Social vs Search. Do we have to choose?

Blogging is the theme this week. I guess because I’m seeing so much chatter lately on social search versus organic search.

While thinking through this, we must ask ourselves, what benefits me the most?

First of all, there’s no real reason to choose. Both techniques work, and both are doable. But of course, we need to set a priority.

I think, if you put the effort into running your own A/B testing on social content exposure versus organic search / SEO exposure, you may be surprised that your blogging and SEO efforts will be well worth top priority.

Try it out for a month. Give both a fair shake with target goals (such as increase in landing page traffic, obtain new subscribers, see more customers come through the door) as your “success” marker. Let me know what you find.

Here are few reasons why people blog:

• To share thoughts about a particular topic such as a product you’re interested in or an experience you had.
• To communicate your satisfaction or frustration with a product or company.
• To drive traffic to your other web properties. SEO!
• To earn money through advertising and sponsorships.
• To obtain linkbacks from other sites and blogs pointing to your blog. SEO!
• To add valuable content to your web presence.

One final thought on blogging: Remember how you used to write notes in class and maybe even wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper? Blogging can be used for the same process, except with a greater result — faster delivery to a larger audience.