Back in the day where all the information and news were all still published in these things called “paper”, there was a lot of competition between all those little news and publishing companies.
Now, all these information and news, though we’re all not too aware of it, is being fought over by only 2 parts of the internet. Social media and Google. Who’s winning?
Technically speaking, these two have the most amount of people in them at all times. And that actually increases as time goes by. Most especially that today’s whole mobile industry keeps improving more and more in a really scary type of way. Most of these devices can already predict and record your behaviour and preferences. We all shouldn’t be too surprised when the time comes one day that technology suddenly wakes up and takes over.
Coming back to our main story before we all have an anxiety meltdown because of the imminent rise of technology, Google, most especially for us who are more acquainted with it know that it has amassed so much traffic and information. It has for years (even before all those different social media sites were born) indexed a lot of sources of information. You could say that it can be called as the grand daddy of all of the data we see on the internet. Like Kenny Rogers in the Matrix.
That’s him right?
It’s so good that we SEO’s even got to build careers out of it by developing all those things that can optimise the websites indexed on it. Or even get to index those websites. Google has covered a lot of ground. Like developing Google Adwords, Google My Business and a few other tools that can help website owners to take care of their sites. Google Search Console and even that Google Markup helper tool.
These can then help a user, like for example, website owners and us search engine optimising professionals, to easier take care of all the aspects of the websites we’re trying to rank and show off to our potential clients. These different things, helps the information we’re offering to be seen better (or better yet, be advertised) on Google.
While all that is all cool and already running like a powerful empire, a younger new challenger comes barrelling down.
Social media has not been around that long, but thanks to its more hip and cool type of vibe, all the kids that were just forming bands and wanting to interact without having to actually face people in real life, this thing grew so quickly through the years.
Let’s take for example Facebook.
One of the most noticeable things that went barrelling down on us back in 2004. Honestly, if we had a time machine, we’d all also go back in time and come up with this idea. Zuckerberg, you lucky dude. Much like Google, Facebook is also starting to utilise paid ads. Even having a sort of algorithm of its own. Much like Google.
The thing here is, people usually end up going to Facebook first. Let’s face it. Everybody is in it now. Well, almost. But most of us are logged in to this 24/7. The amount of traffic that can be found here is astounding that it makes you envious of Mark.
Another Social media that always has traffic, is Instagram.
After being bought by Facebook, it started to have a sort of similarity to the latter. That little thing called IG stories and Facebook stories makes these two social media channels more appealing and more enjoyable to use for everyone therefore making them stay there more.
Let’s not forget Twitter.
One thing that makes this a unique channel for being social is that it has that “real time” element on it. If you’re following a band or updates and news about your favourite company, twitter is the best place to go. Except of course if that company doesn’t utilise social media.
All this though, even though social media is starting to have a little bit of that Google flavour going on still has a long way to go to actually beat Google. On the other hand, knowing all of these, it is a clear sign that utilising both Google and Social media can work to your advantage. You can sell on Google, and announce it to all your potential buyers on social media. The perfect mix.