Category Archives: Social Media Marketing

What comes first, content writing or social media?

Social media marketing these days in an integral part of business development: it is just a matter of who realize it and who don’t. Some online marketers even compare the indecision about investing in social media marketing to that initial phase when people were not sure whether they should get a telephone connection for their business or not.

But what exactly is social media marketing? It is constant interaction with your present and prospective customers and clients (on websites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr) and not only your customers and clients but with all those people who are interested in your brand and your philosophy while not being interested in doing business with you. Why bother with people who don’t want to do business with you? Word-of-mouth marketing: they may not want to do business with you but they may know somebody who would and they would like to recommend you due to the level of familiarity you have sustained through your social media marketing effort.

Aside from regular interaction you need to post lots of content on social media and networking websites. It doesn’t do much good to your brand identity and reputation if you simply get content from other websites and blogs and keep posting it under your profile. Then you become just another user who simply wants to spend some time on Facebook and Twitter sharing “interesting stuff”. People begin to respect your opinion only when you have your own content on your website/blog. This is because expressing your thoughts and sharing your knowledge shows that you are confident and knowledgeable enough to articulate your opinions and experience openly and be open to scrutiny. This is how true interaction begins: you post links to your own content and then your friends and followers either forward that content to their own friends and followers or they expressive opinion.

So should you write content first or launch your social media campaign first? You can do one of them or you can do them together, simultaneously, it depends what approach you want to follow. My personal preference would be to maintain a balance. Both the activities take time and effort, and also expense, if you’re going to hire people to write your content and manage your social media profiles. Companies and individuals that build their presence based upon their opinions and knowledge need to have lots of content in order to have a solid social media presence. You also need content if you intend to spread awareness regarding your product or service. You don’t need content much if your audience is not the reading types.

Why content strategy comes before social media marketing

What’s your content basically? It’s your presence, especially on the Internet. People know you not just because you are there, they know you because of what you have to say about your business, your core expertise, and the world in general. Your content gives you a presence. It’s like your circle of your influence, and without influence, there is no social media presence.

When you publish content on your website or blog – thought-provoking content – you begin to make an impression. People either respect you for what you have to say, or they differ. Both the feelings create in their minds an imprint. The more you publish, the more they remember you. They begin to respect your knowledge. They begin to relate to you. They carefully follow your advise and opinion. Even if they disagree it means to an extent they’re paying attention to what you are saying. Then they write about your opinions on their own blogs and websites, or they share your links with their friends to may be seek further opinion. This is how people begin to recognize you.

Brands and people who have done well on social media and networking websites haven’t done so by merely appearing there all of a sudden one day. They are already recognized names. Since they are recognized, people eager follow them, they eagerly listen to them.

The point is, if you are a Sachin Tendulkar or a Britney Spears you just have to let the news out that you have created a social media presence. In a few minutes you’ll have 100s of 1000s of fans and followers. You are already a known name. You have already made a presence in people’s mind with your other efforts (here, cricket and singing).

You have to achieve the same thing with your content. Content is a great weapon. It makes people come to your blog and website again and again. You give people something to talk about, something to ponder over, something to put to use. This helps you strengthen your brand.

Money follows money and success follows success and this is how our world works (assuming you leverage the advantage). With strategic content publishing you create a recognizable presence, and then you leverage this recognition on social media marketing. By the time you launch your social presence, people already know you because of your content. In fact, they have eagerly been waiting for your social media presence.

So does this mean you don’t need to publish content if you are already a celebrity or if a few thousand people in your particular circle know you? Depends on where you are placed. There are well-known brands on Twitter, well-known artists, well-known writers, singers, journalists, politicians, Internet marketers, programmers, etc. but they don’t just depend on their Twitter presence. They actually need to perform in their actual fields. A writer who does not write can’t do much on social media for long, and neither can a cricketer who doesn’t perform well on the field.

Social media marketing needs a backing and that backing can be provided by your content publishing. Whatever you need to promote, it can be promoted through social media, but the actual message exists in the form of content on your website or blog.

Moving away from SEO

How important is SEO to SEM today? Is SEO losing the edge? Are small businesses finally breaking free from the power of SEO and getting recognition still? Are we moving away from the obsession with SEO? Some intriguingly different questions indeed!

SEM rules still

The number of online customers making their purchases is continually on the rise. One click opens the virtual store and shows a range of products and services and all the information needed and another click clinches the deal most satisfying mutually. Today internet marketing is very much in; SEM rules the roost.

Importance of SEO

Until now, SEM blended the free SEO and the PPC to increase the exposure of any website. Search engine marketing campaigns all focussed on search engine optimization with keywords or increasing the pay per click – again on a key-word related ad. And SEO was the favourite all round. SERPs, Meta tags, keywords, keyword-rich contents, SEO keywords and keyword research – these words seem to be resonating in the web writing world. The first advice to any freelance writer is still ‘learn all about SEO.’

A Change is on the way?

Maybe it looks like things are changing, albeit slowly, but steadily. No, no, the SEM is here to stay and keywords and keyword-rich contents are all still the way to go. But maybe a day will come when search engine ranking or search engine optimization will not be the ruling factors to define the success of a website. Google has developed systems which are not SERP controlled and which are giving more attention to small businesses with far better analytics. Now the trend is moving beyond just the search engines and the search is on to find and nurture customers on social media – on networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Importance of Social Networks

Today, social media is gaining more importance and relevance in the search world. Search engines are incorporating media status updates into their search results – kind of a mixture of search and social media! So Digg, Delicious, Facebook and Twitter – where people like to belong to, are gaining importance and status updates on these sites influence the ratings. Already Google and Bing ratings are linked with social media site postings.

How to attract Social Users?

Quality content! Quality content is the only way to go. Make the content attractive enough and there will be enough flies to flock to the honey! Content that gives answers to their search, content that provides solutions, content that pen-pictures the product and content that will stir the consumer’s interest will make the visitor come away satisfied and eager to go back to and recommend to friends. Original and quality content will increase conversion.

Google’s definition of need for quality content is illuminating – “Delivering high quality, informative and well constructed content is what differentiates you from your competition and defines your web presence.”

Adding fresh content will keep the visitors come a visiting to the site. RSS feeds and even videos can be used to keep the content up-to-date. But unique and web-product relevant content should dominate the site. Quality and high-value content will be the major force to sell the products.

Will SEO be one day really obsolete?

Definitely not! Already the algorithms are changing. Blog-driven links and social-media tagging are taken due notice by the search engines. Google is also implementing personalization. Actually a highly efficient SEO never just is counting keywords or their placement. It recognizes the value of good and quality content. Compelling to read and easy-to-find content will truly be the king and SEO will revel in it.

How to engage your social media fans and followers

Social networking (or call them social media) websites are extremely crowded. Although there are hardly 33-40% social networking users who actually use the websites to interact on an ongoing basis, since everybody is talking with everybody and everybody is talking about everything under the sun, to really make an impact, you need to engage your fans and followers on an ongoing basis, so that they remember you; and not only you, but also what business you do.

Here are a few activities you can carry out in order to engage people on social media and networking websites:

Participate in relevant discussions

Using various Twitter and FaceBook search tools you can find out what people are talking about and then participate in the ongoing discussions in a fruitful manner. Agree with them, add your two cents, disagree with them (give reasons), and seed new thoughts. Don’t worry if you don’t have anything constructive to add…just follow the discussion attentively and soon your thought process will be triggered.

Ask questions and offer answers

We remember people who make us think and a question mark normally does. Whenever you ask a question it offers someone an opportunity to show his/her knowledge. Similarly, when you post an answer in response to someone’s question, he/she is surely going to read it and if your answer is impressive, many more people are going to get curious about you, and consequently, you’ll make a mark.

Share your knowledge and wisdom

As you keep working you’ll excel in your field. You have a collection of experiences, opinions and tips that you can easily share with your followers and fans on a regular basis. Remember that “regularity” is the key here. Unless you’re already quite well known, you need to be “usefully visible” on a regular basis if you really want to engage your social networking fans and followers.

Regularly publish new content on your blog or website

It’s good to post links whether they’re from your own website/blog or from other sources, content on your own website brings in direct traffic and it helps people formulate opinion about you. Whether they like your content or not, whether they agree or not, an opinion is very important.

Communicate on their blogs and websites

When people post links to new articles and blog posts on their websites, if possible, leave a comment and let it be known that you are a visitor from the mutual social networking website. Whether people admit it or not, everybody likes it if visitors leave comments and appreciate what you’re doing.

Be helpful within means

Social networking doesn’t always have to be you-scratch-my-back-and-I-scratch-yours; you can help totally unrelated persons without expecting anything in return. For instance, if you know A offers content writing services and B needs someone to write content for his website and they don’t know each other but you do, you can introduce them. If you feel someone has a business link worthy of promotion don’t hesitate to post the link.

Be personal

Your social networking profile mustn’t always be about business. Act like yourself and if possible, use your name instead of your business name. Without getting carried away, show that you are interested in politics, in social causes, in arts, in sciences, or whatever topic interests you. Just don’t overdo it because then a person visiting your timeline at a particular time may not be able to make out what you actually do.

Conclusion

Social media, as the name suggests, is all about being social. In a society we become visible and memorable by doing something that highlights our presence. Of course our contribution must be positive — you’ll prefer to be known as a good-doer and not an evil-doer. Networking works everywhere and politicians, businesspersons and actors spend huge amounts of money to remain visible (and in the reckoning). While talking small strides and not spending much, you can achieve the same using social media and networking.