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Last week we discussed, “Why social media is important for your business and for SEO.” What we didn’t talk about was how we use it to our advantage, how it helps market our business and why you should be on it.

In our last guest blog we mentioned what SEO was. In order to dive more into the social media world and its integrated relationship with search engine ranking and results there are a few important terms I want to introduce you to. The first being SMO, which is Social Media Optimization, and the second is SMI, which is Social Media Integration (SMI in some cases might also refer to social media implementation).

Social Media Optimization is exactly like it sounds; it’s utilizing social media to spread awareness of a company brand, service, product, or even event. The overall goal, much like SEO, is to generate traffic and awareness to your company website.

Social Media Integration is essentially the integration of social media platforms onto your website. It’s more than just that though. Social media integration is a love affair between your social media platforms and your website, but it goes both ways. While your social media should be integrated in order to drive those to your website, your website needs to be integrated to reflect your active social networking sites. When you're on a website and you see a pin-it, linkedin share, facebook like or one of many various social networking plug-ins, that is SMI.

In the last year SEO has been turned upside down by the continuing emergence of social media. If you’re sitting back and thinking to yourself that you don’t need social media for your business, you’re wrong. If you’re sitting back and thinking that social media in-and-of itself won't convert to actual sales, you’re not too far off. I won’t sit here and lie and say that the creation of your presence on social media will immediately drive sales, because that would be a lie, but let me tell you what SMO and SMI can do for you and how it will indirectly drive sales to your business.

If you didn't know already, did you know that optimizing your social networking sites correctly can increase your SEO rankings? The reason is that social media shows relevancy. It shows what’s important, it shows that people are paying attention to, and it allows for a two-way street of communication. By integrating +1’s and “like” buttons onto your site you’re showing web crawlers what is relevant or not. Therefore, your site or business will move up in its rankings – organically. This, however, only works if you have an active social media account – someone who regularly maintains, interacts, and engages with your audience.

Creating social media accounts that remain inactive do you virtually no good, and in some cases may hurt your rankings in Google search results. LRT Graphics utilizes social media to help with our SEO by actively branding our Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter,Google + , Linkedin, andTumblr pages. That in-and-of itself is not enough. Updating your social networking sites still requires basic knowledge of what drives SEO such as meta keywords and descriptions and using the right keywords with on-site content, targeting the right demographics and Geographic's, etc. etc.

  Creating relevant, engaging content drives people to engage on our social networking sites, and that engagement shows web crawlers our relevance. While social networking sites like Facebook might not in-and-of itself drive sales to your company (which in our case, it actually does) it helps increase your high-ranking spots in search results, as long as you're using the right verbiage and graphics. If you type in a certain keyword, and see your company in the top six spots vs. just one spot someplace on the page, then you’re instantly creating more opportunities for people to find you when searching online. Now THAT will drive sales to your business and is a direct result of active, relevant, content – rich, social media accounts.

An important thing to remember is to make friends and play nice with influencers on these sites. For example, if you have a relationship with a business, company, person, etc. with an active social media account that shares your post or tweet – you instantly increased your original posts visibility and also show the relevance of your site. The main thing to remember is that social media shows relevance and relevance helps increase your businesses visibility. 

Want to learn more? Need help with your SEO or SMO campaign? LRT Graphics can help you! 

LRT Graphics is in the graphic solutions business. We specialize in everything from SEO & SMO Campaigns, Social Media Management, marketing campaigns (including PPC ad’s), web design, web development, logo design, company branding, vehicle graphics, signs & banners, offset printing, custom apparel, and promotional items to marketing and web design. It is our job to make any business grow profitably by showing visibly. Get a professional look with the help of the professionals.

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