Social media is all the rage these days, with the debate on-going whether even CEOs should or should not use social media sites.
One thing is certain though: a presence within social media is a must for companies.
Using this presence to improve your SEO and boost your SERPs is another matter. Merely being an active Digg and Twitter user will not give you a first page placement on Google – but it can help.
Links are the main currency on the Web, and if you really want to see results on Google, Yahoo and Bing, you’ll need to build links to your site.
So how do you do that using social media? You engage.
Believe it or not, the real strength with social media is the ability of a company to create an easily approachable identity. *Gasp! This means listening to what’s being said about your company and your industry – and even participating in the conversation.
Share your knowledge and understanding of your industry with your online community – whether it’s Twitter, Sphinn or Facebook (or all 3!) Providing quality information will lead to more conversations about your company, and more links leading to your site/blog.
Try sharing content that isn’t yours. Link love can be a reciprocal thing online. I personally don’t believe in swapping links or link buying, but that’s another discussion. Linking to a great blog article on another site will at least get the author’s attention and probably a visit to your site. I think that genuine links are of most value…when the reader believes there is significance to what you’re saying.
Accessibility is often the topic of debate in our office. Understand who your audience is. We could write about advanced HTML programming theory and the role its structure can play in SEO, but that would likely turn away many readers.
Unless you’re writing for industry insiders, remember that jargon is not your friend. Readers like learning (that’s why they’re reading), but they don’t like feeling in over their heads.
Have you heard of Squidoo? It’s a publishing platform and will let you create “lenses” about a particular topic. You’ll be able to share your knowledge and expertise and…. Yup – link to your homepage.
There are plenty of (good) ways to use social media to improve your link building, and consequently improve your SEO. What’s important is that you are doing it. You may just be a small to medium-sized business owner, but you need a voice in the conversation that is already going on.
By: Zack S.
Tags: link building, SEO, SERPs, Social media
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