“Why don’t you just skip the foundations, no need with walls, a roof on stilts would be just as good and be cheaper and quicker to do” said the social media Builder from Brixton…
Would you live in a house like this?
Of course not, because as soon as some great big nasty gust of wind comes along, this quick fix house will be flattened, gone, demolished, destroyed, wiped out…… capiche? Without foundations, walls, ceilings and everything that makes a house it is only a matter of time before it all falls down. So why would you carry out social media without getting the foundations of your site right first? Time and time again people get carried away with the next best thing and forget about the one thing that supports all of your activities, your website!
Search is an ever evolving practice, there is always the ‘next best thing’ and don’t get me wrong I love a little ‘tweet tweet’ here and a little ‘like like’ there BUT, I always insist that the basics are in place first. Social media is a great way of generating buzz and noise for your brand, is a great way to syndicate your content to a wider audience and engage with a mass audience. However, it is not consistent; you will have peaks and troughs of traffic and engagement levels.
“We would like a loft extension, a conservatory, a garage, a swimming pool, decking and any other extension” said the home owner to the builder…. “but what about the foundations” …. “nah we would rather have the loft conversion”.
So many companies nowadays say “but we have a Facebook page, we have a twitter account, we are on LinkedIn”, which is excellent until I look at their site which is not optimised, not user friendly, has no clear call to action and quite frankly no purpose.
Would you live in a house like this?
NO – because getting builders in to come and lay the foundations or add plumbing and wiring to make this monstrosity stable would cost a fortune – do it right at the beginning and all of these add on social media activities will be much more beneficial.
Whether it is now or a year down the line when you have to stop everything and redo- your site, you will realise that the next best thing is not always the best thing for your company. Often we have started a social media strategy only to stop and work on the site first before re-launching the campaign. Why send people to a shoddy site when you can create a great site which supports all of your activity.
Would you live in a house like this?
I know I would…..a sturdy, strong house which would stand the test of time, which you could build upon and grow? …….who wouldn’t??!!!
Your site is where you can convert your audience
Your site is where you can compete with your competitors
Your site is where you can talk to your audience in more than 140 characters
Your site is where you can increase your visibility on the search engines for non brand terms.
Get the basics right first, then build on your strategy. Make sure your site is:
- Optimised on and off page
- Technically sound, in terms of navigation and crawlabilty
- Offering appealing content, through copy or resources.
- Offering a clear call to action
Get all of these things right and then build on your activities. This way your site will improve in search engine visibility for target keywords, your users will be able to navigate through your site and find relevant content and you will have new fresh content to promote via your social media activities.
