Search and social living in harmony
Reports that search is dead and social media has taken its mantle appear premature. Marketers must use both tools to drive online sales. By Martin Croft
Google has stumbled, the end is near for search marketing, and the rats have already defected to the good ship social media. At least, that’s what you might believe from the media coverage of online advertising early this year. At the end of February comScore apparently reported that the number of Google searches being conducted fell 7% in January compared to the previous month, and were almost static compared with a year earlier.
Wall Street panicked, Google’s share price plunged 4% in a day, and everyone decided the consumer love affair with Google and, by implication, all search was over. And what had replaced Google and search in the consumer’s affections? Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and the host of social-media sites.
Marketers were warned that, having barely got to grips with the complexities of search, they should now forget about it and start learning about how to make money out of peer-topeer recommendations.
The truth, as is so often the case, is rather different. Certainly, Google itself has admitted that it has seen some dip in the demand for pay per click (PPC) ads in some countries, but it also says that, in others, PPC revenue is still growing. But how the mainstream media has interpreted comScore’s figures has been questioned by many industry insiders. Some have directly criticised the figures themselves, although other research companies have subsequently suggested similar findings.
Jamie Riddell, director of innovation at digital agency Cheeze, says: “Google’s growth is stalling because PPC search marketing as a medium has plateaued, not because people are switching their budgets out of PPC.”
It is true that social-media sites are becoming more important to marketers as consumers increasingly use them to find comments, reviews and recommendations from other, real consumers. But, while the rise of social media may have an impact on search engine traffic, social media has not and will not kill search. The two are not rivals, but complementary.
If anyone should know, it is Blake Chandlee. In October 2007, he quit as Yahoo! UK commercial director and became Facebook’s UK sales director. Chandlee argues that search and social media play two different roles.
He observes: “From the advertiser’s perspective, search is the perfect solution for demand fulfilment. It’s a powerful tool that has evolved over the past ten years.” While “social media can operate in that same space, it can also go much further up the marketing funnel to deliver demand generation”.
Using films as an example, he says: “I would search to find where films are on, what the times are and to buy tickets, but I would use social media to read reviews to help me decide which film I wanted to see.”
Furthermore, he argues, social media needs search to exist. “Search is a part of the fundamental premise behind social media.”
Working together
Kate Burns, UK managing director of Frenchowned social-media site DailyMotion, agrees. Burns was previously managing director of Google UK, Ireland and Benelux and was involved in launching DoubleClick, Yahoo! and search engine AltaVista in the UK.
“Search and social media work together,” she says. “ComScore shows that within entertainment sites, search is used 70% more than browsing. If I’m looking for a friend on Facebook, or a video on DailyMotion, I don’t wander around the site aimlessly. I use search to find what I’m looking for.” However, she adds: “Social-media sites have to pay some attention to their own search functionality – I still get really angry when I can’t find what I’m looking for on a music site and I have to go back to Google.”
Figures from Hitwise demonstrate how search and social media are intertwined. In March 2008, in the UK, 31% of traffic to social networks came from search engines, while 12% of traffic to search engines came from social networks.
Kevin Cornils is chief executive of UK affiliate network Buy.at, recently acquired by AOL. Buy.at has been working with travel and lifestyle social networking site WAYN (Where Are You Now?) to offer WAYN members the opportunity to add personalised “Web shops” to their profiles.
Win-win situation
Cornils explains: “Users can publish their own recommendations which their friends can read. If any of those friends then go on to buy a recommended product via the Web shops, the shop ‘owner’ gets a small commission. Alternatively, you can publish a ‘wish list’ of what you want people to buy you on your profile. If people then buy you something on that list, you get something you want and you get commission. It’s a win-win situation.”
But, while social-media sites, particularly those which carry peer-to-peer reviews and comments, are having an increasing effect on online purchasing patterns, Cornils does not believe search is dead.
He adds: “Search will continue to thrive because of its power, ease of use and the depth of information that users can get about products and services. It will probably now see growth rates similar to those in the rest of the online advertising market, but the growth of PPC search will slow.”
Riddell at Cheeze argues: “The opportunities offered by social networking and personal recommendations are just not big enough to challenge PPC for the next few years at least. Take Twitter – that can be used as a recommendation engine. That’s great, but it won’t stop me doing a search. Recommendations will not be my sole method of information gathering. Just look at the sheer breadth of information available on Google.”
Dan Clays, managing director of digital media specialist BLM Quantum, admits: “Social networking has created huge opportunities for search-engine optimisation, but paid search continues to be absolutely critical, and will remain so.”
Mass adoption
Grant Whiteside, technical director for digital marketing and search agency Ambergreen, comments: “Social media as a platform is about three years old with mass adoption starting about two years ago. It hasn’t found its feet yet. Will it grow into an advertising platform? That will depend on its adoption by business networks and how the existing social media customers react to their new neighbours, the corporate companies.”
Social media users are protective of what they regard as “their space”, so it will take brands some time to gain acceptance, Whiteside believes. “What would you do if Tesco moved in on your street? After resenting their initial presence and vandalising the walls, I may get round to popping in for a pint of milk now and again. Give it time, don’t push the issue and eventually a form of brand advertising [on social media] will be accepted.”
This point is echoed by Julian Smith, insight and research director at digital and direct specialists MEC Interaction. “Consumers have a very low receptivity to advertising while in social, Web 2.0 mode. Even with improved targeting opportunities, such as MySpace’s Enthusiast Targeting or Hypertargeting in the US, marketers should be wary about extending the reach of their existing online ad campaigns,” he says.
“Becoming a valuable member of the online community – offering up value exchange of content, conversation, participation – is a much more effective way of integrating brands into the social-media world.
Brand communications
“But marketers must remember that consumers are in control and should be allowed to control the brand communications they receive. Those brands that give the community control will be rewarded with the viral spread of positive word of mouth through the networked consumers.” Overall, he adds, social-media site owners “must ensure that advertisers allow and respond to consumer feedback quickly and efficiently”.
One thing that should be avoided at all costs, though, is the seeding of fake word-of-mouth recommendations on social sites. Past examples should be enough to deter any sensible marketer from trying to repeat this approach, known in the internet community as astroturfing – a reference to the fact that it is to real grassroots recommendations what the artificial sporting surface AstroTurf is to real grass.
Artificial creation
For example, in the run-up to Christmas 2006, the “All I want for Xmas is a PSP” campaign created by buzz marketing agency Zipatoni to promote the Sony PlayStation Portable games console caused a huge consumer backlash when it was revealed that it was fake, put together by the marketing team to create an artificial buzz.
In 2005, Coca-Cola tried a similar tactic in Australia with a fake blog and website called “The Zero Movement” – again, it was swiftly revealed by bloggers to be the work of the soft drinks giant itself.
Riddell at Cheeze provides some final words of advice on how marketers should tackle social-media sites. He says: “First, make the product and service as good as they possibly can be. Second, if something goes wrong, fix it fast. Third, make sure people can forward stuff on your website, or tag it, easily.”
