Social Search: You Can’t Say We Didn’t Warn You
Almost every newsletter we spotlight the latest chatter with respect to social media marketing developments. It’s not just because we like to ride on the tails of a hot topic, but it’s because last year at this time we saw the social media marketing storm coming. Consider 2009 your social warm-up exercise because 2010 will be about the marathon.
Nary a scandal went by without tweets erupting across the Twittersphere (we’re not even going to name a certain pro golfer, ahem…). Hashtagging became an art. And then one day Google started indexing live Twitter feeds right on their homepage amid organic results. Whoa. If there was ever a clue that social websites are here to stay, please take it straight from the SERP. Google, in an effort to share the latest and greatest news with its users started indexing social search websites (Twitter and FriendFeed for instance), and started showing articles and blog posts right on the first page of SERPs as they were reported. It’s about relevancy, of-the-minute news, and delivering the freshest content out there.
With mobile phone applications apps, social media website connectivity is as simple as calling for pizza (okay, probably easier considering the annoying hold music you are subjected to listen to before ordering your extra large pepperoni). There is a distinct advantage here for businesses, because when something is increasingly user-friendly, it becomes increasingly popular and mainstream. Want to know what’s going on with the weather? You can find a local and national tweeter for that. Want to know if there are events happening at your favorite bar or clothing store? You can be sure there’s a Facebook fan page that will tell you. Your target market is spending a majority of its free time simply checking in with their social networking websigk;jtes to see “what’s new”.
So what’s a business to do for 2010? Well, it’s not too late to get your strategy in shape and ready to hit the ground running. It’s important to get an idea of what you want to happen with social media marketing and to weigh out the right steps to create the best marketing solution. For instance, using social media marketing to get your business shown on the SERP is probably not your best bet. The tweets shown there are displayed for seconds, and are as part of a scrolling feed. The key to harnessing the power of social media marketing is for brand awareness and management. Position your business in front of real consumers who have a need for your specialty and truly listen to what they’re talking about. It’s then that you’ll be able to market, effectively, with social media.