When you think about it, Social SEO really is enough to make your ears bleed and your eyes to give up! Social this, Facebook that, Klout score, Tweet me, Share this… There is now so much importance around being seen to be active, it’s a little hard to know where to begin! So where do you start?

Stop the ride! Someone let me off!

Step 1 – Take stock of where you are. If you are at the very beginning of your social journey, you are in quite an enviable position because you can follow these steps to help you formulate and engage in an active social media plan.

Step 2 – Who are your target audience? Take some time to understand who you wish to communicate with but don’t be in a hurry to just add everyone to your network. True influence derives from having something intersting and factual to say.

Step 3  - Engage! Now it’s time to start with a two-pronged attack. Write an article and then send links through to those who you consider influential. Ask them for feedback, get them to collaborate and see if they will share it themselves.

[notify_box font_size="15px" style="blue"]Tip  Use Klout to help you identify those who are considered experts in your field[/notify_box]

Step 4 – Share and share alike – You have written your article, you have sent it through to those influential in your market and now it is time to get busy sharing their articles with your own network. You will find a higher take up of mentions for your own work if you share someone else’s.

Here are a few social etiquette rules that you must live by:

You have a plan, you have an audience – how do you start sharing?

1) Never be impolite. No-one is going to want to discuss anything with you if you are being a know-it-all ass. Be polite and courteous at all times and if someone disagrees with what you are saying, respect their view and by all means have a debate – KEEP IT POLITE!

2) Never EVER send spam links. If someone clicks on something you have sent that takes them through to a site where you can buy fake good or medications, you will never see them again and be lucky if they don’t block you and warn others about you.

3) Never share the same thing over and over again, every minute of every day. This is another way that you will piss others off in some order. They won’t want their news feed or stream clogged up with the same thing time and time again.

4) Some networks, such as LinkedIn, require you to know someone before you connect them. Whilst there are ways around this, and where you can, get busy in groups and then through a natural progression, you will find others wanting to connect with you.

5) See step 1…

OK, so these are just a few of the more popular steps to keep you in the favour of others, but there are a whole host of these rules that must be adhered to!

Finally, here is is the most important one to remember….

The people you want to connect with are human – treat them as such!

Treat someone as a robot and automate everything and you will lose out. Keep it real and keep it friendly!

SEO | Andy | 5 Comments

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