If you understand the basics of SEO then you already know: search engines utilize a wide variety of ‘criteria’ when determining their rankings. Of late, recency has moved to the forefront, thereby placing heavier weight on social factors to help determine rankings. Some marketers understand this concept, but get caught up in trying to do too much and complain about not seeing results. Let’s examine a few of the faux pas.
Relationships
Arguably one of the most important factors in executing a successful social media campaign for SEO is building relationships. One can’t just expect a piece of content to be submitted on a bookmarking site or on Twitter and think search engines will say, ‘Oh gee, well this is super important’. No, they want to see others agreeing and saying, yes this is important, relevant, and share-worthy. In order for that to happen naturally you must build relationships.
Develop fans, followers, connections, and friends within your industry or niche. Who else will like what you have to share? Who are the ‘movers and shakers’, those regarded as influencers? Find them, learn from them, interact, and share. If you have truly useful content it will be shared, retweeted, dugg, stumbled, commented on, etc…
Improper Linking
Have you ever run across a branded social media profile that doesn’t have a link back to their website? Talk about improper linking! How about a plethora of links? Again…improper linking. These are the obvious instances, but less obvious are forgetting about indirect links.
It’s not just about having a link submitted to Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Mixx, etc… it’s getting them submitted (or submitting them yourself) and seeing it spread. Something submitted on these sites can be seen and then written about on a blog with links back to your site, have a press release written with links back to your site, discussed in forums with links back to your site, added to resource guides with a link back to your site, etc. Don’t forget about indirect links.
Always Self-serving
Newbies to social media marketing don’t realize: it’s not always about me, me, me. If you are building up your social media profiles you must diversify the domains/links you share. This of course takes time and effort on your part. Don’t rely on a miracle to happen overnight, although they do sometimes happen (think YouTube video sensation Wedding Entrance Dance). Success takes time, hard work, and skill. Don’t get lazy and use social media to be self serving 100% of the time.
Spam
Spamming tactics on social media are prevalent…and such a waste of time and effort! Usually the product of automation, there is still some time and effort placed in these fruitless actions. Don’t get me wrong, some automation can be useful but relying on it solely and expecting success is ludacris.
False Reality
Sure you might think it’s a great idea to start tweeting or posting on Facebook as a fictitious person, but soon enough you’ll get tied up or find out it’s a laborious process. That’s why being yourself, and representing who you really are will take you farther. While it’s important to keep in mind what you want your messaging to say about your brand, you should also know how hard it is to be anything but honest and upfront about who you are and what you represent.
These are just a few of the social media faux pas continuing to infiltrate the industry. I know I’m probably missing some, help me out and list them in the comments below.
