Google Talks Marketing Implications of Social Search
March 3, 2010
It's no secret that Google delivers personalized search results on a user-by-user basis. In fact, software engineer Bryan Horling reportedly said at SMX West in Santa Clara that Google personalizes as much as 20 percent of any user's web searches, which would be one in five searches. One way that Google personalizes search results is with its social search feature, which it launched in January. At SMX, WebProNews discussed this feature with Google's Johanna Wright.
If you follow the search industry very closely, you are probably aware of what social search does, but in case you're not, it simply injects content from people within your "social circle" into your search results for relevant queries. For example, if you searched for "iPad," and you had a friend who recently posted an iPad review to his/her blog, there is a good chance that would show up on the first page of your results. This is Google's way of placing relevance on who you know. If you know someone, you're more likely to trust their content than that of a stranger (or at least trust yourself on whether or not to trust them).
WebProNews asked Wright what kind of implications social search has for marketers. She says there aren't many, but she would give more general tips like making good content people want to read, following Google's webmaster guidelines, and using webmaster tools to make sure you're indexed. She did also suggest going to code.google.com and checking out Google's Social Graph API if you have social elements on your own site. That is explained in the following clip.
When Google's social search launched, I recommended businesses consider the following tips, as social search could be considered just another part of your social media marketing strategy. It means staying connected with customers.
1. Make sure you have all of your important links on your Google Profile.
2. Make as many connections as possible.
3. Encourage customers to follow you via social networks.
4. Participate in social media so people will engage with you.
5. Encourage sharing of content (there are plenty available social media buttons)
6. Include social network info on business cards/signage, etc.
7. Include social network info in your online advertising
8. There are probably many more worthwhile tips (if you have any, share them in the comments).
Probably the most important thing to remember here is that people are always likely to be seeing different search results when they perform searches on Google. Getting good rankings just isn't as cut and dry as it used to be. Social search is only one way Google personalizes search results. Location is another. I would expect Google to continue looking at ways to make results more relevant to individual users as time goes on.
Do you take social search into consideration for your strategy? Discuss this here.
Google Makes Facebook Pages a Higher Priority for Businesses
March 2, 2010
Google announced via Twitter this week, that public status updates from Facebook are now included in the search engine's real-time search feature. That means the largest social network in the world is getting play in Google's real-time search alongside Twitter, MySpace, and others, and these real-time results are often featured prominently on the first page of search results for the hottest queries.
Apparently only updates from Facebook PAGES are indexed, and according to Danny Sullivan, that includes links, status updates, photos, videos shared by page owners (not comments made by the fans). Any Facebook update (from regular user profiles) can be shared publicly, so I wonder why these aren't being pulled. Results from Twitter and other places aren't only from branded sources.
This seems to indicate that brands should be getting a good amount of play for Facebook appearances in Google's real-time search results, and possibly in the real-time search results in general (due to Facebook's huge user-base). Right now, Facebook isn't dominating the results, but that is bound to change with it being the largest (by far) social network on the web.
A lot of brands who don't have Facebook pages in place are likely going to consider this a new reason to create one. Here are some tips for making a good one and promoting it.
This should also lead to Facebook Pages getting more fans, due to the increased exposure. Beware, however, that running a promotion on your Facebook Page may cost you ten thousand dollars, because Facebook's policy guidelines indicate that you must get written approval from a Facebook account rep. In order to get one of those, you must spend that much in advertising, according to Eric Eldon of Inside Facebook.
Now Google's real-time search results include (as listed by Sullivan) Facebook, MySpace, Twiter, Google Buzz, FriendFeed, Jaiku, Identi.ca, TwitArmy, Google News links, Google Blog Search links, new web pages, and freshly updated pages. At this point, Google generally only shows the real-time results for newsy/trending topics.
Note: At the Online Marketing Summit out in San Diego, WebProNews talked about a different kind of real-time search that involves local businesses, with RateItAll president Lawrence Coburn. It's not local search as you would traditionally think of it, but it involves location, which one might consider a new kind of query.
eBay Sellers Have New European Markets to Consider
February 24, 2010
eBay has expanded into six new European markets by adding new sites in Russia, Czech Republic, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Shoppers in these countries now have eBay sites that actually cater to their local needs. That accounts for about 180 million shoppers, according to the company.
"The good news for sellers is that these buyers will be directed to listings on eBay.co.uk which may help increase sales for businesses that offer international shipping," eBay says.
eBay's Justin Marcucci talks about eBay's international market expansion in the following clip:
eBay says buyers will have access to fully translated eBay sites, but sellers' item titles and descriptions will not be translated, so that may still pose a problem to buyers in these countries. Buyers may have a hard time purchasing an item when they can't read what it is. However, buyers will be able to use eBay's search feature to search for items across eBay's entire global inventory, and only see results from sellers who will ship to their location, so that should be useful. In addition, prices are showing in the local currency for each country, and customer support will be in their own language.
eBay thinks sellers will be excited about the news. It does mean that those who ship internationally may be able to attract more buyers from these markets. It will probably help to keep in mind the translation issues though, so considering this when writing descriptions could be key in taking advantage.
On International Market sites, PayPal will be the only form of payment accepted. In addition, only fixed price items will be included, sellers need to ship worldwide and specify postage costs, and they must be PayPal verified.
Do you sell on eBay? What are your thoughts on this announcement? Discuss here.
eBay Sellers Have New European Markets to Consider
February 24, 2010
eBay has expanded into six new European markets by adding new sites in Russia, Czech Republic, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Shoppers in these countries now have eBay sites that actually cater to their local needs. That accounts for about 180 million shoppers, according to the company.
"The good news for sellers is that these buyers will be directed to listings on eBay.co.uk which may help increase sales for businesses that offer international shipping," eBay says.
eBay's Justin Marcucci talks about eBay's international market expansion in the following clip:
eBay says buyers will have access to fully translated eBay sites, but sellers' item titles and descriptions will not be translated, so that may still pose a problem to buyers in these countries. Buyers may have a hard time purchasing an item when they can't read what it is. However, buyers will be able to use eBay's search feature to search for items across eBay's entire global inventory, and only see results from sellers who will ship to their location, so that should be useful. In addition, prices are showing in the local currency for each country, and customer support will be in their own language.
eBay thinks sellers will be excited about the news. It does mean that those who ship internationally may be able to attract more buyers from these markets. It will probably help to keep in mind the translation issues though, so considering this when writing descriptions could be key in taking advantage.
On International Market sites, PayPal will be the only form of payment accepted. In addition, only fixed price items will be included, sellers need to ship worldwide and specify postage costs, and they must be PayPal verified.
Do you sell on eBay? What are your thoughts on this announcement? Discuss here.
