Will SEO change its face to CEO?

[safetynut]

Will brand awareness, Social shares through the mass of Social Media channels be a signal for tomorrows high rankings and top positions in the search engines.

Observed more and more of Social Media listings such as Google Circles, Digg so one thinks SEO could be known as CEO (Content Engagement Outreach) which seems to play a large part in search results or will SEO remain but with a different approach on delivery..

...your thoughts forum users

 

[OldWelshGuy]

it was renamed search marketing/Internet Marketing ages ago, just no-one botherd to change it

 

[safetynut]

..yes I've seen that mentioned SEM etc another form of the SEO thing but Social Media as we all know is a fast developing engaging activity which I feel steps outside of the SEO /SEM arena..i see more and more of the Social networks listed in search engines..in particular Twitter, Google circles but not facebook..is that through marketing or engaging or a little sprinkle of both

 

[webgeek]

Will brand awareness, Social shares through the mass of Social Media channels be a signal for tomorrows high rankings and top positions in the search engines.

Brand mentions and social signals are already a large portion of the algorithm. This is today, not tomorrow...

Social is great for awareness campaigns, developing trust, and purchase validations. As a primary driver of sales, it doesn't hold a candle to organic search rankings. Even in multi-channel funnels, it's a small piece of the puzzle.

For anyone who's convinced social is the next wunderkind, try spending 10K, 20K or 100K Pounds on social promotion vs spending it on SEO. The ROI is orders of magnitude different.

Give me a whopping dose of organic rankings, a regular email contact, infrequent paid search advert running and an occasional social mention - and I'll show you the money!

 

[ukbf0001]

Exactly webgeek, wasnt it HP who recently cancelled there 100million dollar facebook advert account - the reason being it doesn't / didn't work for them.

For HP to do that - that to me proves it wasnt giving any ROI, I guess if they cant make it work - no one can...

 

[James twinli]

..yes I've seen that mentioned SEM etc another form of the SEO thing but Social Media as we all know is a fast developing engaging activity which I feel steps outside of the SEO /SEM arena..i see more and more of the Social networks listed in search engines..in particular Twitter, Google circles but not facebook..is that through marketing or engaging or a little sprinkle of both

I agreed with you that it can be categoriezed easily after reading its responses moreover SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing under SEO and SMM comes.

 

[PIngels]

For HP to do that - that to me proves it wasnt giving any ROI, I guess if they cant make it work - no one can...

That's like saying big companies and big budgets always get it right - the don't.

 

[JD@fifty6]

I prefer <link removed> User Oriented Optimisation but then I would, wouldn't I?

 

[RedEvo]

I like to think of it as CSU or Creating Something Useful it's amazing how powerful it can be especially with a little clever social promotion. There's so much talk these days about how to get traffic and rankings I worry we're losing the plot (again).

d

 

[jamesbyfield]

Can anyone else shed any light on whether social media advertising has worked for them? We have never tried it but I am unsure as to whether it will deliver ROI, would be good to hear some opinions.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Define Social Media Advertising, as that is one broad brush there.

 

[Colin Smith CBP]

Can anyone else shed any light on whether social media advertising has worked for them? We have never tried it but I am unsure as to whether it will deliver ROI, would be good to hear some opinions.

If you are looking purely for short term ROI, a Twitter account or a Facebook fan page is no substitute for an integrated marketing campaign. Social media marketing isn't a quick campaign, like three weeks of traditional advertising or a day of cold calling, with an ROI that's obvious to anyone that looks. Instead you are community building. Too many small businesses that try social media marketing either don't do it right or don't do it long enough, or both, and then give up, thinking it doesn't work.

You can absolutely use social media to drive and track new leads and sales, increased frequency of purchase from current customers, both very hard business metrics, but don't expect this to happen overnight, or over three weeks. Expect to see (and by all means track!) results within six to nine months. Yes, it's risky for a small business to put in that much time and/or money without a guarantee of a return. But that's how social media marketing works.

 

[PIngels]

Can anyone else shed any light on whether social media advertising has worked for them? We have never tried it but I am unsure as to whether it will deliver ROI, would be good to hear some opinions.

You only need to look at Vodafone's ZooZoo campaign to see that it can work if you get it right (http://www.facebook.com/zoozoo) 3,885,596 likes · 103,622 talking about it. The last image they posted had 3,817 likes and 158 comments so far. The one on the day before had 20,579 likes and 637 comments. This is a three year old campaign and they're still pulling that kind of attention to their brand. I think it works for them.

If you're relying on the internet for attracting and retaining customers then you're in a commodity market and you need to differentiate yourself. It's not what you sell but how you sell it. Companies like Vodafone and CompareTheMarket add personality and entertainment to their brands to differentiate themselves and then use social media to propagate that fun and excitement and on the back of that they sell their commodity product and service. It works.

 

[nimahen]

The importance of brand awareness helps SEO a lot in boosting the page rank and the CTR will increase . Your products will be talked every where due to this interactive process.

 

[jamesbyfield]

The trouble for us is we are a small business and sell furniture, it is not a particularly glamorous product, do you think we would be able to get enough people engaged despite the limitations of our product type?

 

[PIngels]

The trouble for us is we are a small business and sell furniture, it is not a particularly glamorous product, do you think we would be able to get enough people engaged despite the limitations of our product type?

I always think "none glamorous products" have the best opportunity to increase the amount of engagement people have with the brand because in a commodity market the competition usually lack glamour as well - which gives you a golden opportunity to differentiate yourself from them and attract more attention. Having said that, the key is to come up with a creative concept that captures people's imagination, that takes everyone by surprise, that's fun and something people want to engage with - but that's the challenge you face regardless of your product type.