Ask yourself, how much time do you spend on social media every day? When you think about your answer, start thinking about the role of social media and how it has affected our behaviour on the internet. There’s definitely a change in way people search for information on the web.
Google is no longer the king of it all because it does not have the capacity to index every single page on the web. As social media users, we have found a new avenue to search for things and that would be the alternative search boxes we see on social media channels. The popular search box is no longer limited to Google. People are more likely to type a question directly onto the search box linked to any social media app that they are using in the moment versus deliberately going their way out to click and open a new tab of a search engine landing page.
This is mostly true when searching for information such as magazines we follow or maps of restaurant locations or official brand pages. People are interested in real live and timely content, so they’ll resort to social media channels and expect updated content versus say visiting an official business site or blog. Regardless of what industry you are in, people are using social media as another point of validation for companies in terms of success, popularity and engagement. It’s a form of trust and expectation we have learned to adapt to since social media came into our lives.
You want to be findable on search engines but it’s time to go beyond that and think about how you want to be found on social media because that is the platforms where a lot of people hang out and spend time on the web. Here are 5 things you can do today to make yourself more discoverable on social media:
- Do your homework and get to know your main keywords
If you want to shoot an arrow blindfolded, the least you could do is study the technique to do it before you aim. There are so many available tools online (ask us!) that are easily accessible and free to use. It’s not rocket science and you don’t need to be a tech whiz to find out your primary keywords. Start off by identifying at least 10 keywords that you think is relevant to your business and that you know will resonate with what people are looking for. Be sure to take advantage of these keywords and use them as weapons to optimize your posts.
- Be mindful when using hashtags in your posts
The much debated question we all ponder about, are hashtags relevant? Yes and no, yes if you have done your keyword research and know the main words that determines what your business about and how it relates to what people search for. No, if you’re regurgitating words that you assume would matter to them, almost like spamming. Don’t overdo it and flood your posts with hashtags, they are made for digital algorithms to make sense of, not humans. So in the human eye, it will only look like a big mess of gibberish letters. You can either placed the hashtags at the bottom of your post (for Facebook) or create a comment under your post (for Instagram) and place your hashtags there. So think before you post, what does your business offer and how would people find you?
- Always research, observe trends and find out what people are talking about
Read reviews and comments, these are valuable materials that will help with your content direction. Take it as an advantage, shift your mind to see social media as an ongoing experiment for your business. People are already active on social media and they are constantly giving out free information to what they are all about, from what are they thinking to feeling to what they like and do not like. It’s the best way to survey your customers and find out how you can create products, services or content that are relevant to strategize how you can grab their attention and trigger their emotions. Besides, haven’t you heard that social sharing is the new link building?
- Get your social media settings right
Most business owners know that social media is important and they create accounts without knowing how to set it up properly. It’s redundant to have a social media account that has nothing to do with your brand name. For example, if you have a facebook account for your business, what is the link that lead users to your Facebook page? Does it spell out your brand name or is it just a bunch of letters and numbers merged together? If you can’t understand the links, the search engines would properly be on the same page as you. Get smart with social media features by reading more about their constant updates or by speaking to your marketing guru or IT expert. Unfortunately social media is not a magic carpet that will take off on it’s own will and create magic. It’s up to you to create the right foundation and set a direction to make sure the algorithms will be able to digest what your social media page is all about and reach an audience who are relevant to your cause.
Social media is challenging the role of SEO, the focus has shifted beyond page rankings and we now need to consider about relevance. While SEO is still valuable to make sure search engines can digest your site, you can achieve greater results by getting the technicalities right and merging these tactics with content marketing. Having a human friendly approach to SEO will result to a more sustainable outcome in the long run for your online presence and by combining the mega forces of content marketing, social media and SEO, you’ll be able to improve your organic growth.
Questions? Thoughts? Ideas? We would LOVE to hear from you! Please leave your comments below or get in touch at: training dot wavemakers at gmail dot com.
