We stumbled across an article from TechJournal South on Tuesday that highlights six must-have social networking profiles for business owners, marketers and advertisers.
Author Heather Lutze writes that each platform serves a specific purpose and has a “touch of optimization” for every campaign you launch.
Here’s her list (copy/pasted, NOT THE WORK OF S16!):
Social Advertising Element #1: Linked In
A popular business profile site, LinkedIn ranks very well in search engines and is a great platform for sending event updates out to business associates.
Directions: When optimizing your LinkedIn profile, select one core keyword (or search term you would like to be found under), use it frequently without sacrificing consumer experience, and watch your profile skyrocket in the search engines.
Social Advertising Element #2: Facebook
As a closed community, Facebook does not rank in the search engines and makes the best choice if you want to have a personal profile online. However, optimizing your Facebook profile with your business keyword can make it an invaluable marketing effort.
Directions: Optimize your Facebook profile for one keyword and become the “go-to” expert in your industry for the more than 22 million Facebook users. Also, include some personal touches, but beware of putting too much personal information online.
Social Advertising Element #3: MySpace
As an open community, MySpace ranks great in the search engines, and more importantly, allows businesses to have fully-developed profiles, including personally designed backgrounds.
Directions: In addition to optimizing your profile with a keyword, you can also search for your target audience in MySpace friends and create an amazing outreach network.
Social Advertising Element #4:YouTube
The main video sharing platform, YouTube is one of the best forums available to create a viral marketing campaign. From publishing client video testimonials to creating social proof of your abilities, YouTube videos are a great way to get other site owners to link to your website.
Directions: Each new video is a new opportunity to optimize for a different keyword. For each video, be sure to include your keyword in the title and at least once in the description section.
Social Advertising Element #5: Blog
If you only have the time or desire to create one social media platform, a blog should be at the top of your list. Blogs give users a few distinctive advantages over the other platforms that make them absolutely invaluable in the world of Internet Marketing. First, search engines love blogs. They have plenty of content and are easy for the spiders to crawl and categorize online. Second, consumers love blogs. They aren’t hard-sales, but instead are a mix of marketing and education that online shoppers trust. Third, every blog is a new opportunity for you to go after a new keyword. Whether you want to dominate a search page with one particular keyword or just have a presence under a different keyword, a blog is a free and easy way to get you there.
Directions: As with a YouTube video, every blog is a new keyword opportunity. Use a keyword tool, and select your keyword before writing. Then, include your keyword in the title and throughout the content- but remember never sacrifice consumer experience. Also, be advised that repeating a keyword too many times will show up as spam in the search engines.
Social Advertising Element #6: Twitter
The newest, hottest rage, Twitter is a micro blog that limits posts to 140 characters. Although you’ll typically hear the most skepticism about Twitter, it can be an amazing tool for your business. Twitter plugins allow you to update Twitter and literally push it out to your other platforms, such as Facebook. Additionally, Twitter posts rank in the search engines.
Directions: Select one keyword and include that in all your Twitter posts. Also, don’t forget to personalize your Twitter background for a totally unique and branded look and feel.
What do you think? Are there any that have been left out? Should one or two be removed? Leave us your thoughts.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I would add Flickr to this list. It’s such a huge online, searchable destination for photos and more. I’ve had lots of feedback from visitors to my photos.
Personally, I would remove MySpace and insert Flickr. I haven’t logged into MySpace in months. Also, I rarely use LinkedIn, but can see how it would benefit professionals who are new to social media and want to expand their networks in a business-only setting.
I would have to agree with Whitney, MySpace is not as significant and facebook makes it redundant. I gotz them all.
Hello and thank you for publishing this article. We included MySpace because regardless of whether or not you have login into the account, it is a great way to get a position ranked in Google under a valuable keyword. Even though MySpace is not the leader anymore, it’s still spidered and indexed by Google and that’s what I care about.
A lot of these are no-brainers. At the end of the day, if it is a high population site that you are bombarded with 24/7, you should probably be on it.
I do agree though that MySpace isn’t that critical anymore. I’d go further (and maybe controversial) to say Twitter is quickly becoming a non-necessity. Fact is, most of the folks who are on Twitter don’t use it. The signal to noise ratio on Twitter is extremely high, and based on the past few months on Compete, looks like its peaked out.
Facebook all the way!
I’m curious as to why you say Facebook doesn’t rank in the search engines, when in fact it does, especially with the development of Facebook Pages, blog integration and RSS Facebook feeds? Keywords become part of the URL, which will have some effect on SERP. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Just wanted to add that I found this article through a Google search that led me to it on a Facebook page, which then linked here.
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