Posts Tagged ‘Social Media Marketing’

Google comes up with Social Search!

February 4th, 2010 | Posted by Sahil Arora

 

Google’s announcement of stitching Google search results with social networks is now a successful feature, launched as an opt-in experiment in Google Labs. 

Google comes up with Social Search - SERPS

Google comes up with Social Search - SERPS

Social Search has literally made online search a lot more easy and personal, which means now when you are searching for a particular piece of information blogged about, by a friend of yours, you get it on the first page.
What really makes Social Search amazing is the fact that it easily finds any piece of web content from your social connections on internet, whether you are looking for a Blog or tweet or friend’s profile update. In simple words, you can call this feature as a search filter that finds you result from your social circle on Blogs, FriendFeed, Twitter or any other social networking sites linked to your Google account. 

              

 Google search works just the way it has been doing for years now, which means you can still go on searching for information without using the new ‘Social Search’ feature. Social Search is nothing but an attempt of making search results more relevant and flexible, as not only does it provides all your social circle based web information on one place… but also prioritizes results from your friend circle.

Google Social Search Results

Google Social Search Results

 Despite social networking bazaar of Twitter, blogs and Facebook being a huge platform for social media marketing, it is not hard to find those who are skeptical and ignorant of its ability to advertise to a bigger circle of prospective customers.
The good news is that social circle search not only, remarkably, answers all such uncertainties, but also displays a good example of how social search results can change SEO.

Since the Social Search displays results from a particular circle of friends (Google users) linked to social networking sites, if you are a business firm seeking good SEO or online marketing through web of networking sites, having online networking profiles or blogs can do a lot. So now when a follower on your Twitter profiles searches through Google’s’ Social Search, the result will also feature content or pictures or blogs posted by you… because, you are part of the user’s social circle.
Isn’t that speedy marketing and unique form of SEO? Truth is… ‘Social Circle Search’ boosts and defines the social media marketing feature of many networking sites.

How it works? Simple, you add links to your social networking sites on your Google account, stay online and in no time this new feature will present you with relevant resources, collected from your circle of known people on web.

Google Social Search SERPS for a Search with Google Bus

Google Social Search SERPS for a Search with Google Bus

How it helps? Well, imagine you need a good comparison of iPhone and a new Blackberry mobile set. So, instead of tweeting your friends or calling them up to ask if anyone knows which phone is better, you simply search online… and Google’s Social Search will, scan each and every publicly posted content from your friends online to, give a search results from people you know… in short, if your friend has blogged or tweeted about the information you seek, Google will bring it to you (its always better to get information from trusted source than an unknown blogger) along with other results too.

Google’s Social Search is based on the perception that a user would always give importance to search results, from a known and trusted group of people.
It seems Google is trying to transform the verbal social search into techno form of online social search…!

Corporate marketing gets social with Twitter and Facebook

September 1st, 2009 | Posted by Sahil Arora

What started as a revolutionary concept of creating social networking online has now become a super marketing tool, for modern business sector. And Twitter and Facebook are an active part of the resulting excessive competition and race to make online social networking the next best thing, but even the creators of these modern programming based websites had not much clue back then, of their actual potential to attract business industry.

In order to get the idea of their marketing and selling potential and ability, it is important that one should know what these social networking sites do and why thousands and thousands of people all around the world are going crazy over them.

Facebook

With the purpose of a social networking site being a connective bridge between people from different parts of world, Facebook has surely made an impact among netizens who are enjoying the birth of internet, emails, chat messengers, and video sharing sites like YouTube.
Facebook today has become a planet in its own, with people from almost every country residing and enjoying themselves in it. Mostly, this online platform is used by many to stay connected to their friends and family members across the globe. People with lots of time and craze towards making online friends, emailing, personal chats, sharing pictures and more are also the ones who survive on Facebook and its existence.

Facebook and Marketing

Since Facebook means hundred and thousands of people connected to each other, from different groups and communities, the scope of marketing through a Facebook profile is quite an advantage for companies looking forward to spread awareness on their services and products, through their blog posts and, most importantly, their presence on web.
Facebook is more about having a personal platform to stay connected with online customers by communicating with them, sharing links to website or blog posts, uploading pictures, and starting forums.

It is easy marketing, which might not sell something on the spot, but definitely makes you a known Brand and gets you followers! Corporate sector has started using Facebook to get an insight on their market value, their image, feedback from customers. Because of the rapidly increasing and growing user base on Facebook, business companies get a platform to promote and present itself to their prospective customers.
But when marketing through Facebook, one has to keep in mind that it only works when enough time is invested.

Twitter

Although, they both arise from the evolving digital technology, Twitter is not Facebook’s twin. In fact, Twitter is little more complicated, but more effective in many ways.
Twitter is like a fusion of a messenger and a Blog, which has the ability to reach beyond known circle of people. That’s why it’s better known as a Micro Blogging platform today!
Twitter, like Facebook, too has a potential of social networking, but is yet to attract as much people as Facebook.

Since Twitter has less personal element with absence of facilities like video and picture sharing, not many people (with the liking to upload personal pictures, with captions, and collection of videos) enjoy indulging much with this latest avatar of social networking.

Twitter and Marketing

Twitter might not be as popular among netizens as compared to Facebook, but it has surely made a big impression among corporate industry. Tweeting is ‘next big thing’ for many companies, as it allows them a small podium to present themselves to a mass and puts them in spotlight.
Since Tweets are small and go straight to every follower, companies and brand owners get to send one good message to everyone, all at once. It lets them send news, updates and information online with help of a tiny but very valuable tweet.

While some business firms use Tweeting as a mode of getting Feedbacks from customers, others end up using it to research on their consumers and stay in the competition.
Twitter, having the ability to generate online search engine traffic, is also a major tool for websites that need visitors. Promotional tweets often consist of an information message and the link to a website or blog article. In short, Twitter has the right promotional skills required by online marketers and bloggers.

Who is the winner?

Twitter and Facebook are both massive social networking tools that can be used for advertising, marketing, researching and communicating. Each one has its own benefits for marketing seekers, thus branding the best one is not the right question, as the usability and benefit varies depending largely on the companies and their purpose for entering the social networking world.