The tried and true, traditional 80/20 rule has accurately described almost every aspect of our lives – business and personal. We have come to rely on its consistency when calculating our predictions. And, for most areas, we can continue to trust it. But, in regards to Social Media, the 80/20 rule needs to be adjusted to ensure the success of your business in today’s market.

So we all know that Microsoft is really pushing their new search engine "Bing."

Microsoft's advertisement spending is insane as they try to catch with Google.

Now, Microsoft extends past web and TV media into the radio.  They're targeting niche radio listeners.

Bing was on my local Christian radio station of all things.  Who would have thought they'd be there.

Comscore just realeased it's numbers for April and May in search share.  While Google still has a major lead, the points are starting to slip.

Here's the graph acquired from MarketingCharts.com.

As a disclaimer, while I, myself, engage heavily in social media marketing, I must confess that there are social marketers out there who are better than I - all they do is social marketing.  My expertise is search engine optimization in which I've had tremendous success for my clients.  I'm constantly attempting to show my clients the benefits of social media marketing and how it can improve search engine optimization for elevating organic page ranking.  The following is an attempt to show a few points why social marketing is beneficial for SEO.

7. Peer Grading
Through utilizing social bookmarking platforms such as Digg, Mixx, De.licio.us or Reddit by posting your web site's content, you give others the opportunity to grade the quality of your site.  Low approval status may be a good indication that you should tweak your web site's layout or copy.

6. Peer Contribution
Peer contribution is truly one of the biggest benefits of social media by allowing visitors to connect with you and add their own "2 cents" to your content through mediums such as blogs and forums. Blogs and forums facilitate exponential growth to your content with each contribution, thus increasing your site's potential relevance. (I say "potential" because not every contribution is quality.)

5. References
The better the quality of your web site's content, the more people will reference your site on other sites.  Visitors will also reference your site's URL through mediums like Facebook and Twitter. All of this will create backlinks to your web site.  Many of these backlinks have greater page ranking and when they link to your site, your site's organics naturally increase.

4. Traffic Sources
Perhaps similar to references of reason 5, but utilizing the same social bookmarking platforms mentioned in reason 8.  Both of these not only provide quality backlinks, but increase opportunities for incoming traffic.  Also, most corporate web sites will be indexed by search engines once a month.  However, many social bookmarking sites are indexed every 30 minutes.  Its a great way to get your new content out there fast.  Futhermore, if you utilize tools like Google Analytics that track visitor metrics, the more unique visits you receive (along with a few other factors) the more your page will seem relevant to search engines.  And all search engines try to deliver the most relvant results (look at reason 2 for more information).

3. Brand Visibility
Increase your brand's popularity and familiarity by increasing its visibility.  Using social media can rapidly grow your brand's reach.

2. Page Relevance
I always tell an SEO client to "think on the other side of the table."  In other words, think about what your potential visitor would be searching for.  This might not always be the "terms of the trade." As you engage in social media, you'll see what jargon visitors and clients are using to describe your products and services.  In many cases you're not going to want to use your terminology, because the only time you may appear at the top of organics is when your competitors are searching for those same terms. The terms that visitors and clients are using might be good keywords for you to use to target them and other clients in your search engine optimization.

1. Relate-ability
Implementing all of the previous reasons create one thing - an inviting environment that: 1) helps you relate better with your clients; and 2) helps your clients relate better with each other.  One reason why users love social media is the fact that, well, it's social.  People like being able to connect and relate through the brands they're using.  Research shows that brands no longer makes the person, but, rather, the person makes the brand.  In other words, your clients define who you are.

Prior to search engine optimization, Ramon's Resort was receiving 1,000 - 2,000 hits per month.  Because their organic placement was nonexistent, all traffic was being generated by print marketing.

After 4 months of SEO, Ramon's Resort was receiving 9,000 - 12,000 hits per month with 30 of their 60 keyphrases on the top two pages of major search engines.

Ramon's web site currently only has 7 pages.  Just goes to show you, you don't have to have a large site to have great success with SEO.

Statistics show that over the past few years "blogging" (web logging) has increased exponentially in popularity. People today will blog about almost anything you can think of (and a lot that you can't think of).

While some choose to blog for personal expression, others choose to blog for reasons pertaining to business. Perhaps, it's to keep clients informed of corporate offerings. Or, maybe, it's because you've heard that a blog can increase your influence with your readers and elevate your web site's performance in search rankings.