In today’s digital age, manufacturers can no longer rely solely on traditional marketing methods to reach potential customers. With the ever-increasing importance of online presence, it’s becoming more crucial for manufacturing companies to adopt effective digital marketing strategies. In particular, social media has emerged as a powerful tool for manufacturers to connect with people and businesses on a global scale. Social media is especially beneficial to manufacturers who are already investing in search engine optimization (SEO).
In this blog, we’ll explore how manufacturers can leverage social media to boost their online visibility and drive more traffic to their websites. We’ll delve into the concept of social media as a non-traditional search engine, the role of SEO for manufacturers, and how industrial businesses can increase sales through comprehensive digital marketing.
Is Social Media a Search Engine?
As an industrial business leader, you should leverage social media channels to engage with your customers online. If you already do, then you know how transformative social media is for B2B marketing.
Let’s think about how your customers find and interact with you on social media a little deeper. Some follow you on LinkedIn or Facebook because they followed a link from your website. Some searched for your business by name on social media. Then there are the odd few who found you purely by chance, the ones who found you because you included a specific phrase or hashtag in your social media post. That third subset of your followers sounds remarkably like the customers who find your website because of your SEO strategy. Don’t they?
Social media platforms are not search engines in a traditional sense. But they do have some functionalities that are very similar to Google and other search engines. These similar functionalities can be used in your digital marketing strategy to enhance your SEO and build brand presence. Keep reading to learn why social media is a key part of any SEO strategy.
Why is Social Media so Important in Search Engine Optimization?
When your social media and SEO strategies align, you make it more difficult for your competitors to eat into your market share. Why? Because an integrated digital marketing plan allows you to chase your most valuable SEO keywords more aggressively. Here are a few ways that an active and robust social media strategy can improve your SEO strategy.
Strategic Link Building
Social media platforms are the perfect place to promote your content and gain social backlinks. Backlinks, in general, help improve your website’s search engine ranking by raising your domain’s authority score. Credible backlinks are typically hard to come by as the best backlinks are earned, not purchased. Social media platforms provide manufacturing businesses with a quick source of high-quality links to add to their backlink portfolio.
Increased Web Traffic
Many people turn to social media for their initial research before making purchases. This applies to major retailers, small e-commerce sites, and manufacturers alike. So, having an active presence on social platforms can lead to increased organic web traffic.
Social Signals
This one might surprise you, but search engines almost want your business to be active on social media. Search engine algorithms crawl and index social media posts in a similar fashion to how they catalog regular websites. When you use social media, you give these crawlers evidence of your dedication to sharing content on and off your website.
Which is Better SEO or SMO?
Many manufacturers often wonder whether they should focus on SEO or social media optimization (SMO). The answer is both. Both SEO and SMO have unique benefits that can help manufacturers reach their target audience.
SEO is focused on optimizing your website and its content to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic. SMO, on the other hand, focuses on optimizing your social media presence and engaging with your target audience directly. The reality is that SEO and social media management work together to build your business.
How do Social and Search Work Together?
It’s important to know that social media for manufacturing companies often have high domain authority scores. That means that your company’s social media profiles could appear on the first page of organic search queries that relate to your keywords. Every link to a channel you control on the first page of search engine results is an opportunity denied to your competition.
The most effective way to integrate your social media management and SEO strategies is by creating unique pieces of content that people want to read or watch. These pieces of content should be added to your website, and then promoted on social media. When this is done, you will see an increase in social media traffic to your website, as your followers will be excited to view new, relevant content pieces.
Of course, it is important to use your SEO for manufacturing to promote social media as well. You can direct a website visitor to your social media in a number of ways, but simply including icons and links to your social media will help your following grow.
Create a Manufacturing Marketing Strategy for all Search Engines
There are many reasons why social media is so important in SEO. The key takeaway is that manufacturers need to create a marketing strategy for any platform that has a search function -not just Google. This means having an active presence on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
To explore how you can leverage an integrated SEO for manufacturers and social media management strategy, contact a trusted industrial marketing solutions expert. IQnection is a digital marketing and web design company that has more than 25 years of experience helping manufacturers and industrial B2B companies grow.
