Deleted my FB a few years back. No change, or at least no MARKED change that I can see.

HOWEVER, I have a slew of fb requests every month simply because some FB users like my site. In that regard I also see no MARKED change.

Whether it does or not is irrelevant. The real question should be is "does social media have anything to offer my website/service"?.

Absolutely correct Kendo ... So I'll put it another way.

Out of the, what are there, 300+ ranking signals that G supposedly uses, how much value does G give towards company social sites that are regularly updated?

0,1,2,3, anything? How they calculate the scores I have no idea!

Likewise does G assign a negative value to a non-updated social site?

I'm not bothered however I am curious since I am re-jigging various company sites and wondered if these social sites have any bearing whatsoever on ranking signals these days, and I write these days since a few years ago I feel they certainly did do but have absolutely no way of proving it nor whether it still exists.

Because some social sites (like FB) can (and do) create these pages without the owner's knowledge or consent I can't imagine that the company sites would be affected either positively or negatively by their existence or lack of updating. Google surely understands how these things work.

Now, if you actively create and update a business presence it may indirectly benefit your business site. Or not.

Interesting perspective not2easy, I'd forgotten about fan created pages.

The real question should be is "does social media have anything to offer my website/service"?.

I don't know how "real" a question this is as the answer is obvious. No.

SM, most egregiously FB, are designed to suck the life out of websites. They use a bait and switch tactic, that encourages webmasters to create content (for free) for their platform such that users go there instead of to the originating website. This is all under the false pretext that users will find the content on the SM platform and then learn about your product or service and that this will drive business to your website. But the platforms are so heavily geared towards keeping users on the platform that they can never leave, unless of course, you are willing to pay to get your users back through advertising. Seems like a great racket.

I ran across several FB-created pages when trying to find local businesses in search. Visiting the FB page required a login but when I got there I saw nothing new or not already publicly found. There was a link to "claim this page" that went to a FB signup form for the owner to claim and manage the page. They would have needed credentials, it was not a simple thing that anyone could claim but it was created by FB.

If the owners ever wanted a FB page they would have needed to deal with the existing page first I'd think. It appeared to be content scraped from serps or possibly FB user comments (?) more than a fan page.

I don't know about other countries since I have never bothered looking however in the UK FB pages are extremely popular with small retail shops / businesses offering local services.

A hotel website I run does extremely well in the G SERPs as designed for people visiting the area etc however the owner's FB page is the one used by the vast majority of locals, thousands of them, keeping-up with what's actually going on at the weekends etc ... Many people seem to be permanently "locked-in" to FB and go nowhere else.

Obviously in my case this is totally irrelevant however FB certainly does have its uses for many businesses and all for "free".

@NickMNS

Are you convinced that no bonus / ranking benefit would come from this?

I really have no idea, one part of me says "any actively used FB etc page gets bonus ranking points" whereas another part of me says "it's too easy to manipulate therefore why would they even consider it?"

G's never going to tell us since their "friends" really would not want that revealing!

I would say that only an actively managed business page would be of any benefit and that any benefit would not assist in SEO ranking by default. I've removed all Social Media links from sites where I want my visitors to read more on the site because as NickMNS mentioned your own visitors get the idea that they "will find the content on the SM platform" and that (of course) it will be more engaging and full of the latest info.

Some B2C business do work to keep info fresh and 'shareable'. Even so, once they get there the FB magnets kick in and their own friends and feed are way too distracting to continue with you. Especially on a billboard type static page. They won't come back from there. They may visit you again but they've lost focus for 'now'. Since they arrived from your link they can be more directly targeted within the FB kingdom. :(

So would the solution be to delete 99% of the information and simply leave a bare'ish page with contact and url details?

I would think of it as sort of a billboard, in case someone on FB is looking for your presence there or runs across it in serps. Consider the person who might find the page and keep it inviting, professional informational. Whatever information (Company history? Experience? Associations?) that you would want folks to find. I do not know what level of outbound linking FB allows.

Thanks, all input appreciated, I was thinking along the lines of a billboard, will do so.

Many linkbuilding guides mention the usefulness of Social Media and I find it strange that noone here is mentioning this.
In my opinion, FB is a necessary evil of modern times, but still it can serve it's purpose for most businesses in terms of driving traffic to the main website, if it's used in a clever way.
So if there are even 5 people per month that discover your business through FB, why not utilise your FB presence and redirect them to your main page, where you can offer them a better experience?

If consumers are your target, FB can be useful but if your business is B2B it is of little use. Business purchases are not impulse buys.

So if there are even 5 people per month that discover your business through FB, why not utilize your FB presence and redirect them to your main page, where you can offer them a better experience?

Assume you have no "friends" or "followers", now create a post that promotes your brand. That post will have zero reach. No one will see it. Now, take your business and ask all your customers to friend you on FB. Now resend the post, a few of those people may see it if you are lucky. But wait! You just referred your customer's to Facebook, and you got nothing in return. But you say "My customer's were already on Facebook!", yes but you made them go back, so FB got more impressions out of this transaction then you did (inconsequential really). But (#2 and more important), FB now knows that your customer has an interest in your products "Widgets", so now FB can sell your customers to your competitor. "No, I'm smarter than that, I can also advertise to their customers." True, and you have now successfully been forced to spend money at FB. If you don't advertise your competitor will and Facebook knows exactly who your customers are and who your competitors customers are, but neither you nor your competitor know what Facebook knows.

Information Asymmetry, and you just gave it to them, for free, willingly.

It's a racket. [en.wikipedia.org...]

Originally and often still specifically, a “racket” referred to a criminal act in which the perpetrator or perpetrators fraudulently offer a service that will not be put into effect, a service to solve a nonexistent problem, or to solve a problem that would not exist without the racket.

1- offer a service that will not be put into effect: Promoting your business
2- or to solve a problem that would not exist without the racket: Haven given up your customer information to FB you are now faced with the prospect that FB can sell your customer information to others, to avoid this (or mitigate the impact) you must buy back your information and other information by advertising, to prevent your competitor from doing the same.

By definition this is a racket.

I just decided to check the various social sites of by far the largest USA importer / wholesaler in my widget sector, it's a $1+ Billion company and in the top 5,000 USA sites and is used all over the USA at its various depots by both trade and their referral retail customers.

Very interesting, Twitter they have less followers than me and struggle to post once a week. They have their own YouTube channel but seemingly with little interaction. Houzz they've given up with. Pinterest is difficult to tell but doesn't look that active.

Instagram they are obviously active with and it looks good however FB is easily their main social channel and updated 2-3 times a week minimum.

As not2easy observed I am 100% B2B, in fact the US company mentioned above has been a customer for more than 40 years.

So, I went to a couple of my channels and deleting the things and consolidating them are more trouble than its worth ... Ok, I'll leave them as-is:-)

I think @not2easy eluded to this, but if Google places value on social media (especially Fakebook) then how would they KNOW that facebook.com/foo represents www.bar.com ? There could be different owners for abc.com, abc.net, abc.org, abc.us, and abc.rest, so who gets the bonus from facebook.com/abc ?

If it does give value, then would there be additional value in getting more people to list your website in their page?

I can't see any way for them to be interconnected, so I have to assume that it has no value at all. But on the other hand, if people are going to your Fakebook page to find something that's only on your website, then it could be doing more harm than good. You would be shocked at the number of people that can't understand that your Fakebook page is not your website.

I can't see any way for them to be interconnected,

Tell me if I am wrong here however surely this would be done through backlinks?

facbook.com/exampleRED linked to example.com

facbook.com/exampleRED linked to example.net

facbook.com/exampleRED linked to example.org

facbook.com/exampleRED linked to example.co.uk

All four are identifiably different surely or am I missing something?

Insofar as I am aware FB doesn't allow duplicate company names however I am not sure what they do when someone uses THEIR allocated fb.com/123456789

Am I going to post this and suddenly go DOH !?!?!?

They can't allow duplicate URIs, of course, but they definitely allow duplicate company names... I know this because there are 4 or 5 pages / groups right now using MY company name and intentionally trying to impersonate me! I report them, a month or two later FB deletes them... and they just come right back.

It's especially annoying since it appears that someone can now create a new business page, and then add all of their friends without their permission. So someone created a page with my name last week and it has over 4,000 "likes"... I know that they did it that way, because they added ME to it without my permission >:-(

But if each of them listed my website address in the website field for their page, would they actually help me with Google (my page has 5,000 likes, and this new page has another 5,000)? Or would they hurt me if the new link only has a few likes? How would Google know which one is me?

I guess that I could put a link on my site to my FB page, but if people post a link to their FB page in my message board or classifieds then how would Google know that THIS one is mine and THAT one is not?

I know this because there are 4 or 5 pages / groups right now using MY company name and intentionally trying to impersonate me!

Wow, that's a PITA !

Do these impersonators link directly to you as well with the correct domain URL?

I presume that IF they can get away with impersonating the real company FB page(s) then they could also make all kinds of derogatory statements / claims / opinions / whatever, which could do unknown company / personal damage?

Considering this it should require G to clarify that it does not take FB pages into rankings surely?

Stupid question. why are people impersonating you?

Do these impersonators link directly to you as well with the correct domain URL?

It varies... sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I've tracked it down to about 20 different people, and they all have different patterns.

I presume that IF they can get away with impersonating the real company FB page(s) then they could also make all kinds of derogatory statements / claims / opinions / whatever, which could do unknown company / personal damage?

Yup. Not to mention stealing customers. And FB honestly doesn't care at all.

Stupid question. why are people impersonating you?

Well, this all all just guessing on my end, but there are several possibilities.

In one case, an older woman created a group that encouraged local people to post classifieds, which is one of the main features on my site. She gave the group the same name as my site, but I honestly think that she couldn't understand that my site is a business... she thought it was no big deal, she just had a "brilliant" idea to help the community. All she had to do was click a button, type in the name, and it was done.

I'm still pretty sure that she still thinks I stole something from HER by demanding it be removed. Her words were that Facebook wouldn't have let her do it if she was doing anything wrong.

In another case, they had started a website that was similarly named but competing with me, and they were simply trying to hurt my traffic... what's the old saying? If you can't make money on your own, the next best thing is to take money from your competition...

In another case, I think they had a longer term plan to use my name to build a following, then later announce a "name change".

But more often than not, I think it's just because they think it's funny.

I have a Facebook page in my site's name. My website does receive a some referrals from my Facebook page. But for me that's not the point.

First off, I enjoy immensely the fact the page is a community of people who are feeding off each other's knowledge. It really does give me great happiness. It has reached a point that I have no input to the Facebook page - it's "their" page.

Secondly it promotes my brand name across Facebook and in general.

It has reached a point that I have no input to the Facebook page - it's "their" page.

Word of caution ... if you "give it up" you could go by way of "aspirin", "xerox" and "Kleenex"...

I don't mean go heavy hand and all that, just make sure you always retain full control! If you give it away by inaction and failure to exhibit ownership and control you have lost.

BTW, per FBs TOS you've lost already. THEY own everything. You don't. :)

(it is in the fine print...)

TANSTAAFL!

In addition to above... because of that FB proprietary thing, I doubt g gives much consideration for any FB "juice" when working their own rankings for websites ... Just sayin'...

You can rank just fine without spending a moment on social media. In fact you will probably rank better if you spend your time working on content for YOUR domain and not someone else's.