It is in human nature to seek clearly defined objects, theories and principles that can be clearly classified and categorized, creating black and white boundaries between what is and what is not. For this reason, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Marketing are often seen as two mutually exclusive strategies. In other words, it’s widely thought that the sole purpose of social media is to connect with your customers on those platforms alone, while the sole purpose of SEM is to get your website ranked higher in search engines.

However, these strategies do not operate in silos. Search media marketing is just as (some might say more) important than traditional tactics like link building. Below are just some of the ways that social media works with and strengthens your SEM strategy.

	Quality Links: Though Google may now frown upon “link building” in its more traditional sense, i.e. adding your site to a multitude of online directories, many of which may appear spammy or outdated, QUALITY links should still be a priority. By quality links we mean links on sites which Google sees as valid sources. Social Platforms are sites with a huge number of visitors per day and that can afford top notch developers to keep them running quickly to adhere to Google’s standards. As far as quality goes in terms of Google, you can’t get much better than that. Sharing compelling content that you’ve posted on your blog or elsewhere on your site, on your social media platforms is an easy way to get quality links.
	Sharability: Posting each of your blogs on your social pages goes a long way in building quality links. Creating posts which your followers then share on their own pages – and content that people share directly from your website – makes your efforts go even further where Google is concerned. Consider this, if one friend recommends a book to you, you might think about reading it, but if 10 friends recommend it you’ll definitely head to the bookstore to pick it up or download it on your e-reader.
	Validation: How many times have you met someone – a blind date, a coworker, a friend’s new significant other – and then done your research on them with a little searching on social media. The same way that you are validating these people using social media, Google is validating your site. The more followers you have, content you share, number of users who have tagged you or checked in at your location, the more Google will see you as a credible site worthy of front page rankings.
	Presence: Creating and maintaining profiles on multiple social sites expands your presence on the web. Let’s put it this way, say there are multiple tradeshows occurring for your industry during the same time period. If you have just one team assigned to cover tradeshows, you can only reach one audience of potential customers and clients. This is like solely focusing on your website and traditional SEO tactics. However, if you create multiple teams, you can put your company in front the entire audience of potential customers you have available. This is akin to launching a page on each social site that is well aligned with your business and goals, in addition to following SEO best practices on your website.
	Traffic Driving: As many as 95% of links to your site from traditional link building will never bring one visitor to your site. However, social links make it easy for your followers to click directly to your site from content you’ve shared. Not to mention the fact that social media has a real impact on your search engine rankings, meaning that it can be attributed to much of the traffic you get from Google as well.
	Evolving Searches: Users are changing the way that they search for businesses and the types of searches they perform. The reality is, being on the first page of Google is not going to do you much good when someone searches for a business like yours using Facebook’s Graph search. Businesses that have pages will come up before yours. In addition, they’re using hashtags as search terms, both on social platforms as well as on Google itself. If you are not on these sites using relevant hashtags that your customers are interested in, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to be found.

If you’re getting discouraged because social media is seemingly not driving tangible business, take a step back and look at it this way: though you may not have customers telling you they found you directly through social media, it is highly likely that you do have ones who have found you via Google or another search engine. Social Media is the support behind your presence on Google. It is like the stage crew during the production of the play; it makes sure that all of the actors and set pieces (in this case, your pages in the Google search results) are properly positioned so they can shine on stage. You won’t hear the audience gushing about the crew members, but without them, the whole show would fall apart.

Ready to rethink your search and social media strategy? Reach out for a consultation. We’ll help you create and implement a plan to take your social media to the next level, providing an even stronger foundation for your SEM efforts.