How social are you?
Posted: 8 January 2012 Filed under: business networking, business tools, marketing, web design Leave a comment »There’s a great buzz around social networking – using Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter, blogging and so on to generate more visits to your website and more business. Some clients have been advised by SEO practitioners to start blogging and set up a Facebook page in order to improve search engine rankings.
I think this needs to be considered very carefully.
Blogging and business Facebook pages have been put forward as a way to update your website yourself – usually quoting “it’s difficult to get web designers to update your website”. In some case this is true. I have picked up the pieces from several “abandoned” websites set up by designers who have no idea about marketing or customer service, or by students who have just moved on. A professional web designer will always consider how the client’s website is to be updated and maintained – either using a content management system (CMS), a support and updating contract or a combination.
see www.realcomnet.co.uk/updating-your-website.html.
Even when you use social sites to provide news and updates about your business you will still need to make changes to your website to accommodate SEO tools such as keywords, descriptions and scripts. And the most important factor in getting good rankings on search engine is good content. You will need to modify and update content, provide landing pages etc. to support any respectable marketing campaign.
I’m not saying that blogs and Facebook etc. are not worth doing. In some markets – e.g. consumer electronics, food, holidays – social marketing is essential. Consumers like to talk about products they have bought or are thinking of buying. But it may not be essential to your business. Think carefully about your audience. Are they likely to be avid Facebook users (over 50% of UK population has a Facebook page)? Can you afford to spend time creating content for blogs? The answer is probably that if it’s important to your target audience you should get professional assistance to make social networking work for your business. If it’s not – don’t spend a lot of your time or money doing it, probably badly. Social networking is just another communication channel. You know your clients and how they like to hear from you. Concentrate your precious marketing budget (inc your time) where it matters.
