As I write this Social Networking is quite the rage, so of course businesses are trying to use Social Networking as a marketing leverage. I have done a lot of research on Social Networking and Search Engine Optimization and my conclusion will hopefully help anyone who works with SEO.
Social Networks rank higher in Google results than any other type of website. I believe the reason they rank higher is because they have a higher volume of pages, so when you are searching for a product or even a friend they are the first thing to show up on the results page.
How can I use this to my advantage?
It's pretty simple, it isn't kosher SEO so I've renamed it to SNSEO (Social Networking Search Engine Optimization) when you sign up for an account on Facebook for example you will want to be very choosy about the name you give it because your account name plays a big part in SNSEO. A Web Designer who works in Australia would probably choose a name such as Australian Web Design. When people type in Australian Web Design the companies facebook would most likely show up on the first page of Google searches. You may be surprised but a lot of people like to narrow down their searches so it would work even better if the fictitious account used a town name like the capital of Australia so Canberra, Australia Web Design should show up on the first page for people looking for Web Design in Canberra, Australia. You can use this formula for sites such as myspace also. However I have had to create a different formula for twitter so keep reading.
Please note that whenever you add a description to an image or video you should optimize the words in the title.
When you choose your twitter name you should use the Facebook example but if you already have an account and you didn't Optimize your username in the settings page it appears that you can change your name (I haven't tried this so be careful if you decide to do so).
When you use twitter you send out tweets of 140 characters. You can use those 140 characters to your advantage in more than one way. When you write a tweet you should use strategic keywords but also make the tweet interesting. Every few tweets you should add in a link to your Website. When you add a link to your website it counts as part of your 140 characters.
One thing that I find interesting about twitter is that you can quote people by "retweeting" what they said so when you retweet you put RT @enterusernamehere and then copy the info. This is a good marketing strategy for you and for the person your retweeting because they are more likely to retweet something you say which will show up in the public time line and that raises the chance of people following you and seeing your tweets which should have links to your Web Site.
I hope this blog guide was helpful.