The way people are finding news and information has changed dramatically. Search engines are paying attention to the fact that a very high percentage of people say they are looking for discussions and opinions from others on a subject when they search.
To stay ahead of this curve Bing andGoogle recently made deals with Twitter and Facebook
When you do a search in Yahoo! they display the latest news for that search term – with tabs for news, images, videos and Twitter.
Why is this important?
Whether you participate in social media or not, others are. And they’re doing it in rapidly increasing numbers. These conversations are gaining in influence. And as the search engines tap into this stream of social content everyone who does a search for your company, product, or even your generic category, could come across the discussions going on about you.
Understanding search and SEO is fast becoming a modern PR skill.
And if you are in the Chicago area, there are two excellent sessions about search, social media and PR at Search Engine Strategies on December 7 and 8.
And here is an interview with Vanessa Fox (ex Google) about her new book. About half way into the interview she talks about search and social media and why it is so important.
