Social Marketing for Search Marketers

Social Marketing for
Search Marketers

A Search Marketing Now E-Book

Search Marketers

Introduction

S
ocial media such as Facebook and Twitter have changed the way consumers communicate and advertising
in these channels is quickly becoming an integral piece of the digital marketing toolkit. A recent
MarketingSherpa survey found that eight out of 10 companies of all sizes are using social media to market
their products and services. The same MarketingSherpa survey also found that 39% of business executives are
finding social media to be very effective at influencing brand reputation; another 37% said social media is very
effective at increasing brand awareness.

Perhaps even more important is the growing body of research that shows that social marketing campaigns are
having a positive impact on marketing ROI. An Aberdeen Group study, The ROI on Social Media Marketing,
reported that companies using social marketing showed a 5% average year-over-year improvement in customer
profitability compared to just 2% for non-social media marketers. In addition, companies that used social
marketing gained an average 4% year-over-year improvement in ROMI (return on marketing investment)
compared to a 1% improvement for non-social media marketers.

Social Media Gains in Marketing ROI For search marketers in particular, consumers
exposed to a brand’s social marketing
campaigns are 50% more likely to click on
paid search ads, according to The Influenced:
Social Media, Search and the interplay of
Consideration and Consumption a study by
media investment firm Group M.

There are numerous synergies between
search and social marketing, and even their
differences make them ideal complementary
marketing channels. This report examines
how search marketers can most effectively
utilize social marketing campaigns, focusing
on the strategies, tactics and case studies
that are already generating success.

Source: The Aberdeen Group Adobe and Search Marketing Now would
like to thank the following SearchEngineland
and SMX contributors for their assistance in developing this report: Ciaran Norris, head of digital, Mindshare
Ireland; Jordan Kasteler, managing partner and SVP of content development, BlueGlass; Rae Hoffman-Dolan,
CEO and managing director, MFE Interactive; Tyler Calder, director, paid search, SearchEnginePeople; Greg Finn,
CMO, Cypress North; Kelly Gillease, VP, marketing, Viator; and Kent Gibbons, founder and director of search,
SEOoptimise (U.K.). Thanks also to Karen Burka, who prepard this report.

Editor’s Note: This report was prepared during the beta period for Google +, which went live on September 20,
2011. While it is clear that Google intends to be a major player in the social media space, it is too early to evaluate
the impact of Google +, or to include recommendations for social marketing on this channel. We have therefore
not included it in this report, but suggest that marketers follow its growth and the opportunities it may present as
another viable social marketing channel. n

2 © 2011 Third Door Media, Inc. http://searchmarketingnow.com • Email: whitepapers@searchmarketingnow.com • (203) 664-1350

Search Marketers

Social and Search • Demand/Intent. Social sites demonstrate varying
degrees of search intent, but all are positive. For
Marketing Synergies example, visitors to social news sites are usually
looking for specific information. Search intent can
Search marketing has proven its marketing worth by be even higher on sites like YouTube where users
driving traffic, brand value and an audience ready often are actively seeking a photo or video. Even
to convert. Social media – encompassing news, at Twitter, search provides a way to seek out brand
bookmarking and knowledge sites such as Digg and news and buzz.
Wikipedia as well as networking and sharing sites such
as Facebook and YouTube – provides huge audiences, • Branding. There is strong branding potential on
lots of brand conversations and an entirely new social media sites. The key is developing a positive
marketing frontier. There are four key metrics that tone around your brand and letting the viral nature
are useful when looking at the two digital marketing of social media build the brand for you. Consider the
channels: search for JetBlue, where currently the company’s
official site is listed along with its Twitter account
• Traffic: How many visitors do they drive? and its YouTube channel.
• Demand/Search Intent: How likely are those visitors
to be after something specific?
• Conversion: Did the create positive business results
Measurement and
on the site? Accountability
• Branding: How can these sites influence branding by
appearing in search results? Another reason social marketing has become so
attractive to search marketers is its measurability. Every
Search generates huge amounts of traffic. A second user action, from the number of social media visits to
search strength is user intent: people search when they the number of page impressions to the number of times
are looking for something specific. They’re ready to content is shared, can be tracked and counted, often in
convert, which is why search traffic can be so valuable. real time. At a basic level, web analytics tools today can
Measuring that conversion is also an important metric. look at the number of Facebook fans and page shares
Did visitors fill out a form, buy a product or perform in on a marketer’s Facebook page as well as the number
a way that produced positive business results? of Twitter followers and retweets generated by an
account. More advanced tools allow marketers to take
Finally, various studies show that search also can have social media demographic and behavioral data and use
branding value. There are few stories of entirely new it in segmentation and targeting efforts. New social
brands being built from search, but brand lift has been analytics can tie sales and ROI to paid and organic
shown in many ways. More important, brands can be social efforts.
hurt by bad reviews that show up in search and are
helped by positive references. Since every search listing Unique to social media are a growing set of metrics
on a search engine has brand potential, search is very that try to measure the sentiment or tone of the
high in brand value. content being posted and shared, i.e., whether a user’s
posts are positive, negative or neutral about a brand
In comparison, social sites also have the following or marketer. Several web analytics tools currently
strengths: measure and analyze sentiment, including Adobe
SocialAnalytics, which uses proprietary technology to
• Traffic. Social sites can generate huge amounts of track the tone and influence of social media users and
traffic. Facebook’s worldwide user base is at 750 correlate their impact with business metrics such as
million and counting. revenue and brand value.

Search marketing has proven its marketing worth by driving traffic,
brand value and an audience ready to convert.


Search Marketers

Search marketers looking to grow their skills, expand
their responsibilities and incorporate social marketing
Marketers and advertisers also
into their digital marketing plans can easily make
the case based on three core competencies: testing,
face the challenge of measuring
measurement and targeting. conversions from Facebook and
Advertising on Facebook, for example, has matured other social media traffic.
thanks to the advent of more sophisticated reporting
on pages data and bulk upload tools for advertisers. point in the buying cycle than searchers. While a
Secondly, Facebook’s greatest asset is its targeting searcher has indicated intent through an online search,
options. Targeting competitor names, product affinities, Facebook users are simply not as far down the buying
likes and interests are all powerful targeting areas for funnel. Because of this, marketers and advertisers
advertisers to explore (along with corresponding ad must work harder to accurately target and to garner
text and images).Lastly, new ad formats like Facebook the interest and attention of Facebook (and other social
Story ads have much higher clickthrough rates than media) users.
regular Facebook text ads and are great vehicles to test
promoting a page to friends of your fans. Marketers and advertisers also face the challenge of
measuring conversions from Facebook and other social
Success metrics for Facebook ads range from direct media traffic.
sales from a promotion advertised to number of new
fans or likes gained from an ad campaign. Search The following section provides an in-depth look at
marketers can also work on valuing Facebook fans some of the most relevant marketing opportunities for
based on total referrals and sales from Facebook, search marketers available through the leading social
i.e., running an exclusive Facebook fan-only sale or media sites.
promotion to more accurately determine a direct
revenue value for Facebook fans.
Facebook
As social marketing programs grow and clearer Facebook Pages are the number one vehicle for search
ROI valuations of their performance arise, the initial marketers looking to market on Facebook. These pages
campaigns that prove their value can then move into look similar to an individual’s profile at first glance,
their own dedicated budgets. This strategy often helps but are highly customizable and have analytics to track
speed up internally getting some of these ideas off data. Posts to Facebook Pages are displayed through
the ground and avoiding the budgeting bureaucracy fan newsfeeds, which can lead to more continual traffic
that can sometimes occur in large organizations. By since users click more often on links that interest them.
the time new efforts need a bigger budget, everyone
will have seen the preliminary results and the merit of When compared to a basic ad that goes directly to
awarding more to the social marketing program. a home page of a website, ‘liked’ ads may generate
a greater audience and steadier traffic with repeat
visitors. To maximize Page success, offer exclusive
Social Marketing “fan only” content such as coupons, sales and sneak
Opportunities & Tactics previews.

Facebook dominates the conversation when it comes A brand’s Facebook Page should be the main hub
to social marketing, although there are an increasing for all Facebook marketing. It is a staple reputation
number of opportunities available through LinkedIn, management tool and is indexed and generally ranked
Twitter and the many online blogs and social news well in search engines. Marketers can also capitalize on
sites. The Facebook audience is now estimated at 750 the following Facebook opportunities:
million worldwide, while Twitter’s value as a marketing
tool is quickly growing thanks to celebrity tweets and • Facebook Ads are demographically targeted text
the importance of influence over volume. and image ads that can target users based on a
variety of variables including likes, age, gender,
While the Facebook audience represents a huge education and much more. These ads can be CPM-
potential, Facebook users are often at a different based or CPC-based and traditionally have a low


Search Marketers

CTR. Unlike search ads, Facebook ads are targeted
by demographics, not by keywords. Advertisers
can target by a number of demographic factors,
Facebook Testing Improves
including geo-location, gender, ‘interests,’ and more. iPhone App Position
Unlike search advertising, which uses keywords
to target searchers, Facebook advertising tends to An enterprise-level marketer used Facebook to
target who the person is, based on demographics test new icons for its iPhone app -- a navigational,
and declared interests. It is an important distinction, augmented reality app with high retention rates.
as these differences tend to capture users at The company decided to test four new app icons
different locations along the buying funnel. and based on CTR rates, use the winning icon in
the next app release. The marketing goal was to
• Facebook Places allow users to check into locations reach the top 25 free iPhone navigation apps. Test
geographically and is mainly used on mobile results showed CTR rates that ranged from.07% to
devices. The application was created to compete .12%. The winning icon led to an app store position
with Foursquare, but the check-in service is quickly that peaked at number three for two weeks and
gaining popularity. Owners can claim places and sustained the fifth position for three months.
merge with pages to have a more integrated feel.

• Facebook Events can be set up by a profile or a page
and allow users to communicate with each other in perspective, Twitter can be successfully used to
a specific location. Users can respond to an event increase traffic, links, brand awareness, conversions,
by confirming, declining, or offering a “maybe” conversations and thought leadership. The key is to
to the host. Events can be used much like a Page attract influential followers by providing valuable
for specific activities and are only open to profiles content (i.e., information, widgets and discounts) that
to attend, not other pages. Event creators can will be retweeted and liberally shared.
communicate directly with the mini-community that
has been invited and share images, videos and files. Success metrics for Promoted Tweets could be direct
Facebook events can be public, closed (invite only) sales from a promotion advertised in the tweet, direct
or private. traffic to a site from clicks via the tweet or gauging new
followers gained from the tweets. Search marketers
• Facebook Groups allow like-minded users to can evaluate a Twitter follower based on total referrals
communicate with each other. Groups can be and sales. Running a Twitter-only sale or promotion is
public, closed or hidden; only profile accounts a great way to gauge success and aid in establishing a
can be included in a group. Groups operate like follower valuation. Also, Promoted Tweets are a great
Facebook pages, but the default settings allow users way to advertise a contest or a big company release
to be notified of new threads. Group chats can be (like a website redesign.)
conducted and documents created. The marketing
potential for Facebook groups is much lower than Twitter also can be very useful to improve SEO and
Facebook Pages but can be effective in specific Google rankings because high numbers of followers
scenarios. Since groups only allow individual will enhance your authority in Google’s eyes, meaning
profiles to participate, any messaging must come any links you post will carry more weight. Here are
from an individual instead of a corporate entity. If three ways to maximize Twitter’s impact on SEO:
you do choose to market in groups, the individual
assigned should be upfront and disclose any • Find out what’s popular. Look at the top stories
marketing motives. featured on the homepage of Tweetmeme to get an
idea of the type of content that generates the most
Twitter retweets on Twitter. Then determine if your content
is something that you would retweet if it was
someone else’s work.
Twitter is the real-time information network that
connects users to the people (and topics) they find
• Use Targeted Keywords. Just as you optimize your
most interesting. Users “tweet” a maximum of 140
own website, make sure your Twitter account is
characters of information but can attach photos, videos
also optimized to add context around your tweets.
or links within the details pane. From a marketing


Search Marketers

Add keywords and phrases to your account’s Twitter
bio and use them in your tweets. Without that,
Google may not know how relevant your tweets and
Running Twitter
retweets are. Competitions
• Make Tweets Retweetable. Although this is a simple A valuable way to leverage Twitter for SEO is to run
concept, it is a Twitter rule that gets completely retweet competitions where followers retweet a
missed by many corporate accounts. There are comment – usually including a link to your website
only 140 characters to play with so aim to leave – with the hope of winning a prize. Competitions
enough space for people to retweet your comments are an effective way to build a high number of links
and links, and to leave comments of their own. and increase followers. But this strategy may not
Otherwise, you risk people cutting off the link in work for long. Google moves fast and it will be
order to make their comments or even deciding not developing techniques to assess the value of tweets
to make the effort to edit it down and not retweeting rather than just the volume. So, make use of Twitter
at all. competitions for now but don’t rely on them as a
long-term strategy.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the professional networking equivalent of generating millions of views in a short amount of time,
Facebook. Connections are usually made with people banner ads can help search marketers maximize the
already known from users’ professional careers; work value of their online hits. YouTube provides an online
history and expertise are the main features of each portal called “Creators Corner,” with tools and tips for
profile. Not much emphasis is placed on personal how to create compelling video content, including:
interests and personal references can be given to
connections, making it an instant resume booster for • How-to information and forums
users on a job search or just looking to increase their • Advice on tagging, descriptions and optimal video
networking circle. formats
• Recommendations on cutting-edge technologies
The goal of LinkedIn ads is to target business decision- such as 3D video and AudioSwap
makers. With 120 million users worldwide including • Discounts on Flips, Videomaker Training Videos,
40 million U.S. users, LinkedIn provides access to 7.9 Apple Store promotions, Logitech and more
million “business decision-makers” and 1.3 million
small business owners with profiles. In addition, YouTube includes video analytics that
provide and measure:
Linkedin ads can be run on either cost-per-impression
or cost-per-click basis. Ads are targeted based on • Visitor location and demographics (age and gender)
demographics not keywords. These demographics • Inbound links/referral data and embedded data
include geographic location, industry company size, • Views, comments, favorites and ratings
Linkedin Group, gender and age. • Hot spots and cold spots that are similar to bounce
rates and track where users are leaving the videos
Targeting decision-makers in this business-focused
environment can be a highly effective approach for
many search marketers, and offers another ad platform Big-box retailer Target posted a video on
for reaching the business user.
YouTube about a new band called The
Like. The video showed the band modeling
different clothes from Target. As the video
YouTube went viral, viewers became interested in
Since its acquisition by Google in 2006, YouTube offers the clothes worn by the band and started
the opportunity to add banner advertising to videos, to look for them in Target stores, which
making uploads profitable for many popular users with featured them on their floors.
thousands of subscribers. When a video goes viral,


Search Marketers

Getting Started: Setting Social is talking about the brand. For example, one person’s
tweet may impact ten people, while a celebrity’s tweet
Marketing Goals could influence one million potential customers.
This is why sponsored tweets and social media posts
Social media is a digital marketing channel and like any have brought in great amounts of traffic and expanded
other channel (including search) it requires strategic brand awareness and influence for some marketers.
planning to become successful, regardless of whether Even though the majority of consumers don’t know any
the goal of any given campaign is brand awareness, celebrities, due to the public nature of their lives many
website traffic building or conversion. people feel like they know them personally. This is truer
than ever since networks like Twitter and Facebook
It’s important to begin with clear goals and measurable have created so many opportunities for consumers
business objectives upfront. Even today, too many to personally connect with celebrities and what is
marketers run Facebook, YouTube and Twitter happening in their everyday lives.
campaigns because they think they “should.” Secondly,
it is essential to understand the audience you are Sites like Sponsored Tweets connect companies with
trying to reach. A target audience of women in their celebrities and other social media users with high
50s would probably not respond well to a campaign follower counts to tweet messages about their products
that involves uploading video clips. On the other hand, and services. According to several reports, celebrity
that same target audience may well be power users of Kim Kardashian gets paid as much as $10,000 for every
social gaming, which could mean great success for a sponsored tweet she sends out to her more than 4.7
campaign tied into Farmville on Facebook. million followers.

The next step is to determine your execution approach,
including logistics, semantics and activation. How Having your links spread on Twitter gives
will social media fit into your wider search strategy?
Will your Facebook page become the center of your quality signals to Google that the content
web activity? Or act as a way of highlighting action is important. Google shows the link in real-
happening on your main website? time search results on its specified topic.
You’ll get more traffic from Google, which
What will be the tone of your campaigns and choice feeds Google additional quality signals
architecture, which will help users navigate campaign
options and align the interests of your brand with that can help rankings in regular search.
those of users. Tone decides the way in which you
communicate, i.e., friendly, authoritative or informative.
Will your social media efforts speak as a brand, an For B2B marketers, interacting with the professionals
individual or a group? who use Twitter to report industry news is one of the
fastest and most cost-effective ways to get noticed by
Lastly, clearly defined, measurable goals will allow you industry media. The following resources provide quick
to analyze the results and determine ROI. Set both hard online access to these influencers:
and soft KPIs to evaluate every stage of your social
marketing, which in turn will help you to test, adjust • Twitter Directories such as WeFollow identify industry
and learn. reporters and/or bloggers. Simply search for tags like
“reporter,” “journalist” and “media to find the writers
The following section provides more detail on how to that are applicable to a specific industry and begin
effectively use social marketing to achieve four specific following them on Twitter.
marketing goals: increasing brand influence, reach,
website traffic and sales conversion. • JournalistTweets.com allows marketers to browse
the tweets of various reporters, even limiting your
#1: Increasing Brand Influence search to journalists covering certain countries and
a small range of specific topics. It also allows you to
Industry experts agree that not all Facebook fans and search for specific keywords. For example, realtors
Twitter followers are equal and that what matters more can search the term “mortgage” to find reporters
than how many people are talking about a brand is who that are talking about the topic and hone in on those


Search Marketers

influencers focused on specific relevant areas to
begin relationship building. Moonfruit Uses Twitter
• Muck Rack tracks the tweets of journalists from all to Engage Users, Increase
major news and media outlets and separates them
into a detailed list of “beats” that marketers can
Product Usage
browse to find reporters for specific niches. Once on Website software provider Moonfruit used a Twitter
a specific beats page, users can view a listing of all campaign to celebrate its 10th anniversary by giving
reporters classified for that beat, click to see a listing away 10 MacBook Pros for the most creative tweets
of the links they are dropping in their tweet stream, by @moonfruit followers. To be eligible, tweets
and/or click “mass follow” to follow all the reporters simply had to include the #moonfruit hashtag.
from that specific beat.
The contest itself attracted hundreds of entries,
#2: Expanding Brand Reach including more than 2,000 video entries. More
impressive were the user engagement numbers.
One of the most valuable aspects of social media is the The campaign generated 550,000 tweets in one
vast network of friends and family that can be reached week and generated 400,000 new visits to the
through any given user. A recent Harvard research Moonfruit website via web search, i.e. people
study found that information and influence travel up to wanting to know more about Moonfruit. In terms
three degrees across a social network. The information of results, the Twitter campaign increased product
communicated to friends, family and colleagues is often usage by 3.5% and subscribers by 20%. Brand and
passed on beyond one person’s network to possibly non-brand search visits climbed 100% during the
thousands of people. Similarly, the information one campaign. SEO rankings jumped from page four
person receives each day may have traveled two or to page one and even inspired subsequent copycat
three degrees before it reaches them. campaigns from Dell and TechCrunch.

This ability to expand a brand’s reach
-- that is, to extend its influence to a #3: Generating Website Traffic
larger audience -- is another powerful Search marketers that operate their Facebook or
LinkedIn pages properly can generate a major increase
aspect of social media marketing. in website business and traffic. Social media provides a
substantial boost to one-time traffic and engagement by
putting your brand on the front page of a social media
This ability to expand a brand’s reach -- that is, to site. The bonus is that because these sites are so highly
extend its influence to a larger audience -- is another trafficked by millions of people daily and because so
powerful aspect of social media marketing. many social media users are high-profile individuals
with blogs or ‘publications’ of their own, there is a
Successful social marketing campaigns go beyond substantial long-tail to capitalize on.
simply posting information on Facebook or LinkedIn
to create enough value to influence and encourage Content that would otherwise not be seen by high-
the sharing of that information across these large profile sites can get on their radar by being popular
social networks. Social media can not only change on social media sites and is much more likely to gain
how brands communicate with consumers but how hundreds of links and thousands of additional unique
consumers connect with each other. Marketers must be visitors from these secondary (referral) sites. Because
aware of the potential amplification and use it to their you develop these high-value links, you can easily rank
advantage to extend brand reach wherever possible. prominently for targeted terms in search engines and
For example, Microsoft’s Bing search engine has a increase your long-tail traffic which will stabilize at a
social search application that shows users what local much higher number than the pre-social marketing
restaurants or dry cleaners their friends like and makes campaign numbers.
recommendations based on that data.
The key is to keep the conversation on the page or
direct consumers to your brand website and not to


Search Marketers

other websites, YouTube videos, blogs or other digital
properties. All that does is push people away from your
social media page to other places that do not increase
Network Drives
your business or traffic. A second mistake often Website Traffic
made is to make the content about the business and
not the consumers. Ask questions and provide good Event registration technology provider Active
quality content to attract consumers to the page and Network started its social marketing strategy with
encourage them to interact and participate on your site. three goals in mind:

• Grow the network size or the subscriber base
#4: Conversion • Drive incremental visits back to the website
• Drive incremental conversions
At the end of the day, perhaps the most important goal
for social media marketing is conversion. All the traffic Active Network had no historical analysis or case
in the world won’t matter if the visitors don’t convert. studies to prove the worth of social media to upper
Defining social media conversion has proved management. The marketing team was also under
challenging for many search marketers. For example, pressure to show the value of social media almost
if sentiment is positive about a Facebook fan page immediately and defend a budget that didn’t exist.
does it actually push prospects to the website? And
once they are there, what do they do? How long do Active Network began by measuring all of its social
they stay? Social marketing and tracking is extremely media metrics: visits, clicks, page views and orders.
resource and time intensive. Staff must vigilantly track The company added a unique tracking code to every
conversations and enhance those conversations by post and measured the results. At the end of one
creating value. More questions arise including: month, it reviewed all the campaigns to see which
were most successful and then made adjustments
• When marketing staff tweets or post on blogs, do to build on those successes.
followers retweet or add comments? When combined with Facebook analytics, the
• If a “like” button is posted on Facebook, do company could also see how many new fans it
consumers click on it? acquired each day and how much it cost to acquire
• If Facebook fans “like” the brand, do they buy it? Do them. Demographic data and subscriber numbers
they recommend it to others? from Facebook were combined with click numbers
• Can online engagement drive offline or in-store from its web analytics tool, Adobe SiteCatalyst, to
traffic? calculate revenue per fan base.

One of the biggest questions still surrounding Facebook The result was that social media was found to
and other social media is whether or not social media bring in 9% of Active Network website traffic. That
is a more efficient sales or brand awareness vehicle. percentage is going up each month, and is getting
In these early stages of social media marketing, search close to competing with email and search engine
marketers have found top-of-funnel activities such traffic. This allowed the marketing organization
as extending brand reach and creating awareness to illustrate the positive bottom-line impact of its
and connections with potential customers are where efforts and get a bigger budget from management.
campaigns such as Facebook ads are gaining the most
traction.

Bottom-of-funnel sales and conversion efforts so far
have been less successful, but may experience more
Driving In-Store Traffic
success as the market matures and search marketers Retailer Einstein Bros. Bagels wanted to grow its
become more adept at using emerging social analytics Facebook fan base as well as drive in-store traffic.
software to more accurately measure and report The company developed a Facebook-only coupon
results. Some search marketers have found that that was available exclusively to its Facebook fans.
embedding the lead flow experience within Facebook Within days of the promotion, Einstein’s Facebook
or LinkedIn, rather than forcing prospects to leave fan base grew from 4,000 to 400,000 and also drove
the site and visit another website, also can improve incremental store traffic.
performance. n


Search Marketers

Conclusion
Social media sites are creating new and unprecedented marketing opportunities for search marketers that can
successfully harness their power with compelling, relevant messages and offers. The benefits are clear: a vast
audience that continues to grow explosively each day combined with a measurability that enables efficient,
pinpoint targeting. Organizations that are able to quantify social marketing results are also able to more
accurately calculate their social marketing ROI and understand which areas of the business are improving,
whether it’s customer service, gross margins or sales levels. This information will help you make the changes
necessary to increase engagement and sales.

While social media and search have many similarities, marketers should be mindful of the differences as well.
Search advertising, for example, targets users who have already indicated their intent, and are therefore closer to
a ‘buy.’ Social media users, however, share much more about their personal interests, demographics, and overall
lifestyle preferences -- something that cannot be captured in a search box. As such, marketers must be careful not
to simply replicate a search campaign in a social media environment, or vice versa.

Yet there are numerous existing synergies between search and social marketing, including the abilities to drive
traffic, brand value and user intent to buy. The challenge is to enter the fray with clear goals and measurable
business objectives upfront. Social media is a digital marketing channel and like any other channel – including
search -- it requires strategic planning to become successful, regardless of whether the goal of any given
campaign is brand awareness, website traffic building or conversion. The good news is that there are an
emerging group of sophisticated social analytics tools available to help even the most seasoned search marketer
begin and maximize the growing social marketing opportunity.

Ultimately, the integration of social marketing data with search and other digital and offline channels will be the
key to understanding prospect and customer behavior and providing targeted, relevant marketing campaigns.
Consumers don’t act within channels, they act across channels. In particular, the proliferation of video, mobile and
social media applications is leading marketers to execute and measure all of their digital marketing campaigns
holistically with single-screen visibility into campaign success and failure. n

Search Marketing Now webcasts and white papers provide authoritative and actionable education about search
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Search Marketing Now is a division of Third Door Media, which publishes web sites, and produces in-person
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Now, and Sphinn - fosters continuing education, evolution and engagement for the community we serve.


Social Marketing for Search Marketers

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