Last Thursday, we held a webinar with HubSpot on how Social Media and Search work together.  If you read our previous post, you know that Google is updating their search engines to incorporate real-time searches–which have Social Media written all over it.  Social Media and Search are important in each other’s lives, so here are some highlights from the Webinar; you can find more on Twitter using #wm123!

Before we get started, a BIG thanks to Jeanne and her team at HubSpot for joining forces with us on this webinar.  We had a great turnout, and even better feedback!

Topics Discussed:

• How Social Media and Search fit together strategically in your marketing plan
• Why your business needs a blog for lead generation and brand building
• The top 3 starting points for Social Media: Where your company should start and why

Top 10 Highlights:

1.  Make sure to integrate Social media and SEO to maximize your sales opportunity
2.  When starting a blog, keep in mind you should:

• Read other blogs in your industry first
• Comment on those blogs to state a presence
• Write your own! You have the knowledge of your industry, you’ve started a conversation, now create your own.

3.  Blogs are very effective in link development and content development
4.  Blog content should be published on a regular basis
5.  Blogs can boost SEO rankings by either inbound link value or presenting fresh SEO content – use both! Or use whichever your site is more in need of (fresh content or inbound links)

• Blog.mysite.com – adds inbound link value
• Mysite.com/blog – creates new SEO content

6.  Use Social Media to increase both search engine traffic and referral traffic by linking visitors to your website
7.  Start Social Media with –

• Twitter
• Facebook Fan Page
• Linkedin (Group for your company, and participate in Linkedin Answers)

8.  Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin ALL help with referral traffic
9.  Linkedin helps with BOTH referral traffic and search engine traffic
10.  TAKE THE PLUNGE. You know Social Media is out there, so start before it’s too late, and give your website a boost at the same time!

Post your questions in the comments and we’ll be sure to respond.  Hope you found our highlights useful for those who didn’t get a chance to attend the webinar.  And don’t forget to sign up for our free SEO webinar this Wednesday, January 13^th – 5 Tips to Double Your Site Traffic in 2010 – http://bit.ly/6gIaAX

Thanks for tuning in!