Most companies are already clear on their strategy- they urgently need to be present and active in the world of Social Media. Companies now look at social media as a key aspect of marketing for their overall business strategies.  About 9 in 10 companies in the U.S. plan to market on social networks this year, according to eMarketer, indicating that the channel has become almost a necessity for most brands.

New research published about digital marketing trends shows that social media engagement and social search are rated as the top priorities for brands, and both will offer most exciting opportunity for companies in the long run.

The State of Search Marketing Report 2012, produced by Econsultancy in association with SEMPO, indicates a huge appetite for social media programs, and how enterprises are using search engine optimization, paid search and social media marketing.

Social media engagement

Research from this report found that along with content optimization, social media engagement is rated as the top priority for digital marketers for digital marketing-related activities and disciplines.

The report surveyed to 900 respondents from both client-side advertisers and agencies in May and June of 2012 stated that 58 percent of agencies integrate social media marketing (SMM) as part of their search activity, while 33 percent of companies are doing the same.

Nearly 35 percent of agencies treat social media and search engine marketing (SEM) separately compared to 60 percent of companies.

Social search is integral to business

While the majority of respondents see social media as a key business strategy, there are still plenty of respondents, mostly agencies, that report a huge impact for SMM on SEM. Twenty percent of agencies report that the rise of social media marketing has had a huge impact on their search engine marketing, compared to 19 percent in 2011 and 18 percent in 2010.

By comparison, nearly 14 percent of companies share the same opinion, compared to 11 percent in 2011 and 10 percent in 2010.

The importance of social media marketing goes even further — some 59 percent of agencies report a moderate impact of SMM on SEM, compared to one half (47 percent) of companies.

In-house SEO: preferred communication

The majority of companies (56 percent) preferred in house search engine optimization (SEO) for social media marketing, up from 44% last year.  Next in their lists were SEO specialist (17 percent), search agency (8 percent), and paid search specialist (5 percent), followed by web design companies, digital marketing agencies, PR firms, ad agencies, and social media agencies.

Respondents were more likely to say they were using internal social media marketing as a channel to manage their own SEO and paid search. They are also more inclined to in-house developed tools to tackle paid search. More than 52 percent of companies are using in-house search tools, and 18 percent are using paid search specialists, followed by search agencies (11 percent), and digital marketing agencies (7 percent).

ShareThis – Leading syndicated ad focus entity

In the latest Media Metrix data report, comScore ranked ShareThis as the top syndicated ad focus entity in August with a reach of 191.6 million unique visitors (87 percent of Americans online). Google remained in second place with 81.6 percent reach, followed by Yahoo! (74.3 percent), Outbrain (72 percent), and Facebook (69.2 percent).

Google Sites was the leader when it comes to web property in August with 187 million unique visitors, while Microsoft occupied the second spot with 170 million unique visitors, Yahoo! with 163.7 million and Facebook with 152.4 million. Facebook, however, has the market accounting for 85 percent of all social mobile traffic, as per a report from eMarkter.

The massive shift in social media, cloud and mobility will force companies to quickly move to new social and mobile marketing policies to take full advantage of social influence on search traffic.  Advertising remains a clear business model for the major social networks out there, especially as social media becomes increasingly integrated with search functions across the board.