How Social Media is Changing Search Engine Marketing

By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

A colleague recently told me a great story about how search engine marketing was having a difficult time competing with social media marketing. Her client (we'll call them ABC company) was spending tens of thousands of dollars on Google Adwords monthly and was not appearing at the top of the Google rankings for his industry. Perplexed and frustrated, ABC company called my friend and told her that he must show up immediately at the top of Google's search engine results no matter the cost. My friend, concerned about this request, made a crazy suggestion. Perhaps he should try social media marketing.

ABC company sniffed at the suggestion and explained that he wanted "real marketing" with "real results." My friend went online and executed a Google search for ABC company's competitor. The competitor showed up at the top of the search results not because he had spent thousands of dollars on pay-per-click search engine advertising, but because he had set-up a free Wikipedia page. Upon further analysis, the competitor appeared across most of the results pages in the form of Facebook pages, blog posts, Twitter profiles, LinkedIn profiles … you get the point.

ABC company was astonished by the results and quickly learned that social media marketing is an incredibly effective tool in the marketer's toolbox.

While social media marketing isn't free — in fact, significant man hours go into its strategy, set-up and maintenance — it is proving to provide more effective, meaningful, immediate results than expensive search engine marketing.

There are two major components to social media marketing and they are directly related: resources and budget. Many marketing budgets are being sucked dry to pay for poorly planned social media marketing efforts. No social media campaign will grow on its own; money and time have to be allocated for this type of activity. Depending on the depth of your social media marketing plan, your team could consist of one full-time person or a team of folks building and maintaining your presence. Your plan should clearly establish your goals, strategies, tactics and measurements of success so that you can allocate your resources and budget accordingly.

Before you spend more money on search engine marketing, think about how social media might boost your search engine rankings and how it fits into your overall marketing plan. With a little forethought and planning, your advertising budget could decrease while your traffic increases.

Beth J. Bates consults with Hinge on social media tool selection and strategy and helps its clients find effective ways to leverage these new mediums to meet business goals.