Social Media is important … by now, I trust everyone who has a business website knows this statement to be true. The problem for many is deciding on what options to choose (there are many), and how to set-up and manage the accounts. As for options, following I have listed my suggestions based upon their popularity (social engagement potential) and influence in online ranking. As for management, I have written previous articles on how to set up a Facebook account for business and how to set up a Google+ account for business. The other set up options will be discussed briefly as needed.
As a web designer of over 10 years I have seen the importance of social media steadily increase to the point where it is almost as important as the website itself. I’ve noted how the recent Google Panda update now ranks Facebook shares as the #1 criteria for SEO. This tells me to take social media seriously, and to have an intelligent plan in place to manage it. Yet let’s be clear, having social media for your business is only effective if it is employed and maintained properly; moreover, you need to ensure that you are cross-marketing, meaning that all of your online properties are linking to each-other, and where possible there is a common look/feel across media by utilizing visual branding in logo, colors, layout and typography.
Facebook is the leader of the social media options do to its popularity (over 845 million monthly active users in 2012). If you have yet to get a Facebook page then you simply go to the Facebook and select your business or organization type. After this the inclusion of content is much like one would add to a blog. The important thing is to include a quality version of your logo or representative image for the thumbnail at the header, and to create a quality cover image that is representative of your business. For my social media clients I create a cover image will match the look/feel of their website since I believe that consistent branding across media is important.
What Twitter offers is the opportunity to create quick messages and link to important content and upcoming events (140 characters or less). While businesses will use Twitter differently, it can be a very effective platform for social engagement when the “tweets” are dynamically added to your websites and blogs; in this regard if you are one who blogs often it is possible to have blog posts content automatically added as “tweets” on Twitter, and as “posts” on Facebook. This will save you a lot of time updating! Setting up a Twitter account is very easy so just go to the site and follow the online instructions, yet once your account is created be sure to upload your company logo or representative image, …. and be sure to take some time to “follow” other people and businesses in related industries since by “following” others they are likely to follow you. Twitter follows is another important SEO consideration since “tweeted” content, like all shared content, will improve your SEO ranking.
Blogs
Blogs are not typically seen as social media, yet they provide the same features and benefits since they offer timely, changeable content, and allow for comments and other forms of visitor engagement. As for blog platforms, well, there are many yet of these only two are commonly used; these are WordPress and Blogger. Both are free to use, both have a free hosted option, and both allow the creation of posts and pages. Why use a blog? A blog allows you to talk about your industry in detail, to link to and include related industry content, and otherwise include content that is a resource to your clients and visitors. Blogs are one of the primary SEO considerations for high ranking which every business should utilize. Blogger, a Google product, is the simpler to use for most people, and works fine if you are looking for a simple blog. As for customization Blogger does have a variety of add-on options (known as “gadgets”) and they provide a fair number of templates with different content block options, with editable styling of page colors and typography and colors for fonts (text). That being said Blogger does have some limitations since it is “hosted”. For one, your page and content therein is officially owned by Google and can be removed at anytime. Theme customization is relatively limited, and you are not able to access the source code.
WordPress is relatively easy to use, and is the preferred option for most web designers. WordPress has a free hosted option, yet most designers will choose the stand-alone option (uploading the blog files to the client’s server and installing a mySQL database). With the latter option WordPress is completely customizable since all the source code is available. Furthermore, WordPress has a great number of templates (themes) available, and a large development community creating plug-ins (widgets) for just about every conceivable need.
In short, Blogger is best if you are looking to get a blog up very quickly and your need is just to create simple blog posts, and WordPress is best if you need a full functioning blog that will have the look/feel of a professional website.
I have written many blog posts on WordPress, yet none yet on Blogger.
This social networking site is designed as a professional network site. As such it is a popular option of corporations and other businesses. The layout is basically one’s online resume, yet extended to encourage networking by “adding people to your network”, professional reviews, and the hundreds of professional discussion groups. There is a free and commercial version (I have found the free option to provide everything I need). To create an account just go to www.linkedin.com and follow the online prompts. Each time you visit they will ask you to fill out additional details until your page is 100% complete. As noted initially, LinkedIn is a very popular social media option and has the potential to help you not only expand your own circle of contacts, yet find qualified employees when you need to fill a position.
Google+
Google+ is an important social media platform if for no other reason that it is a Google product so integrated into their many other quality applications, not to mention search engine results. It is true that Google+ is still relatively new so not as popular as Facebook yet, but considering the stock fiasco at Facebook, and Google’s excellent track record for innovation and ongoing updates, my bet is that Google+ will be the new de facto social media leader is coming years. Beyond the forecasting, Google+ is already integrated into many websites by way of their “Google +1” button (see my blog page sidebar for an example). In addition, Google Plus Local (formerly “Google Places”) is the very popular and highly indexed business location/review site that is now integrated into Google+. Needless to say, Google+ needs to be taken seriously and utilized sooner than later. If you would like to learn more about using Google+ effectively I encourage you to view the following blog posts:
YouTube
YouTube is an extremely popular site where users share videos of all types. Not only that, many videos can be embedded in web sites and blog posts and on other sites such as Facebook. YouTube videos can be created in a variety of formats which allows for a business or freelancer to share information about their business and expertise in a media that works for them. YouTube can be an invaluable tool, especially considering that many people are more likely to watch a video presentation than read text copy on a web page or blog. It is important to note that effective social media practices is all about “engagement”. Wherever possible make your website, blog, Facebook and Google+ pages fun and interesting. Of course adding informative videos is a great option since resource web sites will do much better in the search engine rankings than those that don’t provide such content. To add a video to YouTube you simply need to go to their site and create an account. You can learn more about working within the YouTube system at https://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=57924
Okay, so the above list is the “must have” recommendations I provide to all my clients. As I’ve touched upon previously, the purpose of social media is about engagement. By providing timely content and resources and “behind the scenes” information you encourage interest in your company, products, or services; with interest will come the sharing of your content, which in turns encourages new and repeat traffic which helps improve your business’ or organizations online ranking.
There are other options of course, many which are very popular, especially in some industries.
Quora–Do is a popular question and answer site, which can serve as an effective medium for you to answer industry related questions. Merchant Circle offers something similar, as well as Yahoo answers, Ask.com, and others. Industry related Forums and Blogs are also very effective options since such places provide a platform for you to be “helpful” to others and be seen as an authority, and in most cases you can include a link back to your website. You might also want to consider StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and Pinterest since each of these are popular with a devoted following.
To conclude this post I have included some additional links in case you would like to learn more about the many social media options, and additional information about the benefits of social media.
As always, if you need assistance with your Social Media presence please contact me: https://www.ecurtisdesigns.com
