Social media is becoming one of the best tools for broadcasting your content! Watch this Daily Brown Bag to learn about the importance of utilizing social media for your content and some compelling statistics on utilizing social media for business and marketing. You'll also learn why social media is very good for your content (4 suggestions on how social media helps your content) and where social media and content fit into the big picture with SEO in 2015.
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TRANSCRIPTION:
Hello, and welcome to the Daily Brown Bag. Today we’re going to be talking about social media and your content. I’m Chad Hill, and I’m joined by Adam Stetzer.
Hey, good morning, Chad. Welcome to the Brown Bag. This is a cool topic. We’re talking about social media, and, as always, we know our SEO resellers are primarily interested in rankings. They went out shopping for a white label SEO program because they wanted to sell a high quality search engine optimization product. That’s primarily what their customers are asking, so you might be scratching your head a little bit. “Why are you guys talking about social media?”
Google (Penguin and Panda) Transformed SEO:
Well, the reality is the rules of the game when it comes to SEO have changed dramatically -- particularly with the updates from 2013 from Google (Penguin and Panda). So, when you’re looking at white label SEO programs, you have to realize that digital marketing and success in the search engine requires a more integrated strategy. That’s one of the reasons we’re talking about social media today, Chad.
The Value of Social Media & an Integrated Approach
Many small businesses know they should be doing social media, but they really just don’t want to add another line item to their already tight budgets and busy schedules. And this is one of the reasons they’re talking to their agency about SEO, because they believe they can set it and forget it and get leads from search engines. And, indeed, they might be able to if the agency they’re working with also including social media and making sure they have an integrated approach. Still, I think many just struggle, Chad, and I think -- for our SEO resellers -- it’s a struggle to explain the value because the small business client is thinking about seo rankings and not understanding how social fits into that equation.
Relationship Between Content & Social Media in 2015:
So I want to lay out very clearly how these things are connected. SEO, in 2015, is about quality content and about getting that content shared and noticed, and, ultimately, earning links back to your website. Social media is becoming more and more the place people go for content and becoming the way to find content and becoming your strategy to drive that content. There are a lot of folks out there who still see these as very, very separate. I know that’s not the view that we take with our SEO resellers, which would be seeing SEO and social media as an integrated portion of digital marketing. For those naysayers, here are a few statistics that might win them over, Chad (and then I might ask you to talk about some actual implementation guidelines).
Some Compelling Statistics -- Social media, leads & business:
- 46% of people online use social media to help with a purchasing decision. That’s nearly half, so social media is definitely becoming a very strong assist for purchase decision.
- There are about 25 million active business pages on Facebook.
- Eighty percent of small businesses are using social media in some fashion in their marketing already, and 94% say they use social media specifically to improve their marketing.
- Three out of five small businesses when surveyed say they have acquired a new customer through social media, so it can produce direct leads for customers.
- About half of small businesses are using social media for their own learning -- particularly to access and network with peers in other industry networks, so there’s actually a second awesome benefit for the small business owner to get engaged in social media.
These are some of the reasons I think people should be a believer, but, you know, then so what should they do with this information, Chad?
Adam, we have four suggestions (and really, these are suggestions -- but also describe how social media is good for your content, how it can help it in a very practical way).
Why Social Media is Good for Your Content:
1. It gives you a megaphone or a channel.
The first one is that it gives a microphone or channel for your content. I think this one is really important, especially when you’re thinking about white label SEO and SEO in general. Social media is a great way, if you are investing in content on your website, to get the word out to your audience, who then has a chance of sharing it beyond your audience. And the goal is that you will -- occasionally, not always -- actually earn links back just completely organically by people seeing your content and actually saying, “This is great. I want to link to it.”
You also get that audience reach. So, if there are prospects, as you said, Adam, those people that you reach on social media turn into customers. You are sharing information that you’re creating, and that can actually lead to customers. Or lead to people who may want to talk more about your content and share it further. That’s the first thing, and that’s what most people think of when they think of social media.
2. Collaboration.
The second one, which you also mentioned, is collaboration. It does let you network with people, and you know we’re all tied to our computers every day -- and busy doing our work. Social media is a great way to be able to connect with people in your industry, which allows you to -- again -- open up some relationships, whether those are directly for business or whether it opens up opportunities for cross-sharing ideas or maybe sharing information that you’re posting on your website with someone else.
3. Inspiration.
A third one is inspiration. If you’re looking at your website, thinking about, “What’s something I can write a blog post about? I know I need a blog. I know that SEO is important.” Again, whether your agency is doing this in a white-labeled fashion or whether it’s something that you’re doing yourself, a lot of times social media is a great way to take something that’s happening in social media, get some inspiration from it, and then find a way to add to it. And I think, most importantly, one of the things we talk about is ego-bating. So you want to kind of actually let that person know that you got the inspiration from that you were inspired and that you went and created this piece, because that’s going to lead to (potentially) more shares of your content, which hopefully then leads to links. Again, it’s this two-step process.
4. Authenticity & Accessibility.
The final one is authenticity and accessibility. This is good. Again, in a white-labelled fashion for your own website or for your end-clients, having good, high quality content on your website is going to compel people to say that this person is thinking, something new is going on, they’re sharing new information, and that is potentially going to lead to new leads for you.
Takeaways: Social Media, Content & SEO
So those are our four tips. The one thing I should definitely say, though, is that what you can’t do here is simply go create and claim social profiles, post one thing on Facebook or Twitter, and never touch it again. This does require an ongoing effort, and that really is the tie back to some of the white label SEO services and white label social media services, where you might need some assistance in actually manning that for your client. That’s where something like Semify can really come in and help you get some basic blocking and tackling done.
Excellent points, Chad. I think, again, we know -- we talk to our SEO resellers every day -- they’re very focused on rankings, they’re selling SEO, and they ask, “Where can I get that killer link? I just need that magic link to really propel these rankings for this client of mine.”
What we’re laying out today is that, in 2015, search engine optimization is a much more complex set of activities, and it does require excellent content (we’ve talked about that a lot in our series).
Today, we’re focusing, then, on how you get that content out there, and social media becoming one of your best tools for broadcasting out your content, which ultimately interacts with your excellent SEO activities and achieves the rankings that you really want from your white label SEO provider.
