Social Media Archives - Page 4 of 8 - WebPro Technologies LLP

Why Is Your Google+ Profile Important From The Search And Social Media Perspective?

Google has finally embarked the social media journey with full promise and poise.

Google now has access to its own data related to social signals and Google is very much focused on search and according to me the Google+ initiative is mainly aimed at enhancing the quality of search results which is very much affected due to the mal practices because of link building and content spamming.

As my main focus is on search as an SEO I think , it is imperative to be active on Google+ from the web presence perspective due to the following reasons:

· Google+ social signals are going to affect the search results in Google undoubtedly

· Google is also experimenting with business profiles

· These business profiles have a full possibility of being integrated with Google Places affecting local search. http://searchengineland.com/google-pages-coming-for-businesses-83985

· Google+ has the feature of circles by which categorization becomes easy and simple due to which you can manage the personal family and friends circle along with the professional and business circle via the same platform and social media profile.

· Google has introduced the rel author tag and Google clearly mentions on http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=1229920 that you need to add the link to your author page in the list of links on your Google Profile so the co-relation with the rel attribute and the profile of the author can be set and verified.

· Google Plus is already mobile

· Visits to your site from Google+ can be viewed in Google Analytics Reports . You can go to any tab, any report in Google Analytics and see Google+ traffic side by side with your regular traffic, just by selecting the Google+ traffic segment

· Google clearly has mentioned that ,”Our vision is to have google.com/realtime include Google+ information along with other realtime data from a variety of sources.” Hence once the Real Time Search option is active again on the search page the Google+ posts will be listed on it.

In short having a Google+ profile and using it actively will add a plus to the organic SERPs, local search, blogger profile via the rel author tag, real time search option and you will be able to track and measure the Google+ data via Google Analytics.

Though I agree this gives more power to Google to monopolize the search platform but according to me Google very much deserves it and this is one monopoly which may have the maximum market share but keeps on working hard on innovation and keeps competing with its previous results at the same time offers value to the user in the form of information and knowledge in many ways at no extra cost.

1. What more can a user ask for?

2. Do you think your Google+ profile can be neglected as a social media platform or from the search and overall web presence perspective ?

3. Is there any other point you would like to add in the above mentioned list of reasons for having a Google+ Profile?

Do You Think You Need To Make A Choice Between Google+ And Facebook ?

Author : Bharati Ahuja
Image by Ruth Tsang via Flickr

I just read an article on the following link:

http://blog.socialwavelength.com/2011/07/it-takes-a-lot-more-than-the-initial-hoopla-my-thoughts-on-google/

and started writing my views as a comment but it went on to be so long that I decided to publish it as a blog post instead.

My thoughts on the article mentioned above:

I think Google is synonymous to search and FB is synonymous to social media but with the integration of social signals and search Google realizes the need to have access to some reliable social data that they can trust and also integrate easily in their search algorithms.

Google had access to Twitter data from October 2009 onwards and Google had announced the Real Time Search option but now in June 2011 that option has been deactivated as their deal with Twitter has expired. And at the very same time Google announced Google+ because they want to continue with their integrated results of search and social.

Google is very much focused on search and according to me the Google+ initiative is mainly aimed at enhancing the quality of search results which is very much affected due to the mal practices because of link building and content spamming.

As mentioned on http://searchengineland.com/as-deal-with-twitter-expires-google-realtime-search-goes-offline-84175

Google clearly has mentioned that ,”Our vision is to have google.com/realtime include Google+ information along with other realtime data from a variety of sources.” So if businesses want to be found on the real time search of Google having a presence on Google+ is a logical thing to do.

But that does not mean that they need not have a presence on FB as more than making a choice of being on FB or G+ it is more about how I can widen my out reach further by reaching out to my niche targeted audience via search and social media.

FB originated with a vision and mission of social out reach and connections Google started off with a focus on search which now is referred to as library search as social media has given birth to real time search so for Google it seems the most logical next step to take.

But as social media and SEO companies our objective is to help businesses have a maximum out reach on the web i.e on the search engines and also on sites where the netizens are spending more and more time.

Eventually as the most important aspect is the target audience, depending on your product, service or purpose of online promotion one will have to select the platform and as the title of the post says it is much beyond the initial hoopla, its true only time will tell whether Google is able to succeed in its third time initiative of social media after Orkut and Wave. So far it seems very promising as the Circles aspect of G+ does give you an easy choice to make regarding what you want to share with whom.

Moreover, Google is also experimenting with business profiles on Google+ which they might integrate further with Google Places which is another inviting feature for businesses to have a presence of Google+.

When Google had its humble beginning as a search engine nobody had thought that they would out do Yahoo or Altavista but due to their technical expertise and focus they have been able to achieve a monopoly for search. Only the future will say whether FB will be able to forge ahead as it is being doing for all this time as now they have true competition else there is full possibility that they can meet the same fate as Yahoo if their focus gets shifted.

Otherwise I think FB and Google+ can both exist together serving different purposes and niche targeted audiences.

There is a great insight on what happened to Yahoo when their focus shifted from their identity as a technology company to a media company on the following link:

http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html

Google / SEO / Social Media - 07/10/2011

Metrics That Matter For SEO And Quality Web Presence

Author : Bharati Ahuja
Image by Intersection Consulting via Flickr

Internet + Search + Social Media = The Biggest Shift Since The Industrial Revolution

The internet has changed the way we think and execute our professional and personal interactions and activities. It has touched the lives of all age groups in accordance to their need and requirement.

Moreover, its high time we accept it whole heartedly with full positivity as the internet and its technologies are here to stay and have already got woven as a part of the DNA of our day to day lives. Whether you are a grandchild , parent or a grandparent everyone is using the internet in some way or the other.

From the business perspective the internet is the lifeline of every office. All the activities come to a stand still if the broadband or wifi is down for some time as the office just cannot function if the data packets are not flowing to and fro through the router.

From the marketing perspective too, the focus is on search marketing and bringing people to your website and having a web presence on the online platforms where the netizens are available in numbers.

Optimizing a site for search engines is a must for the search engine presence . Majority of your targeted visitors reach your site via search engines hence ranking high for targeted keywords is important. For that it is highly essential to have the on-page optimization as per the norms of the search engines of course, but it is all the more important to have an over all quality web presence on the web to retain your position on the SERPs.

Having a good quality website with great content is laying the foundation stone for your web presence but it does not end there . The edifice of your web presence will get structured only when you have a presence on all the search options and social media. This web presence will get solidarity and brand recognition the following metrics in the formulae are put into practice with proper planning and expertise.

SEO + Social Media + Blogging + Discussions = Quality Web Presence Which Future Proofs Your Search Engine Presence.

Good UX (User Experience) + Trust Factor + Social Factor + Domain Authority = Factors Affecting SERPs , CTR , CR and ROI

If we dissect the formulae you can see that each and every metric is inter-related to each other.

Good User Experience depends on design, functionality and download speed of the website

If the website is ranking high for targeted keywords on the search engine options and has a good UX then the probability of a high CTR (Click Thru Rate), More Time on Site and a low bounce rate increases

A good social media presence and discussions which prove your expertise in your niche industry boost your social factor and trust factor

A good SEO campaign works on all these factors and as the internet is a network of networks, all these factors are also inter-woven with each other and the improvement in one metric ensures improvement in another. No factor can be considered in isolation and then worked upon or focused upon. Every website is unique and which factor needs to be given priority in the campaign will depend on how well your SEO does the SEO audit before he/she starts working on it.

As you can see that all this can be achieved only through team effort. It is not only your SEO who is responsible for the success of your online marketing campaign but all the members of your web development , marketing and management teams are also responsible as many times your SEO company cannot achieve the set targets without their cooperation and understanding.

SEO / Social Media - 05/31/2011

The Internet , Search and Social Media Have Become An Integral Part Of Our Lives

Author : Bharati Ahuja

Recently I read some very good posts which discussed about how internet, search and social media have become a part of the DNA of how we execute our professional and personal interactions and activities.

Image via Wikipedia

Vivek Wadhwa wrote on whether Social Media was the start or an end of a golden age http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2011/tc20110524_792362.htm

Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz discussed on whether a company needs “Social Media Experts” on http://www.seomoz.org/blog/everyone-should-hire-social-media-experts

I have written in one of my blog posts published in August 2010 http://blog.webpro.in/2010/08/is-social-media-new-marketing-mantra-or.html that the merging of the real world and the virtual world is a constant evolution happening right from the day people started using the internet. Some time back email management was a task which needed training and setups at the offices in the corporate world. Today majority of these corporate people who may not be tech savvy flash a smart phone with ease for receiving and sending emails.

Social interaction is nothing new, since ancient times humans have been interacting. Every one must have read the sentence which is usually the first sentence uttered in any lecture on Sociology, Psychology, History or Moral Science - ‘Man Is A Social Animal’.

So the urge to communicate, connect, interact, share is very basic, normal and at the core of human psychology only it is the medium which varies from time to time.

Hence online social media is the new way people want to connect personally or professionally.

The urge for searching (For Knowledge or in primitive times for food) and being social are the most intrinsic parts of human personality so that has not changed it is only the way we are executing these activities has changed as we have woven internet technologies with it which is making it look different.

Its high time we accept this technology in our lives rather than running away from it. The real world is getting reflected on the virtual world and whoever is breathing on earth today has an online presence and you can reach out to him/her . Search engines and social media have a reach with a multiplier effect which makes the world appear small but the basic things remain the same.

The goals and principles of traditional methods of marketing and online marketing methods are the same but the way we achieve them is different in a traditional marketing team we have sales people, advertising people, customer support, etc. and now we need SEOs, social media experts, web administrators,etc. The end is not different we still calculate profits with the same mathematical formula but the data sources are different.

Children are still getting education but have access to more reading material at the click of the mouse and can interact more with their friends and discuss to learn more with more speed and efficiency.

Hence internet and internet technologies are tools which increase efficiency and help us to reach out to more. Whether we use it for our benefit and convert it into a bane or boon for us depends on the user ‘s choice. The technology is not right or wrong the way we use it makes it right or wrong.

The internet, search engines, social media, etc. are surely a start of a golden age and we need more and more search and social media experts who with time are surely going to emerge as an offshoot of the massive usage of the net as they all are busy gaining experience as of know. As you can call yourself an expert only if your knowledge is backed by the valuable experience.

Yes, positive acceptance of this evolution in the way we execute tasks and achieve success is the only way to go ahead .

SEO / Social Media - 05/26/2011

Bing Incorporates Facebook Data Into Search Results - Tapping The Collective IQ Of The Web

Search + Social Media = Search , Discuss & Decide

Bing says that they know that decision matter and they just made search more social by incorporating the Facebook data in search results. Bing will now pull Facebook likes—from news, celebs, and movies to bands, brands, and burgers to inform you about the opinions of the people whom you are connected to so that it helps you to decide i.e Bing & Decide.

Search, shortlist products and websites, see what your friends have to say about it and then decide. If you have activated Facebook results, you will see which pages, products and websites your friends like and recommend. Its like bringing the IQ of the web to you so that you can decide.

View the video released by Bing in this regard.

Bing had made a similar announcement on their official blog in October last year

http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2010/10/13/bing-gets-more-social-with-facebook.aspx

Google too has been working on the social signals for search and had made a similar announcement on 17/02/2011 on their official blog

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/update-to-google-social-search.html

View Google's stand on the Search And Social Integration

As you can clearly see that Bing is incorporating the Facebook ‘Likes’ and Google is focusing on Twitter for the social media integration, the presence on Twitter and Facebook both are equally important.

SEMPO reports a decline of SEO spending in 2011 but an increase in social media spending in 2011. This is in future is going t have a very positive aspect to SEO as the Social Media spending are actually supplementing search only.

Now SEO companies have to educate their clients on how to use social media effectively in addition to educating them about how search works and the importance of quality web presence.

An article based on the SEMPO study can be read on:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/sempo-decline-in-seo-spendings-2011-good-news-for-seos/29817/

Bing / SEO / Social Media - 05/17/2011

Game Dynamics And The Influence Layer Of The Social Scenario On The Web

Seth Priebatsch spoke about’ The game layer on top of the world’ on ted.com last year.

He says that the last decade was the decade where the social network was built, this decade is where the Game Framework will be built.

The Game Framework according to him is the motivation tools that influence behavior. The loyalty schemes on websites and other techniques used to influence the people to take certain decisions are actually game dynamics in action.

One of the following slides that he shared was as follows:

It says that the last decade was about connections which was enabled by the Facebook Graph whose construction has reached a peak and a saturation point. The next decade will have a focus on the influencing behavior for which the construction does not have any set foundations and the work has just begun.

I totally agree to this point. If we correlate it to our SEO and other SEM campaigns for websites we can see a clear climb to this next evolutionary step.

When we work on our landing page dynamics to make a person take a decision to buy a certain product – we are try to influence his decision.

When the search engines integrate the social results in the SERPs it is kind of influencing the decision of the visitor.

When the most retweeted post becomes the most read post , it surley says a lot about the influence factor.

When we talk about posting a tweet, a blog post or a comment at the right time so that we have a maximum reach by keeping in mind all the continent time zones (Like the best time to post is when there are maximum users online i.e when people from Asia, America And Europe are online together) and thereby achieve the set goal we are working on having a better influence.

The latest which I just came across Man Proposes to Girlfriend via iPad 2 Engraving so you have boyfriends influencing their girlfriends online in a geeky way to say “I Do”

View the video to learn about :

1. How to build the game (Influence) layer ?

2. 4 Game Dynamics which help you to create that layer.

3. Appointment dynamics

4. Influence And Status (Influence Through Social Pressure)

5. Progression Dynamics (You move thru progressively in a granular fashion eg. Linkedin)

6. Communal Discovery (Everyone has to work together to achieve something . The communities which build around a blog are a classic example)

Its all about mind share and influencing people and getting influenced by people once you are on the social scenario of the web. Klout.com which analyzes and rates your Twitter account measures and determines ‘The Standard For Influence’ and scores accordingly. So, we surely are at the infancy stage of the influence dynamics which is used in Games .

Points To Ponder…

Is life becoming a Game
Or

Life has always been a game but we are learning to play it now more efficiently , effectively and globally?

Social Media - 03/29/2011