Social Media Integration in Google’s search results – what is it?

Everyone knows that you should not underestimate the role that social media plays in online marketing. Social media affects not only large and already established companies but small businesses that want to market their products better as well. We will go over 2 changes that Google has done in the past couple of months. 

Integration of links to social media site in Google's knowledge graph 

The first change is about the introduction of social media links for companies in the knowledge graph. This was first noticed earlier this year in the USA. As the screenshots on searchengineland.com clearly show, there is an integration of more social networks than just Google+. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, and other social networks are now available in the knowledge bar as well. 

Customers can now easily click on the respective social media networks of a company that they are searching for. It is also a great way for companies to better represent their company, its products, and to lure new customers to their social network pages.

Since this development was first rolled out in the USA, it remains to be seen when this social network integration will be deployed in other countries.

Tweets in the Google search results

Another change regarding social media that Google has made is a new cooperation with Twitter. According to some sources, Google has started displaying tweets in the search results as early as the end of 2009. This didn't last very long and Google's access to Twitter's database was closed off after about 2 years.

A new deal will make it possible for Twitter to get many new users directly from Google and to benefit from increased advertising revenue.

It is a win-win situation for Google as it now has the additional opportunity to provide its users with more up-to-date information. 

Some tests have shown that tweets are now displayed in the search results since earlier this week. It has been shown that the hashtag results link directly to Twitter and that Google shows the most popular tweets for each term with the hashtags.

Both of these new features can already be seen in Google's search results. The only question that remains is if Google will keep the display like it currently is with the tweets, or if it will revert to the older display results (with other search results mixed in).