Social Media. Whatever your opinion of social media is, put it aside. Social media is crucial for your business. Since I knew nothing about how internet searches actual worked, I will explain it to you how I have come to understand it in likely the most basic depiction.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) broken down: when someone search Google, you want your website on the first page, preferable near the top. You can pay for the ad space at the very top or along the side, but I was not willing to pay when I was not sure if it would get the traffic I was looking for – think about how often you click on ads versus search results. Now make a list of the search terms you would like to be with which you want to be found. These can easily be put into the coding of the website.
Google sends out “spiders” to look at this back end of the website to compile their search results. One important thing is if your website does not change, the spiders stop coming… so how can you make sure your site keeps changing? Add a blog! Within this blog, be sure to use the keywords you want Google to see. And all those FREE social media sites register with Google – have you googled your own name? What comes up? Your Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. Make a site for your business on each of these – don’t forget Twitter and Tumblr. These also need to be changed regularly for Google to keep registering them. You can link many of them together so that one post goes to multiple sites. There are services that will do this for you, but I did not want to pay for that, and I wanted to control the posts that were now representing my brand.
Lastly, Google likes when your business/website it found on other sites. Obviously, put your URL in every social media site you have under your description. But writing any guest blogs and putting your website address at the end is key. There is a business built around having this done on the backend, and you can decide if it is worth paying for.
Yes, there are SO many social media platforms. Do not drive yourself crazy trying to manage 10 platforms. What platform is most popular with your demographic? And understand that this can change relatively quickly, but decide what will reach the greatest number of potential client, and will not overwhelm you.