It seems once a year (at least) there’s a new social channel that brands feel the need to be active on. A few years back it was Pinterest, then it was Vine (before it sadly passed away), while in 2016 it seemed digital marketers the world over were going crazy on Snapchat.
If you’re wondering should you be using all of these channels, the answer, in a word, is yes. There are two reasons – SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and ownership. First of all, SEO…
SEO
With the emergence of social media, it means that brands don’t only have one website – they have maybe five. For instance, if you Google the word ‘Nike’, here’s what you come across in the top half of the page:
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Here’s what you’ll see when you search for Nike (Part 1)[/caption]
And here’s what you’ll see in the bottom half:
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Here’s what you’ll see when you search for Nike (Part 2)[/caption]
So along with Nike’s own website, their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages, all called ‘Nike’, rank in Google.
This can be the same for your brand. Create pages using the same vanity URL, put a bit of content on them and soon, when people search for your business, the Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social pages will rank too.
Ownership
The second reason you should have a page on every social channel is because you need to own your brand name everywhere possible. Your brand name should be synonymous with what it offers. If you don’t own it, your brand name could be associated with nothing to do with the service/product you’re offering.
Take Finnair, Finland’s national air carrier, for example. They’ve made the mistake of not registering ‘Finnair’ on every channel.
As you’d expect, they own ‘Finnair’ on both Twitter and Facebook:
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Finnair on Twitter and Instagram[/caption]
But Finnair have made the mistake of not registering their vanity URL of ‘Finnair’ on Instagram:
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‘Finnair’ on Instagram[/caption]
In fact, by visiting Namechk.com, I can see that they still have yet to register ‘Finnair’ on Tumblr, Vimeo and foursquare – three hugely popular social networks.
Too much work?
You might be thinking that having to keep active on all these social channels seems like too much work. You’d be right – it is. I’m not suggesting that every brand shares content across all of these channels. The point here is that every brand should own the vanity URL on each of them. This way, whether or not they are being utilised, brands have control over what their brand name is saying.]]>