Remember those classes in school where your grades were dependant on “class participation”?

If you were a shy student, this may have been a painful request, yet necessary in order to get a passing grade.

Those days have returned, at least when it comes to the success of your internet marketing campaign.

It’s accepted knowledge that where your site displays in Google’s search results can heavily impact your business.

As of this week, Internet marketing consultants now have firm evidence to support the long suspected importance of social media engagement in where your site ranks in Google search results.

As a compliment to and probable promotional strategy to their own social marketing system Google +, Google Analytics received a major overhaul, and is now tracking the Social Engagement of your website.

Not just for tracking Google +, the website performance tracking tool also tracks and reports on Facebook Comments, Likes, Twitter Tweets and more.

Notorious for keeping the exact formula for how your site ranks top secret, you can bet that if Google thinks it’s important enough to track, that it’s factored into their ranking algorithm somehow.

On-page social media engagement can be seen across the web especially on blog sites, where options to comment on, and share the article across social media platforms are available.

It’s already known that the popularity of your site is a factor in search engine ranking, so this latest development is a logical extension of that rationale.

That the popularity of various pages on your website, as determined by social media, are now for certain, a huge factor as to whether your site is on page one, or page 50 of Google’s search results.

Social media marketing has been received with skepticism by some Calgary businesses, as they struggle to understand the benefits of social media marketing in their internet marketing campaigns.

The bottom line is this. It’s no longer a question of whether social media marketing can impact your business in a positive way. It’s a fact that refusal to participate in social media, will result in your site receiving a failing grade.

At the very minimum, In order to gain or maintain any sort of ranking in Google, you need to enable your site’s visitors to engage via social media by installing a social media plugin like the one shown above.

What’s recommended however, is that small business owners take this very strong hint and create their social media presence.

In this internet marketer’s opinion, it’s already a dent in your credibility if you don’t have account with the big 5: A Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and You Tube.

People spend their time on social media websites. It’s much more effective to have a presence where your future customers are, and it’s a great place to promote your website and your products and services

If you have any questions about Internet Marketing strategies, Social Media Marketing, Google Analytics or Website / Search Engine Optimization- leave your comments below.

If you like this article, please share and I’d love to hear your stories or comments below.