5 Ways Google Social Will Affect Online Marketing

5 Ways Google Social Will Affect Online Marketing

October 26th, 2009 – Google Social Search goes live. What does this mean and how does this work?

Currently this is really in beta mode as you need to sign in to Google and go to Experimental Labs to join this experiment. Once you have done so you will see relevant results from your social circle near the bottom of the search results screen.

Alternatively you can also click on the “Show Options” link at the top left hand of the screen and then click on “Social” to see just the social results by their own.

What is meant by social circle? Anyone in your Gmail contact list, or anyone you are following through Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and other social networks you have signed up with your Gmail address.

Why is Google Social Important? Imagine you are doing some research for spas in your area and your Google social results show spas that your friends have reviewed or talked about on Facebook. This kind of referral marketing is gold as you are much more likely to follow the advice of one of your friends than a PPC advertisement you saw in Google.

Here are 5 Ways we predict Google Social will affect online marketing:

Increase value of social media marketing. More businesses will implement social media marketing strategies so that their results stay relevant in Google.
Reduce effectiveness of PPC (Pay per click) marketing. As in the example above you will be much more likely to click on a link that was shared by one of your friends than an advertisement you have no connection with.
Reduce spammy SEO and effectiveness of link farms. Since businesses will spend more of their resources on social media marketing, SEO will take a hit and evolve to the next level which is long overdue.
Increase email marketing campaigns. With social search more companies will be aggressive in providing valuable email content in hopes to remain in your contact list.
Increase relationship building strategies. The most effective online marketing is already geared towards relationship building but social search will only make this even more essential.

Although the social search results come up near the bottom of the results page Google will most definitely be blending these into regular search higher up on the page. At the end of the day these will be the most relevant results and Google is big on being the most relevant in the market.

Here is a video tutorial on how to use Google Social Search: