Transparency In The Search And Social Driving Seat

Transparency is an issue at the centre of today’s search and social web. The overwhelming message for eCommerce is to build credibility and site authority by ‘speaking’ to their target niche audience segments in as open and clear way as possible.

For some SME site owners, setting out on the social road ahead is accompanied by social faux pas galore because they haven’t really, really understood how the new online spaces work …

Doing social media networking – and doing it successfully – is an ongoing challenge for businesses and organisations even after nearly a decade of Facebook and Twitter. Simply because they come to the ‘conversation’ late in the day and maybe dive straight in without looking and listening – and learning!

Integrating social media into a company’s online marketing routines can take many forms. Blogging, tweeting and Facebook updates may be restricted to the business owner or a senior manager. Alternatively, added responsibility is simply handed over to the marketing dept or possibly a social media manager is recruited, if a budget has been allocated.

It is essential for advice to be sought from the site owner’s web design and marketing team. It cannot be under estimated how important it is to obtain a snapshot of where the fast moving web is now and the direction it is currently heading. It may be more viable to use their available services simply because they are in constant touch with the daily reality of the socially evolving web. They are more likely to advise the best, ethical practice which is designed to sustain online presence with the additional implementation of social ranking processes within holistic marketing strategies.

Too many horror stories surface of brands who have not minimised risk and put into place social policy guidelines by which staff can safely operate. Often we see inappropriate tweets or Facebook pics and poorly written blogs. In some instances, business owners may simply decide to ‘lead from the front’ and undertake the task themselves – with varying results, to say the least!

Getting social right for professional businesses entering the social spaces requires utmost caution or risk being sidelined by both humans and algorithms. Unfortunately, the kind of advice offered by some agencies which appear to be value for money, translates into precisely the wrong action to take for content creation, such as automated processes for tweeting, copywriting and blogging, which regularly appear on social sites.

Not good for transparency! Not good for authenticity! Not good for building genuine social presence, now in the driving seat for page ranking in which eCommerce must negotiate properly as the social road opens up ahead.