In John Jantsch’s book “The Referral Engine” talking about search engine optimization he says:
“It has become extremely difficult to achieve any measure of success for important keyword phrases without the use of social media. (The flip side is that the organizations that take advantage of social media can dominate, particularly within industries slow to adapt.)”
Later he says:
“Any attempt to garner positive search results for your primary Web site hub must be accompanied by a strategy to optimize your entire Web presence through the effective use of social media.”
Yes! That’s precisely right.
So how do you get a social media marketing strategy? You first start with some basic steps:
Step 1: Decide on your social media marketing top goals:
Do you want to encourage people to buy your book on Amazon?
Do you want the ability to offer discounts coupons to raving fans of your restaurant?
Do you want people to hire you to consult with them?
Step 2: Come up with a list of the most relevant keywords – terms that people searching on might use to find you — for your goals:
If, for example, you are a scuba diving instructor, scuba diving is probably too broad a keyword term on which to rank high up in Google’s search engines if you are just starting on social media. Plus, even if you ranked high on this keyword term, you would be pulling in people who want to buy scuba diving equipment or read articles about scuba diving as well as people who want to hire a scuba diving instructor.
Thus working on trying to rank for the keyword term scuba diving instructor is more targeted, more likely to reach the people you want to reach, and probably less competitive a keyword term than scuba diving. (Yes, you could use any number of keyword tools to find out how competitive these two terms are. At the moment I’m simply illustrating a point.)
Step 3: Use your keyword terms in your social media profiles:
For example, if you have a Twitter account, do NOT leave the bio blank. Instead in the 160-character limit you can write something such as:
Scuba diving instructor who teaches individuals and groups at every level.
You’ve used your keyword term here, and you would do the same in your Facebook profile bio and your LinkedIn profile bio. You would also use the keyword term in other places on social media sites, such as the specialties section of your LinkedIn profile bio.
Bottom line? For an effective social media marketing presence you can’t just dive into the water without any expert advice. You need some instruction first so that you can optimize your social media marketing efforts.
(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. Join her company’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/powermarketing
