If you’re a consistent reader of this blog and have followed me for awhile, you know I’ve been emphasizing the importance of social media optimization (SMO), especially this last 12 months. It was obvious before (and today officially declared) that social sharing impacts search results.
The truth is, the web has changed radically in recent times. The internet IS social media and social media IS the internet.
When someone says “social media doesn’t work,” they’re basically saying the internet doesn’t work. Social media is now a term that describes the new internet and how it’s evolved.
Google has lost substantial ground to Facebook this year and they’re fighting tooth and nail to compete with the social powerhouse. With mounting pressure, they had to evolve or face a severe decline.
Below, are the two posts I strongly recommend viewing immediately.
Breaking News: CNN’s Top Story
The blog of Google (with video)
This has VERY SERIOUS implications for you as a chiropractor, small business owner and internet marketer.
The machete is coming down again and a lot of website rankings will plummet. What that means to you is big drop in traffic, new patients and income if you fail to evolve. You must get the knowledge to thrive or you risk sinking like a ship.
Too many businesses fall for short-term, run of the mill strategies that don’t position for the long haul. Don’t be like the average majority. You have to look into the future and prepare for the marathon, not the sprint.
In fact, long-term positioning is the driving force behind many of the valuable products and services I’ve created.
I’ve been teaching chiropractors and professionals reliable and highly effective ways to “Google-proof” their internet marketing in order to build a tribe of raving fans for years.
When technology changes, if you already have an audience, you can take advantage of the disruption.
With this enormous shift by Google, if you’ve built strong “brand equity” in your marketplace by using the social marketing strategies I share, you’ll come-out on top.
FYI… I’ll be holding a Social Media Elite members only teleclass in the next week or two to lay-out the best strategy that you can use to ALWAYS be on the winning side, getting more exposure, traffic and search better Google rankings than competitors. This works every single time.
Keep an eye-out in your email inbox…
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Related Blog Posts:
Understand the ROI of Social Media
The 13 BEST Ways to Market your Chiropractic Website
Separating the Wheat from the Chaff in 2012
Social Proof IS the New Marketing
Matt, once again you are so correct in hammering home the need for updates to STRATEGIES, which is everything in long term success and positioning. I’ll be sharing this post with all my clients, in fact we were discussing this yesterday! Thanks for all you do!
Thanks John… I appreciate the kind words.
Matt, that was fascinating, thank you for sharing the ‘bombshell’ news… Your choice of the word bombshell is a good one. I recognize that the ripple effect of this change, both personally and professionally, will be far reaching.
I think it is fantastic that the search can now pull aspects of our own lives into the results. It should be interesting to see how my children’s search results for school projects are impacted by the changes… I am somewhat concerned about privacy issues and will more carefully evaluate what I post to my social media programs.
I am looking forward to seeing how your products and services change to ’stay ahead of the game’. We’ll have you back this year to teach our clients how to position themselves and their practices in response to these changes.
Thanks again Matt for keeping us informed.
Sounds great, Dianne! Thanks
I don’t see this as being as big of a deal as it might be made out to be. Yes it’s something that both Chiropractors and even any type of website owner should be aware of and address, and it does have a large effect on search results but I believe the effect is limited. This only effects search results for people who have a Google Plus account and are logged in at the time of doing a search. Also it only adds in results, usually results from those who are in your plus circles and results you’ve pulsed or added to Google. I’ve done a little research and testing on this and found most good organic results are not really effected by this. Yes, there are some queries that it would have a bigger effect on but I believe searches like “chiropractor in XYZ” are not going to be effected as much by these changes.
It’s actually a very big deal and does not only pertain to Google+. They only scratched the surface in the CNN article. It’s really about any content being shared on Twitter, Digg, Google+, Facebook, etc… The more it’s shared by authority profiles, the higher the content will rank, not to mention appear more credible if it has your friends faces next to it. Don’t get me wrong, back-links are still king when it comes to SEO but as social search further evolves, that may change for good.
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are now essential. Set up company accounts/pages and get as many followers/likes/recommendations that you can. Post regularly and make it interesting. This is the future and Google SERP’s will soon be weighing these stats very highly.
Oh, and add a Google+1 button to your webpage and encourage your patients, family and friends to click it.
Matt,
I’ve been following you since 2008-2009 and your stuff is always good and timely! Thank you!
Denver Chiropractor
Thanks Robert!