I just recently overheard a comment of someone saying, “Content used to be king – Conversation is the new king”.  While I don’t entirely agree with the statement, I think it brings up a great point.

With the rise of social factors creeping their way into search engine results pages, the conversations that are happening on social networks are going to have a greater and greater impact on what you see when you search.

For many people, having a great conversation can excite, inspire and bring happiness to everyone involved. Think about it. At night we gather around a fire or a bar or at a friend’s house to enjoy great conversation. As comments are passed back and forth, it’s often the most unique, insightful or hilarious comment that is remembered and repeated from that night onward. Conversely, think of the looks you’d get if you simply repeated everything the person next to you said.  Would anyone remember? Nope. So you can see how the social interactions we have in real life have begun to mimic how we act and react on social networks.

If there’s a chance your website will get a boost in rankings from people “Like”ing or “+1”ing it, why not focus on increasing those metrics?

This may sound like a simple question, but it’s an important one especially if you’re working on increasing the number of “Like”s:  “WHY would anyone “Like” my site?” The common sense answer: they “Like” the content on your site and hopefully, they’re willing to converse about it. Social media cannot exist without people posting unique content to spark the conversation.

If conversing in the real world parallels over to social media, then some of the same rules apply.

Know who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about – Vanessa Fox of Search Engine Land just recently did a presentation on how search personas help target specific audiences in the online world. SEOMOZ also just did a great Whiteboard Friday discussing this topic. Are you using search personas to understand your audience?

Ask questions – If you’re uncertain about how the visitors to your site may react to a change or a new piece of content, create a side-bar survey that allows users to give feedback on what they liked / disliked. Look at the comments from users and most importantly, respond and keep asking questions and seeking input.

Listen! – Social media helps your customers and users speak their mind. Listen and you will be rewarded with long-term customers that stay with you for a lifetime. Our very own Linda O’Neill did a great piece on how to listen to your customers on social media.

So has content been demoted? Not at all – if anything content and social have raised each other up, creating a synergistic force. When you create great content, people will share it, and if you’ve created truly eye-catching content then their friends will share it, and their friends will share it and so on. Sometimes they will even critique it so that you can learn first hand how to make your content better.  They may even give you new ideas for your next great piece of content.

In the end, I believe search and social are both king. It’s a diarchy – if you will.  So for my closing comment I say:

Long live the kings!

Kyle Misencik, Campaign Director, joined Intrapromote in March of 2011 as a SEO Specialist performing various tasks such as Keyword Research, On-Page Optimization, Competitive Analysis and Reporting. At Intrapromote, Kyle has worked to increase organic traffic and increase search engine visibility for several of Intrapromote’s longest tenured clients.  Recently promoted to Campaign Director, Kyle now manages clients as well as team members to meet and exceed client expectations.

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