Can SMM beat SEO one day?

SEO vs. SMM

[getxb]

After spending some serious time on administering Facebook pages (with 80% job on understanding and planning and 20% on implementation), I can say Facebook is a HUGE ocean of opportunities and successes. Having said that one question comes to mind: I wonder can Facebook, Twitter, <all other social networking platforms> beat Google in terms of referrals? Might not be today but maybe tomorrow if we see one more Facebook like platform with that much no. of users?

[getxb]

@zehrila: After studying FB for a while I came up with this idea of auto posting of content. Also I have been using the services of ping.fm to broaden my reach. These are not substitutes of big G but can they be in the future is what we need to think of.

[dynamind]

social media marketing can be definitely a key to success, but otherwise there's a lot of time consumption for it. Google includes the social linkings for popularity measurements, and that's why a SEO should not forget about to use the possibilties you have with SEM. Here in the german language area we had a lot of rumors 2011 will be the year of social media marketing, let's see.

[noahqw]

I think this question is relative to the audience you're targeting. If you're targeting children they're more likely to see your website via to FaceBook than a Google search because they're on FaceBook more often. However, if you're targeting adults they're more likely to find your content via to the search engines.

[katherinecz]

I also agree with noahqw. I think FB is targeted rather young audience. However if you are looking for a professional audience, it might be worth it to try SEO.

Nevertheless, FB advertising is a great platform to get your name out there.

[CainIV]

One day they will merge, and ultimately be called something else entirely. You can already see the process of integration beginning on all fronts, what traditional SEO's referred to as the 'death of SEO' for what that was worth.

[cloudtap]

I'd say for B2B, use LinkedIn as a huge rolodex. For facebook, use it for B2C and getting users and customers to follow/fan you. For twitter, twitter isn't very important but it does drive a decent level of traffic - I'd much rather stick with advertising through the twitter advertising options out there