Internet Marketing and Social Media Interaction

Social media marketing at the very least has an indirect impact on search engine rankings, and search engines are grappling with how to use social indicators to determine quality sites. Future search engine algorithms might put a premium on how your content spreads over the web on Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and many of the other social media platforms.

Currently likes, follows, shares, comments, and retweets all help spread your content and make people more likely to link to it, so using social as a part of link building is essential.

Social Media Citations

One key element to review when doing competitive analysis is how much social media activity you are doing/getting as compared to competitors that rank well.

Review Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, and more. Tools like Sprout Social, HootSuite, or the $600-a-month Radian6 can help streamline your efforts.

Check out the following types of data for both your site and those of competitors, by hand or with one of the above-mentioned tools:

1. Number of fans/followers
2. Posting frequency and perceived quality
3. Types of content (images, video, blog posts, cartoons, surveys, etc.)
4. How much original content versus content grabbed off the web to share?
5. How engaged are fans?
6. Video views, channel views, and subscribers on YouTube
7. Author Rank status of competitors’ Authors (search for Authors’ names in Google and get a feel for where they are posting)

If you don’t have as much social media activity as your competitors it hurts your overall content sharing and engagement levels.

How social is your company?

photo credit: Intersection Consulting via photopin cc