How Search and Social Media Can Play Nice in a Digital Plan
By: AaronFriedman
Having a solid social strategy is becoming more and more important as time goes on and the industry matures. If you aren’t convinced by the trends you see when reading your news feed, RSS Reader and industry publications, then the stats quoted from the recent Radian6 eBook should start driving it home. The numbers quoted make it apparent that having a social strategy in place more often than not will help your brand.
- 63% of companies with social strategies are reporting lead generation from social media
- 2X as likely to generate website visits emanating from their social efforts
Maybe there really is something to this social media thing after all!
There are also repercussions of not having a social strategy in place. It was quoted in this eBook that “employees from companies who don’t use social media are twice as likely to expect a decrease in revenue this year compared to strategic users.”
A Decrease Because of No Social Strategy?
That’s pretty scary to think that taking an uninvolved role in social media can cause a loss in business. But yet, with the direction the industry is headed, it makes complete sense. Not because a lacking social presence in and of itself is harmful, but more because of the impact social has on your entire digital presence.
Where Search Marketing and Social Media Meet
One area I can vouch for is search marketing and how social media can impact it.
Social media has many uses and one of them, which I think everyone would agree on, is to drive additional traffic to your brand’s website and generate business. Considering the overlap between search marketing and social media, since Google and Bing are both using social signals and the growth in search marketing, it would be a mistake to overlook how social media plays together with your search marketing efforts.
So How Exactly Does NOT Using Social Media Cause a Decrease in Revenue?
Social Media being a search marketing signal actually has great impacts on the visibility of your website. A more strategic marketer will notice this and realize that it will ultimately have a tremendous impact on their bottom line.
Take for example link building. Historically, link building has been one of the most powerful signals in SEO and is in essence a vote of confidence from others that you are an authority on a given topic. However, it was always burdensome to request a link from a webmaster.
Today, the industry has moved towards using social media as a link building tactic. There has never been a better time to do effective link building than now, using social media. You’re no longer reaching out to 3rd party users (webmasters), you’re enabling your existing audience to evangelize your brand (through shares and likes). These are components of how engines understand how important a site is to people and it is duly noted in the algorithm.
This goes for your competition as well. Even if you aren’t involved in social media, your competition very well might be setting themselves as the authority, right in plain sight, and you would never see it coming.
In order to stay competitive:
- Start tracking links to your site from social media. Twitter has taken steps to make this easier by wrapping all URL’s in a t.co URL shortener for more efficient tracking.
- Keep a close eye on this user base. Monitor how impactful they have been, and don’t forget to engage with them.
- Set up share buttons on your website. Your users are already there using your assets. All you as the marketer have to do is empower them to share your content.
Have a Digital Strategy with Social Media AND Search Marketing
From what I have just shown you, it is clear that social works together with search. And there are tons more applications of this. But I ask, whatever you do, don’t view social media as a separate silo from search marketing. The impact that social media can have on its own is great. Pair it with search, it’s even greater.
Does your social strategy include search marketing? How have you seen it impact your brands results?
Aaron Friedman is a member of the Content Solutions team at Resolution Media where he specializes in content creation and Social Media Strategy. He blogs at Digitalhighrise.com. Follow him on Twitter and connect with him on Linkedin.
