The Hidden Power of Social Media – SEO

Social Media Actually Helps Search Engine Results

Social media is all the rage now, and everyone tells you that you need to have an account through various channels.  Yes, you need to communicate with your customers.  Yes, social media is growing and you could find yourself voiceless in a few years if you’re not communicating with your customers through social media.  Yes, social media gives your brand some personality.  But here’s what’s a little less talked about – the power of social media for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search Engines Use Social Media

There are two HUGE things you need to understand about social media if you want your company to be found on Google.  First, is that search engines (like Google) are integrating social media into their algorithms.  Sure, it’s not quite as high right now, but it is present, and it is getting bigger (and we think you’ll see that Google + is going to be a big player in this game).  Here’s why this matters to Google: when someone puts a link to your company on their twitter feed, there’s now a person associated with an endorsement. This is what search engines are trying to find and give to you  – what people believe are the most valuable results.  Brand mentions, links, recommendations – these will all be more important as time goes on.  If you stay signed in to your accounts, take a look. You’ll often see the effects of these results already.

Social Media Takes Up Space!

The other more unrecognized benefit is that your social media pages take up space on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).  So, let’s say that you’re looking in a phone book for a good plumber, and a phone book can fit 10 results per page.  You go to “P” and find the plumbers. A good plumber can take up the first ad, maybe even another.  What if they had 8 different “accounts” that could take up space on a page?  They appear prominent over and over again on that page.  They look like the only one in town, or at least just what you’re looking for.  This is what you can do with social media on Google.  If you have your page, a Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, Google +…all of these have potential to take up space.  Now you’re prominent.  Even better, what happens if a competitor fakes a bad review and that comes up?  More accounts that rank high can help push them down lower and off of page one.  You take the most valuable real estate.  Even with low to moderate success, you can still take up an extra space or two, and those are valuable.

Now, that sounds overwhelming.  Who has time to manage all these accounts?  There are some resources that can make this a little more manageable.  At Delia Associates, we’d love to talk to you about how we can help you improve your social media strategy too.  Feel free to give us a call and see what we can do to help your business stay top of mind – and top of Google.

About The Author

We specialize in b2b, supporting the clients who are the "The Brands Behind the Brands." These are the supply chain partners of brands, either in Tier 1 or Tier 2 positions, who drive value through the delivery of goods, services and technologies. We enjoy blogging about all things related to Branding, Marketing, Inbound, Tradeshows, etc... And we're always happy to talk about any ideas you may have that might Get You To Your NEXT!