Entries from February 2011 ↓

Social Media – It’s About Marketing & Connecting

social networking

[Chair scrapes across the floor as she gets to her feet]

“Ahem, hello, I am a copywriter and a social media user.”

There, I’ve said it – yes, I use social media and I’m proud of it.

It’s a great way of making new connections, finding new clients and generally interacting with fun people.

But some social media users fall into the trap of using it just to market their businesses. They constantly tweet promotions, news, what they’re doing, a few more promotions and before they know it they’re losing followers because they are beginning to look rather ‘spammy’.

Yes social media is a marketing tool:

  • You can encourage newsletter sign ups
  • Promote eBooks and give-aways
  • Promote offers and use a call to action to send them to your website
  • Give information that points to particular products

But if you only use it that way you’ll really hack your followers off.

Social media is also a tool to connect with other people:

  • Listen to what people are talking about, you might be able to help them
  • Find out what they’re saying about you (great for customer research)
  • Engage with followers to find out what they are looking for
  • Build relationships with people you wouldn’t normally come across
  • Give advice and ask for help

You can also use social media to promote other people. If someone’s helped you out tell people. If you come across someone who can help another follower, put them in touch.

Social media is about marketing, connecting and reciprocity.

Use it wisely, be generous with your information, connect and build relationships—that’s how to get the most out of social media.

SEO – Tactics to Avoid in 2011

search engine optimisationSearch engine optimisation is vital for today’s online businesses.

If you want to be found you have to make your website as visible as possible and the only way to do that is through a strong SEO strategy.

More and more companies are realising that PPC is find for short a term push (if you have the budget for it) but unless you have seriously deep pockets, it’s not a long term solution.

A winning SEO strategy

If you want to be an SEO winner you’ll need the following:

  • A well-researched list of keywords
  • A well designed website structured inline with your identified keywords
  • A professional SEO copywriter on board who really knows what they are doing
  • An ongoing link building strategy

But whatever you do don’t try and go for fast results. SEO is a slow burning entity. You won’t get overnight results but if you work at it constantly you will be rewarded by lasting high rankings that will bring a continuous stream of targeted traffic to your website.

What to avoid in your SEO strategy

I came across a post on Seomoz the other day entitled “32 SEO Tactics to Avoid in 2011which gives you a run down of ‘black hat’ techniques that should be avoided at all costs.

Have a read through and make sure you’re strategy is above board. Also take a look at some of the comments—it is a post that generated a lot of debate about SEO.