Google makes 500+ tweaks and improvements to its search engine algorithm every year. Based on scientific analysis, and real user feedback, these improvements drive Google’s search features and underlying algorithms.

Enjoy the video!

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Why is Search Important?

It is now a well established fact that most B2B buyers use “search” to find suppliers. Before we race ahead of ourselves though, “search” does not just mean Google! Google are incredibly important when it comes to online searches, but other platforms play a key role as well.

Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, or business networks such as LinkedIn, include search as a key component of their platform. They can all be used and abused in different ways.

If you think about the reasoning behind Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), the goal is to rank highly for relevant keyphrases so that potential customers can find you before they find your competitors. The same principle applies to the social networks. If a potential buyer searches LinkedIn for companies in your region that do what you do, can they find you? or do your competitors steal the show?

How to use Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Marketing your business effectively on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn etc… requires a tailored approach to each platform, yet the underlying principles remain the same:

- Be Helpful

- Be Seen

- Don’t spam!

How to Use LinkedIn

So how do we apply these principles to LinkedIn marketing? Well, success on LinkedIn starts with having your personal profile set up effectively. There are plenty of articles and tips out there on how to do this, so I won’t go into the details here (subject of a future blog post no doubt!). 

So once you have your profile setup, you need to start building your network. The obvious way to get this started is to connect with those you know. You can import your address book into LinkedIn and let them fire off invites to all those you wish to connect with.To grow your network beyond those you already know on Day 1 can obviously be acheived by connecting with individuals you meet in your business dealings or face to face networking. 

Expand your Network & Make New Connections

What about being able to expand your network and target new prospects without having to leave your laptop though? Anti-social? Perhaps! But let’s not forget that many (most?) successful business relationships can be sparked from an initial online encounter (of the good kind!). If you strike up new business relationships online, this doesn’t mean they have to stay online!

So how can we make these new connections? This is where LinkedIn Groups and LinkedIn Answers comes in useful. We’ll focus on LinkedIn Groups for now. LinkedIn Groups are effectively self-contained social networks within the larger “global” network of LinkedIn users. Groups are normally quite specific to a certain topic, industry or profession and allow like-minded professionals to meet and share ideas. They also allow buyers (or employers) to connect with potential suppliers (or employees). 

Be Active, Helpful & Professional

If you show yourself to be active, helpful, and well informed on what you’re talking about, prospects will be more inclined to contact you. As long as you keep on being helpful, you will have the freedom to occasionally advertise (althought I prefer the word “mention”) what you do. This can sometimes act as the nudge for someone to get in touch. But remember not to overdo it. There is no excuse for SPAM. Plastering a group with adverts for your “amazing” company will not only turn customers away, it will damage your reputation, and likely result in you getting banned from that group.

It’s all About the Right Kind of Visibility

Finishing on a positive note though, LinkedIn can offer a wealth of opportunities for making new connections and capturing new business. It’s all about visibility (being seen) and adding value (being helpful).

Remember, If you’d like some assistance with getting to grips with LinkedIn, do let us know. We can be contacted via email on info@acuras.co.uk or you can call us on 01494 259 141. We’ll be happy to help.

Next Time

We’re already looking forward to publishing Part 2 of this “Social Media Marketing” series next week. We’ll keep you posted!

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Quick wins vs. diminishing returns…

At the start of an SEO strategy, there are often a lot of “easy targets” that can be knocked down to give noticeably effective results just after a few weeks. These would be classed as “Quick Wins”. For example, if the client’s website hasn’t even been indexed by the Search Engines yet, it is a fairly straightforward task for an SEO consultant to make some positive tweaks to the site structure, make sure robots.txt is configured correctly, and generate and submit a sitemap to the Search Engines to speed things along.

After the first couple of months though, the number of “Quick Wins” available to you will likely disappear. So what then? How do you make sure that the client still sees your on-going SEO work (e.g. link building) as valuable (which it is!).

A couple of things may help:

• “Diminishing Returns” should be incorporated into your overall SEO strategy with a positive angle - make sure your client understands what it means and that you will be adding value every month, but the first few months may appear to give a quick and immediate ROI but the sustained SEO work is still required to give a long-term positive impact.
• It is a good idea to report on progress since Day 1 of the SEO campaign, not always from the previous month’s progress.

There’s a great article here for further reading: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/project-management-for-seo

Let us know if you would like advice or consultation on getting an effective SEO campaign for your website(s) up and running.

Email us now:
info@acuras.co.uk
or call us on:
01494 259 141

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