Ben Gomes is the Google Search engineer who has been the force behind automatic suggestions displayed to a searcher whenever they begin typing a keyword phrase or question. His team is responsible for analyzing user behavior and the volumes of queries that are captured daily. Today, Social Media conversations on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, YouTube and 100’s of other Web 2.0 social networking sites represent an ever growing avalanche of user generated content that is sifted through by this team. Google has introduced Social Search as a feature designed to help you discover relevant content from your social circle. Even when you are not signed in, Social Media comments, profiles, blog posts and discussions occupy real estate on…

Page One of search engine results -aka- The Promised Land.

Therefore, by applying many of the same on-page optimization methods we have discussed in previous articles to your companies’ Twitter profiles, YouTube Channel tags, Video titles and company business pages on Facebook, you will dramatically increase your opportunity to be found on most search engines…provided your social strategy is well thought out before diving in blindly. The same holds true for the negative comments user’s may have shared about your brand or the tweets a hostile employee posts “off the cuff” remarks on your company twitter profile. It is very important that your Social Media Ambassadors are all onboard with the Social Strategy and use care before posting a new comment or tweet.

In a Nielsen Survey conducted in August 2009, almost 20% of the searches started from content shared on a social media site.  What percentage do you think that number is today? Does your company have a Social Media Strategy?

The first step in developing a strategy is to understand the Keywords that are most effective for your business, what is the keyword competition for that phrase and then once decided, share this final Keyword Discovery with your Social Media Ambassadors so that everything you publish incorporates the keyword phrases your SEM team is targeting. By adding keywords and phrases found in comments, service reviews and blog posts that have generated some “Noise”, Search Marketers have been able to repurpose these phrases into company generated content and increased website traffic.

Integrating Social, Search and Public Relations activities under a common umbrella will help you deliver a common voice and better manage the marketing communications across several consumer touch points. Measuring the ROI for all of your efforts is imperative for deciding what works and what does not. Reduce your investment into those activities that don’t deliver a measurable return. Social Media Monitoring Tools will help you understand your campaign’s influence. Brand Mention and Hootsuite help me monitor various conversations and do some additional keyword mining.  Most traffic should be driven back to your company’s  website via inbound links to your “money” pages or primary landing pages. Google Analytics helps you measure where the traffic is coming from and what Web 2.0 resource is delivering the most value in terms of:

• Increased Website Traffic
• Brand awareness
• Lead generation
• Lead nurturing

What are your Social Media Marketing Goals?  Let us know with your comments.