Search is rapidly upping the social media ante

Yesterday raised the stakes for companies as far as the impact of social media is concerned.  Here are the reasons why:

• The Pew Internet and American Life Project released a new report on social network use that in particular showed a hockey stick rise in the number of people using services like Twitter to update their status online
• Microsoft dominated the day's buzz with its announcement of the integration of Twitter into Bing search results
• Google tried to steal some of Microsoft's thunder by announcing a new Social Search offering, which essentially means that Google will show the results from what people in your social networks are saying online

 

All of these developments center around the primary way in which over 350 million people are using social media -- by offering their opinions and experiences in real time through short bursts of information. Other recent data points to how these opinions increasingly are about companies and brands. So, why has this upped the ante?

Whether or not businesses and marketers believe social media is important and should be deeply integrated into what they are doing, one thing most will agree is the importance of being prominent in search results. Most often, they care about Google results (but can't ignore Bing). It's one thing to use SEO to make sure their company web site comes up on the first page of results, but now what will appear underneath that result are the opinions of people about those companies as expressed on Twitter, Facebook or others. To me, this completely changes the game.

Do you know what those individuals are saying about you?  How do you think this changes how you need to approach your business?