Sunday, May 17, 2009

Experts Weigh in: How Marketers Can Benefit from Both Search and Social Media

Who doesn’t want to know how to best maximize returns on their search and social media investments? Most online media buying experts will tell you that the best strategy is to integrate both channels.

The difference between search engines and social media. Joel Lapp, Senior Vice President of Account Services at Reprise Media says that lots of marketers view search engines and social media as two completely different entities. However, he states, "These two online mediums have much more in common than you might think."

Social media can improve search rank results. Lapp reveals that social media sites usually rank well in the search engine results.

You'll start to notice that search engines are beginning to provide search media sites results from videos, blog posts and forums. This means you can use search engine advertising to drive people to social media pages. It's a good idea to take advantage of the way search engines rank social media results.

Integrate paid search and social media. Ian Orkondy, Manager of Paid Search at Rosetta, reveals that there are numerous opportunities for marketers to improve the performance of their paid search campaigns by integrating it with social media.

Social media gives marketers an opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and have two-way conversations about their experiences, interests, etc. It's also a great way to test out new ideas.

Find your biggest fans before getting social. Brian Chappell, Social Search Strategist for Ignite Social Media says, "One key element to social media optimization is finding folks interested in your products or initiatives. A way to do this is to find key influencers within a social network that might be interested in your product."

For example, you can go on Facebook and search to find others interested in "real estate investments." The important thing to remember is find your fans before reaching out on social sites.