We have spoken at great length as to how important Social Media is as a channel to connect with your customers. But did you know that using an integrated search and social media strategy can actually increase your website’s search rankings?
Using social media to promote local brand awareness is critical when you are working to become the leader among your competitors in the digital landscape. You want to make sure that your brand is regularly utilizing these channels before they become obsolete. If you have been even remotely involved in your brand’s digital presence you are already using the two major social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter. In the event that your brand is B2B, hopefully you are already using Linkedin too. You may even have dabbled in Google+ but there are tons of other social platforms out there that you can use to boost your local SEO and broaden your local presence.
Today we are going to look at two popular social media platforms that aren’t commonly used for local search. These two platforms are ripe for domination, if you use them right!
Snapchat
Going Local: Use Snapchat Geofilters to promote your brand, then use local press, PR and social media campaigns to generate buzz and links.
How to: Snapchat uses “On-Demand Geofilters” that are now available to local brands to utilize in any way that suits your business. From this site you create your own filter design, then select the geographical parameters that you want the geofilter to reach and the dates you want the geofilter to run. Snapchat will review it, and your design should be approved within one business day.
These filters work for local brands that want to draw brand awareness, but would also work well promoting local business-specific events. For example, a university that prides itself on its football team can create a geofilter surrounding the game, have it displayed the day of the game and spark engagement in the digital landscape via Snapchat by targeting the university’s students and alumni.
Since Snapchat doesn’t create any web content, in order to leverage this for SEO, you will need to reach out to local news stations about the event and promoting Snapchat Geofilter in the process.
Garnering links from these local news stations will help increase a website’s credibility which, over time, will strengthen search engine positioning. Additionally, it will likely also increase local traffic to your site!
If you get enough engagement, you can further your SEO strategy by requesting that the audience save their Snapchats with the geofilter and enter them to win a caption/random/best photo contest through a social media outlet like Facebook or Twitter.
Quora
Going Local: Elevate your local brand by answering industry-relevant questions within the expertise of your business.
How to: Though not a completely fresh digital source, Quora has revolutionized the concept of complete personalization through an open community forum. The site allows users to follow specific topics of interest and view questions people are asking about those specific topics. It also provides an outlet for the user to ask questions by seeking the help and responses of the Quora community.
Consumers want to engage with personalized content. Local brands that can deliver personalization throughout each step of the buyer’s journey have a higher likelihood to convert a lead — and ultimately drive more traffic to the site to breed a stronger SERP position.
The first step to building a local presence on Quora is building out your profile. Follow topics that relate to your brand, and answer questions that you have expertise in while also linking back to a page on your site or blog that expands on the question asked.
This strategy also drives your content creation because you are able to see what people are interested in regarding your industry. You can then tailor content on your site to speak to trends in questions you see on Quora.
Just like any social platform, you won’t want to inundate with branding, but occasionally you can find questions regarding your industry that you can use to drive traffic back to your local website.
Now you have two different ideas for leveraging social media for local SEO! If you would like help with social media, or would like us to help you with your SEO strategy contact us today!