Are you active with social media marketing? A recent announcement by Google and Microsoft now makes social media marketing all the more important to marketing in general, and specifically search engine marketing.

Google and Microsoft have both secured deals with Twitter, and Microsoft has also inked one with Facebook to include updates into Bing search results. For now, Google will be focusing solely on including tweets in their search results, but rumor has it they will be looking into Facebook soon.

This announcement bodes well for marketers who are active with these two social media venues, meaning more opportunity to be found in real-time searches.

Both Google and Microsoft are still working out just how these results will be included among their other conventional search results. Bing is working on a beta tool for people to try out, while Google has now gone live with the Google Social Search service.

Bing features a “Best Match” option, which prioritizes certain tweets over others. Bing has stated that credence will be given to Tweeters that have the most followers. Google Social Search, meanwhile, is designed to return traditional results along with updates and tweets that users’ friends and other contacts they follow on various social networks have posted.

Are you active with social media? If so, how are you using it, and has it been successful? If you haven’t tried your hand at Facebook or Twitter, will this recent announcement by Google and Microsoft change your mind? We want to know!

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Social Media Updates Now Part of Google and Bing Search Results