So much of our online marketing efforts overlap with one another. With the right coordination, the line between search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing begins to blur. Marketing tactics that started out solely as a means for improving social media visibility are now transitioning into viable SEO strategies. One of my favorite examples of this is link building through social media monitoring.
Social media monitoring is basically the process of monitoring conversations about your brand and/or product(s) across social communities. This can range from tweets to blog posts to mentions in news articles. The point is, if someone is talking about you or your products – you want to know about it.
But what if someone mentions a keyword you are targeting for SEO? Doesn’t that stand out to you as a new link opportunity? In addition to tracking brand and product mentions, you can use your favorite social media monitoring tool as an automated link researching tool. It’s like having that intern you keep trying to get your boss to let you hire, except this one will work 24/7 for you and you don’t have to teach it anything.
So what all should you be monitoring? Here are three ways you can take advantage of social media monitoring for SEO.
Keywords your targeting. I mentioned this one at the beginning of the article. The idea is if someone writes a blog post about a keyword you’re trying to rank for, it could be a great opportunity for you to reach out to them and convince them to insert a link to your site in the post or to allow you to guest post for them. It’s also a great way to discover popular communities in your industry (e.g. forums) that you should be participating in daily – and including links in your posts where relevant. The opportunities are endless, especially considering how many keywords you’re probably interested in ranking for.
Keeping an eye on your competitors. Where are your competitors building links and participating? This is a great opportunity for you see see where they are focusing their link building efforts so you can also engage in those areas. It’s also a great way to keep tabs on what anchor text they are focusing on so you know what keywords they are targeting. You just mind find a few that you hadn’t though of targeting in the first place.
Identifying industry authorities. Finding the key influencers in your industry and getting them to write about and discuss your company, products and services can be a dream come true for your SEO. With just a few simple reviews on their blog or even just through their Twitter stream, you’ll start to see more organic reviews showing up that didn’t require any effort on your part.
What ways are you using social media monitoring for SEO?
