My 14 year old thinks this sign sends mixed signals! :0)
Are you sending mixed social messages, or no messages on your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter and Google+? Search engines pay attention to the social signals you are sending—but, more importantly, so do your fans and followers. You do have fans and followers, right? If not, these 7 steps will help attract and keep them, as well as ensuring you are sending the right signals.
7 Steps to Social Signals Success
1. Link your Facebook and Twitter accounts together, so that posting to one is also posting to the other, both are receiving attention and neither are being neglected. Whatever is updated on Facebook automatically tweets to Twitter (make this happen here), and whatever you tweet on Twitter automatically updates to Facebook (make that happen here). If you have a Google+ page, not just a Google+ profile, consider connecting all three social networks via Hootsuite, as well as others you may have.
2. Posts ‘under’ 140 characters will be tweeted on Twitter and automatically post to Facebook with a link back to Twitter, driving your FB fans to check you out on Twitter. Posts ‘over’ 140 characters will be posted to Facebook and automatically tweet with a link back to Facebook, drawing your Twitter followers to investigate your Facebook fanpage.
You also need to get your Twitter feed on your blog. If you have WordPress, click in this order: Dashboard / Appearance / Widgets / Twitter, and input your username. If you have Blogger: To add the HTML once you’ve created the feed widget over at Twitter (https://twitter.com/settings/widgets/new), sign in to your blog, then click in this order: Design / Layout / Add a Gadget / HTML/JavaScript … then you paste the widget HTML into the window that pops up when you clicked HTML/JavaScript. Don’t title it unless you want to.
3. Once a month, find 60 catchy quotes, images and articles relevant to your website or service, and document a schedule for them to post. Your own personal observations and expertise would be excellent for this. Schedule or spontaneously post at least 2 tweets/updates per day, and reply to, share or retweet a fan/follower’s content at least once a day—twice if there was nothing new published on your site that day or all new content was automatically published.
4. Tweet/update new blog posts and pages as they post on your website. Check if it is possible to set that up automatically. For example, on WordPress, there is a plugin allowing you to automatically tweet and update Facebook the instant you publish a blog post. On Blogger (blogspot.com), you can make your profile your Google+ account, and share blog posts to Google+ the instant you publish. Update one of your websites or blogs at least 1-3 times a week, and make sure your peeps on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ all know about it.
5. On Facebook, go to your About page and check the boxes in your “Pages” section. That way, your pages will show up on your About page :0) Don’t have a page? Consider creating one.
6. Signature: Set up ALL your online profiles and email signatures so that every time you write a new blog, email, or reply to one, you are linking to your social media accounts (and website!) at the end of your correspondence.
7. The Golden Rule of social signals: Real-time it. Don’t use Hootsuite exclusively, and make sure you are available to signal back or retweet.
If you wish you had time for all that, but don’t—it’s time to bring in a professional who will interact in your stead and keep your peeps happy and sociable.
Ichthus77 