Agree or Disagree? Search is for sales, Social is for engagement

Agree or Disagree? Search is for sales, Social is for engagement

Mike Blumenthal has an interesting theory on the difference between search and social. In his words…

Online marketing has two goals: engage and convert. The social side of the Internet encourages engagement, the search side focuses more on user intent and ultimately conversion of that intent into a sale.

Now, I have no idea when Mike made that statement, but to me it seems outdated and perhaps a little short-sighted. I’m not so much disagreeing with the search side of the equation–try as Google might, search is hardly “engaging”–but does the social side really have little to do with conversions?

If someone sees a Tweet offering a great deal, does that not convert? A well written blog post can’t persuade someone to become a customer? Fortunately, Mike does show areas on his chart where the lines are blurred, but I’d love to get your thoughts.

Do you social for show, and search for dough? (ref)

Search & Social Infographic

ByAndy Beal

Andy Beal is The Original Online Reputation Expert™. A bestselling author of two critically-acclaimed reputation management books, a keynote speaker at dozens of events, and brand consultant experience with thousands of individuals and companies.

    1 Comment for “Agree or Disagree? Search is for sales, Social is for engagement”
    1. Hi Andy!

      You got an interesting topic here. After reading this post and looking at this inforgraphic you have presented here, I would say that I agree when we say that search is for sales and social is for engagement. I will also be sharing this to my friends to also get their opinion about this. Looking forward for another interesting post of yours.

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