It is a fact, the recommendations of others influence us more than any other source of information when buying. Hence, the growing interest in brands be present in the social environment of consumers, which inevitably involves their performance on social networks.

The purchase process begins with a research phase, where searchers have a major role, while sharing their role in the social networking scene, who increasingly demonstrates its utility as a source of information. 48% of whom prefer to combine their social search with traditional search engines to get a more complete picture.

However, we cannot ignore the growing importance of social networks.78% of them rely more on the recommendations of its congeners in search results. Not surprisingly, it is the place where users share their shopping experiences, interests and express their opinions. Therefore, users expect brands to effectively develop their presence in the environment 2.0. The CTR of search results increases up to 94% when it comes to brands with significant presence in Social Media.

A fact that drives social search and led searchers to modify their relevance factors and how they present the search results; to the point that 5 of the 6 major SEO for Google factors are related to user activity on social networks.

As a result of social connection, 77% of companies claims to have won new customers through their activity on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg network is developing an important work that Open Graph is a useful tool for users, allowing show complete data on search terms, such as comments, pictures and shared publications through its platform. It is estimated that approximately one billion searches per day is already done through Facebook.

Moreover, the sites that have implemented the 1 button record up to 3.5 times more traffic from Google. A fact that also benefits its relevance in the search. Google already reflects the activity of your contacts within Google search results.

Although Google remains the giant of information, Bing and Yahoo do not think sit idly by, and work to improve the user experience, allying for it with social networks. Thus, Bing includes a section on “social outcomes”, which displays information from our contact Facebook about the search performed. A similar arrangement to that of Yahoo with Twitter, who shows up to 2 tweets related to the user’s request.

As we can see, our social activity is a reflection of our interests, so it is logical integration into the daily demand information. Social Search is a new reality, and poses new challenges for companies who want to earn a special place in the minds of consumers.