Perhaps due to the growing influence of social shares on search rankings, local SEOs are increasingly seeing social media as an effective marketing channel for local businesses, according to results from a BrightLocal industry survey. More than 8 in 10 respondents believe that social either works well for certain business types (57%) or that it is very powerful (25%), up from 76% last year, while fewer than 1 in 10 are of the opinion that it’s over-hyped. When it comes to generating leads customers for clients, though, SEOs are biased towards search, with 82% saying that “general search” is one of their top-3 most effective online channels.
Behind general search was local search, a top-3 tool for 62% of respondents. Social media came in fourth, at 26% of respondents, behind PPC (53%), but ahead of local directories, mobile, video marketing, classified websites, display ads, and deals/daily deals. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.