Has Social Media Made Search-Driven Publishing Less Relevant?

adweek reporting: The growing importance of social media, coupled with the powerful wrath of Google, have shaken the once-hot world of cheap search-driven publishing...
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However, it's important to keep the shift away from a search-centric Web to a social one in perspective. A new report from Citigroup Investment Research's managing director Mark Mahaney found that in 2010 and 2011, Google delivered 17 percent of all the traffic to the top 30 Websites. By this year that number was down to 16 percent. "That’s slippage, but at a glacial pace," wrote Mahaney.
Agencies have never been as hung up on the way companies like Demand produced content, i.e. using lots of low paid freelancers. But they haven't necessarily viewed their sites as premium either -- Demand's selling point seemed to be it low ad rates. Molly Sugarman, Horizon Media’s director of digital media innovation, said her team rarely works with Demand since it’s seen as an outlet for direct-response brands—not where a so-called premium publisher wants to be.
Sugarman praised Demand for partnering with the likes of Tyra Banks on more ad-friendly sites such as typeF.com. “I was surprised the founders left, just when Demand was headed down the right path,” she said. “Everyone has realized it’s more about quality.”
And content that lends itself to sharing is seen as an indication of quaity among many advertisers, said Sugarman. But given that perception among brands, one wonders whether publishers might look to game Facebook, producing content built for sharing just as others has produced content with Google's algorithm very much in mind.
In fact, according to Grady, publishers like WetPaint have gotten producing social-friendly content to a near science. For example, his team monitors how fans react to specific characters and storylines in a show like ABC's "The Bachelor" -- even what time of day fans are most likely to respond to artciles -- and looks to maximize sharing using that ammunition.
"I don't see that as gaming anything," said Grady. "That's  about smart strategy and developing an expertise.
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/has-social-media-made-search-driven-publishing-less-relevant-138003