July 22, 2011 by Cliff Figallo
Social Media Today is proud to have many experienced and savvy writers sharing their work through us with our audience, so we've decided to launch what will be a regular feature - Viewpoints - where two selected SMT bloggers respond to questions about a timely issue being widely discussed in the social media world.
We begin with two of our best writers in the social marketing field - Tammy Kahn Fennell and Steve Olenski. A major shift has been building over this decade, from a marketing emphasis on information - what search engines determine to be important - to an emphasis on relationships and trust - what the user's social behavior demonstrates to be important.
SMT: HOW DOES THE EXPANSION OF SOCIAL SEARCH AFFECT SEO? What impacts are occurring now and where do you think things are headed for advanced marketers.?
Tammy: With Social Media expanding, people are getting their recommendations and answers to their questions from beyond simply "googling it." I'm more likely to tweet out a question or ask a friend on Facebook for their opinion about a contractor or website I want to use. Sites can no longer just churn out keyword-heavy articles in the hopes of getting my attention, as there's a chance I may not even use Google. Instead, they have to write content that people will actually read, recommend and share.
Even if your goal is just to get seen on Google, they are moving to only show content their friends have tweeted and +1'd on Google search. Website owners will need plug-ins on their sites like Digg Digg (for Wordpress) with seamless sharing integration to Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and now Google Plus. I'm tempted to say that SEO experts will be out of their jobs soon, and they will have to quickly become SSO experts (Social Search Optimization) to keep up.
Steve: Coincidentally, I penned an article just a few weeks ago titled "How Social Media Affects Search Marketing." In my article I reference the fact that Google search results are now being directly impacted by the social connections of the person doing the searching and how search results are altered based on 1) if you are logged into Google and 2) whom you follow via social media. That's what's happening in the now. Going forward, it's painfully obvious, at least to me, that with the advent of Google+ and the seemingly endless proliferation of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, it will be paramount for marketers to work with agencies who come to the table with their own (either internally, externally or both) team of social squads replete with their own established social networks to "tap into" to market their brands.
SMT: SEO has developed, over the past decade, as a complex science with countless books written about it and professionals selling their services for handsome fees. It has become the core of online marketing - an industry unto itself - based largely around Google's evolving search algorithms. Now, clearly, Google has realized that the future is in social search and marketing and that there is plenty of room for improvement over Facebook's model. Given what we can see of Google Plus, how should marketeers approach that new platform? Can we see, yet, how it will differ from Facebook's highly developed social marketing environment?
Tammy: I think Google is looking for more than a social network to compete with Facebook. If it competes, that's a major upside for them, but Google is trying to get into everything.
Have a look at the top bar on Google Plus. It brings together your calendar, your documents, photos, reader... essentially your life on the Internet. Marketers really have to wait and see how much of the initial 10 million sign-ups were hype and curiosity and how much staying power it has.
They haven't yet opened their API to developers, which makes it tough for apps to cross-post between networks. Plenty of large sites (like Social Media Today, at the time of this writing) haven't even implemented the Google Plus plug-in yet. Google Plus, as a social network, has value to marketers if the customers are there, but Google's new approach to Social Search is where I would tell marketers to focus at these early stages.
Write content that people will read and share and plus and watch the advent of personalized search. Google is going to start showing you what you want to see, what your peers think is interesting, so marketers need to be savvy to tap into these very human circles to get their message out.
Steve: What we can see of Google Plus is 10 million users in its first two weeks. That number alone is very staggering and sobering at the same time. As to how marketers should approach Google Plus, consider what Chris Brogan wrote in an article for Forbes earlier this week: "A social network made by Google impacts search."
Now considering that Google is the #1 search engine, a marketer may want to make note of that and get involved in Google Plus yesterday. Unfortunately there are no business pages for Google Plus... yet. But they're coming.
As for the differences between Google Plus and Facebook, right now there are many, including multiple-user video chat which Google Plus offers and Facebook does not. But rest assured, this is not a sprint. This is a marathon and each company will be looking for new and innovative ways to "one-app" each other.
SMT: So say you're Joe or Jane User spending time socializing on one of the top-tier platforms for human interaction. You're accustomed to having banner ads, gutter ads, interrupts in your feed stream. What new kinds of communication can you expect to be seeing from businesses marketing to you in the next year?
Tammy: Banner advertising is getting smarter, more targeted, but the savvy marketers are going to get in there and interact on an even more personal level with their potential leads. Geo-targeting, keyword targeting, and actually having a conversation with a potential lead (be it on Facebook, Twitter or in a Linkedin group) will prove more effective than throwing tons of money into PPC.
Think of it this way: I'm Joe, or Jane user, socialising online. Next year I'm expecting marketing to become even more personalised, even reactive marketing, where I'm expected to engage with the advertising. I'm already (as Joe or Jane) starting to see this happen on networks like Facebook, which have adverts that ask me to like a video from my favourite brand, or ask me a question in a poll. To get my attention I'm going to need advertisers to market to me directly. Mass advertising will not have the same uptake.
Steve: I absolutely believe more personalized marketing messages will be the norm, but those messages better be relevant to me. For example, if I search for used cars don't show me a personalized ad for underwear or some other item completely unrelated to my search.
I also think we're going to see more - much more, in terms marketing/advertising - on the "other" screens, meaning mobile and Out Of Home (OOH). Mobile advertising is exploding with more and more people owning smartphones. As for OOH, I recently wrote a blog post about this very topic: "Why Marketers Need To Pay Attention to the Fourth Screen." Spending on OOH, which includes doctor's offices, movie theaters, supermarkets, etc., is to exceed $2 billion in the U.S. this year alone.
http://socialmediatoday.com/clifffigallo/322869/viewpoints-sunset-seo-and-dawn-social-seach
Social Media Today is proud to have many experienced and savvy writers sharing their work through us with our audience, so we've decided to launch what will be a regular feature - Viewpoints - where two selected SMT bloggers respond to questions about a timely issue being widely discussed in the social media world.
We begin with two of our best writers in the social marketing field - Tammy Kahn Fennell and Steve Olenski. A major shift has been building over this decade, from a marketing emphasis on information - what search engines determine to be important - to an emphasis on relationships and trust - what the user's social behavior demonstrates to be important.
SMT: HOW DOES THE EXPANSION OF SOCIAL SEARCH AFFECT SEO? What impacts are occurring now and where do you think things are headed for advanced marketers.?
Tammy: With Social Media expanding, people are getting their recommendations and answers to their questions from beyond simply "googling it." I'm more likely to tweet out a question or ask a friend on Facebook for their opinion about a contractor or website I want to use. Sites can no longer just churn out keyword-heavy articles in the hopes of getting my attention, as there's a chance I may not even use Google. Instead, they have to write content that people will actually read, recommend and share.
Even if your goal is just to get seen on Google, they are moving to only show content their friends have tweeted and +1'd on Google search. Website owners will need plug-ins on their sites like Digg Digg (for Wordpress) with seamless sharing integration to Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and now Google Plus. I'm tempted to say that SEO experts will be out of their jobs soon, and they will have to quickly become SSO experts (Social Search Optimization) to keep up.
Steve: Coincidentally, I penned an article just a few weeks ago titled "How Social Media Affects Search Marketing." In my article I reference the fact that Google search results are now being directly impacted by the social connections of the person doing the searching and how search results are altered based on 1) if you are logged into Google and 2) whom you follow via social media. That's what's happening in the now. Going forward, it's painfully obvious, at least to me, that with the advent of Google+ and the seemingly endless proliferation of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, it will be paramount for marketers to work with agencies who come to the table with their own (either internally, externally or both) team of social squads replete with their own established social networks to "tap into" to market their brands.
SMT: SEO has developed, over the past decade, as a complex science with countless books written about it and professionals selling their services for handsome fees. It has become the core of online marketing - an industry unto itself - based largely around Google's evolving search algorithms. Now, clearly, Google has realized that the future is in social search and marketing and that there is plenty of room for improvement over Facebook's model. Given what we can see of Google Plus, how should marketeers approach that new platform? Can we see, yet, how it will differ from Facebook's highly developed social marketing environment?
Tammy: I think Google is looking for more than a social network to compete with Facebook. If it competes, that's a major upside for them, but Google is trying to get into everything.
Have a look at the top bar on Google Plus. It brings together your calendar, your documents, photos, reader... essentially your life on the Internet. Marketers really have to wait and see how much of the initial 10 million sign-ups were hype and curiosity and how much staying power it has.
They haven't yet opened their API to developers, which makes it tough for apps to cross-post between networks. Plenty of large sites (like Social Media Today, at the time of this writing) haven't even implemented the Google Plus plug-in yet. Google Plus, as a social network, has value to marketers if the customers are there, but Google's new approach to Social Search is where I would tell marketers to focus at these early stages.
Write content that people will read and share and plus and watch the advent of personalized search. Google is going to start showing you what you want to see, what your peers think is interesting, so marketers need to be savvy to tap into these very human circles to get their message out.
Steve: What we can see of Google Plus is 10 million users in its first two weeks. That number alone is very staggering and sobering at the same time. As to how marketers should approach Google Plus, consider what Chris Brogan wrote in an article for Forbes earlier this week: "A social network made by Google impacts search."
Now considering that Google is the #1 search engine, a marketer may want to make note of that and get involved in Google Plus yesterday. Unfortunately there are no business pages for Google Plus... yet. But they're coming.
As for the differences between Google Plus and Facebook, right now there are many, including multiple-user video chat which Google Plus offers and Facebook does not. But rest assured, this is not a sprint. This is a marathon and each company will be looking for new and innovative ways to "one-app" each other.
SMT: So say you're Joe or Jane User spending time socializing on one of the top-tier platforms for human interaction. You're accustomed to having banner ads, gutter ads, interrupts in your feed stream. What new kinds of communication can you expect to be seeing from businesses marketing to you in the next year?
Tammy: Banner advertising is getting smarter, more targeted, but the savvy marketers are going to get in there and interact on an even more personal level with their potential leads. Geo-targeting, keyword targeting, and actually having a conversation with a potential lead (be it on Facebook, Twitter or in a Linkedin group) will prove more effective than throwing tons of money into PPC.
Think of it this way: I'm Joe, or Jane user, socialising online. Next year I'm expecting marketing to become even more personalised, even reactive marketing, where I'm expected to engage with the advertising. I'm already (as Joe or Jane) starting to see this happen on networks like Facebook, which have adverts that ask me to like a video from my favourite brand, or ask me a question in a poll. To get my attention I'm going to need advertisers to market to me directly. Mass advertising will not have the same uptake.
Steve: I absolutely believe more personalized marketing messages will be the norm, but those messages better be relevant to me. For example, if I search for used cars don't show me a personalized ad for underwear or some other item completely unrelated to my search.
I also think we're going to see more - much more, in terms marketing/advertising - on the "other" screens, meaning mobile and Out Of Home (OOH). Mobile advertising is exploding with more and more people owning smartphones. As for OOH, I recently wrote a blog post about this very topic: "Why Marketers Need To Pay Attention to the Fourth Screen." Spending on OOH, which includes doctor's offices, movie theaters, supermarkets, etc., is to exceed $2 billion in the U.S. this year alone.
http://socialmediatoday.com/clifffigallo/322869/viewpoints-sunset-seo-and-dawn-social-seach
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