Trend #3: Social Search Is Changing Buying Behavior
A clear benefit of being active with social media is that it is much easier to be found online when individuals look up a key word or even a specific name. To be found at the top of the list delivers instant credibility. On the other hand, if one is not found, it might be a loss of business that there is no way to track.
Online search is now even more sophisticated and that will continue to advance in the coming years. To understand this, ask a simple question. "Do I trust the recommendations of strangers or the recommendations of people in my social network?" More times than not, individuals trust the people they know more.
This is the foundation of "social search." Andrew Davis, chief strategy officer of Tippingpoint Labs, defines social search as, "A system's ability to have a finite list of results based on your online interactions." To clarify it even more, social search is when an individual searches on a topic online and the search results that appear are partly based on who that individual is connected with, through e-mail contact lists and social networks.
Here are three good examples of how social networks are becoming more powerful:
Google: Google's new social search delivers relevant content from your social connections. In other words, content from those you know can be more relevant and meaningful to you than content from any random person. For example, a movie review online is useful, but a movie review from your best friend can be even better.
Google's new "+1" button is another tool that allows individuals to endorse what they like on the Web. It is new and will be appearing in search results and sites across the Web.
NYTimes.com: For years, when you went to read the news online, the editors of the paper decided what the news was. There is limited space on a homepage, so they had an important job to filter what was the most important. Now, not only do those editors decide what to read, but so can your friends on Facebook if you use their interface to connect with your network.
LinkedIn: The importance of quality online networks becomes very clear in searching a person's name. Often, it is not just the individual's Web site that comes up at the top of the list, but the person's LinkedIn profile, and many times it is listed higher in the results.
Krista Canfield, spokesperson for LinkedIn, explains why that happens, saying, "While I can't say I know what the secret sauce is to the search engine algorithms, I do believe that a page that is self-generated by an individual shows up higher. Fresh content, connections to groups, online discussions, LinkedIn answers and completely filling out a profile in the words of your clients, including the new skills section, are all things that come into play."
She also says it is not based on the total number of connections-it is more about quality than quantity. She went on to discourage those that blindly add connections, suggesting, "You wouldn't give your Rolodex to the person on the street." It makes sense to avoid doing the same thing within LinkedIn.