Integrating Social Media into Your Content Strategy

Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of web marketing will be well aware that social media is an integral and vital component of any successful online marketing plan. But although most people are aware of how important social media is for promoting your website and your business in this day and age, it’s not as simple as it sounds to put together a cohesive and integrated content strategy for your website and integrate social media into it successfully. Before promoting through major social media networks, you need to have original, engaging and informative blog posts and outstanding and original landing page copy.

An important factor you need to consider for your marketing strategy is that each platform you intend to use has to be addressed individually. No-matter how good your content is; sharing the exact same copy across multiple platforms simply doesn’t work. In fact, the reputation of your brand or website could be damaged in the eyes of customers and potential customers if you go down that route.

Online marketers know that if there’s one thing above all else your content needs to be, it’s that it has to be unique. That’s even more the case when you also consider how different each of the major social networks is from each other, and how they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Each one can excel in certain areas where others may be found wanting, which is why it’s so important to have a specific strategy for each platform you intend to utilize.

For example; Facebook is rightly seen as the pinnacle of social media right now as it has the most users by far. However, it will only show your business page’s posts to something like 10% of all those who follow or ‘like’ your page organically. That means spending quality time thinking about your target audience, what engages them, when they are going to be online and whether they are even looking at Facebook.

Twitter makes searching and following incredibly easy and it’s also a really cost-effective way of marketing online. However, 140 characters isn’t a lot to get your message across so you’re going to have to make sure every word counts. An 80/20 strategy is a good one in this case; meaning 80% of your tweets focused on driving engagement with your following by having actual conversations, while the remaining 20% is specifically used to promote your website, business or brand.

Google Plus had everyone running around like headless chickens to get onboard initially, but many have since lost interest and aren’t sure if it is worth bothering with anymore. But when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), this is Google we’re talking about. Google’s search engine indexes your posts on Google Plus, which means when someone searches for related key terms; the chances are that your posts about the related subject matter will appear regardless of whether your website pops up or not in the results.

LinkedIn differs from the others because it’s the business professional’s network, but that hasn’t stopped commercial brand and businesses from having a substantial presence on the network. The site has started engaging with open publishing in the last year or so, but it remains a small presence when compared to many other social media platforms. However, it can still pay dividends to maintain a full and current profile and to publish and share content. If nothing else, it’s another way of getting your message out there and connecting with potential customers.

By remaining unique, honest, and true to your brand and your business, you can build a profile that will give the right impression that customers will notice. What’s perhaps even more important though, is that they’re likely to remember you for it as well.

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