Social Media Gurus... What would you do, your industry has no presence?
-
You are tasked with creating a Facebook page for an industry which has a distinct lack of social media presence.
During your research for your industry or client you find none of their competitors are using social media to any large degree.
Reviewing the whys, you find that the demographics of people using Social Media outlets like, Facebook, Twitter, Pin Interest, and LinkedIn do not really fit with the industry.
Do you view this as a great opportunity for your company / client and push forward with creating a Social Media presence?
Or, do you inform your company / client based on your research, social media isn't a viable use of time or money?
Examples:
Plastic Manufacturing
Industrial Laundry
Tractor Trailer Wholesale
Copper Mining EquipmentI am interested in how the guru's handle clients / companies that don't necessarily fit the mold of social media, but ask and are willing to pay you to make it happen for them.
I am hoping this to be a good discussion as I don't see any right or wrongs in these situations. What would you do?
-
I went to MozCon last year and a speaker presented info on just this sort of thing.... what to do when your niche category is relatively lame. You might look at last year's presentations for some ideas.
This is a real opportunity! Depending on your client reception to these ideas, you might want to take a look at a few things. Decide on a social media tone that's appropriate and sales-worthy.
- Set them up as a leader in their field - authoritative tone and feel
- Offer up interesting material - who says it has to be business as usual? As Ben mentioned about the pirates and creative posting - what if you inject some humor? Laundry fails? Cartoons/Comics? Funny videos?
- Copper mining equipment ... sorry to say, that's pretty dry. Wouldn't their potential contacts love some awesome humor interspersed with some helpful content.
Here's another perspective .... think about a big player like Pepsi. Check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiP70pBUjuw&feature=related
Granted, big video, big budget ... but they were offering something memorable that really had little to do with drinking the product.
With a little creative thinking, that might be just the ticket for scoring decent returns in a tough category.
-
Having a presence on social media can be an enabler for other marketing methods. For example having followers on Twitter makes it a lot easier to get people to visit your blog which can drive links which in turn drives rankings and sales. Not to mention the potential for your client to set themselves up as a thought leader within the industry.
Even if you're just providing a curated source of industry specific information there's always something you can do on social media. Once I came across a maritime protection service who had a Twitter account that detailed all pirate activity off the coast of Somalia in almost real time. How cool is that?!
-
I wouldn't consider myself a guru but here is my two cents
Plastic Manufacturing Show pictures of people using the products (toys, show kids playing)
Industrial Laundry: Nice scenic hospital picture and hotels that use the service or if it is uniforms show workers in hard working conditions
Tractor Trailer Wholesale: !8 wheelers rolling down the highway with interesting statistics on the trucking industry
Copper Mining Equipment: Show the mining equipment and some of the specifications on mining.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does Facebook Messages count as a social signal factor?
Hi, We know that social signals are usually referred to as a webpage's collective likes, comments or shares. But what about the Facebook messages generated from the messenger plugin on a web page? Especially on a business page, if one business page receives hundreds of Facebook messages through a landing page or blog page, does that count as social shares? And how effective is social signals are for a website in 2020? Although social engagement is always good for any website, my question is, how logical is it to purchase "social signal gigs" from konker or Fiverr or other gig markets? We run a social media marketing company in Australia, our website: https://www.playchat.com.au and we get a lot of messages every day through the messenger add on from our home page. Will that make any difference whatsoever? Looking forward to hearing from you. I appreciate any help you can provide.
Social Media | | DV4sd4550 -
Redirect social media links to https?
Hi fellow SEO-ers! One of the sites I'm responsible for uses a Twitter or Facebook feed on most of their pages, next to their unique content. As the tweets (twits?) and comments in some of these feeds are old, they still refer to the old Twitter and Facebook-domains using http (instead of https). These links are all automatically 301-redirected, but still make up ca. 9% of the links on the site. Do you think that this affects SEO? I doubt it, because I suppose that Google has seen this many times and understands that these links are still pointing to the same content. Although my client is prepared to write a script to auto-update all these links, I think it won't make a difference. What do you think? Thanks for your feedback!
Social Media | | corusent0 -
How relevant is social bookmarking for SEO today?
I've been doing SEO for a little over 4 years. I've never used sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, etc. either personally or on behalf of my clients. This past week I had a discussion with another SEO who asked what I'm doing for my clients with regard to social bookmarking. I responded that I'm really not doing anything and they were shocked. I took a pretty good verbal beating over it. She was borderline offended. I have always been able to deliver solid results for my clients without any type of social bookmarking, so I struggle to see the need, but am surprised at how shocked this other SEO was that I don't do it. How beneficial is it and am I really missing out?
Social Media | | garrettkite0 -
Myth or Fact: Social Media Dashboards Bad for SEO?
I want to start using HootSuite to pre-schedule Facebook/Twitter updates, but am plagued by nagging concerns because I have heard that HootSuite may impact SEO in a negative way. Is this truth or bull? If it i true, how so, specifically? And can anything be done to mitigate the negative SEO factors? Also, does anyone prefer another dashboard over HootSuite? Thanks in advance for your inputs!
Social Media | | 406lucy0 -
What is the best Practice for Adding Social Buttons to your Sites from SEO Perspective?
Hey Guys, As you all know there are many social buttons out there that can be added to your website. Facebook Like button, Twitter's Tweet and Follow buttons, Google +1, and AddThis buttons are just a few to mention. All of these buttons can be customized, eg. you may choose to point your FB Like button to your homepage, to a specific inner page, or to your Facebook Brand Page. Same with your +1 button. Moreover, you may choose to add Twitter and Google+ Follow buttons to your site's pages, and so on. My questions are very simple: Is there any best practice for adding social buttons to your site from SEO perspective? if yes, Which social buttons to add? Where is the ideal place for them on your page? Where these buttons should be pointing to? your homepage? specific inner page? or to your official brand pages? Thanks in Advance, Yogev.
Social Media | | ShivaS1 -
How can small businesses use Social Media?
This is a question that has been nagging at me for more than a year now. I've played around on Twitter and LinkedIn, and am a frequent user of Facebook. I really struggle to see how a small business can utilize Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Let's get the obvious, "Tell your friends about your business" post out of the way. I have a friend that posts about his business everyday, the same thing, over and over. I have since blocked his feeds because they are annoying. I always pay attention to when someone makes a post about a new business they are starting because I want to watch and see how they use social media to grow, but it never seems to develop into anything more than a simple "I have a new business." I don't want to be the guy at the neighborhood Christmas party that everyone ignores because they think the only thing I will talk about is my business. I've also tried doing the "Build real relationships on Twitter" approach. It seems like everyone I chose to follow and try to become friends with was a bot. They didn't post anything, but "Inspiring Quotes" and "Random Facts". I think my real question is "How do small business use social media, WITHOUT being annoying?"
Social Media | | kadesmith0 -
Social Media Marketing focus and priorities for SEO
Hello Mozzers, I'm looking at Social Media Marketing and wondering what counts for most in terms of SEO - (A) shares and likes from specific web pages, or (B) followers, likes, etc., on social media profile pages? What does Google measure vis-a-vis your website? Also, regarding Twitter, if a twitterer forwards on a tweet manually (by inserting RT) - and his RT is then shared, does that count for anything, or is it better for clients if RTweeters simply press the RT button. And should I include URLs in tweets, facebook posts, etc? And do backlinks help beyond increasing website visitor numbers - do any of the social media marketing tools pass juice back to websites via backlinks? Thanks in advance :), Luke
Social Media | | McTaggart0 -
List Your Top Social Media Sites
With Rands latest Blog post about social media linkage and sharing, and upon the discovery of quora.com in his post, I was wondering what other important ones I might be missing? There are certain obvious ones: Facebook Foursquare Twitter Linkedin Merchant Circle Do you guys know of any others that you find important, or see as useful in the near future?
Social Media | | dignan990