Google Social Search in Legal Marketing

Jurriaan de Reu recently mentioned the implications of Google Social Search for SEO. The new Google feature will provide higher results based on the reviews and commentary of your friends on various social media platforms.

Essentially this is the same concept as the traditional word-of-mouth marketing, but conducted online instead. When someone mentions their experience with a specific product, brand or service (including lawyers) on a social media platform, their contacts will get those informal reviews at the top of their searches when looking for similar topics.

A video of how it works can be found here.

The feature will only work if you are logged into your Google Profile account, but as the company increasingly becomes the one-stop shop for everything, including e-mail, calendar, video, maps and more, that will almost become standard practice.

De Reu concludes,

The new Google feature will therefore not only have a great impact on SEO itself, but also on a company’s online reputation. Connections on social media platforms will be even more influential in the information we use to make decisions as whether to book a flight with airline A or B, or to trust our savings with bank C or D. Yet another reason to start listening what these contacts are saying online and built relationships that help to give them the best online customer experience you can offer.

Updates

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google might be getting into the social media game directly:

Google Inc. is taking a swipe at Facebook Inc. with a new feature that makes it easier and faster for users of Gmail to view media and status updates shared by their friends.

Google could announce the new Gmail feature as soon as this week, said people familiar with the matter. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.