Search is getting social (really this time)

I was messing about late last night, looking at stats for Twitter on compete.com (I know, I really know how to have fun on a Sunday) when I noticed something that got my attention.

According to Compete, the top referrer for Twitter is Facebook, with 11.4% referral share, compared to Google, which came in second with 9.94 %

The same trend can also be seen for myspace, with 11.4% referral share coming from Facebook, compared to Yahoo which came in at second place with 9.69%

Social search is a term that’s been bandied around for quite a while, but no-one seems to have quite cracked it yet. What these figures show us however, is that people are beginning to use Facebook, at least, in ways that are more akin to search engines. Whether this is down to people sharing links, or apps/widgets that are linking through to other sites (auto-updating Facebook status from Twitter for example), it’s clear that social networks are beginning to grab some of the major search engine’s traffic, which has implications for how you run your social media presence.

The referral aspect of social networks, demonstrates the need for brands to have a consistent presence among various social networks. Where once the emphasis was strongly on SEO, this is now shifting towards Social Media Optimisation. Users are increasingly bypassing Google completely, so you need to ensure your brand is easily discoverable on social networks as well. The importance of reputation management is also key here. It’s no longer just about controlling your Google SERP for your brand terms.

Of course, Facebook is getting more search-centric with increased functionality and  the recent addition of bing results into their search page.

Given that Facebook is already encroaching into the search space, this may be the biggest threat to Google yet. Users are growing increasingly sophisticated online – we look for all of our information in one place and Facebook is making big inroads here.