Below is live coverage of the Social Media Signals in Search panel from the SES San Francisco 2011 conference. This coverage is provided by Shanon Woodruff at RankSmart.

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Shanon Woodruff:

8:50:53 am

Social Media Signals in Search : SES San Fran 2011 Live Coverage The winds of change are blowing. Both Google and Bing are making rapid moves to integrate social elements into their search results. Bing has a strong deal in place with Facebook and is leveraging that as much as it can. Google has launched its +1 button for web sites and is likely to make more significant moves. The social sites themselves are making rapid changes. Facebook offers Like buttons, Send buttons and Share buttons. Twitter has now launched their Follow button. How are all these changes going to affect you as a publisher? This can’t miss session will give you insight into what is happening and how it affects your web site publishing strategy. Moderator: Richard Zwicky, Independent Consultant, Speakers: Eric Enge, President, Stone Temple Consulting Duane Forrester, Senior Program Manager, Bing

Shanon Woodruff:

8:54:55 am

First up: Eric Enge, President, Stone Temple Consulting He will be covering both the mechanics and a case study How ranking used to work: 24% Trust/Authority 22% Link Popularity of Page 20% InBound Anchor Text 15% Key Word Usage 7% Traffic / Click Through Data 6% Social Graph Metrics 5 % registration / Hosting What it might look like Now: 20% Trust / Authority of Domain 18% Trust / Authority of Page 16% Inbound Anchor Text 12% Engagement Signals 11% Key word usage 10% Content 9% Social 4% Registration

Shanon Woodruff:

8:59:50 am

Bing has a much heavier weighting in their search results. Bing will also change the ranking for you based on things that your friends have liked, confirmed by Stephan White of Bing. Location focused searches – Bing will leverage the Facebook feed Bing uses the wisdom of the crowd to show how many people in your network likes what content. For example, Search “New York Post” and it will show you how many of your friends have “Liked” articles on that site.

Shanon Woodruff:

9:05:14 am

Now on to Google: Searches are starting to become influenced by Facebook lines and Google plus ones. Anything that demonstrates interest in your site or content will be used in your ranking. Twitter Authority: -Number of relevant follower -CTR of links you share by relevant followers -Ration of followers to followed -RT by relevant followers -Age of account Koult.com is a great way to measure your influence

Shanon Woodruff:

9:11:35 am

Case Study: -Blog was semi-dormant -8 posts between Sept. 2010 – May 2011 -Hey, I was busy -Started back up in May 2011 -Wrote a great blog post -Was RTed by an influential user -Did not promote in any other way -Rank 4th in key search term for the article What is necessary for success in for social in search: -Good Content -Social Connection -Leverage Important Influencers

Shanon Woodruff:

9:23:10 am

Duane Forrester, Sr. Product Manager, Bing Socializing Search Why is search moving in the direction of social? What is missing in search? Emotion Search can be very technical, and really has not taken much emotion into consideration. But things are beginning to change. Why? Because people put more trust in those individuals that they know. For example: 90% of people seek advice from family and friends before making a decision 80% of people delay making a purchase online before talking to someone So what does this mean? Opinion Matters! The Case for Social: The increase in the creation of content Example: 25 Billion Tweets sent on Twitter in 2010

Shanon Woodruff:

9:24:53 am

He is now discussing the inter-connectivity of people through social media.

Shanon Woodruff:

9:27:28 am

But when we want to tap that info – We Use: Trusted Friends; Collective IQ; Enabling Conversation

Shanon Woodruff:

9:34:01 am

What’s the New Search Experience Mean for Publishers? People Share > Content gets processed > Public Information comes to Bing, real time > Content processing and indexing > Ranking Annotation > User Experience Reputation = More than Followers: Users’ Attributes: Friends, Followers, Follows Users’ Actions: Retweets, Replies, Others that share the some link, Likes You have to be organic! Social Spam? Reciprocal friending is no more beneficial than reciprocal linking Social Spam Behavior: Spammy communities are highly visible – don’t be a part of one

Shanon Woodruff:

9:40:41 am

Links help determine Quality – Tweets and Posts = Quality Links When optimizing your site for search, you invest in these major ares: -Quality -Trust -Popularity -Timeliness Manage your social media, or social media will manage you!

Shanon Woodruff:

9:43:07 am

Three major components in search: -Content -Social -Links Think about how to build better websites. Future-proof your website.

Shanon Woodruff:

10:06:03 am

Q&A: Q: Site has 10-13 different areas, can you talk about changing FB meta tags. A: What is the best answer to a query. You should focus on what is being queried, what are people looking for. Make it as easy as possible. Search engines focus on the speed to the answer. Q: Does size matter in follower size? A: No, you have to realize that social can bring people through the door. It is all abut becoming personally involved. In social media it’s quality over quantity. Build your trust base. Links, quality, targeting – become an authority.

Shanon Woodruff:

10:11:44 am

The End – Social Media Signals in Search : SES San Fran 2011 Live Coverage