In recent years, most SEO experts have had to add a social media feather to their already luxuriant caps. Whether you choose to actively participate or not, the social media have become an important part of operating a business website.
Knowing how and why these social media sites work is increasingly important for businesses. Many businesses once viewed the social media as a source of frivolous activity that was below their attention. Thanks in no small part to internet marketing gurus and SEO experts, businesses are coming to realise that the social media are an excellent arena for businesses to tackle.
Social media networking did start out as a purely social thing, but it has expanded into so much more. People now use social media sites in much the same way that they might use venues on a main street. Internet users access news, look for jobs, get restaurant recommendations and even make work contacts through social media sites. There has even been an instance of Twitter participation being used as part of a university assessment.
This far-reaching use of the social media will mean different things to different businesses, and it can be a good idea to talk to your search engine optimisation consultant about whether social media participation is necessary for your SEO campaign. You can discuss this with our consultants at SEO Consult Australia. Whether you choose to participate or not, it’s important to be aware of the place of social media in the complex system of the internet.
Many businesses are choosing to mount a campaign on social media networks as a pre-emptive measure, simply because everyone else is on social media sites. Just because ‘everyone’ is on social media sites it doesn’t mean that ‘everyone’ is immediately contactable on those sites. There has been a fair amount of hype about the social media, and it’s important to research thoroughly. Before you charge into social media networking, here are just a couple of the important things to think about:
- Social media and age groups: Although almost every age group has a significant representation on social media sites now, not all age groups use social media sites for the same thing. For example, a recent research report showed that people aged under 25 are more likely to use social media for a broader range of functions than simply socialising.
- Social media and smart phones: Studies are showing that social media users are increasingly using their smart phones to dip into their favourite sites. This is a very exciting thing for online business, as it means that target user groups are potentially contactable at any time.
Formerly, the internet was a separate world from the real world, but this is becoming less so as time goes by. With the development of highly usable portable technologies, people are using the internet everywhere. This means that online businesses can reach consumers just as often as their real-world competitors.
- Social media and time factors: People use the social media for different reasons throughout the day. Some times are strictly social, while others are general.
