1) WIKIPEDIA: You will find that a search for most high-value search phrases will show a Wikipedia page in the top 10 listings. So, if a phrase you are trying to rank for should produce a Wikipedia page where you have a link - then you are likely to see visitors coming to your site from this link.

ToTheWeb’s Wikipedia experience for our own site has been very interesting. See a two-slide PPT that I created to show results.
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=ddb2dxts_233fkmgjrg2 (you’ll have to log into your Google account to view I believe)

2) BLOGS: I have seen my blog posts be indexed within hours of being published. I know this because I have a Google Alert set up for my URL and I receive an alert when Google finds the URL. If you’re writing about something newsworthy and current you may have increased traffic if you blog appears in Google and matches the searcher’s query.

Hope this helps.

Two questions and some suggestions.

Do any of the social media draw more attention from the search engines than others, i.e. blogs vs. social networks vs wikipedia pages or others?

And is it true that more and different presences on the internet increase your visibility to the search engines?

I, too, have a couple of suggestions to add. I suggest that, to start, my clients (generally small businesses who have time constraints) select the one Social Media aspect that makes the most sense for them and their business at present. Work on that activity for as long as it takes. Feel comfortable about its present-ability and their ease of use with it. After that, start with another.

Overall, blogs take more attention than social networks, so make your choice with that in mind. (Do they have more search engine draw than the social networks?)

Before you start your blog, create a list of twenty or so topic ideas so that on the days when you draw a blank, you have some topics from which to choose. After a while, the industry trends and topic popularity will help to drive the subject of each blog post.

I look forward to more of your internet-relative insight and advice. Thank you!