Having knowledge about Search Intent is the secret factor to create an outstanding content strategy. Today, in this article, we’ll discuss the different types of search intent, how to determine the best search intent for your keywords, and how to optimize your content in the right way for search intent. First, let’s start from the basics.

1. What is Search Intent?

Search intent is the end goal a user has when he/she searching a query in a search engine, it’s the exact type of answer or resource a user is looking to receive in search results. We called it “Intent” because the search goal of the users is not always obvious from their query. For instance, if I search for something like “Honda Civic Cars”. Do I want to learn what Honda Civic Cars are? Which are the best models in Honda Civic Cars? Where can I buy a Honda Civic Car? Here my search intent is not clear, so it’s up to Google to interpret my search query and decide what kind of content to show in my search results. On the other hand, if I search something like “Best Honda Civic Car under $2500”, here my intent is clear that I want to see a list of Honda Civic Cars models. Most preferably with the purchase links.

2. Why Search Intent is Important for SEO?

Satisfying users’ Search Intent is the ultimate #1 goal of Google. Therefore, if you really want to succeed with your SEO and content marketing efforts, Search Intent needs to be a significant part of your approach. Actually, Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines are more FIXATED with Search Intent, and Google recently published a research report called “How Search Intent Is Redefining the Marketing Funnel” which simply showing us the importance of search intent. Backlinks and other traditional ranking factors are still important. But, if your webpage doesn’t satisfy the users’ Search Intent, it’s not going to rank in the SERP.

3. What Are the Different Types of Search Intent?

While there are endless search queries, we can categorize them into four primary intent categories:

1. Informational
2. Navigational
3. Commercial
4. Transactional

1) Informational Search Intent

You may have already guessed it, yes, searches with the intent to get information categorized as Informational Search Intent. These information search queries could be in the form of a how-to guide, a recipe, or a definition, and it’s one of the most common search intents, as users can look for answers to a vast number of different questions. However, not all informational search queries are questions. Users simply searching for “Jay Shetty” are most likely looking for information about Jay Shetty.

Examples of Informational Search Queries:

• “What is Adaptive Marketing?”
• “Robin Sharma”
• ”Directions to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport”
• “SEO”
• “Football Scores”

2) Navigational Search Intent

Sometimes users just want to get somewhere, both online and in real life. The users simply looking to navigate to a specific website or webpage, and it’s often easier to do a quick search in Google than to type out the URL., also the user could be unsure of the exact URL for a specific website/webpage. As such, these searches tend to be brand or website names. Besides, users can look for an address of a real-world place and google like Pizza Hut London.

Examples of Navigational Search Queries:

• “LinkedIn”
• “Ahrefs SEO Beginners Guide”
• “Facebook Login”
• “McDonald’s Melbourne”
• “Moz Keyword Research Guide”

3) Commercial Search Intent

Commercial Search Intent is also called commercial investigation. Users start their commercial investigation before they’re ready to make a purchase. Usually, they use search to investigate brands, products or services. In their commercial investigation, users often compare products and brands to find the best solution for them.  These searches queries often include non-branded localized terms such as “best face cream for winter” or “The Best Indian Restaurants in NYC.”

Examples of Commercial Search Queries:

• “Top Indian Restaurants in London”
• “Best Bodybuilding Supplements”
• “WordPress or Medium for the blog”
• “Best Dedicated Server Hosting Germany”
• “Ahrefs or SEMrush”

4) Transactional Search Intent

Users do transactional searches when they are looking to make a purchase. So these searches have words like buy, price, cheap, etc. Also, these searches are mostly about a subscription, service or product. Usually, these transactional searchers have a good idea of what they’re looking for. So, they look for places to make purchase means they search for a product/service page, with a straightforward layout, pricing, and a buy button.

Examples of Transactional Search Queries:

• “iPhone 12 Pro Max Price”
• “Expressvpn Coupon”
• “Buy Michael Kors Handbags”
• “H&M Men’s Shoes Sale”
• “Shop Mac Cosmetics Online”

4. How Does Google Understand Search Intent?

Google always wanted to satisfy users’ search intent to provide them with a better user experience. There has been a series of Google algorithm updates specifically aimed to give more importance to search intent. For example, RankBrain update back in 2015 focused on search query context like user’s location, search history, etc. Then there was BERT update in 2019, which aimed to resolve lexical ambiguity, learn new words, find synonyms, and soon there will be a MUM algorithm update that will be able to change/adjust the content in order to satisfy users’ search intent. But, if we keep these Google algorithm updates aside, there are three general factors that Google uses to understand search intent, they are:

  Context of Search Query

In simple words, context is the circumstance surrounding your search query like your location, language, current events, and search history. For example, if you were to google Australia on a normal day, you’d get a SERP result of regular pages from Wikipedia and the tourist resources. But, if you were to google Australia on the day it was hit by bushfires, the entire SERP results will change to the news coverage about the bushfires.

  The phrasing of Search Query

The more words you add to your search query the more clear and defined the search intent. When the search query is formed as a question using modifying words like what, why, how then the intent is most likely informational search intent, on the other hand, if the search queries have words like best, review, top then the intent is most likely commercial search intent.

  User behaviour

Google analyze the type of content most of the users prefer for the specific search query and promotes more of such content in the SERP results. For example, if many users search for “how to fix the blue screen on the computer”, and immediately switch video results to watch tutorial videos, then Google might consider including those video results into the main SERP results. This could be one of the reasons we see different types of content ranking for similar types of search queries.

5. How to Optimize Your Content for Search Intent?

Now, the trick is to find out the best content approach to satisfy each type of search query based on its search intent. For that, we need to have a proper strategic plan. So, let’s check out how to optimize the content for search intent.

1) Choose Your Keywords by Search Intent

When doing keyword research for your website content, just make sure that you have taken search intent into account. There is no reason to create informational content that targets commercial search queries, simply it’s a waste of resources. So, choose and split your keywords by search intent and add them onto corresponding content. There are many keyword research tools out there where you can use filters to identify keywords with specific search intent.

2) Generate Content Ideas from SERP

Now, you have the Keywords list sorted by search intent, so, it’s time to find out the best type of content to satisfy the users. As we already discussed, the intent of the search query and the search query itself are not reliable resources to indicate the type of content needed to satisfy searchers. It’s most common for two similar search queries to be satisfied with very different SERP results. Therefore, the only reliable resource to create the best type of content for a specific search query is to look at what types of content already ranking in SERP. With a quick systemic approach, you can identify which search queries are best satisfied with text content, videos, image galleries, reviews and so on.

3) Make Good Use of Off-Page SEO

Did you ever notice that certain types of search queries are best met with web 2.0 content and other off-page content? If that’s the case with your search query, then consider making these platforms a part of your content strategy. For example, if a certain search query is often met with results from YouTube, then consider creating a corresponding YouTube video and then have your YouTube channel connected to your website. This way you can get into SERP and still have some traffic generated into your website. Another platform you have to consider for local SEO and navigational search queries is the Google My Business listing, this will get your business into a GMB panel, local SERP results, and Google maps. Also, you have to join the Google Merchant Center and have your product pages validated with Google that will help you get your products directly into SERP results and have them featured for transactional and commercial types of search queries.

4) Add Your Website Schema Markup

Search results are getting more diverse and complex. We can see that there are knowledge panels, videos, featured snippets, rich snippets along with 200 other SERP features. All of these SERP features exist to satisfy very specific search intents of users, like searchers looking for brand information, products, recipes, answers to complex questions, etc. One way Google can pull this specific information from our websites is by relying on Schema markup, aka structured data. schema markup is a collection of HTML tags that are used to highlight the different types of content on our web pages. For example, if it’s a recipe post, we can use schema markup to highlight each ingredient, calorie, cooking time, the number of servings, etc. And Google can use this specific information about the recipe to create a rich snippet. There are certain types of search queries for which you have no chance of ranking in the SERP if you don’t have schema markup on your web pages. For other search queries, having schema markup is not essential, but having it may give you an advantage over your competitors.

5) Watch Out for the Shifts in SERP

SERPs have fluidity. You might have cracked the SERP with exactly the right type of content, but the entire thing might change a day from now. Google constantly introduce New SERP features, so, users may go to other types of content, and your competitors are always on the watch out to grab your positions. But, the fluidity of SERP is not a big problem, it can be an opportunity for you to rank better. Always, watch your rank positions in SERP results, and if you see any sudden drop in rankings, investigate the SERP, look for the change in the way Google satisfies search intent with SERP. Then modify your content accordingly. It’s not an issue to regain your SERP rankings if you optimize your content quickly.

 

Conclusion ????

SERP results have been changing rapidly. These days, we can see everything in SERP like blue links, images, videos, stories, featured snippets, products, etc. It seems like Google is experimenting with different ways to satisfy searchers’ search intent. If this trend continues, then it’s a good idea to optimize your content for search intent that will enhance your SEO performance, also help you rank better in SERP.

Hope you found this search intent guide helpful. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Prime One Global is excited to announce a newly forged partnership with INFOTEL 2015 – “Connecting Citizens” as their Digital Marketing Partner. INFOTEL is South Asia’s premier and Sri Lanka’s largest ICT Exposition organized by the FITIS. It will be opening its 2015 edition from November 20^th – November 22^nd, 2015 at the BHICH. This will be its 14^th run in the last 20 years.

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Being the leading event of FITIS (Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka), INFOTEL has developed into one of the largest Technology exhibition held in South Asia, and the Premier Technology event in Sri Lanka. It is frequented by significant decision makers of leading organizations in South Asia. Setting a trend for the past 20 years, the exhibition promises a much pompous display of Technology and Services and will provide a rewarding stage for new and upcoming businesses this year as well.

Sharanyan Sharma, CEO of Prime One Global says, “ Though we have not been one of the luckiest to follow the Exposition since a very long time, we have previously attended INFOTEL 2013 and 2014 as Attendees, but this year is going to be different. We are not going to be just Attendees. We are looking forward to collaborating with the amazing minds behind this incessantly successful event.”

History of INFOTEL :

Two decades ago, with the speedy growth of Information Technology in Sri Lanka, the IT community had felt a need for a convention, a merger of minds. Like a place where the creative thinkers in this Industry would get a stage to share a part of their brains with the world. From the first time INFOTEL was hosted in Sri Lanka in 1992, it has come back every year with greater bang and charisma than the previous year.

Who Should Come To INFOTEL 2015?

There are no barriers – everyone’s welcome at Infotel. It is hard for someone to say that they do not connect with Technology today – it is a crucial part of life. So, if you are reading this piece – YOU should come to INFOTEL. And when you decide to come, keep all your perceptions about Technology at home – Since, INFOTEL 2015 is going to change your way of thinking. It’s going to challenge your current beliefs, break your thoughts about the future and inspire you in a way you could have never imagined.

There is opportunity for :

1. ICT Professionals – Software Engineers, Executives, IT Developers and anyone related to IT Professions.
2. IT Students – Students, Career Guidance and Opportunities in IT, Inventors, Creative Thinkers and Fresher’s’.
3. General Public – Hardware Equipment and Devices, Latest Gadgets, Gaming Industry, Software Licenses, Consulting and ICT Knowledge.
4. Exhibitors – 300+ Stalls, 08 Side Events, and 100,000 Guaranteed Footfall at the Event.

“Year after year, INFOTEL has built the platform for unconventional thinkers and inventors to show-off their talents in front of thousands of people. I have witnessed ‘out-of-the-box’ people sharing ‘out-of-the-box-ideas.’ This is the place to be for businesses’ that don’t fit into a single mold and this is the place to be for entrepreneurs who want to increase their knowledge to expand their business in the coming days.” Says, Pratheepa Sharanyan, Co Founder of primeone.global

Prime One Global’s Role in INFOTEL 2015

We are partnering with INFOTEL 2015 to improve their online presence and are directly responsible for the development, SEO and maintenance of their official website.  It is our ulterior motive to spread the word about INFOTEL to the deepest corners of the World by running result-oriented Social and Search Campaigns that drive more visibility for the event. As a result of this partnership, we will also be managing their online PR activities such as the administration of official social pages (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) covering press releases,  posting event related competitions and updates, taking Interviews of Stall Owners and more.

What is the Objective of INFOTEL this year?

If you are a follower of INFOTEL, you would have noticed that every year, INFOTEL Expo has a different catch phrase. The last year it was “For a Smarter Tomorrow”, the year before that it was “Enhancing Lives,” and till date our favorite has been “Vision to Reality” in 1998. The slogan for this year is “Connecting Citizens.” The expo will aim to connect Entrepreneurs (budding and pro) from different spheres of the ICT industry under a single roof to enable a rich bond between the citizens of different participating countries. The event aims to promote the Foreign Relations of Sri Lanka and thereby enhance the growth potential of the Island Nation.

Mondays have an extremely sad correlation with the life of us SEOs. Not because they are simply ‘Mondays,’ but because they denote the start of a new week. The onset of new Action Plans like the legendary plans for Work, the seven-day Social Action Plans for clients and blablah blah and yeah! Action plan for the family too. It’s more like a script that we live by today (a protocol that cannot stop and cannot be overridden) – and even with all this routine and discipline in our lives, every weekends with a fear of a Google Apocalypse or maybe some screw ups here and some accomplishments there (talk about being modest).

Now why am I talking about Monday? Because it was Monday (4^th May) last week, that I got the idea for this blog post. I had just woken up from sleep, and I opened my email (out of routine), trying to see what was in store for the week ahead. There were 27 unread emails, of which most of them had such peculiar Subjects.

Screencap Courtesy: To 4 of my awesome clients who gave me permission to share this screen without finding it offensive.

Every day there is a rise of a new fraternity on the Internet, which claims that SEO is dead, Every single day there are new “Guru” SEO firms claiming even faster rankings than pre-penguin times and EVERY SINGLE DAY there are new ‘Professional Copywriters’ who claim to do something called ‘SEO Writing.’ (What is that again?)

With all this useless hype and bullcrap sprayed on the webwork, it’s hard to understand the right from wrong. Especially in the case of webmasters (like my clients’ above) who have been victims in the past of self-proclaimed ‘SEO Gurus.’ That is when I came to a conclusion – “The fault is not in the system we live by, but in the mentality of the people that keep their hopes on it.”

I have yet to come across a webmaster that would channel dark magic (read black hat techniques) on his websites and throw a party when his website got penalty driven.  But every week there are a few people who come to me in search for immediate results. What sort of immediate results?

1. Can you rank my newly furnished website in a month?
2. Can you do SEO writing for my blog and increase my traffic?
3. Local restaurants wanting to increase their footfall.

And other such questions. I am not saying that SEO is impossible or something, but what I want to say is SEO has to be understood. It might be that you have been under the wings of wrong SEO Firms, which gives you false positive ideologies like the ones I mentioned above.

Or

You might have bought a book on SEO from a very legit author 3 years back, which was trending back then and may have cost you a thousand dollars, but in truth – that book holds no significant value today. You can sell it for scrap much like your yearly newspaper deposits. The rules of the game has changed yet again, and we must adapt and welcome them, instead of being stuck with prehistoric notions that get us nothing but misfortune.

Take a look at this small experiment that I did:

I used Moz-SEO Bar Plugin for Firefox – It’s pretty neat.

Take a look at what I searched for and the results. Do you find any correlation between the search results to the common SEO assumptions that are prevalent?

1. Rankings are directly proportional to Authority – Now I won’t say that is completely untrue, but these statements are only as true as this screenshot. Clickminded is ranking above SEW and Hobo-web in spite of having a lower authority than them. Also, Moz is in the 11^th position for this keyword in spite of having DA – 92 / PA – 77.
2. More Content Than Competitors Equals Better Rankings – Again this is not true at all. Especially in this case you will notice that the 1^st and 2^nd Websites have comparatively lot less content than the 3^rd and 4^th Also in terms of Content and Authority, SEW and Hobo should have a better chance for top place rankings according to the books, not to forget MOZ which has exceptional authority and content, but in the 11^th position. 

3. SEO Content is important to Rank In SERPs – We are not living in 2013, and there is nothing called SEO Content writing in 2015. It is a thing of the past where keyword density played a crucial role in ranking for keywords. Back in 2010, the more the keywords on your page, the better were your chances to rank, but that’s now how things work nowadays. Google has this amazing system in place that scans a document for word references, synonyms, related terms and other important factors to decipher whether an article is relevant to a particular keyword or not. How do I reach this conclusion? – My search query is ‘SEO Guide in 2015,’ but you can see Rank 1 and Rank 2 don’t even have the word Guide in the Titles, however Rank 3 does have and neither of these websites have used “SEO Guide in 2015” anywhere in their 2000+ words body.

Why do you think all this doesn’t match with the current assumptions related to the SEOsphere and all the bull crap coating on it? Simple, because there are no rules in SEO.

Welcome to “We are a Professional SEO Firm” BS!

I will have 10 Seo firms pitch to you and 8 out of 10 times this is how the firms will pitch to you –

Hello and Welcome to XYZ Company. We are a Professional SEO Firm based in …… blah blah blah.

But, it is easy to fall for the big claims of the former SEO types and mistake them for professionals.

One of the best way to test the caliber of an SEO firm is by looking at their past case studies. I know case studies can sometimes be conjured to entice clients, but it will give you a fair idea of their understanding of the SEO field. ANOTHER important thing to look for when talking to a potential SEO firm is to look for guarantees. Throw in questions like –

“Can you guarantee my 1^st-page rankings within a month?”

“What kind of Guarantee do you give?”

If these SEOs know what they are doing and understand this field, there is no way they can give you a biased guarantee – that too without conducting a thorough SEO audit of your website.

They might guarantee you organic and strong rank improvements for life, but to say that they can take you to the top of the pole and stick you to the moon – Now that’s where the alarm bells in your head should start ringing.

Things to Ask Yourself Before You Hire Your Next SEO

1. Is the company willing to school you and involve you in their SEO process? If you show interest in learning what is happening behind the scenes are they eagerly accepting your inquiries or dodging it with SC-fi statements that make little or no sense to you?
2. Will they conduct a thorough SEO Audit of your website before running your online marketing campaign? Will they provide you with an SEO report before they start the work? Avoid companies that jump directly into link-building even without auditing your current link profile and Website on-page structure.
3. Do they promise high rankings and rank retention for a long period? Avoid such ‘Idiots’ at all costs.
4. Do they understand that your sole purpose for ranking is to drive more business to your website? They can rank you for meaningless keywords that make no sense to your business or such keywords which hardly get searched for.
5. What will you get after they have run your campaign? Will they give you a detailed report of their work along with action plans for your company to carry on the task after they have handed over the profile? If they aren’t giving you detailed reports and action plans, they are as clueless as you are about SEO.
6. Are they bent on signing you into a long term contract? While this is not a clear signal and can sometimes trigger false positive thoughts, but you should look out for all the above traits first. Companies that want to sign long term contracts like six months or 1-year contracts are not completely wrong, but there are two sides to a coin always.
7. Don’t look for short term or speedy rankings. Think like this – there are other companies in your industry. And imagine if all are paying different SEO companies to rank for the same keywords as you. Short term rankings will only give you a short-lived sense of pride while ranking in the long term in the right way will give your business the stronghold it needs to be established online.
8. Don’t opt for Link sellers or SEOs, while claim to have their own high-value domains – these are BIG FAT RED SIGNALS you should stay away from.
9. There is nothing called SEO Writing, at least it does not exist in 2015 and will never come in fashion in future. Today, Google Guidelines have become more ‘quality-content’ centric. So no more keyword stuffing and keyword density checking – all this doesn’t exist anymore. If they are offering you SEO Writing Services for your blog – this is a clear signal of their inability to follow current trends.
10. There are no hidden secrets in SERPs, and there are no magic recipes. Yes there are powerful backlinks and weak or spammy backlinks, but if a company tells you that:

“We have insiders at Google and can rake you to the top like putting up a star on the Christmas tree” – then by all means turn around and (you know what to do).

“We have some secret strategies that are guaranteed to boost your sales and rankings.” No no no, if they had all that – then they wouldn’t be talking to you in the first place.

So What Should You Do?

‘Hire us! Because we are a professional SEO firm. (Shameless self-promotion spotted).

Noo!!?! Do what you think is best for your business and choose the SEO company that you think solves all your queries before starting your project.

I hope this post was helpful in some way or the other, and I also hope that other amateur SEO firms learn a lesson from this as well. I had no intentions of blowing your mind up or making you think wrong of the current SEO firm.

All the information in this thread is not pointed at anyone and is purely for educational purpose. Additionally it would be a wise decision to understand the basic tricks of the trade so that you can be aware of certain things that are important for being a part of the SEO game in 2015.

SEO is adaptive, and it will change tomorrow. Sometimes to such an extent that what you read today may be completely irrelevant tomorrow so be focused and be aware of the Google Quality Guidelines.

Here is some more food for your brain to chew on:

1.    Mobilegeddon – The Webmasters Guide To Survival On The Internet

2.    How Regular Link Removal Is Better Than Investing 1000$ On SEO

3.    8 Point Checklist For SEO in 2015 – Revisiting The 2014 Updates

Connect with us on Facebook! or leave us a feedback in the comments section below.

In our contemporary world of today, most entrepreneurs use social media to enhance their businesses in several ways. This is because of the several benefits such businesses will derive from social media platforms. However, let us define the key phrases in our title.

Social media:

This is an online platform for social interactions among friends and contacts that afford you the opportunities to create and share information and ideas in virtual communities. From this definition, we can deduce that the social media platform has a pool full of people or contacts; has a pool full of information or ideas and opportunities to create and share with others whatever is of interest that you wish to share.

Offline business:

This refers to businesses that are done in the physical, where buyers and sellers meet one on one to interact and agree on terms for the transaction. Offline businesses require physical infrastructures like offices, factories, electronic and print media for the advert, and a lot of human resources for efficient service delivery. In the offline business platform, customers see whatever they want to buy physically; advertisements are done on Televisions, Radios, Magazines, and Newspapers and on Bill Boards; payments are made either with cheques or in cash, and sellers and customers meet physical, discuss and agree on terms of the transaction.

At this junction, it is important to highlight some of the benefits your business can enjoy from social media platforms. These will help you know the best strategies for your business as an entrepreneur.  Social media afford you the opportunity to introduce your new products and brand to targeted contacts who in turn can become your potential customers. Whichever social media platforms you belong to, you can build and grow your contacts base to become your targeted clients or customers.

You can advertise existing products and services on some social media platforms. This could be either in your timeline or fan page etc. Some social media have spaces for paid advertisements with a wider audience than your contacts, fan page members, or group members. Thus, you can take advantage of this to promote your offline business. Building your brand or business image and keeping it fresh in the minds of people is very important in enhancing your business. Social media are sites that millions of people visit daily. You can therefore seize the opportunities to build and constantly keep your brand image in the minds of millions of people when you constantly post and advertise on social media.

Cracking Social Media Platform

Social media is a real-time interaction platform. This means you can always interact with your clients or customers at regular intervals. This will help your brand or business have a human face and you will readily know the opinions and views of your clients. People want to be able to ask questions, express their minds and get quick responses, social media gives you this chance to interact with your potential customers. Several social media have platforms for groups of like minds. People or businesses that are in the same fields or offer the same services can meet and share interests, ideas, challenges, etc. The interactions between group members help them to know each other and find ways of promoting their businesses. Social media help in positioning the entrepreneur as an expert consultant. People who need the services can easily contact you for offline transactions. Thus helping you build a loyal brand or business customer base.

So much for the benefits, let us shift our attention to the strategies for enhancing your offline business with social media. You must understand that social media is far more than content and conversations. It is a platform where you have thousands of contacts, fans or followers ready to be converted to clients or customers. There are several methods one can use to convert social media contacts to customers and derive great benefits for your offline business.

Three Myths About Social Media Strategies

The first strategy is to have a special offer for your online contacts who visit your business place personally. The offer should be posted online with a code to identify them when they appear physically. The special offer must be very attractive and could be in form of a discount, reward, or something that is worth an online contact coming physically to patronize your business.

Also, you can always post in your social media blog descriptive articles, images, comments, and content that draw attention to you or your business. This will make your contacts, fans, and followers want to meet you or visit your office physically. If it is permitted you can post your URL so that people can easily reach you. You can search on social media for contacts and group members in your immediate environment or locality, those who can easily come over to your shop, factory, or office. The strategy is to target these contacts and convert them to become your customers. If your business is nationwide or international you can develop a method targeting your fan base and refer them to your offices and outlets across the country or internationally.

Another very effective method is to extract the emails of members of your targeted groups of contact and send them direct or individual emails inviting them to visit your offline business office. An enticing offer will do the trick to pull them to become your customers. You can also mail them your newsletter, promotion offers, new arrivals or products, etc.

It is also very good to advertise your offline business on any of the social media paid-page. Here you can reach a wider audience that can become potential customers. In the advert, you can give a description of your services or products and how you can be contacted. The advert will have images that can attract potential customers to your offline business.

You must develop a good interactive pattern with your social media contacts. This will build confidence in them and they will be willing to contact you personally to patronize your offline business. Effective interactions with your online contacts will also make them refer other customers to you. On the other hand, poor interaction can have a negative effect as well. Incorporate your offline business website with some major social media. This will increase the number of people who visit your website and invariably have contact with you or your offline business.

Make sure the press releases, catalogues of your new products, and promotions of your offline business are posted on your website and also shared with your social media contacts base. Thus, they will always have new and fresh information about your business. Of course, this will pull them to want to do business with you physically. Develop yourself to become an expert consultant to your social media contacts in your niche. Be ready to play the role of “customer service” to your potential customers. Answer their questions and queries quickly; provide advice and support services; inform them of new products or services and if possible ensure that they are able to call you directly. By so doing you can direct them to your offline business place.

Conclusion:

I encourage you to either join or affiliate your offline business with as many social media as possible. This will increase your contact base and create more sources of interactions like blogs, forums, and timelines between you and your targeted audience or potential customers. The numbers of social media are increased by the day but here are some that you can easily join and utilize to your advantage. Facebook, Pinterest, Linked In, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Yookos, YouTube, and Tumblr.