How to Use Your Social Media Account to Benefit Your Business
April 25, 2018
Looking to improve your Google ranking, gain a better following by potential customers, or create a brand which is recognized more openly? Your social media accounts could be the key. Social media has dominated the internet for a few decades now, but within the last 5-years it’s really come into its own in terms of marketing and advertising. Even though many social media platforms are cracking down on advertising guidelines, it’s still helping to boost many website rankings to the top.
While Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other accounts aren’t the only step to a successful marketing campaign, or the only way to inch your way to the top of Google’s results page, they can certainly be helpful in getting there. Here are some ways your social media account can work for you and your website.
Get Set Up On Social Media
The first step to using social media to boost your online ranking is by setting up one or multiple accounts with relevant information which links back to your official website. When you use Google to search for a company, social media accounts, particularly Facebook and Twitter, are often first to appear on page one. Since your business has access to its social media accounts, this helps you control the information being shared in that first page when searchers see your brand name appear.
Twitter is a good place to start if you’re new to social media. Not only does it appear via Google searches in a carousel of tweets, but it also limits the amount of information being shared at one time, making it simple to manage your own account rather than looking for third party copywriters to provide lengthy updates each week.
Keep Content Catchy but Relevant
Information seen in the snippet that appears before a searcher clicks on it makes an impact. You want that information to be eye grabbing, catchy, but also relevant. It’s important that the content you share, even from social media, reflects the ideals of your business and projects the integrity which Google looks for when ranking websites. For example, if you run a shoe company, tweeting out, “Massive sale tomorrow, 50% off everything, come on by!” is eye catching and true. The next day, you could tweet a photo of the store with the caption, “Spring blowout in full swing, check out our sneaker display.” Posting sales, contests, and photos is a great way to get people interested. Then you need to work to keep every post just as interesting so that shoppers want to continue reading back through past tweets and ultimately subscribe to your channel. This will ultimately bring more people to your website through links or growing interest.
Grow Your Numbers
The number of followers you have on a social media platform won’t necessarily make it rank higher, but the amount of interaction you have from online users does. The more followers you have, the more likely it is that they will be commenting, liking, sharing, and linking to your posts. You can gain popularity by posting often, using contests and coupons to make your account more relevant to those who view it, and by interacting back with users when they comment or leave a review.
There’s nothing more exciting that meeting a celebrity in person, and while your business isn’t exactly a celebrity, it’s still exciting for a customer to feel that they’re being heard by their favorite brand. For example, if a shopper leaves a comment like, “Love your store, was there today and bought two new scarves! – Sandy P.” You could reply with something as simple as, “So glad you got a chance to drop by, Sandy, pop in again next week for our accessories sale!” This shows the customer that they were important enough to be heard, acknowledged, and responded to.
Interaction of All Kinds is Important
It isn’t just replying to customer comments left on your posts which will get your social media account some action. Using social media to interact with other brands, businesses, and users will help grow your numbers as well. This is especially true for Twitter users because each tweet to each new account or user is displayed in the main feed of your account. This allows other users to see that a conversation is going on and jump in to take part or read what’s happening.
This is another reason why keeping things interesting is important. If the conversations are boring, full of jargon, or all business related, consumers aren’t going to bother. Fun, joking conversations will pull in new interest and make things fun for readers.
Research and Use What’s Popular
Want your business profile to get some attention? Let emojis, hashtags, and trending memes do the work for you. While these tools are especially popular among the younger users, internet surfers of all ages are beginning to use hashtags, GIFs and emojis to get their points across. Emojis are also a great way to send a message without using too much text. Emojis are even making their way into offline advertising, being featured on the sides of billboards and signs.
Social media isn’t governed to the same degree as your website for ranking purposes, but it’s still a stepping stone on the path to your company’s success online. Take advantage of all the tools that these free social media accounts have to offer, including video streaming and photo sharing.