Social Marketing Tactics

Google Research On Social Marketing & Facebook

July 8, 2010 – 7:02 am

Google researcher Paul Adams explains in the slide show created for Google execs below, that those considering a product are more apt to trust their friends than strangers – or search ads.

Do you think Facebook or Google is more trustworthy when it comes to buying a new pair of shoes? Toaster? Golf clubs? Clothes? How about your next car?

This is VERY important in the context of a Google Me launch sometime soon.

Also with the coming The Social Network movie possibly portraying Mark Zuckerberg very negatively, how will this impact Facebook.

Still, we think this is instructive for people wondering why Google wants to get in the social network business.

Watch the slide show in Full Screen or you can’t read the captions, it’s on the left under menu below.

Bridging the gap between our online and offline social network

Here is where the supposed Facebook friend recommendation model does not work for me.

I ask my friends for product recommendations.
Then I use Google to find the nearest location and best price.

That is where the whole thing starts to fall apart. Paul, it is nothing new that we ask our friends for quality recommendations on products. But Facebook drops the ball because I DO NOT want to use Bing as Facebook’s search provider.

So, no matter where I get the recommendations, at happy hour or on Facebook, I am off to Google for a local search or a best price search on the web. Your theory is sound Paul, but Facebook lacks search and Google lacks a Facebook style wall site.

Not to mention Facebook does not offer contextual ads, but Bing does, so we could well see them soon on Facebook.

Who ever puts all three of these pieces together first, conversations, ads for products in those conversations and context ads for those same products, could well win this social war of Facebook VS Google.

What do you think? Tell us in the comments below!

Facebook Now Powered By Bing

June 21, 2010 – 2:28 pm

On Febuary 5th, Microsoft made a deal with Facebook to supply Bing search results on Facebook.

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Watch just alerted me, “If you do a search on Facebook, the web results are powered by Bing and more importantly, carry the Bing logo.”

Click image to see full size.

It is also important to note, this also gives Microsoft a look behind the curtain as to what Facebook users are interested in and searching for. Many parts of Facebook are still blocked to Google’s spiders and they get less knowledge of trending topics there. Privacy concerns are the company line, more like Bing trying to go head to head now against Google search with 500 million Facebook users now as Facebook continues it’s spread world wide.

Do you think this is something you will use on Facebook?

Tell me what you think in the comments section below….

By Chris Lang | Posted in Facebook, Social Marketing | Tagged bing, Facebook, facebook vs google, microsoft, search | Comments (14)

Digg Is Dead via Website Magazine

June 5, 2010 – 5:05 pm

An alarming post by Website Magazine says:

According to the latest Compete.com data (April, 2010) Digg lost an astounding 13.8 million unique visits from March to April, 2010 — a near 36 percent drop.

You can get your FREE in print subscription to Website Magazine here, just click the image below!

This has been a long time coming and demonstrates what happens when businesses put their own needs ahead to the needs of their users. Here’s the mistakes Digg made.

Early 2009 Digg kicked hundreds of users off Digg for using scripts to automate simple Digg tasks, 300 of them were top 1000 users.
After treating their own core users like crap, Digg bet on Facebook connect to bring them a flood of new users that would click on advertising content, unlike most Digg users.
Then, removed the shout mechanism that allowed mutual friends on Digg to communicate, this is where their main traffic was lost, viral views.
April 2009, added the Digg bar, framing outbound links and content under their own URL, there by stealing the visitors and SEO benefits from the site that actually created the content to begin with.
Meanwhile thru all that the Digg mafia (malicious voting groups) were allowed to run all over regular users by voting their content down if the site contained anything commercial, accusing marketers of spam and selling Digg placement.

Don’t let Digg fool you, the Digg bar is still there, but you won’t see it if you are not a logged in Digg user.

In short, Digg put their own interests ahead of their users

In my book, Digg, you got what you well deserved. Google passed on your $200 M acquisition, you have lost money every year you have been in operation and now you are soon to close your doors because you never will be able to generate a profit.

Even after all this, I do have to say, Digg was one of the most fun to use sites on the web. The challenge to get your posts front page was the key. Facebook and Twitter is about as dull as it gets for me, but the chance to get one of your own blog posts front page on Digg and go Hyper-Viral into 6 figure traffic in Digg’s heyday? Priceless!!!

You can read the full Digg is Dead article here.

We have been calculating a 200% drop in traffic on Digg due to the number of Diggs it has been taking to get to the front page in the last 6 months, but documented numbers and a major publisher link this spells disaster for Digg.

Also Mixx, a place we loved for a brief time is now dead already as far as I can see and now StumbleUpon is our only option. Digg, we are sorry to see you go…..

By Chris Lang | Posted in Digg, Social Bookmarking | Tagged Digg, Social Bookmarking | Comments (12)

Social Marketing Power (yours)

May 26, 2010 – 6:58 am

We are all writing blogs, networking of Facebook and Twitter and building our email lists because we want to further our business. That’s what we do.

But here is the power of social networks and how we can use them to effect change and better the life of our neighbors and friends.

U-Haul Construction Invades Working Class Neighborhood To Make A Profit

350 young families are losing their quality of life for the next 9 months because U-Haul can get away with not erecting a sound barrier wall even though what you see in the video is only 150 feet from their homes they paid for $100K for. (condos not apartments)

Could you please share this video with anyone you can so we can put a little pressure on a corporation that prefers profit to good neighbor hood relationships.

This is what social networking is for. The chance to make the quality of life of regular every day families a little better one Facebook like at a time.

Oh, and Boycott U-Haul!

By Chris Lang | Posted in Social Marketing | Tagged arizona, az, gilbert, u-haul | Comments (0)

Facebook VS Google Social Marketing Test

May 8, 2010 – 6:09 am

Everyone is ringing the Facebook dinner bell lately, so let’s find out if it’s feast or famine using Facbook VS Google in a side by side test

With the proliferation of Facebook fan pages, the like button and the various new gadgets in the press on Facebook viral traffic I am now rolling out a no holds barred test. And we will be documenting the data right here on Social Marketing Tactics / KeyWebData.com….

So day one, we created a fan page. To be fair I reinstalled the latest version of Wordpress and my custom SEO theme only a few of us have on this blog. We will be testing this blog’s performance against my Google Friend Connect Buzz blog that uses the same theme.

Honestly this blog should out perform the competition. The domain is 6 years old and this has been my flagship domain for the entire time. Tomorrow we will document Google rankings for the main search phrase, incoming links and traffic stats all starting tomorrow.

Today starts with the fan page being published here as Key Web Data.

What other tests and data do you want to see

Let’s get right off to a done right by you all start. What else do you want to see in this test?

By Chris Lang | Posted in Facebook | Tagged Facebook, facebook fan pages, facebook friend connect, facebook like, facebook vs google, Social Marketing | Comments (1)

Chris Lang’s 8 Days of Christmas Bonuses

December 13, 2009 – 3:10 pm

I decided that Christmas should last longer than just one day, so I have 10 straight days of bonuses just for my subscribers. If you like it, we can do this every year. Just like I share my birthday with you each year, if you are on my list you will get the alerts.

Some of these Christmas bonuses will be first come first serve because they are actually very hard to get or are of a limited quantity. So if you are NOT on my list then you may not hear of them soon enough to get them.

For those of you who follow me thru RSS and Twitter you will get the same deal because the post will be up first, then the list will be emailed and Tweeted. So you will all have about the same chance on the few that are limited in number.

Keep your eyes peeled for anything from Chris Lang in the next 10 days. Chris Lang’s 10 Days of Christmas starts on Monday, December 14th.

Also I got those cool Holly wreaths from this Christmas images bonanza Squidoo lens. Good place for graphics for your own blog.

Merry Christmas to all! – Chris Lang

Discuss this in Google Wave…

Day 1

Google Wave invites, I have 10 50. Just email me asking for one. First come, first serve. Tomorrow’s bonus will be just as hot: Brand new report on Google Friend Connect in PDF.

Day 2

Free Chapter from Gwave Domination – This is a full free chapter from my Gwave members site. It’s in PDF so you can save it to your machine. This is what my members get 4 times a month so check it out.

Right click the link, select SAVE LINK AS and save the file to your desktop. PDF – New Google Friend Connect Polls Utility

Day 3

Google Chrome now runs on Linux, Macs and accepts RoboForm! Finally Chrome for all….. Merry Christmas!

Day 4

Frank Kern is giving away 2 DVDs from his latest venture, no strings, no monthly members site back-end, NADA. Just pay the 9 bucks for the shipping like I did and they are yours. Can’t wait to get them in the mail. Now go get yours and NO that is not an affiliate link because there is nothing for sale there.

Day 5

FTC guideline rumors got you confused? Jim Edwards interviewed this FTC guy and the replay is on his site. To create your FTC disclosure policy this generator seems to do a good basic job to get you started. Before you have your lawyer look it over that is, which is what I am doing and you should be too! (always get legal advice from you lawyer, not the Internet)

Day 6

One of my best Digg contacts wrote this Making Friends on Digg PDF and it is a real eye opener. Hope you are Digging well…

Day 7

Google Wave Notifier With Sound Too This the new desktop Google Wave Notifier is my new favorite tool. It is a Windows app that runs in your task-bar and even has a happy little sound it plays when you have a new Wave.

Day 8

Armand Morin’s new members site is Brave The Wave and he is doing a two day show to launch it in Vegas the 30th and 31st.

If you register today, January 8th, the show is free. Don’t miss this opportunity to network with tons of top Internet marketers at this event.

You will be able to make notes, Wave with others in the audience and if Armand takes me up on it, ask questions live from Wave.

Details on this to follow, here is the link to get your seats. This is really free, no BS, I just want to see you there.

If you are going to attend I have a public Brave The Wave set up for us to get to know each other a bit before we all meet up. If you are not going to be there please skip this Wave.

- Chris

By Chris Lang | Posted in Social Marketing | Comments (15)