WSI 4 Web Business' Blog

Search Engines and Social Media Channels Compete
...but finding common ground can help customer engagement and conversion

With increased awareness about search engine optimisation (SEO) and easier access to information, business owners are more willing to invest in making their websites rank higher on search engines. Simultaneously, the explosive growth of social media is spurring businesses to consider making social media an integral part of their overall marketing efforts. This does pose somewhat of a dilemma because the objective of search engines and social media channels is quite the opposite of each other.

While search engines aim to help consumers find the information they are looking for and direct them specifically to the most relevant (top ranking) websites, social channels facilitate online conversations on third-party forums like Facebook, Twitter, Mashable and so on. Savvy Internet marketers have realised that instead of making the difficult choice of one over the other, it is wise to find common ground between search and social and rake in the benefits of both.

The biggest advantage of social media is that it generates consumer-speak - honest feedback about a product, service or brand. Social media users are already on a heightened level of "engagement" when they are discussing a product, service or issue. If your company launches a social media campaign, you can look for the prominent and frequently appearing keywords that users include in their social conversations. Using these keywords on your website can yield good results because they are likely to be relevant search terms that prospective customers will use when searching for your product or service on Google, Yahoo!, etc. You could be losing potential opportunities if you ran a social media campaign without a solid SEO strategy in place to support it. Your business needs the collaborative impact of search and social marketing.