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Friday, May 11th, 2012
Microsoft’s search offering, Bing, has undergone another revamp. And with a huge focus on social, Bing may have found a way to begin to oust Google from search dominance.
After joining a ‘search alliance’ with Yahoo!, the “New Bing” will try to usurp Google by offering things it currently can’t.
Of course, Bing will still return normal organic search results and paid ads, just like it used to.
But now its social annotations, scraped from public information across a variety of social networks, are being lumped into a special sidebar, giving you the chance to interact with social friends.
The sidebar will pull information from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare and even Google+.
Google has already fallen out with Twitter, and, to a lesser extent, with Facebook. It can’t return Twitter profiles in its search results, because the microblogging site has blocked their spiders.
Not so with Bing.
Whereas Google has faced accusations of throttling social results – leading Facebook and Twitter to publicly demand “Don’t be Evil” (a cheeky nod to Google’s original ethos) whilst falling out with the search giant – Bing isn’t discriminating.
Google isn’t going to be able to pull info from Twitter or public posts from Facebook until relations are mended. In the meantime, Bing has a big open deal which could allow it to steal a march on Google.
The ramifications of this social focus, on both search engine optimisation and pay per click campaigns, could be huge. It would see an integrated Internet marketing approach, where search marketing and advertising is combined with social media.
Friend recommendations could become key selling tools, for instance. Group discounts for social groups with similar interests could be offered. It’s still early days, but the potential to create more joined-up marketing campaigns certainly exists.
Bing has been quick to point out that in a blindfolded taste test – much like those undertaken during the 1980s cola wars between Coke and Pepsi – search users preferred Bing’s search results to Google’s.
“We regularly test unbranded results, removing any trace of Google and Bing branding,” they said. “When we did this study in January of last year, 34% preferred Bing, whilst 38% preferred Google.
“The same unbranded study now shows that Bing search results have a much wider lead over Google’s. When shown unbranded search results, 43% prefer Bing, whilst only 28% prefer Google results.”
Of course, internal market research is hard to qualify. And Bing still needs to convince people to leave the relative comfort zone of Google and try something new.
If that works, though, then Google could face a real fight to maintain its position.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, Pay Per Click Services, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Tags: Bing, facebook, Google, LinkedIn, online marketing, optimisation, PPC, results, search, SEO, social, twitter, yahoo
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation
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Monday, April 16th, 2012
Forget the outcry about SOPA – one of Google’s co-founders claims Facebook, not political meddling, is the “greatest threat” to internet freedom.
When the US congress began looking at SOPA – the Stop Online Piracy Act – the world-wide web went ballistic: claiming the act was so loosely worded, it could lead to political infringement which would, amongst other things, usurp the American right to free speech and shut down the “open web”. The anger spread quickly and countless sites protested about the legislation.
Whilst most webmasters may tell you they’re still keeping an eye on the political rumblings regarding SOPA-style legislature, over at Google, it seems something else entirely is causing a bee-in-the-bonnet-style headache.
Funnily enough, that something is Facebook.
According to Sergey Brin, who co-founded Google with Larry Page, the social network site is creating a “walled garden” which could lead to a loss of freedom on the net.
Brin claims Facebook’s rules are very restrictive, so much so that had they been applied to the web during the development of Google, the search engine may never have come to fruition.
He told the Guardian there were “very powerful forces” who opposed an open internet – naming Facebook and Apple specifically, and claiming “it’s scary.”
The comments came after several US employers were chastised in the past few weeks for asking prospective staff members for access to their social media profiles.Whilst Facebook was quick to point out such intrusion was against its terms of service, the debate has continued as to whether employers should, or shouldn’t, be granted access to personal information.
Brin has widened the debate, claiming Governments are trying to access, and control, public communication. In China and Saudi Arabia, for instance, this state censorship is prevalent and largely decried by the West. Ironically, the issue of such censorship is creeping into democratic Western countries now.
In the UK, several online instant messengers were hauled over the coals during UK parliamentary inquiries which followed last summer’s riots. The riots followed violent anti-government uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, amongst others, which were largely attributed to the dissemination of information via sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Brin, who was originally against Google operating in China, where the Government is renowned for censorship and propaganda, said simple shifts in online behaviour, such as people using apps in Facebook or via Apple devices, were restricting web freedom.
“All the information in apps – that data is not crawlable by web crawlers. You can’t search it,” he said, an effect which could greatly affect future search engine optimisation campaigns.
And he has a point. But then, Google has a vested interest in searchable information.
Brin’s underlying message is backed by the 14 million-member online activist site Avaaz – but his attack on Facebook has been seen as something as a cheapshot.
He claimed Google could never have been developed under Facebook’s “restrictive” rules – saying the success of Google hinged on an “open, transparent web”. Brin criticised the ‘walled garden’ effect of sites like Facebook, and said that effect would, ultimately, lead to a less open Internet.
But, oddly, he didn’t mention Google+, Google’s recently-launched, and far less popular social network rival to Facebook.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, Pay Per Click Services, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Tags: apple, apps, facebook, Google, Larry Page, open internet, sergey brin, social networks, sopa, twitter, walled gardens, web freedom
Posted in Search Engine News
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Friday, April 13th, 2012
Social media usage continues to rise, without any sign of reaching a saturation point in the near future, as Christian Arno points out in an article published on Search Engine Watch.
Arno pulls together statistics from a number of different sources to paint a picture of social media usage in 2012 – and generally speaking, it’s good news for those engaged in social media marketing. Some of the key statistics that he mentions are:
- Last month, EMarketer predicted that the number of people using social networks would increase by 19.2 per cent compared to last year – bringing the total number of users up to 1.43 billion
- A Pew Internet survey conducted last year discovered that 65 per cent of internet users in the US used social networking sites. In addition, 61 per cent of adults under the age of 30 used these sites at least once per day. The figure for daily usage amongst internet users between 50 and 64 was 32 per cent
- Another survey from late last year found that 96 per cent of companies surveyed would be spending more money on social media marketing
The article also looks at the continuing dominance of Facebook in 2012, pointing out that:
- The site has not faltered as the dominant social network since overtaking MySpace in 2008
- It boasts more than 845 million active users
- There are only six countries in the world in which Facebook is not the dominant social network – China (where TencentQZone is top of the pack), Russia (where Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki fight for the crown), as well as Japan, Vietnam, South Korea and Poland
- Facebook has recently tripled in audience size in the emerging Brazilian market, overtaking Orkut as the leading social media site in December
It looks like Facebook will rule the roost for some time. However, despite easily beating Twitter in terms of total users, Facebook is behind in terms of growth in the US. Twitter’s growth in the US will be four times greater than Facebook’s over the next two years, according to predictions made by The Realtime Report.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: Christian Arno, facebook, myspace, Search Engine Watch, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Friday, March 30th, 2012
Industrial firms have firmly embraced social media marketing, according to an article published on ThomasNet today.
Seven out of ten small to medium-sized suppliers are already engaging with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, as well as other channels, in an effort to promote themselves.
Thomas Industrial Group surveyed more than 3000 businesses, finding that many industrial firms already use social media to market products and services, gain new business, conduct research and forge relationships with their customer base.
The study also found that 56 per cent of buyers are more keen to do business with suppliers that have a social media presence. Perhaps unsurprisingly, industrial suppliers are now using social en masse, with 20 percent saying that they used social platforms to learn about customer’s opinions, 27 percent to find new prospects, and 41 percent to provide information on the products and services that they offer.
It isn’t all good news, however. The results suggest that those companies that fail to get on board the social train are at risk of losing business opportunities to those who have already engaged with social media platforms.
Susan Orr, senior director, strategic marketing at Thomas Industrial Network said: “The industrial sector is awakening to the fact that social media isn’t just a passing consumer fancy, but an essential part of any branding and marketing programme.”
Orr also stressed that social media campaigns require careful management, saying: “Savvy suppliers also understand that the most effective social media programs need constant care and feeding. To influence prospective buyers, suppliers need to continually update their social media content, and to be actively engaging in and initiating conversations.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, PPC, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Tags: facebook, industry, LinkedIn, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
The blogging and social sharing platform Posterous has been acquired by Twitter. This is another indication of the joining of dots between social media platforms, bringing more functionality to users and, in this instance, offering Twitter an additional strength by providing easy access to a mechanism for sharing photos, long form writing and more, which 140 characters cannot.
There are many blogging platforms – the best known are Google’s Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, and Posterous. Blogs have gone from being simple online diaries or web logs to now being difficult to tell apart from a website, and often offering advantages over such because of the evolution from social media roots.
Many companies have discovered the usefulness of blogs for engaging with website visitors, sharing information, and posting images and, as blogs have adapted rapidly to social media developments, so companies have been able to co-ordinate social media strategies and efficiencies, such as being able to post directly to a blog from a mobile or smartphone.
Whilst some may see Twitter’s acquisition of Posterous as a step towards commercialisation (the company has an avid, enthusiastic and supportive community behind the platform), it is likely that this is a shrewd move by Twitter to extend its use beyond short form. Although Posterous is not the most popular blogging platform, the opening for Twitter is obvious.
The amalgamation of Twitter with a blog can benefit any social media strategy for small and large companies, and is proving to be essential in this socmed world, as well as a presence on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.
Posterous has made it very simple for sharing of images, which is one area where many companies still seem to be missing the opportunities presented. Images and videos are not only eye-catching but can be used to simply display information, and the rise of infographics is testament to that. By sharing images across multiple social media properties, it is possible to reach a diverse audience and this may well be one of the key reasons for Twitter’s acquisition of Posterous as well as the rise of Pinterest in recent months.
Tags: acquisition, facebook, Google, LinkedIn, posterous, Social Media, strategy, twitter
Posted in Blog, Social Media
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Thursday, March 15th, 2012
The ‘throttling’ of Facebook and Twitter results on Google – with evermore rare occurrences of either site popping up on the first page – has made social media marketing on either site somewhat isolated.
Of course, both Facebook and Twitter would love to be ranked more highly by Google: but it’s become a case of ‘tough luck’ for both sites since the search giant launched Google+.
Google are a savvy bunch: trying to launch a new social network whilst giving equal weight to your competitors – despite screams of antitrust breach – is not a good business practice.
As such – and you’ve probably noticed this – Google has made huge efforts to make Google+ profiles as visible as possible online. This includes great organic search rankings, as well as notable mentions in Google News searches where the author of an article has linked to their Google+ profile.
Combined with Google’s seemingly common preference to stick YouTube video results near the top of SERPs, it’s fast becoming obvious that pouring Internet marketing efforts into Google platforms has the potential to yield better results, especially if you’re able to cross-combine your campaign to maximise +1s, YouTube referrals, organic rankings, and content pointers for your freshly-written articles.
Facebook has launched an IPO which will trigger a wave of new money-making moves on the site: things which marketers previously enjoyed for free will dry up, meaning serious budgets will be needed to take advantage of the potential 800-million user reach of the site.
Google+, on the other hand, isn’t quite ‘there’ in the popularity stakes yet to monetise.
Get in fast before it does and there are some immediate benefits for your SEO. Here are two very simple benefits of setting up a Google+ account which will help support existing SEO campaigns.
Organic boosts:
Google+ pages rank really well – and with Facebook and Twitter failing to reach search agreements, Google+ profiles look set to remain the search result of choice on Google. Getting your personal profile sorted, and linked back to your company, allows you far greater visibility: producing regular industry-related content will set you apart from competitors and solidify you as an ‘expert’ in your field, without the need for huge swathes of keywords. Obviously, SEO remains very important, but Google+ provides a ready-made boost for your SEO campaign which shouldn’t be ignored.
Get recommended:
Whilst Facebook ‘likes’ flag up popular pages for Facebook users, Google’s +1 feature puts hearty recommendations all over Google’s portion of the web. Rather than relying on insular Facebook referrals by creating popular content, items on your Google+ account can be flagged up to every web user who utilises Google search. That’s nearly all of them, then.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies.
Tags: Content, experts, facebook, Google, organic, PPC, profiles, quality, search, SEO, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
Procter and Gamble (P&G), the world’s largest consumer packaged goods company, has been discussing Internet marketing initiatives to help cut advertising costs and reach a larger audience.
P&G sells household products from razors to shampoo in 180 countries, represents some huge brands – Fairy, Pantene, Pampers, Braun, Duracell, Olay and Ariel amongst them.
As such, P&G is also responsible for the world’s biggest advertising budget: and now new head of marketing Marc Pritchard is looking to shave $1bn from that annual cost by 2016.
Against a backdrop of company-wide savings totalling around $10bn, such steep changes to marketing – at such a massive firm – are bound to resonate globally too.
Mr Pritchard told the Wall Street Journal that, along with traditional cost-cutting measures such as job reorganisation, spending efficiency changes and reining in pricey TV ads, P&G were now looking at lower-cost digital marketing measures.
The 51-year-old, who has been chief of global marketing at P&G since 2008, said: “I took a small group of people when I first got here to learn everything we can about digital, and get that through the company.”
One of the cost-cutting measures will see combined brand activity around global events: the 2012 Olympics provides the perfect platform to test this.
“You’ll see some very heavy-duty activity for our Olympics program,” Mr Pritchard said. “It’ll be Twitter, Google, YouTube, Yahoo! Those are going to be some pretty essential parts of the whole program.
“We have more than 30 brands doing Olympic activities, 150 athletes, all those brands have Facebook pages, all those athletes have Facebook pages. Then we go out, create an event, talk about it, push it out, through broadcast and digital. Then we have community managers who are amplifying the discussion, engaging on Facebook, on YouTube, things like Twitter. That’s the way it’ll work.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: 2012, advertising, ariel, costs, digital, duracell, facebook, fairy, internet marketing, marketing, olay, Olympics, P&G, pampers, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Monday, March 12th, 2012
The Advertising Standards Agency has ruled that a guerrilla social media marketing campaign on Twitter, by confectionary manufacturer Mars, did not breach advertising guidelines.
The ASA received complaints from Twitter users after several high-profile celebrities advertised Snickers bars on their feeds.
Mars said it had paid several celebrities to post a string of four “odd” Tweets that seemed out of character with their personality.
The celebs then posted a fifth Tweet stating “You’re not you when you’re hungry” – together with a photo of them clutching a Snickers, and the hashtag #spon (which highlights sponsored, or paid-for Tweets).
The ASA complaints referred specifically to posts by Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand, and Page 3 glamour girl Jordan (real name Katie Price). Twitter users did not complain about similar advertising Tweets posted by Ian Botham and Cher Lloyd.
Rio’s followers began to get suspicious when the bolshy defender – known as being a bit of a ‘lad’ – started talking about knitting. Jordan’s followers were equally stumped when the surgically-enhanced celeb began debating the intricacies of the Eurozone debt crisis.
The ASA investigated the social media marketing campaign to establish whether people reading the celeb’s Twitter feeds could have been mislead into thinking the Tweets were “genuine”.
The Agency said the four “teaser” Tweets were okay as they did not mention Mars or Snickers – and that the fifth Tweet, containing the “reveal”, was clearly an advert as it carried the #spon hashtag.
The watchdog didn’t agree with Mars’s assertion that only the fifth Tweet truly constituted advertising or marketing: saying the string of Tweets were an “orchestrated advertising campaign”. However, it recognised that the Tweets had come in quick succession, and that users were not mislead.
“We considered the combination of those elements was sufficient to make clear the Tweets were advertising,a nd that consumers would then understand each series of Tweets was a marketing communication,” the ASA said.
Industry experts say the ruling hasn’t shed any light on the use of celebrities on Twitter for marketing purposes – they want better guidance from the ASA to explain what is acceptable and what isn’t in social media marketing.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Tags: #spon, advertising, ASA, Jordan, Mars, Rio Ferdinand, Snickers, tweets, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Friday, March 9th, 2012
Rumours are circulating that Twitter is working on e-commerce, contest and sweepstake features for brand pages on the micro-blogging site, according to an article published by Ad Age.
Brand pages, which launched in December, have become extremely popular with businesses looking to conduct social media marketing campaigns on the site, despite initial scepticism from some quarters.
The rumours have been given some weight with three executives familiar with the matter confirming to Ad Age that Twitter are working on bringing new features to the pages.
It is thought that the addition of these new features will allow app developers to create a Twitter experience that can be compared to that experienced by users on Facebook’s new Timeline for Brands.
High-profile brands including American Express, McDonalds and Nike were part of the launch group for the micro-blogging site’s brand pages.
Twitter declined to comment on the speculation regarding the addition of new features.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Tags: Ad Age, American Express, brand pages, McDonalds, Nike, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Friday, March 9th, 2012
London-based Mexican restaurant group, Poncho 8, has launched an innovative social media marketing campaign, according to an article published by The Drum.
Poncho 8 are asking users on both Twitter and Facebook to suggest scenes taken from classic films in which a burrito could be added to play a key role.
The campaign is being promoted through Poncho 8′s pages on Twitter (@PonchoNo8) and Facebook; the best suggestions will be incorporated into posters that will appear in Poncho 8′s restaurants – with ‘Raiders of the Lost Burrito’ one of the most popular suggestions.
One suggestion will be picked each month, with the winner receiving a free meal for both them and a friend.
Users can make their suggestions to @PonchoNo8 with the hashtag #PonchoFilmHijack included in the tweet.
Co-owner of Poncho 8, Nick Troen, said: “The Poncho brand is all about playfulness and being in touch with modern developments so carrying out a campaign using social media platforms seemed like an obvious route for us.
“We want our fans to be able to feel a real connection with what would traditionally be a gourmet burrito outlet and be able to put our followers’ ideas into action, not only with respect to our food, but also the visual aspects of the interior,” he added.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: facebook, Poncho 8, Social Media, social media marketing campaign, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
