Google+ Makes Splash in Social Sector, But Will It Last

Google+ has been on quite a ride in its first 6 weeks of existence. It obtained 10 million users in just two weeks and is now said to have over 20 million users. The overall reaction has been positive, but since the platform is currently invitation-only, the early adopters have mostly been the tech savvy crowd.
First Impressions of Google+
Everyone knows that first impressions are vital, so how did Google+ do? WebProNews posed this question to numerous search and social media leaders and received a variety of responses. Loren Baker, the Vice President of Services at BlueGlass, told us that Google+ felt like a “private version of Facebook” but with a better user interface. He also pointed out that it had given people the ability to “reset” as far as selecting who to include in circles and who not to include.
When Facebook opened to the general public, most users tried to get as many friends as possible regardless of whether a relationship existed or not. Baker believes that people have gotten smarter now and are using Google+ more selectively.
Social media speaker and author Mari Smith added that there seemed to be a “different vibe inside Google+” since users were sharing more and having “more thoughtful conversation.”
One interesting aspect that Lee Odden, the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, noticed was that it appeared to be a big traffic driver. What’s even more interesting is that the amount of time that users spent on his site to read the post he had shared was 4 times the amount that people were staying when they came from Facebook or Twitter. He said that this data was especially noteworthy since Facebook and Twitter were usually strong sources of quality traffic.
Google Makes Progress in Social
Although Google has struggled to get into the social space, Google+ appears to be its golden ticket. As many people have pointed out, the platform looks very similar to Facebook and has similar sharing aspects as well. However, it seems to flow more like Twitter.
At this point, it looks like Google+ is trying to re-produce the features that users favor on the other networks, expand on them somewhat, and also capitalize on their shortcomings. Steve Rubel, the EVP of Global Strategy and Insights for Edelman, told us that these developments have created a different type of social experience that is peaking the interest of users.
“This is their first entry that they’ve had that is really serious [and] that people are really using a lot,” he said. “It’s a very open approach that I wish others would take.”
On the other hand, Li Evans, the CEO and Co-founder of LiBeck Integrated Marketing, told us that, while Google+ is a better attempt at social than its previous efforts, its value proposition is still lacking.
“What is the value proposition? What do I get from Google+?” she asked.
She went on to say that, at this point, she did not see the same value on Google+ that she sees in Facebook and LinkedIn.
Google+ Vs. Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter
Because of the positive feedback that the platform has gotten, it is only natural that people are questioning how Google+ will faceoff against the other social networks. Tech analyst Rob Enderle recently told us that Facebook had an advantage over Google+ since it had the majority of users.
But, as we all know, Myspace was the biggest social network when Facebook began. Enderle indicated that, if Facebook wasn’t careful, it could fall to Google+, just as Myspace did to it.
While Barry Schwartz, the CEO of RustyBrick, speaks very highly of Google+, he doesn’t think that Facebook has anything to worry about.
“I don’t think Google+ will kill Facebook going forward, I think, Facebook will still be very strong… probably the strongest player in that market,” he said.
Rubel doesn’t see Facebook dying to Google+ either. He thinks it has promise but said he had some doubts too.
“There’s no doubt that it’s going to be a strong #3 or #4,” said Rubel. “Whether it goes mainstream… the jury’s out. I don’t see that happening so fast.”
Smith also agreed that Facebook should not be worried about Google+. She did, however, say that, while it would always be an important player, she could see Facebook losing its #1 spot in the social space.
“If Facebook could just launch a powerful search engine, it would be fierce competition right back at ya for Google,” she said.
She went to say that Twitter, even though it needed improvements, was also a valuable product that would not likely fall to Google+.
Odden believes that Twitter is very effective as well for both business and personal usage. He explained to us that the propagation that happens on Twitter is very different that the closed environment of Google+
“Google+ is all about Google,” he said. “It’s not about propagating externally so much, whereas Twitter, is completely wide open.”
He did add that, if Twitter and Facebook were smart, they would find ways to work with Google+.
Incidentally, Facebook has seemingly responded to Google+ with its group chat release and video chat feature. It also announced a new page called Facebook for Business, which some believe was to counter Google’s shut down of business accounts.
When Google+ does roll out its business option, Baker told us that he could see it having a “competitive advantage” over Facebook if it incorporates Google products such as Deals, Latitude, and Places. He also said that if Google+ is fully integrated into mobile devices and Android, it could have the same penetration that Gmail has. Since Android dominates the mobile market, he thinks that Google+ has the potential to grow exponentially.
Wishlist of Further Development
Despite its extensive growth rate, Google+ has had its problems in its short existence. There have been privacy concerns in regards to user names, and there was also disappointment that the service launched without support for many Google Apps. The lack of business product was, of course, another basis for complaint.
So, what else would people like to see from Google+? Baker told us that he has had issues with Google+ since he has both a personal Gmail account and an apps Gmail account. For this reason, he would like for Google to converge the two accounts together.
On the topic of search, he said he would like more integration of Google+ into the search results. He suggested that Google cater search results based on each users’ Circles.
Evans and Odden both told us they would like to see more sharing capabilities. Rubel also said that the mobile experience has to improve. He would like to have Hangouts move beyond 10 people as well.
Smith believes that Sparks needs a lot of work. Additionally, she wants Google to allow developers to have access to its API in order to create tools and other features on top of the platform.
Odden said he understood that Google was trying to produce a product especially for businesses, but he thinks that, in the mean time, businesses should be allowed to have a profile. As he explained, Google could then give them a migration tool to transfer information, once a business option is available.
Google definitely has a ways to go, but it’s clear that the company is dedicated to Google+ and succeeding in the social space.
“Google has not said this is a fully baked product,” said Rubel. “They’ve said it’s a field trial patience is a virtue.”

Story Link : http://www.webpronews.com/google-makes-splash-in-social-sector-but-will-it-last-2011-08

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Facebook Adds Targeting By Zip Codes To Advertisements

Facebook Adds Targeting By Zip Codes To Advertisements

Up til now, Facebook Ads could be targeted by Country, State/Province and by City. Yesterday Facebook added an additional targeting type, by zip code:

This is a big deal for Facebook marketing, as it is now much more attractive for local businesses. Local business owners can now target the exact zip codes where they draw from, and can stop wasting clicks on areas in the city that are far away from their physical presence. This is currently only active in the U.S.

In AdWords user can append a radius around the zip code where ads should be shown to give users more proximity options. This is simply not feasible with the new Facebook targeting option. This means that local marketers should ensure that every single zip they draw from is included in this targeting feature.

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Update Made To Definition Of A Google Analytics Session

Update Made To Definition Of A Google Analytics Session

Google Analytics announced a change on the way a sessions are calculated on the tool. While this change will not affect the majority of the accounts significantly (according to the official blog post “most users will see less than a 1% change”), it is an important change.
Below, I will describe why it is important and how this can affect some Google Analytics accounts (mostly companies that misuse Google Analytics campaign parameters), and what you can do to make sure you are on the right track.

What Is Changing & Why?

According to the official post, here is a summary of how Google Analytics has ended a session up till now:

• Greater than 30 minutes have elapsed between pageviews for a single user
• At the end of a day
• When a user closes their browser

In the new model, Google Analytics will end a session when:

• Greater than 30 minutes have elapsed between pageviews for a single user
• At the end of a day
• When any campaign information for the user changes. Campaign information includes: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_term, utm_content, utm_id, utm_campaign and auto-tagging from AdWords (gclid)

This change is an interesting move as it will provide more accurate data when it comes to Multi-Channel Attribution. This will happen because visitors that visit a website multiple times during a time period that would originally be considered as one single session, will now have their cookies updated to a new session in some specific situations.
For example, if someone visits a website from a PPC ad and then leaves the site and within 10 minutes get back to the website through an organic link would be considered as one long visit from PPC in the old model. In the new model, we would have two short visits, each attributed to its own source.

Do Not Use Campaign Parameters For In-Site Tracking

One of the mistakes I have seen when it comes to implementing Google Analytics is the usage of Campaign Parameters for in-site tracking (mostly tracking navigation usage or internal campaigns).
This practice produces inaccurate numbers for those analyzing in-site behavior and also heavily affects traffic sources accuracy and, therefore, should never be used. Now even more. With the current update to how sessions are defined, each time a visitor clicks on an internal link that uses campaign parameters, a new session starts; this will artificially increases the number of visits in addition to the issues I described above.
If you are currently using campaign parameters to track in-site behavior, here is what you should do:

1. Remove all campaign parameters from your links. For example, if you have a link on your site such as searchengineland.com?utm_source=story&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=launch , you should simply use searchengineland.com
2. If you are tracking navigation elements on the site. Using Event Tracking is the best way to go: add an onclick event to the “a” tag that would include the following: onclick=”_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'navigation', 'link', 'launch']);”
3. If you are tracking internal campaigns. Using Custom Variables is the best way to go: add an onclick event to the “a” tag that would include the following: onclick=”_gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 5, 'internal_campaign', 'banner', 2]);” . It is important to note that you should check with other people involved in setting Google Analytics to be sure spot 5 (the first value on the function above) is available for campaign tracking.

The above techniques will certainly provide you with accurate numbers in the best possible way without affecting your reports.

Story Courtesy : http://searchengineland.com/update-made-to-definition-of-a-google-analytics-session-89300

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Google’s Panda Update Launches Internationally in Most Languages

Google has just announced that their “Panda” rankings changes, first launched in the United States in late February and rolled out to English language indices internationally in April, have now launched internationally in all languages other than Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Their post notes that for non-English indices, this change impacts 6-9% of queries (vs. the 12% the original US English launch). This launch also includes a few minor changes to the English version of Panda, but shouldn’t have a substantial impact.
In their post, they say:

For many months, we’ve been focused on trying to return high-quality sites to users. Earlier this year, we rolled out our “Panda” change for searches in English around the world. Today we’re continuing that effort by rolling out our algorithmic search improvements in different languages. Our scientific evaluation data show that this change improves our search quality across the board, and the response to Panda from users has been very positive.

I talked to Google about the change and they reiterated that searchers overwhelmingly have found the Panda-based changes to improve their search results and that those impacted should evaluate their sites objectively for quality and unique value.
This year, Google has focused on identifying sites with a large number of low quality pages as part of their overall goal of providing the best possible search experience. The Panda updates have been evolutions of algorithms that increasingly detect this and lower those sites in search rankings. I often describe it as somewhat like the Adwords quality score, which uses a number of factors to assign an overall score to a site. Since we’re talking about algorithms with many inputs, there’s no one thing that can cause a site to lose rankings due to Panda. Rather it’s an accumulation of factors.
Imagine you’re eating an ice cream sundae. The ice cream is delicious and creamy. It’s covered in the best hot fudge sauce you’ve ever eaten. The whipped cream is freshly made from scratch. On top is an OK-tasting cherry. How do you feel about the sundae overall? Pretty good? Excellent even?
Now, imagine another ice cream sundae. It’s made with that blech tasting cardboard-and-ice style ice cream. The hot fudge is missing entirely. And the whipped cream is that scary fake stuff from a can. The cherry, however, is quite good. How do you feel about this sundae?
The maker of the second sundae might ask why it is you’ve put down your spoon and are edging back to the sundae #1. But the cherry is better! He might say. A Rainier cherry from Washington state! How can you like the other sundae better when it has such a sub-par cherry? Mine has all of the same parts as that sundae! Well, except the hot fudge!
Google is taste-testing ice cream sundaes and offering searchers the ones that are the best holistically. I mean, they’re not literally eating ice cream. (Actually, they are, but not as part of this metaphor.) I’m just saying you can’t look for one specific thing to fix and you can’t compare one specific thing on your site to that same thing on another site. There are too many moving parts.

The History of Panda

This post covers all of the Panda updates leading up to this one. That post also recaps the articles we’ve published here with advice and impact. The last update was about three weeks ago and was fairly minor.

Advice If Your Site Has Lost Ranking

Panda seems to be focused primarily on unique value and user experience. I gave a long interview to Eric Enge about this not too long ago. If your site has lost search traffic due to Panda, take an objective look (or better yet, have someone else take an objective look) and ask:

• How does the content quality compare to other pages on the web about the same topic? Is the page the most valuable and useful content about the topic?
• Do multiple pages on the site answer the same problem/focus on the same basic task? It’s one thing to have separate pages on “best chocolate cake recipe” and “best pumpkin pie recipe” and quote another to have separate pages on “best chocolate cake recipe” and “ideal chocolate cake recipe”.
• Is the content primarily syndicated or aggregated from other sources? If most of the content isn’t original, Google’s algorithms might give the site a lower “quality score” (in quotes because I totally made that up that way of looking at Panda — I’m not saying Google internally is using the concept of a quality score) to better ensure that the original version ranks.
• If the content is unique, does it completely cover the topic in a credible, useful way or is it shallow and barely scratch the surface?
• Does the user interface design and navigation make engagement easy or are things cluttered and make it difficult for visitors to find what they’re looking for?
• Are the site design and goals user-focused or revenue-focused? It’s absolutely fine (and generally necessary if you’re running a business!) to ensure that your site makes money. But if the goals you keep in mind when designing the pages don’t take into account how well the visitor can get what they need (an answer to their question, ability to accomplish their task easily) and 0nly are based on getting what you want from users (ad views or clicks, for instance), the user experience of your pages might not be ideal.

Since Panda is based on an overall ice cream sundae score, you likely won’t see rankings improvements right away once you make changes. Google periodically recalculates these scores (just like they periodically launch a new version of Panda with improved signals), so after you make changes, you’ ll have to wait for Google to recrawl the site so they can take note of the changes (you can check the cache dates of your indexed pages to see if Google has recrawled them) and then you’ ll have to wait for one of Google’s periodic scoring recalculations (which so far seem to coincide with Panda algorithm updates).
Some site owners who have made substantial changes based on the bullets above have seen positive results (I’ve worked with some of them and seen the analytics myself), but a recovery isn’t likely overnight.

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