LRT Graphics Marketing Director, Danie Schwartz
Why Social Media is important for your business (and SEO)?
10 years ago, if you would have told me that Myspace,
Friendster, or LiveJournal was relevant for your business I would have
laughed. Correctly so. Those
organizations have no real role in the social media world anymore. However,
websites like Myspace, Friendster and LiveJournal helped pave the path for
major social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Facebook
has helped revolutionize the way that businesses show (and grow), the way that
marketers target and market, and most importantly the way that your website
ranks in organic search engine results.
Before I start talking about the importance of Social Media,
does everyone know what SEO is? If you don’t, it’s technical jargon for search
engine optimization. It is the process of affecting the organic visibility of a
website in natural search engine results. In other words SEO is imperative to
any business’s online success rate. It used to be that you if you know the
right set of tricks to help optimize your website, your website would increase
in visibility – even if you participated in black hat (unethical) SEO practices. In 2013, that is becoming
less true each and every day. No longer can you stuff the right keywords,
highlight the right titles, and post back links on less than relevant websites
just to enhance your place in Google or Bing’s search results. While some of
these SEO tricks might help, it isn’t the end all or be all of mastering SEO.
Don’t get me wrong, SEO is an imperative part of any
business’ strategic campaign; however, there are other factors, such as Social
Media, that are important for your business and SEO. Once again, if you would
have told me 10 years ago that Social Media is important, I would have laughed.
How can posting pictures of you and your friends making a fool of themselves be
helpful? In that aspect, it might not be. In terms of business – having an
active social media campaign might make or break your organic rankings on
Google.
Let’s take a step back for a minute though. Aside from SEO,
why is Social Media important for your business? To put it simply: it gives you
an opportunity to intimately connect with your clients. You have an opportunity
to brand your company (brand recognition), interact with your clients (become
part of a conversation), increase business visibility, and target specific
audiences based on interests and demographics. These are all invaluable tools.
Social media gives you a direct connection to everyday people and customers
that you may not have had to begin with. The real asset for the importance of social media for your business is this: linking to your social media pages on
your website will help generate traffic as well as increase your SEO ranking
and it also increases the value of your website and social media.
These days Google is much more likely to reveal a social
networking site. Creating and actively using your social media profiles with
rich keywords and relevant content can help generate traffic to both your
social media and your company’s website. If brand recognition and immediate connection
to your clients isn’t enough to get you on Social Media, then SEO should be.
Don’t be left behind when your competition starts beating you out in sales and
search engine results. If you’re creating a social media account and expecting
immediate sales, you are fooling yourself. Social media is an imperative tool,
but don’t create an account expecting to see immediate sales because social
media alone will not convert sales. It’s
the combination of on-page interaction, optimization, and it’s relationship with
SEO that will help convert those fans into sales.
Social networking sites like Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and Pinterest all depend on your engagement to help rank the relevancy of the site.
Websites that are being built integrate plug-ins to help ensure with these
rankings. Similarly, an interaction like the (+1) of Google features allows for
real users to give feedback on the relevancy of sites. Therefore the more
(+1’s) your website receives the more likely it might be to increase in search
engine results. Don’t believe me? Check out this experiment
as one website goes from 16th in ranking to 6th ranking,
all because of a social media tool like Google +.
The number one obstacle a business has is making its
business visible. Aside from ensuring that our clients have the right logo
design, branding, store-front sign, vehicle graphics, and custom offset printing
materials, it is our job to remind our clients the importance of SEO AND Social
Media. If your business does not have a social media account (different
accounts for different needs), you are going to miss business. There are no ifs,
ands, or buts in regards to this. It’s simple; you will miss out on business if
you don’t have social media.
LRT Graphics is in
the graphic solutions business. We specialize in everything from logo design,
company branding, vehicle graphics, signs & banners, offset printing,
custom apparel, and promotional items to marketing and web design. It is our job to make any business grow
profitably by showing visibly. Get a professional look with the help of the
professionals.
If you have any comments or questions please feel free to
give me a call at LRT Graphics (530) 879-9261 or e-mail
me.
We forgot to mention but we also offer our services in SEO and SMO!
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