Strategies are like excuses. Some people have them some people don’t. Some are good and some not so good. Some are so good that you file it away should you need it in the future. Today I offer you an online marketing excuse of a strategy that incorporates social media.
2 Parts of the Strategy
The strategy that I’ll layout has two parts to it: 1. Build a Cohesive Social Brand; 2. Syndicate Content. Then as you can see in the video I’ll show you how the two components work together. The goal is to generate an impact in your social media marketing while also looking to benefit from being indexed by search engines. Its a push / pull strategy that relies on one key component …quality content.
In today’s post I’m going to walk through part one. Tomorrow I will add part two, Syndicating Content. Of course you can watch the video and see everything at once.
Cohesive Social Brand
There are thousands of social media and networking sites out there and you could drive yourself crazy trying to sign up for everyone. You should focus on establishing a presence on the major sites and then add in some specific sites that fit your niche. Each of these components should use similar color schemes and design elements so that they are cohesive in look and feel.
1. Blog: In this strategy the blog is the most important piece. It allows you to generate content to share across all of your networks to engage your communities. You can use WordPress, Blogger, or any number of blogging platforms. My personal choice is WordPress but you choose whichever works best for you.( Social Media Sonar blog )
Focus on writing great content that does one of several things: educates, solves, entertains, informs, etc. You want to publish content that is going to be consumed by your prospects or clients. Be sure to optimize your posts with a short to the point title that includes keywords, include relevant keywords in the body, anchor text links where appropriate, include an excerpt, and tag the article with targeted keywords.
2. Facebook Micro-site: Facebook is the 800 lb gorilla these days in social networking, its too big to ignore. Simply creating a business page is the minimum, but you need to take it a step further. Turning your page into a micro-site allows you to move beyond simple wall posts.
You can create a Welcome page, an offer page that shows people that have not liked your page your offer details and to people that have liked your page how to fulfill that offer, and additional pages that highlight products, testimonials, etc. Of course Facebook also includes standards such as Discussions, Photos, Videos, etc.This is a new page that still needs work on building a fan/Like base, but you can see how I use the offer page to let people know they can download free social media guides, but only do so after clicking the “Like Button – Social Media Sonar Facebook page.
Also I have updated the page to the new Facebook layout (tabs are gone and links to pages are on the left side below your profile photo) which everyone will need to do by March 11th. Also I used the Static FBML app to build these pages which is also going away on March 11th, though existing pages will be grandfathered in. Be sure to add the app to your page before then and create a couple of blank pages with it for later use if needed.
3. YouTube: Google loves video and so should you. On top of my priority list is to create about 25 videos to add to my channel over the next 3 months. You have the option of customizing your YouTube skin to continue your cohesive look and feel. I’ve used mine to add in two promotional boxes and my social links. ( Social Media Sonar YouTube channel )
4. Twitter: As a continuous stream Twitter works best for me as a way to share my blog content and to find other content based on a topic search. It can be used for much more than these two but I’ll leave it to you to determine how it best works for you. You can add a custom skin so once again you want to make sure that you carry over your brand elements to your custom skin. ( @seanenelson )
5. LinkedIn: LinkedIn has been my favorite social network but Facebook is closing in as equally relevant for me. I love the new enhanced LinkedIn company pages and groups have always been a key resource. When it comes to dollars produced LinkedIn has generated the most ROTI (return on time invested), closing in on $100,000 over the last three years. (Social Media Sonar Company page )
Be sure to look at the different pages to see how the components work together to present a cohesive social brand. And remember that these are the components you need to have but not all that may be relevant for your business. Tomorrow I will post part two but until then you can watch the video to see how it all works together.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZquAXlbcFwY[/youtube]
Social Media Sonar provides the following four resources for FREE… 1. The Blog, 2. The Online Marketing/Social Media Blueprint, 3. Conversion Rate Optimization Guide, 4. Resource Center. If these help you implement your own online marketing program, great. We love helping people. If you decide you need some help, great. We love new clients. Contact Us if we can help you.
