6 Steps to Facebook Graph Search SEO Optimization

If you have not heard about the graph search introduction in Facebook, then you need to read into how it affects the future of search within social media (most likely to spread into other networks soon enough). Simultaneously, many companies or experts offering professional SEO services will tell you the importance of social media in getting traffic to your website. So how do you stay on top of all the changes?

Hopefully these 6 simple steps will help guide you in the right direction in staying relevant within the graphical search:

1) Localize

Is your businesses or service listed locally within each area that you provide the service for? Many searches (particularly in social media) are based on a local aspect. If you have multiple locations for your franchise or service ensure that you have a Facebook page for each geographical area. This allows for people to easily find what they are looking for both online and offline. As you can see from the search for "Coffee shops in Waterloo, ON" below: the results number of shops within the city, a map outline, exact address.

The localizaiton aspect also allows people to easily "check in" via mobile devices easily.

2) Encourage Interaction

This not only helps stay connected with your Facebook community, but displays how many people have liked the page, what rating it was given. It helps build brand ambassadors through providing high quality services and interaction (both offline and online). This is significant in gaining credibility since recommendations from friends, acquaintances, families and colleagues are likely to make your business stand out from the competition.

Consequently - people are engaged with the page, and voluntarily encourage checking in, sharing of and commenting regularly. Activity within your online community creates continuous content, communication and in turn results in more visits. Win-win situation!

3) Be Detail Oriented

As you can see, from the Death Valley's Little Brother company outline there is much more to know about a business than the city it is located in:

They are open from 8am-10pm, I can see their number right there and apparently they have "kick-ass" baked goods (I'll just have to go and see how kick-ass they are!). It gives the reader an idea of what they can expect to see there, what the place specializes in but it presents it in a social way, not a traditional menu style. After all, why be on social media if you are not willing to have a little fun with your brand?

4) Create Epic Content, Consistently

This one is pretty obvious considering the term of the "Graph" Search (everything is better in graphics anyways) - make sure you provide relevant content with optimized keywords, it will get picked up. It will help all the creativity and effort pay off - plus it will become easily searchable on social media, where in turn it can be shared with others, commented on, and who knows - it might just end up going viral! Here is a view of a "lebron james memes" search:

The results include: (1) actual content (memes), (2) relevant Facebook pages and (3) external websites optimized for those keywords. Ensuring your content and optimization are on point will help it appear on the results pages of graphical searches.

5) Make Connecting via Facebook Easy

Likes from connections on Facebook = higher ranking, comments from connections on Facebook = higher rankings, sharing with others = interactivity. Simple as that - the easier you make it for your community to share content, the easier it will be for your results.

Google SEO ranking improvements are moving towards the generation of original content as are Facebook graph search results, if your brand is not in the publishing game - it needs to be. Digital branding is content oriented, and content drives interaction. Providing the tools to effortlessly share the unique content will further aid in ranking.

6) Keep Track of Changes

Graphic search is still in the early stages, it is bound to get tweak and changed in the future. Staying relevant on any updates can help you stay ahead of the learning curve and anticipate any changes that may need to be made in order to maintain top rankings.

With these latest developments, it is important now more than ever for your brand to have a social media presence that will drive SEO performance, community engagement and visibility. These are some of the tips that will help, but are no means the only things to keep in mind. Do you have any suggestions for graphic search optimization?

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Unknown Tuesday, July 23, 2013  

Entrepreneurship in the Age of Digital Branding

Entrepreneurship - the cornerstone of Canadian businesses. According to Industry Canada 15.4% of Canadians were self-employed in 2011 (numbers remained steady in 2012) - with the likelihood of that percentage increasing in the upcoming years. Canada is the ideal landscape for embracing entrepreneurship and allowing passionate people, ideas and solutions to thrive. Particularly in our location (Kitchener-Waterloo, ON) there are many start-ups, entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals that turn their ideas into viable businesses (just check out Vidyard, Thalmic Labs, ClevrU as living proof).

Entrepreneurs are able to find a need in the market, provides quality solutions for that need and deliver excellent customers service along the way. It is the epitome of our economy; the ability to individually build a business, more specifically a brand that will be associated with an innovative solution that no one else is able to provide, or provide well enough.

Unfortunately, not all entrepreneurs are highly qualified in all aspects of successful business management - a local, home-made BBQ restaurant owner will be a master chef but may not be a immersed in accounting. Furthermore, entrepreneurs are often limited in time as they already spent working more hours than employed individuals. This makes running and growing a business in the long-term seemingly difficult; often larger companies are able to out-compete as they have entire departments allocated to each functional business area, whereas the entrepreneur usually does majority of the work him or herself. One area specifically that often gets overlooked is marketing, communication and the community which makes everything possible (aka customer).

Image courtesy of KROMKRATHOG / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Luckily over the past 20 years we have experienced a major shift in communication. With the advent of the PC, and more recently the mobile device generation (tablets, smart phones, watches, glasses, etc.), publicizing and content sharing is no longer limited to publication houses, or big businesses. Everyone now has the ability to communicate (cost-effectively) with large or small audiences, meaning that entrepreneurs now have the means of attaining good marketing without having to go through expensive channels (TV, radio). The key is to find a community which can be engaged and interacted with in a meaningful way.

You may, or may not have heard the term "content is king" with digital marketing, but it refers to the idea that creating content will give an upper hand in attracting customers and developing an online brand. This is true, with one exception: interesting, engaging, helpful and relevant content is king. Simply creating blog posts for the purpose of having a blog is no longer feasible. Help someone resolve a problem, answer a question, make them laugh, entice them to read and share with others, etc. By no means an easy task, but definitely an attainable one.

Entrepreneurship no longer competes with big businesses, but with original ideas and innovation both in the unique solutions it provides but in the content (or marketing) that it produces. Entrepreneurs have to adapt and become publishers, not for the sake of their brand but to stay relevant and keep their unique solutions up to date. To cleverly compete with big businesses and keep their competitive edge. Each entrepreneur has something unique to offer, a personality of their solution and brand (much like their own personality; quirky, analytical, playful, engaging, etc.). Their marketing should be the same; don't tell people that you are unique or best at what you do - let them figure that out through open communication, find you at their own convenience and engage with your brand through interaction. Failing to do so may put you behind, as Alan Quarry (one of my former, very insightful university marketing professors and successful entrepreneur) says:

"Status Quo" is Latin I believe for "RoadKill". The riskiest thing you can do today is play it safe and stand still.
— Alan Quarry (@aquarry) May 8, 2013

Entrepreneurs are all unique in their own way, why shouldn't their marketing be? The digital branding age now makes all of that possible. Let's make use of it!

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Unknown Sunday, July 07, 2013  

Email Marketing Infographic for SMBs

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to personally connect with customers. Yet many small and medium businesses (SMB) disregard this digital marketing option. With a number of affordable options available, businesses should be utilizing email marketing services or exploring software that will allow them to create campaigns of their own.

In case you are one of the few organizations still not sold on email marketing, perhaps this infographic will sway you to strongly consider including it as part of your branding efforts:

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<p> <b>Please include attribution to Brand Lounge - Encouraging Digital Branding Discussions with this graphic.</b><br /><br /><a href='http://www.brand-lounge.nrdigitalbranding.com/2013/06/email-marketing-infographic-for-smbs.html'><img src='https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/147001/EmailMarketingStatsNRDB/image.jpg' alt='SMB Email Marketing Infographic by NR Digital Branding' width='540px' border='0' /></a></p>

Hopefully this infographic shows how important email marketing can be as part of an overall digital branding strategy. If there are any other aspects of email marketing you would be interest in let us know in the comment section!

- N.R.

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Unknown Saturday, June 01, 2013