What is best - Links or social signals?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Canal IP: Links vs social signals. Share your thoughts on what's bes for your SEO efforts
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  Nishant Desai: Social Signals are future but cannot ignore links.
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  Clayton-Nichols.com: Both are best for your efforts. I think Links still outweigh social signals now, but it's eventually going to hit a 50-50 scale, and then I think it's even going to dip in Social Favors. More interaction and constant citations build reputability. ;
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  Simon Fryer: 1) Links, by a long way
  2) Links are a type social signal too
  3) Platform social signals (like 'likes') are indicative of good audience engagement, which breeds brand mentions and importantly, links, as  ;+Clayton-Nichols.com ;has mentioned. ;
  4) Buying 'likes', for example, will do absolutely nothing for you. ;
  5) Studies only show a correlation between traditional "social signals" and high rankings, not causation. ;
  
  Summary
  Don't aim to get "social signals", aim to engage with your audience, this will breed likes, links, and love. ;
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  Canal IP: Thx simon. Interesting answer