Over the next couple of months, we’ll be writing a series of posts on social media and SEO focusing on small things you can do on specific social media platforms to increase their value to you as SEO tools. But first, I thought I’d give a brief explanation of how social media tools can be beneficial to your SEO campaign and your marketing efforts overall. First off, check out this video that’ll give you some impressive ROI numbers for social media marketing:

The first example alone is considerable food for thought. A family business that gained 1,800 new customers by using a service that cost them nothing? Sounds like a pretty good investment to me.

Now, since you know that social media tactics can be a valuable part of your marketing campaigns, why would you go to the trouble of getting involved in social media and not bother to optimize the content you create? You’re putting in the hours, you might as well reap all the possible benefits rather than leaving a few uncollected because of lack of forethought. Similarly, if you’re already working actively on a SEO linkbuilding campaign, why not use the power of social media to enlist other people to build links for you–for free?

By optimizing your profile pages and other created content on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and your own blog, you can create hubs for your brand that will help you to capture important SERP real estate. And by participating actively in those same sites, you build brand awareness among potential customers and enlist their help spreading the word.