Week in review
The Week in Review
Google Set to Rebrand Blogger and Picasa
Google has plans to rebrand Blogger and Picasa as “Google Blogs” and “Google Photos,” respectively, in the next six weeks. This will be part of its focus on becoming a social product going forward. (VentureBeat)
20 Facebook Marketing Tips From AllFacebook Expo
Among the 20 Facebook marketing takeaways from AF Expo are: having a lot of fans enables you to market to fans’ friends; don’t push messages at your fans – engage them; images in Facebook ads are critical; people connect emotionally; and take numbers and compare them to your industry’s average. (AllFacebook)
Facebook Advertising Rates Hold Steady
Facebook said advertising rates have held up even after giving marketers new ways to promote products. This should ease concerns that prices would decline as inventory increased. Facebook’s vice president of advertising and global operations said the company is “constantly testing new ad formats,” and that users and advertisers get value with more ads being put in. (Bloomberg)
How to Build Website Trust and Authority
Google’s Panda update highlights the company’s search for signals of trust, authority and real branding. How can you send these signals Google’s way? Public speaking, getting press mentions, Blogger linkup, educational links and press releases are tools to use to do just that. (Graywolf’s SEO Blog)
Google+ Means Private Profiles Will Be Terminated
The launch of Google+ will bring about the end of private Google profiles. This is, of course, to grease the wheels of the company’s social efforts. “This is also much different than Facebook’s privacy as you are able to virtually vanish by disallowing people to search for you, friend request you, message you or see any of your info. In Google+, if you have a profile, others can find you within the Google+ network.” (Search Engine Land)
Google+: Android’s Killer App?
Android has had its fair share of flaws but Google has made progress in fixing those problems. One problem Android has faced has been the lack of a “killer application.” If Google+ gains traction, it could be the solution for that void. “This is what the platform needed, an aggressive play by its creator to give its users something to gloat about. A way to justify their love of the platform and the feeling of support that has, up to this point, been lacking from Android’s creators.” (The Next Web)
Online Ad Spending: $31 Billion in 2011
According to forecasts from eMarketer, total U.S. online ad spending will pass $31.3 billion in 2011. Of this total, search will account for $17.0 billion, followed by banner ads with $8.9 billion, classifieds and directories with $3.4 billion and video with $3.1 billion. (eMarketer)
What Google+ Means for SEM and Social Advertising
Google+ has likely taken away time spent on Facebook and Twitter for many of its users. The opportunities for Google+ are easy to see. “This is just the beginning of Google taking a serious jump into Social and it’s exciting for digital marketers.” Here’s a look at how Google+ can close the loop between search and social, which opens things up for marketers. (The Internet Marketing Driver)
Google Realtime Search Goes Offline
As Google’s agreement with Twitter expired, Google has temporarily shuttered its Realtime Search. The company says when the product relaunches, “it will include content from a variety of sources and not just be solely devoted to Google+ material.” Google will also crawl Twitter feeds that are publicly available. (Search Engine Land)
Hotmail Goes Instant
Hotmail hasn’t been the topic of much discussion lately, but neither has email as a whole. But Microsoft’s update to Hotmail is something worth turning your head for. Hotmail is a whole lot quicker than it was before and is worth acknowledgment. (WebProNews)
Google+ Closes Invites Due to ‘Insane Demand,’ Could be on Road to Success
Not too long after Google opened up the door for Google+ invites, the company had to shut invites down. According to Google’s head of social, this was due to “insane demand.” This is probably a good problem for Google to have on its hands. Despite the company’s past failures, Google+ does seem to have something going for it: “It’s not that any of its features are so revolutionary. It’s not that it’s better at doing social networking than Facebook. It’s that it’s an opportunity to start over, to build your social network with years of Facebook experience in mind, rather than having to face the accretion of mistakes and miscalculations you made over almost a decade of trial-and-error with a new technology.” (VentureBeat, The Washington Post)
Facebook Has Something Launching Next Week
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters Wednesday that the company is set to “launch something awesome” next week. The mysterious something was developed in Facebook’s Seattle office. Many are speculating that it will be a mobile product. (Reuters)
Why Real-Time Bidding is More Important Than You Think
Real-time bidding (RTB) is important – for many companies, it’s the key to success. Here’s a rundown of why RTB is so important, along with trends to look for in the next 18 months as “systems provide more premium inventory; enable private exchange buying; move beyond display into other digital media types; and provide immediate buying opportunities.” (Econsultancy)
5 Free Tools to Help Measure Social Media Influence
How do you know if you’re having an impact on Twitter, Facebook and other online social networks? Here are five free tools for tracking your influence on these sites: 1) Klout, 2) TwentyFeet, 3) Crowdbooster, 4) TweetStats and 5) My Web Career. (Social Media Examiner)
4 SEO Lessons from Grandpa
What does your grandfather know about SEO? More than you might think, perhaps. Well, not really. But here are four gems of wisdom gramps might say and how to apply them to SEO. For example, “Gargle every morning with salt water” is a reminder to start every morning with some cleaning and inspecting (i.e., Google and Bing Webmasters’ Tools). (Search Engine People)
Shortmail: Twitter for Email
Email is an “unavoidable time-suck,” which has compelled many to examine how to improve this form of communication. Enter Shortmail.com, something of a Twitter for email from social startup 410 Labs. Shortmail’s goal is to create a “digestible inbox.” It limits messages to 500 characters and features a character counter. Twitter users can also claim their own Shortmail address. (Fast Company)
How to Establish Your Brand on Facebook
Anyone can start a Facebook fan page, but not everyone can grow a successful one. If you’re up to the task, here are four steps: 1) do your research, 2) get organized, 3) spice it up and 4) get social. (Graywolf’s SEO Blog)
4 Tips for Improving B2B Lead Quality
Lead generation is a common goal for B2B websites, but B2B marketers often find it difficult to identify lead quality. Here are four techniques to improve the quality of your search-generated leads: 1) understand inquiries vs. leads, 2) implement a lead-grading system, 3) create a marketing-sales feedback loop, and 4) identify marketing vs. sales leads. (Search Engine Land)
Easy and Inexpensive Ways for Email Marketers to Know Their Customers
“I would argue that the number-one role of an email marketer is to understand the customer, so I’m always surprised when marketers misread their customers or simply don’t understand what customers are looking for in their relationship.” Three easy ways to do this are: just asking your customers, monitoring the conversation and rewarding customers for input. (MediaPost)
5 Linking Mistakes You Didn’t Know You Were Making
External linking is a key cog of an effective SEO strategy, but it’s also one of the most challenging pieces of the puzzle. Five common mistakes SEOs make when developing link strategies are: 1) judging a site’s authority based on PageRank alone, 2) building links with just one keyword or keyword phrase, 3) aiming for too many links, 4) only linking to your homepage, and 5) analyzing the backlinks of competitors who don’t rank for your target keywords. (SEOmoz)
