Social Media in Search: User-Created Content Dominates the Brand Message [Stats]

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While those of us working in the social arena can cite a number of examples where this has proven to be the case, more traditional brands can be reluctant to embrace this ideology. However, some interesting new search data from 360i might convince them otherwise.

In the company's November whitepaper, which looks at the landscape of natural search, 360i purports that a majority of social media search listings that appear for brand-related queries are created by individuals not affiliated with the brand. In fact, "77% of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook listings that appeared for brand searches were controlled by a party other than the marketer."

Essentially what customers, fans, and detractors are posting to social media sites are dominating the brand name search experience over social media content created by the brands themselves. This data clearly creates a legitimate reason for brands to be proactive with their social media presence, as participating in the exchange about their brand should improve the quantity and quality of customer-created social media content that searchers will happen upon.

360i also recommends that brands "cross-link owned domains and social media destinations. This creates a search ecosystem that will allow PageRank, domain history and strength to permeate."

We've embedded the entire whitepaper below if you'd like to further dive in to 360i's search findings.

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