Outsourced SEO and Social Media Management: Control for Results
1. Own all your properties.
This advice sta
rts with your website and applies to all social media accounts and content. Be sure that it is your company owns the URL, the hosting account, and own the structure and all rights to the website. Keep all account details and log-in information on file. Be an administrator on your company Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel, etc. The most credible and effect SEO operations will make a point that you have this access. Pay attention to the red flags if anyone tries to tell you otherwise.
In the case of social media agencies that offer to drive your sales by promoting your product/business on their own highly popular or well-trafficked accounts and websites, beware. It might result in some visibility and even some click-thru traffic, but this set-up does very little for your own organic SEO. The same is true if they offer to host your blog or videos on their own websites.
2. Set meaningful goals that will grow your business.
The goal to increase traffic, gain followers, increase Likes or whatever the activity, it is still just activity if the online interaction does not lead to a goal connected with your bottom line. Agree upon realistic targets for increased traffic and a timeline. But also set expectations for the increase in sales transactions or revenue within the same timeline. Make sure that you and your SEO/social media partner understand your respective responsibilities to help reach those goals.
3. Ask to look under the hood.
Any SEO/social media partner worth their salt will be able to explain in layman’s terms what process they follow. Ask about keyword selection, site architecture, o n page SEO and Off page SEO, timing, analytics, content development and optimization, ongoing evaluation and adjustment. What about posting, sharing and developing content for the social media? Are you a true partner in that area ensuring that the activity fits your brand?
4. Keep it real. Keep it relevant.
Business-oriented social media posts and content that have a brand personality or voice are more successful. The brand can be represented by a real person by name, which is thought to be more effective, or in the style of a branded voice and personality, which is often the most realistic within a business that has outsourced social media.
Relevance is also important. If your traffic, followers, or Likes are largely driven up by means of reciprocal connections with other clients managed by your social media agency, your audience is not relevant to your business. Likewise, if shared posts with content unrelated to your business are used to increase views, the content is irrelevant to your target audience. Your brand is diluted and you are unlikely to increase sales or revenue from such activities.
5. Go organic with optimized content.
While there are some caveats to “over-optimizing” content, it is generally most effective to follow a disciplined process of identifying competitive keywords, the easy to moderate ranking word that can be effective for you within in 1-4 months and developing content optimized by and speaking to those key search terms.
While traditionally, businesses have invested in public and community relations without a clear means to measure the return on their investment (ROI). With the online strategies we’ve been reviewing you have the opportunity to complete the process using the best practices of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing further leverages social media, SEO, blogging, link building, and online influencers to create an organic "inbound" demand for your product/services. Content and value added offers integrated with compelling Calls to Action (CTA) direct your readers back to custom landing pages on your website. If the call to action or value-added content is compelling enough, your prospect completes an online form and a lead is generated. You can measure not only traffic, but conversion rates, and A/B test for the most compelling calls and content. Success in this area requires a strong working partnership between you and your agency. Whether their core competency is SEO, web, PR or marketing, they must be experienced with inbound marketing.
