Today, it is a simple marketing truth that if you want to get found by potential customers and clients on the social web, you need to know the basics of SEO (search engine optimisation). You need to develop and implement a keyword strategy. You need to apply that keyword strategy in your social channels – and your content!

This will help help potential customers find you rather than spending unnecessary marketing euros on advertising to find them.

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Should I start a Facebook Page or Group | imageI often get asked what is the difference between a Facebook Page and Group? And which should I set up.

What is a Facebook Page?

In short, a Facebook Page is the equivalent of your personal Facebook account. If you as a business start a Facebook Page – this is your ‘official presence’.

What is a Facebook Group?

A Facebook Group is the equivalent of something you join on Facebook, such as a university alumni group or an environmental cause.

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Shameless Blog Promotion image of woman holding up signOK. You are just starting out with your blog or social media newsroom. You have written and published a great blog post, and it now sits there on your blog.

Because your blog posts are search engine optimised to your Keyword Strategy (On Page SEO), you will eventually start getting traffic through search engines.

But you also want some people on your blog TODAY!

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How to become visible on the social webI ran into a helpful little website called ‘We Are Visible’. It offers a couple of really easy to follow video tutorials, that help you set up a Gmail account, a Twitter account, a Facebook page and a WordPress blog even.

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Social Media & SEOSocial Media & SEO: In the last month or so I have published quite a few posts on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). I talked about the importance of Basic SEO Knowledge, the chances Google offers you as a marketer, Self SEO Diagnostics and Developing a Keyword Strategy.

But this blog is about marketing on the social web. So, what’s with all the SEO?

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You may have been an early adopter of social media. But is it getting you real business results? Here’s a quick overview of where, in my experience, the market is at, and where you need to focus for effective social media marketing.

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Last week, I discussed the joys of backlinks. Getting a link from another website, helps your website to be found. It also helps your website (or page) to rank higher in organic search engine results.

Sometimes we can even create backlinks ourselves. For instance by including a link to our profile pages on Linkedin, Facebook, YouTube or other social media channels. You would think that a backlink from these big boys would help your website to rank higher in search engines… Wrong :-(. So why is that?

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Break it down into easy chunks…

Many marketers are hesitant to start investing in social media, because they struggle with the metrics. Before they start they would like to know what the potential ROI is of their Facebook group, Twitter chats, blog posts and activities in forums and discussion groups.

Activities in social media build relationships and trust. As such it is a long stretch to connect social media activities directly to a sale. And that is what ROI is.

That can be a problem. But it’s the same problem that traditional mass communications has: if you air a TV ad or publish a print ad, can you link directly to a specific sale in a retail outlet? Not really: you need to look at the sum of your activities and your overall results.

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Getting in a targeted messaging headset…

Many businesses see the biggest advantage of social media as simply reaching more people. Is it true?

Well, yes, you do reach more people, but if you don’t also adapt your messaging for these people, you end up with what Seth Godin calls a ‘meatball sundae’: an unfortunate mixing of two good ideas.

In the days of mass media you would do one television or print ad for everyone. People were considered as mass markets – and your messaging was ‘one size fits all’.

The biggest impact social media has had for businesses, is that it has split mass markets into lots of niches.

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