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Google +1 or Google +1 billion?

By Andrew Redfern @ 28th June 2011 10:49 am Facebook

So reports recently from ComScore say that Google now has over one billion users per month. Quite a benchmark considering all the proevious trends data showed that Facebook’s with it’s phenominal growth figures had a realistic chance of overhauling the world search giant in terms of monthly usage.

That Google could find an extra 8% increase in usage across it’s different sites shows that it is still very much at the cutting edge and moving forward all the time. If you stand still you go backwards and recent innovations such as the Google Panda update, aimed at establishing more reliance on on-site copy & optimisation for it’s rankings, it’s recent PageRank update and the global roll-out of it’s new +1 button for voting up sites show that there is plenty more in the pipeline. Indeed, recent additions to it’s stable have signalled moving into new territories with it’s Chrome Operating System expanding upon the success of Google Android.

The +1 system in particular is of interest given the recent closing of the gap between Google and Facebook. The +1 button is very much aimed at taking search into social (or putting the social into search) by establishing a global voting system for sites in the search listings. It’s +1 for sites system expands this allowing users of blogs and news sites to vote up articles and items of particular interest or merit. A crowdsourced future for search is analogous to social media in totally new way and shows more than ever that Google are paying attention to the Like & Share culture so popular with Facebook users.

Facebook itself continues to defy the doubters with 30% year on year growth despite recent reports that it’s userbase was declining. Reaching a quarter of a billions users a month is a significant milestone. More significantly it is projected to reach $2 billion dollars of ad revenue in 2011, up over 80% on last year.

Facebook’s Dangerous Disconnect

By Andrew Redfern @ 15th June 2011 10:16 am Facebook

Previously we’ve seen a steady trickle of stories where people’s actions on Facebook have had unintended consequences for the person.

In the past it was just the odd dodgy picture landing a person in hot water or a perspective employer getting wind of a job applicants boozy lifestyle. More and more often we are seeing the stakes for these Facebook faux pas get higher and higher.

One that will have brought disgust and wry smiles in equal measure was the story of a criminal who acted contrite and remorseful in the courtroom only to boast on Facebook about how he’d conned the system to get a lenient sentence. The courts found out about this and increased this sentence. Effectively that person lost 18 months of their life due to a post placed on a social networking site.

Add to this the jaw dropping story of the juror who, while a trial was still in progress, contacted a defendant on Facebook and exchanged messages about the trial. In this case the juror has been told to expect a custodial sentence.

These are extreme cases and nothing new. We saw a few years ago two publicly funded UK tennis starlets publicising their less than professional but typical teenage partying via their social network accounts and getting themselves in hot water.

They go to show that a lot of people still haven’t made the connection between their online lives and the real world. What happens in Vegas might stay in Vegas but if it goes on Facebook then there are 6 billion people who might well find out. The problem is that at the time it feels like it’s only the two of you in the room!

It’s a level of abstraction that people seem to have to learn the hard way. From private correspondence like letters and phonecalls to the online equivalent of emails and online messaging is a perfect fit, people however seem to have tunnel vision when it comes to social networking. For some many people the penny just hasn’t dropped that they are leaving messages to each other on an almost wholly public forum. Although at the time it feels like a conversation it’s so easy to forget that their messages that will leave a paper trail long after they’ve logged off.

This is a perhaps a growing pain but while people continue to use these public conversation mediums for their private correspondence we will see more and more of these cases.

Location sharing taken to the next level with Facebook Deals in the UK

By Andrew Redfern @ 31st January 2011 6:13 pm Facebook

Facebook has launched its deals application today, offering users in the UK, Italy, Germany, France and Spain that “check in” discounts on high street brands. This follows its success in the US after it launched in November 2010.

Facebook deals is a cross between location sharing application FourSquare and Groupon, the popular daily discount site, using the mobile location application to incentivise users to log into the social network to receive discounts at local restaurants and shops. It is Facebooks first major move into the mobile market, which is said to be its biggest growing sector.

Brands that are partnering the launch include Yo! Sushi offering 2000 free dishes, Mazda giving away 5 cars a month and 20% discount on selected models, Starbucks, Debenhams, Argos and Alton Towers.

Facebook places and deals encourage users to share experiences with their friends which are seen in their newsfeed adding more user engagement to the platform. Facebook pages already attract higher volumes of traffic compared to brands websites with Coca Cola seeing 270,000 monthly visitors on its own sites whilst it had 22.5 million visits to its Facebook page. Google has also announced it will be launching a similar location based offers site simiar to Facebook’s. This latest move further signifies printed advertising may be nearing its end as digital marketing becomes more advanced.

Future of Social Media for UK Retailers

By Andrew Redfern @ 21st January 2011 6:23 pm Facebook

A study has found that only 4 percent of the UK’s top 100 retailers have integrated shopping function within their Facebook “fan” pages as clothes retailer, Asos announced it is set to launch its first Facebook store later this month.

Through launching a Facebook store, Asos’s is taking advantage of its millions of “fans” who already interact with the store via Facebook. Asos’s Facebook store is a trail blazer for the retail industry, 65 of the top 100 companies currently have Facebook pages, more will be following Asos’s footsteps throughout 2011. In the past, retailers have used Facebook as a shop front, directing their “fans” to their website to make the final transaction. Developing stores on Facebook will provide an easier platform for customers to make their purchase with fewer clicks and a more direct way to make their purchase.

James Hart, Asos ecommerce director said “at the moment the Facebook shop doesn’t have real targets as such but in theory fewer clicks and barriers to purchase should mean greater conversions. We’ll have to see if it does lead to increased sales,”

Andy Redfern, Hit Search Director added “Social commerce will be a growing area of online marketing throughout 2011. ASOS and Facebook a very similar demographic a lot of other large companies will be keeping a close eye on this campaign this year.”

Facebook Opens Up User’s Personal Details to Developers

By Andrew Redfern @ 21st January 2011 1:58 pm Facebook

Earlier this week, Facebook announced developers now have access to user details who sign up for their applications. These include postal addresses and telephone numbers. Access to Facebook’s most valuable asset, the users details is a welcome step for companies to integrate marketing strategies with more interaction to its target market, its fans on Facebook.

There are some serious privacy issues as Facebook has no vetting procedures for developers of applications, this potentially will give malicious developers the ability to get hold of postal addresses and phone numbers for fraud. Facebook users are being advised to take their phone numbers and addresses off their profiles. The applications do however ask permission for access to these details, but the only other option other than sharing the information is not to download the application at all.

Contradicting its previous move to make user details more secure, by giving users the power to decide which details they make available, the latest move hands the power over to developers who have the option to request the data to use their applications.

However, in another statement made this week, Facebook made a u-turn following feedback on their first announcement. It is now giving users the option to give permission to third party websites accessing their details. But is this enough to stop the malicious applications accessing such data? Facebook is riddled by rogue applications, operating under the Facebook name and brand, they look like legitimate applications, it is sometimes hard to tell which applications are malicious.

It has been suggested that this move may be due to Facebook attempting to develop a future stream of revenue by sharing user details; it’s most valuable asset to advertisers and developers. Facebook have stated it will never launch a subscription service, so this move seems to be towards getting people to pay with their details rather than money.

Facebook Less Trusted for Ads than Content Sites

By Andrew Redfern @ 3rd December 2010 12:17 pm Facebook

New advertising opportunities brought by the rise of social networking sites such as Facebook have led to a study to understand the motivations for using such sites and the user engagement with the site compared to other sites. Results released on Wednesday from the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) “New Rules of Engagement” study conducted by GfK NOP have shown people are less likely to trust brands advertised on social media sites. The 1340 respondents were twice as likely to trust advertisers using content sites and three times more likely to believe traditional content sites are better at influencing brand opinion.

According to the study, there are five key dimensions of engagement for users, trustworthiness (recognition of and confidence in a brand); authoritativeness (consistent, reliable thought-leadership); uniqueness; offering community (like minded user forums) and entertaining.

It also identifies trust, action and awareness as the three key characteristics of advertising behaviour. People are more likely to trust brands advertised on websites that they trust and are more likely to click on advertising links and purchase from sites they trust.

Andy Donaldson (Hit Search Director) commented ‘Getting the balance right in social media between being interesting and trustworthy to the ‘follower’ while still delivering a ‘sales message’ is one of the things most companies get wrong when starting out in social media. You wouldn’t go to a cocktail party and run straight up to the first person you meet and boldly introduce yourself on a loud speaker as having entered the room. The same boldness should be avoided with social media to avoid trust vanishing out of the window. Engaging with your social media audience needs to be a much softer and prolonged process – otherwise followers will be difficult to both attract and keep!’

This mirrors research by the AOP’s American equivalent, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) carried out in August 2010. The study also outlined that consumers were more likely to trust on traditional content sites compared to traditional content sites. It found that only 8% of respondents felt companies that placed ads on social media websites are reputable, compared to 21% of respondents who felt that advertisers on traditional content sites are reputable. The study also revealed those questioned felt that advertisers on social media sites are less respected and ads displayed on social media sites are not relevant.

Users will keep using social media sites until something better comes along. Advertisers need to engage with consumers and build relationships and their trust on these platforms in a way that meets users’ expectations for the site and the brand; for now it is an opportunity that brands shouldn’t ignore.

Social media and online video boost UK online ad spend

By Andrew Redfern @ 27th October 2010 11:31 am Facebook

A report into the 2010 H1 Ad Spend by the Interactive Advertising Bureau UK shows an increase of 10% to almost £2bn in online advertising spending between January and June 2010 despite of the UK recession. One of the main drivers for the growth was online video advertising spending, which has increased fivefold in the last two years from £3.9m in the first half of 2008 to £20.7m in the first half of 2010.

Hit Search Director Andy Donaldson comments ‘We have actually noticed that as times got harder for clients of ours over the past few years, return on investment came to the fore front of marketing discussions and these discussions eventually ended up with online marketing at the centre of recent strategies. With the tracking tools available today, ROI is a key measurement for clients and one that strongly guides marketing spend.’

The report by IAB in partnership with PricewaterhouseCooper attributed the growth to an 8.9% increase in investment in search advertising and a 6.3% growth in display advertising.

The entertainment and media industry was the biggest spender on social media advertising followed by finance then FMCG brands with increased interest and investment by running major new media campaigns.

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