Search marketing has never been the easiest of marketing disciplines to master. Launching a successful search practice has traditionally meant developing excellence in both organic search and paid search, which are two very different practices. Now that many agencies and in-house teams have at least a rudimentary grasp of these two different areas of digital marketing, the landscape has become even more complex. Enter the rise of social search.
Social search can be defined as a third and distinct area of search marketing. Rather than an algorithm or an auction-based ad system providing results, social search is the community of web users who are the authors of such answers. For example, Yahoo! Answers, just one of the social search engines out there, boasts 90 million users and 250 million answers worldwide.
Human-powered search has also come into the forefront, with sites such as Mahalo and Cha Cha grabbing people's attention. Overall, social search has grown rapidly in recent years to the point at which search marketers now need to pay attention.
On the surface, the rise of social search may be intimidating to marketers, as it signifies the increased control that consumers have on a brand. Early data shows, however, that the high volume of chatter is overwhelmingly beneficial to brands.
For example, in a research study that Yahoo and comScore Networks recently conducted entitled "Engaging Advocates Through Search and Social Media," it was found that 90 percent of the social dialogue written about brands is positive in nature. In consumer electronics, this number was as high as 96 percent. Overwhelmingly, the discourse of social media will complement, rather than compromise, your marketing strategy.
How do you begin to execute a social search strategy? First, like any emerging discipline, it pays to get a lay of the land. There is no better way to do this than to simply step back, check out the major social search sites to hear what consumers are saying, and listen. Additionally, many search marketers use tools such as Yahoo Buzz and Google Trends to measure the signal-to-noise ratio of a brand's relative "hotness," and the same concept can apply to social search.
For example, on a recent visit to Yahoo Answers, there was a total of 1,480 questions posed that included the keyword "Starbucks" versus 878 questions posed which included the keyword "Dunkin’ Donuts." When overlaid with Yahoo Buzz data, we learned that users across Yahoo Search actually search for Starbucks three times more than they do Dunkin Donuts. In other words, while Starbucks has more search volume in traditional search, consumers are more likely to dialogue about Dunkin' Donuts.
The next stage of a social search strategy is to give the social chatter a score that indicates quality. For each positive mention you score a +1; for each negative mention you score a -1. Neutral gets a 0. (Amateur card counters should find this methodology refreshingly familiar). It may also help to bucket comments (both positive and negative) into thematic areas such as product quality, customer service, pricing and the like. This then gives the marketer an idea as to what people are saying about the brand, and the data should not only be relevant to the marketing team, but also to the entire enterprise.
Now that you know the volume and relative quality of dialogue of social chatter, it becomes time to actively engage your consumers. It's probably a great first step to simply dive in and tell consumers that your brand is ready to listen to them and address their concerns. Whether it's creating a brand avatar to answer questions proactively, reacting to previously posed questions, or changing the tone of your campaigns to address consumer feedback, they will appreciate the attention and outreach. Remember, it's important to fully disclose that you are in fact an employee of the brand (or an agency of record for the brand), as consumers tend to smell a wolf in sheep's clothing a mile away.
To build upon this idea, it may also be beneficial to engage the positive "Brand Advocates" (mavens, opinion leaders, influencers, et cetera) into your marketing dialogue. There are many easy, low risk ways to do this including featuring them on your website, giving them special access to company products or services, or even empowering them to speak on behalf of your company. These third party voices can add credibility and breadth to your marketing efforts.
Above all, the most important thing to keep in mind with social search is that we are in the first inning of a much longer game. No one agency or marketer has the perfect answers when it comes to this new medium, but best practices will soon emerge to help define the industry, just as they did with paid and organic search. Social search is a fast moving train that is changing the face of search marketing as we know it.
Hop aboard!
Ron Belanger is vice president, Yahoo! Search Marketing. Read full bio.
