Thus far, many social media marketers, whether working for major companies or representing themselves, have focused on the direct value of social media.
From Twitter followers to Facebook fan pages, Ning communities to Delicious sharing groups, marketers have used quite a narrow focus to target people with direct offers, clear pitches, and sales-based initiatives.
Of course, social media is a wide and varied world, and using platforms for something as specific and single-purpose as direct sales only ever generates mediocre results. Social media marketing is about long-term relationships, remember?
While there have been countless examples of major social media sales success, there are many more potential examples of indirect social media marketing success.
One form of marketing that can benefit hugely from social media, however, is SEO.
From profile links to embedded Twitter linking campaigns, smart marketers are thinking out of the box and applying the crowdsourcing power of social media to their linking projects.
In this post you find four tips that will help you master the best traffic source, social media, and take down your search opponents with the best link generation strategies.
1) Twitter as a link sharing tool
Have you noticed that tweets to frequent Twitter users are showing up in Google’s search results? Now that the micro-blogging giant is being indexed, SEO marketers have an opportunity to use it in their favor.
Social media marketers need to adapt to keyword-based searches and customer needs to see their content succeed on social media platforms and the search engines.
2) Linkbuilding and linkbait
It is hard to sell through social media. While some companies, brands, and entertainers have been able to push their products effectively through social media channels, most direct marketers have failed to reach the level of ROI and income that other advertising channels can bring.
If you want to sell products, then instead of focusing on selling the product, work on building the influence to sell that product later.
A single linkbait article pushed on social media can result in mass link building, huge SEO influence, and a long-term low maintenance linking strategy.
3) Use social media platforms for long tail linking
While many social media marketers run SEO campaigns focusing on their main page and primary keyword, few focus on their long tail page resources.
It is rare to see a single-page website with a positive ranking, and for good reason. Use social media to build links to your smaller pages and content-filled subpages, and watch as your overall search value increases.
4) Build your websites using social media search credibility
Most social media websites are very influential in the search engines. From Facebook’s 9 million inbound links and top page ranking to Twitter’s ever-growing SEO influence, most social media websites are hugely valuable for powerful links and top-ranked search influence.
Rather than focusing on sheer link quantity, take a break from link building and place your website link on major social media profiles. From Google user profiles to Twitter pages, every link placed on your profile is a potential PR boost.
Join me in the Social Marketing Forum