The Rise of Social Media and SEO and Why Do They Matter?

    J Bruce

    Content optimization has never been more critical to digital success, with more businesses reopening following the pandemic’s hardships and pains. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are an essential stop along the way to boosting social presence, and in the end, it’s all about the content.

    Businesses should work on content optimization to compete online successfully. As brands, we need to make sure that our content is crafted to appeal to our target or ideal demographics. But, of course, to engage them, the content must first reach its targets. If your audience doesn’t see your content, they won’t appreciate your hard work and share it with their network.

    This is where social media marketing and SEO come into play. We can construct a clear path for our target clients to find us by optimizing our material with the correct keywords, tags, titles, links, and images.

    Consider content optimization as a unique road system with well-marked paths, detours, and exits.

    Our “hand-raisers,” or the customers who are always actively searching for content related to the products and services they want or need, benefit from effectively distributed and optimized information.

    Steps to SEO Success

    1. Use Data To Guide Your Strategy

    Gather as much data about your website’s traffic. Keep an eye out for patterns. For example, what are the most popular times for users to visit your website? Are your call-to-actions (CTAs) being clicked? What can you do to make your web copy more engaging? Creating user behavior analytics is a terrific method to see what’s working on your site right now – and what isn’t.

    2. Research Keywords

    Keyword research is usually the first item that comes to mind when we consider SEO. The core of SEO is keywords. You’ll be in good shape if you learn how to engage in keyword research. To find the most relevant terms relating to your demographic, you need to use a reliable keyword tool backed by positive user reviews (a lot of them, if possible). I suggest establishing your custom keyword lists that you or your copywriters can use when writing content to promote your business.

    3. Always Produce High-Value Content

    The purpose of content isn’t only to fill space. Your content must be rich in value. Content has to be helpful, foremost. If your content 

    Meaningful content is what keeps people engaged and can help you capture the “hand-raisers” mentioned earlier. If you can establish a good reputation for writing unique and high-quality material, you’ll be well on your way to gaining devoted readers (and customers).

    Everything from the keywords in your text to the length of your content or page should be optimized, too.

    4. Obtain High-Quality Backlinks

    Links can significantly impact on your search engine rankings and SEO. Include links to high-authority, respected websites, and publications. All the better if you can obtain other high-quality sites to link to your site. Strong backlinks can assist you not only gain credibility but also climb the search engine rankings faster than you expected.

    Steps to Social Media Marketing Success

    1. Conduct Research and Learn As Much As You Can About Your Target Audience

    If you want to succeed with social media marketing, you need to connect and engage with your audience. However, it would help if you first recognized how your target market thinks, inside and out.  You must be able to pinpoint their wants, desires, and needs. There are several methods to attain this:

    ·         How can you have a deeper understanding of your target market?

    ·         Conduct surveys to understand your audience’s problems more clearly.

    ·         Take a close look at your audience’s demographics.

    ·         Participate in discussions on forums where your target audience is present.

    ·         Reply to questions on your blog and sites with similar target audiences.

    ·         On your social media channels, respond to any comments and questions.

    2. Boost Your Social Media Approach by Holding Contests

    A most appealing strategy you can employ on any social media channel is holding exciting contests. These contests will help you gain more internet visibility, followers, and engagement.

    You may utilize a variety of social contest tools to create a fantastic giveaway or sweepstakes. Offering something of exceptional value is the key to running a successful contest. Think of prizes and rewards that your readers will find enticing.

    How to run a social media contest:

    ·         Determine your objectives first. What’s the main goal of holding the contest?

    ·         Determine which social media outlet will be the best for holding the contest. Next, set a timeframe for when the contest will end, so winners know when they might be notified.

    ·         Run the contest! But before you do, make sure that the type of contest is 100% appropriate for your target audience so they will be interested in joining.

    ·         Find ways to maximize your contest’s promotion.

    ·         Aim to make your audience perform part of the ‘heavy lifting’ to generate buzz about the contest. For example, you can fix the mechanics so the current contestants can earn more entries or earn a minor advantage by performing specific tasks to increase interest in the competition.

    Additional steps like pinning the contest on Pinterest or sharing on Facebook/Instagram are super helpful. You can also provide your audience a unique, trackable URL that they can share to get more entries. Your competition will almost run itself!

    3. Carefully Craft Your Social Media Materials

    Every piece of content should be well-thought-out. If you’re posting on your social media channels for the sake of posting, you’re doing it wrong.

    You’ll need to understand the various functional trends of each social network depending on where you’re posting. Consider the following:

    ·         LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a professional networking site that caters to B2B audiences. Consider exploring LinkedIn Pulse, as the platform provides it for content distribution and production.

    ·         Facebook – Nearly everyone has a profile on Facebook. The platform is ideal for news/entertainment-related content. While Facebook Pages aren’t always successful, consider using Facebook Groups as they are particularly successful in communicating with different demographics.

    ·         Instagram – This platform is ideal for heavily visual content. While static graphics and brief videos perform great, they aren’t as effective at driving people back to your blog.

    ·         Pinterest – Pinterest, like Instagram, is a visual platform. Even though Pinterest is confined to static images, it may be a powerful tool for directing traffic back to your site.