One thing Ive never understood is people who use Twitter for business, but dont use the bio feature. Whats wrong with these people? Here you have an opportunity to engage, show of your URL or say a little something about yourself, yet tons of people leave it blank. Instead, some choose to use the actually Twitter feed to me, me, me.
By filling in this information, youre allowing people that do follow you to get a sense of who you are, who your company is and what you offer.
Any time you have a chance to fill out a profile, whether its for Twitter, Facebook or XYZ platform only 20 people use, take the 10 " 15 seconds to fill out this real estate. Dont leave it blank. Quite simply, youre only undermining your networking, SEO and marketing efforts.
TWITTER SEO BIO
URL: I bitched talked about this already. Dont leave it blank! What " you have something better to do in the next five seconds? So what if its a nofollow link? You think people dont want to find out more about you just because the search engines dont give the link some love?
User Name: Is your username SEO friendly? You know, people will follow you if you give good information " even if your Twitter name is a keyword. For those of you who started with Twitter before you planned to bring social media into business, do what you can with the rest of your account.
However, for those who dont have a Twitter account yet, consider that your user name is listed in the domain like so: http://twitter.com/user. Wouldnt it be nice to rank for a keyword on this very busy, very big social site?
Description: Can you say Meta description? When your Twitter account shows up in the SERPs, your description also shows up in the SERPs. This might be helpful when trying to be noticed for a keyword and/or phrase " and what a great way to keep yourself branded for an authority on [keyword].
Profile Background: Did you know Twitter allows you to upload a background image? For example, @level343, the company account of Level 343, has a background image that shows off important information. Heres another great opportunity to further strengthen your business brand, include other social accounts, etc, and really up the conversation possibilities.
MAKING TWITTER USE COUNT
Personality: Are you a robot or human? Can your followers tell? Even if youre using your account for business, social media is about connecting people to people. Ask questions. Post a contest. Crack jokes. In other words, show youre human!
Hash Tags: Hash tags are beautiful. A simple # in front of your keyword can help your account show up in the SERPs. This is a good thing. Online business isnt just about ranking high, selling products or getting social. You have to add authority and respect in there somewhere. If you can get your account listed as one of these Tweeps to follow on [keyword] well, you just cant beat that type of respect. FYI make sure if you are following a hash tag you use it the same way the intended user created it. I have been noticing a few of my hash tags have become abbreviations and now mean something completely different.
SOCIAL MEDIA VALUE
Bing and Google confirmed in December that social has a direct impact on rankings. Yes, yes, SEOs have long suspected that social networks had influence, but to have it verified is exciting. It makes social even more important than ever, and several articles have been hitting the 'net about various tools to track social influence.
Im a huge advocate of social networks; its not a secret. Not just because Im a social person (I can hear my editor cringing as I write this), but because I grew up with chat rooms back in the day. You know - the chat rooms where complete strangers would show up in designated rooms to chat with other complete strangers.
Those who follow @SEOCopy or @level343 on Twitter know I share enough information on SEO and social media to make it worth their while. Heres the question, though. Why social media if I preach SEO? The answer is, because it helps companies' efforts To name but a few:
- You have endless possibilities to test your audience
- You can learn about their interests
- The feedback you get is priceless
- You become accessible
- You have a huge ability to showcase your product/service and company
- You can reach out to potential new customers
- Your global presence and reach doubles (if not triples)
- You gain more knowledge about what your readers like
- You can share