One of these days, Marketers are going to learn. It will be a new dawn for marketing! A shining era in which everyone recognizes how interwoven search is with everything a business does. Until then, we’ll continue to plod along…
Joe Devine, CEO of The Search Engine Guys in Austin, Texas knows this all too well. Recognizing how search continues to evolve in our new social paradigm, Joe (with whom I’d love to shake hands for his perspective) shared some thoughts on how social search will transform SEO with Mashable.
Facebook and Bing Partner
In an obvious move but, perhaps, from a surprising direction, Microsoft’s search engine is to begin returning results based on Facebook “Likes” according to your friends. While an exciting announcement for Microsoft and validation of potential Facebook Like has to redefine web site popularity, how many really want social search? The internet is littered with examples of failed business models predicated on the idea that what your friends like is a better indication of what you like than the general public. Netflix long toyed around with such community concepts, enabling users to share their ratings with friends and receive recommendations from the network in kind. I for one disliked having to ignore many of the recommendations (my wife and I don’t even have the same taste!). What does this future hold for search?
According to Kara Swisher:
“It represents search based on what people are actually interested in rather than just crunching massive amounts of information and muscling it into something useful.” – BoomTown
Does it? With Facebook’s privacy issues of late, I’m not sure I want this information shared, let alone tailoring my search results.
So what?
The question Joe digests is the impact that this evolution has on us as marketers.
In its roughly 15 years of existence, SEO has grown from being a small wildcat operation run by webmasters and content services to being one of the most dynamic, fast-growing sectors of the tech market. The reason for this rapid growth is because — not in spite –- of the constantly evolving nature of search engines.
Simply, just another reason we exist. The bottom line he makes, and with which I vehemently agree, is that this actually changes very little. What do you need to do because of the marriage between Like and Search? Nothing, assuming you are effectively optimizing your site and creating engaging content.
At the heart of the evolution is ever more evidence that an “SEO” is a dying breed. A resource working for your company, that alone optimizes your site for search, is about as valuable someone exclusive to social marketing. Everyone wants to outsource social marketing but it’s such an integral part of your marketing strategy, affecting PR, SEO, viral marketing, and customer support, that you’re nuts to think that hiring someone to run your social marketing (alone) is a wise decision. Search engine optimization is a science and art so integral to everything else going on in your business that your internal resources or agency of record must be active throughout your digital media strategy, if not the scope of your entire marketing plan.
For crying out loud, integrate your search strategy with everything else or be doomed to go the way of the Tasmanian Devil (they’re extinct right?).
