Google+ Business Pages – What Is It?

With a similar feel to Facebook Pages, Google+ Business gives companies and brands a platform to share and connect with their customer base through content such as photos, videos, blog posts and status updates.

Like with the Google+ profiles for individuals, Google+ Business Pages also provides users with ‘Circles’ to help group together people to share content and converse with them based on their interests.

Want to take your customer engagement further? Host a ‘Hangout’ session where you can connect with a group via a webcam for feedback sessions or planned conversations with your most passionate customers.

As Google states:

“The goal is to help you communicate in more intimate ways with different groups of people.”

How to Setup a ‘Google+ Business’ Page

1. If you haven’t already, set up a Google+ account.
2. Once on your Google+ profile page, click on ‘Create a Google+ Page’
3. You’ll then be taken through a simple setup up process including the type of business you are, your company tagline and a few photos that show what your business is all about before viewing your Business profile.
4. Hit ‘Finish’ and you’ll be shown your business page.

At this point it will look pretty empty. Focus on the basic set up which will include the following:

• Add a company logo
• Prepare up to 20 posts so you have content on your page straight away
• Upload any videos and photos and share those on your main page.
• Setup your tag line if you haven’t already
• Link to any sites that are related/relevant to your business including your own company website. You have space for up to 20.

That is your Google+ Business Page set up.

Be sure to plan what you will be posting and how frequently to give your viewers a reason to come back. This could be status updates, videos, photos, latest blog posts or special discounts to name a few.

Google +1 Count Versus Followers

Google+ Pages have both a +1 count and a follower count (see to the left of the above image). What’s the difference? The followers are those who have added the company to one of their circles; these followers will see that company’s updates within their own content stream.

The +1 count is a sum of all those users that have shared the company Google+ page with their own network. Whether the +1 number will contribute to rankings within Google is yet to be known.

How to Add the Google+ Badge to Your Website

Along with the release of Google+ Business Pages, Google have also launched the Google+ badge that can be added to your website to inform visitors that your company is active on Google+. To add the G+ badge:

1. Copy your profile ID (this will be the number in the URL when on your profile page).
2. Head over to the Google+ badge configuration tool and add your profile ID where prompted
3. Choose one of the badges underneath and a code snippet will show.
4. Copy and paste the code to a suitable position within your website’s source code.

Google+ Direct Connect allows your audience to find your Google+ page easily. By adding a ‘+’ in front of a company name, you will be shown a preview of that company’s Google+ page.

Remember – your website must be verified. To do this:

1. Link to your website from your Google+ Business Page
2. Add a Google+ badge to your website
3. Add the following code to your website (changing ‘[yourpageID]’ to your profile’s ID number):<link rel=”publisher” href=”https://plus.google.com/[yourpageID]” />

Want to Know More?

Google has a couple of videos to show off the new Google+ Page features:

Google+ Pages Video

Google+ Direct Connect Video

You can also view a number of Google+ pages that have already been created including:

Pepsi

Barcelona Football Club

Burberry – (Definitely check out their profile photo set!)

H&M

Toyota

WWE

The full list can be found on Google’s own blog post.

Ask Away!

If you have any questions about the new Google+ Business pages, certainly leave us a comment below. And if you’ve set up and are managing a page, we’d love to hear what your thoughts are so far.

It’s important for websites, brands and companies to add social buttons to their website, especially if they have a presence on the social domain.

Why you ask? These buttons will not only help get your website exposed to a larger audience but it will also allow you to grow a large following of engaged users as well. Through this, you’ll be able to seed content much more successfully and attract both social (tweets / Facebook likes) and natural links from external websites to benefit the SEO of your website.

Three types of code for the Like button

Before we start, it’s worth noting that there are three different snippets of code you can use in order to get a Facebook Like button to appear on your page. Don’t worry though as there is no wrong or right code to use; one may have a slight edge on the other depending on how your own website has been coded. These are:

• HTML5 – More compliant for those lucky enough to have a website coded in HTML5
• XFBML – Facebook’s own markup language to which uses XML.
• iFrame – Instead of adding the button via traditional HTML, you’ll refer to the Facebook button via an iFrame

So let’s look  at adding the Facebook Like button to your page:

1. Create Your Button

Head over to Facebook’s Like Button Page and fill in the form – you’ll be able to see a preview of your button as you fill out the form. The form is pretty standard so I won’t patronise you with what information to add.

It is worth noting the following too: showing faces with your Like button will make a user three times more likely to click on the button. If you have room to add faces, make sure you use this option.

2. Choose your preferred code

Once you’ve completed the form and are happy with the look of the Facebook Like Button, click Get Code and a pop-up will appear with a snippet of code. This is where you can choose from the three types of code mentioned earlier in the post.

Choose the type of code that best suits your needs, copy and paste it into your website’s source code relative to where you want the button to appear on page.

Note: If you use XFBML, you will need to add an additional snippet of code to the html tag of your source code.

3. Open Graph Protocol (easier than it sounds!)

Don’t let the name put you off. Open Graph Protocol is a set of additional instructions for Facebook.com and tells them how the information should be displayed on a user’s Facebook feed after they have liked a page.

Similar to the Like button, Facebook has provided you with another form. Fill in each field as follows:

• Title: The title of your content (blog post, website, product, service etc)
• Type: What the content relates to (blog, product, album etc). A full list can be found on Facebook’s Developer Docs
• Image: URL of the image you want to show up as a thumbnail within the user’s update
• Site name: Name of your website!
• Admin: Your own User ID or a comma separated list of all Facebook Page Administrators. Include your own ID as a minimum.

Click Get Tags and you’ve got another pop-up with another set of code. Copy this code and paste it in the head section of your source code. Job done!

4. Ref Tag (Optional)

If you use more than one Like button on a page (e.g. you have a button at the top and bottom of your page), you can reference them so you know which buttons your users are using.

For this you’ll need to add the following to your existing code:

• For HTML5: Add ‘ref=””’ inside the ‘div’ tag with the class of ‘fb-like’

e.g. <div class=”fb-like” ref=”top-left”></div>

• For XFBML: Add ‘ref=””’ inside the ‘fb:like’ tag.
  e.g. <fb:like ref=”top-left”></fb:like>
• For the iFrame: Add ‘ref=’ to the URL source of the iFrame
  e.g. <iframe src=”…&ref=top-left”></iframe>

The data in the ref attributes needs to be alphanumeric, less than 50 characters and can contain some punctuation (currently +/=-.:_).

This is great if you are carrying out any user testing as you can amend certain aspects with the data you gain.

Summary

By adding your clickable Facebook Like buttons to your website, you open up your site to a much larger audience. If someone were then to Like your content, it becomes visible to all of their friends on Facebook – even more so if the user adds a comment to the link.

It’s a great way to aid with the growth of your online fan base and increase traffic to your website. You’ll also increase the opportunity to gain social and natural links. As such, this will contribute to your SEO targets through improve visibility in the search engines.

Over to you!

Have you personally added the Facebook Like button to your website or blog? Was it easy? And do you have any tips for fellow readers as to what you found successful? – @alwaysmikegomez

‘Thumbs up’ image courtesy of hubspot

Why? Both Google and Bing have openly admitted that social links are part of their ranking algorithms and in order to shape a healthy, successful and future proof SEO campaign, social media has to be considered.

So how can you take advantage of this and quickly? Well, social buttons are present across many a blog and website. They provide many benefits in addition to aiding SEO including increased brand exposure, improved social engagement with your network of fans and followers, and more traffic to your website. All those benefits from one click of a button and the user doesn’t even leave the website!

For today, I’ll be focusing on how to add the Twitter ‘Tweet’ button to your website or blog.

1. Choose your button

Head over to https://dev.twitter.com/docs/tweet-button and choose the type of button you want. You have three choices:

1. A plain ‘Tweet’ button with no count figure
2. A horizontal Tweet with a count of how many people have tweeted your content
3. A vertical ‘box’ style Tweet button with a count of how many people have tweeted your content

In this step you can also choose the text and URL which appears in the update. If you do not set these, the text will default to the title and URL of the page that the button is placed on.

2. Recommend people to follow

You can recommend up to two accounts to follow, one of which we’d recommend to be your own. For the additional account, leave it blank or add in a brand partner or contributor.

3. Copy the code and paste it into the HTML

After those (extremely) simple steps, it’s up to you or your web dev team to copy and paste the button into the preferred position on your page. Job done!

(Optional Step) Customise your Tweet button

For the more technically advanced people out there, it is possible to further customise the Tweet button through certain API attributes. You can find out how to customise the Tweet button further (and even create your own Tweet button) by visiting https://dev.twitter.com/docs/tweet-button.

Over to you!

Have you personally added the Twitter button to your website or blog? How easy did you find it and do you have any tips for fellow readers as to what you found successful?

-@alwaysmikegomez

Google has released their new social platform called Google+ and you know what – for all that I (and others) have panned Google’s social efforts in the past, I have a really good feeling about this. It’s fresh, sexy and looks like it could be a success.

It’s been coming for a while and the indicators have been there: rumours of a Google “Circles” product since early last year, Google +1 experiment, Google +1 web button, the revamp of Google Profiles and finally the mysterious black bar across the top of Google’s search page.

What is Google+?

Google+ is a new social platform, one to (Google hope) rival Facebook in the coming months and years. It has the features you would want from Facebook – updates, photo uploads, sharing videos, etc.

It looks like Google has taken this to a new level, in terms of functionality and usability, to make sharing much more seamless and easy.  This will certainly be key to Google getting one up on Facebook.

Moving on to the features…

Interface

Does the above look familiar to you? It certainly does to me too and in that lies an advantage. Strip away the branding, and the user interface looks remotely like Facebook. In turn, Facebook’s layout is one that is familiar with user base so having a similar feel will allow new adopters to feel instantly comfortable and at home. It’s a safe card to play and one that won’t scare away users like Google Wave did before it died a premature death.

Circles

Google Circles is a new way to create groups of friends, family and acquaintances through an easy drag and droppable feature. Yep, Facebook has a group feature too and yep, you can show content to specific groups. So what’s different?

Well, Circles is a core feature of Google+, it is much easier to use than Facebook and is much more intuitive. It also helps bypass a lot of security issues that Facebook has encountered in the past.

In other words, Circles allows you to share the content you want with the right people.

Sparks

“In general, it’s like you find something awesome and the first thing you want to do is talk about it with someone.” Google Sparks video

Sparks is a great feature, and one that Google have dubbed an “online sharing engine.” Search for topic of interest and what you get is a feed of content, photos and videos that “Sparks” believes you’ll like. From here, save what you like for later or share among your circles and begin a new conversation with your friends who have the same commonalities.

Google +1 was recently rolled out as a web button (think of it as Facebook’s Like button), was also added to the search results and is also integrated into your Google Profile. As such, it is likely this will become a big part of Google+ in the future, similarly to how the Tweet Button and Facebook ‘Like’ has for their respective networks.

Hangouts

Hangouts is a way of opening up group video chats with certain circles or your whole community. The really great thing about this is that it’s totally on the fly. What do I mean by that? Friends can drop in and out of the video conversation as they please with no interference on the rest of the group.

Instant Upload

Moving on to mobile, there will also be a selection of features available on Android in order to make sharing of content much much easier. (iPhone users – don’t panic, there will be an app!)

Instant upload is a feature where photos and videos are instantly uploaded to your profile and in to a private folder. From there, you simply choose what you want to share and with which circles.

Huddle

Finally, Huddle. Put simply, this is group texting. Huddle sets up groups so that the users involved can have a group chat. This feature will be available through Android, iOS phones as well as SMS messaging.

Opinion

So there you have your features, now let’s get down to the dirty. Is this finally going to be that amazing successful social attempt Google are so desperate to grab or will this be a complete and utter smack in the face failure?

What’s standing in Google’s way?

Facebook

The current behemoth in the industry hands down. Having officially launched back in 2006, Facebook has a five year advantage and a team that could easily match any feature that Google throws into the ring.

Furthermore, they have the user database 700,000,000 accounts and counting. They must be doing something right and Google must continue to offer something amazing in order to persuade users over to Google+. Moreover, that user must also persuade their contacts to switch too in order to have a worthwhile experience.

Where’s the user base?

Let’s get one thing straight: I do not think Google+ will be an instant hit, nor will it be a Facebook “killer” – at least in the short term. What I do believe is that it can challenge Facebook in certain aspects of social. Moreover, tying Google+ into search will factor highly in to its success as this is where Google’s user base is situated.

As already mentioned, Facebook has a mammoth user base. Google’s social user base in comparison is pretty much non-existent. There will be early adopters of Google Profiles and +1 button clickers, but will that alone be enough to gain enough traction to reach critical mass? We saw how important reaching critical mass was to the success of Twitter way back in 2009.

Awareness campaigns will definitely be required too. What’s the bet that there will be a Google+ advert at next year’s Super Bowl?

What does this mean for search?

Both Google and Bing publicly announced that they are using social signals as factors within their ranking algorithm. Google are already looking at retweets and likes; these alone can help something rank highly in the search results.

As such, surely the discussions, the shares and the +1’s of content around the web will contribute to this and will also contribute to how Google moves forward in the future should Google+ become a success.

Summary

Google looks like it is finally on to something here and the look, feel and features are looking great (then again, we said that about Wave).

The key things Google needs to do is somehow tie this into search (and I’m not talking about the questionable search results +1 button!). Whether this is though “social” recommendations from users within Google+ or even Twitter, it dearly needs to be looked at in order to take advantage of the colossal search audience Google already owns.

They then need to take advantage of Chrome. It has grown as a browser substantially since it was released. Adding extension buttons (whether optional or compulsory via an update) will certainly allow users to easily share content straight into their Google+ account.

Either way, Google will need to put in a lot of time and effort in order to keep providing users with smart, intuitive and seamless functionality. And this is just to get their foot through the door, increase their user base and begin pinching at the ankles of Facebook.

It’s going to be an interesting battle between Google and Facebook over the coming months and years, and hopefully that pinching of the ankles can become a full blown fist fight of words, features and functionality (to the benefit of social users of course!).

Videos

Below is a selection of the main features of Google+. If you want to see more videos, check out the Google+ YouTube Playlist.

Other Coverage

TechCrunch – http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/28/google-plus/

TechCrunch Google+ iPhone App – http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/28/google-plus-iphone-web-app/

Search Engine Land – http://searchengineland.com/first-look-hands-on-with-google-plus-83486

Search Engine Journal – http://www.searchenginejournal.com/a-look-at-google-%E2%80%93-the-long-awaited-google-social-network/30859/

State of Search – http://www.stateofsearch.com/googles-social-network-is-here-we-saw-the-signals-but-will-it-succeed/

Please leave your comments either on here or on Twitter – @alwaysmikegomez

What is EdgeRank?

Those of you with a Facebook account – and I’ll assume that’s it the vast majority of users reading this post – will notice that once logged in, you see either the ‘Most Recent’ updates of your friends and Facebook Pages you’ve ‘liked’ or the ‘Top News.’ Which tab you land on when signing in now depends on which one you last viewed (it was previously set to ‘Top News’ as standard).

‘Top News’ is where EdgeRank is applied and it determines which user updates appear on your own feed. To put it another way: those updates with a “higher” EdgeRank are more likely to appear on your feed than those with lower scores.

Your aim? Ensure your fans interact and engage with your brand, not only just through ‘liking,’ but through provoking conversation as well. For now, let’s look at how EdgeRank works. Later we will look at ways of leveraging your Facebook page to increase the likelihood of your brand’s updates appearing on your fans’ feeds.

The Factors of EdgeRank

EdgeRank is made up of, among others, three core factors: affinity, weight and timeliness. These are applied to a piece of content shared on Facebook, also referred to as an ‘edge’ or ‘object.’ The outcome is whether the algorithm deems the update worthy of appearing within another users news feed.

Let’s look at the factors a little more closely…

Affinity

Affinity is applied between users through the viewer interacting with the creator’s object (creation of update, comment, like, tag, photo, video etc. etc.).

For example, I (the viewer) recently ‘liked’ The Jane Tomlinson’s Appeal (the creator) Facebook Page as a fan (I’m running the Leeds 10k!). As such, I began visiting their page and ‘liking’ their updates. Due to my interactions with the page’s updates, Facebook can safely assume I have affinity with the Jane Tomlinson Appeal and will show me more of their updates within my news feed.

On the flip side, I ‘liked’ Tottenham Hotspurs about six month ago (I’m not even a supporter of the team!). I never interacted with the page and over time their updates, to which I saw in my feed every day, slowly faded as my interactions with other pages and friends increased.

Be aware, affinity is applied one way in the relationship – from the viewer to the creator. As a result, the viewer will see the creator’s updates within their feed. The creator does not gain any affinity with the viewer.

Weight

Weight is probably one of the more complex factors of EdgeRank. Certain interactions carry more ‘weight’ than others, that we know, although there is no concrete evidence of which interactions hold more weight than others.

Despite this, we can assume a link to a page will carry more weight than a status update and a photo or video will carry even more weight.

Take in to consideration the amount of interactions from other users (comments and ‘likes’ associated with the object), even consider the affinity you have with the users of these additional likes and comments and you’ll have a further multiple.  

Timeliness

Who wants to read old news? I know I don’t. This factor simply goes with the saying “out with the old, in with the new” so the older the object, the less importance it is given.

Leveraging EdgeRank

So what’s the result of all the above factors? Well multiple all your edges, add the score up and hey presto – you have an EdgeRank score. Once again, a higher score increases the likelihood of your updates appearing in front of your audience.

Now here’s an interesting stat: As a user, 95% of all of your friends, family and Facebook Page updates won’t be seen. That’s not because Facebook doesn’t want you to see them. It’s because Facebook, through EdgeRank, believes you don’t need to see that content – it’s not deemed relevant or interesting to you. It’s not the end of the world either because don’t forget, you have the “most recent” tab to fall back on if a user thinks they are missing out on the latest updates.

Considering all of the above, here are several suggestions to increase your brands level interaction and EdgeRank on Facebook.

1. Post Quality Content

If you have a blog, you have a fantastic opportunity to be posting great content. The obvious action here is to link to your post and make it visible to your audience.

Have you thought about posting a few updates before and after publishing and sharing your content? How about priming the audience by asking related questions, putting up a survey, requesting feedback?

Be sure to get involved in the conversation to fuel it further and know when to leave it alone once the conversation begins to die down.

2. Ask thought provoking questions

I read a great post by Ilana Rabinowitz a couple of weeks back. This statement from Ilana’s post couldn’t be more true:

“The thumbs up of the like button is like silver and getting an actual comment is like gold”

She then says in order to provoke interaction, get your fans thinking and I mean really using their imagination to respond in conversation, ask a question that applies to the majority then late.

For example, if I were posting for The Jane Tomlinson Appeal, I may ask the question:

“If you could run with any celebrity at a Run for All 10k event, who would it be with?”

The above question would first make the user think of a celebrity they’d love to run with and think about why. Either way, you are asking a question that gets your users thinking and also related it back to your brand.

The above question could be used as a primer too and a few days later, post a link to a press release about the latest celebrity to join the cause.

3. Post Polls/Surveys using Facebook Questions

The use of Facebook Questions can have many benefits from improving engagement to market research. Cleverly timed and on topic questions can drive many votes and comments. Each vote and more-so comment increases EdgeRank between two individuals.

4. Take Advantage of Videos and Photos

As mentioned, photos and videos are thought to carry more weight than other types updates. As such, any likes, comments and shares of the content will improve the affinity between one user to another.

5. Promote Links of Interesting Resources

It’s great giving your own content exposure on your Facebook page. It opens your content up to being ‘liked’, shared and commented (on both the blog and Facebook page). Over promote your work and you’ll likely ‘turn off’ your audience.

So what to do? Promote other’s content. Whether it’s a great blog you’ve read that is of use to your audience, or photos/videos relevant to your industry. At the end of it, it’s your update that will receive the ‘likes’ and the comments and you’re giving your audience something other than “me, me, me!” Make it fun and make it interesting.

6. Think about posting outside of work hours

Think about it. When do you use your personal Facebook account? A privileged few will use it at work. The majority will likely use it outside of working hours. Figure out what times are popular with your users and make sure your best content is published at these times for the largest opportunity of interaction.

7. Measure what’s working

By monitoring which content gains the best results and which doesn’t work so well, you can adjust your strategy to put more emphasis on that type of content. For example, what’s more popular? The latest industry insights and data or your corporate news? If it is your industry insights that proves more popular/engaging, start doing more of that and less corporate news.

In conclusion, make sure you think about how to best publish your content in a way that encourages your fans to engage with it. This in turn will get your fans to build further affinity with your fan page to ensure your updates and your brand is what they see on their “Top News” as soon as they log on.

The advantages to this allow users to quickly and easily do all of the above without leaving your website or having to authorising a new application.

How do I implement it?

What’s more Twitter have made the implementation of this feature an absolute breeze so even the most novice of developers can add Web Intents to their website or blog. The two parts (yes, just two) includes a Javascript file call and then a simple task of using a link.

Here’s how in those two easy steps:

Step 1 – The (hardest) easy bit

Step one is adding the Javascript to allow the Web Intents actions (the tweets, replies, follows etc) open in the pop-up window. This is recommended but not actually required. Just remember, the pop-up window will make sure the user stays on your website.

Simply add this Javascript reference to your page before any of the Web Intents actions:

<script src=”http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>

It’s up to you where you add this, whether it is in the “head” section of your HTML or just above your Web Intents actions. The key thing is that the above code must appear BEFORE any of the web intents actions.

Step 2 – The (really) easy bit

The next step is to add the Web Intents actions. These actions are simply a link to a specific URL. These will vary dependent on the action you wish to use. The result of clicking on the link is a new pop-up window with the relevant call to action (See our live examples lower down in the post).

The code for each with a brief explanation can be found below:

Follow & Mini Profile:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=alwaysmikegomez”>Follow Me!</a>

By using the above code you will be presented with a mini profile and the option to follow your selected user.

After “screen_name=” type in the users Twitter username in order to display the correct mini profile.

Tweet:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/intent/tweet”>Send your own message</a>

This code pops up a window allowing the user to send out a normal tweet.

@Reply:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=62862594515546112”>Reply to a Tweet</a>

The above code will pop-up a window allowing the viewer to reply to a specific user and message.

Replace the number at the end with the ID of your own tweet. To find this, click on the time the tweet was sent in Twitter – usually display as “10 minutes ago” or “Apr 20”.

Retweet:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=62862594515546112”>Retweet a Tweet</a>

Will let a user retweet your tweet! Change the number in order to change the message intended for retweeting.

Favourite:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/intent/favorite?tweet_id=62862594515546112”>Favourite a Tweet</a>

This link will allow a user to set a tweet as a favourite for quick reference.

Web Intents in Action

Click on the links below for an example of how they work!

Follow & Mini Profile

Send a Tweet

@Reply to a Tweet

Retweet a Tweet

Favourite a Tweet

How can it be used?

The obvious advantage of this is your website can become a much more interactive and engaging platform for users of Twitter. What’s more you won’t have to worry about users navigating away from your website. In addition to your blog, you may even want to expand a discussion to Twitter.

The above is a basic example and I’m sure those more accustomed to using API’s will create amazing and imaginative applications.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Twitter Web Intents and if you’ve already seen some good examples! For further information have a look at our social media services based in Leeds for help with engagement strategies and influencer targeting.

Over the pond in the US of A, American Idol and X-Factor look set to use Facebook as part of their voting processes, which also includes the more traditional telephone and SMS text votes. Apparently, users will be able to vote up to 50 times as long as they vote within a designated period with the service launching 1 March.

It’s definitely an interesting move by the reality television show and I would certainly suspect popular live voting shows – UK and US – to follow trend. Can you imagine voting for your favourite Britain’s Got Talent act? Or how about “liking” (or more likely disliking) an unfortunate contestant for a Bush Tucker trial?

Just another method to bring things to the now generation. Quick and simple, click – done!

Everyone is really up for blogging, tweeting and recording relevant content to get the strategy moving. All of a sudden, momentum drops and the company’s social media revolution quickly fizzles out like a damp firework.

Avoiding the Social Mediocre

So what happened?! Why is the strategy failing?!! Well at the end of the day, the truth is you and your colleagues have your own jobs to get one with. This puts social media in a low lit room so it is less of a distraction. Once the excitement and enthusiasm subsides, social activities can soon change from “Whoo, I can do something social media-ry!” to “Ugh! I’ve got to do this again…*sigh.*”

This could be for several reasons such as asking too much of the staff, not being clear enough in the aims, or not having the right processes in place. This could potentially put the brakes on the plan before the rolling wheels have really gained any sort of traction.

So as a business, that amazing vision you had in your head may not necessarily become reality…not overnight any way. Unless you are making sure the staff are aware of the processes, what is expected of them and in some cases, trained effectively, that vision will stay exactly that – a vision!

Spread the work

Splitting the work between different people in more than one team or department will certainly make for an easier and more enjoyable experience.

To spread the work load, find staff that are interested in getting involved with the social media aspect of your business. Get them onboard with the benefits too – they’ll acquire a new skill set and it may increase potential for their own career. development/success.

Make sure the social side works with their job roles too. So for example:

• Can H&R tweet about new job openings?
• Should each team blog or tweet frequently asked questions?
• Can your marketing team let everyone know about the latest blog posts?

It’s not just the marketing department’s job!

To follow on from above, expanding the social media responsibilities between different teams and departments will have its own benefits. Your company won’t be seen as one dimensional, and you’ll be able to take advantage of unique experiences / stories / research / insights / opinions across the whole company. This makes your social exposure more appealing to a wider audience in that thing called the outside world to which you’re aiming to connect with.

Beat the phobia

“Twitterphobia” is a term that is jokingly mentioned at client meetings. A fear of diving into social media for the first time is, well, quite natural. When we first began rolling out our blogging strategy, those who were new (and not so new) to blogging would often murmur Ooo, what can I blog about this month?, Should I blog about (X)?, and What if someone thinks this is wrong?

There was uncertainty. There was perceived risk involved. Both of these put together can make people recoil from any unknown punishments that could come their way. This leads to stalling ideas, innovation, the number of blog articles published, and 140 posts being tweeted.

The easiest way to tackle this is by writing a set of clear guidelines and best practices (one for Twitter, blogging, Facebook, YouTube etc.) to remove the anxiety and make everything clear. You and your colleagues then know what to and what not to do.

Monitor, Assign and Develop Knowledge

Making a list of blogs and feeds for the social team or even certain individuals to follow will be of great advantage. Create the list, keep it organised and share it with everyone.

These outlets can keep your company and staff updated on the latest industry movements and techniques, which then provides you with different perspectives on a subject. All of these can contribute to your social strategy. It may lead staff to think of their own perspective on their topic, share interesting posts/tweets with the community, or it may make them ask questions not previously thought of. All of these can lead to either more blog posts, community engagement and internal testing/research (that can be fed into more blog posts!).

Make sure there is somewhere to share this wealth of knowledge internally too. Overtime, you’ll build up a fantastic, searchable knowledge base. We have found Yammer to be particularly effective here allowing us to tag, comment and share interesting links/websites.

Schedules & Frequency

Post regularly to your blog and monitor the results (traffic, keywords, retweets, comments etc). By monitoring your results, you will learn what works and what doesn’t. This will open the door for testing new techniques about how your company can interact and connect with the outside world.

The above should in some way put you on the road to change your social media ideals into social media reality. Just remember, it ain’t gonna happen overnight.

Photo Credits: Capture Queen, Zach Klein, familymwr

The BP oil spill became one of America’s biggest environmental disasters with a ruptured pipe that leaked 185 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Lasting 3 months with numerous investigations, there were certainly plenty of talking points surrounding this topic.

The FIFA World cup had three mentions. The tournament itself, this year based in South Africa, hit number two while the ear pounding vuvuzela came in at number 5. One of the main talking points ranked number 10 – Paul the physic octopus took the world by storm with its amazing match predicting abilities (He correctly predicted 4 of 6 Euro 2008 ties and all 8 matches given to him in the 2010 FIFA World Cup).

Here’s the full list.

Overall Top 10 Twitter Trends:

1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. FIFA World Cup
3. Inception
4. Haiti Earthquake
5. Vuvuzela
6. Apple iPad
7. Google Android
8. Justin Bieber
9. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
10. Pulpo Paul

Top 10 News Events on Twitter

1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. Haiti Earthquake
3. Pakistan Floods
4. Koreas Conflict
5. Chilean Miners Rescue
6. Chavez Tas Ponchao
7. Wikileaks Cablegate
8. Hurricane Earl
9. Prince Williams Engagement
10. World Aids Day

Top 10 People on Twitter

1. Justin Bieber
2. Dilma Rouseff
3. Lady Gaga
4. Julian Assange
5. Mel Gibson
6. Lil Kim
7. Zilda Arns
8. Kate Middleton
9. Kim Hee Chul
10. Joannie Rochette

Top 10 Movies on Twitter

1. Inception
2. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
4. Despicable Me
5. Karate Kid
6. The Last Airbender
7. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
8. The Expendables
9. The Chronicles of Narnia
10. Paranormal Activity 2

Top 10 Television Programmes on Twitter

1. MTV Video Music Awards
2. Pretty Little Liars
3. True Blood
4. Walking Dead
5. Grammy Awards
6. Glee
7. Family Guy
8. CSI
9. MTV Movie Awards
10. American Music Awards

Top 10 Technology Topics on Twitter

1. Apple iPad
2. Google Android
3. Apple iOS
4. Apple iPhone
5. Call of Duty Black Ops
6. New Twitter
7. HTC
8. RockMelt
9. MacBook Air
10. Google Instant

Top 10 World Cup Topics on Twitter

1. FIFA World Cup
2. Vuvuzela
3. Pulpo Paul
4. Dunga
5. Diego Maradona
6. Cristiano Ronaldo
7. Cala Boca Galvao
8. Lionel Messi
9. Oranje
10. Felipe Melo

Top 10 Sports Topics on Twitter

1. Lebron James
2. Wimbledon
3. Manchester United
4. Brock Lesnar
5. Celtics
6. Brett Favre
7. Tony Parker
8. Antonio Margarito
9. Blake Griffin
10. Mike Vick

Top 10 #Hashtags on Twitter

1. #rememberwhen
2. #slapyourself
3. #confessiontime
4. #thingsimiss
5. #ohjustlikeme
6. #wheniwaslittle
7. #haveuever
8. #icantlivewithout
9. #thankful
10. #2010disappointments

GroupOn, which offers users discounts and special offers for businesses in their locale, reportedly brings in approximately $50 million per month. Since GroupOn launched in 2008, it has been one of the biggest success stories in recent memory holding a valuation of $1 billion.

If the rumours are true, Google could well roll out the GroupOn model into their very own Google Places (and possibly more recently released Hotpot).

We’ve taken a look to see who the big players are when it comes to product brands and their fan pages.

10 – iPod

Followers: 6,208,636

Starting in at number 10 is the iPod. Every other person seems to have either an iPod or iPhone with an app for everything these days so the number of followers isn’t surprising.

The fan page is a simple one with updates on the most recent / popular apps released within iTunes.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/iPod/22592560949

9 – Victoria’s Secret Pink

Followers: 6,371,586

The sexy chic fashion of pyjamas and underwear designer keeps users involved though latest launches of clothes lines. Victoria’s Secret Pink also provide occasional competitions as well as the “Send Happy” messages which allows you to send bright happy messages to Facebook friends to make them feel… happy!

One for the girls I think.

http://www.facebook.com/vspink

8 – Pringles

Followers: 6,388,402

Pringles offer a range of engaging features. During the world cup they provided plenty of coverage plus football related YouTube videos. And remember the Pringoooals competition? Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, Cesc Fabrigas, Steven Gerrard – all backed by big name sporting brands. Peter Crouch decides to break the mould and back the “once you pop, you can’t stop” brand.

More recent initiatives include “Pringles Conga” allowing you add your face to a pringle, give it a dancing move and add it to a conga line. Also the “Overshare” button another new feature telling your friends they are posting too many dull or over-detailed posts on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/Pringles

7 – Windows Live Messenger

Followers: 7,370,285

MSN Messenger is still going strong it seems and with this fan page users can gain plenty of insight into the software.

There isn’t anything special about this fan page yet the Facebook integration within MSN messenger as well as useful tips, videos and expression packs on the fan page itself draw in the crowds.

http://www.facebook.com/WindowsLiveMessenger

6 – iTunes

Followers: 7,603,121

Aaah, iTunes. The revolutionary software product that revolutionised the revolution of downloadable music.

The page provides the latest chart toppers of songs, apps, movies and TV shows. There is plenty to do as well with frequent polls (obviously tied in with their promotions), pick your playlist (and share it with friends), Celebrity Podcasts as well as the latest promotional offers on the wall.

http://www.facebook.com/iTunes

5 – Converse All Star

Followers: 8,362,729

Yes a shoe brand has made it into the top 5 of the Facebook Fan pages for brand products. Personally I would have thought Adidas would be here with all their celebrity endorsements and funky features but hey, there you are.

The Converse All Star fan page has an very active user “Discussion” section along with the opportunity to upload photos of your very own Converse All Stars (Do I call them sneakers, trainers? I’m obviously not that fashionable).

http://www.facebook.com/ConverseAllStar

4 – Red Bull

Followers: 10,839,264

So does the Red Bull fan page give you wings? Well the first thing that stands out is their cheeky attempt to get users to instantly “Like” them with their in-your-face image.

Red Bull do a good job of their fan page actually with plenty of events and competitions. They also offer a games section which also includes a number where users can call and leave messages for other users to hear.

Red Bull also endorse a fair few sports and with that they have plenty of athletes. The athletes Twitter feeds have been directly imported to Facebook which you can filter by typical sporting categories.

Finally, Red Bull TV is streamed directly from the fan page allowing you to take a closer look at the Red Bull Athletes in all their sporting glory.

http://www.facebook.com/redbull

3 – Skittles

Followers: 12,080,857

Skittles are fully aware of the amount of fans they have (they even call them a legion!) and they were one of the first in the social media game. Anyone remember when they made the Skittles.com homepage a Twitter search for the term Skittles?

The main focus of this fan page is the “Mob the Rainbow” campaign. Every so often an event is set up. The most recent being the gate crash of an 85 year old woman’s party with photos, comments and videos. Another, way back on Valentine’s day, flooded a Parking Attendant with thousands of Valentine Cards. Random I know and it’s quirky enough to drag in the followers.

http://www.facebook.com/skittles

2 – Oreo

Followers: 12,805,065

The runner up is Oreo – you know, that biscuits you twist, lick and then dunk in milk? Sounds a bit Marmite to me.

The first thing that stands out is the “World’s Fan of the Week” giving a member of the public – ANYWHERE in the world – the opportunity to slap the mug in front of 12million facebook fans via a simple photo upload and weekly selection process.

The company are also successful at asking their fans engaging question and posts such as “Describe the taste of an Oreo in only one word…” as well as providing messages from athletes and giving out free Oreo related recipe tips.

http://www.facebook.com/oreo

1 – Coca Cola

Followers: 16,182,394

The leading product Brand is the world’s favourite drink, Coca Cola. The fan page is growing at an increasing rate and breaking away from the pack.

The fan page is easily the most active of the all the previous brands. Fronted by Dusty and Michael – the ‘creators’ of the fan page – through the power of YouTube, there are plenty of snappy and humorous videos to watch.

I’m not going to go into depth about all the features yet worth a mention is the way they present their custom pages. Each one is heavily branded yet well presented and feels as if it gives something to the all types of viewers, whether they want to upload photos and videos, send Coca Cola based messages to each other via the Polar Bear or check out the events and apps Coca Cola also offer.

http://www.facebook.com/coca-cola

*All follower data correct as of 4^th November 2010

What Makes A YouTube Video Rank?

When it comes to YouTube, there is a variety of factors that will help a video rank at the top of YouTube and even appear as the first result of a universal search result in Google.  Although Google’s algorithm is continuously changing to give us the most relevant results, YouTube sticks with the medieval search model of titles, meta descriptions and meta keywords.

When uploading a video, YouTube will translate your video title into a meta title tag, your video description into a meta description tag and (you guessed it!) the video tags into the meta keywords. In other words, attention and thought should be given to your title, description and tags in order to rank well for your targeted term.

YouTube rankings improve from titles and descriptions? Is that it?!

No. There are many other factors that will be taken into consideration. At the end of the day, YouTube is an engagement channel with millions of people viewing, commenting, sharing, responding and rating the videos they like (or dislike).

According to Glenn Gabe’s YouTube Ranking Factors, the following list is also considered – I’d recommend looking at the analysis he has carried out also:

• views
• ratings
• playlist additions
• flagging
• embeds
• shares
• comments
• age of video
• channel views
• subscribers

What about links to YouTube videos?

That’s the last point made by Mr Gabe is in fact inbound links from outside of YouTube. While the above all contribute to a top ranking video, links will aid results in both YouTube and Google results.

While links are great, an interesting part for me is the inclusion of embedded links. While a link is a link is a link, an embed on a website would be questionable right? Well, maybe not. Think about it, to boost a website within the rankings, a website with plenty of ‘voting’ links has more of a right to rank highly in the search results for its term. As YouTube is a video website, surely an embed is just as valuable to a video ranking as a link is to a website ranking on a search engine. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

How do I get the ball rolling?

It comes down to creating valuable content, as with anything in the social media arena. Popping up on a community, shouting about a video you’ve just made then disappearing never to be seen again will have very little, if any, effect. Take time to engage with the community, build relationships with other members and build your own following. This way, your own videos will get the recognition they deserve and your initial efforts will be rewarded.

When it comes to Google, you have no real control over the architecture of YouTube so good quality links will be your best bet to appear in the universal search results. Again, having a great relationship with your community will improve your chances of receiving these links thus helping the video appear in universal search.

In Summary…

The best place to start if you have any sort of video you wish to upload is ask yourself “Is this video of any value to my target audience?”. If the answer is yes, your next step would be to think about optimising your title, description and tags to cover the keywords the video will target.

Make sure you take time to engage with a community that matches your target audience. This could be Twitter, Facebook or a niche discussion board that specialises in your industry. Build up the relationships with these users and this will increase the likelihood of them sharing your videos to the larger community when you upload them. Effectively engaging with the community will aid future success of videos too and work to increase all the other factors such as views, comments, embeds and good quality links helping it rank on both Google and YouTube.

For any normal event or anniversary, Google would usually change their logo. Not this time. This time they have tried a different tactic. Using the same “World Cup” search and scrolling to the bottom of the page, you find the normal “Goooooooogle” page numbers replaced with “Goooooooooal!”.

Furthermore, Google have now added the World Cup stadiums to Google Street View. All 10 World Cup football grounds can be viewed while a select few can also be viewed in full 360 degrees from inside the stadium thanks to Google’s very own Street View Trike.

The Street View Trike has already been used across the UK to gain access to heritage site’s such as Stonehenge, The Millenium Stadium and the Angel of the North. With Google now being armed with the cars and trikes, it begs the question of where won’t Google be able to add to Street View?!

Google are known for their logo designs depending on certain events and anniversaries of particular people or innovations. Today is no different – only this time, they have done something extremely cool.

So putting geeky excitement to a side, Google have placed a playable version of Pacman((!) – yes the geeky excitement is still there really) based around the Google letters. Just click the “Insert Coin” to start the celebration of the 30^th anniversary of PacMan. Google say there are over 256 levels of “Google PacMan” to play should you want to go to that extreme. To start playing head over to Google.

If you fancy a two player – click on “Insert Coin” twice. Mrs Pacman will join in the fun. You can control her with A,W,S,D.

Well, there goes the rest of the day*

(*Note to boss, I’m not playing it, honest!)

Last year saw Twitter overhaul their homepage design to bring the power of their search feature to the main website. In turn, this made search and trending topics more accessible, allowing everyone to explore the value of the community and the content.

A Sense of Value

The latest redesign (see below) has been built to give a ‘community feel’ that provides valuable content. This is an alternative to the uneducated guess of a bunch of users just tweeting about what they ate for lunch. Once released, the new homepage will feature the latest status updates on the ‘big subjects’ as well as providing a sample of those who already use the service.

Twitter Blog

“All of our recent changes embrace the notion that Twitter is not just for status updates anymore. It’s a network where information is exchanged and consumed at a rapid clip every second of the day. With so much being shared, we know that there’s something of value for everyone. People who internalize the value of Twitter understand the power of this simple medium. But it hasn’t been easy to make that value transparent or obvious for curious folks coming to Twitter for the first time.”

Tweet Tweak

This move will be the first of a series of continuous tweaks to the homepage to improve the accessibility and transparency of Twitter. The continuous changes are a lesson to all. We should be continuously testing and tweaking our websites to ultimately improve conversion rates, (shameless plug coming) similarly to what we offer our clients through our WebConvertor service.

So why the changes to Twitter? And why now? With the uptake of new members slowing down after the boom in 2009, topped with the new redesign of Facebook and the release of Google Buzz this year, Twitter are making certain their service still appeals to the masses in order to grab and retain as much market share as possible. Additionally, it further defines where Twitter want to go with the website and the message they set out to deliver.

I think most would agree Twitter is here for the long haul. If the new design brings in more users, I can only welcome it with open arms. After all, if there are more users embracing Twitter then that in return will provide more value to me and others in their respective niches of interest.

The idea behind Buzz is to have the ability to put what you want into status updates such as photos, links and videos and share these easily with your email contacts and those you follow. You can even import status updates from other Social Media websites such as Twitter, Google Reader and Picasa.

First Impressions

First impressions haven’t been great around the world for poor ole Buzz. The platform has been met with large amounts of criticism over privacy and lack of functionality instead of excitement of a “Twitter Killer”.

Privacy has been a real issue with Google already being sued over the matter. Within 2 days, Google were forced to update Buzz with a privacy fix so those not connected to you cannot discover your details and activity. This is a massive concern for a lot of people and Google have addressed the issue swiftly – although it should never have really happened in the first instance.

For me, the privacy issue was not a big deal. The usability experience of the platform isn’t necessarily straight forward though. The whole following users and contacts came across as somewhat confusing and in typical Google fashion, the details have not been explained sufficiently.

Another area I don’t quite comprehend is why the oh-so public Buzz has integrated with the private walled garden feel of Gmail? When I’m typing my messages, I find I want to simply keep things within my following as opposed to sharing with the public – something I’d happily do on Twitter. Strange how a setting can change a perspective.

In addition to the above, I import my Gmail into Outlook so have to go out of my way to view Buzz. I wonder if Tweetdeck will provide an update sometime soon… Google would certainly benefit from this!

My finally criticism is the way the stream itself becomes cluttered and even some-what irrelevant. If a user replies to a comment, the whole post and all replies are bumped to the top of your feed. I want to see the latest updates. I don’t want to see the most popular topical post. If I wanted that, I would go to a forum.

As an overall early impression, Buzz is like that annoying wasp that continuously zips in and out of your peaceful day as opposed to a bee that gets on with making more honey.

Will Google Buzz be Successful?

Successful may not be the word. Maybe ‘popular’ would be a better choice. Either way, it is early days and any prediction would be premature. Google have launched the product after admitting they did not test this with smaller groups of users and as such, have paid with the swarm (pun intended) of criticism flying their way.

The lack of functionality makes the platform feel rushed and many blogs are posting their Google Buzz wish lists already. The platform doesn’t feel innovative in any way shape or form and simply a reaction to the threat of Facebook / Twitter et al stealing market share away from them.

To me, this is just another of many gimmicks to which Google have released in recent months with little thought. If this keeps up, a reputation of low quality will hang above the company and they will come across as – phrase of the moment in the run up to the UK election – “out-of-touch”.

I have no doubt Google Buzz will have its place in the Social Media spectrum. It certainly can’t be ignored. You want to be going where the ball rolls and while the hype (negative or positive) around Google Buzz still going strong, the ball is slowly rolling in their direction. How much of the sweet sticky pie they can eventually take is another matter. My bet is not much.

Photo Credit: Patrick Doheny

By creating a widget for the community, you are able to control the content that appears on their website. The only area of control you do not have is where the user wishes to position the widget on their website.

A widget should cost your company relatively little and have a low resource time. Without being too technical, you can make it extremely easy for users to add your widget to their website too by providing the preferred code or setting the widget up as a plug-in so users can download it to their blog.

Why Does Your Company Need A Widget?

As social media has become much more popular over the course of 2008 and 2009, users have changed the way they use the internet. They no longer begin their web experience at Google or Yahoo but instead start on Facebook, Twitter or their favourite social website. Users also have the option of viewing these websites on a mobile phone meaning that there is even more reason to package up your brand and expose it through as many channels as possible.

By creating an educational or entertaining application, a widget allows you to reach potential customers with similar interests, on websites where they spend most of their time. This will not only expose your brand to them, it will also give them a company to associate a certain product or service with, increasing the likelihood of them returning to you.

How Can Widgets Help With SEO?

By providing a link to your website within your widget, it can provide a form of link building and the more popular a widget, the better an effect it will have on your SEO. Take advantage of the widget’s link by adding a keyword term you are targeting as anchor text (the text used to link to your website).

It is very likely that your widget will be used by users that have a similar interest meaning your widget and link will be surrounded by relevant content, a factor that search engines look for.

Examples of Widgets

As an avid fantasy football fan, a widget that I find extremely useful is PhysioRoom’s Premier League Injury List. The widget can be imported to a website or blog and shows all the current player injuries and expected return dates for each team and can be changed for fan websites to show just one team.

From an SEO perspective, PhysioRoom add their own link at the bottom of the widget with specific keywords linking to their products. This tool has become so powerful that it now ranks above the homepage for the search ‘PhysioRoom’ proving the effects of a popular widget.

The PhysioRoom as found on Tottenham Hotspur Web Guide

iGoogle is an example of a page taking advantage of widgets. The page can incorporate the latest news through RSS feeds providing quick links to the articles and short description snippet. Other widgets can be added too such as a YouTube player, games and ‘To Do’ lists all on top of your everyday search functionality. There is no reason why your widget can’t appear on iGoogle either to increase your brand exposure.

Photo Credit: mil8

The new mobile website works best with phones that support webkit browsers such as the iphone and Android. The main reason for the revamp of mobile Twitter is so that the website looks and feels like Twitter, which the ‘m’ website did not do.

Eventually, the current http://m.twitter.com will be phased out and replaced with what is currently the preview version. To find out more, @leland has posted a new blog post over at the Twitter Blog.

If you were to go to your Webmaster Tools today, you’ll find a new option under the ‘Labs’ tab called ‘Site Performance’. In a nutshell, this new tool provides you with a visual representation of the time it takes for your website to load.

In addition to this, the tool also provides you with tips on how to improve the overall load time of specific pages on your website. This includes areas such as combining CSS files, combining JavaScript files, using gzip compression as well as minimising the amount of DNS look-ups required on any one page.

So why has Google released a Site Performance tool?

The answer is easy – to increase revenue. The tool will help webmasters to improve the usability of a website and make the experience much more pain free. In turn, this means the public will be using the internet more and therefore increases the likelihood of users clicking on Google ads. In other words, the more time we spend online, the better it works out for Google.

Where to next in the Search Rankings?

Google have already mentioned the possibility of making load time a pivotal influence within the rankings and this will certainly be an area worth testing over the coming months.

Photo Credit: apesara

Here’s what Google have to say about it:

“Using feeds for discovery allows us to get these new pages into our index more quickly than traditional crawling methods. We may use many potential sources to access updates from feeds including Reader, notification services, or direct crawls of feeds.”

[Source: Webmaster Central Blog, 29/10/09]

To see if your RSS feed is available to be crawled, you can test your feed URLs using the Robots.txt tester within your Webmaster Tools account.

So what exactly makes this new worm so meticulous?

The worm sends out direct messages (known as DMs) containing a link to replica of the Twitter website. The DM acts as a persuasion tactic along the lines of “Have you seen this…” inducing you to login to the replica website. By doing this, the hackers are able to steal your login details.

With the newly acquired details, more of these DMs will be sent out under the stolen accounts so it looks like legitimate users are sending the message out making the DM seem more authentic.

What’s the moral?

DON’T CLICK ON THE LINK and delete any DMs asking you to login to the replica version of Twitter. These links may even come under the disguise your own friends and followers so take extra care when clicking links sent from friends.

But I’ve clicked the link and signed in! What do I do?!

Quite simple, change your password. Delete any of the DMs that may have been sent out on your account and also any malicious DMs you have received. If you can’t login, reset the password and contact Twitter Support.

Let’s hope now it’s a case of the early bird catches the worm (Now where’s that coat of mine…?).

From AAAAGGHH to Ahhhhhh…

If you were to look at the default profile picture as of yesterday, you would notice a much more vibrant colour selection and professional default picture with a white silhouette of the Twitter Bird.

There has been the odd hiccup with the new profile picture whereby some users have lost their profile picture temporarily and it has been replaced with the new avatar. A ‘bug’ that happened accidentally on purpose to promote the new image?

(and other Twitter makeovers)

You may have also noticed an update to the profile pages with users telling us of changes to the follow button. It is now a bar which stretches across the page with the added options of ‘@mention’ and ‘block user’ options. Combine all of this with the addition of four more themes and the addition of Doug Bowman, formerly of Google’s creative department; I’m sure we’ll be seeing more eye-pleasing twitter designs and improvements in the future.

Twitter users were generically in the age category of 25-34. Earlier this year, users aged 55+ then took to the social media platform and saw the largest percentage increases in sign-ups across Twitter and Facebook.

Now, it seems users aged 12-24 have dramatically increased from around the mid-70 score to a score of 121 – 100 showing the perfect proportion of users using Twitter compared to their overall activity across the web.

Image: Business Insider

For more information, header over to Business Insider’s ‘Chart of the Day’

Twitter however, announced last week that due to the inaccuracy of the current geo-targeting applications (based on the user’s ‘Location’ field), they will release an update to the API. The update will give Twitter the ability to pin point the location from where the tweet was posted from.

Biz Stone said in his recent blog post:
“We’re gearing up to launch a new feature which makes Twitter truly location-aware. A new API will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice because it will be off by default and the exact location data won’t be stored for an extended period of time. However, if people do opt-in to sharing location on a tweet-by-tweet basis, compelling context will be added to each burst of information.”

So, where from here for Geo-targeted data on Twitter?

I’m sure this will provide much more compelling data. For those that do activate the feature, we will be able to see where users tweet from and whether most ‘tweet on the go’ or simply tweet at their home/office computer.

It will also be interesting to see what developers will achieve with the new feature – give them the tools and they’ll come up with the next inspirational idea, right? Current applications like Twittearth will benefit from this hugely as it will allow for a more precise location  – this is the only the geographical platform that has half impressed me thus far (Only half impressed because the login doesn’t work!).

We can’t forget the iPhone and other Smart Phone applications either. We already know iPhones have the ability to submit your location when asked and I’m sure we’ll see an update to certain applications such as TweetDeck in the near future allowing you to submit your exact location to Twitter. Maybe we’ll see something added to Google Maps, Google Latitude or third party interpretations of these (You heard it here first!!).

I’ll keep my reservations for the time being yet I’m not dismissing this data. More information is certainly welcomed and will surely reveal many more trends in the coming months and years that can be used to everyone’s advantage.

And the Most Super of all Agents

I’m glad we were correct in our predictions and would like to congratulate Dean Stokes on his win. Dean Stokes by far was the most noticeable Super Agent in the competition, spreading the word across Twitter and YouTube among other social media sites. What probably made him stand out from the others was his YouTube videos which he promoted very well via his other social media sources. Armed with outrageous disguises, the public were provided with light-hearted and funny videos to keep us entertained and eager for more. We’ve embedded our favourite vids from his campaign.

Other Goo on the Loose Contestants

Enough about Mr Stokes. What about the other Super Agents that gave it a good goo (I’ll get my coat…)? We briefly mentioned Toby Tully who probably created the most alter egos with her vast collection of disguise material the Amy Winehouse beehive being particularly amusing. We suspected she would be the strongest competition to Stokes with a strong YouTube and Twitter following.

Following up Super Agent Spud Hartrey, our suspicions were correct about her spammy techniques on Twitter which later converted to desperation techniques on Twitter. To her credit though, she gained a lot of followers but probably lost a lot more in the long run.

Where Now for Cadbury?
So what about Cadbury? They organised this event, they’ve chosen a winner, they’re probably analysing the techniques right now. I still stand by the notion that this was all one large scale experiment so they could penetrate the social media marketing sphere. Watch closely as the entrants experiment with different social media techniques, choose the most successful methods and fine tune them to come up with another strong strategy for the future. Cadbury have gone the right way about it with something innovative and as such, we will almost certainly see the return of another campaign before long.

A Little Extra Goo

As promised, a couple of videos from Dean Stokes:

101 ways to torture the Goo on the Loose

Mission to London

Since the launch of Bing, the rivalry between Google and Microsoft heated up in recent months, add that to the browser wars of Google Chrome and Internet Explorer and you can only see the competition intensifying further. Well, it just has.

Google announced on their blog that they plan to launch an operating system by the name of Google Chrome OS. It is said to be a natural extension of Google Chrome, an operating system designed to incorporate the modern day usage of the internet and set a new standard of operating systems.

Google already have an operating system

Google have already released a mobile operating system known as Android, and was designed for various mobile devices and even netbooks. Google Chrome OS has been created for those who spend most of their time on the web (I suppose I’m in there!), with speed, simplicity and security being the key aspects. Google said the following on their blog:

“Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.”

As mentioned above, Google expect to have Google Chrome OS available through netbooks later next year. How it will run is another question though. Google mention in their post that they will use open source software and everything will be available from the internet. So does this mean no hard installs from CDs/DVDs? Just simple downloads from the internet? All your files and back-ups will be filed on the internet too?

Obstacles for Google Chrome OS

As most of the user experience occurs on the web, I question the security aspect and I’m sure this is something Google will respond too in the upcoming months to put our minds at ease. Microsoft has never really been great on the security factors, just recently Internet Explorer has been found to have a major security flaw. With this in mind, Google will need to be on their toes with the security issues to ensure they get the full backing from the public.

Finally, I question the uptime. Speed and simplicity are great, yet in regards to storage Google quote:

“They (the users) want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files”

After recent downtime issues with Gmail and other applications Google provide, this will be another hurdle they must get over and make sure there are no downtime problems leading up to the release of the Google Chrome OS.

The prospect of Google Chrome OS is exciting, I’m sure there will be scepticisms but the potential of this new operating system is massive and Microsoft (don’t forget Apple too)  may be fighting to keep their market share in the near future.

What is ‘Goo on the Loose’

Operation ‘Goo on the Loose’, setup by the CIA (Cadbury Intelligence Agency), holds its base at the ‘Goo on the Loose’ microsite. This website provides the latest scheming clues from the devious Creme Egg Twisted whilst also providing access to the public competition.

The Super Agent competition began on Friday 12 June 2009 with Cadbury drafting 10 winners of the Phase One competition as their new Super Agents. The aim, from what I have read and seen of the Super Agents so far, is to receive the most exposure across all platforms of Social Media in an attempt to win £20,000.

Agent Prince Cleton seems to describe this best on his blog:

“I am Prince Cleton one of ten super agents taking part in the Cadbury Creme Egg ‘Goo is on the Loose’ competition to win £20,000. By solving clues leading to famous landmarks the agents have to make witty videos, photos, blogs and recruit followers to earn points to take them to the No 1 spot.”

How Does Operation Goo on the Loose Work?

Now the Super Agents have worked for the CIA for a few weeks, their humorous reports have been flooding out across YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and their own personal blog, all linked together with Twitter.

Each agent was briefed by the CIA and provided with their tools for the venture including a Flip camera and a set of novelty disguises. The Flip camera plays a large role in the Super Agents intelligence reports and although Cadbury are seen as a mainstream quality brand, this campaign allows Cadbury to have fun through the agents and amateurish style of entertainment being brought to our screen.

It is also interesting to see the different techniques of each Super Agent as their quest unfolds and how successful each agent has become.

Examples of Operation Goo on the Loose

Super Agent Dean Stokes gives us amusing updates of his progress through (mainly) YouTube, a free WordPress blog and via Twitter. Other agents have been throwing their message out over local radio and even through Celebs too. Agent Stokes has been clever with the way he has set up his videos, his Agent name and personal URLs appear on his videos at the right moments. Speaking with a colleague of mine, we both remembered his name after watching his first YouTube video which is priceless in value. Along with Toby Tully, he could be a favourite to win the £20,000.

On the other hand, Super Agent Spud Hartrey has gone for a spammy technique which has gained her (strangely enough) a fair amount of followers on Twitter. However this technique will no doubt aggravate a lot of users and lead them to un-follow her at the same time.

It’s an interesting and relatively amusing campaign to keep an eye on and I’ll write another post specifically on the Super Agents once the competition comes to an end.

Goo on the Loose Gone Public

Let’s not forget about the public competition! Although not as mainstream or entertaining as the Super Agents, you sign-up, create your own agent name based on two random questions. Through signing up, my new alias became ‘Agent Crunchie Whitesmith’(?!). Follow CremeEggTwisted on Twitter and look for the ‘ATTENTION – YOUR NEXT TARGET IS:…’ for the latest clue. The aim is to find ‘Twisted’ on the interactive Google Map based on the clue provided. Two clues are given each week, cracking eight clues or more will enter you into a prize draw to win a trip to Morocco. Good times!

Personal Thoughts

Through both campaigns Cadbury have attempted a viral campaign and I stress ‘attempted’ as it hasn’t really taken off…. yet. Viral campaigns generally require two things to launch. A genius idea which catches the attention of a few, turning the few into more until the number becomes great enough for the conformative momentum to pick up and result in the word spreading with minimum effort. Cadbury’s idea is a good one and still has five or so weeks remaining but I think it will be a struggle for this to become large-scale.

The campaign is not perfect, it’s a little too spread out and hard to follow. The microsite isn’t very user-friendly and information is hard to find (but maybe that’s part of being an Agent, right?). From what I’ve seen and read, however, it has been enjoyable to follow through posts, videos, tweets and pictures and lay a superb foundation point for Cadbury in the future. By engaging the public too, they will promote the Super Agents antics for nothing.

Overall, it’s win-win for Cadbury. They promote one of their latest products through others via a social media experiment and then use and analyse the successful techniques used by the Super Agents to gain the most attention on each YouTube, Twitter, blogs etc. I would bet after some fine tuning and maybe a little more testing, you’ll be seeing more campaigns from Cadbury to promote themselves, if not their new products, and endorse themselves as a social media marketing force in the future.

The update is a welcome one for me, improving the user interface and making it easier to interact with other users. For epiphany, a quicker way to view followers may be useful to ensure followers that fit into our interests have not been missed. This could come into the form of a dropdown menu where you choose how many followers you want to view on the page. What do you think of the new update? Do you love it, loath it? And how what improvements would you like to see to these pages or Twitter overall? Follow us on Twitter Download our Free Business Guide to Twitter

On June 11th 2009, Twitter released ‘Verified Accounts’ as a Beta in a battle against celebrity impersonators and identity fraud. The experimentation phase will involve verifying the most high-profile accounts on Twitter to help manage cases of mistaken identity or impersonation.

If you view profiles such as Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey you’ll be able to see the verified seals on their accounts (And surely Stephen Fry should have one! Update: Stephen Fry now has a verified account!)

Why do Twitter Verified Accounts Exist?

As previously mentioned Twitter is constantly fighting impersonators and mistaken identity. A last straw was when Tony La Russa, manager of the Arizona Cardinals, sued Twitter after a user created a fake account and began to post offensive ‘tweets’ under La Russa’s name.

Although Biz Stone saw the whole La Russa scenario as verging on ridiculous, he did acknowledge the need to take action against impersonators to protect users identities and as a result, Twitter’s own reputation.

Reports that Twitter has appeased La Russa by agreeing to pay his legal fees and donate to his Animal Rescue Foundation have been circulated but sources say these rumours are untrue.

Will Twitter Verified Accounts really work?

Although it is still early days, it seems like verifying accounts could well be a fool proof method. Depending on the reviewing processes applied (currently, this is a case by case review), fraudsters may still be able to find a way to get an unwarranted verified account. However, I’m sure with the brain power at Twitter, and the reputation at stake, this is something that will rarely, if ever, happen.

Once the Beta release is passed (and it will be passed) there is opportunity for this technique to be used on business accounts as well as other Twitterers struggling with impersonation making the Verified Account aka ‘Real Seal’ a common sight on Twitter.

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Part of the novelty is Twitter’s very own ‘search engine’. Twitter Search is a simple text matching engine which returns the most recent tweets based on the keyword entered. The disadvantage to this means you’ll often see duplicate and recurring tweets and, even then, the results don’t always correspond with what you searched for in the first place.

Twitter’s new Vice President of Operation, Santosh Jayaram, has revealed that new features are to be introduced to the search engine shortly. This will include indexing content outside of Twitter by crawling links within the tweets and adding a ranking algorithm to their search results. This will allow for the content from the external sites to match with the original tweets. It has also being suggested that the new algorithm will take into account the users reputation on Twitter and relevancy of hot topics.

The advantage of the current Twitter Search is that it supplies ‘up to the second’ results providing the most recent information on the latest trends. My question is – will waiting for new and external content to index slow down results, as this is one of Twitters main strengths? Jayaram, previously employed by Google, states he does not know how the new algorithm will operate so let’s hope it corresponds with Twitters strengths and doesn’t go against them.