Let's be real: content marketing, social, and search are all the winning trifecta. It's not enough to have just one or the other, or even two out of three. Sure, Search Engine Optimization is wonderful. And showing your Social face is just dandy. But the real power lies in the ability to integrate all three: content, social, and search.
Why?
1. Consumers are multifaceted.
This shouldn't be a surprise. Think about it. Do you sit on social networks all day and never do anything else? Chances are, you're discovering, consuming, and acting on content all over the web. You're not only on social networks. You're also reading blogs, newsletters, white papers, watching videos, and using the almighty Google. You're sharing what you learn with your audience because it makes you feel good.
People search and share for many different reasons. So why not appeal to your customers through many different angles? It can only help your cause.
2. Content marketing of products and services is becoming more social
Active engagement and sharing of products and services is not going away anytime soon. We've reached a place where we need constant stimulation from content.
Klout incorporates a turnkey marketing approach by collecting information and conducting direct marketing campaigns. For example, after receiving a +K notification on Klout, I logged in to the evil network to find I had a free e-book perk. So I downloaded and shared my perk on Twitter. Klout's automation of these messages makes it easy to share perks and other Klout activity. Great in theory, somewhat spam-like in practice. Oh, and did I mention that Klout has transparency issues that violate basic privacy settings? No ones seems to care. If people continue to not care, we're heading in the direction that everything we do online will become social. We're already halfway there.
There's a difference between marketing a product vs. sharing a product that's being marketed to you. This is a fine line. Sharing a product that's been marketed to you shows the truth behind the saying: “if you're not paying for the product, you are the product.” We're all now a product. And we seem to be marketing, aka sharing, whatever we come across online to our social networks. Which is cool, as long as we're engaging with the right people.
3. Sharing is the new search.
Personalized results now appear in your Google search due to the new Google/Google + changes. This shows just how important social networks and sharing have become. So much that sharing is now integrated into search.
Since I follow A.J. Cohn, and Matt Cutts on Google Plus, anything they've publicly shared related to my search “sharing is the new search” appears in my search results.
4. Everything is now connected
Try joining Pinterest without a Facebook or Twitter log in. You can't. Just a short time ago, each network had its own log-in credentials. Now they're all connected. Using Facebook or Twitter credentials makes it easier to find people you already know on Pinterest and to help prevent spam accounts. The other reason they do this (that they don't explicitly mention) is to connect all of our online activity.
How do you use content marketing, social, and search? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
