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The Intersection of Search & Social Media: When, Why & How

Presented by Erica Melchior, Social Media Community Manager, Boston Scientific

@EricaMelchior

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About Boston Scientific

• A leading global developer and manufacturer of medical devices for a broad range of medical specialties

• Rhythm Management division makes devices implanted by a niche group of cardiologists known as electrophysiologists

• Very highly-regulated industry

Headquarters: Marlborough, MA– Rhythm Management division: St. Paul, MN

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Let’s take a poll…

5.5 billion daily searches

Which social network has the highest in-platform daily search volume?

A. PinterestB. TwitterC. FacebookD. YouTube

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Let’s take a poll…

5.5 billion daily searches

Which social network has the highest in-platform daily search volume?

A. PinterestB. TwitterC. FacebookD. YouTube

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In-platform social searches by the numbers

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500,000,000

1,000,000,000

1,500,000,000

2,000,000,000

2,500,000,000Daily in-platform search volume

Daily search volume

…or, approximately 4,598,563,000 daily in-social network searches

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Example: Trader Joe’s vs. Whole Foods

Trader Joe’s is not on social mediaWhole Foods is on social media

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What should we do with this information?

Form strong partnerships between digital and social teams to positively impact SEO objectives & brand awareness. We’ll cover:

How social media keyword research differs from conventional keyword research &

how it ties into SEO

How optimizing keyword integration into social media content can affect Google

SERPs and web traffic

How paying particular attention to YouTube video optimization and overall YouTube strategy can positively impact

search objectives

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Why social media keyword research?

Differences in topic between search & social networks

• Most popular queries in Google are not the most popular queries in YouTube or Twitter

Differences in topic across social

networks

• Similarly, trending topics and topics of conversation differ between Facebook and Twitter

Intent of search vs. social

• Searchers on Google are looking for an answer. Searches on social media are looking for engagement or a reply.

“best places to go on vacation in the

winter”vs.

“Where should my husband and I vacation this December?”

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How to do social media keyword research

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How to use social media keyword research

Uncover the most relevant searches or topics to apply to your community:

Keep tabs on trending topics on Twitter, Facebook & other networks• Determine how frequently a particular topic, query or trend comes up

Monitor commentary and topics for product or service development intel

Investigate keyword variations• Are the keywords driving to your website from search the same ones driving to your

website from social? Do they differ across social channels?

Find opportunities to engage

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Oreo’s for the #win

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Wendy’s #roastqueen

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#Netflixandchill

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How to optimize social content for search

Keywords Images/videos (should be named appropriately)

URLsHashtags,

tags & mentions

Each tweet is treated as a web page by

Google

Not every tweet is

indexed…so Google uses its algorithm

Be on social media not for

search rankings but to build up your brand and drive qualified

traffic.

The better optimized +

engaged your content, the more

likely to be shared, the

higher probability of increased web

traffic

~7.4% are

indexed

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Conquering YouTube

Positively impact search objectives with YouTube

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How-to: YouTube optimization

Optimize videos for Google AND YouTube search:

1. Start with keyword research. Find video keywords that have YouTube results on the first page of Google.– How-to’s– Reviews – Tutorials – Fitness/humor

Searched for “how to make ice cream”

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How-to: YouTube optimization

3. Confirm the keyword gets a decent amount of searches per month using the Keyword Planner.

4. Select video—make it a good one!– User engagement is the most important ranking signal in YouTube

5. Upload the video with optimization in mind

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Video optimization methodsFile name:

how_to_make_ice_cream_video.mp

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Title:Homemade Ice

Cream in 5 Minutes

Description:Love homemade ice cream but hate the fuss? This easy hack gives you DIY ice cream in just a matter of

minutes. You'll be eating homemade ice cream all summer as no ice cream maker is needed. 

Tags:

Captions

Thumbnail:

Custom transcription

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Important YouTube metrics

Average video view duration (the longer, the better)

Comments

Channel subscriptions after video view

Shares

Favorites

Thumbs up/down

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Questions?

Thank you!