The lines between social media and search engine optimisation are becoming blurred as Google includes social mentions in search results.

What is needed to leverage social media activity for SEO benefit?

Social Media SEO in summary

1. Where they go and what they are interested in - and what they share. It can get overwhelming to try and target all the different platforms, so just focus on the ones that your audience actually uses.
2. Just like 'traditional' SEO, start with keyword research and decide what keyword phrases you are going to target.
3. Create your content that is valuable enough to share. This might be research, an infographic or something with entertainment value. Make sure the content is easily shared by adding share buttons. Include your keywords in the title tag.
4. Track the results. Google Analytics have added measurements to track engagement and social actions on your site. This SEOMOZ article tells you how to setup a traffic segment so you can easily track where your traffic comes from.
5. Watch, learn, rinse and repeat...