Twitter is often seen as one of Cinderella’s ugly sisters when it is compared to the multimedia beauty and the wealth of numbers that the 800 million plus engaged users that the Facebook social network offers.

Facebook is the girlfriend you would be happy to take home to dinner with your parents but Twitter is often seen as a bit too quirky, strange and cheap to introduce to the family and folks.

Too short and dumpy for most.

If you take the time to get to understand Twitter with its quaint 140 character limit and its charming simplicity, it can be a very powerful tool to distribute information and ideas in real time to enhance your marketing and promotion efforts.

Twitter Power

Twitter has some advantages that are sometimes not seen as a strength.

1. Simple

It doesn’t get much simpler that 140 characters and that is why texting (SMS) has not gone away but continued to grow.

2. Focused and Targeted

Twitter followers tend to be loyal and follow other Twitter users because they are interested in information or news about who they are following. This is not leveraged by many marketers and “the secret“of how to use this capability should not be ignored. Over the last 3 years I have utilised this Twitter capability to spread ideas and information to a targeted global audience. Don’t underestimate this capability!

3. Highly Shareable

The retweet feature of Twitter allow the user to quickly pass on information by retweeting the news and information contained within its headline and link to their network.

Why Politicians and Celebrities Love Twitter

Politicians and celebrities love Twitter and celebrities have found that one tweet can cause a storm of sharing. It can enhance (or destroy) their personal brand and get their ideas out instantly.

Twitter has just announced that it will now be revealing how many retweets  your tweet has received instead of just showing “50+”

Making the retweet count visibly quantified will help marketers find what does and doesn’t resonate with their target market and audience. This will help adjust the writing of tweets and the topics to find what people really want to read.

A Cool Tool to Count Retweets

TwitSprout have quickly responded to this announcement and have provided a tool that allows you to check out your most popular retweets.

It is called “MyTopTweet” and allows you measure your top “Tweets” for sharing

This will provide you with some real numbers on what tweets your users are finding worth sharing.

Nothing like a some numerical feedback to adjust your Tweet direction!

If it isn’t being shared then you need to look at some key elements such as the headline of the tweet, the number of followers and the level of engagement.

The 3 Top Retweets in the World

That Twitter announcement of this change has allowed Twitsprout to also find out what are the most powerful “Tweets” and here are the top three.

1. Justin Bieber

2. Kim Kardashian

3. Lady Gaga

Now you may not have 10 million followers but growing your Twitter following will provide you with a focused and powerful network that will share your ideas, information and news.

How are you growing your Twitter followers?

Read More

• The Marketing Secret About Twitter That Most People Don’t Know
• How To Get Targeted Twitter Followers
• 8 Great Twitter Tools that will Get You Tweeting like Pro
• How to Write a Mind Blowing Headline for Twitter

Image by by Fred Seibert

I have a friend who won’t stop taking photos of food whenever she eats out. It seems that no matter what restaurant (except for McDonald’s or KFC and I don’t think they qualify as restaurants) the experience seems to turn into a full photo shoot.

Every angle is explored and the correct lighting is required.

At this stage there isn’t mood music to accompany the visuals, but I am half expecting a string quartet to become involved at some stage.

The next step is for the agent to show up and a movie director.

Why is this Happening?

The convergence of technology has produced a device (smartphone) that can take the photo in high definition and publish it to Facebook and Twitter before the food is even cold. Five minutes later you can check  to see if any of your friends have left a comment, shared or “liked” it!

This visual self expression and sharing culture combines the power of three.

1. People’s obsession with their iPhone (read smartphone)
2. Engagement power of Facebook
3. The love of photos that seems to have been reinforced with the easy availability of the camera in your pocket

The only challenge for marketers is how to harness that through a touch of creativity.

How to Take Advantage of this Obsession

Marketers have realised for a long time the power of images to motivate and engage people.  There are many business categories that can leverage social, mobile and photos to make their content contagious.

There is one very unassuming mobile app that emulates the simplicity of Twitter but is starting to make its presence felt that is playing with the power of “3″.

That “app” is Instagram.

Instagram is a free photo sharing application that you can download to your smartphone, that allows users to take photos, apply a filter, and share it on the service or a variety of other social networking services, including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr , and Posterous

3 Instagram Success Stories

Instagram’s success shows the power of simplicity coupled with the increasingly mobile and visual social networks.

Food can be made to look so inviting with a great photo (just ask my friend)

Food – Personal Brand

Lets start with a famous “chef” and personal brand called Jamie Oliver who has over 170,000 followers on Instagram and doesn’t miss the ongoing opportunities to market his personal brand, cooking shows and publications with visual online sharing.

Check out Jamie’s Instagram

Beverages – Coffee

StarBucks as one of the largest brands based on follower count on Instagram with over 200,000 followers realises the engagement opportunities.

Alexandra Wheeler, VP of global marketing for the coffee giant says this about Instagram “Photography plays such an important role in how we visually share Starbucks offerings and experiences,..this will continue to be a great network to connect with our customers as it grows.”

Fashion

Fashion brands are a perfect fit for Instagram.  Burberry gives followers behind-the-scene glimpses at fashion shows and photo shoots.

Instagram Ecosystem

There is a complete application and business ecosystem building around Instagram and John Jantsch at the Duct Tape marketing blog mentions the following 6 tools that enhance Instagram.

1. iDarkroom – This isn’t really an Instagram related tool, but it’s a great tool to use to enhance your images before you upload them to Instagram
2. Webstagram – This tool helps you search, sort, tag, follow and comment on photos shared by other users. One of the ways to make Instagram pay off is to build a following and part of that is done by finding and following relevant users and adding your comments to their images.
3. Postagram – Postagram allows you to turn any Instagram image into a postcard with the push of a button. Then Postgram sends your postcard for less than dollar. Think about how you could send product images to customers or showcase a project you’re working.
4. Printstagram – This tool takes your Instagram images and allows you to turn them into posters, mini prints, and mini books.
5. StickyGram – This app takes your custom Instrgram shots and turns them into magnets. It’s like having your own little promotional products creator right in your phone, but potentially much cooler.
6. Canvas Pop – If you want to take up a notch Canvas Pop will take your Instagram images and print them on canvas frames.

How could you use Instagram to spread your brands message and content?

More Reading

• Social Media Marketing – 10 Inspiring Infographics
• 6 Fantastic Facebook Marketing Infographics
• 20 Stunning Social Media Statistics Plus Infographic
• 11 New Twitter Facts, Figures and Growth Statistics plus [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Past, Present and Future of Blogging: 3 Infographics
• How Do You Use LinkedIn [INFOGRAPHIC]
• How Do You Use Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

Facebook has become the online home for both people and business. It has become “the” social network .

Who would have thought that the result of Mark Zuckerberg’s broken heart in 2004 would would create a social network that is projected to reach 1 billion users in August 2012.

That is nearly one in two of every Internet user on the planet. (Maybe we should have more dramatic events in our personal life to provide the fuel and passion to change the planet and our lives!)

Should You Close Down your Website?

Some businesses have even made Facebook their primary web asset and closed down their website. (not recommended as Facebook has been known to suspend “pages” with no notice and no apparent reason).

Websites in the past were boring, text based, one way static platforms that didn’t allow conversation or communication (except for the ubiquitous contact form).

Many CEO’s are still loath to participate but this is diminishing as they are earning the reputation of being “flat earthers” for not realizing that the world is round and social. (remember Galileo who put forward the crazy notion of the world being round )

Facebook has changed the web dynamics and provides a ready to use multimedia platform and social network that communicates in real time with fans and customers. This provides instant feedback that is vital in a fast moving commercial world.

The “Big” Facebook Pages

So which brands and entities are the top performers on Facebook and collected tens of millions of Facebook fans?

Top Brands

• Coca Cola
• StarBucks
• Oreo
• Red Bull
• Converse Allstar

Top Superstars and Entities

• Lady Gaga
• Facebook
• Rihanna
• Eminem
• YouTube

How can You Increase Your Facebook Fans?

One of the best tips to increase your Facebook fans is to provide what is called “liquid content” which is content so contagious it cannot be controlled. This will make people visit and “like” your page.

I have had some fun lately on Facebook posting, images, quotes, cartoons and comics that are fun and sometimes seemingly frivolous but what I have noticed is that the engagement level has increased dramatically (by more then 50%).

This in turn drives your content further into the Facebook network and increases the likes through increased sharing. The other benefit is to improve your Facebook Edge Rank  and consequently more fans see your Facebook page updates in their Timeline.

The continuing evolution of a more visual web is what you should keep in  mind when creating or posting content. Highly visual content performs much better than text or links in driving likes and shares and commments. (but don’t forget to include deep linked content as it is your foundation)

The celebrities have the resources to pursue best practice with designers and developers on tap, but what are some basic tips to assist you with your goal of increasing your Facebook fan base.

7 Tips to Increase your Facebook Fans

These are the core principles that the major Facebook brands use to build their fan base and should provide you with some ideas to get you started.

1. Define Your Target Market

You need to know who you are talking to so that the words and content that you use are congruent with what they like.

2. Get the Tone Right

You need to act the same way your target market so as too gain their trust. Get to understand them

3. Identify which Types of Engagement are Effective

Have some fun and don’t be afraid to experiment. The reactions (or lack of) will be the guide for the engagement types you pursue.

4. Look at it as a Long-Term Investment

You are building an online asset and like investment in property or saving it will take time. So persist and be patient

5. Keep it Real, Relevant and Relaxed

It is important to be “you”. If you are a blogger then the Facebook page is an extension of your personal brand. Don’t force it

6. Create a Schedule for Updates

This doesn’t have to be complex. Once a day used to be the rule of thumb but I have been experimenting with 2-3 updates a day and it seems to be working well. A large brand such as fashion will need to

7. Monitor and Measure

Facebook Insights is a great tool that provides measuremenst of elements such as Facevook Fan growth and even Virality of your content.

So what success have you had increasing your fan count and what tactics have you tried?

The Importance of a Facebook Fan Base

Click Image to Enlarge
Source: The Importance Of A Fan Base Infographic

More Reading

• Social Media Marketing – 10 Inspiring Infographics
• 6 Fantastic Facebook Marketing Infographics
• 20 Stunning Social Media Statistics Plus Infographic
• 11 New Twitter Facts, Figures and Growth Statistics plus [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Past, Present and Future of Blogging: 3 Infographics
• How Do You Use LinkedIn [INFOGRAPHIC]
• How Do You Use Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

Image by voodooangel

Social media marketing is the hottest trend in the marketing world. Brands have discovered its power to crowd source sharing of their message whether it is via a viral YouTube video campaign or a Facebook competition. Some experts will tell you that you should only use Facebook, others will whisper in your ear that online YouTube video marketing is the key and some will inform you that Twitter should not be ignored. For some avid social media marketing pundits it is the “only thing” and they have even closed down their blog and moved it to Google+ or Facebook and even forgotten the importance of capturing an email database.

What Shouldn’t Be Forgotten

Amongst all this hype and noise, what shouldn’t be forgotten is that social media is just another channel to use to publish and promote your brand. Optimized and integrated with traditional marketing it can turbo charge the conversations about your company both locally and globally.

What also should remembered in your marketing plans are:

• Strategy
• Creativity
• Creating great content
• Accurately targeting your message to your prospects
• Publishing and promoting with the most effective media for your mix of customers

These are just a few aspects of  what makes a marketing campaign successful.

What the Experts Often Don’t Tell You

There is one element of social media as a marketing tool that has a lot of people excited and that is its reach as a global marketing medium. This leverage and reach is unprecedented in the history of marketing and has taken “word of  mouth” to a new global level often titled “world of mouth“. The crowd sourcing of sharing and adding its exponential power of “many to many” through online sharing on social networks has transformed and multiplied company growth and brand influence.

The “one thing” that the experts often don’t tell you is that “organic” social media marketing will take patience, persistence and time.

• Writing great content and eventually being recognised as a trusted resource and then having it embedded and talked about on other blogs and media will take time.
• Building your Facebook likes organically will take time to grow to reach that “magic 1,000″
• Obtaining 2,000 Twitter followers will require the correct tools, focus and persistence.

How to Accelerate your “Organic” Social Media Marketing

The good news is that the patient and persistent game of “organic” social media marketing can be accelerated through “paid” social media banner ads on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Paid social media marketing can be “the catalyst” to this organic growth of social media marketing to increase the pace and speed of sharing.

So if you want to turbo charge your business growth with social media marketing you may need to add some fuel to the fire and kick start your campaign with some paid ads.

Not everything in life is “free”

How have you added a boost to get your social media marketing booming and buzzing? Note: The presentation embedded in this article was held at a recent workshop sponsored by Hairy Lemon (one of New Zealand’s top digital agencies ) and Terrace Downs Resort on the South Island of New Zealand ( one of the most stunning and beautiful locations I have ever had the pleasure to visit) This was the view from my villa!

If you are  marketer or a business owner then insights into trends and consumer behaviour can give you an advantage over your competitors.

If you are selling to a female demographic you need to know where they are hanging out on-line. If you are marketing a product to the over 50′s it is important to know if they use Facebook or social media. Where are those teenagers with that high disposable income playing online?

Understanding the digital landscape and the social web and how it is being used by consumers provides brands with the knowledge they need to increase sales and improve customer engagement.

If social media was horse race then you might as well put down the glasses as the race has been won. The dominance of Facebook is well known but it is the scale of its growth, market share and time it takes from its users is what is intriguing.

According to the latest study by Nielsen (which was conducted in May 2011) there are ten insights that are both expected and surprising.

10 Insights into Social Networks and Blogging

1. Facebook is the Top Web Brand  by Time Online

There is no need to count users (as a lot of users register and never go back). The real measurement of engagement and use is how much time is spent on-line. Facebook dominates time on-line by a ratio of  more than three to one compared to its next closest web brand competitor Yahoo.

2. Social Networks and Blogs Dominate Time Spent Online

Social networks and blog sites are where Americans spend most of their time (22.5%). In fact it is more than twice as much as the closest category which is on-line games at 9.8%

3. Females Dominate

The majority of visitors to social networks and blogs are female and are aged 18-34. (calculations show unique audience composition index)

4. Men Like LinkedIn

Of the top 10 social networks, women are in the majority on eight of the ten. Men use LinkedIn more than women which would be due to the imbalance of management roles of males compared to females.

5. Top Site By Unique Visitors is Facebook

According to Nielsen, this past May, Facebook logged 140.336 million visitors, dwarfing the second-place finisher on the list, Blogger, which tallied 50.055 million.

The rest of the list:

• Twitter (23.617 million)
• WordPress (22.417 million)
• MySpace (19.25 million)
• LinkedIn (17.786 million)
• Tumblr (11.87 million)
• Six Apart Typepad (8.578 million)
• Yahoo Pulse (8.397 million)
• Wikia (7.601 million).

6. Mobile Social Media is Booming

The growth of smart phones is changing our media consumptions habits and social media use on mobiles is the second most used feature after downloading and playing music.

7. Social Networking Apps Growing at 30%

If you use an app on a smart phone then it likely that you will be using a social network app. Social network apps ranked third on the most used app category with Games and weather apps holding positions one and two. Facebook ranks as the most popular app across all mobile operating systems.

8. The Over 55′s are Using Social Media on Mobile Phones

Many people think that if you are over 50 you are not using social media on a mobile. In fact the fastest growth of social media use on smart phone is the over 55′s with 109% growth. The 35-54 age group growth rate stands at 68% year on year and 18-34 year olds are increasing their visits to social media  sites on their mobile by 61%.

9. Social Media Users are Influential Offline

Social media networks have given influencers a platform to spread their ideas. Influencing your peers on these platforms can drive increased sales to on-line stores.

10. Tumblr Triples its US Audience in 12 Months

Tumblr is a social network that combines elements of blogging and Twitter. It is now the 8th largest social network and blog site in the US with over 11 million unique visitors in May compared to only 4.2 million in May 2010.

As these statistics were collected by Nielsen’s survey in May 2011, they do not include Google+ which launched a couple of months later. So it would be interesting to look at this landscape in a few months and see how it is developing.

What is obvious and pleasing is the continuing growth in blogging in all its formats with Blogger.com and WordPress continuing to make their presence felt and Tumblr being the surprising result and the social network to watch.

More Reading:

• 30 Terrific Twitter Facts and Figures
• 50 Awesome YouTube Facts and Figures
• 50 Amazing Facts and Figures About Google

Image By Will Lion

Technology is rewiring our brains, our culture and our habits.

Social media networks are disrupting industries including marketing, sales and knowledge industries. The job search market is also being reinvented as social media platforms provide the tools and information that HR managers had only dreamed about 5 years ago.

LinkedIn provides more than 100 million people with a platform that essentially is an on-line CV with additional networking benefits. Recruiters spend hours a day on LinkedIn researching and finding candidates for their clients.

Social Media’s Curse and Blessing

The reality is that social media is both a curse and a blessing for candidates.

The Upside

There are now free tools available  to build a personal brand on-line that makes you stand out from your competitors in the recruitment market and allow you to promote brand “You”.

The Downside

If you post inappropriate messages and photos or are mentioned by others in less than glowing terms then you may find your applications being turned down.

The competition in the USA is fierce for jobs with 6 unemployed people for every job opening. Ensuring that  presenting your personal brand on-line in the best possible light will improve your chances of finding a job.

4 Tips to Improve your Chances of that Dream Job Finding You

It will involve some effort and time but very little expense and if you are currently unemployed, plenty of time is one thing you do have.

1. Start a blog and fill it with articles and information which displays your knowledge, expertise and passion
2. Create a Facebook page for your personal brand (same branding as your blog) which that allows you to extend your blog’s reach
3. Use Twitter to segment important people in your industry and start following them to learn and engage with them. It will give you an insight into trends and also provide another touch point into your industry
4. Optimise your LinkedIn account by adding and activating inbuilt apps available on LinkedIn for your Blog and Twitter that pull their feeds into your LinkedIn public profile

For further reading on how you can improve your career and job hunting prospects with social media try these articles

• 10 Steps to Promote Brand “You” With Social Media
• 23 Steps to Build Your Personal Brand with Social Media
• Why Social Media is Optimizing the Personal and Corporate Brand
• Blogging for Dummies – An Opportunity for Personal Branding

The Power of Social Media for Job Search

Statistics show from research and surveys reveals the influence that social media exerts on the job market

• 1 in 3 employers rejected a candidate based upon something they found online
• 45% of companies use Twitter to find talent
• 24% of managers found “fit and personality” from a social media profile

So How are Candidates and Recruiters Using Social Media?

Infographic from Career Enlightenment

How have you found a job with social media? Have you heard of anyone being rejected for a job because of their Facebook profile? Look forward to hearing your stories.

More Reading

• 10 Steps to Promote Brand “You” With Social Media
• 23 Steps to Build Your Personal Brand with Social Media
• Why Social Media is Optimizing the Personal and Corporate Brand
• Blogging for Dummies – An Opportunity for Personal Branding
• How do you Use LinkedIn? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Image by Mr. Daniel Ted Feliciano

A recent survey of 700,000 consumers in the US shows that Facebook is the least popular social media site when it comes to consumer satisfaction according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index in its annual E-business report.

Wikipedia ranks highest at 78 with YouTube next at 74 and Facebook at 66 on the acsi.org index.

What is also revealing is that Google ranks the highest in the “Search engine and portal category” with a customer satisfaction index of 83.

Will High Customer Satisfaction in Search Translate to Social?

One of the questions to ask with the launch of Google+ is

“Will Google’s high customer satisfaction index that it has achieved with its search engine coupled with Facebook’s low ranking in social media satisfaction translate into success for Google+?”

Google has a track record in making things work well on-line and Google+ with its great design and user interface added to a potential internal promotion market with over 1 billion users on its on-line properties (including Gmail, Android mobile platform, YouTube and Google blogs) is well placed to shake up the social networking universe.

Google+ is Creeping into Your On-Line World

Google has not started to promote overtly to its billion+ users but is adding social features to its platforms one feature at a time.

Have you noticed the following changes recently?

• Pop ups in Gmail indicating friends (Gmail will get much more social over time)
• New “followers” listed in Google Reader with a linked Google profile
• “Your Name with +” when you use Google.com in the far left top corner that will take you to your Google+ social network if you have registered

The social revolution in Google has begun and Google+ is the glue!

11 Google+ Facts and Figures

1. Google+ passed 18 million users on July 20 according to an analysis by Paul Allen
2. At its peak this month it added over 2 million users a day according to Paul’s figures
3. Google+ is now averaging approximately 750,000 new users a day
4. Early estimates of more than 75% of users being male has now dropped to 57% according to Hitwise
5. Google+ initially attracted a younger crowd (18-25)  but the highest share of users at  38% are currently between 25 and 34 years old
6. The top cities for Google users are in ranking order: Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco
7. Google+ is the 42nd ranked social networking site in the US
8. The Google+ iPhone app is currently the top downloaded free app in iTunes
9. Google and Gmail account for over 50% of all upstream traffic to Google+
10. The Google+ audience tends to me more affluent, over indexing for those earning a household income of $60k and over and particluarly $150k and up
11. The average visit time on Google+ was 5 minutes and 50 seconds on week ending July 19, 2011 (up from four minutes and fifty two seconds the previous week) . In comparison users spent over 21 minutes on Facebook

Some of the feedback from friends regarding being on Google+ is that hardly any of their friends are on Google+ so it is a bit like a ghost town but of course this will change over time. It appears from the Hitwise figures that a lot of users are registering from curiosity and then visiting infrequently.

Will Google+ become mainstream?

I will watch with interest as the “Hype” wears off to see if it maintains solid growth and increases user time over the next few months but you have to admit Google+ is off to a flying start!

More Reading

• 7 Reasons Why Google+ Drives Hyperactive Engagement
• How to Increase your Google+ Followers
• Google+ Sets New Growth Records
• 50 Fascinating Facebook facts and Figures
• The 10 Best Facebook Campaigns

Sources:

• Paul Allen
• Experian Hitwise

Image by The Daring Librarian

A part of me thought when I read about Google’s new social network Google+, “not another social network!”

As I have played and interacted with this Google+ platform and project over the last week, I have started to sense that this not just another social network, this is a glimpse of what the web is becoming, a social synergistic multi-media integrated environment that allows us to interact in global communities and one to one almost seamlessly. This is possibly a profound shift to a new generation of the social web.

Google+’s new social network I believe is a second generation social network that will connect the islands of dots and data that is still eluding Facebook and take the web to the next level.

It will be a web where every element of our lives and personas will be enhanced by an internet that increasingly adds a pervasive artificial intelligence that can be viewed online and shared if we so choose, in a variety of ways.

Social Networks Quantify How we Touch People’s Lives

Social networks provide us with a way of not only engaging but quantifying and measuring the way in which we touch people’s lives whether it be with something as simple as following, liking, retweeting and sharing across this global shining orb of 6 billon plus people.

I have skimmed across the top of this emerging ecosystem for the first week as part of the field trial (I almost felt like a lab rat) and saw social media mavens and mavericks  lavish praise and occasional critical comment as they tossed words, images and videos into the passing stream of updates and opinions. I have also dived in a little deeper and experienced usability that makes Facebook look clunky and cumbersome

It is estimated that Google+ currently has about 1.7 million users after only 10 days according to data collected by Paul Allen.

Google+ can be used almost like Twitter if you build a large circle and it also engages deeply with rich multimedia just like Facebook but I think it will evolve into much more than what we are currently experiencing.

Google+ is a Second Generation Social Network

The Google+ platform feels like a modern stylish house that been designed to not only look good with a brilliant user interface that Apple would have designed but it also works very well.

As Steve Jobs said this about great design

“Design is not just how it looks, if you dig a little deeper it is how it works”

Apple took the smart phone and the user interface to a new level and surrounded it with a variety of  other integrated offerings such as the app store and it now the most valuable company on the planet. Google+ has the potential to inflict damage on Facebook similar to what Apple has done to Nokia.

Facebook is a first generation social network and after using Google+ the Facebook interface seems very tired like a house that needs a renovation.

The Grand Plans for Integration

Google is also setting out to dominate the second generation social web with a high degree of integration across all its platforms from mobile to video.

Here is what it will be potentially adding to Google over the next 12 months or more if you look at what sits in the Google+ menu next to my Jeff+ tab on my Google+ profile.

Consider the possibilities as Google will evolve every element of its online assets to have Google+ embedded!

What Does Google Say About Its Plans?

Speaking to reporters this week, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Google is pleased with the early response to Google+ and is planning to use its core identity and “circles” features across Google products.

“As we move our stuff onto what you think of as Google+, there’s a nice set of product improvements in core search, YouTube, maps, and so forth, which should drive adoption. The assumption is that as it grows and ramps up, everything will move over to using the + infrastructure.”

Google has the Web Assets to Threaten Facebook

What could Google+ possibly offer that Facebook and Twitter don’t have? Apart from a very attractive and enticing user interface the answer lies in a wide range of web properties with hundreds of millions of users.

Let us consider some of the possibilities.

Email

There are currently  over 200 million Gmail users according to an article in the Guardian and with Google plus embedded in Gmail as well as becoming the default private messaging system in Google+ then the evolution of email will also be part of the revolution of the social web. You will be able to use gmail from within Google+ as well using other messaging options.

Video

YouTube with a massive user base of  490 million users worldwide and adding an integrated Google+ could create a synergy could make it compelling for people to join the Google+ network for additional viral capacity horsepower.

Mobile

Android is the fastest growing mobile platform for smart phones and it currently has greater market share than Apple’s iPhone according to Nielsen (at 38% compared to Apple’s 27%), with Nokia, Blackberry and Microsoft look like fighting over the scraps. Embedding Google+ within the Android operating system will be a very compelling reason for users to join up to the the Google+ social network. There are an estimated 500,000 Android phones being activated every day according to Wikipedia, so taking that daily rate there will be well over 360 million Android users within 2 years which adds fuel to the Google+ growth potential.

The integration of Google+ with the Android has maybe the greatest potential to make Google+ a success with mobile and social combining to being a perfect addiction. Figures from the UK as revealed by the Guardian show that nearly half of the minutes spent online on mobiles in December was to visit Facebook.

Google Maps

I don’t know about you but I must use Google maps on my iPhone and computer several times a day. Just imagine the potential of  an integrated Google+ with Google maps

Images:

Picasa will renamed Google photos and with that re-branding will be features and functions that will be part of the Google+ integration strategy.

Blogging

Blogger is one of the top 5 websites in the world and will also be re-branded as part of the Google+ project. The potential for Google to make it compelling to join Google+ to enhance your Blogger account I am sure will very persuasive and tempting.

I haven’t added the number of users for these 6 Google web properties but it is a captive and compelling user base approaching 1 billion.

Why Marketers Cannot Ignore Google+

As a marketer you cannot ignore the potential of this new platform because the feedback from within this field trial and the clamouring of the outsiders to be let into Google+ has all the hallmarks of success that even Google in its wildest dreams could not have imagined. This project has the signs of a strategy that has been not only well planned but executed with precision and a clear idea of its future potential.

Google+ for Enterprise (Google’s answer to Facebook’s ‘pages’ for companies) is apparently following closely behind this initial phase with some pundits predicting its arrival in two weeks.

Initial signs of increased traffic to my blog from posting blog posts into an initial small Google+ community are very encouraging and I expect to see this increase significantly as users flood into the social network. The implications for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and search are  so significant that it is a generational change that will send SEO engineers back to the classroom.

Google plus is not an isolated project but a Google wide project that will transform the company at every niche and level.

The implications are that Facebook will need to continue to reinvent even faster because if it doesn’t Google+ might be the light at the end of the tunnel and it is not a team of rescuers but a train called Google+ that might threaten to derail the  Facebook IPO.

Mark Zuckeberg has serious competition on his hands!

Google now has the user interface to tempt users to leave Facebook and the promise of integrated web properties to make a very compelling case for an alternative to Facebook.

My prediction! Google + will become the fastest growing social network in history and break the records set by Facebook.

More reading

• To learn about how the core components work you can visit Google’s Google+ tutorial.
• Insights into Google’s New Google+ Social Network
• 50 Fascinating Facebook Facts and Figures About Facebook
• 50 Amazing Facts and Figures About Google
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Companies and brands have refined processes and systems for ascribing value to their physical assets and bricks and mortar properties but when it comes to the measuring of their online properties value there is mostly a big yawn.

We live in a knowledge economy where information is vital and critical to ongoing success as we transition to a post industrial age where workers don’t carry bricks but laptops, iPads and iPhones.

Increasing the value of your online assets which displays a brands knowledge and thought leadership to the world should be made a priority for any modern business.

These assets are now not just restricted to online properties you own such as your website but anywhere you have a web presence and this includes your social media channels.

What are Social Media Assets?

Online assets are not just your website, it is any web presence that makes it easy for customers and prospects to find you and engage with you and this includes any social media channels that you participate on as an organisation.  These channels could include the company blog, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

These channels are where prospects ‘start’ buying from you whether you are aware of it or not.

Social media is transforming the web and with the rise of Facebook there has been an unseemly gold rush by brands to make their online presence more social. This social participation broadens and deepens the reach and influence significantly of any brand and organisation.

Google is Taking Social Very Seriously

Google’s announcement and field trial of its Google+ social networking platform has revealed how serious Google is taking the socialization of the web and the threat of Facebook to its core revenue stream. Google group product manager Christian Oestlien said

“Google+ is just the beginning of  a very long journey towards making Google , our properties and products more social”

So focused is Google in its endeavours on becoming more social is the fact that the Google+ project has had 30 plus enterprise wide project teams working on the new social platform for more than 12 months and Google’s executives incentives are tied to its success.

Ideas on Valuing your Social Media Assets

Companies and organisations in their marketing audit should be assigning value to their social online properties and here is a core concept and some ideas to consider.

Take the top line core value for each social media asset and attribute a simple numerical value and then come to an overall headline total that can be called your social media asset valuation index.

Here are six social media assets that you could attribute a value to.

Blog

The value you should be measuring here includes key elements such as the amount of traffic, inbound links to the blog articles (that is the number of websites and blogs that are hyperlinking to your content) and the number of comments. To kick off the the core measurement value without overcomplicating it,  just take one key measurable asset to start with and an example of this could be the number of page views per month.

Example: Blog page views per month: 10,000

Facebook

Facebook’s value to an organisation starts with ‘likes’ or the number of fans, liking of content and comments and links left on the page.

Core value to initially measure could be the number of ‘Fans’ on your organisations Facebook ‘Page’.

Example: Facebook Fans: 1,000

Twitter

How do you measure the value of  Twitter? This could include the number of followers, the number of retweets and the traffic that it drives to your blog. To start let’s ascribe the number of Twitter followers as being a valuable social media asset to measure. In measuring this I am not devaluing what is also important such as the quality of the those that follow you on Twitter and if they are following you because of the value of the content you are tweeting that leads back to your blog that is relevant and targeted to their topics of  interest.

Example: Twitter followers: 3,000

YouTube

YouTube can be your TV channel where you can educate your prospects and customers.  The numbers to measure here include subscribers and the the number of views.

Example: YouTube views: 6,000

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a more closed community than Facebook or Twitter and its value is measured essentially three key ways and they are the number of connections, quality of the connections and the level of engagement. Quality and engagement are hard to definitively measure.

Example: LinkedIn Connections: 600

SlideShare

This platform’s value is often underestimated or often ignored but showcasing the knowledge of the organisation in a presentation format can have long lasting residual value. On Slideshare you can measure, views, downloads and embeds as well as other elements such as retweets and Facebook ‘shares’. To keep it simple we can just measure the number of views.

SlideShare Views: 1,000

Example: Total Social Media Asset Valuation Index: 21,600

Now, this is just a high level quantification example of your social media assets valuation that can be helpful in providing a top level snapshot in time that can be quite revealing.

This should not diminish in any way ascribing value to the quality component of important elements of online social engagement and other qualitative measurements.

Are you investing in your on line assets?

What is your social media asset valuation and is this worth measuring?

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Playing in the school yard when you were five or six quite often involved comparing how many friends you had which was helpful in calculating how much influence you had and how important you were in the schoolyard pecking order.

Forward 20, 30 or 40 years and now in 2010 you can quantify your influence and attention through social media metrics.

Netprospex have taken it a step further and have quantified the top 50 companies that have the most connected employees.

So if you are curious to find who is the most connected company on the planet then here are a few numbers that provide interesting reading.

NetProspex titled their findings the NPSI Score or “NetProspex Social Index” to score social network activity .

The score is based on the average number of

• Friends or connections across major social networks (friendliness)
• Average number of tweets,
• Number of users following
• Number of followers per employee (twitter score).

The numbers were taken from across 9 major networks

1. Facebook
2. Linkedin
3. Twitter
4. MySpace
5. Friendster
6. Flickr
7. LiveJournal
8. hi5
9. Flixster

Microsoft’s employees emerged with the top score with the NetProspex Social Index (NPSI) score of 306 the next companies were

Rank 2: eBay with a score of  208

Rank 3: Amazon.com with 202

Rank 4: Walt Disney 181

Rank 5: Google with 172

Rank 6: Electronic Arts with 164

Rank 7: Intuit scoring 163

Rank 8: Raytheon with 157

Rank 9: Best Buy on 155

Rank 10: Apple with 153

What was interesting was Coca Cola coming in at number 50.. to see the rest of the rankings visit NetProspex. The other observation from the findings was the high percentage of companies that are either in the eCommerce or technology industry sectors.

Another another key finding was that membership of LinkedIn was by far the largest social network channel at 43%.

Note: NetProspex analyzed social media use within a sample of a database of 12 million business contacts, leveraging Rapleaf’s capabilities as the largest provider of online social data to take a snapshot of social media activity among the nation’s largest corporations.

So is your company on the list?