Today, most organizations operate their social media marketing efforts separately from their search engine optimization work, but those days are quickly coming to an end. The two are coming together.
The more I speak with colleagues working in search and social media, the more I realize we’re doing the same thing but sometimes for different reasons.
SEO’s goal is to make sure that when a consumer is searching for information related to your brand, your brand is what the consumer finds. Social is intended to share brand-related content and inspire others to share on behalf of the brand, but there’s one thing social and search have in common—content.
Content Fuels Everything
Marketers that aren’t investing in content today will be scrambling tomorrow because its imperative in everything we do.
Blog posts, social media content, white papers, articles and so on all play a part in improving a brand’s search results, but all that content also populates a brand’s social channels.
Content will make or break a brand’s efforts in social and search, and it shouldn’t be developed in a silo.
Better Together
The time for boundaries between social media and search is over. Both can benefit from working together.
Search is able to provide data related to what people are interested in based on consumer search behavior. Those are findings that can be leveraged when writing a Facebook post, crafting a Tweet, sitting down to write a blog post and so on. So often marketers are challenged with what content they can create that’s valuable. Search can help with that challenge that never goes away.
Social media, on the other hand, allows consumers to like, share, tweet and so on, which creates social signals. The more social signals, the more valuable a piece of content is viewed by search engines, which naturally improves the brand’s SEO efforts.
When one works, the other works. Content has blurred the boundary where social ends and search begins. It’s time the two work hard together. Is your social media team talking to your search team?
“Things I’ve Learned from Lately” is a regular compilation of articles that have made me a smarter social media marketer. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.
Social’s Power on Search – SmartBlog has one or two really good pieces each week, and this week didn’t disappoint as it breaks down some simple tips on using social media to impact search engine rankings, including: following your customers, encouraging sharing, and incentivizing participation.
Key Takeaway: Social media is not just social media. It’s starting to tie the web together, and marketers are missing the point if they think it’s just a series of platforms. Social media weaves throughout the internet as social signals are used to influence everything, including search results, which are a key factor in the purchase decision-making process.
Have You Checked Your Social Media Policy Lately?– Brian Heidelberger outlines important callouts for organizations to make sure they aren’t violating with their social media policies. Question to ask, include: Does your policy restrict “friending” other employees? Does your policy prohibit talking about workers? and more.
Key Takeaway: Social media policies and internal structures aren’t “set and forget.” They need to be revisited based on the changing landscape and company goals. Don’t let your policy be crossed off the to-do list for good.
Real-Time Social Media Use is Mind-Blowing– We’ve all seen the stats around social media, and they’re pretty impressive. But there’s a difference between seeing stats and seeing them happen in real-time. Gary Hayes has developed a real-time stat counter across social, mobile, games and heritage. Just try to hold your mind down.
Key Takeaway: The universe is expanding rapidly, and the amount of data being generated any given moment is staggering. Marketers that figure out how to parse the data for the information that matters to them and apply it will have a big advantage over their competitors.
After a brief hiatus, the podcast is back and not a moment too soon! This week was huge with big news and opportunities for marketers.
This week’s headlines: Facebook Lays the IPO Groundwork, Google+’s Hangouts on Air Coming to All Users, The App Center is Coming to Facebook , Bing Offers Next Evolution of Social Search and Foursquare Introduces Promoted Specials.
The week’s news quick hits cover: The Government Recommends Creating a Social Media Will, MySpace Faces 20 Years of Privacy Scrutiny, Twitter Debunks Claims of Massive Security Breach, Google+ for iPhone Gets an Update, Facebook Rolling Out File Sharing for Groups, Twitter Acquires Personalized Email Team and Facebook Launches a Policy Hub.
You can find the podcast on iTunes or you can visit the podcast section to subscribe through your preferred podcast player.
However you choose to listen, let us know what you think! Leave a review, contact us on Twitter or send us an email to braveadworld [at] gmail [dot] com.
It's been awhile since our last episode, but the Brave Ad World podcast is back with Episode 63.
This week’s headlines: Google Plans Commenting System, Pinterest Takes on Spammers and Is Facebook Taking on Social Search?
The week’s news quick hits cover: Pinterest Updates Terms of Service, Twitter Unrolls Self-Serve Advertising, LinkedIn Updates People You May Know, Twitter Acknowledges the “Unfollow Bug” and Facebook’s IPO Scheduled for May.
Check it out on iTunes, or visit the podcast section to add it to your preferred podcast player.
Leave a review, find us on Twitter or send us an email to braveadworld [at] gmail [dot] com.
I’ll admit to being a bit dubious about Google+ from the start. Yes, it has potential to impact search and be the source for very rich conversations between personal connections and brand customers. But questions about how many people were using it and how often held me back a bit, despite the numerous reports of growth that Google neither confirms nor denies. Plus, social media marketing is a game of prioritization. Brands need to identify where they need to focus their time, money and resources. Priorities are typically where they're customers are or have the potential to be. Google+ is new and growing. And up to this point, it didn't bring too many new ways to engage with consumers to the table.
I can say that I’m no longer a skeptic.
The Plan
This week Google unveiled the rest of its plans for Google+—make what Google owns, search, better. Now Google+ users are no longer limited to standard search results. They can now search for topics within their Google+ circles, photos, posts and Picasa photo albums with the new feature “Search plus Your World.”
“Search plus Your World” brings three new features:
Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page
Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following
People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks.
Let’s break this down.
The announcement allows people to not just search the web. They can now search their personal social networks (at least what’s on Google+ and Picasa). Only content shared with you or content that is public will be shared with users.
It doesn’t stop there. When searching for people, Google will also use your Google+ profile to complete your search based on people in your circles, assuming that you’re looking for someone you know or are connected to.
When users search for someone they’re not connected to, they’ll be given the option to add them to their circles. Experts will also display in search results when relevant topics are searched for, giving users the ability to not just find informaiton but experts as well.
These features can be turned on or off using a toggle in the upper right of the results page at any time.
Google’s also added the abilities cto control what is shared publicly, with specific circles or not shared to "Search plus Your World." All features are SSL encrypted.
Google’s plan is simple. Take what users have become accustomed to using all the time, Google Search, and ingrain the Google+ experience to deliver better results and more information.
The Controversy
Google’s move isn’t without controversy. It’s been seen as the objective, algorithm focused tool that isn’t swayed one way or another, but now, it’s clear that Google is focusing on its own platform.
For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results anytime they wanted to find something on the Internet.
Often, they want to know more about world events and breaking news. Twitter has emerged as a vital source of this real-time information, with more than 100 million users sending 250 million Tweets every day on virtually every topic. As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant results.
We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.
Of course Twitter has good reasons to say this. It gets traffic from Google, and at one time, Google paid Twitter for access to its information for search purposes.
Google claims that it has access to all of the data from Google+, and this isn't the case with Facebook and Twitter. Facebook has little motivation to work with Google, and as stated above, last year Twitter was charging Google for full access to the Twitter Firehose. Without full access to these platforms' APIs Google argues that if they were included in the results, the results from them wouldn't be as valuable because they would be based on the limited data obtained from crawling public pages.
Google would still win if it crawled public data on Facebook and Twitter because Google+ results would be far more valuable, and incorporating this data would likely stifle the criticisms coming Google's way as it gives its platform more prominence. Who knows... Maybe Twitter and Facebook (less likely) would be persuaded to give Google access to their full APIs because they'd want their content to receive greater prominence. That would only make "Search plus Your World" more powerful.
Is Google+ Enough?
Google’s move is big, but it’s only as big as Google+. The more people use it, the more valuable this new feature will be. What’s missing leaves a big hole. Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms are left out of the integration. This is likely by design, but the value of “Search plus Your World” could be multiplied drastically by incorporating other platforms and the people and content that come with them.
Social Search and Marketing
The opportunity here is really the same one that’s existed for marketers for some time now with social media—create content customers care about. Users can now circle brands based on their search results. If you’re a travel company producing content about unique activities to do in Midwestern cities, and someone searches for it, they’ll be able to connect with you if you have a Google brand page. Search now bridges the gap into social.
There's also the opportunity to encourage conversation about your brand, products or services because third-party reviews from Google+ users will also display. You may search for reviews for a restaurant, and instead of just getting a site like Yelp with reviews from people you don't know, you may see reviews from Google+ connections you do.
Smart Move
Google knows it had one thing Facebook, Twitter and just about any other platform can’t touch, it’s search platform. So it’s focused on taking Google+ to the next level by leveraging that point of difference. Now, Google will have to communicate this value to users and prospective users to make the platform all the more worthwhile and powerful.
"Search plus Your World's" greatest challenge is that it doesn't incorporate other social platforms. That will be an issue for some users, and you can bet we haven't heard the last of this from other social networks and online platforms. Still, Google's going to continue to push on to do whatever it takes to make Google+ succeed.
