From an SEO and SEM perspective, it’s all about keywords and phrases – knowing what consumers are searching for and making sure they find your brand. In social media, it’s all about conversations and what people say about your brand. How can you utilize the social media conversations around your brand for search purposes? By listening.
Social media monitoring has evolved from just ‘buzz monitoring’ to a full social media intelligence solution that can be used for all functions across the enterprise from market research to customer service, and of course SEO/SEM.
How can knowing what is being said about your brand ultimately result in a better SEO/SEM campaign?
Have you ever used a keyword search tool to help find the keywords for your brand? What you’re given is the most searched keywords related to the content. Sounds great, right? It is, but what you need to remember is that those keywords and phrases are also the most expensive, and are based off what you already know.
With social media, you can see exactly how consumers are talking about your brand and the language they are using on a daily basis. This is great for uncovering new keywords and phrases that keyword tools just don’t give you.
When using a keyword tool like the adwords tool from Google, you’re essentially given what you already know: Your products and your content.
When using a social media monitoring solution, you can see what consumers are really saying about your brand, and how they are talking about it in new and different ways.
Example for SEM:
With Google’s Keyword Tool running on Applebees.com we see the following:
This data is great for a first start when putting together an SEM campaign. You can understand what phrases on your site potential consumers may be searching for, but what about everything else?
When looking at keywords with ListenLogic:
You can see you’re presented with a completely different data set to work with. Using the right technology and knowing what to look for, you can dive deeper into each main topic to see HOW consumers are talking about your product. So maybe spinach and artichoke dip is a great phrase, but by digging deeper into the specific topics that consumers talk about, you can develop long-tail keywords to compliment your traditional search initiatives. Something like ‘appetizer sampler’ may yield good results (and have less people searching for recipes).
Do you have any experience using social media monitoring to develop your SEO/SEM campaigns? Share your experiences in the comments.
