Want An Expert? Head On Over To Bing Social
The hype surrounding the Yahoo-Bing search merger has calmed down considerably, replaced by all the fuss over Google Instant. Honestly, the same questions keep being written about and Twittered, hourly!
- How will Google Instant affect SEO?
- Is SEO Dead?
- Is Paid Advertising finished?
- Will Google Instant cook my dinner…?
Yes, it has all got rather silly. So it’s nice to have something else to talk about that enhances the internet user experience and doesn’t involve Google. Bing Social has launched a useful Twitter “expert” suggestion tool which doubles as a search engine marketing service, albeit a fairly random one. Bing social search now recommends authoritative people to follow on Twitter for any given term you search for. As per the diagram below, a column appears with people you can instantly follow.
Look closely and you will see a blue tab under each result that says “influential”, as in expert. You are also provided with a blue tick if the account is verified and the person really is who they say they are – useful if you are a celebrity follower.
This innovation is potentially massive promotion for those prepared to put the work in and become an established Twitter authority. Technically this is a free search engine marketing service that will add free traffic to your Twitter account. This is particularly useful for those operating in niches where experts are few and far between – more chance of being suggested more frequently. Yet in saturated sectors of industry it will take more than a few daily Tweets to be considered an authority. However, quite how Bing evaluates its choice of recommended Twitterers is unclear, so who knows, you might get lucky on more than one occasion.
