Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marking is essential for any business but for small businesses it is crucial. In fact, neglecting this marketing channel can be detrimental for small businesses.
Just having a Facebook page, Twitter account, and Instagram account for your small business is not enough.
How often you interact and engage with others on social media channels and the quality of those interactions is used to build your trust score.
What is a trust score? A trust score is used by search engines to determine whether or not your business should show up in the search engine results.
Even if you have a well-optimized website with plenty of quality content, if you don’t have an active social media presence, you will have a low trust score and will have a difficult time showing up on the search engine results page (SERP), let alone showing up at the top of the page.
Social media has changed the way people interact with one another and the way businesses interact with people.
When people have a need for whatever your small business supplies, they will think back to their social media interactions and the businesses they have interacted with there. If your small business is not one they interacted with, they will not even know to look for you.
Social Media Marketing is NOT Advertising
Many people think of social media marketing as a way of advertising their business -and in a way, it is- but it doesn’t work the way you might think.
As mentioned above, social media is used to build connections with people and to build their trust in your business and to build your search engine trust score.
How do you do that?
Unfortunately, there is no simple “do exactly this and it will work” formula.
There is a loose formula of what works but the reality is, it requires time. Time spent interacting with others on social media channels.
Don’t just make posts or tweets advertising your business or about your business. Doing this will drive them away from you instead of drawing them toward you.
That’s not to say never post anything about your business but you should use the Pareto principle – engage and interact with others, liking their posts or tweets, commenting on their posts or retweeting their tweets, etc. at least 80% of the time and post about your business no more than 20% of the time.
Post or tweet funny or serious memes, stories or quotes, pictures, and anything else that will make you and/or your business more personable to them with only an occasional post or tweet pertaining to your business.
If you have your about page and/or profile page set up correctly, they’ll be able to find out all they want to know about your small business without you having to push it on them.
In fact, the less you post about your business, the more you interact and engage them on their own posts or tweets, the more they will want to find out more about your small business!
Social Media Marketing is Responsible for a Large Chunk of Your Search Engine Result
How does what you do on social media have anything to do with whether or not your small business website shows up on the search engine results page (SERP)?
Your social media presence and activity is used to create a trust score. Search engines use the trust score to determine whether or not your small business show up in the SERP.
Even if your website is optimized for the top, relevant keywords, if you don’t have an active and engaging social media presence, other similar businesses who do will be shown instead.
Make sure you’re using social media effectively and consistently to gain the best possible trust score.
Confused? More overwhelmed than you were before?
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that social media marketing is only one small piece of the puzzle. It isn’t enough to have a social media presence if you aren’t actively engaging others on a regular and consistent basis.
Even if you are actively engaging others on social media, is your website lacking? Is your branding clear and consistent on all channels from your website to social media to your business cards, etc.?
Is your website less-than appealing or does it lack the functionality potential customers desire?
Let Carmik Design help you with your website creation, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and other marketing channels as part of your cohesive branding and comprehensive marketing plan.
Contact Us today!