By Dave Lloyd on March 4, 2014, Contributor for Adobe
I know what you’re probably thinking: why do I want to read a post about social media marketing written by a search marketing guy? Well, before you bounce, let me connect the two marketing disciplines in my own way.
For a couple years, search marketing integration has increased with other disciplines (social, geo, and technical especially) in response to changes to search algorithms. Social activity is now considered an extension of search marketing. While social engagement may be dependent on WHO is “talking,” social signals have been progressively used within a search enablement practice—more specifically focused on WHAT is being “said.” Social users are searching for specific topics, products, and other criteria to find out what others are saying, which is why social and search marketing practices must be blended to maximize discovery. While social engagement is used to discover sales opportunities and engage market segments for product development, there is also significant opportunity to discover search phrase relevancy.
Now, how does a social strategy relate to search campaigns? There are three primary search marketing elements that benefit from a strong social strategy:
- SERP (search engine results page) rankings – Social signals, in the forms of retweets, likes, +1s, and shares have become increasingly important to page rank. Algorithms are continuously updated to reflect social presence and influence as a key indicator of relevance.
- Localization – Aocial activity reveals the terminology local users are searching, which provides relevant key terms that should be used for site optimization and marketing asset deployment. Local teams engaged socially become stronger on the search side.
- Keyword strategy – As indicated by what we call the “virtuous cycle between search and social,” there is a constant and dynamic relationship between the two disciplines. Analysis of social conversations gives search marketers details on trending or important keywords that can be included in content marketing efforts.
So both social presence and social response are critical to developing successful optimization and global search marketing campaigns. Social marketers must respond effectively and consistently to drive search excellence. They must generate traffic as an influencer, which will in turn generate key…
READ MORE: http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/social-media/key-social-media-marketing-success-respond/