In the future, the line between search and
social media will be blurred. Recently, Google took a
big step in that direction. Now when signed into your Google account, the result of searches will be modified somewhat to match whatever your friend’s have published. The effect is limited somewhat. Even though it can use online communities such as Twitter (social media), Buzz (social media), YouTube (videos), and Flickr (photos), the service will be missing the muscle of Facebook.
Inevitably, Facebook will be tempted to take a bigger role in search, as Google’s slowly invades social media. Even with this interesting innovation, I don’t expect any time soon an exodus from Facebook. However, people will like that their social network is considered with their search.
This reinforces the importance of social media. The performance of your website and your social media pages will only become more intertwined. You cannot opt out of one without hurting the other. While Google and Facebook fight it out, it’s best that a restaurant have a presence in both domains, coordinating them in an effective online marketing strategy.
