Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn: These and an abundance of smaller social sites are gaining ground as searchable resources. Their value as search engines is directly related to their value as social networking sites. In fact, if you want to know what’s being said on any given topic, your quickest, most accurate resource would be one of Twitter’s many social search tools, such as Twitter Search or Tweet Grid. Why? Because Twitter is where the conversation is happening.
Leigh of Leigh’s Blitherings says, “Twitter and Facebook both are becoming filters where my network are kind enough to only tweet and link to the most interesting content. And Twitter in particular has become a place where I can ask a question and in no time flat have my questions answered in the form of links, referrals and juicy bits of insight.”
I’ve definitely found this to be true. My search habits have changed drastically in the past year. I don’t rely any less on Google, but frequently it’s not my first pick for information retrieval. My personal #1 search engine is Delicious, a social bookmarking service. Why? Because I save 100% of my bookmarks there, and I only bookmark things that I want to return to. My Delicious network appears to feel the same way about it, resulting in highly relevant search results nearly every time.
Close on the heels of Delicious is Twitter. If it’s conversations I’m looking for, this is my first choice. One of our Zero To Sixty markets is the hobby consumer. I can tap into what that market is talking about by simply tapping into the Twitter information stream.
Want to know what people in your area are talking about online? Use Twellow, a Twitter directory, searchable by locale. Or add your locale to a Delicious search and subscribe to the results. Tap into your local network on Facebook. Find and join a local business group on LinkedIn.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many ways to find information in addition to Google … and be sure that I’m not diminishing the importance of Google. For comprehensive search results covering news, blogs, Web sites, etc., Google remains the industry leader. But they’re not the only game in town, and like marketing itself is changing, so is the way we find information online.
Consider the marketing implications for your business. How many different ways can your market find you? Are you visible online today? What are you doing to ensure that you’ll be visible and viable a year from now?
Related Articles (Off-site):
Social Activity Becomes Significant Source of Website Traffic (My inspiration for this article)
It’s Time to Start Thinking of Twitter as a Search Engine
Why Twitter is My Personalized Search Engine
Future of Twitter
Using Delicious for Social Bookmarking
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