Introduction
Social signals are very important today. Even while some people will proclaim that they don’t even exist. Sometimes even Google says they don’t matter in ranking, but the fact is, the more social you are online the more traffic you’ll get to your website, and the more sales you’ll eventually make.
Think about how you make decisions today. Do you post on Facebook to see what your friends think? Do you ask your networking group what they think? Of course, we all do it. We look to social media before we buy almost anything these days. Then, when we buy it, we share it with others.
We give our opinion and people who know us value it and follow what we do. This is word-of-mouth marketing on steroids. When you start using social media correctly, amazing things can happen to your business.
With the advent of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Pinterest and so forth (there are so many after all) it’s obvious that social signals matter. Social signals will improve search ranking and more because it’s so pervasive. Don’t ignore it.
How Content Affects Social Signals
Whether you’re blogging, or sharing something on Facebook it all comes down to content. Social media is how people communicate online now, and the content you share there is more likely to be commented on and shared with others than content you just put on your blog and don’t share it.
Sharing an article you put on your blog on social media can establish backlinks, engagement, and send traffic to your website. Therefore, it maters what you share on social media if you want to establish real social signals.
Know Your Audience – In anything you do from developing products, sourcing products, creating services and so forth it’s imperative that you understand who your audience is. Get to know what keeps them up at night and what will solve their problems.
Set Goals – Each social media platform needs a different goal of its own. The reason is that each social media network is very different. It’s best to set up each one independently as you don’t want each network to be a copycat of the other. While you will likely share the same blog posts, articles, and content, you’ll organize it a little differently and present it a little differently for each network.
Create a Strategy– When you’ve developed your goals you’ll want to create a strategy behind each goal to make sure you reach them. Again, separate each network out so that you have a clear understanding of what each one of them take to achieve the goals you’ve set.
Work On Your Headlines – One of the most important aspects of each social share is the headline. Each network is a little different so you’ll need to change the headline as you share. The headline is what helps your shares get more clicks.
Use Imagery Creatively– When you share anything on social media make sure that your images show up the right size and fit the network. Studies show that on social networks shares with images are more likely to be engaged with and shared to their friends.
Optimize Your Content Specifically for Social Media – Each network has different image size requirements, different amounts of letters show in the blurb before the link. Understand how each network you use works so that your content can be presented in the best light.
Share On the Right Days and Times – Research how your audience consumes content. What are the best days and times to share? When do you get the most engagement? You may have to test out different times and days to find out.
Mind Your Metrics – Always look at your analytics before you start anything new and then check them again later to find out if whatyou’re doing is having an effect. Remember that nothing is ever complete until the paperwork is done.
Social signals are about sending the right signals at the right time using social media along with your other online real estate to make an impact, net noticed, and get more traffic.
It’s Really All about SEO
Search engine optimization is an important aspect of social signals. Being active on social media helps SEO by providing more back links, more appearance of authority, and due to the engagement factor creates more loyal fans that are ready to buy whatever you are selling.
Many social media users now use social networks as search engines. They use hashtags, and search terms to find your content right on the social media network. Therefore, if you want better search engine optimization start sharing everything on social media.
Be Awesome on Twitter – As one of the most active social media networks it’s important to work on becoming an authority on Twitter. You can do this by helping others, giving free advice, and sending people to your content as answers to their questions. Therefore, even though everything you share on Twitter has “no-follow” attribute, the more authoritative you are the better, and the more shared the Tweet is the higher search engine results.
Link BuildingStill Works– In the past everyone worked hard to build backlinks to their website to get more traffic. Today, you still need backlinks but they have to be important, authoritative and widely shared to get the same traction as you may have got in the past with article directories. This way of getting backlinks is very effective for improving ranking.
Social signals are important because they improve search rankings, help you get more links to your website or blog, and help you make more sales on your sales pages.
Social Signals Have an Impact On Organic Search?
There are different factors that make a huge difference in your search ranking such as:
- How many people like you, follow you, friend you on social media networks?
- How many people shared or re-tweeted your post?
- How many people mention you in their shares on social media?
The reason these things help SEO is because they increase inbound links, visibility, positive reviews due to more engaged happier customers and decrease issues with bouncing due to the higher engagement and trust developed on social media.
As the world becomes more social, social signals will be more important. The thing is, you don’t have to be on every single social network to be successful. Instead, you should pick and choose which networks you use and use them to their maximum benefit.
There are several reasons why this is true:
Everyone is on social media. You know this is true because you’re on social media. If you can’t find your market on Facebook, you don’t have a market.
People trust people they know more. Today, “knowing” someone can come in the form of being friends only on social media. You can be one of the people that others feel like they know, like and trust by being active on social media.
Businesses with strong social presence convert higher. Again, this is due to the trust factor. When people feel like they are getting to know the people behind the brand they’re much more likely to buy what you’re offering.
Work on building your social media presence but don’t stop also building content on your website and / or blog. After all, that’s the point of social media for your business, to send people to your offers on your website or blog.
How to Improve Your Social Signals Now
There are things you can do on and off your website or blog to help improve social signals right now.
On Your Website or Blog:
Add share buttons. Even include social media share buttons that you don’t necessarily use. The reason is that you’ll be able to use the metrics from those social accounts to determine if you need to get active on new and different social media networks.
For example, if you’re not on Twitter, but you notice that you have a lot of shares for your work on Twitter, you need to get on Twitter.
Add connect buttons. You’ll also need to add connect buttons to your website or blog for the social media you are active on. Not only that, you want to purposely and directly tell people to connect with you on those social accounts.
For example, in a post whether a video or a text based blog, you’ll want to ask people to like, follow, etc.… you on the various social media you are active on. On your website you want to make the buttons obvious.
Add a Blog. If you don’t have a blog on your website then you need to add a blog. You may not realize but a blog is a type of social media if you open up your comments. It’s a place you can engage with your audience.
For example, if you have articles and content on your site it needs to be updated regularly, a blog is the best and easiest way to accomplish that.
Off your website you want to ensure that you add the following elements:
Create a Facebook Page – You want one for your business not just yourself. Keep personal and business separate for best results. You can’t promote on your personal Facebook page. If you are a public figure, create a page for a public figure and then you can promote there.
Create a Facebook Group – A really great way to use Facebook is to start a group for your business or for the problems that your business purports to solve. This is a great way to build social credentials and build up positive social signals.
Create a Twitter Account – Twitter is one of the most popular social media networks that you must join. Like Facebook, you will be able to find your audience here. You can use Twitter regardless of the type of content you share and you’ll get great results and engagement.
Create a LinkedIn Page (personal & business)—While some question the value of Linkedin.com, it’s very powerful. Create a personal profile, but also a business page. Then you can join groups, publish content, and more. Remember Linkedin.com is very buttoned up and you need to remember that.
Join Other Social Media Platforms (if needed) – Join them as you perfect one and only if your audience is using it, and if you can create regular content to publish. You may also want to at least join other networks as they are created because you can save your name to keep your branding consistent.
Consider Joining & Using YouTube – YouTube is an amazing way to bring traffic to your site and improve social signals. But, it can be intimidating to some. But, depending on your business you should be able to work out a good schedule and a plan to bring content to this medium.
Remember that you want to use the social media that your audience uses. It can be intimidating to use some types of social media like video, but the truth is it works very well to bring traffic to your website.
Other Ways to Build Social Signals & Improve Your Business
You can build social signals in a variety of ways. Some work better than others and some take more of a time and money investment than others. But, all of them will, given time and effort, make a huge difference on social engagement and conversions.
Guest Blogging – This is a great way to get your name known to new audiences. Choose a well-known platform and not just any blog or website to place your guest posts. They should let you include your bio, plus a couple links to your website or sales page, and there should be no charge.
Interviewing – There are a lot of people who need content for their online radio, podcasts, or YouTube channels. Often, they’ll do a call for people to interview, but you can also send an introductory email offering your time and perhaps a freebie for their audience.
Webinars – This is a really great way to get social interaction. Try using something like Zoom or a paid webinar. You Tube and Google Hangouts are combing to bring you You Tube Live videos, take advantage of this and get more exposure for your business.
Live Events – You can use all sorts of social media for live events from Periscope, to Snapchat, to Facebook, to YouTube Live to have your live online event. Live online events are exiting to the audience and help you build great relationships with your audience.
Social signals have come a long way in the last few years. Social media is ubiquitous due to the advent of mobile technology that is really like computers of the past, even better. If you pay attention to social signals you can drip a steady stream of traffic to your website, improve conversions, and make more money.
How to Get Started
If you’re not well established on social media you may want to start now to get established. Start with the main social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube (or whatever your audience uses most). Try not to pick more than two or three to start with. Build up those channels and you’ll soon see what a difference it makes.
Start a Blog or Website – You must have a home base. Your business should not be on other people’s real estate. You want someplace to send all the traffic from social media to, and it should be your website.
Register Your Business on Social Networks – Create accounts for every social media account you can, even the ones you aren’t planning to use right now. The reason is that you want to establish yourself on each one before someone takes your name. It’s the only way to guard your brand.
Start Creating Content for your Blog – If you can’t create daily content, hire people to do it for you based on your promotions, your audience, and what your goals are.
Start Creating Content for your Social Media – In conjunction with the content you’re creating for your blog, create content for the social media accounts that you plan to build up. While you may be sharing the same articles from your blog to each network, you want to create different images and different blurbs.
Optimize Everything – Use the right sized images, use the right search terms, and make sure everything is connected. You may need to test different methods to find out what works best for each network.
Integrate Everything – Everything works together online. Post a blog post, share it to social media, create a meme about the topic, share it on Facebook with a link to the article, create an infographic, and share it on social media. But, everything should link back to your website or sales pages.
It’s important to get started today if you want to reap the benefits of what social signals can do for you. You can boost traffic to your website, improve engagement, and make more sales if you play your social signals right.