In this session at PubCon Las Vegas, I speak about how one can impact their overall search visibility utilizing social media. The two are becoming more inter-twinned each and every day. While search marketing used to consist of good on-page SEO (title tags, meta data, etc.), now there are links and social signals that are also needed for one to experience good organic search visibility.
So, where are we currently at with regard to effective search/social media marketing strategies?
On-Page SEO + Link Building + Content Marketing = Success
- On-Page Optimization (SEO) and Link Building are still essential ingredients, however, they alone are often not enough.
- Google moving away from PageRank and focusing on social signals makes Content Marketing via Social Media another essential ingredient.
- Content Marketing Examples
– Resourceful Posts (Top 10’s, How-To’s, etc.)
– Guest Posts
– Memes
– White Papers
– Videos
– Infographics
Looking at infographics as a content marketing strategy, keep in mind that while a relatively new term to Internet marketing, infographics have been used throughout history, even dating back to the cavemen.
Here are some key points to consider in your infographic marketing strategy.
1. It All Starts With a Great Idea
Every great piece of content has to have its origin in the quality of an idea! These can be time-sensitive such as current trends, top news and the like, resourceful, entertaining, and even historical.
2. Back It Up With Research
Once you have a great idea in place, it’s time to gather the research. Depending on the nature of the piece, your research may contain historical facts, current data/trends, and creative ideas. Make sure you list citations as it will give credence to your infographic.
3. Make Sure It’s Pretty
A good idea is crucial, but how it looks is not far behind in importance. Do you want your infographic to stretch horizontally or vertically? Will you display a smaller version of it or crop a section out? Make sure format loads relatively quickly (.bmp, .png, and .tiff are a bad idea).
4. Promoting Infographics – How and Where?
Here are some general tips to keep in mind, many of which can apply to any piece of content marketing.
- The general nature of the piece will determine which social networks it will do best on.
- Share on Facebook and Twitter; consider utilizing Facebook Ads and Sponsored Tweets.
- Use StumbleUpon Paid Discovery to draw more attention to your infographic.
- If content is interesting, time-sensitive, or controversial, it should do well on Reddit.
- Set up and post to Pinterest, Tumblr and visualize.us accounts.
- Send an optimized press release via online PR sites such as MarketWire and PRWeb.
- Utilize dozens of bookmarking sites including infographic sites.
- Having a large network of followers (influential status) will help promotion efforts.
- If you lack influence, it might be wise to hire someone who does to share content.
- Include an “Embed This Code!” (http://infographicjournal.com/embed-code-generator/)
Infographics Archives/Directories
- visua.ly – (self-serving)
- Submit Infographics
- The Infographics Showcase – ($100)
- Additional Sites – http://infographicdatabase.com/list-of-infographic-submission-websites/
5. Measure For Success
- Measure three to four weeks after publishing
- Use Google Analytics or similar to see how many people visited the infographic, learn where they came from, and even discover what they did after landing on the page.
- Utilize backlink checkers such as Raven Tools’ Backlink Explorer and SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer to discover who has linked back to the piece.
- Finally, you’ll want to see how the content did on the most popular social networks. How many Stumbles did it earn? How many retweets or Facebook shares? How many times was it “re-pinned?”
There you have it! If you’d like to see the actual slides used during the presentation, please visit https://www.slideshare.net/searchrank and look for the title “The Convergence of Social & Search.”