Social media for SEO not ego

Social media continues to thrive as valuable communication tool for business.

Love it, like it or support it, social media is here to stay. Especially with the uprising of its use in 2020, due to Covid, businesses have taken to social media like never before. With so many platforms available for so many different messages, it’s an integral way to share your stories with the wider business world.

However, likes don’t mean business. How many times your post is ‘liked’ does not determine the value of the work you’re doing. It takes time to build an audience who are truly interested in what your business does and who wants to buy your services or products. Gaining likes alone will not increase the value of your business.

That said, used effectively, social media can be very positive for business. Marketing Week states:

“In 2021, marketers will continue to use social media to meet two equally urgent imperatives: 1. Deliver short-term ROI with targeted performance marketing tactics. 2. Building innovative digital experiences to win long-term loyalty.”

So, targeting the right audience and then building it are the first steps towards increasing your brand profile on social media – to achieve a return on investment and gain customer loyalty. More than that, social media should be about supporting your SEO strategy rather than simply gathering a bunch of thumbs up.

Mike Raybone, Owner of AIM Internet, is an entrepreneur who specialises in digital marketing. Mike is ranked by Kred in the top 5% of Social Media Influencers. He says:

“You should never use social media to “sell” . Too many people use it simply to broadcast’ messages. It is best utilised when you show interest in and engage with your desired audience.”

So, social media is one way of increasing your SEO. Used to increase search engine optimisation – rather than stroke your ego – targeted social media (which will support your business growth) is a must. In fact, social media should be an integral part of your SEO strategy.

Mike continues:

“Done properly social media is a great way of generating natural backlinks and Social Media signals are used by search engines as a means of measuring the “quality” of the content being produced and therefore impact on SERPs [Search Engine Results Pages]. Given the growth of “zero clicks” and structured data, good social media profiles are increasingly important in ‘brand strategy’.”

With this in mind, planning social media into your marketing strategy is a must. Curating engaging copy to go alongside a relevant, original image is also as important. Which platform and how often are also serious considerations. Trying to disrupt the TikTok marketplace is going to take some work unless you’re in the arena – although some marketers say it’s where you should be: disrupting the space where you’re least likely to be expected. More about which platform is right for you, can be found here.

To increase the profile of your brand, use social media to drive hits and monitor them. Adapt. Be creative. Write original copy. Use your own images. Be nimble, always prepared to amend your strategy – especially when Google amends its.

Read all about it in BusinessWorks magazine.