Are there any proven SEO benefits of presence and popularity on Facebook, just as there is supposedly benefit from Google+?

[ontarget-media]

How much does visibility on Facebook (or for that matter, Twitter) impact search engine results? I did see a post recently on SEOMoz recently related to that--- but do others have similar experience/ have data to show strong correlation between FB shares/ Likes and search engine results (on Google)?

The second, FB-related question is: what are your thoughts on the effectiveness of Facebook for a B2B audience, particularly in a rather niche sector - let's say industrial products?

Look forward to your views and answers!

Thanks.

[ontarget-media]

Thanks for your answer, Joel. I think the order of priority you've suggested for B2B marketing through social media seems very logical.

If there is anything more definitive/tangible about the influence of social sharing/ interaction on organic search results that you could point me to, it would be very valuable. It always helps to show some clients hard data/ case studies!

Thanks again.

[bronxpad]

In my opinion Facebook and twitter are extremely important for various reasons.

• Google does gauge social interaction
• Bing and Yahoo also gauge your social media efforts and now Bing even has a side bar for social on there search pages. Note it is believed the other search engines favor Twitter and Facebook.
• Yes, Google + is preferred by google but depending on your market, it might be hard to be effective.

To answer your question about B2B, I would suggest Linkedin 1st, Google+ 2nd, Facebook 3rd and then Twitter.

Remember Facebook is still a casual network. Linkedin is more professional, Google+ is in the middle and Twitter is a micro blogging social network.

I hope this helps and good luck.