Be More Recognized In Google By Being Active On Twitter, Flickr, Quora

We have long been supporters of small businesses being active on twitter and the other social networks as a way to learn and share the great content that they develop. While Google's newest Social Search isn't completely new, they have made some changes that make being involved with social media and growing your followers very important.

Google Social Search - The Beginning

As I just mentioned, Google's Social Search ins't new by any means. Back in 2009 they started showing socially relevant results in the standard google search results based on your connections in Gmail Chat, Google Reader, Twitter, Friendfeed and any other social networks you had added to your google profile. Here's a great video that explains how the initial release worked:

What's New With Google Social Search?

One of the key new features of Google Social Search is that the search results are no longer grouped at the bottom of the search results listings. Now, they are intermixed amongst all of the search results:

Notice the 3rd listing down in this list of results. We see a little profile picture of the person in your social circle that shared this link.

Google also announced that they would be including results from Quora, Twitter, and Flickr heavily in the search results.

Google has also made it easier to change which social networks you belong to and whether or not your updates on these networks should be used to show friends recommendations.

Here's a great video Google just released about the update:

Why This Benefits Businesses

As a small business, you try your hardest to make your social media involvement really count. This is another great way to add value through social media contributions.

For example, Your small business tweets all of it's new blog posts, videos, photos, and quora involvement. You have many prospects that have decided to follow you because of the valuable content you have shared. The next time your prospects or customers (social circle) search in Google for information related to your product or service offering, your brand will appear. Talk about bang for your buck! You don't even have to pay for this!

You Aren't Using Social Yet? Let Us Jump Start Your Efforts

We have been helping our clients to take advantage of social media for a long time. We understand the challenges with staying active and continuing to churn out new content. Let us help you establish a social media strategy for your small business.