Social media websites have spread like wildfire over the past couple of years. Today, people spend more time on Facebook, Twitter or other social network sites than on any other type of website.

Aside from connecting people, social networks also provide advertising opportunities. Take Facebook, for example. What do you do when you come across a website with half a billion active users? Develop Facebook Web promotion strategies and use the website as a marketing tool, of course.

It’s not surprising to find so many businesses utilizing Facebook Web promotion these days.

In fact, lots of businesses have an FB page as their second homepage. So, the challenge here is how to use social media SEO to your business’ advantage. Social Media SEO It’s not so hard to advertise via Facebook Web promotion. FB and other social networks allow you to post ads, updates, pictures and videos in a snap. When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), on the other hand, there is some doubt whether Facebook SEO is really effective. For one, this particular social media site uses the “nofollow” tag. This means that your backlinks from Facebook aren’t given any value by search engine crawlers. Thus, those links aren’t affecting your search engine rankings at all (but they will still give you traffic). Facebook links may be nofollow, but this doesn’t mean that the website completely doesn’t have social media SEO opportunities. Here are some Facebook SEO tactics:

• Post links to your website in less noticeable areas. A good thing about Facebook Web promotion is that it presents ads and links in a rather subtle way. You may have noticed that most of the ads on FB are at the right side. Although links can be found everywhere, they aren’t slammed right in your face. By posting links only in your bio box, info tab, right side panel etc., you won’t be turning off users by spammy messages. Thus, there are more chances of people checking out content on your site and linking to it.

• Don’t stop the posting. Many times companies have felt excited about reaching fans via Facebook Web promotion, but find that the excitement dwindles after a month or two. Keep on posting — send out daily posts, and write about interesting things regarding your business, services, and products. These posts can encourage conversation, likes, and comments. Besides, if all your status messages are all about your products and services, your page will lean to the spammy.

• Give away free stuff. Almost everybody loves free stuff. Start a contest or provide coupon codes with enticing value to encourage fans to participate in your social media SEO campaign. If you get fans excited, they just might tell their family or friends and blog about it. This Facebook Web promotion tactic can result in more links pointing to your main site.

• Don’t hesitate to ask for a link. It doesn’t hurt to request, or even beg, for a link. Once you have a minimum of 25 fans, post an update and ask your fans to post a link pointing to your site on their blog. If they’re truly your fans, chances are they’ll help you out with this Facebook SEO strategy. To improve your chances of getting that link, give out coupon codes or other free items.

Facebook SEO vs. Regular SEO

Using Facebook SEO can get a bit tricky since the social media SEO benefits are indirect. Facebook has lots of search potential. In fact, many Facebook users today are blurring the lines between social and search. External websites are being tied to FB’s internal systems, allowing the social media site to hop on the search market bandwagon.

With that said, seriously consider integrating Facebook Web promotion in your marketing efforts now before you miss out on great online opportunities.

FB isn’t exactly a search engine; or at least it’s not an Internet search tool we’re used to. Nonetheless, one other nagging issue is hitting the heads of SEO experts: Should Google worry about Facebook’s Web promotion SEO potential?

Ever since the social network’s search engine enhancements and open graph were announced, the SEO world has increasingly heard about Facebook SEO. What’s more is Facebook and Microsoft have partnered, and Bing plans to integrate FB features in searches.

It may be too early to say that Facebook SEO has Google shaking at the knees but it does tell us that social media has made a great impact on search engine optimization.
While Facebook remains the most popular social network today, there are other social media sites that can provide direct link building benefits. LinkedIn, for instance, allows you freely to embed valuable inbound links. There’s also Digg, which has become a destination for social media SEO and even link spamming.

Social Media SEO has evolved significantly over the last ten years or so. It may take a while for you to build an account in each of the major social media sites, but it’s definitely worth it. Moreover, Facebook web promotion and marketing via social media is a fun marketing strategy. Make the most of this lucrative social media SEO to reap the rewards.

By Matt Hodgson (c) 2011