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Tweets to show in Google desktop searches
Aug 26th, 2015While the full impact on search and social marketing is not yet clear, here are our views on what this means for marketers
Google has begun to feature tweets in desktop results, following the move to incorporate them into mobile search in May. How could this affect your business?
You got it, @google. We’ll bring the Tweets. 🎉
— Twitter (@twitter) August 21, 2015
Google/Twitter’s announcement last week
Greater potential for social influence
The first and most obvious point is that tweets will potentially be visible to non-Twitter users. This means more brand exposure in general for brands with an active social media account.
The development demonstrates how maintaining a competitive web presence has evolved: from simply having a website; to producing regular, fresh content through blogging; to the increasing importance of social signals.
If your brand hasn’t yet haven’t got a solid social media strategy, take the Google-Twitter partnership as a sign it’s time to pull your socks up and get your skates on. If you need some pointers, you may find our tips on how to create a social media success story and social media cheat sheet useful.
Impact on reputation management
Closely following on for the first point, but important enough to warrant its own subheading, an active social media strategy may help your brand to dominate page 1 search results
On the other side of the coin, negative comments about your business also have potential for wider visibility and could appear in a search for your brand.
With Twitter increasingly used as a customer service medium, it’s important for you to have a policy in place for responding to complaints or difficult queries, in addition to your strategy for using it as a marketing channel.
This case study outlines the part social media played in managing a client’s online reputation.
Increased significance for hashtags and images
A study by Stone Temple Consulting found that tweets containing hashtags and images are more likely to indexed by Google. This seems logical, given we know that tweets with hashtags and images get more engagement and engagement is a ranking signal used by Google for web content in general.
Another benefit of using a hashtag is that it provides context for your tweet, making it easier to find by users and in theory, making it easier for Google to index.
Whether you’re using hashtags to contribute to existing industry topics or discussion, or creating your own to encourage people to engage with your brand, our article on growing your social following explores this topic further.
How tweets now appear in a Google search…