Social media meets search meets… grownups? (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – August 26, 2011)

Not a lot of setup this week, folks. Just a set of the best social, search, and strategy insights out there:

• The big news this week is a Pew report that shows 65% of all adults use social networking sites. But what’s really interesting is that no demographic category is below 50% and, for the first time, more than 40% surveyed claimed to have used a social networking site “yesterday”. I’ve said it before. Social is here, it’s real, and the key now is how to make the most of your social marketing efforts.
• Social also continues to influence search. As I’d mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Google+ won’t kill SEO. Now Cathy Halligan has an excellent look at how user-generated content is changing SEO and the role Google+ plays in that evolution. Good stuff.
• For many companies, PR, SEO and social marketing live is separate silos. But, if you note recent research that shows LinkedIn is the top social media site for journalists, you might realize a greater connection exists and look for ways to exploit it. Check it out.
• Old friend Jeremiah Owyang offers an interesting insight into the number of employees using “official” social media channels. No huge surprise, but, as you might imagine, the bigger the company, the more folks using official channels. The key point, of course, is that social is moving into “mainstream” parts of many organizations at an increasing rate.
• And, finally, we’ll close with another set of stats. Some people question the business value of Twitter. But as Social Media Today notes, there’s a market there. The key is figuring out how to make it work for your business. Of course, if you’re interested, you can drop me a line and see how I can help you sort that out.

Have a great weekend, everyone. I hope you don’t get hit too hard by Hurricane Irene (we’re watching her pretty closely here at Thinks Central, believe me). See you back here next week.

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