Social media interaction – consultants and analysts throughout the marketplace continue to tout the importance of this activity for any company seeking to dominate their industry. Internet marketers argue that any company failing to put a robust social media strategy in place will find their search rankings will suffer. Just how much of a tie do you need between your social media interaction and your website to guarantee your top placement in search engine rankings?

The overall value of social media interaction to your website rankings is a hot topic right now and social media leaders like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are eating up the excitement as their subscriber lists grow and their overall market shares explode. While you would love to capture their brand value and transfer it to your own, let’s focus on how you can leverage your position in the social Web to gain the leadership you need.

Organic search rankings are what you want, as such positioning demonstrates the real power your site has on the Web. Any company with deep pockets can pay to ensure their website is the first to display for key words and specific phrases. When you drive organic rankings, however, you drive top search results by leveraging the power of search engine algorithms to gain optimal visibility in the crowded Internet space.    

These organic search rankings are not only driven by the keyword placement you have on your website and consistent updates in content; they are also driven by your social media interaction. The more tweets, retweets and Facebook postings that include your website and your keywords, the stronger your organic search engine results. Google, Bing and Yahoo have all designed their search engine ranking algorithms to include social media interaction.

In fact, Google’s Matt Cutts updated a video on YouTube in December of 2010 indicating that Google is using social media signals in its search engine results page. Not to be outdone, Bing followed with a similar message. Why does it matter? Why are search engines focused on the social media platform?

The answer is simple – this is where consumers are interacting. Those people who buy your products and services are going to their social media networks to gain information about companies and products, share information about experiences and to learn more about what you have to offer. If you aren’t providing this information on these channels, you can bet your competitors are and claiming some of your loyal customers as their own.

What exactly are social media signals? These signals are anything that a subscriber or a user interacts with on any social media platform. A “tweet this” or “like” button, the posting of a link to a site on a Facebook page, YouTube video or any other social media platform are all considered to be social media signals. To be clear – this isn’t link building. This is simple interacting on high traffic social media platforms to drive more attention to your website. Search engines not only recognize the activity as important for your site, this activity also legitimizes your site on the Web.

If you haven’t made social interaction a priority in your marketing strategy, now is the time to get started. Build company pages on social media platforms and when you post, use keywords to link back to your website or blog posts. You can also network with other companies to share content, and attract influencers who can grow your presence through their network and interactions. Make it a priority to interact with people and share content to drive your social media interactions high enough to generate the organic search rankings you need to dominate your space.