Google Social Search is a very new feature of Google. The intention is to increase your personal trust level by including what you friends and aquaintances have said about the topic you are searching for.
Say what?! Let me break it down a little deeper for you.
If you are a regular person looking for info by doing a Google search, Google has always wanted to give you exactly what you are looking for. That does not always happen – but now Google wants to help increase “word of mouth” from your social circle in the hopes that you will trust what they have said more than what Google says in the results.
It turns out, that it may be useful to you if info on a restaurant you are interested in was reviewed by your cousin. People trust their people’s opinions more than what some random search engine, right? So, if you are typing the name of the restaurant and hit enter, and if you happen to be logged into Google, and you happen to have added your cousin into your gmail contact list or chat list - you will see social search results at the bottom of your page, where one click shows what your cousin wrote.
Of course, Google still maintains control of the page of results. They will still send you paid ads and hope you click on those, and still shows the top 10 search results which are determined through their algorhythm. And then, if Google determines that your cousin’s info is relevant, they may or may not show it at the bottom of the page. Depends on their, cough, algorhythm, cough.
And, in the end, is Google doing this to keep people on their page instead of using Bing or Yahoo for relevant search results? Probably. Also, there is that Big Brother feeling in my gut. To see the social circle results, one has to have a Google email account, a Google Profile, and Google Reader is thrown in also. And, you have to be logged in. So, not only do they know who you are, they know what you are doing at all times. The announcement came with many statements of how using social search is optional, and only at your permission, and could be changed by you at any time.
Perhaps this is why all of this is still in the Google Labs as an experiment for now.
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\\ tags: Google Social Search
 Methods of marketing video online are almost dead last in a survey done by eMarketer.com, almost dead last, as a trusted resource that is.
True, millions of people watch videos every day, YouTube is still extremely popular. Yet, the survey says, people would not trust an ad online with a video. What I find interesting also is, high up the list, the survey says they would trust a “consumer online opinion”. In fact, they would trust that more than an editorial from a leading newspaper.
So, what is different with an unknown consumer’s opinion and an unknown video creator’s ad? I am only offering my personal opinion here, so take it for what you will. Seem’s to me that people believe another human, that it is just a natural happenstance. And that something about a video ( which features humans alot of the time ) ad turns them off. Let’s see, could it simply be that they know an ad is trying to sell them something? That would be my best guess.
How do we get sales from videos then? My thought is, the video needs to show a human talking in a regular believable conversation in order to get attention. If it can look like a candid conversation, then I think this would be much more believable. No one likes to be “sold”. This is why Tivo is so popular. And if we could all just avoid ads and commerce, we would. Until we need to buy something. Then we search the internet like crazy monkeys hoping to get an opinion, and not only that, but a good deal, no scratch that, the best deal. Maybe we just need to get it that people do not want ads mixed into videos. Maybe we are all simply spoiled and expect everything to be for free. Yes, I think that is it.
Ads served on internet searches is also listed very low on the trusted survey results. Yet, we hear that Google has made tons of money with no end of domination in sight. Enough people click on the ads to ensure that the advertisers have to pay Google. Maybe they are just searching and not always looking to buy. Maybe Google just makes all their money from the advertisers? Well then they would not be able to stay in business for long, so it cannot just be that.
So, they want to just watch videos when they go to YouTube, and they just want search results when they use Google. Hmm. Maybe the only point here is, people are well aware that what is presented is an ad. Awareness.
Recently the FTC has stated that bloggers are going to have to somehow let readers know that their “online opinion” has been paid for, or if they have received a free product in exchange for a review. Will that totally change this survey? I am thinking it will , after people really get it that internet marketers are, well, marketing to them. It may take a while for them to let it sink it, see it a few times, hear about it a few times. In the meanwhile, marketers can continue to make a living online.
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\\ tags: internet marketing, online marketing
If you use the social media king Facebook’s Fan Page, did you know you can insert that into your wordpress blog sidebar? Here’s how to do it.
Login to your Facebook Fan Page. On the left, look for the link “Add A Fan Box”. Now you simply copy the code and insert it into your blog. If you are using WordPress, here is how you do that.
Login to the wp-admin of your blog. Using version 2.7 and up, on the left, click on Appearance. Underneath, click on widget. Next, you have to decide which sidebar you wish to place a new text box, left or right. Some blog themes only have one sidebar so you won’t be worrying over this choice. See below.
 Using the text box Once you have selected the sidebar you want, then you are going to either drag and drop your text box from the left, or just click Add next to your text box on the left. This depends on which version of Wordpress you are using. Once done, you must click SAVE before we go further.
 Adding Text Box
Now, on the right side where you see the new Text box, click to open it. Inside, you have an option to add a title, so go ahead and add that if you want one. Below this area, you will copy and paste the html code you found on your Facebook Fan Page. Once done, you click Save at the bottom. After this, you are going to Visit Site to see how it all looks. You can tweak the size of this new text box if it is running off the screen, see instructions below.
 Text Box Of course, you can use this same method to insert all kinds of html objects into your sidebars. Most social media allow you to copy the html and use it on your blog, and this is the method you could follow. Also, please see the post on facebook and local business marketing.
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\\ tags: facebook, social media, social media marketing
Here is the latest from emarketing.com on the realities of online searches and website marketing for consumers. As you will see, SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of the inexpensive options in the harsh advertising climate. Using search engine optimization to gain visitors and customers is free and potent, if you focus on doing it correctly. As time goes on, adding this type of social media marketing to a local business’ arsenal is well worth the time it takes to understand it and use it wisely.
“When money is tight, consumers are constantly looking for deals. And, today, that means they are going online to search for better prices, selection and services. If they find them—forget brand loyalty—they will switch to new products or vendors in a clickbeat.
Marketers have four basic search options: paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion—all three are types of advertising—and search engine optimization (SEO).
While paid search gets most of the attention and money, marketers are increasingly turning to SEO to acquire new customers.
All four options will experience increased spending through 2013. By then total US search marketing outlays will reach nearly $23.4 billion, and marketers will be spending more on SEO than on contextual advertising. ”
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\\ tags: social media, social media marketing, website marketing
Social Media is Twitter to the max. People connecting with other people. Some use it for business, some use it to connect with friends and family, some use it with a mix of both of the above.
First, if you do not have a personal account or a business account, please go to twitter.com and create one. If you have a business, it would be best if you had a separate account just for it, to keep your online marketing tighter to your audience. And, once you have those accounts, you will want to spice up your background page so more of your message gets told about your business, or, give more info on who you are for your friends.
Here are some great links for twitter background pages. Please try them out, and, feel free to follow me on twitter also!
13 tutorials on twitter backgrounds has awesome examples to get your creativity flowing, and, for those who need help with the graphics part,
twitter backgrounds created for you with templates
And for maximum exposure, tweak out your profile on twitter. Make sure to add keywords there which are searchable on twitter search, so others can find you and possibly follow you. The profile can be updated multiple times, so take your time and edit it as you go.
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\\ tags: social media, social media marketing, twitter
You should know by now that millions of people use facebook as a social media tool. Besides just enjoying yourself online at this site, interaction with others can be very useful for your local business marketing.
Here are 5 ways that you can use facebook to your advantage if you have a business. By the way, I am in progress on each of these steps as I create this post.
1.After you have a personal facebook account, be sure to put links to your business inside your profile. Here is what mine looks like right now:
Remember to type in the whole URL to create a real link, and by that I mean add in the http:// part at the front. Also, you can add the URL to specific pages within your site, it does not just have to be your home page that you link to.
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\\ tags: facebook, local business marketing, social media, social media marketing
Social media has been kicking some reputations to the curb, and a new one is the Dominos Pizza youtube video which inflamed the social world.
Apparently two workers (who have since been fired and arrested) decided to video a bad prank this past week on Monday, and the wildfire spread without a fast enough check by the company spokespeople. Dominos has responded by creating a Twitter account two days after the incident, and put up a youtube video, but it was estimated by survey that in those two days their reputation went from positive to negative by the public. Check out the comments for the company video. And, there are already spin off videos on youtube discussing the event.
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\\ tags: dominos youtube, social media
OK, this goes into the “who knew” category for me. Business Week has an article on Yahoo News today stating that employees who “use social media” and email online with their managers make up to $588 more per month than those who don’t.
Yah. It is so hard to determine if the IBM and MIT study only looked at males, who definately make more cash than females for the same $, or what. However, people, isn’t this just reason enough?
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\\ tags: social media, social media for corporations
In the past week I have read two different blog posts discussing if social media was worth all the hype. And, each of the blogs had many responses from regular folks agreeing that they, too, have not seen any of the exciting results of spending their time keeping up with the latest social media trends.
Twitter is usually the example given as the biggest hyped application, but the least responsive in return for the time spent.
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\\ tags: internet marketing, social media marketing, web 2.0
Social Media Marketing depends on a crowd of people to recommend what they think (at the moment) is valuable to another person. This concept is hardly new, however, it is what Web 2.0 has been about online for a few years.
Advice to others is a tradition which is ancient in concept. Within families, this advice has been the foundation of parenting – been there, right? Some, looking at the internet as it is now, want to figure out what is the next level that we can expect? Some want to know when new changes will start to take place, so they can jump on the bandwagon.
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\\ tags: internet marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization
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