Contrary to some people’s beliefs, Arnel Leyva of Covario says that search and social media actually have a lot in common. On a certain level, many people think the two would not mix well. For example, when you think about SEO, Leyva says you often think of wizards looking for their secret potion to increase their Page Rank. On the other hand, when you think about social media, he says you think about chatty people who are always linking to everyone.

Despite these differing examples, search and social media are both scattered across several departments within organizations. In addition, they both provide value.

In terms of integrating search and social, Leyva suggests a “digital center of excellence” that takes people from each department within a business and creates a counsel. This counsel should receive strategic guidance from upper management and develop a framework that manages SEO and social media.

He also adds that the counsel should find ways to measure performance. At this point, PPC can be integrated as well, since paid search is really where search became measurable and PPC experts understand the need for metrics.

Leyva says this model should be implemented on a local level but emphasizes the need for guidance from a higher, strategic level.