organically and with a good message and you can win over your followers and build profitable relationships with them.
Start With Your Website
Provide customers who visit your site interesting articles or study results and inviting them to share their thoughts and feelings. Then listen to what your customers are saying.
Don’t Do It Because It’s Cool
Don’t waste time and money keeping with the Jones. Instead provide customers with authenticity and honesty. Educate yourself and develop your own strategy, or seek help from someone who can help you.
Remember the Law of Attraction
Social Media is about invitations, not solicitations. If all you do is ask for things, you will be ignored. Build a reputation as someone who is helpful and it will come back to you.
Brands Are Built Organically
You are your brand. Realize that to achieve great brand recognition it is important you consistently post great content every time. Building a great brand takes time.
Search-Friendly URL’s
Make your URLs more search-engine-friendly by naming them with clear keywords.
Use Image Descriptions for Better Search Ranking
Every image you place on your web site could help drive traffic and visitors to your site. Spiders can only search text, not text in your images — which is why you need to make the words associated with your images as descriptive as possible.
Start with your image names: adding an “ALT” tag allows you to include a keyword-rich description for every image on your site.
The visible text around your images is valuable for SEO: Adding captions to all your pictures and being descriptive with the text in immediate physical proximity to your images.
Keep Content Fresh to Boost SEO
Having fresh content on your site matters — updating regularly and often is crucial for increasing traffic.
“The best sites for users, and consequently for search engines, are full of updated, useful information about a given service, product, topic or discipline.”
One way to ensure that your site gets new content on a frequent basis is to integrate a blog. “Get the owner or CEO blogging. It’s priceless!” An executive blog is an excellent way to reach out to your clients, create more opportunities for internal and external linking, while giving your site a more personal voice.
Use Social Media to Increase Rankings
Social Media can also increase your rankings on the major search engines. This is done by how often you post, tweet, get likes, etc. Anytime you post something to these sites always make sure you leave a backlink to your site. The more backlinks you have the better.
Whether displayed on your company’s account, or recommended, re-tweeted, and re-distributed by someone else, this strategy exponentially multiplies the number of places where visitors will view your links.
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