Get More from Search - Trends in Search & Social Media

Once you’ve created your blog and added intriguing content, you might think that the visitors will just start flowing in. Not necessarily so. Relevant content is just the beginning: you have to attract visitors to your site to complete the loop. Then, to engage them on an ongoing basis, you’ll need to maintain fresh content so that inbound links and bookmarks keep the repeat and new visitors coming.

But how do you get the online community interested in your company enough that they’ll share links and bookmark your site? Creating buzz, or more simply, word-of-mouth, takes some serious planning, but with the plethora of social media sites now popular, you can pick and choose which sites will best serve your brand.

What makes your company buzzworthy? Is it superior customer service, beautiful products, new or improved facilities, being environmentally conscious, solving an age-old dilemma, being featured in a slew of unsolicitied press, or passionate community-oriented customers? What’s intriguing about social media is that it relies on user-generated content (UGC). That means that you can create an interactive environment to annouce the buzz and let the conversation begin.

To locate and maintain new site visitors, identify which social media sites best complement your site, products and services. Then, join as many as make sense from a content, audience and campaign maintenance standpoint so that you reach the broadest audience. The most popular UGC sites include MySpace, YouTube, del.icio.us, Wikipedia, Digg and Squidoo. Because these are such popular sites with excellent page ranks, your contributions can get you noticed by major search engines very quickly.

For instance, if your company has made a commitment to preserving the environment, creat a MySpace page that highlights a particular environmental issue and subtly note that your company donates a protion of its revenues to this cause. Invite other MySpace users to comment on the issue; you might be surprised at the passionate response engendered by people far and wide. You’ll create awareness for the issue and for your company. These types of impressions stick long after the social media site is viewed. You’re creating a community that identifies with your company which means that the next time you MySpace friends need what you offer, they’ll most likely think of your website. But don’t disappoint - make sure that your website is prepared for this focused traffic. Update your home page with links to subpages that relate to these user-generated campaigns. Generating traffic via engaged users can mean loyal, long-term customers - something no business can ever get enough of.

Tweet This