between december 2010 and april 2011, seomoz took a careful look at how “social signals” might be impacting a business’ rank in google searches. as early as october 2010, google had begun beta-testing a number of social media centric features that cued smart marketers that a change in its search algorithms was just around the corner. the results of a brand new report and forum are clear and convincing (though not yet vetted by google). 1) facebook “shares” of a business’ content is the most important social media metric. 2) the number of shares is more powerful than other facebook features such as “likes” and comment; 3) the number of tweets via twitter is less influential than activity on facebook. review the seomoz report and forum from late april 2011.
this report is yet another reminder that b2c and b2b businesses should embrace and actively use social media — not only because it’s good for search engine optimization (seo) and rankings, but also because it makes sound business sense. it also points to the importance of generating quality content — the currency of your backlink empire. establishing a social media presence on at least facebook and twitter should include actively engaging consumers and promoting the following, re-tweeting and re-posting of content you’re producing. the more content you produce that gets pushed around the internet, the greater the sphere of influence you demonstrate to google. a change in google rankings won’t appear overnight, but constancy will bear future fruit.
