The social media experts who write for this column week in and week out don’t just talk – they walk the walk in social media and search marketing. In 2011, we saw interest spike in our Let’s Get Social* column as social media became a significant ranking factor in organic search results, following Danny Sullivan’s December 2010 report, What Social Signals Do Google & Bing Really Count?.
As social media grew in popularity during the year, along with Google’s +1 and Google+ launch, it’s evident how important social sharing became to developing audience reach and driving more traffic to content via search.
Our two most popular posts of the year in this category are further proof of that, with over 30K pageviews each (separated by only a matter of a couple hundred) – note the difference in the social sharing stats in a matter of just 10 months:
- 5 Social Sites You May Not Have Heard About (Yet) by Greg Finn, February 6, 2011
- Social Stats: 121 Likes, 669 Tweets, 4 +1′s & 419 LinkedIn Shares
- 21 Types Of Social Content To Boost Your SEO by Jordan Kasteler, December 6, 2011
- Social Stats: 706 Likes, 2172 Tweets, 182 +1′s & 1200 LinkedIn Shares
While you can see that social sharing plays a large role in how content is consumed, it isn’t the only path to generating highly read content. As you can see below, sharing varies dramatically by platform, and the high number of shares doesn’t always correlate to overall pageviews and user engagement, as you might read about further in some of the articles listed below.
In cased you missed any social media advice from the experts the first time around, here’s the rest of our 20 most popular posts on social media in 2011:
- 5 Truly Creative Uses Of Social Media - Ciaran Norris
- Social Stats: 169 Likes, 1186 Tweets, 13 +1′s & 848 LinkedIn Shares
- 7 Tips For Boosting SEO Of Your Facebook Page - Jim Belosic
- Social Stats: 599 Likes, 1096 Tweets, 49 +1′s & 514 LinkedIn Shares
- The Power Of Hashtags On Twitter - Kelsey Jones
- Social Stats: 267 Likes, 2053 Tweets, 79 +1′s & 398 LinkedIn Shares
- Why Facebook’s Timeline Might Be Bad News For Brands - Ciaran Norris
- Social Stats: 111 Likes, 611 Tweets, 27+1′s & 240 LinkedIn Shares
- Why You Need Google+ Business Pages For Online Reputation Management - John E. Lincoln
- Social Stats: 99 Likes, 312 Tweets, 80+1′s & 337 LinkedIn Shares
- What Businesses & Brands Can Use Google Plus Pages For Now - Monica Wright
- Social Stats: 70 Likes, 312 Tweets, 80+1′s & 337 LinkedIn Shares
- How To Ensure That Your Content Will Go Viral - Jordan Kasteler
- Social Stats: 46 Likes, 857 Tweets, 25 +1′s & 192 LinkedIn Shares
- Why Interaction Is Not The Same As Engagement - Ciaran Norris
- Social Stats: 87 Likes, 567 Tweets, 28 +1′s & 271 LinkedIn Shares
- Making PPC & Social Media Work Together Seamlessly - Jordan Kasteler
- Social Stats: 50 Likes, 520 Tweets, 13 +1′s & 226 LinkedIn Shares
- How Niche Social Media Sites Are Shaping Online Communication - Jordan Kasteler
- Social Stats: 59 Likes, 431 Tweets, 0 +1′s (note: published prior to +1 availability) & 289 LinkedIn Shares
- The Benefits Of Facebook Timeline Changes For Businesses - Kelsey Jones
- Social Stats: 39 Likes, 268 Tweets, 10 +1′s & 131 LinkedIn Shares
- Freshness Update + Social Media = Happy Users - Aaron Friedman
- Social Stats: 51 Likes, 436 Tweets, 29 +1′s & 170 LinkedIn Shares
- How To Use Paid Discovery On StumbleUpon To Kickstart Social Campaigns - Greg Finn
- Social Stats: 14 Likes, 542 Tweets, 1 +1′s & 158 LinkedIn Shares
- The Difference A Company’s Size Makes In Social Media - Jordan Kasteler
- Social Stats: 29 Likes, 616 Tweets, 226 LinkedIn Shares
- 5 Questions To Ask Before Jumping Into Quora - Ciaran Norris
- Social Stats: 13 Likes, 305 Tweets
- Is Your Business Too Reliant On Social Media? - Kelsey Jones
- Social Stats: 33 Likes, 544 Tweets, 9 +1′s & 195 LinkedIn Shares
- How To Get News From Social Network Aggregators - Jordan Kasteler
- Social Stats: 22 Likes, 328 Tweets, 155 LinkedIn Shares
- With +1, Advertising Is Getting Social - Ciaran Norris
- Social Stats: 5 Likes, 420 Tweets, 4 LinkedIn Shares
*NOTE: As of December 1, the Search Engine Land “Let’s Get Social” column was renamed to Search & Social. In 2012, column topics will be more focused on how search engines are weighting social media influences, share signals and user rating data to provide users with a more ‘personalized’ set of results, in addition to exploring the growing intersection of search and social networks. You’ll continue to read about how the two platforms are affecting search marketing strategies.
Over at Marketing Land, we’ve started a Social Media Marketing column, where two of our most popular columnists above, Kelsey Jones and Ciaran Norris, will continue writing about broader social media marketing topics and how to integrate social media strategies into your overall marketing mix.
Related Topics: Search & Social
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