How Does Social Media Really Help You:
An FAQ For Real People
How many times have you heard it? Social media is important. Social media makes a difference. Your business needs to be on social media. You may even believe it, but do you understand it? Because until you know how social media actually makes a difference in your business, what it actually does, you’re probably just going through the motions. Learning theory says we learn best those things that we teach other people. Similarly, you’ll make the biggest impact with your social media when you know why you are doing what you are doing. Here are some of the most common questions people have when it comes to understanding social media.
What are key words?
People ask questions. Google and other browsers pick the most important words from these questions, the key words, and then search for those words over the entire web. When your social media and blog posts use specific words, those key words in your potential customers’ questions, your page comes up in the search. This way, people who have no prior contact with you or your company find you and make a connection. This builds your influence and your community. This is called organic traffic.
Why should I care about building a following?
Organic traffic brings new customers to your website. New customers on your website often become new customers to your business. But that’s not the only reason to desire organic traffic or to cultivate your social network. All that traffic also increases the number of people in your business community. Nielsen research says consumers trust 92% of the referrals they receive from friends. The more people you have in your network, the more personal recommendations will come from that network. And the more recommendations you get, the more business that will follow.
What are backlinks?
Backlinks are another important part of social media. Backlinks are instances where other people post a link to a page you have published. That page could be your website or a blog post. Or it could even be a post on social media. And individuals may share these links through their own social networks. They can also do it as a link in content they write for their own webpage.
Backlinks come when people like the information you are sharing and share it on their own social networks or from their own webpages. When pulling up search results, Google looks at the number of backlinks a given webpage has. When a page has multiple backlinks, Google thinks, “Oh, people have found this information useful. It may be useful to the person searching now.” The more backlinks your webpage has, the likelier it is to come up in a Google search.
What does social networking have to do with search engines?
Social media itself is becoming an important search engine. Rather than searching on Google and getting thousands or even tens of thousands of results, some people are searching for information within their social media platforms. Have you notices that on Facebook, twitter, and other social networks that you can search for particular information? That blank bar at the top of the screen can mean your company gets found on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram when others aren’t. When you share publicly on those platforms, your information will show up in those searches. With no presence on each of those platforms, you have no chance of coming up in those searches. In order to get chosen, you have to be there in the first place. When individuals find you on social media, the next logical step is to check out your company’s web page. This will also drive organic traffic to your website.
What does it mean to be an industry expert?
Social media establishes you as an industry expert. When you answer questions quickly and well, individuals will begin to see you as an authority in your field. This is often accomplished through blog posts. It takes time to establish yourself as an industry expert. You need a lot of content, and you need to keep it updated. Provide good content and people will find you. Backlink to your own content and they will see that your knowledge is broad and deep. A good rule of thumb is to strive for four links to your own content with each blog post. Then share your blog post on all your social media channels. The more followers you have, particularly through social media, the more you are respected as an authority. When people see that lots of other people trust you and find your content valuable, they are more likely to trust you too.
If you need assistance with managing your social marketing for your business, Contact us at Winged gods Creation!