The whole world has gone social, at least in the online world it has. Right now Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube and Instagram, among others, are all the rage with users of all ages. As an online marketer, that fact should interest you very much. If you want to get a hold of some of the traffic that social networks experience in a single day (we’re talking millions of hits), you need to keep up with the latest social marketing updates. The following information should help you update your social marketing campaigns so that you can capture even a tiny bit of that monster social media traffic.
The Battle for Search Traffic
Many of the social marketing updates for 2013 have to do with integrating with the search engines or creating a search engine. Let me explain. Google has long wanted to capture some of Facebook’s online traffic. Unfortunately, Facebook and Google don’t really get along so Facebook listings don’t show up in Google’s search results. Enter Google+.
Google+ is Google’s answer to Facebook and the search giant has been quite successful at integrating the platform in with its organic search results. One of the biggest social marketing updates and the one that all bloggers and local marketing practitioners should be excited about is the rel=author attribute that allows you to link your Google+ account to every blog post you create. Every listing will show your name, photo and a link to more writing by you.
If you’re not on Google+, update your social marketing campaign to include it to get even more prominence in Google’s search results.
Facebook Graph Search
Whether it’s a bid to outpace Google+ or it’s just a slap in the face to the search giant, Facebook has come up with its own form of search engine called Graph Search. While the platform is still in its beta stages and you have to be invited right now to participate, it just may revolutionize the way people search for other people.
With Graph Search, instead of searching for a keyword, you search for people who fit certain criteria. For instance, you could search for friends of your friends that like Chinese food. For a marketer, this social marketing update for 2013 should make you salivate. Think of the possibilities.
Regular Presence and Share, Share, Share Alike
In order to keep up with these social marketing updates, you need to have a social marketing presence and you need to keep up with it so that both users and search engines see plenty of activity. Put social links on your website and prominently display your Facebook friends, Twitter updates and any other activity right on your home page.
Having a social presence isn’t enough. You need to update your social marketing campaigns to include the sharing of all types of media. Get involved with the conversations, share interesting photos and images and pass around valuable information you think all your followers would like. You should know your audience better than anyone due to all the market research you conducted. Use that knowledge to form a bond with your prospects and customers through the various social marketing platforms we have available today.
This is going to take regular, every day processes in order to build a solid social marketing infrastructure. Just take the first step, log your progress and vow to keep at it every day. Soon you’ll have a social media web that captures all the traffic and leads you’ve been hoping for.
Diversify and Keep Up to Date
Don’t just keep to one social network. If these social marketing updates for 2013 have taught you anything, it should be that social marketing is here to stay and there are plenty of social platforms out there. Make a profile on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube and LinkedIn, and any others you can think of. Then just make a point to post daily. Make it fun, make it interesting and get involved with the social aspect of it all and it will seem less like work.
These social marketing updates are just the beginning. You can expect more changes to come as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest continue to dominate the charts. Pinterest has the strongest growth out of all of them. Apparently the image-based design appeals to window shoppers. As an online marketer, that news should excite you too.
Take these social marketing updates for 2013 and update your social marketing campaigns accordingly so that you’re always one step ahead of the competition.
