Back in the good old days of, say, 2009, there used to be two separate things: search engines and social media. They were two separate destinations, two distinct marketing tactics, and were well on the way to becoming separate marketing specialties. You didn’t really hear much – if any – talk about “convergence.”
But a whole lot has changed in that short amount of time. The first clue was when social media pages started showing up on search-engine results pages …which we reported on here 3 years ago, would you believe! Posting on ClickZ, Julie Batten has neatly summarized most of the other signposts along the trail…
How search has become more sociable:
- Personalized search results. Google has been customizing search results for some time, based on users’ observed searching, viewing, and clicking behavior.
- Social media feeds in search. Google and Bing have integrated Twitter feeds into their search results. Bing has also focused on integrating Facebook likes.
- Social media signals. Google has incorporated social “signals” into its results-ranking algorithm, giving priority to sites that have strong social links and mentions.
- Sidewiki. Google created Sidewiki to enable users to make comments on others’ websites via a sidebar (although its actual usage so far is quite low).
- Discussion results. In some Google search results, you may see a neat little link below certain results that says, “Get more discussion results”; click it, and you’ll be taken to another results page with only discussion forums and social results.
- The +! button. Google’s near-equivalent of the Facebook “like,” it enables users to recommend first a paid-search ad, and soon a website, to those in their network.
How social is becoming searchable:
Just as search engines are implementing social functionality, social networks are bolstering their search functionality…
- Facebook is among the top 10 destinations in terms of search volume, according to comScore; YouTube is second only to Google.
- Facebook formed a partnership with Bing to provide Bing’s web results within Facebook’s internal search function.
- All this has been validated by comScore, which now includes social by way of “expanded search rankings” in its monthly reports.
What it all means for marketers.
According to Rand Fishkin over at SEOMoz: “The reach of your social network and the sharing you do to those networks will have a substantive, possibly massive, effect on your search traffic.” So social media is now no longer simply a branding tool, but another vehicle for lead generation …assuming that you develop optimized content specifically designed for each social media outlet.
With the incorporation of tweets and likes on the top two search engines, businesses have to focus more and more SEO on not only the destinations that they “tweet” about, but on the very tweet itself. It isn’t enough to simply send the content out there; you need to ensure that the content is interesting – and most important, engaging – to the reader. Further, it doesn’t only matter what you say or share: your audience’s interaction with your social media is as important as the original content. Getting a “like” on Facebook means much more than a boost to the ego.
All these subtle changes in technology reinforce what was said Day 1 about social media, as it was climbing out of the primordial ooze:
- People are having conversations about your brand, whether you’re participating or not.
- People today rely on peer reviews at least twice as much as on factual data, in making their buying decisions.
- Marketing-speak is a thing of the past. Consumers (including B2B buyers) want real talk about things that matter to them, from a company that adds value to their daily lives …without asking for anything in return.
What should you be doing now, to take advantage of this amazing convergence of organic search and social media?
- Connect with your customers and prospective customers as soon as possible. If you have forms on your website, asking people for their Twitter ID or Facebook name isn’t optional any more.
- Make sure you’ve socially shared key pieces of content for the digital properties you want to market.
- Companies are better off having one “go-to” outsource vendor for social and SEO, because these two former silos of expertise now must work synergistically to get you the optimal bang for your buck.
Even more so than in the past, customers today don’t want to be hoodwinked. They’re going to let their peer groups largely dictate whom they engage with. But if you can engineer that to be your firm by following the above counsel, they will become incredibly strong advocates for your brand …if you just treat them with honestly and respect.
The search engines understand that people are more likely to accept recommendations from the people that they know and the people in their social circle. This means that social media has become much more than a branding tool. It can affect a search engine ranking, which can really make or break you.
Exactly my point, Nick! We have to stop thinking of Social as merely a branding tool, and more of a means of communication and reputation building. Thanks for the comment.