Three Basic SMM Steps You Should Take

The decade is almost over. Who knows where social media marketing will stand in 2019? Science fiction-style predictions are usually a little exaggerated, so we likely won’t yet be able to jack in to other bodies or a virtual reality world a la Avatar or The Matrix. Instead, the Internet will likely have continued its evolution into a hyper-connected social network of virtual communities, lifestyle-customized advertising, and real-time, mobile-accessible information.

But a journey of a decade begins with a month. Looking ahead to January 2010, there are three very basic steps your company can take to enter the world of social media.

Claim Your Name

Twitter and Facebook are currently the most popular social networking sites, though that may change in the next year or two. Even if you haven’t yet created a social media marketing strategy, take a few minutes to create an account with your company’s name on Twitter and a Facebook “vanity” URL with the same name. It’s free, it protects your business name in the social media sphere, and it’s ground zero for stepping into the future of Internet marketing.

Online video is likely to be an area of radical growth in the next few years, particularly “how to” videos that could show up in search engine results and thus bolster your search engine optimization efforts. Accordingly, you might also want to create a YouTube channel with your company name.

Create a Blog

It’s easy, and there are many free blog hosting services available if you’re technophobic. A blog is one of the most basic tools you’ll need for providing information to customers and starting a search engine optimization campaign. And if you’re no John Steinbeck or Toni Morrison, we offer content writing services that would help you to get started.

User-Generated Content

Company-created online communities are likely to become prominent in the years ahead. Multiple studies have shown that online retailers with websites that feature customer reviews enjoy higher conversion rates and lower product return rates. Even if the occasional customer posts something negative, it gives customers more trust in your authenticity and integrity. If it’s appropriate for the type of product or service you offer, consider adding a customer review feature to your website. User-generated content is beneficial not only for building customer loyalty, but also for SEO—there’s a reason that Amazon is almost always at the top of search results, and it’s not because they’re bribing Google.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 9:05 am and is filed under Search Engine Optimization, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.