Social media's influence in online visibility.

• Author: Hershberger, Tara
• Position: SOCIAL MEDIA

BEING FOUND ONLINE IS CRITICAL in today's ever-increasing digital world. Customers and potential customers primarily use the Internet when they research and shop for banking products and new financial relationships.

Our agency views online visibility as having five components: Search Engine Optimization (SR.)), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social, Online Directories and your Website. Social is one of the five pillars, but it also plays a part in the other components. Below we'll detail social media's role in increasing your overall online visibility.

Social

Claiming and maintaining an active presence on social sites is an important component of online visibility. The number and quality of the sites your bank has will have an impact on these sites showing up in financial institution (FI) name/brand searches. Most sites themselves (more specifically, the content within them), are not indexed by search engines (able to be shown in search results). However, Google+ is an exception. If you are a Follower of a company's Google+ page you will see the latest Google+ post in brand/ company name search results (see illustration). If you are not a Follower, that same search will allow the opportunity to connect with the company right then and there with a Follow button.

Search Engine Optimization

Social sites themselves (not posts) can show up as search engine results for brand/company name searches. Ideally these will be visible on page one results, lowering other nonowned and non-claimed sites. Google shows personalized results and if you have Followed a company on Google+ or interacted with that company's content, you are more likely to see posts in your search results. Now with Google My Business, Google+ Pages and Reviews are tied to each location search and are more visible than ever within search engine results pages. (See article on page 22.)

SEM and other paid advertising

Paid ad campaigns can use events and notes within social sites, as well as social apps as landing pages, which is where people go when they click the ad. This is a way to directly drive traffic to your social site, which is increasingly important now that organic reach within social sites has been...