People have been talking about the relevance of social media as a genuine method of marketing and promotion for some time now but until recently the jury was out on whether Google considered social media activity within its algorithms. However “search engine guru” Danny Sullivan’s recent Q&A session with Google and Bing has let the cat out of the bag, once and for all proving that social media is now an integral part of any online marketing campaign.
No doubt it would be fantastic to be able to hire a professional social media marketing agency but not everyone is in that position. So what can be done in the relatively small amount of time most business people have to get started with social media? Here we will look at the foundations that anyone can do themselves to gain a foothold in this important facet of marketing.
- Submit your RSS feed: If you already have a blog on which you are publishing great promotional posts, you really are missing a trick if you have not submitted your RSS feed. Go online and look for a list of RSS Aggregators, these are sites that will allow you to easily submit your feed so that others can find it. Many will not even require you to set up an account to facilitate this.
- Create your twitterfeed account: This will enable you to simply link your RSS feed to your Twitter and Facebook pages. This will save you valuable time by informing your friends and followers every time you update your blog. Setting this up will only take five minutes and will continue to save you time every time you post to your blog.
- Inter link your social media accounts: This is a great idea that any social media marketing agency would recommend. Many social media activities can be set up to interact with each other so that if you post to one it can update the other. A great example would be to post a video to You Tube and then embed it on your blog. Publication on your blog can start up an impressive chain of events; your RSS feed will inform Facebook and Twitter which in turn can update Linked In, pretty soon the domino effect has sent our ripples across your entire social media world.
- Make interesting and useful blog posts: You won’t be able to generate genuine interest and return visits to your blog if the content is banal or irrelevant. Think of the kind of questions your customers might be asking about your business, services or products then you can post great content that keeps them informed. Any social media marketing agency worth its salt would advise you that this is great link bait to attract return visits to your site.
- Follow influential figures: Try and find influential people within your industry and make friends with or follow them. This will encourage them to do this same with you thus raising your social media ranking factor by association. Don’t go crazy following anyone and everyone, remember its quality that counts here not quantity.
If you act on these tips, you will over time get some great results. Remember to be patient, as any good social media marketing agency will tell you results could take 6 to 12 months but with persistence you will gain some incredible benefits.
About the Author: This post was written by James Harper of Boom Online Marketing an Online Marketing Company. James writes on many subjects including social media.