Social Media Optimisation

Social Media Optimisation
With James Fairweather of Coast Digital.

Hello. A little bit about me.
5 Years in search, Agency-side
Digital Strategy & Online Marketing Consultant
SEO, Social Media, Paid Search, Conversion Rate Optimisation, Affiliate Marketing

Who is this for?
Marketers. Those with in-house marketing teams and those that use an agency (or agencies) for their Online Marketing activity and who want to understand how to use Social media to:
Have an impact on their SEO
Justify social media investment based on the ROI through SEO.

Social Media + Search Engine Optimisation = Social Media Optimisation.

So what is it?
What is SMO about? Driving traffic to a website using social media.
Ultimately using search and social media to increase your online sales or leads.

Social promotion of content generates natural links
According to Twitter, around 25% of all Tweets contain a URL.

Social networks drive traffic
Someone who is engaging with your social profile has already pre-qualified themselves.

Social networking increases online brand presence
When you combine your SEO and social media marketing, you’ll create a much more powerful and comprehensive online marketing strategy.

Social promotion of content generates natural links
According to Twitter, around 25% of all Tweets contain a URL.
Social networks drive traffic
Someone who is engaging with your social profile has already pre-qualified themselves.

SEO
What is it?

“Search Engine Optimisation”
Improving sites, so that they are more visible in the organic results from search engines.
Increased visibility, generating more of the right kind of traffic.
In turn, generating more enquiries and more business.
Ultimately, make more revenue!

SEO.
What is it?

Where do people click?

UK Search Engine Share – August 2011

SEO
How did it work before Social Media?

SEO.
Without links, the engines might never find this page

Google looks at the neighbourhood a site ‘sits in’.
Looking at the quality of links to the site, Google can assume a level of trust.
SEO.

Google look at the neighbourhood a site ‘sits in’.
Looking at the quality of links to the site, Google can assume a level of trust.
Source: SEOMOZ

SEO
What is changing?

Google Panda

Google’s ‘Vince’ Brand Update

Google’s Brand Update

Ultimately, Google are looking to improve the results that they present to users.

Social Media

Social Media
You're familiar with the channels already.

“The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue.”

What has been changing & how fast?

Why would social signals be good for search engines?

Freshness

Freshness is a valid property of online content

Into notes:
Source: Google Trends

People trust 'human' recommendations and endorsement.
If relevance is key to keeping Google's search share, they have to adapt.
53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and/or products in their Tweets, with 48% of them delivering on their intention to buy the product. (ROI Research for Performance, June 2010)

How social and search are amalgamating.

200 million twitter users.
Over 750 Million active Facebook users.
25 million Google Plus users.
Search engines would have to be crazy to ignore this volume of usage.

Social as a Ranking Signal.
“We do look at the social authority of a user. This can add a little weight to a listing in regular search results.”
“Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings.”
“The purpose of any ranking signal is to improve overall search quality. For +1’s and other social ranking signals, as with any new ranking signal, we’ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals are related to quality.”

there are 200 million twitter users.
<<more stats in here>>
search engines would be crazy to ignore this kind of volume.
Source: SEOMOZ

What are the effects of this cross-over now?

Search engines are open about using likes, tweets and social endorsements as ranking signals.
New content gets indexed more quickly.
If content is relevant in the social space, it can rank much more effectively.
More difficult to 'game' - as a result the quality of search results will improve.
Google are customising search result to you based on your social circles.

What will happen in the future?

Social media has grown so quickly that Google have to play catch-up to ensure that they are returning users the most relevant content.
It is likely that human endorsement factors will overtake traditional 'link based' ranking factors.
Results are more likely to be based on real-time 'noise' and activity.

What can you do now? and why should you do it?

On your site:
Blogging – make content people want to share.
Social buttons – make it easy to share.
Viral content – create a stir.

Social Buttons

But don’t overdo it.

Viral Content
Over 5000 inbound links resulting in a the top video ranking for “blender”

The Infographic
Mobile app vs. Mobile web.

The Infographic
Where is Google making their money?

On social networks
Optimise your content for visibility & use keyword targets
Twitter - hashtags, look at what's trending, and link to relevant content

Video Optimisation

What can you do? Takeout tips

Register all social profiles. Much easier than trying to reclaim them later
Build up the most valuable ones for your brand - for example, LinkedIn is more relevant for many b2b's and service providers than Facebook right now.
Inter-link profiles where appropriate. (SEO benefit)
Optimise your posts, videos & social profiles with keywords, brand terms and links to your content.

Get a blog & social buttons & put together a content strategy. Content is king! It will continue to be!
Using social media for link building - target your followers with crafted link-bait. with the right analysis, link building tactics can be much more targeted.
Dominate brand search for your own brand name. This is great for reputation management too.

Dominate brand and not domaine examples.

Measuring it
At an early stage, set objectives specifically for SEO alongside your main social objectives.
Obtain retweets,
Shares,
Likes,
Generated links,
Traffic driven through social channels
Report, measure and react to how these perform over time.

Good Search Strategy is all about Engagement
As you begin to look into Social Media Optimisation more deeply, you start to become a lot more connected with your audience.
Even if you began with an obsession around search engine rankings, If you do this correctly, you’ll end up being obsessed with your clients wants, needs and thoughts.

To wrap up...

As a live example; we’ll use this set of slides as a part of our own marketing campaign.

Slides onto SlideShare.
YouTube webcast.
Post excerpts onto twitter.
Publish and share on LinkedIn & through groups.
Add posts to our blog on site.
Post tweets up with relevant hashtags #socialmedia #SEO #SMO and share with our followers.
Support the publication of upcoming guides and whitepapers.

From this activity, we will be aiming to;
Generate links back to our site.
Boost the visibility of our social platforms.
Gain relevant, targeted traffic to our site.
Engage in more conversation within the industry.
Build further recognition for our brand through improved search results.

One More thing...

Private LinkedIn group for this session for Q&A, http://linkd.in/nbxXg8
We've also got a free Social Media guide for business. If you'd like a copy, connect with us online or leave a card with me.
james.fairweather@coastdigital.co.uk
linkedin.com/in/jamesfairweather
twitter.com/j_fairweather (@j_fairweather)
All these links will go up on our blog on the Coast Digital site later so don't worry if you miss them.

Sources, References & Credits
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2104571/Google-Panda-6-Months-Out-Still-Has-People-Baffled
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2080032/Top-5-Google-Panda-Update-SEO-Survival-Tips
http://www.seomoz.com
http://www.searchengineland.com
http://www.seounique.com/blog/google-brand-update-february-2009/
Nichola Stott at http://www.themediaflow.com
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors
http://www.techcrunch.com
Will it blend iPad? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko
http://www.zabisco.com/blog/?p=2164
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2011/07/18/most-expensive-google-adwords-keywords
www.google.com/trends

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Social Media Optimisation

by James Fairweather on Sep 19, 2011

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Social Media Optimisation — Presentation Transcript