Google +1 Launches While Bing Turns Social – Are you ready?

Bing and Google have recently changed their search engine results page (SERP) and it may affect your website’s ranking – well, at least not at your office. You see, when Google +1 and Bing Social are in action, the search results become more personalized and display results based on the ‘likes’ or +1’s from their friends. Since everyone has a distinctive set of friends the results will be different for each of them – and that means you will never know the true ranking of your website. To put it simply, your website could be ranked #1 at the office, but not at home on the family computer. So what do you do about it? First, watch the following videos and then I have a few tips to help keep your website ‘socially’ ranked #1.

Introducing the +1 Button

The +1 button lets people recommend web content to their friends and contacts on Google search.

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Bing + Facebook = Social Search

Bing has connected with Facebook to make searching on Bing more social. Together, Bing and Facebook will offer a more personalized experience.

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Bing Social Search claims to make it easy to find the right place, e.g., coffee shop, heating and cooling specialist, pet hospital, gas station; based on the Likes of your Facebook friends.

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Here are a few tips to help your company get started…
  • Make it easy for visitors to like a page on your site. Add both the Like and +1 button to each page of the site. (FYI: The +1 button for your website isn’t available at the moment. To be notified when it will launch go to
  • Focus on blog content, video, and photographs that you think people will share.
  • Fun = Likeable. Adding a fun twist to blog articles, video, and photographs increases the chance of them being shared. I remember my dad putting Styrofoam at the bottom of an old silo. We would climb up the ladder and jump into it. So, if you’re company sells Styrofoam, show fun things that can be done after the Styrofoam is unpackaged from the container. Styrofoam lightsabers were another fun weapon of choice against my overlord sister. Lots of good memories with Styrofoam!
  • Educational = Likeable. Tutorials and self-help articles are popular. People like it when they can save money by doing it themselves. Even though you’re not making money when giving away information, it will show that you are a leader in your industry.
  • The 80-20 Rule – 80% social, 20% shameless self-promotion. Yeah, it’s a wonderful experience when your company wins an award – let the world know about it! With that said, bragging gets old very quick. Keep the shameless self-promotion to a minimum.
  • Keep working on your Facebook and Twitter campaigns. I might have to write another article (maybe a book) about this – there’s a lot to it!
Conclusion

So, is your company ready for the dawn of the new ‘social’ search engines? Are you considering adding the Facebook Like and Google +1 button to your website? But once it’s added, what do you do then? My last recommendation is to put your ‘analytical approach to everything’ down for a nap and wake up the fun child within you – be creative. Before you know it, your website will be ranked #1 at the office of your competitors; making them wonder if the 130+ people on their personal Facebook profile are faithful friends. Good luck! 🙂