Here’s what I love about search and social media. First of all, it’s our business. Plain and simple. Second, it makes the intangible—well, nearly tangible. More than ever before companies are approachable, available and are listening to what their fans and community are thinking, feeling and saying.
The “old-school” days of cutting off a label from your favorite cereal box and dropping it in the mail are from a different time in history. What used to feel like months in receiving any notification back from a company will happen now in a matter of just hours (maybe minutes) with social media and I believe we all cheer as things are much easier now.
Communication is so much faster and really getting to know a company by way of what they publish coupled with their response time is amazing! Yay, technology!! Right? Right.
Search Just Became More Interesting!
Aside from Google+, Google Search is going deeper in the social game. Their last agreement with Twitter expired in 2011 and a lot has changed in the world of technology since then. It’s been a few weeks and now that Google and Twitter have recently signed their (new) deal, Google will have access to Twitters data feed. Yes, things are about to really get interesting.
While Google hasn’t given us much to go on other than the announcement, great news is that this is going to take some time to implement. Our friends over at Stone Temple Consulting reports that out of 138,635 tweets tested, as of right now less than 8% of tweets are being indexed in search results. Unlike other Google algorithm changes, we have some time to adjust to this one!
Tweets that become visible in online search results will give their potential consumers and extra tidbit of info–the will experience the “flavor” of your company right on page 1. And, according to an article on Hubspot; Google is going to index tweets in REAL time search results. The impact of this deal on SEO and website traffic is huge as these two industry giants bring the two worlds of marketers and consumers together—front and center.
With the billions of websites that are published, Google has no idea whether your company is real or even one that is sharing quality content. Their end goal is an optimal user experience delivering quality content and what people are looking for.
Link building in social platforms does just that, it reinforces your quality information. Google loves links but it also loves reinforcement that your web content is relevant to what the end user is searching for and as those links are shared they receive a little extra juice from search engines regarding which websites are credible and should be ranked for what keyword phrases.
Here’s 3 Reasons Why This Is Great News!
- Seriously Impacts SEO
Let’s apply how links get Google juice to how we think Tweets will be indexed. Most tweets will be treated the same way. Knowing how Google works they will implement search algorithms that will populate tweets that offer the greatest value to those searching.
Further, a link that gets several retweets or the number of times a tweet gets favorited could very well contribute to SEO and the probability of a bump in ranking as they reflect the activity that specific link produced among social sharers. It obviously contained valuable information and therefore reinforces everything from brand identity to the outbound company voice and philosophies.
Remember—you are the company you keep. If those that retweet and favorite your tweets have a lot of followers or are considered influencers—this will help greatly! The more followers the better–now is a fantastic time to start growing your audience as Google will most likely index tweets from those that have a lot of followers.
- Impacts the Marketer
First and foremost—Twitter just became more valuable than ever to your online social interactions.
Companies will have to rethink their social strategies for marketing as this will make their social media interactions more visible to consumers. This is actually a great thing! Perception is everything and now companies will need to be more cognizant of their message while they sit a little taller and be a little more polished in front of their consumers.
Community managers will be more nimble and work harder at understanding the impacts of their interactions while quick to respond to areas of concern. If there is bad PR coverage it very well could reach Google and blow into a huge PR issue that will need to be addressed and contained.
- Fresh Content = Building a Stronger Online Community
This deal will lead to more original content. We can’t stress the importance of how updating your websites with fresh, relevant content on a regular basis is to your business. Google appreciates when a website is updated with fresh and relevant content often, which is also true when it comes to your social media accounts.
Create and curate original content on Twitter, especially. Having social profiles that are not updated on a regular basis is like having a dirty front poor to your business. It only takes once for a prospective customer to stop in to a Facebook page or Twitter feed that’s not being utilized and just as a car runs out of gas on the side of the road, so does that potential customer.
Since your feeds can potentially be seen straight away on the front page of Google, remember to put your best foot forward and gain followers by giving them great, fresh but useful content. This will overflow into those you follow, other influencers, lists and more. Use images, hashtags and links to get more followers to retweet and interact with you. Thank others for sharing–all in all, be a good twitter citizen.
Make it easy—just always be posting! If the social media profiles associated with your website are active with frequent, quality updates then the search engines take into consideration that your business is authentic, engaged, and valuable to readers..AND your prospective clients love you for it.
If you don’t have time, hire a community manager. Or better yet, hire us! It’s what we do and we take your entire internet strategy into consideration when planning your posts. We call it the Power of the Triangle. Click here to understand more or fill out this contact form for a complimentary 30 minute consultation! We’re happy to invest our time to help you figure out a solid strategy!
Again, for most, tweets aren’t going to appear in search results overnight. It’s going to take some time for Google to get on top of their tweet indexing game. That means you have some time to make internal adjustments on how you can leverage this new change for the better. It’s great news, really and certainly news that we’re excited about. Yes, search HAS gone social!