Social Search can be approached from two angles; both equally important for businesses. There’s micro-searching — this includes using social media to connect and engage with people based on keyword, location, and niche. And then there’s macro social search… essentially, how it’s affecting search engines like Google. In this article I will give you three areas of mirco social searching to focus on, how best ot use them, and give an overview of where I think social search optimization is going.
Micro Searching
Micro searching is a great way of connecting and reaching out across social media to increase your audience. These searches include different twists on the classic search and each of which will be explained individually.
Geo- Targeting: Being able to locate people and updates which have been sent within an “X mile radius” really does mean you can restrict your searches to only the most relevant distances and topics for you. Fantastic if you are holding an event in a town and want to get locals involved or if you have a product that you need local people to buy or use. MarketMeSuite is social media dashboard which lets you have all of your social network accounts in one place. And, most importantly, lets you target your tweet searches to location and using specific words using a feature called “Reply Campaigns”. You can target within 1000 miles of a specific location. All you have to do is type in either the city, county, zip code, postal code to get location of your choice. The keyword selection also means you can target the words that you feel will be most used in your niche topic.
Keyword Searching: Tools like MarketMeSuite also allow you to do a simply generic keyword search rather than just a place and a specific niche. Keyword following is a tool that allows you to use our smart algorithm to suggest real people -not automated bots, tweeting, or spammers – all based on the keyword and language you enter. This brings in all tweets from world wide so you can find a selection of people to follow and interact with. It’s always useful to be known in as many places as possible to get your business to expand. It is beneficial because you have 100% control over what you search for and who you interact with from the results. Whether you just tweet them or follow them, it’s a great way increasing your online presence and getting your product noticed by the masses!
Brand Tracking: If, like most businesses, you have your own website/blog, then you can also use search panes to track URL’s from your websites. Most business blogs or articles have the business name in the URL. That means anyone who has tweeted that blog will be sending out the URL link with your brand by default. This means you can see who’s tweeting your content and thank them for doing so search will pick up your brand name in the URL. It also means you can see which types of blogs or articles get tweeted most so you can use this to your advantage by writing more content based on that theme. This is great because all businesses need to be aware of who’s tweeting their content and which content it is. Not only so they can see it’s getting read but also by who.
Macro Searches
This is a vital factor of social search. In fact, MarketMeSuite’s very own co-founder and CTO, Alan Hamlyn coined the term SSO- Social Search Optimization. This isn’t new, in fact if your a Google user its something that you’ve probably seen cropping up in your every day searches – results which your friends have also shared on Twitter, and more recently, your friends who have +1’d something interesting. This is influencing results. Don’t believe me? This is pretty easy to confirm, find a good and trusted friend, Google a keyword you believe you rank well for whilst signed in to Google, and get your friend to do the same and compare the results. They will be similar, but with key differences.
So, now you need to make sure your site is social search optimization ready. If you’re a wordpress blogger consider these tips:
- Always tweet your own posts when they come out.
- Always Facebook like your own posts.
- Install free plugins like “Digg Digg”.
- Encourage your lovely user base to Retweet your content and like your fan page.
- Optimize the positioning of your like, tweet, +1 buttons for maximum clicks. At the end of the article is not a good idea.
Key Take Away
Searches and particularly social searches, really do help you find the best online audience you can. Social media has made marketing and interaction so much easier and finding the right tools to help you pin point your targeted niche means that you can find and create your own audience and turn them into customers! Location and practicability realy do mean a lot and when someone knows you have taken the time to find them, talk to them and get them involved. It pays off.
Nikki Peters is the community support manager for MarketMeSuite, the social media marketing dashboard you can use for free.