This week in the blogosphere we found four blog posts that examine how search and social media are becoming increasingly intertwined, Twitter’s rapid growth and the significance of blogs today and over the coming years. Below are some of the highlights from these articles:
- 44% of U.S. B2B marketers claim their social media marketing efforts have had a positive impact on search performance.
- Bing Social now suggests users to follow on Twitter based on your search.
- Twitter’s currently experiencing 6 billion API calls daily.
- Recent reports estimate that the number of Internet users who read blogs at least monthly will continue to see growth over the next few years.
B2Bs Tap Social to Boost Search
eMarketer | 9-17-10
In a recent survey, BtoB Magazine and Business.com looked at how B2B marketers are using their social media marketing to impact their search performance and how they perceive its effectiveness. Forty-four percent of U.S. B2B marketers claim that their social media marketing efforts positively influenced their search performance, whereas 28% reported a “neutral” impact and 27% said they weren’t sure. Among the top methods for improving search results via social media, 48% of respondents found driving inbound links through several social networking channels to be helpful, and 45% said they developed their social media profiles to better their search engine optimization ranking. Just 26% of marketers said that they’re tracking conversations about their brand across various social media channels in order to discover the best search terms to target in their keyword marketing efforts.
Main Takeaways:
- 44% of U.S. B2B marketers believe social media marketing has positively impacted their search performance.
- The most prominent tactic among B2B marketers for improving their search engine optimization ranking is using different social media channels to drive inbound links.
Bing Suggests Twitter Users Based on Searches
WebProNews | Chris Crum | 9-20-10
Bing recently introduced a new feature on their Bing Social site that suggests as many as three Twitter accounts to follow based on your search query. In addition to recommending Twitter users, Bing also specifies whether those users are “influential” or “popular.” According to Bing, their objective in launching this feature is to introduce online users to Twitter users who may appeal to their particular interests. Crum points out that for now, the site only suggests up to three users and doesn’t direct the searcher to any additional Twitter accounts. And, while a user who in fact frequents Bing Social will see this latest addition, the feature has yet to be rolled out to the official Bing Search site.
Main Takeaways:
- Bing Social now recommends up to three Twitter users to follow based on your search query and labels each as either “influential” or “popular.”
- For now, this new feature is only appearing on the Bing Social site, but has yet to be integrated into their main search site.
Twitter Seeing 6 Billion API Calls Per Day, 70K Per Second
TechCrunch | Leena Rao | 9-17-10
Twitter engineer Raffi Krikorian recently announced several new stats for the social networking site. According to Twitter’s data, they’re experiencing twice as many daily API calls since April, rising from 3 billion API calls to 6 billion at present. In addition, Twitter reports that as many as 90 million tweets are being issued each day. Krikorian also claims that in the long run, Twitter hopes to be able to sustain half the global population and their wireless devices, which would amount to 5 billion users and 6 billion devices, he says. Twitter also claims to have seen 100% traffic growth to Twitter.com in 2010. The post’s author suggests that as Twitter begins rolling out the “new Twitter” (with its integrated videos and photos), developers will most likely begin to see a decrease in their traffic, as Twitter begins to drive more and more users to Twitter.com.
Main Takeaways:
- Twitter recently announced that they’re experiencing 6 billion API calls daily, which is two times more than their API call stats in April.
- The growing social networking site claims that over time, they wish to sustain half the world’s population, as well as their wireless devices.
The Continued Rise of Blogging
According to eMarketer forecasts, 51% of Internet users will read blogs at least monthly and as many as 60% (150 million users) by 2014. The percentage of online users who blog at least monthly, however is just 11.9% in 2010, with an expected increase up to 13.3% of the online population by 2014. eMarketer suggests that this growth is in part due to the increasing acceptance of blogging as a reliable media source and the growing number of easy-to-use blogging services available across the Web. Although, as the report points out, social networking sites are seeing rapid adoption and provide users with an easier, quicker means for sharing their thoughts and information with their online community, therefore giving people more options for online communication than just blogging.
Main Takeaways:
- eMarketer predicts that the number of online users who read blogs on at least a monthly basis will continue to increase from 51% in 2010 to 60% in 2014.
- The report also suggests that the percentage of bloggers in the online community will continue to see growth from 11.9% in 2010 to 13.3% in 2014.
What could new features like Bing Social’s mean for your social media marketing and online traffic?
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this week’s summary and that you’ll share your feedback and questions with us. To get the weekly summary, or any other Optify updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or subscribe to our RSS feed. Here’s one question we’d like to hear your thoughts on:
- With Google rolling out Realtime Search and Bing now featuring Twitter users to follow, it’s increasingly evident that search is going in a social direction. The question is which of these new features are significant for online marketers to pay attention to? Will it become increasingly important for companies to establish themselves as “influential” according to Bing’s Twitter user recommendations, or is monitoring conversations about your brand and engaging with prospects and customers via the social media channel enough to drive online traffic to your website?
