There has been a lot of talk about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMM (Social Media Marketing). The talk has been going on for a few years but working in my new job, I find it quite amusing when people think they understand what SEO is as well as SMM. Throw out a few words which you think you understand and keep repeating them but honestly, that doesn’t help the fact that SEO or SMM are real items and driving forces in business revenue today.
Placing keywords into content is SEO. Yes. BUT that is not the only SEO strategy, there is so much more to organic SEO than this.
SMM is chatting on Twitter and Facebook and posting links. No, eerrr wrong! It’s about engagement, connecting and having a conversation with people, not talking at them.
To continue on my quest to get people to understand about these two ways of online marketing, I will continually create real life scenarios and for some reason love using the word puzzle. As the conversation begins, I already know and get excited that I will be able to use my favorite puzzle analogy! For those who understand SEO understand why a puzzle analogy works so well.
When wanting to hit each outlet and grab the most from your SEO efforts, each piece of the puzzle needs to be in place. If not, then you will not see the results you want. SEO takes time and many people think, Poof! I did it now where’s my money!?!
Social Media Marketing also takes time. To create a following, to get the visitor to trust you, everything takes time. If it was that easy then don’t you think everyone would be engaging each other? Throwing links out into the Twitter feed doesn’t engage anyone but yourself…maybe. (I mean some people do talk to themselves, I don’t know, just sayin…)
In the perfect world, both SEO and SMM would work simultaneously but we don’t live in a perfect world. Some people feel they get more business through SEO, others SMM and some feel both work. I have experienced both for my business where SEO has worked well and for many years SMM worked amazing. What I found was it didn’t make a difference which I focused on, just that both strategies needed to be worked on a daily basis. Once you stop, so does your inquiries and engagement.