Using Social Media as a Supplement to Your Search Strategy

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Using Social Media as a Supplement to Your Search Strategy:
by Todd Bailey

The search engine optimization and social media worlds continue to become interconnected. Many online marketing professionals are complimenting their traditional search strategies with more robust social media campaigns to maximize their reach. It looks like at least one major search giant is acknowledging that businesses want to see results from social media efforts.

Microsoft has announced that they are investing in Klout. For those who don't know, Klout is a tool that assists both casual users and online marketers in tracking how much of an influence their social media account has. Klout is especially helpful for social media agencies because it gives them a convenient place to pull statistics from. It certainly makes the process of creating deliverables for clients much easier. 

Microsoft isn't just entering some kind of cross promotional deal with Klout, either. By investing money into the project, they have a vested interest in seeing the service succeed. Because of this, there is going to be increased cooperation between Microsoft and Klout. Already, we're seeing integration between Klout and Microsoft's search engine, Bing. Not much has been revealed about the deal so far. All we do know is that Klout information now appears in the Bing social sidebar and that a multi-year deal was signed between Bing and Klout. 

Bing has been gaining ground on Google, though the latter certainly remains as the overwhelmingly popular choice. One has to wonder if Bing will try to use more social integration in order to more successfully separate their brand from what Google is doing. Remember, Bing also has partnership deals with both Twitter and Facebook. This investment in Klout signals that Microsoft will continue to include social media as part of their search business. 

As online marketers, we must do the same. The search engines themselves are seeing (and trying to create value) in social media. As Google continues to release updates designed to scrutinize content, search engine optimization will need to adapt become a multi-faceted approach in order to keep bringing in positive results.

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