Online Marketing Blog: Big Dog Google vs Yahoo + Bing. Has the playing field leveled?

September 1st, 2010

Now that the dust has settled after the big announcement about Yahoo and Bing joining hands, I wonder if the two brands will be able to take on Google and change the competitive landscape of "Search" just a little bit.

Yahoo had announced that it had begun transitioning Bing results into Yahoo results – a product of the Search Alliance between Yahoo and Microsoft. Yahoo search experiences are now powered by the Microsoft platform in the US and Canada (English), with more markets to come. The speed in which this was completed is a testament to the great work and partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft employees.
 
To minimize the effect of the merge on marketing dollars, Yahoo will be displaying mainly organic results from Bing. Currently Yahoo only delivers English-language searches via Bing but that’ll change over time. Yahoo searches will switch over to Bing in other countries throughout 2011 and 2012.

The big question in all of our minds is whether the competitive landscape will change. I mean, come on, Google is still the big dog and it still dominates the search market with almost 66 percent usage share.

 By combining Yahoo’s and Bing's search shares, however, Microsoft will get control of more advertising dollars. Maybe this will allow them to invest in more better search technologies?
 

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Posted in BING, Google, Yahoo | 1 Comment »

Online Marketing Blog: Google Dominates Search with 66.8% Market Share

August 31st, 2010

The recent August statistics released by comScore prove that Google has an impressive 65.8 percentage of US search market share under its belt. Yahoo had 17.1 percent and Bing had 11 percent of the Search Market Share in August.

Search market share calculations

ComScore calculates search market share using a methodology called “Explicit Core Search”. They exclude contextual links and slide shows to determine each individual click. However because Yahoo and Bing recently added contextual links and slideshows comScore was forced to calculate metrics using a different method called “Total Core Search”.

Slideshows and contextual shortcuts make a difference in the search count because a single click on a slideshow triggers a series of sites to load whereby each slide is counted as a click. When users hover over some words in articles contextual links pop up and these are counted as clicks.

When they looked at the Total Core Search statistics, Google accounted for about 61.6 percent of the market share while Yahoo was at 20 percent and Bing followed with 12.6 percent. This difference in data prompted comScore to change its methodology and offer two distinct  calculations, called Explicit Core Search and Total Core Search.

Experts have backed this shift in methodology. This is because explicit core search tracks only those searches in which users entered specific queries to get results.
 
Yahoo joining hands with Bing will change the landscape a bit but it is anyone's guess at this time as to how it will evolve. Will they or won't they be successful in leveraging their combined strengths to grab a larger search market share by taking some of it away from Google?

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Posted in BING, Google, Yahoo | 1 Comment »

Online Marketing Blog: Twitter – Tweets & Promoted Trends

August 20th, 2010

Twitter is preparing itself and its developers for the rollout of its ad platforms, Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends, within third-party applications, starting with desktop apps.
 
The microblogging site launched “promoted tweets” in April 2010, which saw the likes of Virgin America, post branded messages which appeared into user’s feeds. It then went onto launch ‘promoted trends’ in June, which allowed brands to enter the trend column.
 
The company has made an update to its application programming interface (API) that gives developers access to two new fields related to Promoted Tweets and Trends. These aren’t ready for prime time though; it will be some time before you actually see Promoted Tweets in TweetDeck, Seesmic or any of the other third-party apps you may be using.
 
“Over the next few months, we will begin beta testing with a handful of desktop applications,” said Twitter Developer Advocate Matt Harris in a post on the Twitter Development Talk Google Group. “During this period, we aim to learn a lot, and we will apply those lessons when we expand distribution of Twitter Promoted Products to the broader ecosystem.”
 
Harris also confirmed something we have known for a while: those developers will get a cut of the revenue it generates through Promoted Content in third-party apps. The company is “still working out the exact value” of the revenue split.
 
Earlier this month, Twitter unveiled Suggestions for You, a tool account holders can use to find other Twitter users with similar interests. The site also added Who to Follow, a section that lists people or organizations a user might be interested in.
 
This is a natural move for Twitter as a significant number of users access the site’s services through third party applications. One such application, TweetDeck recently reported that it had surpassed 15 million downloads for its desktop app and 2.5 million for its iPhone counterpart.
 

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Online Marketing Blog: Do-it Yourself Twitter Backgrounds

August 18th, 2010

Twitter is undoubtedly a good way to promote your business and to connect with as many people as you can. You’ll find that tweeters with huge numbers of followers use custom twitter templates on their profiles, including their logo and website branding.

You can choose your own custom backgrounds and customize your page to suit your interests and your business. Creating or changing your background image is not a difficult task and there are many different applications you can use free of charge. You don’t even have to download anything to your computer if you don’t wish to.
My Tweet Space offers easy to use templates for exceptional backgrounds for your Twitter page. You have loads of options including different font sizes, styles, graphics and columns. The site offers free backgrounds or if you want a more personalized background you will have to pay a small amount.

Free Twitter Designer is another site where you have the option of selecting one of their themes or you can begin with a blank template. Also check out Twitter Backgrounds Gallery where you have almost 2000 templates to choose from there.
But once you’ve got the backgrounds, you still need someone to tweet for you on a regular frequency AND to execute your complete online marketing campaign. That’s where you can call us – 😀

Contact us to see how we can help you leverage the most popular networks at the most cost-effective rates found in town!
 

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Online Marketing Blog: Twitter Experiencing Growing Problems?

July 22nd, 2010

Twitter's got problems. Interesting article which needs no real summary.

Article credit: Computer World By Juan Carlos Perez

IDG News Service – The recurrent technical problems that have affected Twitter for the past seven weeks have also taken a toll on developers of external applications built for the microblogging service.

Throughout the outages, malfunctions and bugs that began the second week of June and hit their high point during the soccer World Cup, makers of third-party applications have tried to weather the storm while having little or no control over the situation.

The frequent and disruptive technical issues have forced these developers, many of whom generate significant revenue from their Twitter applications, to scramble to appease their angry users, while trying to protect their brands and cope with lost business.

"Twitter API issues in the previous weeks have been terrible for us," said Loic Le Meur, founder and CEO of Seesmic, which makes Twitter client applications for various desktop and mobile platforms.

Users always blame Seesmic first since it's their primary interface to Twitter. It's extremely frustrating because there is nothing else we can do than warning users Twitter has problems. It is very damaging for us since users start to look for alternatives, which fortunately have the same problems, but damage to the brand is done," he said via e-mail.

Twitter, founded in 2006, became notorious back in 2007 and the first half of 2008 for its lengthy outages, but since then it steadily improved the reliability of the service. It had been having a particularly solid 2010 until June rolled around.

"It had been really stable for a long time and then this just came up as a bit of a surprise," said Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite, which makes a client application to manage accounts from Twitter and other social media services.

At various points since the problems started in early June, a very apologetic Twitter has blamed the problems on a variety of factors, including massive traffic spikes caused by World Cup games, internal system bugs, server upgrades gone wrong and faulty network configurations.

"It's been a bit disruptive and frustrating because many people don't know if it's us or Twitter, and they'll just assume it's us. Then we have a communication issue we have to address," Holmes said in a telephone interview.

Although the issues have dropped in frequency and intensity in the past two weeks, some developers remain doubtful of Twitter's ability to provide a consistently stable service…….read more at http://www.wisdeo.com/articles/view_post/7326

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Posted in Social Media Marketing, twitter | 1 Comment »

Online Marketing Blog: Search Engine Optimization + Social Networking!

June 15th, 2010

In May 2010, social platforms surpassed the number of visits by Internet users when compared to the search giant Google. Google is the most popular search engine in town, if not the only search engine that really remains "standing". I mean who uses Yahoo for search anymore (anyone???)?
 
Top visited sites remain Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and then the rest.

But I don't see how Facebook can ever become a "search engine". It just doesn't have the content that Google has. Facebook and other social platforms have "user-generated" content. So from a user reach perspective, they are great tools for businesses. But individuals and companies will continue to use Google as a search engine to find relevant information. Hence the need for search engine optimization and top rankings. But since top rankings can benefit from links from social networks, businesses benefit from incorporating search engine optimization and social networking together.

Google's got competition in Facebook for sure from a simple "user" number perspective which I can see why. Grandmas who'd never go to Google to search for anything would definitely go to Facebook to see pictures of their grandkids. Right?
 
So is it really surprising then that Facebook will continue to lead the "number of users" statistics? But when it comes to finding anything at all; from cooking tips to products to vacation spots, Google's where I'm going to be and so are you.

 

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Posted in Google, Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

Online Marketing Blog: Flickr Enables Facebook Photo Sharing!

June 10th, 2010

Flickr makes integration with Facebook easy, Finally!

Yes, finally Flickr has added the ability to share your photos on Facebook. Your photos will need to be set up as "public" photos for them to show up on your Facebook Wall. 

Social photo-sharing site Flickr has, at long last, added some much-need social networking integration to its online service. You can now simultaneously post your photos to Flickr and Facebook.

So how does it work?

First, connect your two accounts to get this integration working for you. Once that happens, each time you upload a public photo to your Flickr account, an update will appear on your Facebook wall including the image, its title and the description of the image.

Also remember to shut off the old Flickr to Facebook integration that you may have activated on Facebook. Otherwise you'll see everything show up double! To do this, just go to your Facebook wall and click on Options —> Settings —> Flickr where if it is enabled, just "remove" that enabled feature.

 

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Online Marketing Blog: Social Brandcasting for Business!

June 8th, 2010

If I had a dime every time I heard "but I don't see how "Facebook" can help my business", I'd be a rich man! Yes, I know I've said this a guzzilian times but it's true.

Social networking is really nothing more than social brandcasting – meaning casting your brand out there in the social networks, period! So why are businesses not able to see the value of Brandcasting and leveraging the tools available to them to promote themselves?
 
Social Brandcasting benefits are quite simple:

  • You can reach more people through popular sites like Facebook & Twitter than through ANY chamber event you may attend
  • You can continuously promote your services and company events without spending a dime on print materials
  • You can go on a "ra ra" campaign in a non-obtrusive manner and no one will think twice about it online

You can do "horizontal" brandcasting which is to everyone and everywhere across the board, same message, same positioning. Then you can do the "vertical" brandcasting where you position different messages on different platforms.  By balancing quantity (number of followers, fans, connections) and quality (what you say, how you say, the personna you create of yourself or your company online, etc.) you get the biggest bang for your buck.

Capice? If not, call me and I'll be more than happy to discuss this at length cause this is what my company does day in and day out!

 

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Posted in facebook, Internet Marketing, Linkedin, Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Why Use Twitter for Business

June 6th, 2010

If I had a dollar for every time I heard "but how can Twitter help my business" OR "Twitter? I don't think it'll help me", I'd be a multimillionaire! Ok, so I exaggerate; but for sure I would be hundreds of dollars richer.
 
So why should you use Twitter?

Well, Twitter is free. Twitter is easy. Twitter is flexible. Twitter helps make quick contact and quick connections. But most of all, Twitter is the only tool that allows you to toot your horn as often as you want without the added expense of buying ad space.

A lot of people also say "but we get all our business through referrals". Ok. Well, how do referrals happen? People get to know you at events and lunches and dinners. Once they know you and once they've seen your work (directly or indirectly), they start referring people to you. Twitter then can become a GIANT referral system for you too. People network on Twitter pretty much the same way they do offline. They get to know you, ask questions, read other people's referrals, and check out your capabilities on your website. Once they start seeing you more and more, they find a measure of comfort in your company's legitimacy and capability. Tie the Twitter conversations to offline phone meetings, web conferences, and face to face meetings and now you've really started making the online work for you.

But, Twitter can be time-consuming. And if you don't have the resources, you may want to retain people like us who can cost-effectively manage your Twitter conversations. People are talking everywhere. Your customers and prospects are on Twitter talking about what they need, what frustrates them, what they can benefit from, etc. Not doing anything due to the lack of budget or a lack of resources is no longer optional.

Isn't it time you got on Twitter?

 

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Posted in twitter | 2 Comments »

Social Media Blog: Yahoo Social Networking Coming Soon To You! (June 2010!)

June 2nd, 2010

Oh yeah, here we go! Yahoo's jumping on the bandwagon, the social media bandwagon that is. And you know what, it's with the use of YOUR free yahoo email address.

Yep, Yahoo 280 million or so email users will be able to share information and pictures, exchange ideas, and network online with others in their address books. Unlike Google's Buzz, a user's contact list won't be made public but if you have a Yahoo email address and if you don't OPT OUT, you will be in part of the Yahoo social networking scene whether you like it or not.

Who knew when you signed up for your free Yahoo email that this would happen to you eh?

Suddenly the people you emailed to will become your "Friends" and you'll be sharing your vacation pictures, your thoughts, and every comment you make with others and vice versa.

Not interested? Want to protect yourself from the Yahoo social craze? Well, you will have the option to OPT out. Yahoo plans to notify users on June 7th, one week before they go live with these new features so be on the look out if you want to opt out.

If you don't want to participate, just click one button on the settings page and you'll be opted out. Alternatively you can go and select  the areas that you want to opt out from and stay opted in for certain features.

Can't wait to see the latest foray into social networking by "almost obsolete and eclipsed by Google" Yahoo!

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Posted in Google, Yahoo | No Comments »

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