Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Google Search Plus Your World – Reactions & Business Strategy

January 23rd, 2012

Web marketers and those with online businesses everywhere just got a huge boost from Google. A kind of back door has just been opened into Google search results; although, it’s safe to say that Google didn’t intend to do such a thing, and those without plans to run an active Google+ account may not see any direct benefit.

Here’s what happened: On the 10th of January, Google made a change that has altered the type of search results that many of us are already seeing. If you’re a Google+ user, the change concerns “your world” – so to speak – and you may have noticed a slight difference in the kinds of results you’re receiving on a number of different types of searches. What’s happening is that Google is elevating information that has been shared in Google+ (or +1′d) into the upper-end of the search results pages. Google calls this new development “Search, plus Your World” (which we’ll call Search Plus).

 

google-plus-searchSearch Plus is the latest search results treatment by the folks from Mountain View, California. Some may ask “why are they doing this?” A fair question. A few experts in the industry have stated that Google is seeding Google+ data into search results because they want searchers with Google+ accounts to contribute to Google+ more often. Others claim that Google is acting on the idea that “personalized” search results are more relevant results.

Google, to no one’s total surprise, is putting a positive spin on the new development.

From Google Inside Search: “Search has always brought you information from across the web. Now, search gets better by including photos, posts, and more from you and your friends. When signed in with Google+, you’ll find personal results and profiles of people you know or follow. You can even expand your world by discovering people related to your search.”  

What this boils down to is that when you’re logged in to Google+ and perform a Google search for a product or service – those results that have been shared by a member of one of your circles or +1’d by a friend are likely to rise to the top of the search results. In other words, if you’re looking for a new messenger bag and one of your Google+ friends has +1’d products from Timbuk2 – bang – there it is at the top of your search results. That’s a significant development.

Consumer Reaction

The market is having mixed reactions. Some search users say that it’s a radical departure from traditional search: Why would Google think that I want to see search results from my circles of friends? Facebook has already told me all about what they like or don’t like.

Others have labeled it a puzzling transformation: There’s no reason to strip out all of the relevant search engine results in favor of results driven by social media.   

And while it’s interesting to hear some grumble over how search is being altered, search marketers and savvy business owners are watching how Google+ is already populating search results. As businesses benefit from social proof, there is good reason to be excited.

Already, businesses are touting their products, service, brand and corporate identity through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Pinterest. Google+ pages are the next logical add-on for any web marketing strategy. But the difference here is that the results of their marketing efforts can be seen immediately in Google search.

What happened to Google’s “Don’t Be Evil”?

Now, some would say that Google (and search as a whole) has forced the hands of many marketers and business owners alike. Let’s face it, if you’re in business today, you have a web marketing strategy (at the very least) in the planning – so that you can be in business tomorrow. That said, yes, the changes in search (including Google pulling keyword data out of Analytics) will change your web marketing plan from quarter to quarter. And this quarter is all about leveraging the power of Google+ to get your foot in the back door to the top of the search results pages at Google.

The other part to consider is the wrath of larger companies like Twitter and Facebook. Perhaps the most interesting item to stem from all this is a new website created over the weekend: http://www.focusontheuser.org/. The YouTube video (below) from the site anonymously outlines how Facebook and Twitter provide more relevant results but Google chooses their own social network first to rank.

The video is so simple to follow even a US Congressman should be able to follow it:
Focus on The User

Tags: Algorithm, Facebook, Google, Social Networking, Twitter
Posted in Facebook, Google, Google+, SEO, Social Networking, Twitter | No Comments

Google+ Rolls Out Pages for Businesses

November 11th, 2011

It seems like Google+ Pages for businesses have been a long-time coming, even though Google+ was released into “invite only” field testing on June 28th of this year and just officially rolled out to the general public on September 20th.. That’s not even five full months at this time. Weird, huh? But it really seems like businesses have been waiting forever.

The reason it feels so delayed is that the need for businesses to leverage social networking is so great. Additionally, many businesses feel the there is a significant benefit in being an early adapter to any fashionable technology. Google+ created an enormous amount of buzz in the social market and businesses have been clamoring for commercial access. And while the benefits of social media – as they relate to commercial endeavors – are generally quantifiable in many situations, there are those who claim that Google+, for all its initial fanfare and hype, is seriously lacking in the race behind Facebook and Twitter. Some say that Google+ is poised to fail (following a reported 60% drop-off in day-to-day traffic from early October) and that the addition of business pages has been in response to ailing dwell time and loyalty.

So, what does Google have to say for itself in this matter?

“So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people,” said Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra in a recent blog post. “But we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about – from local businesses to global brands – so today we’re rolling out Google+ Pages worldwide.”

Based on his response, it’s a fair assumption that Mr. Gundotra knows something that he’s keeping to himself. It’s also a safe bet that he’s been pondering a little-known mathematical formulation known as Reed’s Law (and this is where it gets interesting). Developed by Dr. David Reed, an Adjunct Professor at the MIT Media Lab, Reed’s Law asserts that the validity of a social networking site ultimately depends on how well it promotes the formation of groups. In other words, it’s not all about making connections between individuals. Whether your interest is in the businesses you favor, brands, products, artists, causes, or entertainment, the groups and fan pages that support those interests will drive dwell time, growth and loyalty for a social networking site.

Need proof? Look how easily Facebook battered MySpace into near obscurity.

Google+ Pages for businesses is the first in what will no doubt be a number of additions to Google+ that should allow people to organize better. Those sticking to Google+ will begin to create and join fan pages (communities) based on their business and personal interests. When you look at the issue from a marketing perspective, it’s all a numbers game: the greater the community number, the tighter the hold. A good example at the moment is Eminem, a celebrity with huge drawing power, who has 7 million Twitter followers and 48 million Facebook fans – but cannot be found on Google+ whatsoever. What Eminem is doing for Facebook and Twitter is invaluable to the longevity of those social networks. And you can bet that Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey love every new follower and fan that Eminem draws.

So where does this leave Google+ in the business pages mix? Time will tell. One thing we know for certain is that Google has the funding and the talent to create and grow business interests overnight. They have already started, with this YouTube video:

To get started on a Google+ Page for your business, go to https://plus.google.com/pages/create and follow the directions.

Tags: Facebook, Google, Social Networking, Twitter
Posted in Facebook, Google+, Social Networking, Twitter | No Comments

The Future of Interactive Marketing: Mobile, Social and E-mail

October 10th, 2011

Imagine you’re a shopkeeper on Canal Street in Lower Manhattan in the 1850s tying to market your wares to passersby. In the old days, you marketed apples, newspapers and cudgels by shouting out your message to the masses. Some hear you. Some Don’t. Some hear you and ignore you. But for the ones that need something from your shop, you sell them there on the spot and never give a thought about whether you’ll ever see them pass by again. Up until the mid-90s, this was traditional marketing. Thankfully, those days are gone.

Interactive marketing is a relatively-new approach for reaching out to – and interacting with – your prospects and customers. Interactive, unlike traditional, is facilitated by internet technologies that allow the marketer to move away from a solely-transaction-based effort to a mutually-beneficial conversation.

But what is it really? What’s the future? Excellent questions!

John A. Deighton is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard University and founding co-editor of the Journal of Interactive Marketing. Mr. Deighton is noteworthy in this topic because he’s the man that gave us the most faultless definition of “interactive marketing” to date.

Interactive Marketing: the ability to address the customer, remember what the customer says and address the customer again in a way that illustrates that we remember what the customer has told us.

What makes Mr. Deighton’s definition so appropriate is that he is describing a dominant trend where empowered buyers necessitate new and different marketing strategies that are low on shouting and high on personalization. This approach to communicating with your customers and reacting quickly to their needs is evidenced in the success that companies like Apple and Facebook have enjoyed by leveraging interactive marketing and expediting time-to-market for their products.

That’s enough exposition. Here’s where the rubber meets the road. At present, U.S. companies spend over $34 billion annually for interactive marketing (search, e-mail, social media and mobile marketing). That’s a big number to begin with. Going forward, the year-over-year growth rate for this spending trend projects a $76 billion spend in 2016 for the same.

This growth is significant in that it allows spending for interactive marketing to surpass television ad spending for the first time in history. TV advertising, much like with newspapers, magazines and radio, is seeing a drop in budget spending as interactive media spending is increased.

A survey of 108 marketers in the U.S. showed that 71% planned to increase their interactive marketing budgets by decreasing their traditional marketing budgets. At the front of the line for the budgetary chopping block were budgets for ads in magazines, newspapers, direct mail, and on television.

And the future? The greatest growth will come in the form of mobile marketing (marketing on or with a mobile device) which will pass e-mail and social media spending this year. The numbers quickly escalate from there, where mobile display and mobile search marketing account for an estimated $2.8 billion in 2012, $5.7 billion in 2014 and $8.2 billion in 2016.

Social media comes in 2nd place with an expected $4.9 billion by 2016.  E-mail marketing, currently considered one of the most reliable marketing means (and with low overhead), is expected to see only $2.4 billion in annual spending by the same year.

Here’s the takeaway: Hawking your wares in a traditional marketing approach is giving way to better methods of marketing.  Marketers everywhere are poised to embrace the growing role of mobile in their interactive marketing mix. It is expected that e-mail marketing will evolve and overthrow direct mail as the primary direct marketing vehicle. And social media will become real-time marketing, reaching customers and prospects in the ways that they want to be reached, using the networks that they prefer.

Tags: e-mail marketing, Facebook, mobile marketing, search marketing, Social Networking
Posted in Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Social Networking | No Comments

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