While some brand managers have enthusiastically embraced social media and others have dipped their toes in the water, some recent changes at Google should force the rest of the pack to take their head out of the sand.
Google has introduced a number of new features that are aimed at improving the recency and relevancy of results. This is a response to the rise of Twitter, Friend Feed and Facebook Connect, so it should not be a surprise that these search results are fed by social media channels.
Google Search Options…Not a Brand’s Best Friend
Users can find these features by selecting the Show Options link at the top of your search result page. Show Options adds a side navigation bar that does three very important things:
- It enhances the effect of Universal Search by allowing users to filter the main search results down to video, forums and reviews
- It adds recency by allowing the user to filter by recent results, past 24 hours, past week and past year
- It surfaces more personalized search filters such as the Google Wonder Wheel and related searches
While talk of recency, personalization and increased relevancy may seem like industry babble, these factors directly impact your brand’s visibility in the search results — in fact, if a user selects these new Google search options they may not see your brand at all. A search for peanut butter does a good job of illustrating this effect.
The regular search results show results from the Peanut Advisory Board, Wikipedia and a number of big brand sites. This view brings the brand manager a sigh of relief. They might even be thinking they can rest easy because they have positioned their brand for a competitive, high volume generic keyword. But that measure of comfort will be short lived once they get a look at Google’s results with the new search options.
The Recency of Social Media Impacts Search Results
The same search for peanut butter filtered by any of the recency filters including “Past year” returns no brand sites in the top 30 results. Instead, there are blogs, news, answer sites like Yahoo! Answers, communities and forums and digital sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube. If a brand has no visibility in these social channels, they are effectively invisible to the user.
Big brands are also absent from the top 30 results when the Universal Search filters Videos and Forums are selected. While big brands may be listed on review sites, they have little influence over this content. The inroads to these filtered results include optimization and syndication of digital assets, social media outreach, participation in relevant forums and blogs, as well as activation of brand loyalists.
How do brands fare under the Wonder Wheel effect? They are invisible here too. The Wonder Wheel offers categories for peanut butter facts, history and even recipes but there is no category here for brands.
Integration is Key to Future Visibility
What should you do if your brand is missing from these filtered results? I recommend that you integrate your search marketing efforts with a carefully planned and measured approach to social media. This begins with auditing and listening to the social space to determine where conversations exist about your brand, products and competitors. It continues with strategic identification of the most relevant social channels for your brand, establishing meaningful metrics and the most appropriate content to build conversation and relationships. It matures with active participation, cross-channel integration and measurement of your results. And finally it requires an ongoing commitment by your brand to share, participate and build relationships online with your customers.
