Many people ask the question, "Is social media necessary to get good search engine rankings?" In my opinion, that question is all wrong. I think the dye has already been cast on the importance of social media and whether or not it is an integral part of SEO (it is.) The real question is, "Can SEO survive without social media?" To that, I firmly believe the answer is "no". Not today and not for as long as social media continues to play a role in shaping society. Until the great EMP hits, I don't see social media losing it's grip on how we live our lives. Which means, search engines will always find ways to use it to influence their search engine rankings. And rightly so. Social media, essentially, is the real-time pulse of what we like, dislike, love, loath and enjoy. It only makes sense that search engines want to measure this in order to make rankings more relevant for both the masses and each person individually.