So you’ve heard this all before – is your business on Facebook? Do you tweet? Are you connected on LinkedIn? We often hear a resounding YES to some or all of the above. But almost as often, it’s followed by the statement “I don’t really know what to do with it.”

Today, more than ever, businesses are challenged with improving overall performance, usually with fewer resources and utilizing less traditional methods. This brings us to the topic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media. The clear benefit to combining these efforts – increased awareness through the social networking channels and attracting links, otherwise known as link building – has a positive impact on SEO.

Simply put, optimized content gets you ‘discovered’ by the search engines. Social media creates more visibility for your brand and encourages sharing across communities. This activity can result in a substantial number of inbound links to your website.

How do you make it all work? A few key steps to get started:

• Identify your audience – What are they doing online and where are they hanging out?
• Set objectives – What do you want to achieve and how will you measure its’ effectiveness?
• Outline a plan – Give them something to talk about.
• Execute the plan – Create the content and get it out there.
• Measure and learn – Monitor and analyze the analytics

Blending SEO and social media marketing efforts assist you in attracting new prospects through search engines and can facilitate links back to your website. The potential is there – you can’t ignore it. Just take note the next time you perform a search on Google … you’ll see they’re incorporating Tweets and shares from other networks in the search results!