Are you managing your online reputation?
Social media optimization is a growing trend in online marketing. By having a presence in online communities, you can make sure that the Google search results page is laid out in your favor. Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, etc have excellent page rank and will automatically appear high. No matter what, there are going to be search results for your name or companies name. Why not control those listings the way you like?
Below are a list of social media sites that may be appropriate for your situation. Having a profile is a start, but having a social media strategy and executing is how you maximize your online presence. Keep in mind though that you should never fall in love with any social media platform, as the industry is continuously emerging.
Facebook offers different resources for advertisers, both fee and paid. On the free side, you can create a facebook profile, group or fan page. Facebook fan pages are appropriate for most brands because they allow "fans" to post images, videos and participate in forum topics. News from facebook fan page administrators go to the fans facebook profile as opposed to their email.
WordPress Blogging/CMS Platform
BigTuna Interactive is a huge supporter and advocate for WordPress. WordPress is an open source blogging/content management system. It offers top of the line code, plugins and applications. A blogging strategy must be at the root of any social media strategy. By giving your audience fresh content with the ability for them to comment, you are providing an excellent platform for feedback. WordPress posts can be automatically inputted into other social media platforms, such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
Twitter Micro Blogging
Once you get your blog up and running, now it's time for micro blogging! Twitter is a micro blogging platform where you post "tweets". Twitter is extremely addicting and provides instant monitoring over your brands keywords. Brands like Ford have are active in twitter to monitor their brands reputation. Whenever a search for their keyword appears, they quickly reply with a comment. Twitter feeds can be incorporated into your blog or facebook page. Twitter can be a great source of direct traffic; however the links have "no follow" tags, so search engines do not deem them relevant.
YouTube Video Distribution
If you have any sort of video, it should be reposted on YouTube and other video search engines. YouTube is the video search engine that has the most page rank and is considered the captain of the video search industry. Effective YouTube strategies include continuous posting of videos and optimizing each video for search. Make sure that you take advantage of the branding opportunities for your YouTube channel. Depending on your ad spend, you can either have a full YouTube Brand Channel, which offers all the bells and whistles, or a free channel, which still offers adequate branding opportunities.
Flickr image search
Flickr is the premier photo sharing and distribution website. Flickr offers the ability to put meta information for each photo, which helps rank for image searches. Flickr also has excellent photo gallery widgets, which let you put your flickr photos on your website. To fully benefit from Flickr image search, join Flickr groups to promote your Flickr photos. As image optimization gains traction, the role of Flickr will gain immensely.
Wikipedia Knowledge Base
Wikipedia is known as the holy grail for specific subjects online. Each brand should have a wikipedia posting with their history and services. Back in the day, Wikipedia used to be excellent for links; however, they have "no follow" tags also. Wikipedia pages do appear high in the search results pages though.