Rushal Patel — January 9, 2017 Follow @patelrushal
Is your startup company a powerhouse on social media? Using SEO can raise your brand’s social profile and increase visibility in Google searches.
One of the biggest mistakes that startups make when dealing with social media is that they aren’t very social at all. Social media can be an amazing platform for a startup company if it is able to find its voice. However, many startup companies use social media incorrectly by creating posts that read like sales pitches instead of starting conversations. You can’t wait for others to find you on social media. A startup representative needs to be the initiator of conversations and relationships on digital platforms. An effective post should read like the beginning of a great conversation. Of course, great content needs to be backed up with great SEO strategies. SEO strategy and social media need to be tightly interwoven if you want to get more eyes on your brand and boost engagement. More shares, likes, responses and retweets lead to higher visibility and legitimacy.
Social media actually has two important purposes for startup companies. The first purpose is obviously to increase brand engagement and spread awareness. The second purpose is to increase the search ranking of your startup’s website on Google. Successfully pursuing both of these purposes simultaneously is an elegant process that can work like clockwork when properly done. The way to achieve this is to create a strategy for approaching social media that is deliberate, consistent and executable.
The Beauty Of Content
Pushing out meaningful content is one of the most important things a startup company can do. Publishing content that can be easily found through Google searches provides a way to organically attract visitors who are already interested in topics that pertain to the niche your startup company serves. Content needs to be visible, targeted, crisp, useful and shareable. It can be quite exciting to create and deliver content that resonates with people and creates genuine followers. Of course, it’s necessary to always deliver advice or industry-related insights that are sincere, concrete and relevant to avoid turning off readers. A blog post or status should read like an invitation to engage rather than a sales pitch.
Creating Content People Want
Don’t create content that is nothing more than clutter for the Internet. This will only discredit your startup company and get your website penalized by search engines. What you should be focused on is providing rich content that addresses hot topics and known problems that exist in the niche your startup operates in. Content needs to target its intended audience if it’s going to be seen by the right people. A good way to approach content creation is to format each post to provide an answer for a question that people might be researching on the Internet. Content also needs to be crisp. Readers should be able to scan your content to find what they’re looking for. It helps to have labeled headings, charts, tables and illustrations to break up large blocks of text. Search engines also tend to favor websites that have strong content like videos, graphics and photos. Keywords should be sprinkled throughout every piece of content and image you publish.
The Art Of The Share
One of the biggest measures of whether or not content is effective is if people feel compelled to share it once they’re done reading it. You can measure how effective each post is by using analytics tools to measure how many times something is shared. One great way to give your shared pieces an ever bigger boost is to pay for ads on social media. A few dollars spent on ads could help you to go viral or gain visibility. How can you encourage social sharing? Creating interactive surveys and online competitions can get people to interact with your brand. The goal should always be to engage with others instead of waiting for others to engage with you.
Why SEO Matters More Than You Think?
You could spend hours crafting the perfect blog post or Facebook status without ever reaching a single person. The reality is that content on the Internet essentially disappears within the blink of an eye if it isn’t properly formatted and promoted. Every word you craft should be optimized to appear as high as possible on search engines. Achieving this comes down to using tools from programs like Google or hiring a marketing firm to do the grunt work.
Seek Quality Followers
You should definitely go for quality over quantity when it comes to followers on social media. Of course, the goal is to get as many relevant followers as possible. The number of followers you have on social media platforms actually influences your SEO ranking and overall visibility. Getting people to organically share your posts and content all goes back to creating content that is meaningful. Having a handful of highly engaged followers is definitely important if you want to become a known brand in the niche you operate in. You can earn loyalty from followers by posting things that are useful and helpful. Posing questions and sharing comments that lead into larger discussions can also help to spread your name around social media. Of course, simply having people engage with your brand on social media isn’t the endgame. What you actually should be trying to do is draw your followers off of social media and into your company’s website. This can be achieved using links to your internal blog.
Closing The Deal With Help From Social Media
A social media platform is an important stepping stone that can lead people to your website. They will then be in a position to engage directly with your brand, discover what you have to offer and close a deal. A startup leader should essentially view social media as a taxi that carries customers from a public space directly to your startup’s front door. The only question that remains is whether or not your door will be open when they get there.
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