Search in a Social World

It’s All About Content

The search landscape is constantly changing, no longer is Search restricted to Search Engines. Increasingly Internet users are using the search functions available on Social Networking web sites. Web site visitors are as likely to find you or your web site using the search functions of Social Networks, as they are using the major Search Engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo.
It’s All About Content
So how do web site owners manage this changing environment, and come out ahead of competitors? With content, after all content is what web site visitors want to view and share within their social sphere, and the sharing of web site content greatly increases the potential for visibility within Social Search.
There is no shortage of opportunities when it comes to content development.. Blog posts, Press Releases, Social Networking discussions, Video, Podcasts and Micro Blogging (Tweets) all create opportunities to deliver content to those interested in your products and services.
Know your audience
The primary consideration when developing content is to ensure the topics and presentation are targeted to your audience, knowing your audience is imperative. All businesses have an understanding of their current and potential customers/clients however, developing content for Search in the Social Media world requires understanding and monitoring of the Social conversations and influencers within your niche.
There are a number of tools available to assist you to monitor social conversations. Before you begin to monitor the overall Social landscape it is recommended you obtain a very good understanding of what is actually going on in your own social network. What are the members of your Linkedin Groups, Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers talking about, discover the members who are influencers in your network.
Once you understand your own business’s social environment, then is the time to use a Social Media Monitoring Tool such as Ubervu which I recently reviewed. Google Alerts and Google Trends are also very useful for determining topics which are important to your audience.
Keywords Can’t Be Avoided
A Blog Post, a Press Release , a Tweet, no matter what the content type, keywords are the most important element when it comes to creating visibility for your web site content. Of course other issues are involved such as Back-links and the number of Twitter followers in your network. To understand the importance of keywords just take a moment to consider your own actions when faced with a Search input form, you use words, not links or followers.
There is no need to fill this post with how to research or utilize keywords as there are plenty of posts within SeoWizardry’s Blog which can assist you with optimizing the various content types such as Blogs and Video.
Audience First Keywords Second
The one point which I do want to make perfectly clear is to focus the content on the content’s audience. Write for the the audience, produce a video for the audience, but as you develop your content always keep keywords and their integration to the forefront of your mind.
Being involved in Search you would think that all my Blog Posts are highly optimized with keywords being prioritized before anything else. Well nothing could be further from the truth. Although I may do some editing at the end of the writing process for keyword optimization and if I was solely focused on keywords a couple of things would happen, first, reading these Blog Posts would be difficult and unnatural and secondly and possibly most importantly from my perspective it would remove all the enjoyment I get from writing.
Face it you and your audience are not at all interested in keyword optimized content, I find nothing more annoying than viewing a Tweet with #keyword #keyword etc. Obviously in this type of scenario the Tweet is not meant for human consumption, this type of "communication" is targeted at Search and nothing else.
The Last Word
If I had to say there was a secret formula for doing well in Search Engine and Social search, I would have say it is the development of audience targeted content which has a secondary consideration given to the keywords used by Internet users to find topics of interest.
Once this philosophy has been ingrained within your company, the next step is to develop a content development plan. Without doubt creating high value content on a regular basis is one of the most effective ways to increase your business’ online visibility in both the Search and Social realms.
About The Author
Pete Hollier is an Information Scientist, and possesses a Bachelors Degree in Information Science. Pete is SeoWizardry’s owner and principal Web Site Performance Consultant, assisting businesses to leverage the power of the Internet to improve overall business performance.