Is SEO Dead? Social Media vs SEO

What is Social Media?

Over the last 12 months, there has been a huge surge in Social Media Marketing (SMM). What is it? How did it come about?

In the early stages, not many years ago, social sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo were seen as the place to be – but this was from a social standpoint where you would go and post photos, meet others with similar interests – somewhere to hang out on-line with friends. I remember wondering back then if it was going to be worthwhile having a company name – I left it!

Only a few years down the line, things are very different!

Social Media Today

Now, if you don’t have a Twitter or Facebook account, or can’t be found on LinkedIn, you are seen to be doing something wrong! social Media is big now, but is going to get a lot bigger very soon! Google, Bing and Yahoo are already in talks with some of the larger Social Media sites to include content in search results – if alarm bells are not yet ringing, then they should be! To miss the boat here, is to miss a huge turning point in Internet Marketing!

As part of our research on Social vs SEO, we interviewed @verygoodservice, the face of www.verygoodservice.com on Twitter.

“We see Social Media and Twitter in particular as being very attractive as it brings immediacy of contact both with the general public and also with companies listed on the site. It is a fantastic marketing opportunity. The social networks are more bursty in the way that they provide immediate and spectacular responses. They also help considerably with brand awareness and are a very strong source of referrals/recommendations.

SEO remains a cornerstone of development of activities on the web and needs to be operated in tandem with social. It offers more durability of response rates and will remain a key source of activity for some time to come.

Challenges for social in the long run are multiple:  a network like Twitter has a relatively narrow bandwidth for a given company and can only handle a relatively small number of customer interactions at a time. Also it provides very little triage capabilities at the moment and all queries are channelled in one place, it is like having only one email account in the old days. But more concerning is that, as time goes by and the novelty factor fades, the bad practices which we see in real life (bad response time, no response etc) are starting to creep in and this may encourage the general public to go away and try something else.“

One point made by Very Good Service is the novelty factor. What happens if suddenly a company cannot be bothered to check their Twitter or Facebook account every 30 minutes or act on a mail or request straight away. This is one of the reasons we are looking at where your marketing time should be spent. Should you put all of your eggs in one basket?

SEO / Search Engine Marketing

Here we turn back to a faithful old friend. Something that, over years, has been a tried and tested way of getting your site to that coveted 1st place in Google. Writing a site that is not only easy for users to navigate, but also for search engines to find their way around. Employing techniques (white hat hopefully!) that will help establish you as a recognised authority and allow search traffic to find you.

For me personally, if I am looking for a web designer, the first place I go is to a Search Engine! I do not look on Facebook, or Twitter or LinkedIn. I might ask for referrals, which is where your brand and customer service will play a big part, but outside of that, I will search for someone.

So where do you put your web marketing efforts?

The simple answer should be into both! SEO & SMM should both now play a part in your web marketing strategy. One to help build your brand and create a buzz about you, whilst the other to drive traffic to your website. 12 months ago, it might have been Search Engine Marketing 75% and Social Media Marketing 25%.

Don’t pass up these opportunities that both mediums have to offer!

iNET SEO are a specialist web marketing company specialising in SEO, Social Media and Traffic Retention techniques