For most modern-day businesses, social media plays a crucial role in how owners develop, expand and improve their online presence. In fact, many small businesses that do not have the resources to invest in a website use only social media accounts to get started. Social media websites also form part of your company’s search engine optimization opportunities. If you can use the same company that provides your SEO services to handle your social media, you have struck gold.

The Impact of Social Media on Your Brand

Companies have a love-hate relationship with social media. Build the right social brand and you could see website traffic soar through the roof for all the right reasons. Suddenly, your brand scores lots of free publicity through reviews on YouTube and photos on Instagram. However, in the wrong hands or after one mistake, social media followers can turn against the very brands they support.

So, what can companies do to ensure they experience more positive outcomes than negative ones? Here are a few tips:

• Hire a diverse team to ensure people from various backgrounds vet messages that go out online.
• Rely on experienced professionals to handle social media management accounts, so there are fewer mishaps.
• Have a crisis management plan at the ready, just in case something does go amiss online or off.
• Avoid sensitive topics that may lead to negative blowback you feel your company is unable to weather, whenever possible.
• Focus on not just publishing posts but building a community and learning more about your current and potential customers.
• Incorporate solid SEO strategies into your social media campaign.

How Social Media Affects Your Search Engine Optimization

Did you know that social media posts now rank in Google search results? From Quora answers to Facebook business listings and Twitter posts, your social media content can attract good SEO for your brand. What does this mean for your company?

1. Social Media Platforms Act as Search Engines

Not only do social media posts rank in other search engines, but they provide search engines of their own. YouTube is an excellent example of this. Google’s champion social media platform is second only to itself as a search engine and completes more user searches than Ask.com, AOL and Yahoo combined. Hashtags form part of the internal search engine and make for great branding tools as well.

2. Social Media Backlinks May or May Not Count

There is an ongoing debate among social media gurus about whether social media backlinks count as credible backlinks that Google actually pays attention to. Many say no, they do not. However, if you have ever had a post go viral, you may also notice your SEO performance surging. At the very least, being super shareable online can’t hurt.

3. Social Media Accounts Can Refer Website Traffic

Even if your company’s social media backlinks do not provide direct SEO juice, they do help refer traffic to your website. This is likely one of the reasons that having a linked web page go viral can boost your business. Even if you do not have a link to your website in the post, links on your social media profile make it possible for interested parties to dig further.

How To Move Forward

If you have not created social media accounts or neglected the ones you do have, you may miss out on big opportunities in marketing. After all, roughly 40% of consumers online use social media as part of their product research process. To add to this, when people complain about a brand on Twitter, 78% expect the company to respond in an hour or less. Is your social media strategy up to the task?

Unwired Web Solutions can help you create an effective social media strategy. Reach out to us to find out what hiring a local SEO company can do for your business’s online presence.