Megan Glover's Blogging With Purpose

I've just spent the last couple of weeks eating, breathing and living Social Media and Blogging.

Between the Blog Indiana conference (Twitter search #BlogIndiana for all the great feedback) and yesterday's webinar Getting a Grip on Social Media with Chris Baggott and Kyle Lacy, now more than ever I feel enlightened and yet, beyond confused about this social media phenomenon.

After all this enlightenment about social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, etc.. I'm still 100% convinced that business blogging for search needs to be the force behind your social efforts.

Case in point... the funnel below shows an accurate representation of the volume of traffic that each online source yields (data taken from the Pew Internet and American Life Project):

I think the funnel speaks for itself in terms of where priorities should be placed within marketing teams. That's not to say marketers shouldn't invest time and resources into social media networks, but be cautious not to put the"cart before the horse".

At the end of the day, marketers are in business to earn business for their companies. And, sometimes we can get distracted by shiny new objects, heck - it's a lot easier for me to tweet compared to write a blog post. But, end goal in mind, marketers need to be allocating efforts where their prospects are turning and; overwhelmingly, that place is search.

Comments for Social Networks - the new shiny object obsession?

Saturday, August 22, 2009 by Kyle Lacy:: There is a fine line to draw on whether or not someone should be using a bright shiny objects. Instead of telling people where their priorities should be... we should be teaching them how to use both tools. Both tools are extremely important to use in the long run. Yes, content for search is probably more important than social media but it is possible for social media to be used for search as well. Let's not discount the tool because of the market adoption at this very moment. Let's look towards the future. I see the funnel evening out in the long run.
Monday, August 24, 2009 by Megan Glover:: Totally agree, Kyle. Neither strategies should be discounted as both have inherent business value and should be priorities. However, I think that companies really need to evaluate how both strategies benefit their end goals to determine what level of a priority. For instance, if my end goal is to grow my email list by 100 opt-in's each month... a Facebook group is probably not the best strategy to get me there. But, it's a fantastic way to engage with my existing customer base, etc. I'm just saying, as these new and exciting networks evolve... join, listen, contribute. But, now more than ever, search engine marketing is an intricate part of business development. So, let's not lose site of this at the expense of social media.