SEO and Google have been synonymous – while most SEO tactics and approaches are search engine agnostic, they often get tied to Google SEO ranking. It’s fairly obvious why this is the case – Google is the most popular search engine with 67.3 percent of market share according to comScore. Google also addresses (and condemns) SEO efforts more frequently than other engines. But SEO isn’t just for Google, and really isn’t just for search engines, either. Every social media network has some type of search functionality. As social media usage has risen, so has the volume of searches on these networks (YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google and Twitter receives 2.1 billion queries per day).

Consider how SEO principles can be used to impact ranking directly on the various social media channels. They may not be as clear and researched as Google ranking factors, and may not be as easy to impact (Facebook has stated that their News Feed has 100,000 ranking factors. That makes Google SEO a piece of cake by comparison!), but there are still plenty of opportunities for increasing visibility of your brand and content within the social media channels themselves.

As the search engines become more sophisticated at interpreting search intent, delivering relevant results, and fighting organic spam, the Google SEO tactics of yesterday no longer cut it. To understand what is popular, relevant, and credible, the search engines are turning to social media. And so too must brands. These seven approaches are just a small glimpse into what the future holds for the integration of social media and SEO.