Is Social Networking a Waste Of Time to Google?

2011/06/03 by 2 Comments

Social Media: a Waste of Time?

When you first start using social networking sites, it can seem to get you nowhere. It can feel like a total waste of time that gets little return on investment (oh, that coveted ROI!). I used to think it was useless myself, but I put in the time and it paid off. My small but steady use of Twitter and Facebook added up.

Google Adds Social Media Messages to Search Results

To give you an example of how social networking is growing, here is a small change I noticed recently. I was searching on the term “Macgregor 26″ because I’m obsessed with M26 sailboats. A Twitter friend’s message popped up in search results:

WZ google twitter search destinboats

A screenshot of my Google Search.

I was very surprised to find the Twitter message show up at the coveted *top* of my Google Search results, too. It was a message sent by my friend Heather at @DestinBoats. We were talking about the boat on Twitter, and she tweeted out the main MacGregor 26 web address.

So What is Happening to My Search Results?

In a nutshell: Google is recording Social Media messages and is finding ways to add value to their search tools. They are telling me that my Twitter friend has sent a message about my search term.

This is good because I often take the advice of my friends. That’s one big reason I follow them via the numerous Social Media tools.

As more people use tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and LinkedIn, the more the big players are going to pay attention. Small changes add up over time to big differences.

Take Action

Are you still wondering if Social Media is a waste of your time? I understand the resistance, and the frustration, especially at the start.  I’d love to hear about your experience. Please drop me a line in the comments.

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About David Bourne

Wilderize guides Nature Professionals through the digital wilderness.

Outdoor guides learn to leverage the power of telling stories online to get sales and traffic that get customers more interested in your services.

20 year media veteran, David Bourne is your guide for video, camera tech and social media tools.

Wilderize is Internet marketing for outdoor professionals. It's where "Nature and Tech Connect".

Comments

  1. Heather says:
    2011/06/03 at 7:28 pm

    David, Enjoyed the post! Yes, Google started rolling out their “social search” earlier this year. Here is the official Google blog post about it. http://bit.ly/ePLQAT It is interesting, b/c it not only highlights what your friends have shared, but it also skews the search results to highlight those results. So, say you have a friend who shared something that would normally be on page 2 of Google SERPS, that page will now get bumped up closer to the beginning of SERPS with the “[your friend] shared this” information. It will be interesting to see where Google’s recent purchase of PostRank fits into all of this. They clearly do have big plans for social media. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. :)

    Reply
    • David Bourne says:
      2011/06/06 at 10:41 am

      Hey Heather,

      While I knew about Google’s integration of social sites within search, I did not experience it until a few days ago. Most of my google-social use has been by filtering with “Blogs” under the “More” tab.

      I’m surprised that I don’t see it more often. I probably do ten searches a day, on average – but a lot of it is on my iphone. You do have to be logged into your Google account for this to work. Perhaps my accounts are not linked as well as I thought they were!

      By the way, you can make your thumbnail image pop up on most WordPress posts if you sign up at http://Gravatar.com. They are owned by the folks who make WordPress.

      Thanks for the note and the link! I did not know Google bought PostRank. Very cool.

      Best,

      DB

      Reply

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