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Oct
25

Competition in Social Networking: The Rise of Google+ and the Status of FaceBook

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It’s been seen all over the tech world news, people are increasingly displeased with FaceBook and their questionable privacy practices  as well as their increasing addition of new features without even a previous statement giving the user the opportunity to choose if they wish to implement them at this time. It has also been a well-known fact that, generally speaking, Google has not gotten the hang of social networking, just yet.

Thankfully, those days are now over. When Google announced its newest social networking initiative, Google+, most people were, of course, skeptical. After all, Buzz shared all of their contacts information and their own publicly and angered their users to no end. It also brought the company under an oversight committee with the FCC for the next 20 years. So on June 28th 2011 when a limited field trial of Google+ was announced on the official Google blog, there were those who were generally not that interested or impressed. However, as time went by and invitations were beginning to circulate, an amazing thing occurred: IT was proclaimed that Google finally got their user-friendly privacy laden social networking engine!

Spam Infested Walls and Poorly Managed Groups

The timing of this release could not have been better, truly. During this time period, FaceBook had begun making improvements to how the social networking giant handled everything from personal details and security to how friends lists were displayed, and there were very few users who were satisfied, let alone happy with the changes. Their news feeds were being dominated by those applications that now had free reign to post on friends’ walls crowding out the actual status updates with games like “Fish-ville” and “Sims.” Users were also finding that their groups were being attacked and changed, a move that made it impossible for the group leader to interact with their group members no matter how long the group had been in existence without beginning again from moment one and re-inviting them to join the group.

Many users had been asking for the option of further defining their friends groups so that updates could be further managed. While FaceBook made a move to have options for showing a particular post only to XYX friends list or to exclude XYZ person or group of friends, it was clunky and the rules must be set for each post. Google+ learned much it seems from the problems that FaceBook has been facing. With a neatly streamlined interface, users are given “circles” of friends that are user defined. When posting, you are given a prompt to choose which circles you wish to share this with, or if you want to share it publicly, with all users.

Profiles, Interests, and User Choice

Another feature of Google+ that users find to be a better executed version of a FaceBook feature is how interests appear. On FaceBook, in the sidebars of your page, there are listings for interests such as: actresses, movies and establishments. There is the option to “like” them, adding a listing in your profile of goodness only knows how many listings. From the most inane like “sleep” and “food” to the names of bands and movies, your profile becomes cluttered with this mess! Taking a lesson from these oft voiced issues, Google+ Created what they call “sparks”. These are user interests and, when searched for and chosen, only the ones that you mark specifically are added to your sparks file and you receive updates on your news feed for only those that you chose.

Chat and Archiving

When it comes to chat, Google+ uses their ever stable G chat which rarely, if ever, freezes or otherwise disrupts the browser of the user, and saves conversations within your G mail in a special folder meant for them. Unfortunately, FaceBook seems to not yet understand the need for a stable chat engine or for easy archiving of said conversations. Regularly FaceBook chat will freeze a user’s browser and messages get stashed away in your in-box, making it impossible unless you have an excellent memory to tell a conversation from an in-box message.

Also, a much clamored-over feature that FaceBook users have been rallying for is Video conferencing and group chat. While these features are now available on FaceBook, Google+ was launched with them available and working without any freezing or slowing of your system or even distortion of sound.

Privacy

FaceBook has been charged with many privacy issues, especially lately, including:

  • Data mining: Where information is gathered about a person through their website usage and used to advertise other services to them. The information gathered is often sold to a third party.
  • Customization Issues: FaceBook only allows for plain text to customize your site, unlike some of its more popular contenders. Due to this however, innovative minds have begun creating and using hacks to customize their sites, causing others to become infected with their hacks (usually Java Scripted) and slowing down their system.
  • Lack of live support: In our 24/7 lives, customer service that is live and reachable at any time around the clock is crucial. Especially since FaceBook sells credits for its widely-used games, questions about billing are sure to arise.

Google+, while in its infancy, is working out the kinks as they go along.

  • Privacy: Google+ is fueled by your Google profile which in its default settings is 100% search-able.
  • Service Linking: Google is fond of linking all of its services to create a suite of programs that can be used together or separately. Be certain of what Google products are being drawn upon when you sign up and begin posting.
  • Copyright: A not well known clause in their terms of use make anything that you post using Google+ the property of Google and can be used in any way that they see fit. This, as I am sure you can imagine, makes some waves.

In conclusion

While FaceBook and Google+ both have their flaws and their upsides, it is being shown now that what was once the product or service on every person’s lips, there will always be new innovations in social networking. It has become such a large part of how to communicate with our loved ones, coworkers and friends that seeing more streamlined and more secure services will be the path that any and all social networking sites must take if they wish to survive. Google+ is here to stay. However, so is FaceBook, as they will eventually serve two different demographics. Our prediction is that Google+ will become the social network of the 20-30 something business people while those younger and older will gravitate towards busier FaceBook.

Related posts:

Categories : Google Google+, SEO / SEM, facebook, privacy, social network
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Oct
15

Exploring The Social Networking World

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Facebook, Twitter, and probably soon Google+, get most of the analysis of the social networking world.  With that comes most of the attention of advertisers.  This is the billion-user World Wide Web, though.  For every bar that all the cool kids are hanging out at, there are plenty of local bars near them with people spending money the same as anyone else.

These local hangouts, though, can often be a little less friendly to marketing sharks.  Let’s face it, too: you’re not interested in being one.  You just want to advertise your services to people who might honestly be interested.  Even the local dives have ads posted in them.  To do so simply requires that you understand the scene, and treat it with respect.

So let’s drop the metaphor and look at some of the smaller but still popular social networking sites.  For our purposes we are going to focus on native English sites that mostly have at least 1 million users.  If you can speak other languages then there are many very large ones that represent good alternate markets.

CafeMom

CafeMom has been growing tremendously, and is on the verge of breaking through “niche” status to become one of the web’s bigger players.  An outgrowth of ClubMom, this social networking site panders to the moms who need an outlet that they can share with other moms (men are specifically barred from registering).  General socializing happens here, but also advice and support for just about every mothering need out there.

What the advertiser should know: CafeMom is very advertiser friendly.  If you are offering a physical product of some kind, you should consider sending free samples: this is one of the draws the site uses to get people to register.  Remember that the goal of this site is to make the lives of the mothers there easier.  Make sure that whatever you are advertising is geared towards that, even if indirectly.

Care2

It’s a sign of how huge the World Wide Web has become that a site with 14 million users is considered 2nd-tier.  Care2 hasn’t rushed to growth, but has been slowly building their user base since 1998.  The reason is that this is not a site that puts profits first.  Care2 is a social networking site for activists.  It allows individuals to work with each other, discuss issues, and most importantly find concrete ways to channel their energies into effective social change.

What the advertiser should know: Care2 takes their commitment to social values seriously.  This includes their approach to advertisements.  They have on their site a long explanation of what their advertising principles are.  Read it.  Make sure you can convince them that you will enhance their site, not just draw from it. One minor marketing addendum: according to the site’s founder, Care2′s user base is also mostly female.

Link Expats

If you measure the success of a web site by how well it fulfills the Web’s potential of bringing disparate people together, this is about as successful as it gets.  Link Expats is a place for people who are removed from their home country for any reason to find each other, talk, and assist each other.

What the advertiser should know: While some of the reasons that someone would be a member of this site are benign, some are (literally) deadly serious.  This site as a result has strong privacy protections.  Users can’t even friend each other, but they can ban one another easily for spamming.  Get the idea?  Follow the site’s rules to a T, and don’t push.

deviantART

deviantART is one of the longest running and best supported amateur artist social networking sites in existence.  Just about every type of 2D art is represented, and with 14 million members, just about every demographic is represented.  There isn’t that much in the way of large communal spaces: chat rooms are the only thing this site has that fulfills that function.  Most of the interaction occurs on the pages of artists and their works.

What the advertiser should know: Ads are only visible to users who don’t upgrade to premium memberships.  That doesn’t look to be a small demographic on this site any time soon, though (reference the term “starving artist”).  In fact, it’s large enough that you can almost treat this like a “normal” demographic distribution of users, albeit one with a bit of geeky edge to it.  Anything either tech-oriented or counterculture-leaning should find an audience here.

Stickam

You might have used this site before and not realized it.  Stickam is one of the premier media sharing sites on the web, with a particular focus on streaming video.  Because the demand for this kind of service is quickly growing, and because they make embedding easy, Stickam winds up often quietly embedded in other web sites.  If a site you use has recently addedy a video chat room, check the credits: it’s possibly a Stickam room.

What the advertiser should know: Stickam has worked heavily with major media kings like MTV and CBS Radio.  This gives it a bit of a MySpace feel: if you know the kind of demographic that comparison brings to mind, then you know about what to expect.  If you don’t, we’ll sum it up: a culturally diverse group of mostly beginner to intermediate web users (this is a broad stroke: please don’t take offense Stickam wizards) who probably are used to seeing web advertising.  This is with one catch: many chat rooms are adult-oriented.  Be sure you’re OK with this.

VampireFreaks

It may seem like we’re just fulfilling some editorial requirement of including one “strange” site by closing with these guys.  This isn’t so much that case.  It’s more to hammer home the point that sometimes you are dealing with a very specific subculture, and you need to know how to approach them with respect.

VF servers the “Gothic Industrial Culture”.  If you don’t know what this is then it’s hard to describe it without resorting to obnoxious stereotypes.  Consider it those who like to “play in the dark”, in just about every meaning that this phrase might bring to mind.  The name itself is likely a “scaring the normal” point of pride jab.  If this description in any way weird you out, you should probably look elsewhere.

What the advertiser should know: This is a very self-aware demographic.  Thus it’s best to neither approach them with a typical suit-and-tie motif nor try to pretend you’re a part of this crowd, assuming you’re not.  Despite the very showy appearance of this crowd, believe it when we say that they’ll respect you the more real you are.

Related posts:

Categories : CafeMom, Care2, Link Expats, SEO / SEM, Social Networking, Stickam, deviantART, social network
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Oct
13

Facebook is the New King – How to Advertise in Their Kingdom

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If it seems some days that we focus a little heavily on Facebook when discussing things World Wide Web in the 2010′s, it’s not because we’re personally addicted to Bejeweled Blitz.  We are, but that’s beside the point.

A recent study released by EMarketer officially tolled the bell.  Facebook, with its half-billion users, is about to become king of the advertising world.  The estimates are that Facebook will receive $2.2 billion dollars in advertising revenue this year, accounting for 17.7 percent (or better than 1 in 6) of all online advertising dollars spent.  Former champion Yahoo! will account for 13.1 percent.

If you are attempting to procure advertising for your site or service, then these are numbers that you cannot ignore.  It also means that you are going to be fighting against other advertisers for the attention of those half-billion users.  If you are new to this game, you could use some pointers.  Here are some of the best bits of advice we found from those who are experienced in this game:

Split your ad campaign and test the results

The marketing world is long familiar with the fact that the change of so much as a single word or image can alter the flow of traffic to your destination immensely.  To see this in action yourself, split your ad campaign.  Post at least 2 different ads simultaneously, with some slight change between them.

What should you change?  Here are a few suggestions others have listed:

  • Ad text – This one is obvious, and yet still undervalued.  Change one adjective.  Make one ad short and one long.  Make one serious and one lighthearted.
  • Image – There are entire schools of thought based on how different images elicit different emotional and instinctual responses (look up “Semiotics” if you are curious about this field).  Switch it up and see what happens.
  • Market targeting – Use Facebook’s different behind-the-scenes parameters to target different audiences. Facebook allows you to adjust your targeting by age, geographic location, education and interests, just for starters.

One important rule for all of the above: if you make any changes, make them one at a time.  If you change multiple parameters all at once, and you see a difference in response rates, you’re not going to know for certain which ones were responsible for the differences you saw.

This leads us to the second major piece of advice:

Keep close tabs on your ad’s response rates

This is non-negotiable.  If you want to know how well your ads are doing, you cannot just go on instinct or anecdotal evidence.  You need to keep a close, scientific eye on their results.  One page suggested that you would need to use third-party software to analyze the information, but from the reports we saw it seems like even the beginner user should be able to decipher it without too much assistance.  Go to your ad’s “Report Manger” and download the information.  You can easily upload it into a basic spreadsheet program from there.

The terms in your report are explained by Facebook, so we won’t waste space here repeating it all.  What we will do instead is to remind you that you have several target goals that you are going to be looking at simultaneously.  For your dollar you are going to have raw numbers of “Impressions”, “Clicks”, “Actions,” “Social Impressions,” and “Unique Impressions,” with corresponding proportions and percentages for each (“Click Through Rate” is Clicks divided by Impressions, for example).

You will need to decide which of these is how important to you on a per-dollar basis.  If your goal is simply to generate higher name recognition, then “Impressions” is going to be more important for you.  If you measure ad effectiveness by user participation, then “Actions” is going to be a greater target.  Decide ahead of time which metrics matter the most to you, and focus on what most efficiently increases their values.

Some miscellaneous tips

In addition to these major ideas, there are some minor ones worth remembering:

  • Work with Facebook – This means a number of things, but the primary point you want to remember is that it is still people that approve or disapprove ads.  You don’t get some automatic place just by throwing Facebook some money.  In particular, read and follow the ad submission guidelines.  If your ad runs into any trouble, work with their account representatives.  Remember also that they are working on Pacific Standard Time (Facebook is based out of California).  During business hours it takes about 1-6 hours to get your ad approved.
  • Consider your destination – You have the choice of sending your users to either a page on Facebook or your outside web site.  Different authors have a differing opinion on which is better.  It probably comes down to personal preference, though note that you will get more support from Facebook by keeping it “in the family”.  Whichever you do, though, do it right.  If you send them to a Facebook page, make sure the page is well-developed and maintained.  If you send them to your external site, send them to a landing spot designed specifically for them.  You’ll probably want to complete the loop by making your external site Facebook friendly.
  • Consider using Friends of Connections – Using this option will give your advertisement greater impression weight to people whose friends have interacted with it.  This does narrow down your field of who might see the ad, but most marketers believe, rationally so, that it will increase your click-through effectiveness.
  • Test by time – This is only an option to those who can really stay on top of things, but one option to consider is to test your ad’s effectiveness by time of day.  Facebook does not give you the automatic ability to select when you want your ad to run, but they do allow you to manually turn your ad off and on.

Keep up with the times

As a last bit of over-arching advice, keep tabs yourself on Facebook marketing.  When we did our research, a common suggestion was to use the “Reveal Tab”.  That seems to no longer exist.  Facebook will probably continue to change their system on a rapid, unpredictable basis.  As long as they do, and you want to succeed with your marketing, you will need to react just as quickly.

Related posts:

Categories : EMarketer, SEO / SEM, Social Impressions, Unique Impressions, ad response rates, advertise, facebook, market targeting, target audience
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Sep
25

Search Engine Optimization tips for Bing

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You know that there are other search engines beside Google, but many do not consider this within their SEO initiates.  It’s a hassle to try to make your page more search-engine friendly for more than one search engine, and besides, how many people even search outside of Google?  What if I told you that that answer was as high as 30% of all searches?  After all, did you really think that there was an IT market that Microsoft couldn’t muscle its way into?

With rare exceptions, what helps you with one search engine will help you with another.  Very little will get you forcibly pushed down the listings.  This means that whatever you do with Bing should also help you at least a bit with Google and all other search engines.  So since you don’t have anything to lose by doing so, let’s look at some of the most commonly offered tips for making sure your site gets well Binged.

Pay it forward

Google also places some value on having relevant links out, but it appears from most metrics that Bing scores this even higher.  As always don’t overdo it.  Search engine programmers are well aware of how much you want to game their systems.  Keep it well populated, but not overcrowded.

Say anything

Bing also gives more attention to pages with a significant amount of text.  You’ll want at least 300 words of original text on your page.  Keep it relevant, and keep the keyword stuffing to a dull roar: once or twice per 300 word block is the most common recommendation.

Title your pages

Once, the title of your page was one of the more important page rank considerations.  Other search engines seem to have dropped that.  Bing is bringing it back, so make sure you put your most relevant keywords in there.  Again, though, don’t overdo it: one site recommends no more than 65 characters for this field.  This is a one-line-per-page fix that could make a huge difference.

Structure your site well

Bing puts more emphasis on site architecture than other web search engines.  Some ways to take advantage of this include the following:

  • Make your site “crawlable” – Ensure that your site is easy to navigate.  You can use a robots.txt file to help guide Bing along.
  • Invest in a sitemap – A single page that maps out your entire web site is a good, comprehensive way to make sure your site is fully indexed.  For that matter, make it, and then go right to Bing and submit it there.
  • Keep it text-based – Have as much of the information you want Bing to find in the form of text. If you have to have a heavy multi-media presentation, make sure that for all of if you have sufficient alternate text.

To make it clear that we’re not just posting a useless guide, consider that one study ranked Bing higher than Google in “search efficiency.”  This is the metric of how much users click through on the engine’s suggested results.  This means that Bing just might soon be giving Google a run for its money, seeing as how results relevance is the #1 goal of a search engine.  If you are trying to get your site noticed, then this is not something you’ll want to miss out on.

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Categories : SEO, SEO / SEM, bing, search engine, search engine optimization
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Sep
21

Are Search Engine Optimization Companies – Worthy of the Cost?

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Search engine optimization is a true example of the modern cyber economy, in a way that can seem unreal if you think about it for too long.  It’s sort of the 21st century equivalent of a gold rush: companies fight tooth and nail to get the very best “land” available, even if that land is nothing more than a few 0s and 1s on a machine thousands of miles away from them.  Land which constantly shifts by someone else’s directive.  Land which looks different depending upon how you look at it.  Land which can suddenly be yanked out from under you without you knowing it.

Seems a touch hallucinatory, doesn’t it?  You might feel the desire for something of a technical shaman to guide you through this wonderland.  But do you actually need one?  There isn’t an easy answer to this question.  Let’s try to summarize the arguments for both cases.

The argument for “yes”

The important thing to remember about search engine optimization is that it is a continually evolving cat-and-mouse game.  Like playing the stock market, there cannot by definition be any one way, because if there was, everyone would be using it, and you’d have to find something new to one-up everyone.

This, combined with the increasing rate at which search engines change their algorithms, and the eternally growing size of the web that they are indexing, make it harder each day to keep up with the Joneses.  This is an effort that you could work at every day if you wanted to, which means that it’s also a job you could pay someone else to do.  Let’s not forget also that there are “white hat” and “black hat” methods, meaning methods that are considered fair and unfair play, and not knowing the difference can in worst-case scenarios result in your site being blacklisted.

The argument for “no”

You should be relying on far more than search engine results to drive traffic to your site anyway.  While all of the above will constantly change, what won’t change are links to your site that customers/users can reliably use to find you: add in old school advertising to that list as well.

Moreover Google and other search engines have for some years been giving personalized results, meaning that there’s no one right measure anymore of how your site does in various searches: while a company can simulate this by pretending to be multiple users with different preferences, this is a lot of work for quickly diminishing returns.

Then remember that your site will naturally fluctuate in the ranking no matter what you do, and that not all traffic to your web site becomes paying customers (or whatever equivalent is important to you).  You need to try to estimate just how much extra traffic you’re getting, how much that is resulting in extra business, and whether or not the amount you are paying for this higher ranking is worth it (and how much higher is it?  Be sure to check yourself now and then).

There’s no good answer to this: Google has become one of the prime economic forces no matter what your business is, and other search engines like Bing only add to this importance, as well as the difficulty in doing it yourself.  This is a tricky one.  Take careful stock in the differences in your traffic, do the math, and remember that in the end, there’s still no substitute for just having a quality web site that represents a quality business.

Related posts:

Categories : SEO, SEO / SEM, White-Hat, algorithm, black hat, search engine optimization
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Sep
14

The Dummies’ Guide To SEO

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Search engine optimization (or SEO) is an absolute jungle. Just like chocolate, cancer, and pregnancy, the rules for effective SEO management seem to change just about every other day, leaving most of us bewildered, slightly disgruntled, and all the way confused. Thankfully, there are a few trends you can be sure to capitalize on. Even more graciously, we’ve compiled them all here. Starting with the top, Pilgrim, enjoy your Dummies’ Guide to SEO Management!

Repeat After Us: “Keywords Are My Mates”

Seriously, though, keywords are just about the most important part of search engine optimization. If you haven’t got them, it’s like eating a BLT with nothing but chicken underneath the hood: You need a different foundation.

Keywords are what the major search engines look for when they spider your site. If you have the right density, those engines will start to favor your content over other articles that also feature the same keywords. The proper keyword density should be about 3 per-cent. This means that, if your article is about web hosting, the words “web hosting”—or some derivative thereof—should be included across 3 per-cent of all your total words. Any more, and Google might think your site is spam. Any less, and Bing might not know what your article is about.

Also: “Titles Need Keywords, Too”

Don’t forget to be snazzy with your webpage titles. If your page is about buttery spreads, and your keyword is some isotope of “buttery spreads,” then include the phrase in the title and perma-link of your page. Not only does this give Google some idea what to expect from your content, but it also helps clue in your readers, as well. The proper density for your title is somewhere between 30 to 70%. Just keep in mind that creativity is good, but only if the core keywords are there.

Finally: “Links Are More Or Less My Mates, Too”

Search engines like to see links, because links to other related pieces of content make it easier to form topic-based associations between sites. With this in mind, include as many appropriate links to other sites (yours or not) as you can. If your article is still about butter, include some links to buttery recipes, or the health of effects of butter. Try to keep to links that include your keywords, or are closely related.

However, don’t over do it: Many search engines are trained to ignore sites with too many links, so just be sensible. What would you like to see when booting a site for the first time?

Related posts:

Categories : SEO, SEO / SEM, SEO management, keyword density, keywords, link building, links, search engine optimization
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