MARKETING
Everything You Need to Know About Social SEO
Integrating social media into your content strategy is a no-brainer. But with the search industry always abuzz on whether social media influences Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or not, you’d be confused.
Just to be clear, yes, social SEO can influence your website’s SEO. However, the connection between the two is not as direct as most people would like it to be.
In this article, we’ll discuss everything there is to know about social SEO and how it can benefit your business.
What Is Social SEO?
Social Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to how a brand’s activities on social media can influence its website’s traffic and rankings on search engines. For example, when your social media post goes viral, does that make your website or the page linked in the post rank higher on Google?
There’s no doubt that social media is beneficial to brands. However, the correlation between social SEO, social signals, and SEO is confusing, to say the least. Just do a quick search on whether social media signals are a ranking factor on Google, and you’ll get mixed signals.
Google itself doesn’t provide a clear roadmap on this. But with that said, a good portion of digital marketing strategists and SEO experts would agree that social signals impact search rankings to some degree. It might not be direct, but it’s there.
Below, we’ll discuss some key benefits you get when you integrate social media into your SEO strategy:
Top 5 Key Benefits Of Social SEO
Data by WorldOMeter shows that almost five million sites are published in a day. With this kind of volume, standing out gets more challenging by the day. But with the right content marketing strategy and medium, you can still improve your chances. Here’s how social SEO can help:
1. Boosts Online Brand Authority
One of the best ways to build your brand authority which can help your SEO is to establish trust with your audience. Businesses can take advantage of social media as an extension of customer service to foster and nurture that trust.
A great way of doing this is by swiftly responding to comments, questions, and private messages regularly. Additionally, you can boost your brand authority by creating good social media content that is relevant to your audience and engaging. If you engage people enough, other publications with online authority may take notice and create content around your content, thereby boosting your online authority.
Check out this example from Skittles. The brand used social media to apologize–in a humorous way—to customers for having removed from the market their lime flavor.
That garnered quite the attention.
So, many publications, including Fast Company, a monthly American business magazine, took up the topic and wrote articles about the apology, further legitimizing Skittles as a brand online:
Social media channels are a direct line of communication to your customer base and are the perfect venue to engage them. That presents an incredible opportunity you can use to boost your brand authority metrics in your line of business. Also, one way of getting more attention to your brand is to hold virtual events that are in line with your target audience and have topics related to your industry so your brand leverages its recognition in the market.
2. Increases Traffic to Your Site
You can also use social media to help drive traffic to your website. If you get enough traffic, your ranking in SERPs can improve.
For example, travel blogger Adventurous Kate wrote a blog post that recounted her ordeal after getting shipwrecked in Indonesia. The content generated a lot of exposure on social media and even became viral.
The result was that many websites ended up covering the story, too. Instead of just mentioning Adventurous Kate in their articles, they also linked to her blog:
Those who read these articles on any of these sites could easily click on the links and read the original Adventurous Kate story on her own website. That would mean they’d spend time on the travel website. According to Semrush’s study, both time spent on site and total referring domains are ranking factors. In other words, they directly influence how your website ranks in SERPs.
You don’t have to get shipwrecked to go viral on social media and generate the social signals necessary for generating high-quality backlinks. Just work on generating fresh content ideas and creating content that will resonate with your audience. We’ll talk about how you can create this content a little later.
Additionally, you’ll need to invest in online courses on social media marketing to learn about the different best practices on the various social platforms. Not everything you do on Facebook, for instance, will work on Twitter. Writing long captions on Facebook, for instance, is allowed. That is something you shouldn’t do on Twitter.
3. Improves Your Brand Visibility in SERPs
In a social campaign study by Hootsuite, articles with social promotion showed a positive correlation between their social engagements and their rank in Google search results.
Social shares may or may not directly affect the web page’s position on search listings, but Google pulls out social media posts on search results. Social media profiles often appear on the top results in the search listings for brands.
For instance, in a simple search for Zoho on Google, the company’s social accounts are in the top position in search results. Zoho’s Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook social profiles appeared on the 2nd, 4th and 5th search positions, respectively.
Therefore, you must optimize your social media profiles correctly. Write a good bio showing what your business does and add a link to your company’s website. It would also help if you could get your account verified. Finally, be active on social media to ensure any posts appearing on the SERPs are recent and relevant.
The key takeaway is that social profiles showing up on Google searches can help increase your visibility on the SERPs.
4. Increases Branded Searches
Branded searches refer to search queries that see a user searching for something that includes a brand name. So, for example, instead of typing the word “jeans,” they type the word “Levi’s men’s jeans” instead.
As more people perform these branded searches, let’s say, for example, Levi’s men’s jeans, the Google algorithm starts to associate the brand (Levi’s) with those products/services (men’s jeans). So, when someone types only the words “men’s jeans” in the Google search field, that company’s website (Levi’s) also appears in search results:
Many SEO experts report this correlation. Here are some comments by Brian Dean from Backlinko on an SEO post:
To leverage social SEO, ensure you have an active presence everywhere, including on social media. So when people start looking for products, they could use your brand name while searching for the products you have to offer.
However, note that the effects of branded searches will take time to reflect on your website’s rankings. Whether it’s SEO for SaaS businesses or small businesses, after all, SEO is still a long-term game. But that doesn’t mean the boost in your SEO won’t happen.
5. Helps You Create Ranking Content
You can also use social media to create content that will rank in SERPs. How? By leveraging the audience data you find on social media platforms.
Your keyword research helps you identify SEO keywords to create ranking content. These SEO keywords are words typically used by searchers when looking for something on Google. Since these are words searchers typically use, it follows you may also find these same words in the posts that they create on social media.
In other words, if you look on social media, you may actually get some ideas on what keywords to aim for in creating your content. You can later use a keyword research tool to check the keyword search volume and verify.
Keywords aren’t the only thing you can get from your audience on social media. You can also determine their interests, wants, and needs. That can help you craft content that caters to them. If it caters to them, your content will most likely be read.
Scouring social media for information is one way to know these things. Another way to get to know your audience is to use social media listening tools or interact with them directly.
Xero, a cloud-based accounting software platform, uses social media to interact with its target audience frequently. Notice from their social media posts that they actively try to engage and understand their client’s needs.
Whether through polls, replying to comments, or using social listening tools, take full advantage of social platforms to know your customers better. Quality content is key to your search engine ranking and Search Engine Optimization.
In Closing
Social media signals are not direct ranking factors, but that doesn’t mean businesses should no longer pay attention to social media. Social media, after all, can help your SEO in many ways.
As we’ve seen in this article, you can boost your brand’s authority and increase website traffic with the proper use of these social platforms. You can also optimize your visibility in SERPs and increase your branded searches. Finally, you can also use social media to find the data you need to help you create ranking content.
Business owners stand to benefit from social SEO. All they have to do is know how to leverage it.
MARKETING
How Does Success of Your Business Depend on Choosing Type of Native Advertising?

The very first commercial advertisement was shown on TV in 1941. It was only 10 seconds long and had an audience of 4,000 people. However, it became a strong trigger for rapid advertising development. The second half of the 20th century is known as the golden age of advertising until the Internet came to the forefront and entirely transformed the advertising landscape. The first commercial banner appeared in the mid-90s, then it was followed by pop-ups, pay-by-placement and paid-pay-click ads. Companies also started advertising their brands and adding their business logo designs, which contributes to consumer trust and trustworthiness.
The rise of social media in the mid-2000s opened a new dimension for advertising content to be integrated. The marketers were forced to make the ads less intrusive and more organic to attract younger users. This is how native advertising was born. This approach remains a perfect medium for goods and services promotion. Let’s see why and how native ads can become a win-win strategy for your business.
What is native advertising?
When it comes to digital marketing, every marketer talks about native advertising. What is the difference between traditional and native ones? You will not miss basic ads as they are typically promotional and gimmicky, while native advertising naturally blends into the content. The primary purpose of native ads is to create content that resonates with audience expectations and encourages users to perceive it seamlessly and harmoniously.
Simply put, native advertising is a paid media ad that organically aligns with the visual and operational features of the media format in which it appears. The concept is quite straightforward: while people just look through banner ads, they genuinely engage with native ads and read them. You may find a lot of native ads on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – they appear in the form of “in-feed” posts that engage users in search for more stories, opinions, goods and services. This unobtrusive approach turns native ads into a powerful booster for any brand.
How does native advertising benefit your business?
An average Internet user comes across around 10,000 ads a day. But even physically, it is impossible to perceive this amount of information in 24 hours. So, most of them use adblockers, nullifying all efforts of markers. Native ads successfully overcome this digital challenge thanks to their authenticity. And this is not the only advantage of native advertising. How else does your business benefit? Here are just a few major benefits that prove the value of native ads:
Better brand awareness. Native ads contribute to the brand’s visibility. They seamlessly blend into educational, emotional, and visual types of content that can easily become viral. While promotional content typically receives limited shares, users readily share valuable or entertaining content. Consequently, while you incur expenses only for the display of native ads, your audience may go the extra mile by sharing your content and organically promoting your brand or SaaS product at no additional cost.
Increased click-through rates. Native ads can generate a thrilling click-through rate (CTR) primarily because they are meticulously content-adaptable. Thus, native ads become an integral part of the user’s journey without disrupting their browsing experience. Regardless of whether your native advertising campaign is designed to build an audience or drive specific actions, compelling content will always entice users to click through.
Cost-efficient campaign performance. Native advertising proves to be cheaper compared to a traditional ad format. It mainly stems from a higher CTR. Thanks to precise targeting and less customer resistance, native ads allow to bring down cost-per-click.
Native ads are continuously evolving, enabling marketers to experiment with different formats and use them for successful multi-channel campaigns and global reach.
Types of native advertising
Any content can become native advertising as there are no strict format restrictions. For example, it can be an article rating the best fitness applications, an equipment review, or a post by an influencer on a microblog. The same refers to the channels – native ads can be placed on regular websites and social media feeds. Still, some forms tend to be most frequently used.
- In-feed ads. This type of ad appears within the content feed. You have definitely seen such posts on Facebook and Instagram or such videos on TikTok. They look like regular content but are tagged with an advertising label. The user sees these native ads when scrolling the feed on social media platforms.
- Paid search ads. These are native ads that are displayed on the top and bottom of the search engine results page. They always match user’s queries and aim to capture their attention at the moment of a particular search and generate leads and conversions. This type of ad is effective for big search platforms with substantial traffic.
- Recommendation widgets. These come in the form of either texts or images and can be found at the end of the page or on a website’s sidebar. Widgets offer related or intriguing content from either the same publisher or similar sources. This type of native ads is great for retargeting campaigns.
- Sponsored content. This is one of the most popular types of native advertising. Within this format, an advertiser sponsors the creation of an article or content that aligns with the interests and values of the platform’s audience. They can be marked as “sponsored” or “recommended” to help users differentiate them from organic content.
- Influencer Advertising. In this case, advertisers partner with popular bloggers or celebrities to gain the attention and trust of the audience. Influencers integrate a product, service, or event into their content or create custom content that matches their style and topic.
Each of these formats can bring stunning results if your native ads are relevant and provide value to users. Use a creative automation platform like Creatopy to design effective ads for your business.
How to create a workable native ad?
Consider these 5 steps for creating a successful native advertising campaign:
- Define your target audience. Users will always ignore all ads that are not relevant to them. Unwanted ads are frustrating and can even harm your brand. If you run a store for pets, make sure your ads show content that will be interesting for pet owners. Otherwise, the whole campaign will be undermined. Regular market research and data analysis will help you refine your audience and its demographics.
- Set your goals. Each advertising campaign should have a clear-cut objective. Without well-defined goals, it is a waste of money. It is a must to know what you want to achieve – introduce your brand, boost sales or increase your audience.
- Select the proper channels. Now, you need to determine how you will reach out to your customers. Consider displaying ads on social media platforms, targeting search engine result pages (SERPs), distributing paid articles, or utilizing in-ad units on different websites. You may even be able to get creative and use email or SMS in a less salesy and more “native”-feeling way—you can find samples of texts online to help give you ideas. Exploring demand side platforms (DSP) can also bring good results.
- Offer compelling content. Do not underestimate the quality of the content for your native ads. Besides being expertly written, it must ideally match the style and language of the chosen channel,whether you’re promoting professional headshots, pet products, or anything else. The main distinctive feature of native advertising is that it should fit naturally within the natural content.
- Track your campaign. After the launch of native ads, it is crucial to monitor the progress, evaluating the costs spent and results. Use tools that help you gain insights beyond standard KPIs like CTR and CPC. You should get engagement metrics, customer data, campaign data, and third-party activity data for further campaign management.
Key takeaway
Summing up the above, it is time to embrace native advertising if you haven’t done it yet. Native ads seamlessly blend with organic content across various platforms, yielding superior engagement and conversion rates compared to traditional display ads. Marketers are allocating higher budgets to native ads because this format proves to be more and more effective – content that adds value can successfully deal with ad fatigue. Native advertising is experiencing a surge in popularity, and it is to reach its peak. So, do not miss a chance to grow your business with the power of native ads.or you can do digital marketing course from Digital Vidya.
MARKETING
OpenAI’s Drama Should Teach Marketers These 2 Lessons

A week or so ago, the extraordinary drama happening at OpenAI filled news feeds.
No need to get into all the saga’s details, as every publication seems to have covered it. We’re just waiting for someone to put together a video montage scored to the Game of Thrones music.
But as Sam Altman takes back the reigns of the company he helped to found, the existing board begins to disintegrate before your very eyes, and everyone agrees something spooked everybody, a question arises: Should you care?
Does OpenAI’s drama have any demonstrable implications for marketers integrating generative AI into their marketing strategies?
Watch CMI’s chief strategy advisor Robert Rose explain (and give a shoutout to Sutton’s pants rage on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), or keep reading his thoughts:
For those who spent last week figuring out what to put on your holiday table and missed every AI headline, here’s a brief version of what happened. OpenAI – the huge startup and creator of ChatGPT – went through dramatic events. Its board fired the mercurial CEO Sam Altman. Then, the 38-year-old entrepreneur accepted a job at Microsoft but returned to OpenAI a day later.
We won’t give a hot take on what it means for the startup world, board governance, or the tension between AI safety and Silicon Valley capitalism. Rather, we see some interesting things for marketers to put into perspective about how AI should fit into your overall content and marketing plans in the new year.
Robert highlights two takeaways from the OpenAI debacle – a drama that has yet to reach its final chapter: 1. The right structure and governance matters, and 2. Big platforms don’t become antifragile just because they’re big.
Let’s have Robert explain.
The right structure and governance matters
OpenAI’s structure may be key to the drama. OpenAI has a bizarre corporate governance framework. The board of directors controls a nonprofit called OpenAI. That nonprofit created a capped for-profit subsidiary – OpenAI GP LLC. The majority owner of that for-profit is OpenAI Global LLC, another for-profit company. The nonprofit works for the benefit of the world with a for-profit arm.
That seems like an earnest approach, given AI tech’s big and disruptive power. But it provides so many weird governance issues, including that the nonprofit board, which controls everything, has no duty to maximize profit. What could go wrong?
That’s why marketers should know more about the organizations behind the generative AI tools they use or are considering.
First, know your providers of generative AI software and services are all exploring the topics of governance and safety. Microsoft, Google, Anthropic, and others won’t have their internal debates erupt in public fireworks. Still, governance and management of safety over profits remains a big topic for them. You should be aware of how they approach those topics as you license solutions from them.
Second, recognize the productive use of generative AI is a content strategy and governance challenge, not a technology challenge. If you don’t solve the governance and cross-functional uses of the generative AI platforms you buy, you will run into big problems with its cross-functional, cross-siloed use.
Big platforms do not become antifragile just because they’re big
Nicholas Taleb wrote a wonderful book, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder. It explores how an antifragile structure doesn’t just withstand a shock; it actually improves because of a disruption or shock. It doesn’t just survive a big disruptive event; it gets stronger because of it.
It’s hard to imagine a company the size and scale of OpenAI could self-correct or even disappear tomorrow. But it can and does happen. And unfortunately, too many businesses build their strategies on that rented land.
In OpenAI’s recent case, the for-profit software won the day. But make no bones about that victory; the event wasn’t good for the company. If it bounces back, it won’t be stronger because of the debacle.
With that win on the for-profit side, hundreds, if not thousands, of generative AI startups breathed an audible sigh of relief. But a few moments later, they screamed “pivot” (in their best imitation of Ross from Friends instructing Chandler and Rachel to move a couch.)
They now realize the fragility of their software because it relies on OpenAI’s existence or willingness to provide the software. Imagine what could have happened if the OpenAI board had won their fight and, in the name of safety, simply killed any paid access to the API or the ability to build business models on top of it.
The last two weeks have done nothing to clear the already muddy waters encountered by companies and their plans to integrate generative AI solutions. Going forward, though, think about the issues when acquiring new generative AI software. Ask about how the vendor’s infrastructure is housed and identify the risks involved. And, if OpenAI expands its enterprise capabilities, consider the implications. What extra features will the off-the-shelf solutions provide? Do you need them? Will OpenAI become the Microsoft Office of your AI infrastructure?
Why you should care
With the voluminous media coverage of Open AI’s drama, you likely will see pushback on generative AI. In my social feeds, many marketers say they’re tired of the corporate soap opera that is irrelevant to their work.
They are half right. What Sam said and how Ilya responded, heart emojis, and how much the Twitch guy got for three days of work are fodder for the Netflix series sure to emerge. (Robert’s money is on Michael Cera starring.)
They’re wrong about its relevance to marketing. They must be experiencing attentional bias – paying more attention to some elements of the big event and ignoring others. OpenAI’s struggle is entertaining, no doubt. You’re glued to the drama. But understanding what happened with the events directly relates to your ability to manage similar ones successfully. That’s the part you need to get right.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
MARKETING
The Complete Guide to Becoming an Authentic Thought Leader

Introduce your processes: If you’ve streamlined a particular process, share it. It could be the solution someone else is looking for.
Jump on trends and news: If there’s a hot topic or emerging trend, offer your unique perspective.
Share industry insights: Attended a webinar or podcast that offered valuable insights. Summarize the key takeaways and how they can be applied.
Share your successes: Write about strategies that have worked exceptionally well for you. Your audience will appreciate the proven advice. For example, I shared the process I used to help a former client rank for a keyword with over 2.2 million monthly searches.
Question outdated strategies: If you see a strategy that’s losing steam, suggest alternatives based on your experience and data.
5. Establish communication channels (How)
Once you know who your audience is and what they want to hear, the next step is figuring out how to reach them. Here’s how:
Choose the right platforms: You don’t need to have a presence on every social media platform. Pick two platforms where your audience hangs out and create content for that platform. For example, I’m active on LinkedIn and X because my target audience (SEOs, B2B SaaS, and marketers) is active on these platforms.
Repurpose content: Don’t limit yourself to just one type of content. Consider repurposing your content on Quora, Reddit, or even in webinars and podcasts. This increases your reach and reinforces your message.
Follow Your audience: Go where your audience goes. If they’re active on X, that’s where you should be posting. If they frequent industry webinars, consider becoming a guest on these webinars.
Daily vs. In-depth content: Balance is key. Use social media for daily tips and insights, and reserve your blog for more comprehensive guides and articles.
Network with influencers: Your audience is likely following other experts in the field. Engaging with these influencers puts your content in front of a like-minded audience. I try to spend 30 minutes to an hour daily engaging with content on X and LinkedIn. This is the best way to build a relationship so you’re not a complete stranger when you DM privately.
6. Think of thought leadership as part of your content marketing efforts
As with other content efforts, thought leadership doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It thrives when woven into a cohesive content marketing strategy. By aligning individual authority with your brand, you amplify the credibility of both.
Think of it as top-of-the-funnel content to:
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Build awareness about your brand
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Highlight the problems you solve
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Demonstrate expertise by platforming experts within the company who deliver solutions
Consider the user journey. An individual enters at the top through a social media post, podcast, or blog post. Intrigued, they want to learn more about you and either search your name on Google or social media. If they like what they see, they might visit your website, and if the information fits their needs, they move from passive readers to active prospects in your sales pipeline.
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