Quite a while ago, Facebook made some changes to its interface by integrating “Graph Search” and implementing a new timeline format. Graph Search is their answer to Google’s local search, but does it really compete with them? Social media is not a nice to have anymore, but a must have, and so many brands have already integrated this medium into their traditional marketing activities.
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Community management is a solid foundation of any social media marketing campaign, but how can you use “social search” so that interested people can find you on the social web through other means than just going directly to your social media profiles? Here are a couple of tips on how you can start optimizing your social media campaign to take advantage of social search.
Focus on your customers
Social media made everyone a citizen journalist. Your reputation can be made or broken in 140 characters or less. Many businesses see this as a big risk when starting with social media, but they have to understand that the days are actually over where they can control what is being said about them. It now all depends on how you handle it and becoming part of the conversation.
If you care about your customers, then you most likely care about your reputation. Comments, retweets, mentions, and shares are only some of the actions that you can use to engage with your customers in a personal way. Don’t sound like a robot and shrug off the whole salesman approach with social media. Having a meaningful relationship with your customers means a lot to them. As long as you are engaging with your customers online in relevant and useful areas, appearing in social search will follow.
User generated content
User generated content can provide fuel for your social media campaign. It’s important that you make an emotional connection with your audience. Don’t start a conversation as a salesman interested in selling. I know it sounds easier than it usually is, but start this by asking an open ended question to get the ball rolling. A community manager plays a key role in these situations, because they can shape the direction of the conversion to transform into a trend.
It really doesn’t matter if you are a big organisation or a small one — ask your network some engaging questions to establish an emotional connection with them. When you make your network feel that they are part of the conversation and their contribution is valued, you are not only improving your outreach, you are also increasing positive mentions about your brand on the social web and the more your name appears, the better your chances for appearing in social search.
Newsjacking
This is the process of integrating your message and ideas into break news items in real time. Newsjacking is used for the sole purpose of generating awareness for your business or yourself. For brands, it’s an excellent way to use your employees and contributors to start tracking trending news and integrating them into your current marketing strategy. Aligning your message with current trending news in real time is an approach that can give you quite a lot of exposure.
