It is common knowledge that social networks can be utilized for link-building purposes. However, link building is only one of many ways that Social Media Marketing and Search can fuel one another, and here’s how you can do it:

Keyword Data

Social media can provide a rich secondary source of keyword information. The language used on social networks is very conversational, and studying it is particularly helpful for finding fresh, emerging keywords and naturally formed key phrases that might otherwise have remained hidden using conventional keyword research techniques.

Optimization and Testing

Writing meta descriptions can be challenging, and often we do not have an opportunity to test their effect on CTR (click-through rate) beforehand. Fortunately, organic social media posts are free and are a viable testing alternative. For example, Meta descriptions tend to truncate around 155 characters, and tweets have a limit of 140 characters. You can send a tweet with meta description copy, trying different variations and checking engagement metrics via Twitter Analytics. The more engagement you get for a variation, the better the copy is for a meta description.

Alternatively, you could do the same thing with Facebook, and gauge the engagement the different post variations accrue.

Helps Content Ideation

Social media, especially discussion-based networks, provides an excellent resource for new content ideas. You can either test yours among a sample target group or get inspired by the ones which the target audience are passionately talking about.

Use The Facebook Search Graph

Introduced in January of 2013, Facebook Search Graph has become increasingly more robust, and its features provide a wealth of useful information for search marketers.

In With Search, Out With Facebook Ads Retargeting

Driving traffic and awareness through both organic and paid search, then remarketing to users on Facebook using a Custom Audience pixel proves to be a successful marketing move.

Google Trends: Real Time For Social Sharing

With recent changes to Google Trends that allow us to see hourly activity, we now have a clear way for search data to inform our social media marketing.

Final Thoughts

There are many ways social media activity and analytics can inform your SEO and PPC efforts. Think about your own internet usage patterns: you’ll likely see that most of your time is spent either searching for something or using social networks.
It's time we stop treating search and social as separate marketing channels and start investigating ways they can work together for smarter, more unified marketing.