Many of today's social media marketers might be under the impression that everyone is incorporating social SEO into their online marketing strategies, and everyone is using large portions of marketing budgets towards social media marketing. That is why, if you are one of those marketers, the truth may surprise you. An effective social media training program will also teach you the importance of social seo.

The Truth about Social SEO

Last year, Hubspot released a marketing report stating that 19% of marketing budgets in small businesses were used for social media marketing, compared to 6% in large companies. While this shows that small businesses are more willing to invest in the social media training and execution, these statistics also show a startling fact in online marketing: many companies often forget about the social SEO component when optimizing their campaigns and, as a result, they miss out on potential opportunities for growth and leverage against their competition.

The Importance of Social SEO in Today's Marketing World

Here are some reasons why it's important to use social media marketing to optimize your web content.

• Search engines are becoming social. Today's Google and Bing are more concerned about fresh, updated content, followers, and shared links than ever before. No longer satisfied with the old ranking metrics, search engines are now adding increased value to newly generated, organic links with original and fresh editorial content. Public Facebook postings, amount of Twitter followers, and other social media marketing measurements are now reflected in search results.
• Social SEO is dynamic. No longer is traditional SEO the primary optimization tool. With social media in the spotlight, social SEO is quickly becoming the norm; social SEO is much more dynamic. It gives you a more accurate picture of how your content is being received and shared, and it relies heavily on the original, valuable content factor.
• Social SEO is self-sustaining. Truth is, people will be eager to share your content with the world if they find it valuable and interesting, regardless of what a search engine says, and this is the kind of marketing that truly yields results. A shared post on Facebook or a Tweet sent out by your following, especially by key influencers in your industry, is worth more than almost any other form of share.
• Blogging establishes you as a leader. For social SEO to work in your favor, you must be generating fresh, unique, and valuable content that your target audience will find interesting and useful. What better way to generate that content than to start your own blog? Whether you're starting small or you're part of a bigger corporation, blogging about your company or about subjects of interest to your industry can result in major leverage over the competition, recognition by your peers, and a whole new fan base that discovers you and recommends you to others.
• Social SEO makes you an active participant. Social SEO doesn't just leave things up to a search engine or word of mouth. In social media marketing, you become an active participant in the process. You have greater control over your brand's image, you can address complaints and concerns more directly, and you have the unique opportunity to genuinely engage with your customers directly -- all by creating positive associations with your brand and turning the negatives into positives.

Social SEO is an emerging but increasingly important component of social media marketing, and it can eventually make or break your marketing strategy. Splash Media University can provide the social media training you need to actively utilize social SEO in your strategy. If you want to take a look at the Splash Media U training library, sign up for our 14-day free trial today. It comes bundled with SplashCube, our social media marketing software to help manage your social media campaigns!