SEO Branding is not just about getting your pages onto Google’s 1st page results, it’s about simultaneously helping build a brand’s visibility in multiple locations, and generating a relationship with your audience. That translates into further social interaction – sales, referrals and repeat buying behavior.
What is SEO Branding?
Technically, [tweet_dis]SEO branding is a strategic, iterative form of inbound marketing with the potential to expand a business’ level of success[/tweet_dis] by integrating traditional SEO efforts with a focus on brand building, so that one does not interfere with the other, but instead delivers a positive impact to the client businesses.
“People do not make buying decisions based on impersonal facts. They rely upon their perspective and how they think, interpret or believe circumstances to be. They add “emotional spin” to the data based on their gut feeling and mood, which significantly alters and affects your SEO efforts.” Trond Lyngbo
How do I integrate SEO Branding with my company’s social media campaigns?
Here is the problem. The ‘first contact’ rarely closes a sale. At best it serves as a cautious introduction to a stranger. It is meant to incite curiosity and evoke interest, and hopefully invites further engagement. If the other steps along the marketing funnel work in concert with that initial impression, trust will develop and lead to the desired action.
By itself the little banner ad in the sidebar of our search results page above isn’t usually enough to get someone to buy. Even if the sales funnel is optimized like the infograph it is still a crap shoot.
“Your brand is not only the quality of your products and services, it’s the overall impression your public gets from the marketing and interaction with the brand,” says branding expert Michael Toebe, Conflict Management Strategist & Practitioner.
Social Media & SEO Integration
According to a new study from Ascend2, Successful companies integrate social media into SEO strategies and tactics more extensively than companies that struggle with SEO and Social Media Optimization.
Community development and participation is key when building a business. It is the community that drives business for every small business owner. Get involved in your community and share your involvement on social media.
While researching this article I came across 100’s of good, solid suggestions for SEO Branding and brand building using social media. Here are six of my favorite keys with source links to building trust in your brand using social media.
1. Deliver Quality: By sharing your best content, people will begin to start understanding your company better, and looking towards you for information. Trustable information looks professional, contains great information, and has no errors. By sharing the content you have spent the most time on with followers on social media, you’ll increase their trust. (Impact)
2. Communicating Thought Leadership: One way for a brand to lose credibility with a social audience is to simply spam them with “opportunities” to purchase a product or service without providing any value. This value can come in many forms, but should be designed to teach, entertain, ignite discussions, and gain honest feedback. Social media is the perfect platform for a brand to communicate their expertise in a given industry. (Forbes)
3. Ask Questions to Stay Relevant: If you’re not asking questions about what’s different today, you’re on a path to complacency. If you’re not competing for the future, you’re by definition competing for irrelevance. (Brian Solis) You must stay relevant in any channel to build long-term trust with consumers of your product or service.
4. Understand the Importance of a Social Presence in your Industry: This is a Big One – Leverage social media monitoring, customer surveys and industry research to get a broad view of what role social media plays in the brand and prospect relationship. Talk to social savvy sales people to get their first hand perspectives and identify what’s working. (TopRank)
[tweet_box design=”default”]Trust can be defined as a firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing[/tweet_box]
5. Social Responsibility: Socially responsible brands often gain more momentum because their customers know they aren’t just about profits, but also giving back to their communities or the world around them. Social media channels are the perfect platform to communicate this message and let it spread organically.
6. B2B Interaction: Don’t just use social media for connecting with your clients, use it to connect with other industry companies, and organizations too. Interacting with the charities your firm supports, striking up conversations with industry leaders, and partnering up with others. You can use social media to show just how involved your company is.
BONUS – Remember the Definition of Trust: Trust can be defined as a firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing. Trust can be a powerful thing if built the right way in the world of interactive, digital, and social media marketing.
Social media is a great way to reach a new group of targeted consumers. Advertising and management strategies on platforms like Facebook and Linkedin make it easy to target specific demographics like age, industry and interests.
Bottom line; Any SEO Branding or social campaign that ignores the vital role of SEO is destined to fail, or at least seriously under-perform on its potential. Not being in control of your SEO branding can become a costly mistake but getting it right can be extremely profitable.
What are your thoughts about SEO Branding & Social Media for business? This article only touches the edges of SEO Branding as it pertains to Social Optimization. How else do you integrate SEO with branding campaigns? Please share.
Michael Klasno is SERP Sniper – Building local optimized websites for Attorneys, Law Firms and Business Professionals in Houston and Southeast Texas.
Michael Klasno is a consummate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist with an impressive 20-year tenure in the digital marketing landscape. Throughout two decades, Michael has been at the forefront of evolving website design & SEO strategies, seamlessly integrating the latest trends with time-tested methodologies.
His SEO expertise encompasses a vast array of skills, including keyword research, technical SEO, (both on-page and off-page) Local SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, SEO auditing, competitive analysis, and content strategy formulation.
“By building a cost effective corporate or business website that looks great and has a high conversion rate you can dominate the organic search results.”
