As a legitimate brand, what can you do to avoid penalization? Pay attention to your SEO, especially link building. Google will penalize even the biggest brands if they break the rules. J.C. Penney learned this the hard way last year when they lost valuable rankings for indulging in dodgy link building. Whether you do the SEO or it is outsourced, make sure that your brand isn’t doing any of the following:

• Buying paid links – a typical SEO error because it’s possible to buy links on sites that appear to be of high quality.  Remember that buying links is against Google guidelines and save your advertising budget for PPC.
• Blog and forum spam – avoid any link building program that leaves many low-quality links on forums and blogs or promises hundreds of links or programs that automatically generate links. Google know what’s going on and Penguin will root these out.
• Article spam – focus on creating quality content and forego article spinning and junk guest blogging. Junk content is no longer a reasonable linking tactic.
• Link exchanges – trading links for SEO value is a trick that Google has known about for years. While high quality, related sites can naturally interlink without any problems, artificially swapping links should always be avoided.

Despite the concern about Penguin, legitimate brands probably don’t have too much to worry about. Keep your site free of junk content and your links relatively natural, and your web presence should survive Penguin without any damage.

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1. When focusing on content that carries your brand’s reach beyond your website or blog, remember that no one single type works for all companies. Instead, diversified content and having a portfolio you can draw from are the best weapons. A mix of webinars with video and motion graphics might work well for you, while another business will benefit from combining Q&As with case studies and e-books.
2. Whatever type you choose, the content must be relevant to your users. This will engage them and entice them to visit your site frequently. Ask yourself what your audience wants to know and what they didn’t realize they were looking for but are excited that they’ve found it.
3. Does your content support your business’ mission and convey your objectives and initiatives? This ensures that customers and users can count on you for the information they’re looking for. For example, if you have a pet supply company, provide articles on pet care and contests for pet supplies. This type of content encourages users to come back for more, learn about your brand and buy your products.
4. Make sure your site, or any other forum, is clear, focused and easy to navigate. This helps customers feel as if they’re part of your community. For example, any app needs to be efficient and helpful, while social media has to provide authentic and relevant content that will make anyone eager to engage with your business.

While creating engaging and effective content is a lot of work, it can also be fun. More importantly, it sharpens your awareness of who your customers are, what you have to offer them and what your business is about.

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To successfully achieve your social media marketing goals—like improved brand awareness and increased sales—develop individualized, social media measuring tactics by following these three steps:

1. Define your goals
   You need to identify your marketing goals before you can assess your success rate. What do you want to accomplish through social media? Examples include driving more traffic to your website or increasing your fan base.
2. Establish baselines
   Based on your unique goals, establish measurable baselines for later comparison. Include variables like website stats, Google hits, and current sales numbers. Obviously, some items are simpler to measure than others, like sales.
3. Track your efforts
   Utilize numerous tools that can help you measure your social media marketing efforts. Here, remember two factors: First, use more than one tracking tool to gain a complete picture of how your efforts are paying off. Second, focus only on data relevant to your goals—it’s easy to get lost in the numbers.

   Some social media sites have internal statistics tools. Facebook Insights, for example, enables you to track demographics, referrals, and engagement, among other factors. Through HootSuite, you can utilize analysis tools to determine which Twitter tweets result in the most engagement. The site also tries to calculate the “sentiment” of your followers toward your tweets.

   Google has the best host of social media marketing analytics tools at your disposal. Google Analytics enables you track and analyze website and social media visitors. It also boasts a new feature, Social Value. This tool bridges the gap between social media marketing and business metrics. Social Value helps to identify traffic from social media sites, measures how this traffic leads to conversations, and enables you to make data-driven decisions in your social media marketing goals.

Specialist social media marketing companies like SevenAtoms can better assist you with devising tailored marketing goals and measuring your social media success rate.

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Such information might convince you that if you don’t incorporate social media into your business, you might soon be out of business. But don’t hastily join Twitter or setup a Facebook page. In truth, dozens of social media platforms can create valuable networks—it’s a matter of choosing the right one that separates you from your competition.

1. Facebook
   As the highest-ranking social media site, Facebook will draw leads to your business solely on its huge number of users. The site acts as a forum for customer engagement, brand development, and feedback. Here, you can interact with your core connections more personally through photos, blog posts, and videos.
2. Twitter
   Twitter’s strongpoint might also serve as its biggest challenge: conveying your marketing message into short tweets while effectively drawing potential customers to your business. You can monitor conversations about your brand and respond instantly to customer tweets—with an audience.
3. LinkedIn
   LinkedIn serves as the perfect branding tool. Ideal for small businesses, LinkedIn enables you to directly connect with customers while flexing your accomplishments. You can also participate in group discussions, where you spread your business’ voice. Also, respond to questions on the Answers page—establish your business as an authoritative figure.
4. Google+
   Google+ has surged in popularity, making it a formidable social media player. This site enables you to start conversations about your business and add your target audience to these chats. The “circle” feature allows you to divvy your contacts into different groups; thus, you can target different messages to different audiences.

Each social media platform is tailored towards different needs, creating diverse marketing opportunities for your business. Once you understand your marketing goals—like target audience—choose the platform that best meets your objective.

Expert companies like SevenAtoms specialize in social media marketing, further enabling you to reach your customers though new-age word-of-mouth.

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During an average workweek, small business owners spend over 20 hours in meetings. These same business owners average only about six hours of downtime—a week!

While you sit in meetings, remember that your competition is getting stuff done. Those precious six hours of “you time” should be spent ensuring that your business is everything you’ve envisioned—you shouldn’t be struggling to fill your business blog with quality content.

Professional blogging and content services, such as SevenAtoms, can boost your website’s blog content flow so you can focus on getting back to business.

The Value of Blogging
Don’t underestimate the importance of a business blog. For one, a blog personalizes your brand, enabling you to interact with your customers at a more “real” level. Blogs should include a variety of dynamic content—ranging from videos, articles, and photos—to keep your audience coming back for more.

Blogging and Marketing
Blogs are powerful marketing and communication tools, helping businesses to better converse with customers. The most successful blogs develop better relationships and greater trust with their target audience, thus marketing the business more efficiently.

Blogging and Social Media
Integrating social media with business blogging allows you to share content with your customers and—most importantly—to facilitate “social buzz.” When you effectively engage your target audience on Facebook or Twitter, your customers will share and contribute to your content. Maximum exposure on social media actually helps your search engine rankings as well.

Blogging and SEO
Your site will rank better on Google if you’ve created social buzz, people like your content, and comment on your blog. Having a business blog optimizes your business website for search engines. Your website will reflect fresh, relevant, and popular content—exactly what search engines look for.

Because 55% of small businesses with blogs have more website visitors, blogging is a key marketing strategy that connects you and your product with your consumers. For best results, consider utilizing business blogging services.

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