You Can No Longer Ignore Social Media

To capture or maintain a page one or two ranking in organic searches, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts insist that a company's social media presence has a significant influence.

So if you've been putting off dealing with the whole Social Media realm (thinking it's just not important for your technical, business audience), put it off no longer. If for no other reason (and there are several other reasons), you need to be active in social media to stay in the battle for Search ranking.

The Secrets Behind Search
Search is the new yellow pages, industrial directory and Library of Congress on steroids. And the first couple of pages of results in your keyword categories is the battleground.

The search engine giants (Google, Bing, Yahoo) closely guard their exact ranking methods and change them often to help prevent abuse of the system. But even though there are no guarantees, SEO experts generally agree that the following tactics are essential for boosting your ranking:

• Optimize your website meta data
• Keep your website content keyword rich and current
• Maximize inbound links to your website*

Did you notice that little asterisk (*) on the last bullet? Yeah...that's where Social Media comes in. The more content, information and buzz about your company, products and services out there in Internet-land, the better your chances are of securing those prime first page spots in the battle for organic search ranks.

One reason this is true lies in the fluid and prolific nature of social media. The ever-changing flow of content as it is shared in the social realm has the potential for driving up quality inbound link scores to your website. But another reason is that Google and Bing just changed the rules a bit. Recent agreements with Twitter and Facebook mean that these real-time social media venues will be included in organic searches, thereby impacting the overall ranking mix.

Here's a couple of links to recent announcements:

Bing is bringing Twitter and Facebook search to you
Google announces Twitter search

Now what?
If you haven't set aside marketing dollars for social media in 2010, do it now! If you need help figuring all this out, contact us. Social media does have a place, an important one, in B2B marketing plans. It isn't as hard as it looks, and the dividends could surprise you.