Google Testing 3rd Party Tools to Manage Google+ Pages
With news of Google launching business/brand pages for its social media site, Google+, we knew it wouldn’t be long before companies started providing tools for people to manage these pages.
Buddy Media, Context Optional, Hearsay Social, Hootsuite, Involver, and Vitrue are the 6 firms chosen by Google to be involved in a partnership which would connect their products to the Google+ platform for publishing, monitoring, and managing circles. “Based upon their extensive experience helping brands and businesses manage and analyze their presence on social networks” these firms have been chosen by Google.
The hijacking of the Bank of America page by a phony account on the platform is the very reason why Google wants to help brands employ professional services to manage their Google+ accounts to make them safer.
While its only early days for business pages on Google+, managing them is certainly something that should be assigned to the social media/communications guru in your company. Pepsi already has 18,865 followers on Google+, when compared to its 6 million Facebook followers it doesn’t look huge but that’s still 18,000+ people who expect Pepsi to provide regular updates on the company through Google+ and these tools are sure to take the hassle out of achieving this.
This partnership is a coup for the 6 chosen management platforms, their affiliation with Google+ should stretch the use of the service by other companies already using management systems for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social platforms.
Google has set up a dedicated page at google.com/+/business/3rdpartytools.html for Google+ users to access these management tools. Google has said that these companies will offer their clients the ability to manage circles, publish to Google+, and monitor usage.
Study: Facebook Still the No. 1 Social Media Platform for SMB’s
According to the Fall 2011 Attitudes and Outlook Survey from Constant contact, small businesses are becoming more savvy with social media marketing and are using it more & more to interact with customers.
It’s no surprise that Facebook is the most preferred social media platform; as per reports it is said to be used by 96% of small businesses, this is up from 82% last season. What is interesting though is that 86% of the respondents find it the most effective social media tool for their needs. I wonder why the other 10% continue to use Facebook if they don’t think it is helping their business?
While small businesses are well on board with social media marketing, they do admit that they are lagging behind when it comes to mobile. 72% of the survey respondents said that they have not teamed up mobile with any business functionality. This is a big part of the market they are missing out on but also a great opportunity to explore the mobile media space.
When it comes to effectiveness of social media sites, we already mentioned that Facebook was in the no. 1 position, while Twitter is seen as the next most effective social media tool. What about Google+? It is lower down the table as is to be expected considering the short amount of time it has been live. It will be interesting to see the results in 12 months time to see if Google+ has made its way near the top position.
Mark Schmulen, General Manager of Social Media at Constant Contact stated
Small business are still learning how social media marketing can help them grow their customer relationships.
Just six months ago, they were learning the ropes and finding out what social media marketing tools were available. Now, they are beginning to understand more about what social media marketing can do for them.
Do you use social media to promote your business? Which one do you find the most effective? Feel free to share your thoughts below.
Google Music Launches, Will It Be a Serious iTunes Competitor?
Google has added another feather to its cap by launching its music initiative, Google Music.
Along with the cloud-based music storage that was launched in beta in May, the Google Music store now includes an MP3 store. Unlike Apple & Amazon, Google Music is allowing users to store up to 20,000 tracks for free.
Universal Music Group, EMI, and Sony Music Entertainment are three of the 4 content partners but one major omission is Warner Music. Coldplay, Shakira, Pearl Jam, Busta Rhymes, the Rolling Stones, and the Dave Matthews Band are some of the artists who have partnered with Google Music to start promotion of the service by providing free and/or exclusive tracks.
With 8 million songs in its database, and that number rising to 13 million in the coming weeks, the new Google Music store is all set to lock horns with the biggest music player, iTunes which is currently dominating the market with over 20 million songs on offer.
I really like their Music Magnifier program which highlights new bands every week – this is something Indie musician should be happy about.
Google’s plan to move in on iTunes market share includes extra features and exclusive content which it hopes will draw people to Google Music. A cool tool called “Artist Hub” has been offered to artists enabling them to market themselves and sell their music directly to fans. For a one-off $25 fee, any artist can set up a profile, upload an unlimited amount of their music, manage photos and even set their own prices. They will then get 70% of the list price for each song sold. In iTunes, artists only receive around 12% of the list price on the sale of each song.
One advantage Google Music will have over iTunes is that there’s no limit to how many devices you can access the service from.
Google Music is currently only available in the US, here’s hoping Google spreads the love to other countries very soon.
Would you change across to Google Music from iTunes? Feel free to share your thoughts below.
Top 5 Social Media Trends for 2012
As the end of the year draws closer, it’s about time we shared our predictions for online marketing in 2012.
This week I will start with social media because it is an area of online marketing that is of most interest to me. In the coming weeks, our team will also cover SEO and SEM trends we think will emerge in 2012.
Ok, let’s get to it – with the assistance of online marketing guru, Jeff Bulas, here are the trends in social media that are expected to take off in 2012.
- Social Mobile
The invention and evolution of the computer in your hand, the “smart phone” that is connected to high speed broadband Internet is revolutionizing our communications and society. Facebook and Twitter apps are enabling people to take their social networks with them. The latest change to this ongoing trend is that Twitter is now embedded in the Apple iOS5 mobile operating system at the menu layer. Twitter has seen user acquisition increase by 300% since the launch.
Does this signal the end of the humble simple “text”?
- Socialization of Search
Google’s search results are determined by complex algorithms designed and developed by hundreds of clever mathematicians wearing white lab coats and calculated by computers in dark humming data centers.
Google has started rolling out its “+1″ button that they are starting to indicate will be the start of the rise of ”social signals” that will be used to determine what content is being voted on as valuable by humans rather than just machines.
Google and Bing have increased the visibility and priority of social networks in search results. You may have noticed over the last 12 months that YouTube videos, Facebook pages and LinkedIn profiles and other social media are ranking higher in search results when conducting an online search.
- Geo-Targeting of Social Media Marketing
The rise of FourSquare and Google “Places” has made checking in for specials in your local area a reality…. again driven by the “smart phone”. The mobile web will continue to make a major impact over the next 5 years as the worlds more than 5 billion phones become “Smart” .
Another part of this local social marketing trend is the new development of post code targeting capability in social media marketing on Facebook which is being rolled out in the USA.
The self serve paid Facebook marketing platform is now starting to include postcodes along with the other demographic data that Facebook has in its database about you.
- Social Commerce
E-Commerce has been with us for nearly 15 years and is now producing a major negative impact on “bricks and mortar” stores that are not also online. It is predicted that 20% of total retail sales will be online over the next few years.
Over the last 12 months technology has emerged that allows you to take your shop (via “Apps”) to the Facebook “network” so that users do not have to leave the Facebook eco-system to buy their favourite brands. In fact many of the worlds top bands and musicians have their own Facebook store on their “Fan Page”
Commerce is now becoming “Omni Commerce”
- Social Gaming
Games used to be played on a field or park, around a board in the middle of a table or with a deck of cards. Gaming has been redefined with the evolution of “Social Gaming” enabled by rich multi-media and easy to use social networks.
Zygna (which was only founded in 2007) has usurped traditional gaming companies by developing Farmville and Mafia Wars that is currently played by 230 million Facebook users every month. In 2010 Facebook and Zygna signed a 5 year agreement on the use of Facebook credits which returns 30% of all games revenues to Facebook. Revenues will exceed $1 billion in 2012 which is achieved through the sales of “virtual” products.
Jeff has shared additional social media trends in the original post which you can check out here.
What do you think lays ahead for social media in 2012? Feel free to share your thoughts below.
Measuring SERP Click Through Data and The Wikipedia Effect
I’ve just finished reading through a great post over at SEOMoz about SERP (search engine result pages) click-through rates and thought it would be perfect to share on our blog.
In a nutshell, the post explores how different factors can impact the click-through rate of any listing in Google’s search results.
Given this data is quite difficult to obtain, a dummy search page was built to replicate Google’s search results. Users were then encouraged to visit the page and select the search result they think best matched the query.
Test 1: Great White Sharks
The first test was set to determine if users would click on the first result out of habit, or if they searched for the best match for the query. To do this the search term ‘great white sharks‘ was used with top 3 search results for ‘sharks‘ inserted at the top of the page. This means that the best result for ‘great white sharks‘ was now sitting in position 4 as indicated below.
Here are the results with the percentage of clicks that each listing received,
As you can see, the results indicate that a combined total of 65% of people clicked on the first three results for ‘great white sharks‘ even though they were in positions 4-6 on the page. It’s also interesting to note that the two listings with the highest click through have the text “Great White Shark” in the title of the listing – a well-known ranking factor.
Test 2: The Wikipedia Effect
The second test was created to determine if Wikipedia listings still claim a higher click-through than other search results. In order to do this, the test was run with the search results for ‘barack obama‘ modified so that the number 1 listing (a Wikipedia entry) was moved down to position 2 and then position 3.
The results for Wikipedia in position 2 are on the left, and the results with Wikipedia in position 3 are on the right.
In the first set of results, even though the first listing is extremely relevant to the query, the Wikipedia listing still comes in with the highest click-through rate in the second position.
In the second set of results, the Wikipedia entry again receives an unusually higher percentage of clicks in position three, despite the second listing being a relevant whitehouse.gov link.
So what learnings can we gather from these tests? Well for the benefit of those who have skipped to the end of this post, here’s a summary of some of the key takeaways:
- While listings in position 1 do get a fair share of clicks, the majority of searches will still spend time to look for the most relevant snippet, even if it is lower down on the page.
- Having an exact match of the search phrase in the Title of the search result will result in stronger click through.
- From the test results above, Wikipedia listings by their nature will attract a higher click-through rate.
If you’re interested in learning more about the test I encourage you to have a read of the original post over at SEOmoz.
It’s Official: Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL Join Forces for Display Ads
In Manhattan last Tuesday, the company executives of Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft made it official – they will be teaming up to start selling ad inventory.
News of this partnership is new, we first wrote about rumors of it back in September, but now all three parties involved have made it official.
Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo’s EVP of the Americas, said in a statement:
We’re thrilled to partner with Microsoft and AOL and bring to market what we believe will be a more efficient, effective and more effortless way to access true premium inventory and formats. There has a been a significant shift in how inventory is bought and sold, and we’re now 100% focused on controlling our own destiny, working directly with marketers and agencies and driving better returns for our advertising partners.
This new partnership was announced exclusively to ad buyers and publishers which will see each party sell each others “Class 2″ display ad inventory on their own sites. It is hoped this will yield great benefits, but they need to accomplish a complex unification of business and technology to make it work.
In the past, the unsold ad unit inventory was sold to third parties by Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft as they had no choice but to do so. But now the three companies will sell over the remaining ad impressions to each other in an effort to bring in increased revenue, which will definitely be welcomed by Yahoo whose revenue keeps dropping each month. The revenue generated from this partnership is said to be shared equally by the three companies.
Only two years ago Yahoo led the display ad market with a 16% share in revenue, followed by Facebook with 7 %, AOL closely followed with 6.4 %, Microsoft with 4.6 % and, surprisingly, Google only held 4.5 % of the market. But how times have changed…. Google now commands around 66% of the display ad market, thanks to the DoubleClick ad exchange with Facebook in a close second.
So its no wonder Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL have pooled their ad resources, I imagine they are pretty anxious to reclaim the display ad market.
Currently, the partnership extends across sites in the United States. However, there is plans to extend the agreement to Canadian sites also.
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