2012 might mean the world’s end if you believe the popular doomsday movie, but it sure is looking good for those who have invested much, and are thinking of investing their resources in social media. With so many different internet marketing strategies to choose from, it seems that next year (and probably more years after that) will see social media marketing efforts gaining even more in popularity.
We might not need convincing when it comes to the usefulness of social media for word-of-mouth marketing, but what you might not have realized is that social media marketing’s sister industry, the search engine optimization industry is becoming more and more reliant on the social media aspect of SEO. In fact, gone are the days of the two being treated as separate online marketing techniques. Instead, any self-respecting SEO nowadays know that they need to brush up on their social media offerings to survive the evolving SEO landscape.
What this also means, however, for those who specialize in specific social media platforms, is that you need to gain a better understanding of social search. No, there’s no need to suddenly become an expert in technical SEO, but you at least have to get a firm grasp of the relationship between the two because it will help you steer your social media efforts in a way that will benefit you not just in that specific social media platform/site, but to also have a positive effect (and minimize the negatives) on SEO efforts. It might not be your primary responsibility, but anything that will benefit your client/site, will surely benefit you as well.
As Maria McDavis put it, “Social Media and SEO is not an either/or proposition, it is an AND equation.” Forget about the days of social media or SEO, social media in the new year is all about Social SEO.
Image via WebSuccessDiva
