Search giant Google has yet again taken a controversial step with the introduction of ‘Search plus your World’, a new feature that integrates search results with Google+ social networking. This new feature has highlighted the progression of the internet as it gives a search engine the ability to combine social elements with everyday search, theoretically providing search results that are tailored to fit your interests and needs. Google is importing content from its six month old Plus service into its regular searches, a clear shot across the broadsides of Facebook and Twitter.

The Good
Features of the approach include recommending additional companies and people to follow on Plus, based on your search results. It will bring up the profiles of other Google+ users and celebrity Google+ accounts depending on your interests, according to Google. This will make searching much more efficient for many users who want to find relevant information quickly and Google can almost guess what their customers are looking for, bringing up the most useful information. This is taking searching to a whole new level on the internet by providing an integrated service. However in the world of social networking and search giants; we can always find flaws …

The Bad
Many internet users may enjoy having a broad access to the internet, for purposes of work and research they may not want their search engine to define their searches to bring up things that they are only interested in. If they want to search across their interests they may already be signed up to other browser add-ons such as StumbleUpon which does exactly that. However Google has responded to this possibility and you can turn off the new feature by adjusting your search settings. The search engine will also not present results from rival social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, therefore creating controversy and possibly unfair competition by leveraging their separate search facilities to boost the decidedly unpopular Plus.

The Ugly
The question on many critics’ lips was whether Google are unfairly exploiting their online dominance of internet searches to promote their own social network. They are prioritising Google+ data and the social network is having a very easy ride on the back of the dominant search engine. It can be understood from Twitter’s point of view when they lashed out against the new feature, arguing that it is going to be harder to use Google to find Twitter posts about breaking news, like protesters writing tweets from countries like Syria and Egypt. Facebook has not yet responded to the recent announcement by Google, but as they have had a recent privacy deal, Facebook could not let Google index all of their information which users think is going to stay private not really giving them an argument against the Google giants.

In regards to Google’s defence it seems that any company should have the right to push its own products before anyone else’s and in fact use their success to promote its other features. Facebook is now coming up to its 8th birthday and has over 800 million active users; in reality would it really affect them a great deal if Google were to push Google+? Although it does rival Facebook and Twitter, social networking is one of the biggest growing ways of communication, and the landscape is expected to shift over time. Overall the success of the new Google feature is yet to be seen, and with the Twitter backlash and Facebook yet to speak up, anything could happen as the social networking titans collide; watch this space.

Social networking sites and in particular Facebook has become a part of our society that we struggle to live without, it gives you the ability to find out the very basic information about someone’s life and sometimes even the most complex issues that they are thinking about. With likes, comments and statuses, Facebook represents the very opinion of the public and with over 800 million users worldwide it gives one of the most reliable sources of public attitudes and behaviours and their opinions on, well … just about anything, it gives an accurate measure of the most popular topics, subjects, products and services voted by the public and especially internet users.

This week Facebook have announced the use of ‘Memology 2011’ showing the most popular “memes” which includes behaviours, styles and trends of Facebook users over the last year. As well as being important for businesses and understanding search engine behaviour it also plays an imperative part in SEO. With the increasing amount of users signing up to social media sites and with it becoming one of the most used sites on the internet, SEO needs to fully engage with social media.

Memology allows you to see 2011 through the eyes of status updates. You can view the ten most popular global topics for 2011 based on what people were writing about in their status updates, which are:
1. Death of Osama bin Laden
2. Packers win the Super Bowl
3. Casey Anthony found not guilty
4. Charlie Sheen
5. Death of Steve Jobs
6. The Royal Wedding
7. Death of Amy Winehouse
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
9. Military Operations Begin in Libya
10. Hurricane Irene

When Hurricane Irene hit many turned to Facebook for the most recent updates and to check if loved ones where safe. Memology was also used to look further and discover the top trending phenomenon’s on the internet for 2011, judging by Facebook status updates the most popular terms that emerged were ‘planking’ where people are supposed to lie face down in strange locations and take photographs, hit a record high in May after Max Key, the son of New Zealand Prime Minister, posted a Facebook photo of himself planking in the family lounge with his father in the background. The second most trended status was ‘lms for a tbh’ after lms (like my status) and tbh (to be honest) both individually hit record heights.

The results have had a great use in society showing the fastest growing fan pages based on ‘likes’ across the industries of Music, Entertainment, News and Sports. The discussed topics were from all walks of life, but what remained consistent was the active participation generated from Facebook users. The site has benefited from a diverse global audience coming together in one place and starting a valuable discussion about what matters most to them, giving an accurate portrayal of the public’s views over the most important topics and keeping Facebook as one of the most dominating factors in today’s society.

Search engine optimisation has become essential for any business. Every single company out there now has a website and without improving its ranking on the major search engines it might as well not exist. Putting in keywords, linking to relevant sites and trying to be the logical option for crawlers is what everyone had to consider, again in the ever changing industry there is now another big player that demands consideration, social media. Social media networking sites have become the biggest deciders when it comes to the popularity of different brands, it needs to be a top priority that the companies keep in touch with their customer base via Facebook and Twitter and now Google+ in order to keep rapport going and as a way of feeding them information. It is a way of guaranteeing customers will see the content, unlike sending out millions of emails or flyers, it is a fact that the information is going to flash up on their news feeds or Twitter accounts and they are going to be interested because that individual has ‘liked’ or ‘followed’ that company or interest.

Search engines are indexing more and more social data every minute, they are considering all of that information while they are crawling making social media a very important factor within SEO. The search engines react to the most relevant signals and the next logical development in order to get the most accurate data to the user, and this is how they identify and rank content. Looking at social signals and the content that users discuss and share is a great way for the search engines to identify the relevance of the information. Therefore implementing social media activity in to SEO is a very valuable way of increasing the rankings. The way that social networking sites are used, with individuals tweeting, blogging and commenting all has an impact on the content that they are talking about, the sites are engaging with their customers, and potential clients and interacting with the public, social media is not just about links it is about trying to get valuable content which is appreciated by search engines.

It is important that you drive traffic to your website and get your brand image known; the more relevant links that point to your website and then interesting content, the more rankings will improve. With this valuable information potential customers then link to it and share it with friends and other internet users in order to gain those essential relevant links that help to improve rankings and that hold high value within SEO; this then means that links are created to your social networking site and therefore your original website. It is this kind of social media marketing that gets something out in to the world quickly and is now one of the main players in marketing your brand. It is important to integrate a social media campaign in to your SEO strategy and to seriously consider the importance of the social media sites.

Last week saw the announcement of a whole host of new Facebook features, which will have a serious effect on the way we use the social networking site. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg personally delivered the keynote speech at the f8 conference in San Francisco. The conference is primarily aimed at developers and business partners, but the main announcements will have major implications on the way that the everyday user experiences Facebook. Zuckerberg announced changes relating to the look of the profile, social integration and a major new partnership with online music streaming service Spotify. All these changes are aimed at making Facebook an ‘entertainment hub’, where the sharing of music, film, books and games is taken to a whole new level.

Timeline – Your Personal Facebooking History

One of the biggest announcements at this year’s conference was the introduction of Timeline. Timeline is a new way of viewing one another’s profiles. It is essentially a plotted history of your time on Facebook, or, if you add more content from before you first used Facebook, a history of your life. A sample Timeline profile (available to view on the Facebook website) also shows the user’s recent music on Spotify, films on Netflix and Hulu, books read, pages liked, and more. While some of these individual elements are available to see on Facebook at the moment, but the new organisation is much more streamlined and integrated.

Ticker – An Extra Feed for the Little Things

Ticker is a feature that many users will already have noticed on their main profile page. The ticker feed has been compared to Twitter. The main point of Ticker is to provide an extra feed, so your main news feed doesn’t get clogged up with information that is of no significant interest for you. For example if someone changes a profile picture, it is likely to go into the new Ticker, as it’s not something that most people would deem to be important enough to warrant a place in your main feed. Ticker allows your main news feed to be filled with more important and relevant posts and updates.

New and Improved Spotify Integration

There were numerous internet companies that were in attendance at the f8 conference, many announcing partnerships with Facebook, but the standout development is the further integration of Spotify and Facebook. The new changes will mean that a user’s activity on Spotify is more easily visible to Friends on Facebook, as well as recognising similarities in the music choice of their friends. However, it now also means that you must have a Facebook account to sign up with Spotify.

Initial Reactions

The reception of the new and soon to be implemented changes has been decidedly mixed. Many critics feel that Facebook is trying to spread itself too thinly, rather than focusing on what it is good at: being a place to communicate with friends. The recently introduced Ticker has received criticism for further changing the profile layout, in a similar way to that of the new chat box. However, it must be remembered that many Facebook changes have been criticised, primarily due to changing a layout that users are accustomed to, but these criticisms are often forgotten once users have familiarised themselves with the new features.

More positive comments have focused on the ability for Facebook to be a ‘distribution platform’. This means that it will be easier for you to discover things you like, and the ability to pass these interests on to friends. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings made a point about how friends have a big influence on our choices. He told a story about how the Netflix algorithm always told him to watch the TV show Breaking Bad, which he constantly overlooked, but when told on the new Facebook platform by a Friend to watch it, he immediately decided to do so.

Be Prepared for Big Changes

Whether you appreciate the new Facebook changes or not, it is undoubtedly one of the biggest periods of transition that the company has gone through. It will be a little while before all of the changes are implemented, but will alter the way we connect socially. These changes will also have an impact on the way advertisers use the power of Facebook. As yet the full extent of this is not known, but will likely give companies an opportunity to interact with users in whole new ways.

Facebook are looking to transform the modern film industry by partnering up with Warner Bros and offering its US users The Dark Knight to rent through its online Facebook page. The film will cost 30 Facebook credits, or $3 to watch the film as many times as you like in a 48 hour period. This is apparently the first of many films which will be made available on the social media platform, and could lead to more titles and different studios to take the plunge, and begs the question how could a partnership with one of the largest film production companies in the world benefit Facebook?

The film industry is an untapped market for social media, and it could be an opportunity for Facebook to combine online interaction whilst watching a film, swapping comments and thoughts about the film. There are some questions which arise about whether this add-on to Facebook is a step too far, and why Warner Bros have not set up online rental themselves, without needing to use Facebook. With over 500 million users, Facebook has such a vast user base; Warner Bros could be using their reach to gain a step up into social media. The Dark Knight is currently seventh on the all time highest grossing films, and it would be interesting to see how its introduction to a new media vehicle affects its rank and figures.

If the partnership proves successful, could we see more film studios renting films out through Facebook? Or is a Facebook film production company possible? With the value of $76.4bn, the social media platform could expand its brand and has the perfect base to market and deliver a product to their users on a grand scale. This is temporarily available to users in the United States; however is there really that much requirement for an online film rental through Facebook? Some people may see it as needless, particularly with HD televisions and surround sound systems now increasingly popular in homes trying to mirror the cinema feel. Facebook will also face stiff competition from Netflix and their popular service, as well as Blockbusters, Amazon and other rental companies. What better film to test the new feature, then a film whose fan page has received over 3.9 million likes? It is because of this mass popularity which as seen the action film used as a guinea pig.

Facebook as a brand is expanding at a quick pace, with their integrated mailing system announced before Christmas, mobile platform released last month and film rental service set to include more titles in the coming months. It is hard to imagine now an internet without the presence of Facebook somewhere, whether it is a ‘like’ button or a comment about the platform. Facebook is continuing to increase in size and wealth, but it will be interesting to see how long their growth continues and which imaginative way they choose to expand next?

In the last five years Facebook has gathered huge momentum as one of the largest promotion platforms on the web. As a phenomenally popular site that is logged onto daily by most of its users, Facebook promises sure-fire success through its unmatched ability to target specific audiences on a grand scale. Skyrocketing profits are owed to its eminence as an advertiser, with a massive $1.86 billion collected in ad revenue in 2010 alone.

Facebook’s new sponsored story feature adds a new dimension to its established mode of advertising, which has always been positioned neatly in a separate column to the right. Sponsored stories take advantage of existing content provided by users, as a marketing leverage. The activity that appears on Facebook newsfeeds, such as application use, likes, place check-ins and status updates can be transformed into advertising opportunities. For example if a user comments that they; ‘Just had the best coffee in Starbucks with Sarah’, using place check-ins, Starbucks could then stamp their logo next to the message to reiterate their famous brand. Place check-ins also pinpoints the location of their friend’s visit to deliver a useful advertising package.

A Facebook customer support representative commented on the topic of sponsored stories, saying “We are committed to keeping Facebook uncluttered by advertising. Our goal is to only present ads that are useful and non-intrusive and we are continually working to increase their relevance.” However, some may not be pleased with adverts entering a domain that was once free from advertising. Maybe some of the success attached to Facebook lay within its clean presentation, where adverts seemed to sit gently at the side, instead of vying for attention.

Stories in a newsfeed engage a user; friends that visit a profile page are more inclined to be interested in another’s updates. A friend’s activity which is accompanied by a colourful logo reflects the fun of a storyboard. Sponsored stories also work on the notion that we tend to be lead by friends when making decisions about products. If our friends enjoyed a product or service, then we are also likely to do the same. We trust in our friends’ choices, so that the adverts they inadvertently fuel exist as reliable endorsements, we take notice of.

Promotion is never a fixed medium. It continues to branch out and cleverly evolve, in order to reach us; either through subtle infiltration or bold statements, advertising will always continue to catch our attention and influence how we part with our money.

With Facebook’s surge in popularity, MySpace, the more established of the two seems to have slowly wilted in the shadows. It seems MySpace has become obsolete as it dramatically falls out of favour. No longer trendy, especially amongst younger audiences having a MySpace rather than a Facebook profile is regarded as a serious social faux pas.

This week rumours are circulating around the web that Facebook will shutdown on the 15th of March. However, the revelations published in weeklynews.com are false. In fact it seems that it is actually MySpace that is in danger. More panic is attached to the possibility of Facebook’s demise, which speaks volumes.

MySpace is to be sold off according to its parent company News Corp Digital Media, who hope that Yahoo will take it off their hands. Five hundred staff at MySpace are being laid off, which is just under half of the company’s total number of employees, as its Australian office closes. There has been a reported loss of 165 million dollars, in just one quarter of 2010, which demonstrates how fickle audiences can be.

MySpace’s bid to revive its popularity without competing in a race it knows it cannot win is to change its focus, renaming its company as a ‘social entertainment destination’, which has been forced to diversify its offerings, rather than just existing as another waning social networking site.

MySpace seems to have lost momentum along the way, languishing while Facebook rides a new wave of enthusiasm that has engulfed the globe. It seems that MySpace took its users for granted, standing still, while Facebook gathered pace at an alarming rate.

The audiences that once visited MySpace have abandoned it in favour of Facebook and most have bypassed it altogether. MySpace’s complacency has been their downfall, as the force of Facebook prevails.

Before MySpace had a chance to realise its position, it had lost its appeal and its competitive edge. However, MySpace continues to defend its position, with figures released, such as the creation of 3.3 million new profiles, which totals up to 70 million profiles. However, this is 430 million profiles short of Facebook’s 500 million user base. Their statement seems to be a drop in the ocean.

Social networking sites have tapped into the human propensity to want to stay connected to others, made easier by the immediacy of technology. As technology consumes more and more of existence and becomes entwined with many daily activities. Conditions such as Information Deprivation Disorder arrive, which includes withdrawal to varying degrees, occurring when we are unable to access technology as frequently as we are used to.

MySpace is certainly the more colourful of the two sites, triumphing over Facebook’s blue and white colour scheme. However, the simplicity of Facebook’s design seems to be its defining attribute, as the most recognised logo, font and colour scheme to emerge from the internet.

The design for MySpace’s new logo is a step towards revamping its image, with an inventive logo that reads ‘my’ in a Helvetica font, followed by the symbol for a space. The logo requires some effort from the viewer, which immediately engages them. The space can also be filled with user generated artwork that is revealed when the cursor hovers over an area, adding a personal touch that can be as subtle or as flamboyant as the user wants. But is it enough to attract new audience levels that will get them back on top?

It seems that MySpace is a lesson in the fragility of all business; in so much as you are never out of the woods. Being the leader of a multi-million pound industry is no guarantee of sustained success.

Social media has emerged as a platform for consumers to air their opinions on companies and products, broadcasting, re-tweeting and posting their views for millions of online users to see.  A YouTube video by folk singer Dave Carroll, slamming United Airlines for their mistreatment of his $3500 guitar reached 9.2 million views in just 4 months.  The video sparked an increase of complaints by other unimpressed customers and snowballed into mass criticism of the company.  After nine months of several failed attempts to gain compensation and being rudely spoken to and treated by staff, Carroll decided enough was enough and made a sequence of three songs slating the company.  As well as self promoting himself and his music, this is an extreme way of publicly criticising a company.  The review is available to everyone and when it’s broadcasting such a negative message about the company, it can definitely be seen as an example that social media reviews should be held at the highest regard by companies.

Social media and networking could be seen as a mood ring for companies to look at, and instantly get an idea of their public brand image.  They can also check how many people are receiving their message and more importantly digesting the information and using it.  This real-time feedback allows companies to assess and act quicker, hopefully saving any damaging effects, or making decisions to better their status.  Twitter has found that it can predict the films it believes will perform best in the box office by those films that are trended and mentioned most in the weeks leading up to the release of a new film.

Therefore, it is important for a company to have a strong presence on social networking sites, to reassure customers about their values and ethos.  A marketing or branding strategy which didn’t have some focus on social media could be considered flawed.  However, a social media image for some companies is sometimes seen as a too public or open to customers.  It could be argued that an open image makes a company more appealing to the consumer, with no secrets or hidden messages it makes it considerably easier to trust a company who presents an uncompromised brand image.

With companies now very active on social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, the message they portray is important and must represent the company values.  Starbucks for example has 14 million fans and if they were to begin receiving material which may be unsuitable, then it is a vast consumer base to offend.  It is very important to come across as natural sticking to the core values of the company not changing your style for social media, but portraying the core values of the company appropriately through the media vehicle.  If used effectively, social media is an important factor in modern marketing, resulting in new subtle techniques to gain a prolonged interest in a company and their activities.