Recently Matthew, our Social Media Guy, and I attended a free Business gateway event introducing people to social media. Matthew is a bit of an expert when it comes to social media and has worked with clients such as Dell, HP, SAP and Samsung. You may wonder why he actually attended an introduction to social media if he already has vast knowledge of social media marketing. After all, this was just an introduction. Was he looking for a couple of hours skive – possibly. Was he looking for potential new clients – maybe a bit. Or was he just open to the possibility that he might even learn new things at an introduction?
No matter how much you know, or how much you think you know about SEO, social media, or anything for that matter. It is always important to keep an open mind and listen to what other people are saying. The reason why it is especially true for SEO & Social Media is because both disciplines are still very much in their infancy, and there is so much happening out there it is impossible to pick up on every new technique or technology.
Whilst at the event, everyone was having an open discussion about what effect social media has on your business. Apart from the obvious points that it can drive traffic to your site, be used for relationship & reputation management, I also mentioned the other benefits like how it can actually increase your search engine rankings. A few people nodded politely and agreed, but one woman challenged me and said “Why would search engines pay attention to what people are saying on twitter!? “. To me the answer was obvious, and seemed like common sense, but this is maybe only because I have been involved in search engine optimisation for a while. I went on to tell her that if people are talking positively about a certain product, website or news event, it would probably mean it’s something worth talking so therefore that’s why it should play a part in were you are ranked in the search engine results page.
What people are saying on social media channels, providing it is positive, seems like a common sense way to help determine a pages rank on the search engine results page. Here is a real world example. Like most offices, around lunch time we quite often talk about food and people start throwing around ideas. Occasionally someone hits out with a fantastic idea that makes bellies rumble(we are a very food motivated bunch), and lights the fuse wire for a feeding frenzy. Say for example, someone mentions that they fancy something spicy, and then someone suggests Taco Mazama(which we very often do), that would then start conversation about Taco Mazama and everyone else started talking about how great Taco Mazama is, this would probably become the most popular choice for our lunch.
At the moment quality inbound links and having quality page content in the correct structure are two of the most important factors that determine your rankings on the SERPS*. Although search engines have already started to pay attention to what is being said on social networking sites such as twitter. I feel that in the future this is going to be something that has a greater impact in your rankings on the SERP*.
Visions of the future
At the moment we have real time results, say for example there is a breaking news event and you search for it on Google, there is a good chance you will get news and social media results combined with the normal search results. Just now if you type in ‘italian restaurant’ and Google has Geo-located you, chances are that you will get results for Italian restaurants in your area. Soon, I think we are going to see real time results based on your area. So for example if you enter “places to eat” into Google, you will not only get the normal organic results, but you will also get real time results that are specific to your area and pulled from social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. This process will probably be quicker than expected if twitter agree to sell to Google.
*SERP(s) = search engine results page(s)
