The Future of Search Marketing Must Include Social Media

[djbaxter]

The Future of Search Marketing Must Include Social Media
By Adam Riff, SVP, Digital Strategy
Aug 21, 2012

When it was reported in early May that social advertising had overtaken search, many in the search-marketing industry reacted with disbelief. Some wished to take up a protracted battle with social-media marketers over whose turf reigns supreme.

Sadly, much of the discussion completely missed the point of what this data tell us: the age of the ?walled garden? approach to search marketing is over. Let us all rejoice. The search-vs.-social debate is a worthless pursuit. Brands don?t care, nor should marketers.

The future of search marketing will demand a blend of many different digital-marketing components ? traditional search, retargeting, display, etc. ? that must reach audiences across a wide swath of media, as consumers use many different devices to search for content across multiple platforms and interfaces.

Marketers need to focus on how well they are integrating social within search, and vice versa. It?s not an either-or debate...

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