Did you know that what you do on social media can have an impact on your efforts towards search engine optimization (SEO)? Developing an SEO-friendly social media strategy is a powerful way to drive up brand awareness and grow your business.

Here are 5 social media strategies as recommended by a leading SEO Perth agency.

1. Drive up brand awareness

Getting people to notice your brand and providing them with a positive experience can do wonders for your SEO efforts. Social media is a great place to foster that positive brand experience.

Invest in brand awareness and customer experience and you’ll see a rise in customer satisfaction. While these things might not have a huge impact on your Google rankings, they can affect what you show up for.

Google uses mentions of your brand across the web to determine what search queries you’re relevant for. Keeping the talk about your brand positive is key.

Best practices for increasing brand awareness on social media:

• Use the platforms that perform best for your audience
• Create lots of high quality visual content
• Make the most of social media trends and trending topics
• Engage with others and encourage people to share your content
• Use relevant hashtags
• Offer high quality, value-adding content
• Be consistent with your visual and written brand messaging

Don’t overlook the fact that social media pages also show up in Google’s search results. That means people searching for your brand might end up clicking on your Facebook page or LinkedIn profile rather than your website.

The takeaway? Make sure your social accounts are also optimised to engage your target audience in the right way.

2. Form and strengthen partnerships

Most social media platforms offer good opportunities to connect with new people and strengthen existing relationships.

Using social media in this way can be beneficial for your SEO too. The more people talking about your brand, sharing your content and promoting your products, the better.

Try fostering a range of different types of relationships to reach different audiences and achieve a range of goals. Some good examples include:

• Brand advocates – These are loyal followers of your brand who engage with your content and promote your brand for free. To turn customers into advocates, focus on great customer service and personalising your interactions with them. You can also try asking for feedback and inviting customers to have their say.
• Influencers – Influencers have a large and loyal following as well as a lot of authority in their niche. Be sure to partner with influencers who share your target audience and your core brand values.
• Partners and co-creators – Try developing reciprocal relationships with other businesses in your field or a complementary field. Look for opportunities to co-create content, write guest posts or cross market each other’s products.

3. Build authority and trust

To perform well on Google, you need to work on E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness). Working on onpage E-A-T for your website is essential, but you can also use social media to make your efforts go further.

It’s like this: if you’re constantly putting out high quality content on your social channels, over time people will come to associate your brand with expertise in the field.

If you’re fostering positive interactions and engaging in a personal way with your customers, over time you’ll build a loyal following.

Here are some great tips for building authority and trust on social media:

• Keep your content high quality and value-adding.
• Ask for reviews – social proof goes a long way.
• Encourage user generated content like photos and videos with your products.
• Keep your branding consistent across all channels – your audience should know what to expect, wherever they are engaging with you.
• Respond to customers and reward engagement – show people you love it when they reach out.

4. Increase content engagement

Content that you create for your website may be discovered through Google and other search engines if you’ve done a good job. But to really boost engagement with your content, it’s best to promote it across your social channels as well.

Not only will a social media content strategy boost engagement and longevity of your content, it also has the potential to drive more people to your website and build your authority.

The key is to make sure your content is super engaging and shareable. That doesn’t mean creating clickbait – you still have to offer something valuable and meaningful to your audience.

For example, you might educate your audience about a particular topic or you might offer a solution to a common problem people face.

Top tips for making your content more engaging:

• Use visuals alongside your written content
• Use headings and paragraphs to break up text
• Use lists, tables and dot points
• Keep your tone upbeat and lively
• Use vocabulary and expressions that connect with your target audience

It’s hard to predict how well certain types of content will perform, so make sure you use a range of tools (such as Google Trends) to generate on-trend topics. Monitor the engagement that your content receives and knuckle down on what’s working.

5. Create link opportunities

One of the ways Google measures your brand’s authority and trustworthiness is through the links on other trustworthy websites that point back to your website.

Using social media can open the door to more link opportunities. For example, if you create high quality content, people are more likely to share it with others or reference your content when they’re creating their own content.

This tells Google you’re putting out high quality, trustworthy stuff.

As mentioned above, social media is also a great way to build strategic partnerships. You might use social media to find a non-competitive business that you can do cross promotion with.

For example, they might promote your products in exchange for you doing the same for their products. Or you could offer to write a guest post for them that links back to your website.

When looking for link opportunities, make sure you stay away from any black hat tactics as these can end up having a negative impact on brand reputation and SEO.

Final thoughts

Nowadays, it’s not enough to focus on one marketing strategy. People engage with brands across multiple platforms in a variety of ways. Integrating your SEO strategy with your social media marketing tactics is the best way to boost your online performance.