Earned Media Optimization: The Integration of SEO and Social Media 

Prepare Your Marketing Plan for the Merge of SEO and Social Media

Over the last year, much has been written about the growing integration of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. Interest has spiked in recent months after Google and Bing publically verified that their organic search algorithms consider social content a ranking signal. In addition, the focus on social search has intensified as Twitter and Facebook have taken steps to improve their search capabilities. As competition increases, the responsibility falls on search engines to improve the quality and relevance of their search results. Thus, SEO best practices have been radically altered.

In this paper, we explore:

• How social media impacts organic search 
• How marketers can manage the two holistically
• New strategies and best practices for building and engaging a social community 
• How the integration of social media and search impacts search behavior