Your mHealth Branding Should Include Social Media, Search & SEO

As mHealth businesses commit more and more resources to their social media programs, they’re beginning to realize the importance social media plays in overall search engine optimization (SEO). Google and Bing are giving greater weight to information that is retweeted, +1 on Google or liked on Facebook. If the content being shared comes from a perceived “expert,” the value increases even more. This is not to say that social is replacing search. Rather, understanding how this impacts search and what you can do to take advantage of this trend becomes an important consideration in planning and executing your online strategy.

One of the best resources for helping marketers to understand the nuances of SEO is Lee Odden. He recently created some great infographics showing ways to integrate social, SEO and content marketing to help your brand stand out. Lee kindly offered to allow readers to reprint his graphics and I am taking him up on the offer below.

Cycle of Social & SEO:

Create, optimize & promote: the cycle starts with optimized content creation and promotion.
Spark an interest: content is noticed, shared & voted on. Grows awareness.
Grow the network: increased exposure attracts more subscribers, fans, friends, followers & links.
Attract a new audience: increased links & social exposure grow search & referral traffic.
Extract insights from data: traffic & community help research, develop & further grow social networks for content & SEO.
Learn, modify, repeat: with the information gained from community data, editorial optimization plans can be refined for more effective content creation, optimization and promotion.

Hub and Spoke Model for Social, SEO & Content Marketing:

Create a social hub: blog, Facebook page, YouTube channel, forum, niche social network, whatever you want to drive social traffic to.
Develop distribution channels and communities off the hub.
Spend time creating, optimizing, promoting great content on the hub and growing networks in the spokes.
The exposure of content to communities empowered to publish creates editorial visibility and links back to your hub.
Links send traffic and increase search visibility.

Three things to do now:

Establish a listening program: audience analysis, brand monitoring, social keyword research.
Create a social media SEO strategy: create, optimize & promote social content, develop networks.
Make it easy to promote & be promoted: build a distribution network for content promotion & network with influencers.

As social media channels proliferate and participation in these channels rapidly escalates, take the time to understand the impact of social on SEO to maximize your time and investment.