A recent video from Google expert Matt Cutts suggests that Google is now using signals from social media such as twitter and facebook to help them figure out what sites should rank well in the search engines. This should not come as a surprise to anyone who cares about getting their site found on search engines. Basically, this is just a confirmation that the more involved you are on the Internet in general, the more you as an author and your company build reputation. The reputation you build as a whole ultimately will fill in how google and other search engines rank your content.

Does this mean that youtube videos are going to help my site get found in search engines?

The short answer is, yes. Ultimately, anything you do on the Internet can possibly effect you authority on the Internet. If you post a valuable video that many people want to share and talk about, the discussions ultimately will get pointed back to the author of the video. Whether you like it or not, google does its best to figure out what they should do with that data they get about you as the author and then ultimately add (or decrease) rankings accordingly.

This is just a reminder to think about what you post before you post it, on any content site. It is also a reminder that there is some significant value in creating quality social media avenues not only for short term traffic, but long term sustained traffic as well.