Search + Social are one in 2012
This year started off with SEO being shaken up in a big way with Google kicking off the social media war with Facebook & Twitter by further extending its focus around its new social platform Google+.
What is important to understand is how Google is transforming your search results and using social signals from what your friends and family are sharing on Google+ and how Google is now using more social data to personalise your search results.
Businesses need to understand that as Google pushes further prominence on social media via Google+ and as Facebook reaches 845,000,000 users with its partnership with Bing, it is really time to ensure you have a seat at the social table. Google and Bing use public signals such as ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ to understand the context of the content which is contained in its search index.
In 2008 the importance was around just having a social presence, today, your clients and consumers are looking to engage with you, therefore you need a social strategy rather than purely a social existence. 2011 was the tipping point when social provided significant branding and real revenue channels for businesses.
Due to Google’s algorithm change, this has pushed forward the importance of having a clear social agenda with its Social Search transformation. This recent announcement has introduced 3 primary new features for users of Google:
- People and Pages – Find social profiles and business Google+ pages within Google search results
- Profiles in Search – Find people you are connected to or might be similar with in Google search results
- Personal Search – Personalised user results and personalised results based on those in your network
As you can see in the screenshot above, the important change to understand for Brands and Products is that prominent Google+ pages will be offered in the suggested search results. But as the platform expands Google+ results will start appearing right hand side of the search results page featuring prominent Google+ accounts around that topic. This means that unless your company is active and engaging within Google+ you are going to miss out on starting potentially meaningful conversations with your consumers, growing new markets and even miss entire new audiences unless you are on Google+.
It’s time to make sure Social is part of your 2012 plans as if you are not there you will get left behind.
0 03.02.2012
