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My Five Favorite Social Media Strategies Right Now

By: Kristin Gumper | 04/27/2010

Given the firm's interest in social media, Melissa, Julie and I headed to Social Fresh St. Louis last week to hear the latest and greatest in the industry, and also support one of the most popular speakers at the conference, our friend and colleague Jay Baer.

If you weren't lucky enough to attend, and/or are curious about social media, the following top five list includes a few of my favorite tips for beginners:

1. Stop thinking of social media as a fad. As Jay humorously points out, "425 million people with Facebook accounts should demonstrate that we're past the lava lamp stage."
2. Get familiar with some of the key leaders in the industry. Jason Falls, Amber Naslund and Zena Weist are some of my favorites. Also, don't miss Convince & Convert, by Jay.
3. When trying to raise awareness or drive Web traffic, consider using video more than ever before. It's five times more likely to interest Google.
4. Are you looking to drive more traffic to your website through search engine optimization (SEO)? If so, consider auditing your content and architecture for critical SEO building blocks, including (but certainly not limited to):
   1. What landing page are you using when you drive people to your site? And, how many options do people have when they get there? It's better to limit options and give visitors a roadmap to follow. Better yet, ask or tell them exactly what you want them to do.
   2. When writing about your company on your own site or posting press releases, or when others write about you, are hyperlinks still written like this: Standing Partnership? Instead, try using anchor text, like: Standing Partnership St. Louis crisis communications firm. Why? Because St. Louis crisis communications firm tells Google more about why it should link to your site than just the company's name.
   3. Are a bunch of letters and numbers included in any of your web addresses? (%*<#$%? = Not good ...) Instead, guide search engines more effectively by using terms people actually search, like: "Issues and crisis management," "SEO consulting," "Branding counsel," etc.
   4. Are all of your photos tagged? I hope so ...
5. Are you afraid of launching a blog because of the negative things people might say about your company or brand? As Naslund points out, social media did NOT invent criticism. People will say bad things no matter what ... we just didn't hear it before in this medium. Instead of living in fear, know exactly what you'll do when it happens.

Speaking of knowing how to respond ... do you know what your social media crisis communications plan is?

Other #SoFresh summaries: Brandstorming, InFuz and Convince & Convert.

Posted in Digital Communications