Using Twitter Or Facebook For Business?
Well, they have been working on the concept of Social Search for some time now (they being both Google and Bing)!
And, now, finally it is here…
And the repercussions for online marketing are massive.
The advent of Social Search has blasted the importance of Facebook and Twitter into the stratosphere!
Take a look at this video from Google to see how this works: Google’s New Social Search Video Here
I have been banging on for a long time now about how important marketing with social media is for any business and I have also been quite clear on a couple of very important points.
Numbers in social media are important!
It is not all about ego either – the more potential people you can communicate with and send information to the more potential customers and business people you can build relationships with.
Let’s not forget though that social media marketing is not about pitching the whole time. It is about sharing quality content with in-depth analysis, opinions, researched articles as well as sharing things that interest you in order to build a full picture of who you are and what you are about.
It is about being grateful when some other social media user shares your content with their friends or followers.
And it is about knowing how often to speak – does the thought of following someone who has tweeted 60,000 times terrify you too? Unfollow quickly!
Anyway back to the numbers thing.
The more quality contacts you can have the better. It is realistic to believe that out of say 10,000 followers on Twitter or 5,000 friends on Facebook only a portion of these are going to be truly interested in what you are saying. And only a portion will interact with you on a regular basis.
The art here is to grow that engaged audience.
I have also said for a while now that the major search engines are figuring social media presence into allocating search results more and more. By becoming the authority in a specific area and by cultivating a large following you will be the authority Google, Bing and Yahoo are seeking to answer their customers’ questions…
Now here is where they are taking Facebook and Twitter business use to another level.
Bing started the concept and as they have a better relationship with Facebook and Twitter than Google they were able to implement Social Search based results into their algorithms first.
But Google saw the potential and trumped in quite a spectacular way.
I first spotted this a few days ago when a keyword I was checking came up with a couple of results at about position 5 and 6 on the front page. Under the results was my photo and shared by… me!
Looking further down the page was another new result which had the heading “Results from your social group”.
Under this heading was a result for someone who follows me on Twitter!
Interesting!
So a solitary tweet on Twitter or share on Facebook can now get seriously good page results!
If you are logged into gmail or your Google account and you search you will begin to see these results over time.
They seem to be in test phase at the moment and with all things Google they will be fully launched in the US first but I would guess this development will be full-time here very soon.
Think of the implications for a minute.
Anyone within your social network who types in a search for any keyword phrase you have optimized for and which has been shared via, blogs, social media or web 2.0 will have your material in front of them as a front page result.
And as a bonus they already know you so this adds to credibility and authenticity.
This is a brilliant opportunity and will effectively ensure that Facebook and Twitter business use will really take off.
Most businesses in New Zealand already understand that there are great advantages for a business using Twitter and Facebook but are not quite sure how or why to use these platforms.
This will change very quickly.
Social Media is going to be even more powerful than it already is.
And when you tie a social media marketing strategy with search engine optimization and content publication the results can be astonishing.
If you do not already have an effective social media campaign for your business this is something you must consider if you are to stay ahead of your competitors. Using social media for small businesses has to be managed in a strategic manner and you must be up with how social media can be enhanced to drive serious results.
This is a skill we specialize in – find out more about how these strategies work at this link.
