It is no surprise that the explosion of the Internet has led to many different opportunities and subsequently the further development of computer technology to accommodate the ever-changing demands of the World Wide Web. The business, advertising and marketing industries have also all benefited with the effects of the ‘Net Boom’, with an increase in organisations using social networking websites to promote their brands, their products and their services.

Many argue that Classmates.com, founded in 1995, was the first popular social networking website and in some ways laid the foundations for future predecessors, such as MySpace and Facebook, both of which have realised the way to adapt their service to attract revenue – by offering online advertising.

From the birth of the PC almost twenty years ago to the millions of users now joining social networking websites year-on-year, it is hardly surprising that SEO agencies across the world have recognised the importance of utilising these websites in campaigns for clients keen to increase traffic, build further links and be recognised by search engine ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’.

In fact, it seems even the sites in question are aware of the importance of SEO. Late last year, Facebook launched its ‘Public Listings’, in a bid to increase page rankings and traffic that Google and other search engines could give to Facebook pages. So, why is that good news? Well, according to Expatica.com, the social networking website appears to be the preferred option in Europe – a third of the British population is now a Facebook user. In utilising Facebook as an SEO resource, you would have the potential to target approximately 22 million people in the UK alone.

What about Twitter, you ask? This social phenomenon does not work in the same way as Facebook and MySpace – ‘nofollow’ tags are placed on links, which means Google, Yahoo and other search engines ignore these backlinks (although Ask.com does appear to register these). However, from an SEO and digital marketing perspective, Twitter can have a really powerful effect on your SEO campaign. The key to making it work? Sending out your messages and your links to those interest in your field and nice, as well as, of course, targeting relevant press and media contacts – traffic to your site and users accessing your site is obviously another overall goal of your search engine optimisation campaign.

At Top Position, our SEO Social Media Managers are continually researching different social networking sites, blogs, bookmarking and press release distribution channels to ensure links are being built for your organisation over a variety of different social media outlets. This is all a key part of our digital marketing campaign for our clients. A recent development made here at Top Position is the use of Flickr to promote the products stocked by our clients, from personalised gifts to lighting sources. Many SEO experts have noted the effectiveness of Flickr as an SEO resource.

Our SEO Account Managers also strive to ensure the creative and compelling material being produced for our clients reaches as many news agencies, newspapers, television and radio stations as possible. While of course this is not search engine optimisation in the sense of building links, it certainly directs traffic to these websites and after all, that is a key focus of the SEO campaigns we offer our clients.