Why Social Media is the New SEO?

To understand what is popular, relevant, and credible, the search engines are turning to social media. And so too must brands. Social Media can contribute to the overall organic success of websites in several ways. 

Social media marketing and SEO are two tightly interwoven strategies. Both are organic, inbound strategies that focus on building an appealing identity that naturally attracts visitors. Since social media relies on high-quality content and a visible, strong brand presence, the efforts you spend on SEO can doubly improve your social media reach, and as most search marketers will tell you, your social media presence can greatly increase your search rankings.

Unfortunately, when discussing how social media can influence your Google rankings, most search marketers leave out the details. Rather than discussing exactly how and why increased social media attention can improve your SEO, it’s written off as a generality, leaving social media marketers to wonder whether their strategies are actually effective.

To remedy this, I’ve compiled a list of six social media practices that are shown to effectively boost your SEO. For more ways social media benefits online marketing campaigns, see “The Top 10 Benefits of Social Media Marketing.”

1. Growing Your Number of Followers. 

The total number of followers and connections your social media profiles contain does have a significant influence on your rankings. A company with 100 Twitter followers won’t receive nearly the ranking bonus of a mega-corporation with a million Facebook likes and a million Twitter followers. However, there are some stipulations to this; Google can detect the quality of your followers, meaning buying 100,000 proxy Twitter followers isn’t going to do much for your overall rankings. Instead, you’ll need to build your following organically.

Growing your number of followers is a slow process, but effective so long as you’re consistent. Present your brand uniquely and consistently, using the same voice to update your users on a daily basis. Post useful articles, helpful tips, open inquiries, and general discussion items, then follow up with your users by engaging with them in conversation directly. Conversations and direct customer engagements are the key to building and retaining a sizable, interactive following, since they encourage current followers to return and help build your authority for new, potential followers.

2. Encouraging External Inbound Links. 

Social media is also useful because it encourages more external sites to link to your content, and the more diverse external links you have, the more authority you’ll gain in Google’s eyes. Of course, the catch to this is that you have to have high-quality, authoritative content to begin with. Otherwise, you’ll have nothing to use to attract links.

In this case, social media serves simply as a broadcast channel. Your content, assuming it’s original and useful, is going to serve as bait, and your social channels are going to serve as fishing poles, putting the bait in front of the right eyes. Use hashtags to gain visibility for your initial rounds of syndication, and don’t hesitate to bring your content into existing threads and discussions. Doing so will improve your social reputation as an authoritative leader, but more importantly, it will maximize your potential external link sources.

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Want to increase your exposure on Instagram?

If you are using Instagram to promote your business and want to increase your exposure and engagement , don't miss this article!

#1: Embrace the Hashtag

Descriptive hashtags on Instagram will help expose your content to more people. This will lead to more engagement and ultimately grow your followers.

For anyone who doesn’t already know, hashtags are short, descriptive keywords, preceded by the hash sign (#), which enable users to find content they’re looking for with a simple click. Relevant hashtags in posts help create a dialogue between your business and other users.

Hashtags are an excellent way to improve engagement on Instagram posts, since they help interested people find your content.

There are a number of things you can do with hashtags to get the ball rolling on Instagram.

First of all, add hashtags relevant to your industry or niche to every post your business makes on Instagram. Remember, you can use as many hashtags as you want, which will help you attract a wider audience. Note: Research has found even small accounts that use 11 or more hashtags receive an average of 77.6 interactions.

So if you’re an online retailer specializing in women’s clothes, include the hashtag #womensfashion, among others, in your photo description. This will help users find inspiration, as well as help you land more followers, improve brand awareness and increase sales.

When you add relevant hashtags to your posts, you make it easy for users interested in your niche to find them.

Plus, spend some time commenting on relevant photos from other Instagram users with a hashtag you’re targeting. Your brand will be exposed to users who are already interested in that specific hashtag, which will also help increase followers and engagement. There are a few more things you can do to get the most out of hashtags.

First, be as specific as possible when choosing your hashtags. This will help your brand connect with other like-minded users on Instagram. You’ll have a much better chance of converting them, since they’re highly targeted prospects.

Also, be relevant. Make sure you use applicable hashtags on your posts, so people who are interested in what you do are able to find you.

Finally, keep your eyes open. Pay attention to which hashtags other users are including on their photos. You may find a new, popular hashtag that will help you reach more people.

#2: Engage With Your Community

To make the most of your efforts on Instagram, it’s vital to spend time engaging with your community and other users on the platform.

See what photos and hashtags attract the most comments and likes, and jump on the bandwagon. You can also re-post exceptional images from your followers.

Posting your own content isn’t enough. To be successful on Instagram, your business must engage with other users and their content.

Also, determine where people from your target demographic hang out. Find out which accounts they follow and then engage with them. Comment on their photos and like their posts. Remember to add value with your comments and don’t be spammy.

If you’ve done your research and interact with the right people, these users are likely to engage with your brand and follow your account. Your brand will also start to show up on their followers’ radar.

#3: Launch a Contest

The prospect of getting something for nothing has always been alluring in the world of marketing. Use the reach and popularity of your Instagram account to host competitions and attract more followers. An Instagram contest is a great way to drum up excitement and get people talking about your brand.

You can use Instagram contests to engage your current followers and attract new ones. Image: Place it.

Whether you go with a tag, hashtag, like to win, share or other type of promotion, your Instagram contest will certainly be a hit.

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Want to Create Viral Content?

Five ingredients your posts must have to go viral. Check out  these tips to give your content the necessary push to be shared.

I’m sure on top of posting consistently, using social media strategically, and generally providing interesting, useful, and inspiring content on the internet, it would be a little help if that content was seen by as many people as possible. Even better if those people hang around and provide ongoing traffic. Going viral wouldn’t hurt, right?

While it won’t happen to everyone, and it’s almost impossible to force, there’s no doubt going viral can be useful when you can get it. Viral posts usually have similar threads in common, so you’re bound to give your post a little push if you can ensure it contains this combination of essentials:

1. Reach out and touch somebody

The one aspect that always appears in viral content is its ability to invoke an emotion in the reader.

No emotion? No sharing!

In addition to that, the most shared content is said to be content that evokes a strong positiveemotional response. So yeah anger and indignation will get people sharing (outrage is also good!), apparently what works best is the warm and fuzzies. A 2010 study of the New York Times “most emailed” list found the articles that were shared often tended to fall into one of four categories: awe-inspiring, emotional, positive, or surprising.

Recently, two professors studying the motivations of virality came to the conclusion that while content is shared for ultimately many reasons, it’s emotional reactions that tend to drive the most shares. In addition to that, content that makes your heart race is more likely to go viral. Written anything thatpowerful yet?!

In the article, they say “Content that makes readers or viewers feel a positive emotion like awe or wonder is more likely to take off online than content that makes people feel sad or angry, though causing some emotion is far better than inspiring none at all.”

Have a think about how you can get your message across. Is there a personal story you can share? Is there a humanist spin you can put on it? How can you really create your post with “resonating with the reader” in mind?

Viral content is compelling, interesting, funny, moving, and if you’ve really hit the jackpot – the next item on our list!

2. Be useful

Everybody loves a life hack. I’ve been eating apples wrong all this time? Chinese Takeout? Slicing grapes? Mind blown, must share.

When you think about creating content that people can’t help but share, thing about how you can be useful. How you can add value, find their pain points and solve them. Have they got questions? Answer them? Be inspiring, be emotive, heck, maybe even be a little controversial. But useful content is king – you’re starting off on the right foot if you’ve got that down pat.

3. It’s all about the reader

Apparently people will share content when it says something about who they are. It might make them seem intelligent, it might show how much they care for the less fortunate, or it might just show they’ve an excellent sense of humour. They’ll share reflections of their personalities, and you’re going to give them the content to do just that. The article says sharable content is “often a statement about what you believe in, what causes or values you align yourself with, and what, in particular, you love and identify with”, so make sure your content fills one of those needs.

Aaaaaaand I googled the term “extreme selfies” after reading that article. Buzzfeed, you’ve done it again!

4. Get a Head Start

If you want your content out there, being seen by the max amount of eyeballs possible, then begin by putting it there. Don’t just publish and hold your breath. We all know Facebook is making it difficult to be seen in newsfeeds, and evidence is showing Twitter doesn’t drive traffic like it once did – so think outside the box. I’m sure you’ve got an RSS or email post mailout sorted, but you can also upload to Slideshare, LinkedIn, YouTube, have something in your email signatures, forum signatures, you can submit to Digg and Reddit if you can, even StumbleUpon if you think that might help.

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Vacation Time...Turn Off Your Social Media And Cell Phone Addiction

Technology is a filter that removes you from present experiences. We see it all the time at dinner, when friends have to remember to put their phones down and actually talk to each other. We see it on trains and buses, when people miss their stops because they’re absorbed in their devices, or fail to connect to their surroundings because they’ve got their earbuds in. They may as well be somewhere else.

I’m be the first to admit a social media and cell phone addiction. In part, I blame my job. As a blogger and a writer, I tweet articles and blog posts. I Instagram almost daily, making sure my photos have a certain aesthetic and that they’re on brand. It’s all stupid of course, but it’s unfortunately necessary. And I’m grateful for this five-inch rectangle of magic, because it gave me a career. Simple as that.

But when I go on vacation, I hate the stupid thing. I recently came back from a trip to San Francisco with my cousin. In a new city for the first time, our devices were absolutely essential. We needed bus schedules and stop information, we needed a way to contact friends, get Ubers, split the check after dinner, call our families back home. Cell phones make everything effortless. I love them for that.

We created a hashtag before we left so we could post our pictures and show the world what we were doing, and then have a little cyberpage where our photos would be organized. Whenever we saw something beautiful, breathtaking, or new, we took photos of each other posed in front of the thing, and then sent them to each other. I Instagrammed mine, she hers. I spent time choosing filters. She asked me, “What should the caption be?” We let our food grow cold while we got the perfect angle for the #innout hashtag.

And then for the tacos. And the Golden Gate Bridge. Don’t get me wrong: photos are the absolute best way to remember a vacation and I carry along a DSLR wherever I travel. But social media is different.

There’s a feeling that we’re enjoying ourselves for others: that we need the appreciation, acceptance and even jealousy of other people to fully round out our vacation experience. The phrase “pics or it didn’t happen” seems to apply here! So we take photos of stuff—everything we see—and then spend more minutes editing and filtering and ‘gramming the photo than looking at the actual thing in real life.

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