The final blog post will reflect on what I have learnt about digital communications, the topics that have been covered and what I have found the most interesting subject. Throughout the reflection will be looking at second-screen viewing experiences and SEO within the social media platform, which all relate to CONTENT MARKETING which can be defined by CMI (2013) as;
“A marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action”
As this blog, and in fact this unit, has illustrated, digital is becoming more and more influential within the social media platform, especially the social search (SEO).
Social search is a serious topic of discussion. Graph Search and growing numbers on Google+ are leading us to a social search (Green 2013). I feel people are using social searches is due to their ever-growing and changing networks which can be shared with peers.
The SEO world, and search in general, has moved away from link building as a stand-alone practice, and many online marketers see the future in Page Likes, Retweets, +1s, pins and Channel subscriptions. (Brafton Editorial 2013). Search engines reward sites for creating great user experiences through content marketing and inutuitive user designs.
It is clear to see that search engines are thinking about how the social platform can play a role in SEO. They are looking to achieve an algorithm for authority (Lucey 2013). Google has shown that it dominates SEO through encouraging content and strong keywords into natural search. However, Social media and search are blending together, which is why there’s even more reliance on authority. (Lucey 2013). As mentioned above, I believe that social searches will become more dominant in the future due to the content and endless amount of users.
Facebook is tormenting google through their previous launch of graph search, which was mentioned in a previous blog. As previously mentioned, Facebook has 1 billion users worth of data which is an advantage over Google. The newly innovative search engine allows for more personalised searches. Personalisation is another topic that has been covered, which i found has been very interesting due to rivalry of personalisation between Facebook and Google. Like Facebook, Google offered Google Plus Your World, which will personalise search results according to Google+ data (Lucey 2013).
Search Engines vs. Social Networks – During my previous blog post about personalisation and content marketing, the SEO that LinkedIn have launched was not launched, showing the ever-changing digital landscape. They have recently taken steps to revamp its own original search engine “to keep users from straying to external search engines” (Lucey 2013). I can predict that this rivalry will continue and the “social search” will over-power external search engines. However, the digital world is so extreme and vast that predictions are difficult to make. As we peer into the future of SEO and social, I tend to wonder one thing. More articles are referred by social media which is a worry for search engines. However, it will depends whether social media networks will work with or against search engines.
Relating back to the previous ‘content marketing’ blog, content matters more than ever. I see the word popping up on the internet, on social media and in general adverts, proving that it is the “solid rock in the changing tides of search, mobile and social media” (Ferguson 2013). As mentioned previously, it is what builds your brand, becoming the core of and SEO and social media strategy.
Another topic that I found very interesting, and wish I had covered more is THE SECOND SCREEN. According to Moses (2013) “the more screens you have, the more likely you are to engage in media multi-tasking. However, I believe that advertisers must work harder to attract peoples attention as they move from one screen to another. On the other hand, Moses (2013) defended this by stating “second-screen apps that compliment the TV viewing experience can heighten people’s response to the advertising.” It is interesting to see that Shazam is looking to launch interactive cinema ads. It is used as a second-screen for cinemas to target cinemagoers with branded content. I find it fascinating how this leads back to content, which emphasises its importance in the world of digital communication at present. There have been trials of the service what have seen a 56% ad recall and 10:1 ad like ability compared to ads on TV.
Above this, it is interesting to see that Shazam is looking to take a share of the growing social viewing market as brands invest more in creating second-screen viewing experiences (Marketing Week 2013).
At the end of the day, this blog all reflects back to CONTENT
Even though second-screen viewing is a talked about subject, as one of my first blogs reflects, it is not commonly used by consumers. The statistics about the second-screen as highly interesting. Somewhere between 75% and 85% of TV viewers use other devices while watching (The Guardian 2012). What must be considered, is how many of those people are using the second-screen to do something relevant to the show they are watching. As little as 37% according to The Guardian (2012). These figures highlight that the second-screen needs to be advertised strongly in order to get people to relate their second-screen to the original screen.
Therefore, it is important that a marketing strategy focuses on the content with the social platform looking more into SEO as said earlier, I predict they will be dominant over search engines.
Overall my digital experience and knowledge has been significantly enhanced and it has enabled me to develop and enhance my skills. However, if I was to repeat the blog again I would ensure I use an alternative provider such as blogger.com as it was more interactive with more view opportunities. I am pleasantly surprised how interested I have become in this subject which has had an impact on how much I look into the social platform.
Digital Media & Communications 
