In Pittsburgh SEO and Pittsburgh Social Media: Capital Connections Part, 1we discussed how social media networks and search engine optimization strategies can be used to create a powerful backlinking campaign for your business. And though backlinks are a critical part of achieving top organic search rankings, there's a lot more to social media and SEO than the power of links. Social media alone has propelled many businesses to the top of extremely difficult markets, while SEO alone has helped the best ranked companies in the world retain their positions. But when combined, Pittsburgh SEO and Pittsburgh social media can help even the smallest start-ups not only penetrate a difficult market, but completely dominate it.
Pittsburgh Social Media: It's all in the Proof
Social media has brought with it an entirely new phenomena (to the web anyway) known as Social Proof. Social proof basically amounts to "monkey see, monkey do." This refers to a powerful psychological influence where internet users assume that the actions of others are an indicator of how they themselves should act.
For instance, if a consumer sees that 10,000 people have liked a page, comment, status or other aspect of social media, they will be far more likely to take similar action. This can also be used as a sign of trust, where a consumer will choose one business, product or service over another based upon what they see other users doing.
This will affect a Pittsburgh SEO campaign because major search engines like Google are giving more and more weight to fresh social media driven metrics. Integration of the two can be accomplished by linking a social media page to a business website, and including plugins or other options for people to share the website and its pages on various social media platforms. The more people share and link between the two, the better the chances are that the search engines will take notice and return better search results for key terms.
Pittsburgh SEO and Social Media: Direct Marketing with a Twist
Social media is direct marketing with a viral twist. Imagine for a moment that your Facebook fanpage has more than 1,000 fans (a modest amount). It might seem like this fan base is the total base for the fanpage and therefore conversion rates would need to be high in order for this group to be profitable. However, the "social reach" of this group is far more than 1,000. Consider the following:
1000 fans, each having an average of 200 friends = social reach of up to 200,000 people. But this isn't where the figures end, because the second tier of this group – the 200,000 fans in the stage 1 social reach – also have an average of 200 fans. Now the social reach increases to 40 million. That's right – million with a capital M.
Of course, not every person has 200 fans – some have thousands and some have less than a dozen. But the idea is that your fans aren't the limit of your social reach, and that's the true power of viral marketing. And being that one of the primary functions of your fanpage is to drive traffic to your website, the search engines will take notice when you drive a massive amount of traffic through a popular viral event. This could result in a dramatic increase in search engine ranking.
If you recognize the power of Pittsburgh social media and Pittsburgh SEO but you don't have the time or resources to capitalize on the connections between the two, consider hiring a professional Pittsburgh SEO company to launch a powerful campaign on your behalf today. Or, click here for a free consultation to learn more about Pittsburgh SEO and social media and its impact on local Pennsylvania businesses.