BI Revolution

Bing's Social Signals
Fascinating look "behind the curtain" of search. We know web search is one of the most complex algorithms on the planet. Bing's Stefan Weitz shares reasons for why Bing is doing what it doing. 

My favorite is how skeptical Bing is of LIKES:

The notion of a Like is still a little bit perplexing from a ranking perspective. What does a Like mean for a page? Does the user like the design, the content, or maybe just the picture? Bing tends not to just use a pure Like signal to do ranking.
- Bing's Stefan Weitz

There is all kinds of important SEO information in that one bullet. Weitz is admitting to a need to include LIKES as a signal, but unwilling to grant LIKES any singular control over rankings. LIKES play a role in the tapestry of signals Bing is using to rank not a controlling role. 

Another fascinating comment:

It’s an uncharted territory as far as what are the best types of queries for social search. It may be that in social search every query should have a person as an answer. Even something like, “what’s the height of Mount Everest,” a very definitive, objective query should have human results.
- Bing's Stefan Weitz

You can SEE how Weitz and Bing are moving the social panel more toward the "human" result by searching Mt. Everest on Google and then on Bing. Bing is more about the people especially in their social panel. Google is more about the mountain. 

Content Marketing Implications
The full content marketing implications are too vast for this Scoop, but here are a few off the top of my head:

* Content marketing must be mashed into social to succeed. 
* Evergreen content must continue to generate social signals.

* Content reach is controlled by social signals.

* Advocates who consistently support your content are VIPs.

* Content life is controlled by social signals.

* UGC is BEYOND important. 

I promise a full blog post soon to expand implications of social search on content marketing, but let's quickly discuss the last bullet. User Generated Content (UGC) is also a bridge to social shares. What do most people who leave comments do after posting? They share the link; so much of your content marketing is in the hands of the 1%. 

The 1:10:89 Rules says 1% of visitors will comment and actively consume (share, or tumble) your content, 10% will vote on content created by you and the 1%ers and 89% ride for free. Another way of saying this is the most important people on planet earth are the 1%ers willing to advocate, share and re-post your content. 

Even those yelling and screaming at your company, brand or product have tremendous value. One has to wonder, given the strategic value of this 1%er brand advocates, why more companies don't value, court and appreciate them? Strange.