There was a time when search and social media were seen as two separate, if related marketing disciplines. In the red corner there were agencies specialising in the black arts of search engine optimisation (SEO) and paid search, while on the other side of the ring a whole different set of practitioners would offer advice on blogging, setting up fan pages on Facebook and seeding video content around the web. Search strategy was all about getting your website onto page one of Google, Bing and Yahoo! whenever a consumer entered a relevant search term. Social strategy was about customer engagement and building communities of enthusiastic advocates.
But the borders between search and social have always been porous. And as companies produce increasing amounts of marketing content for consumption through social networks, blogs and video sharing sites, the brand profile they present to the world via search engines changes accordingly. As often as not a few well-chosen keywords will lead the consumer to a social site rather than a traditional home or landing page.
All of this means that search and social media strategy can no longer be thought about as two separate things. Put simply, if you want to keep your rankings high and stay ahead of the search engine game, you have to think in terms of all the online spaces where your brand has a presence - not only your own sites, blogs and fan pages, but also across an ever-widening universe of third-party comment and discussion.
Meanwhile, the distinctions between social media and search continue to erode. On search engines, real-time feeds allow consumers to bypass standard search results straight into the latest comments on Twitter. Just to mash things up a little more, social networks have themselves become research tools, particularly for those seeking peer group recommendations.
In other words, search is becoming a whole new ball game. So how do you set about giving yourself a winning edge?
1. Establish your presence
The first step in any social search strategy is to establish a presence in those places where you want your brand to be seen. That involves the creation of a significant amount of content. For instance, a simple combination of a Twitter account, Facebook pages and a YouTube channel will require a commitment to regular tweeting, the maintenance of a stream of communication between brand and social network users and the creation of high quality and engaging video content.
But if this effort is linked to a complementary search strategy, then an enhanced presence across a range of social media can pay dividends in terms of brand visibility and search engine rankings.
That was the case with UKTV. In 2008, the pay-TV operator rebranded its flagship channels. UKTV Style was transformed into Home, while UKTV Food became the Good Food Channel. In search terms, that created a dip in traffic to the company's various channel websites for the simple reason that consumers were entering keywords that were no longer relevant.
The firm's response was to put an increased emphasis on social media. By placing food and style-related content on social sites, it attracted consumers via search engines.
This played a significant role in helping UKTV establish its channels in their rebranded form, according to UKTV e-commerce manager Mandeep Ramany-Singh.
2. Optimise your key words
Simply smacking down content onto a blog or social network will not necessarily attract search engine traffic. Most firms are now well versed in lacing their sites with the keywords and meta tags that will help ensure a decent position in the search rankings. The same principles apply to social content. Put simply, even the best written blog or review will not necessarily do the search engine business, unless it has been suitably optimised.
Singh cautions against being too mechanistic when producing content. "You do want to be aware of the keywords and we train our staff in that side of things," she says. "However, you want what you do to be read well - you want it to be beautiful - so it's important it doesn't simply become a vehicle for keywords."
3. Forge relationships with bloggers
Blogging can be a useful way of providing information about the brand and encouraging feedback. But the blogosphere is a big and unpredictable place and most major brands will be aware that beyond the content produced in-house, the real action is in that uncontrolled space where tweeters and bloggers write with passion about the products that engage and enrage them.
The good news is, of course, that an endorsement from a respected blogger - particularly one with a genuine interest and knowledge in the market sector in question - can be marketing gold dust. You can never predict what a blogger is going to say about your product, but you can make every effort to keep them on side. That's the approach of bicycle retail chain Evans Cycles. In addition to producing its own in-house product reviews, the company also stays in close contact with third-party "citizen journalists". "We do a lot of work with bloggers," says online marketing manager Will Lockie. "For instance, with winter approaching, we reviewed a range of cycle lights. Then we sent the lights out to bloggers to see what they made of them."
The strategy extended the reach of Evans' online campaigning, with its own product reviews supplemented by the views of trusted third parties. These reviews showed up in search and directed traffic back to Evans via links on the bloggers' pages.
4. Spread links
Spreading links is, Lockie says, textbook SEO/blogger outreach and in addition to increasing the amount of Evans-related content online, it also does something wonderful in terms of search engine rankings. As Philip Letts, founder and chairman of digital agency Blur explains: "Getting a good position on a search engine is not just about keywords, it's about spreading as many links as you can." By offering products to third parties for a review, you have a chance to maximise the number of sites linking back to your own home or landing page.
5. Deliver the right content at the right time
Social media provides a means of delivering content at just about every point on the customer journey. For instance, if your company happens to be selling cameras, then a section of the website dedicated to the technical specs of a range of models is ideal search engine fare for the consumer who simply wants to see what is available at any given time.
The review serves a different purpose. In this case, the customer is interested in a certain make or model and wants to know what other people think. Similarly with a blog, the customer may be looking for something different. "It's all about delivering the right content," says Teddie Cowell, chief executive of digital agency Guava. "Some members of your audience may be interested in the spec, some in the review and others in something more light-hearted on a blog."
The implication here is that you can no longer think of your search engine rankings in terms of one audience and one type of content. There is an opportunity to break your search strategy down into customer groups and intentions.
The ability of marketers to do this is aided by the search tools themselves. For instance, the advent of so-called live search filters means brands can make timely announcements via, say, Twitter, which will be picked up by that proportion of the audience that is most interested in blogs, social networks and forums.
6. Be useful
There should be an overarching purpose to all content created for social media and it should be created with at least one segment of the audience in mind. "The new channels should be a source of information about your company," says Paul Doleman, chief executive of digital agency iCrossing. "So you should be present and aim to provide something that is useful." There is potentially a problem here in that multiple information channels - each with their own cultures and reasons for existence - create a real danger that brand communicators will somehow slip off message and possibly reveal too much about themselves. "You have to be aware of that and decide just how much you are prepared to reveal to the wider public," adds Doleman.
7. Follow the trends
A social search strategy is a two-way exercise. In addition to optimising social media content to ensure a good showing on Google, Bing and Yahoo!, information gleaned from search engines can be used as the inspiration for new content and creative. Doleman cites the example of a campaign carried out for Ann Summers: "We looked at topics that were popular on Google and we bought the keywords." The result was a series of ads based on people and events in the news, with each of them given an Ann Summers twist.
8. Let search activity influence search strategy
According to Cedric Chambon, Microsoft's marketing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, information from search engines usage patterns can be used to influence content in a profound way. "If you analyse what people are searching for, you can use that business intelligence to inform the online content you create for social networks," he says.
It is therefore smart to blog or tweet on a theme that is of interest to large numbers of people in the online community. Not only will this attract more people to your pages, it will also mark your brand out as having its finger on the pulse.
Search data can also provide clues to demographic preferences. "If you look at online gaming, you find that women tend to search on the word gambling while men use betting. If you know that, you can create content aimed specifically at those demographics," he adds.
9. Use advertising
One of the biggest challenges thrown up by social media is the sheer amount of activity going on minute by minute. So here's the problem. Let's say your brand uses Twitter and wants to make an announcement. In some cases that's a very effective strategy. For instance, a new product announcement may well attract lots of third-party comment, adding to its profile.
But what if the good news is drowned out by negative or irrelevant comment that ranks high when the keywords are entered into Google? How do you cut through the noise? Chambon recommends a paid-search strategy, with the brand using PPC links to draw consumers away from the third-party comment and direct them to content carrying the official line.
10. Monitor what's being said about you
Which brings us neatly to the question of how you respond to comments concerning your brand on walls, blogs and forums. "It should be a priority to monitor what is said and then decide whether or not to respond," says Teddie Cowell, chief executive of digital agency Guava. Ramany-Singh agrees, saying that UKTV makes a point of engaging with consumers across the social media space. "We definitely get involved," she says.
11. Appoint a communities manager
At this point, the job of creating content for a plethora of social media channels, while also monitoring the comments of others, begins to look like a task only suited for those with 27-hour days at their disposal. There is a case for appointing a communities manager to take responsibility rather than leaving it up to marketers who are already busy with other things. An alternative is to train staff.
12. Embrace the social search agenda
Social search is changing all the time. For the past year, live search filters have allowed consumers to tap directly into social media conversations, but it's unlikely to end there. As Cowell says: "Search engines are already filtering results my social media metrics."
And customer recommendation from within blogs and social networks are to play a bigger role in the ranking process, providing plenty for marketers to think about for their future SEO strategies.