The Blog on Branding

Is Google enough for Social Media Marketers?

For successful social media marketers, a ticket to success is working on search engine optimization, or making a site and its content highly relevant for both search engines and searchers. Google is one of the most popular search engines used for social media marketers. Some social media marketers work with Google, and only Google to achieve search engine optimization for their clients. In these social media marketer’s defense, Google is definitely a search engine powerhouse. It is the most popular search engine used by Americans to find, holding about 70 percent of the search market. Plus, it is simple to use, all you need to do is type a word(s) into the box and a list of answers appears.

However, while the marketer may worship Google, the consumer may not, and rather searches elsewhere.

“A ticket to success is working on search engine optimization.”

So what about the other 30 percent of the search market who choose other search engines?

Google has received some bad rep recently for their invasion of privacy for target advertising. Some people are upset about this and have eliminated their use of Google completely and switched to a site such as ixquick that guarantees privacy. Search engines such as Microsoft Live, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL are often left in the dust, when in reality, thirty-percent is significant enough to make or break business. Are those marketers who opt to only use Google lazy, or investing their time and energy wisely?

“…invasion of privacy for target advertising.”

Social media marketers who also only use Google are missing out on ways to reach audiences through communication sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. These sites have built strong relationships with their customers.

In March 2009, a Nielsen Ratings blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009. The newest of the three communication sites, Twitter, has been growing every month about 1000%, while Facebook and MySpace, both older communication sites still grow at about 200% each month.

Social media marketers should look beyond the “Google powerhouse” and seek out other ways on the Internet to market products.

With more and more people making accounts with Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook daily, the Internet and the way it is used is constantly changing. Search engine sites fluctuate in popularity while new ways to market products are constantly evolving. While Google may be the most familiar to both marketers and consumers, other marketing tools are becoming familiar to consumers and proven useful to companies as well.

While Google Alerts are a popular way for social media marketers to track who is watching the company and its products, Twitter has developed an alert system as well, where an automatic response is sent when key words or the company name/product is searched. This is a strategic way to develop a relationship between consumers and companies that is outside of the Google box (literally). Zappos.com, Home Depot, and General Motors have shown how successful Twitter can be when relations are between a brand and consumers.

“Do you think marketers should think outside of the Google box?”

Widening the marketing horizon can definitely increase popularity for social media marketers. While Google is a huge aspect of the search engine world, there are other search engines that consumers use that are being left out. Not only are search engines a major part of online marketing, but communication websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace are also crucial aspects of building consumer-brand relationships. By going beyond just Google, not only will marketers build excellent relationships, but they will reach a much larger target audience as well.

Do you think marketers should think outside of the Google box?

By Kaitlin Durkosh