The main principle behind marketing is simply getting your message across to more customers. With all the jargon and “mysticism” assorted with Search Engine Optimization today, sometimes we forget about the inner-most core of our objective, which is just simply the fact that exposing more people to your message, preferably people who would be interested in what you have to offer, is something we should try to quantify and maximize.
Why Social Media vs. SEO is a Null Argument
SEO is immensely powerful for targeting exact audiences. If I type in “buy clothes” online, I probably want to buy clothes, right? Being #1 for a term like “buy clothes” is a wide-net example and entirely optimal for clothing stores with an online presence. However, if a fishing rod repair shop ranked #1 for “buy clothes”, it probably wouldn’t receive the same level of prosperity.
Although our main strategy for obtaining new clients is Search Marketing, Social Media is an amazingly effective way of not only improving your SEO authority with Google, but also, as most would assume, engaging people interested in your products you may not have met otherwise. Many social platforms are available to you, varying based on your needs: what is your niche? who is your audience? One example: Twitter is really fantastic, and is something we personally spend a lot of time on, as it’s a brilliant forum of communication, arguably the most “sweeping” in the world, and for those reasons, can be incredibly successful for your business if you catch on to Twitter best practices and it’s unique communication methods. Twitter is pretty much the chatter of the whole internet in one streaming “world” and although tweets are brief, some of the most powerful messages and statements can be created and heard. In fact, Twitter is the #8 most visited site on the web, so naturally, if you’re active on Twitter, have a lot of followers, retweets, or favorited Tweets, Google will see that you are likely more authoritative than a company that has none of these things.
This concept is KEY for present day SEO survival. Period.
It only makes sense, and is the natural way that SEO is going right now, and will absolutely keep going in the future. Pinterest is also fantastic for highlighting your products, especially if you deal in tangible goods, figure out creative ways to photograph your new idea, make it interesting and people WILL repin it, which is good for SEO as well as organic traffic. There are many, many social networks and bookmarking sites and every single one harnesses the duality in online marketing that is the future of SEO success
There is no competitiveness between Search and Social and anybody who has told you otherwise likely had their wagon knocked over and fell off the trail when Penguin came to town. Personally, I find it an adventure when the internet becomes closer to the wild, wild west. If you’re here on the web to stand your ground in SEO rankings, the most honest reality is that your success is more akin to drinking at the saloon, than dueling with shotguns
Fill out your profile thoroughly, and actually care about conversing, sharing opinions, providing good information about what you like. (or about your industry), and injecting value into others conversations. Social media marketing is a long-term investment in more ways than one. Simply put, there’s no better way to learn from or connect with all types of people in the world right now.