Surprising Facts About Social Media

For this post, I was looking to do something a little different.  Yes, these may be what some people refer to as "fun facts", but I think they are more than that.  I am a strong believer in the fact that social media has a significant impact on a business and their sales, as well as brand awareness and reputation.  Therefore, I set out to find some of the most interesting facts possible to prove this point.  Here's my top five facts about social media that prove it's impact in the business world and why you should get involved in it!

1.  There are over 1 billion users on Facebook. That's about 1/7 of the entire population. That's a lot of potential followers and influencers.

2.  Time spent on each social media outlet per month is surprising.  What better way to get people involved than through one of these great social media forums?

3. Think only young people are on social media? Not true!  As of 2012, 62% of adults worldwide use social media ( The Social Skinny).

4. On average, every twitter user has 126 followers (The Social Skinny).  What does this mean for you?  If even just five people retweet something from your business, that is potentially seen by at least 630 people.  The best part of this statistic?  It's FREE advertising and brand mentions, all by people that are influencers in their followers, which make them more likely to increase your sales.

5. Using images on Facebook is important.  If you want more interaction, on average, Facebook images increase likes by 53%.

Top Five Tips for Optimizing SEO in Social Media

Many companies nowadays have a social media presence.  Whether it's on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogger, or any other social media platform, it's important to be involved in today's world.  However, many companies do not utilize these tools to their full potential.  One of the biggest keys to success has to do with SEO, Search Engine Optimization.  This is a fancy term used to describe the process of making your site more visible on the web.  In order to allow customers and potential employees to find out about you, SEO is key.

Not sure how to use all the millions of tools out there for SEO or just plain confused?  Well, there's always a company you can hire for SEO, a great idea when the industry is constantly changing and updating.  However, if you want to try it out on your own or simply want to learn a little bit more, here are my top five tips on SEO optimization and how to utilize it in social media.

Top Five Tips for Optimizing SEO in Social Media

1. Use keywords!!!!

This is by far the most important thing you could do to improve your website content.  By using keywords, Google can better rank your information for search engine results and therefore get your name up higher in the organic results listings (the search results that aren't ads).  There are many tools out there to use, but a personal favorite of mine would be the keyword tool in Google Adwords.  It takes a little bit of getting used to, but once you figure out how to navigate throughout Adwords, you will find it much easier to use.  All you need to do is set up an account (you don't have to put a monetary amount in if you are not interested in running ads), create a campaign if required, then go to Tools and Analysis and click on Keyword Tool.  With this tool, you can search for keywords relevant to your company, and find out what items are popular and successful.

If this is too complicated for you, there are tools out there like SEOmoz that allow you to pay a subscription fee and find keywords in a similar fashion as above.

Whatever you choose to use, make sure that you use something!  By not using keyword optimization, your information will be lost in the abyss of the web, never to be found by potential customers.

2. Link, and link often!

Google uses the amount of links on your site as a tool to measure relevance.  The key to this is to have relevant and working links.  If you add in "filler" links, Google will not miss it.  Moral of the story? Make sure to use relevant links that your followers will want to click on to improve your search rankings.

3.  Utilize title tags and meta descriptions.

This sounds like a no-brainer right?  Well, it's easily forgotten.  By writing descriptive and optimized meta descriptions, people searching for your information can find you easier.  Along with that, unique and relevant title tags help boost your SEO ratings as well.

4. Pick a relevant and unique twitter handle.

Again, sounds obvious right?  If you don't pick a handle (the #company that represents your page) that is relevant to your information, it will be hard to gather followers and get non-customers who may not know about you gather any information.  For instance, if I am looking to find influential people in the world of social media, I am going to search for certain key words.  If a social media expert has a handle like #mynameischris, I will more than likely not stumble upon them. So, find a twitter handle that is relevant to your company and make sure to focus your content around that!

5. Be involved!

The biggest mistake in social media today is companies that do not constantly engage with their followers.  A company that rarely posts on social media is not going to be seen as an influential body in their field, making their likelihood of being found in search results very low.  Whether it's posting on a regular basis or responding to comments by customers, it is important to be involved. Yes, this may mean having someone constantly monitoring your social media accounts, but it is worth it.  Customers want to be interacted with, and impressions are everything.  If someone complains, it is best to address it quickly.  The same goes for positive comments.  Interaction and involvement is key to success!

Guerrilla Marketing-What the heck does that mean?

In the world of marketing, there has been a huge increase in something called guerrilla marketing. So, what the heck is it? Well, if you are ever out in a city and see some outstanding advertisement that draws you in and gets you engaged, chances are it's guerrilla marketing. This kind of marketing is used to get people thinking. It's meant to be a cheaper alternative than traditional advertising, but in most cases much more enticing. Companies try and come up with the most innovative ideas possible to draw in customers and get their name out there.

Want some good examples? There are quite a few innovative companies out there, but here's a few of my favorites.

Cingular

Rimmel

Coop's Paints

McDonald's



Resident Evil



Nivea



Mini Countryman

As you can see, there is no one right way to do this. The key is innovation. Still interested in reading more? Here's a great blog devoted specifically to guerrilla marketing: Engaging Guerrillas