<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=508589213126107&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">

WebiMax Blog

Digital marketing tips and advice.

Be a Social Butterfly – Give your Content Wings

Sara Klemowitz, April 18, 2013

I hope you brought a few extra cookies to the lunch table, because with the way SEO is evolving, you're going to need to make some new friends – and those friends are Twitter and Pinterest.

WebiMax - Facebook
I've been SEO writing for several years, and the increasing overlap of the two circles in the Venn diagram of "content" and "social media" is the biggest change to which I've had to adapt. Now, there's scarcely a time when I'm in the process of writing or posting a blog post, article, infographic, or what-have-you and I don't visit one of these social media platforms. This is not to say that there isn't a place in the SEO world for Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Yelp!, and the rest of the gang, because those provide a whole new slew of optimization opportunities. I've simply found that these two are a) largely accessible to content writers of any level of experience and/or expertise, and b) the ones that make it super easy to pigeonhole your audience.

Let's delve further into how the writing and social media departments of SEO overlap, shall we?

Twitter
When deciding on a blog topic, we know how important it is to choose a title that's attention-grabbing. One way to go about that is to make sure it's current and relevant. We're a culture of short attention spans – we're so connected that there are constantly a million different things competing for readers' attention, and that's why you need to be strategic if you're one of those competitors. For this reason, you want to make friends with Twitter and, more importantly, its 'Trending' and 'Discover' tabs. Twitter is your inside source, letting you know what people are talking about right now – it lets you know what already has people's attention, so all you have to do is stay on-topic so social media users can't resist a click.

Keep in mind that hashtags are the best thing to happen to social sharing since sliced bread. Once you've posted your blog post or infographic, tweet it and slap one of those trending hashtags on it. Just like that, you're automatically visible to the millions of people browsing that hashtag.

Pinterest
People go to Pinterest for ideas. You've got ideas, don't you? Otherwise, you wouldn't be writing that article or blog post. The best way to make use of Pinterest is to be creative: write a lively how-to blog post, or create an infographic with wild and interesting facts. (Another helpful tip from me to you: try not to get sucked in in the process.)


Once you create a pin of your post and post it to the relevant category, the nature of Pinterest does the rest of the work for you. You never know when something might go viral – I once pinned a blog post on bridal showers, and it got over 800 re-pins.

On the flip-side, if you don't have ideas, you can be one of those people who uses Pinterest for just that reason. Go to the relevant category and see what's getting the most pins – what are people interested in right now? On my feed right now, I can tell you that an article on how to make an all-natural slug repellent (yum) has tons of re-pins. It makes sense, it's springtime and this is a current issue. Play off the seasonal idea since that seems to be working.

As I said before, one could easily make the argument for other social platforms and their usefulness, but based on my experience, these have the fewest limitations for both resources and sharing. They require the lowest level of craftiness (and don't ask for any money, which is always a plus) for making what you share visible to a large audience, and it's easiest to search for what's popular on any given topic.

How does your content socialize? Comment and let me know, or drop me a line at sklemowitz@webimax.com.

Need an Expert Contributor?

Ken Wisnefski is a seasoned web entrepreneur and a frequent contributor to news outlets and business publications. Ken’s vast knowledge of how to make online businesses succeed has made him a sought after consultant from businesses wishing to improve their online initiatives. Contact pr@webimax.com to collaborate!

More...

Subscribe to Updates