Want better SEO? Better get some SMM (social media marketing).
Today, you need customer engagement, social proof and fresh content, and social media marketing is just about the best way to get it. As CEO, the burden falls on you to make sure your business stays competitive in a rapidly changing world.
Here are some steps that will ease your business’s entry into social media marketing.
The Rules of Engagement:
- Set up a small committee, including key people from different departments who are truly excited about social media.
- Create a written Social Media Marketing Policy—specific to your organization’s needs—stating employee guidelines and rules for using all of your social media platforms. Include specifics about what type of content is—and is not—OK to Tweet or post on any social sites during business hours. Everyone who participates in social media for your company must sign this document.
- Run it by legal. Despite rules, policies, and training, there is no way of knowing what people may say or do—you need to be covered for that.
- Assign platforms to the different departments. Facebook might be a more effective platform for one department, and Twitter or YouTube more effective for a different department.
- Reserve and hold all your core brand names on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. Set up new accounts with your corporate name. These will be your “official sites.” Make sure you’ve captured and reserved all of your brand names, or potential brand names, for your own purposes.
A Real Life Example: When we worked with WM Barr Corporation, they hadn’t secured the domain for their product, Goof Off, and discovered that it was taken. We had to use GoofOffStainRemover.com, but it worked out well for them, because they were now findable under “Goof Off,” their brand name, as well as the problem it solves, namely, “stain remover.”
- Use the word, “Official,” in the title or profile description of every social media account, if possible. You want people online to know what is and isn’t official. You want them to know whether they are communicating directly with you or with someone else. Otherwise, it will be confusing to people who want to join your groups. They want to follow you on Twitter. They want to follow you or recommend you on LinkedIn.
- Search your corporate name on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, and you just might find accounts that have been set up by former employees, or fans of your company. We call these rogue accounts. Send out an email to everyone in your organization, asking if they know anything about these accounts. Even if no one knows anything, you should still be able to either take control of them, or remove them.
- Adding as much info about your company as possible to help users determine if the page is actually official or not. Links to your site and photos are great.
- To find rogue accounts, do some searches inside the social media portals. Begin by putting in your company name and variations of it, including product names. It’s important to be fully aware of what’s out there regarding your organization.
- Put together a list of all rogue accounts that are discovered. You might have passionate fans that have set up rogue profiles. (Consider yourself lucky!) But frequently, the public cannot tell the difference between your official page, and a rogue account. It’s a terrific policy to contact them, and let them know you truly appreciate what they’re doing. Reach out to each and ask them to link to the official page: “For more info, check out the Official Company Fan Page.”
Want an SEO roadmap, giving you the steps you need to take to bring your leadership on board, quell their fears, and show you exactly how to engage in social media the “right way?”
Check out Thumbonomics: The Essential Business Roadmap for Social Media and Mobile Marketing, available on Amazon.com.
Warm Regards,
Heather Lutze
Author, Internet Marketing Speaker, Trainer and Consultant