In order to start right out in integrating social marketing strategies with SEO, a plan must be developed first. Moreover, there should be detailed research regarding the target’s needs, most especially since the approach is customer-oriented. It may also be helpful to consult with firms specializing in Internet Marketing. These firms will provide invaluable information and insights on how different approaches work together in maximizing company results. Once you have a better understanding of the various strategies, you can now employ the ones suitable for your needs.

Social marketing involves creating a community where people with shared interests come together to state opinions and ask questions. This can be done by setting up forums or discussion boards on your website. The key here is to generate interaction among the members of your target audience. A vast majority of consumers do online research before making any purchases; forums are helpful in providing information regarding customer inquiries.

Also consider setting up a blog that contains relevant posts that discuss the services and products that your company offers. The information that you will provide may be very well appreciated by your readers. Place links to other websites and blogs that relate to your blog content. Social networking sites including Facebook, Myspace, Digg, and many others might also have useful and interesting content that you can link to. Feature and subscribe to appropriate RSS feeds, so that your readers have a reason to frequently visit your site.

Moreover, it is necessary to keep the forum and blog posts updated and fascinating for people to read. Also remember to use optimized keywords or phrases naturally in your content and titles. Do not let your online community become sedentary; encourage readers to engage in discussions and exchange of fresh ideas and opinions. This way, search engines are more likely to index your site’s content, thus, increasing traffic.
With an effective plan and strategies in place, integrating SEO and social marketing is not a difficult task.

2. Allow customers and visitors to your site to be able to sign for discounts and special offers. Put a form on your site to allow them to be able to sign up for a weekly, fortnightly or even monthly newsletter which they may be interested in.

3. Add a link to allow people to add your site to their favourites or send this to a friend, it will remind people about your site when they have a look in their bookmarks and think “Oh look, I wonder if this site has any updates”

4. Make your site stand out. Use a great brand with a great logo design so it sticks in peoples heads. Some of the best companies in the world have the simplest logos but everybody can remember them.

5. Make sure that your site is easy to find if people forget the address. I have wanted to visit a website but could never find it. The best thing to do is put links so users can add your site to social bookmarking sites, so even if their computer dies they will be able to find their way back.

6. Never spam anybody who has signed up for a newsletter. If people no longer wish to receive these then make sure you do take them off the mailing list. This makes you look respectful and that you are not a cowboy who will just spam peoples’ inboxes to try and sell their product or get the odd page view.

7. Make a “Whats New?” section. People will instantly go to this to take a look at what has recently been updating and following on from earlier they will like a site that is always updated and will probably come back to take a look at what is new and what has been updated.

8. RSS Feeds. Make sure you have one of these bad boys as they are amazing for repeat traffic. They will let people know what has been updated and when and if people have subscribed to them they are 99% likely to come back to your site when they see an update pop up on their RSS Reader.