One of the reasons I stopped blogging a year ago was the realization that our “Weekly Search & Social Wrap Up” was one of 100 or so blogs that covered the same exact areas. Even the “lighter side of social media” bit seemed like a blatant rip-off of Virginia Nussey’s “what I learned from Boing Boing” section of her old “Friday Recap” posts for the Bruce Clay Blog. ( I honestly thought I was being really clever…)  [Edit: apparently Lisa Barone started the Friday Recap/Boing Boing links before Virginia took over] The last thing I wanted was to be accused of plagiarism, though, so I let that fear prevent me from writing here unless it was something that hadn’t been said before.  Nothing came to mind…

The other day, Lisa Barone, a friend, SEO colleague, and former co-worker of mine was accused of plagiarism.  I can tell you from knowing Lisa and reading the Outspoken Media blog that it’s something she doesn’t take lightly.  In fact, I can think of few people who take plagiarism more seriously.  In her rebuttal, she admits that few good ideas are ever truly unique and even goes as far as to illustrate how the two posts (the accuser’s and her’s) weren’t even the only ones that had the coincidental similarity.   In the comments, she then used one of my articles Social Media and the Law as an example of something similar she wrote earlier; (hopefully) not accusing me of anything.

What I realize today is that no matter how creative or original you think you’re being,  someone else might have had the same idea; And in all actuality, someone probably did.  But that doesn’t mean you aren’t entitled to your own voice on the subject.  So while I sympathize with writers who feel their content and ideas have been stolen, I find it pointless and a bit arrogant to accuse someone of plagiarism.  EVEN IF IT’S TRUE.  Here’s what you should do instead:

Take a deep breath

Plagiarism is a serious claim.  In my opinion, it’s not something you should accuse someone of if you don’t have some very definitive proof.  Take a deep breath and sleep on it before you take any action.  Even if you wake up fuming about it the next day, stop yourself.  Go to a mirror and say the following things to yourself:

• It was a good idea, that’s why they published/wrote about it (stolen or not).  Sincerest form of flattery…
• I had the idea first. They’ll can never take that away from me.
• Accusing them of stealing my content will gain me nothing.  Instead, I’m going to capitalize on this.

Capitalize on it

Instead of making an accusation that will send a blogger or publisher into a defensive whirlwind, I’d rather take the opportunity to drop a link back to my earlier post in the comments:

Great article!  I wrote something similar a little while ago [insert link].  I agree with your point about [similar argument], but I’d also like to add [interesting addition].

If there is no way to make a comment, cc their twitter account, post to their facebook page, or email the author with the same thoughts.  Just be careful that it doesn’t sound like an underhanded (passive aggressive) accusation…  You might even have a friend or colleague do this for you so it seems even less accusatory.  Who knows, you could end up with some extra traffic, readers, links, or even a new (valuable) online publisher contact.  Worst case scenario, you end up with one more visitor than before and one less enemy than the alternative route.  And if it turns out they truly did steal your content, they’ll know you saw it…problem solved.

And what if your entire article was stolen?  Well, in the interest of keeping this post free from intentional plagiarism …here’s some thoughts on that:

• http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/use-scrapers-to-build-links/
• http://www.bloggingtips.com/2007/08/31/fighting-back-against-the-scrapers/
• http://www.stayonsearch.com/5-steps-for-maximizing-content-for-massive-backlinks
• http://www.seotimes.net/general/how-to-benefit-from-scrapers/
• http://seohimanshu.com/2010/10/19/10-powerful-tips-to-leverage-content-theft/
• http://jamesmorell.com/using-blog-content-theft-advantage/
• http://www.themelab.com/2010/01/15/take-advantage-of-scrapers/

The internet is a game changer – deal with it.

Before the internet, it was pretty difficult to detect plagiarism.  But more than that, it was damn near impossible to take advantage of it (short of a law suit).  Today, in the world of the internet (particularly the social sharing version we have today) ideas are spread so fast, it’s difficult to keep track of who had them first.  If you have an idea and share it via some medium of online publishing, you can expect it to be spread and copied with and without your permission.  Either find a way to capitalize on this, or find a way to deal with it.  I’m not saying that what you publish online doesn’t belong to you or that content thieves are in the right.  I’m just saying: expect it.

Or hire a good lawyer.

Only 2 weeks till Christmas!  Snow is on the ground in the northeast, and the wind is keeping people indoors.  Here’s an update on the goings on in Search & Social this week to keep you warm.

Yahoo and Google add real-time search to SERPS

All this talk about real-time search and it’s taken till now before the two search giants incorporate their new projects into the main results.  This week Yahoo incorporated Twitter into the normal results in a very “Google OneBox” kind of way.  Google, on the other hand, took this one step further (as they tend to do) and incorporated a real time scrolling result which includes blogs, news outlets, and (of course) Tweets.  Concerns about the ability to game these new results (by SEOs) have begun to surface, but either way, it’s a more direct approach to the real-time search trend by the engines.

Google update personalizes ALL search results

A new (relatively quiet) update rolled out this week for Google which personalizes all search results for users.  Instead of opting in to a personalized search (as previously implemented), users can now only opt-out of these results.  The personalization changes results to a user’s general preference in websites in search results.  For example, if you tend to click on Wikipedia or Amazon when they appear in results, those websites may start to show up more often and higher in search results for a wider variety of keywords than normal.  Privacy issues aside (more on Google and privacy later) the update may not seem too remarkable, but as Danny Sullivan warns: It “deserves extraordinary attention”

Yahoo! and Microsoft close search deal

The deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft to integrate Bing results into Yahoo! has been finalized.  While the deal still must face regulatory approval, it is another milestone that puts it one step closer to being implemented.  These statements were issued about the deal:

“Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value, and more innovation.

“Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010.”

Google sends scannable decals to local business listings “favorite places”

Google started sending out window decals this week to local businesses that have popular local business listings in Google Maps which includes a scannable QR barcode.  These “favorite places” (as the decal states) are chosen based on the popularity of the listing within Google Maps and includes a few statistics on how many users found their location.  For Google, it’s a nice way to get in the storefront of popular businesses and increase usage of the Google Maps service.  For store owners, it can be another way to encourage reviews and display a sign of trust in the front of their store.  BTW: Essential Internet Marketing, LLC is a favorite place on Google!  WOOT!

Facebook Goes Down for a day

Among issues with the facebook twitter app not posting all updates to twitter profiles, Facebook went down yesterday.  No details have surfaced yet as to what the issue was or if the two problems were related, but the popular social media service is back to it’s normal state as of today.

Google and Facebook come under fire for privacy concerns.

Google, having recently admitting to releasing data to law enforcement, is under fire about their privacy policies.  A shocking response by CEO Eric Schmidt essentially says too bad:

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

Facebook, this week, released an update that allows more personalized privacy features for its users.  Experts, however, argue that the changes (particularly how they were offered) encourage users to opt for less private settings.  Here’s what the Electronic Frontier Foundation had to say:

“The Facebook privacy transition tool is clearly designed to push users to share much more of their Facebook info with everyone, a worrisome development that will likely cause a major shift in privacy level for most of Facebook’s users, whether intentionally or inadvertently … Even worse, the changes will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data.”

The Lighter side of Social Media

• As if you hadn’t learned your lesson yet, here are more reasons NOT to friend your parents on Facebook.
• If you think Google suggestions are inappropriate, check this out.
• Definitely the BEST Christmas decorations EVER!
• I like snow, enjoy the changing seasons, but the cold sucks and this is how I really feel about you, winter.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  (I know I did!!)  December is here, the Christmas season is upon us, and search marketing professionals certainly know it.  Here’s what you might have missed:

Google Updates this week: too many

At least I’m not the only one who was overwhelmed by the many changes Google made this week.  Search engine Watch counts 17 updates, and put them together in a nice single post.  No need for me to repeat them, just follow the link and see for yourself.

Google adds new ad format

Last week (since we missed the wrap-up due to the holidays) Google announced a new search ad format that will sometimes include graphics, videos and maps.  Previously, Adwords on Google limited advertisers to text, but now, certain advertisers will be given the opportunity to test the new format with images.

Bing goes Down…

For 30 minutes this week Microsoft search engine Bing.com was unavailable.  Apparently due to a configuration change error, the site was back live (no pun intended) in under a half hour.  Microsoft released this statement about the mishap:

“Bing .com was down between about 6:30 and 7:00 PM Pacific Time on Dec 3, 2009. During this time, users were either unable to get to the site, or their queries were returning incomplete results page.

The cause of the outage was a configuration change during some internal testing that had unfortunate and unintended consequences.

As soon as the issue was detected, the change was rolled back, which caused the site to return to normal behavior. Unfortunately the detection and rollback took about half an hour, and during that time users were unable to use bing.com.

We strive to maintain a high standard of operational excellence at Bing. We are running a post mortem to find out how our software and processes need to be improved to prevent anything like this from happening again.”

Twitter unveils new mobile service

Mashable reports that twitter made an update (or a preview of an update) to it’s mobile service.  Previously, m.twitter.com was the subdomain of choice for mobile twitter users, though as twitter themselves say “It doesn’t feel much like Twitter.com”.  Now you can preview a different version at mobile.twitter.com that features a more full twitter experience.  The preview is reportedly to eventually replace m.twitter.com in the near future.

CNN predicts the Future of the web

Mashable CEO and founder, Pete Cashmore, Wrote an article for CNN predicting web trends for 2010.  Among the predictions are: the future of real-time search, GEO location sharing, Internet TV and more…  An interesting and fun read.

Microsoft offers to pay News Corp to De-index in Google

Continuing with the recent debate on whether news sources (particularly News Corp’s Wall Street Journal) should restrict google from indexing their paid content, Microsoft reportedly fanned the flames by offering them money to do so.  You can see how Microsoft would use this to try and gain a competitive advantage over Google in search.  Google maintains that it wouldn’t hurt their business model as ““Economically [news content] is not a big part of how we generate revenue” says Google’s UK director Matt Brittin.

The Lighter side of Social Media

• True geek humor: Funny Network Names
• Google Suggest tells the REAL story of why India has such a large population.
• Here’s a great video of a grandma freaking out over her grandson’s facebook account.
• Here’s 8 people who’s lives have been ruined by Facebook.  Perhaps Grandma is right!

We’ve decided to skip the weekly wrap-up this week as too much turkey has put us in a food coma.  We’ll do a full 2 week wrap-up next week to catch up on the big news in search and social media.

Have a great holiday weekend!

- Essential Internet Marketing team

It’s Friday already!  You know what that means: it’s time to catch up on the search and social media news from this past week.  Let’s get to it:

Twitter adds Retweet function to web interface, tweeple revolt

Retweets, normally seen as “RT:” are simply a repitition of someone else’s tweet.  It’s been widely used by twitter users in order to repeat an important, useful, or otherwise interesting tweet while giving credit back to the person who originally said it.  This week, after some testing, Twitter released the new retweet function, but fundamentally changed how it worked, much to the chagrin of a vast majority of twitter users.

The difference is: when you retweet something (using the twitter web interface)  instead of “RT: @originalusername”, the original tweet will simply show up in your followers’ feeds avatar and all (regardless if they follow the person or not).  Another fundamental change is that the option to add to or change the original tweet is not a function of this feature.  These two differences (despite some advantages they may have) are the focus for most of the dissent.  Some users even suggested blocking users who use this feature as a measure to discourage its use.

Google Chromium OS project is official

Google recently (and officially) announced the coming of its open source operating system Chrome OS.  The announcement is not a big surprise, as it has been talked about for months now, and seems to be the next logical step for Google (who has their hands in just about everything these days).  It appears that the speedy Chrome OS is to be web based (looking and feeling more like a web browser) and probably won’t replace windows or other operating systems meant for hard drive based computers.  You can read more about the initial impressions about the launch on Search Engine Journal’s wrap up of the Chrome OS announcement.

Yahoo adds Social Content to search

Social and real time search continues to be a hot topic this week as Yahoo! adds real time functionality to its main search engine results.  Like a google news onebox result, when you search in Yahoo! for a topic that comes up with recent news results or buzz, you will now see a result for “Latest News” with options including: news, photos, videos, and Twitter.

Google to test new layout for search results

Google’s advanced features and search options have traditionally been kept hidden from users unless they click on a somewhat difficult to find button.  Soon, Google will be testing a new layout of search results that will make these features a static part of the layout.  The other main difference is the bolder blue “search” button (as opposed to the traditional white).  A screenshot of the new layout can be seen below (courtesy of searchengineland)

Youtube to get Subtitles

Youtube will be rolling out automatic subtitles for the user generated video website in order to make the videos more accessible to the deaf.  Mr. Harrinstein, The engineer in charge of the project, is also hearing disabled had this to say about the project:

“The majority of user-generated video content online is still inaccessible to people like me,”

The new feature will only be available on 13 channels at first, and while not perfect, the technology behind the automatic subtitle generator “should improve with time”.

The lighter side of Social Media

• A woman loses her benefits after posting photos to facebook of herself on vacation.
• Another woman uses facebook to her advantage by tracking down her attacker.
• A drunk Ninja impales himself on a fence…
• Here’s 5 “famous” last facebook updates (not real)…

Pubcon Vegas 2009 is under way this week, but if you’re like me and couldn’t make it, don’t worry.  You can either check out Lisa’s Live blogging of the event or just settle for these 50 SEO tips so far…  Either way, the world of Search & Social moves on without us.  Here’s what happened this week:

News Corp Vs. Google

By now, you’ve probably heard or read about News Corp executives suggesting that blocking their properties (including the Wall Street Journal) from the Google index would benefit their bottom line.  There’s been plenty of opinions about this, some support it, while many (including Matthew Ingram and Danny Sullivan) think there’s a better solution.  While both sides make strong arguments and (either way) blocking Google probably won’t make or break either party, the discussion continues to be polarized with no action being taken (yet) by News Corp.

Youtube creates special branded pages for copyrighted music

In January of last year, Youtube was forced to start taking down videos that contained copyrighted music owned by label Warner Music.  Yesterday, these videos started surfacing again, but this time the pages had a much different look.  Instead of the normal Youtube colors and layout, the pages include what appears to be advertising promoting the artist in question, including links to a storefront where users can purchase the music.  An example can be seen on this Greenday video page.

This isn’t the first time Youtube has done something to protect the rights of copyright owners.  Just a few months ago, they ran a successful test run to see if including links to online music storefronts can help boost the sales of the music used in said video.

Google expands its reach in the telecom world

Early this week, Google announced acquisition of mobile display ad company admob.  The move is compared to a mobile equivalent of the acquisition of Doubleclick, the display ad company Google acquired nearly two years ago.  It has been suggested that the ads are to be targeted for mobile apps, a rapidly growing industry looking for better methods of monetization.

Just yesterday, (amid rumors) Google confirmed it’s acquisition of Gizmo5, “a company that provides Internet-based calling software for mobile phones and computers.”  The reported value of the deal is around $30 Million.  The addition of Gizmo5 to Google voice could allow Google to further compete with companies like Skype as a stand-alone telephone service provider.  It’s clear that Google is determined to become a force in the telephone/mobile phone industry.

Google announces “Go” a new programming language

This week Google released it’s new programming language called Go.  Mashable summarizes it best:

Google believes that the web and computing have changed dramatically in the last ten years, but the languages powering that computing have not. But when you get down to it, Google could benefit a great deal from not only having a more efficient programming language, but having one it designed being used in thousands web and software apps.

Digg adds new ads – gets flamed

This week, Digg.com added new ads to select pages that replaced the normal digg background with full screen (background) ads.  The first ad of this type was for an online multi-player game called Dragon Age (click here for a screenshot).  Soon after the ads began to appear, however, the digg community showed it’s displeasure with the way it looked. The comments say it best:

“Obviously if the digg is resorting to these obnoxious ads then there is a financial problem and they need the cash.”

“The funny thing about the ad is that it’s doing the opposite. It’s putting off users to Dragon [Age]!”

“I hate it. It made the main page less wide than usual. Also, it makes loading digg even slower.”

Digg has since removed this type of advertising (it would seem) in response to the dissent of it’s community.

Lighter side of Social Media

• Google addict?  Here’s google in real life.
• Twitter tells users: “Suck our balls.” (spoof video)
• Facebook status update clears teen of 2 criminal charges.
• Do people really try this?  I’m serious…Google suggest FAIL.

It’s Friday again!  (Wow that week went quick)  It’s also already November, the cold is setting in, and Search & Social is starting to blend into one mashup of an industry.  Here’s what happened this past week:

Google Updates this week (a small sample):

Let me take this time to apologize for featuring so much Google news on these wrap-ups…Its becoming a trend that can’t be helped.  Here’s just a few:

• Google updated its search options by adding expanded snippets and image previews.  You can activate these option by clicking on the “+Show Options” button at the top of your search and selecting either “images from the page” or “page previews” for the images and longer snippets, respectively.
• A new e-commerce search product for e-commerce sites is now available (just in time for the holidays).  The product isn’t free, but seems to be a decent option for larger e-commerce sites looking to integrate an intelligent product search feature.
• Google Dashboard, another new product from Google is simply a snapshot of your use of select Google products.  It shows current Gmail conversations, Google Alerts, Recent Google Docs, and more.

Twitter getting ready for Retweets

Twitter tested integration of Retweets this week.  Not a “new” concept on twitter, it’s a feature that simply makes sense to add to the site.  Retweets (quite simply copying another user’s tweet) have generally showed up as “RT” followed by @(the user) and their tweet.  In screenshots of the recent test, however, the retweet will (instead) show up as an exact replication of the original user’s tweet in your follower’s feeds, avatar and all.  The only difference will be an added “retweeted by @(username)”.

Digg experimenting with Digg Trends

Digg is experimenting with a new front page voting method they call Digg Trends.  The application involves showing a trending story to a user that’s about to hit the front page.  The user can see how long before the story hits and is given an opportunity to choose if it is front page “worthy”.  This takes the voting mechanism to a whole new level for Digg, and time will tell if this becomes a full time feature.

Yahoo playing catch-up with Music & Real Time Search

In response to additions by Google and Bing in the social search arena, Yahoo! has announced testing their own real time search feature.  With partner OneRiot (a real time search engine) Yahoo! hopes to be able to join in on the fun.  They will be testing with other partners as well, according to reports.

Yahoo! reportedly tweaked it’s video search feature to allow users to more easily find music videos.  The feature allows users to click on albums to find videos from a variety of sources for that specific album.  This report comes just after Google released it’s new music search feature, although Yahoo! claims this is nothing new.

Myspace Traffic drop costs Parent Company $100 Million

The recent drops in traffic for Myspace.com has failed to satisfy requirements of an exclusive advertising contract with Google wired.com reports.  The contract which depended upon a minimum traffic level, was done in 2006 for $900 Million which more than covered the $580 Million purchase price of Myspace.com by News Corp.  Failure to reach the minimum level of traffic will cost News Corp. in the area of $100 Million according to sources.

The Lighter Side of Social Media

• Woman sues employer for losing her facebook friends.
• Teens sue their school after being punished for “racy” photos on Myspace.
• If Myspace and Facebook were combined, it would look something like this.  TheOatmeal.com gives you: FaceSpace

A Marketing Role in Product Development – Creating Buzz… & Links!

What makes your product or service different from your competitors’?  What about your product makes it better?  Most importantly, why should people buy your product over your competitors’?

These may all seem like the same question but they’re not.  Not only that, they’re questions you’d be much better off asking your competitors’ customers than your own.  Why?  Because marketing is all about attracting new customers.  If your product falls short or simply isn’t the best option, your competitors win.  If your products offer something theirs don’t, there’s value in that, and you win.  You need to find out what most often motivates the sale, be it: price, features, convenience, customer service, etc. and modify what you offer to suit.

I’m a marketer who’s all about winning.  So here are some tips to help out your marketing department, perhaps even by letting them get involved in product development.

Start simple

Lisa Barone did a great post the other day about how to listen to and watch your current customers in order to make your products work better for them.  It’s a great place to start because, let’s be honest: if you can’t keep your current customers happy, how do you expect to attract new ones?

Listening to your customer complaints & suggestions while watching, observing, and noticing how they use your products can give you insight (you may never have thought of) on how to improve the way they work.  It also shows you care about your customers.  These days customer support/relations is vital for the health of your brand, but don’t let that be the only answer you have for the three questions…because if it is, you’re more than likely missing out.

Creating Perceived Value

It’s likely that your competitors list their products’ best features in bullet points.  Whether it’s on the box, website, or some other marketing medium, they just can’t help it.   Why? Because sometimes it’s the guy with the most bullets that wins.  (If this is starting to sound like a bad western movie…we’re getting close.)

If you ask a competitor’s customer why they bought their product over yours, you’re most likely to hear something like this: “Because theirs has x and yours doesn’t.” or “Because their x is bigger/faster/better than your x.”

A lot of the time customers won’t even use the feature, but having it there gives them a sense of value over other products that don’t have it.  It may simply be a security blanket, status symbol or an excuse to brag, but that perceived value was there and it got the sale.  Beyond the sale, however, if you intend to create a buzz about your product, you’d better have something to brag about…

I can think of no product line that illustrates this better than cell phones:

Innovation – Solving Needs & Creating Wants

They say: necessity is the mother of invention.  If you truly believe that these days, however, you’re probably not in marketing – or you may not be very good at it.  In the 21^st century needs have become wants*.  In fact, the health of capitalism actually depends upon the creation of wants that are independent from our basic needs.  The real trick to marketing is blending the two: turning products into wants that feel like needs.

*I realize this is a cynical viewpoint, and really depends on how strict a definition of the word “need” vs. “want” you’re using, but there’s (at least some) truth to it.

As Lisa finished up in her recent post:

“It’s a lot easier to sell someone what they already want than trying to create a need they never had.”

While on the surface it seems like a true statement that nobody can really argue with, the problem I have with it: is that it’s not universally true.  Why?  Because: (a.) most people don’t know what they want until that something becomes available.  And (b.) It’s simply not true for certain products.  Hacks and alternate uses (that can become part of the product itself) are somewhat rare.  The example of twitter adding #hashtags because their users began widely using them is a very rare exception to this rule.

My other problem with Lisa’s quote is that it suggests an easy way out and does nothing to promote true innovation.  So I’d like to propose an alternate quote:

True innovation solves needs that most of us never knew existed.

Some of the most successful products are truly innovative because they make things faster/easier/better in a way that nobody had thought of before.

Example 1: The iPod scroll wheel – This is a feature that’s SO innovative; it’s difficult to find an MP3 player without one these days…until the iPod touch came out (of course).

Example 2: Nintendo Wii – Certainly a want more than a need, Nintendo re-invented gaming…again; and created a product with less “features” yet more buzz and demand than its competitors because of one (perhaps not so simple) technology called motion sensing.

Example 3: Knowem.com – Lisa actually used this as an example for me of a service that “solve(d) an established frustration” but for how many people (I wonder) was this a frustration for?  Certainly a wonderful service for those of us in Social Media Marketing, but not something anyone “needed”.  Rather, it’s something that makes our lives easier in a way nobody had thought of before, and now something we can’t go without.

Buzz & Links – Taking advantage of Product Development

Truly innovative products will create a buzz, attract links, and pretty much market themselves.  Word-of-mouth marketing should be the ultimate goal of any product development (for marketing) plan.  This is, of course, extremely rare and for most of us, adding features and improving products require a bit of a push in order to achieve successful buzz.  Here are my rules to make sure product development marketing goes smoothly:

Rule #1 – Nothing new = nothing gained

In order to attract real buzz for a product launch/re-launch, you either need to have something nobody else has, or do it in a way nobody else does it.  Otherwise, you’re just another product with all the bells and whistles to boot.

Rule #2 – Don’t ruin the product

Features are great, sometimes even if they don’t get used.  A problem can arise, however, if adding these features complicates the product by making it more difficult to use.  This is a BIG NO-NO and can cause more harm to your brand than buzz.

Rule #3 – Put your best foot forward

If you’re adding a number of improvements to a product, do some market research to find out which feature is most likely to make customers swoon over.  Focusing on that one feature (especially if it’s your “advantage” of your competitors) instead of the whole update is your best bet…otherwise they can sometimes drown each other out.  If they sit on an even keel, then perhaps you can take a lesson from the idon’t commercial (above).

Rule #4 – A little push is needed

Unless you’re reinventing the wheel, you’re going to want to put a good amount of marketing dollars into publicizing the improvements you’ve made as the “newness” of your features will ware old quickly.  Product updates/launches tend to have a better ROI than most re-branding campaigns and you can sometimes even get away with less expensive forms of marketing (like press releases) to start that viral domino effect.  Even my 3 examples of truly innovative products needed a push to get going.

Rule #5 – Create Buzz not Hype

Don’t try to force your product launch into a conversation.  Let the people do the talking.  Otherwise you’ll end up with more naysayers than positive buzz and/or more expectations than you can handle. (i.e. don’t over-promise and under-deliver)

Rule #6 – Raise the curtain S-L-O-W-L-Y

The products that create the most buzz seem to have information slowly “leak” out into the public.  Then ever-so-slowly: rumors turn into facts, and imagination turns into excitement and impatience.  I wouldn’t suggest faking a product “leak” by any means, but slowly giving people enough information to be interested while leaving enough to the imagination is a GREAT way to feed buzz.

Rule #7 – SEO tip – Internal Press Release

Make sure you have a page on your website or a separate site that describes (in detail) the product or updates you’ve made.  Giving people a place to link to and get accurate information will all but assure you get links and traffic back to your site if the launch creates enough buzz.  Big brands seem to get this wrong many times, although they’re rarely concerned with SEO like the rest of us

Search & Social Officially Collide

Earlier this month, reports had surfaced that Twitter was in the talks with Microsoft and Google for deals that would integrate twitter results into the two search giants.  On Tuesday, the deal was finalized for Microsoft Bing and reports had begun to surface that Microsoft was also close to also striking a deal with FaceBook.  The Bing/Twitter search is currently Live but seems to be little more than Twitter Search with a Bing Logo.

Later in the week, Google also announced it’s deal with Twitter being close to final and in an attempt to one-up Microsoft, Marissa Mayer (of Google) announced the development of a new Google Labs product called “Social Search”.   Essentially, Social Search will use your Google profile, scan the social networks you are a member of (that you tell them about), and give you a personalized search engine of your social network.

Real time search and social search capabilities are nothing new, but these deals and products are a big step for the big players in the Search arena.  And their first into the real-time/social search niche.

Google Analytics Gets a Makeover

Google announced an update to it’s webmaster product Google Analytics on Tuesday.  The new version of the product promises to be more powerful, more customizable, and adds a variety of new features.

The most notable change is the added goal (conversion) tracking, now allowing up to 20 goals including new goal types like time on site and pages per visit (for those interested in branding metrics).  Some of the other new features include: expanded mobile reporting, advanced analysis features, and a host of customizable and intelligent data analysis.  For more information on the update, visit the official Google Analytics blog for some helpful videos.

Google profits from moving ads closer to organic results

Barry Schwartz, from Search Engine Land, reports that google’s great 3rd quarter is largely due to a change in placement of the sponsored results in Google results pages.  According to Barry, the move happened in early August, and the earnings report for Google this quarter reported an improved click through rate for it’s right side ads.  The following quote is from Google’s Jonathan Rosenberg on this quarter’s earnings:

We had a very good quarter from Ad Quality’s perspective. I can tell you the significant things that we did. The biggest things, probably in order, or close to order, were the UI tweaks that we did for results pages. We changed the maximum width, decreasing the spacing between the search results and the right hand side ads on wide screen. With that it increased the click-through rate on the right hand side ads and I think we did that some time around the second week in August.

Twitter users hungry for news

In a recent study on the link-clicking-habits of social media users it was found that the most common link-type clicked on for twitter users is news.  Not an overwealming majority, 28.5% of clicks were for news while Movie-related sites came in second with 22.5% of referrals.  Technology (13.39%) and medical sites (7.98%) followed while other sites included video games (4.64 %), celebrity (3.94 %) and how-to (2.88 %).

Facebook users favored technology related sites (33%) over news (18%) while Digg users overwhealmingly favored tech (57%).  The study was conducted in the first week of september and was taken from a sample of nearly one million impressions.

The Lighter side of Social Media:

• Sports illustrated is caught trying to solicit a Digg User for more Diggs and submissions in exchange for “SI memorabilia”.  Tsk Tsk!
• Yahoo! Hires strippers for their “hack day” event and apologizes…immediately.
• Here is the DUMBEST DOG EVER.  I’m not sure to laugh, cry, or BOTH at this…enjoy?

StumbleUpon Version 4

StumbleUpon launched their new site changes this week and their claim is that it make the site’s interface “more simple, searchable and social”.  From the stumbleupon.com blog:

We have completely updated the interface, geared to be more simple, searchable and social.  The new StumbleUpon preserves the functionality of the previous interface while adding frequently requested features, such as Search Your Favorites.

For more information regarding the recent changes you can visit the New Stumbleupon FAQ or better yet, check out this comprehensive review of the changes by nvisolutions.com

Google removes Page Rank data from Webmaster tools

SERoundtable.com reported a recent change in Google’s Webmaster Tools this week which included a removal of all Page Rank information.  Susan Moskwa, of Google explains:

We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.

Many SEO’s are calling this “one step closer to the death of Page Rank”, but as it stands, the Google Toolbar still shows this data, even if a bit inaccurate.  Page Rank is not as valid a metric of a web site or page as it once was, and Google has consistently discouraged would-be SEOs from using it that way.

Yahoo! dropping its paid inclusion program

yourseosucks.com and then davidlew.is rumored this week that Yahoo! was going to drop the Search Submit Pro – paid inclusion program. SearchEngineLand.com later confirmed that it was (in fact) NOT a rumor.  Yahoo! had sent them a statement which begins:

We are committing our resources and efforts to our core areas of focus, including improving the search experience and relevancy of our ads to increase user engagement and ROI for advertisers, and as a result, have decided to exit Search Submit.

This is likely (at least in part) due to the deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft earlier this year.  The paid inclusion program (originally Inktomi) was an effective way for marketers to be included in the organic results by paying a premium.  Now that Yahoo! will be serving results via Bing, the program’s demise seemed inevitable.

LinkedIn reaches 50 Million Users

The important milestone was announced on Wednesday on the LinkedIn Blog. (link via SearchEngineWatch.com)  Jeff Weiner goes on to talk about the user statistics:

Where are these 50 million users? LinkedIn has been global since inception — about half of our total membership is international.  There are now 11 million users in Europe alone. India is currently our fastest-growing country with almost 3 million users, while the Netherlands has the highest rate of adoption per capita outside the U.S., at 30%.

What’s interesting about the growth of LinkedIn is that, according to the post, the first million users took 477 days to aquire, while the last million were added in the last 12 days.

Twitter and Facebook coming to Xbox

Microsoft updated the “social page” on Xbox Live over the past weekend to announce that the ability to post to twitter and facebook was coming to the gaming platform.  The feature will be added some time this autumn: November 19th for UK users (no other dates have been announced).

Only Xbox Live Gold Members ($50/year) will have access to the new features which will allow users to view, reply to, and post updates to the social platforms.  Microsoft seems to be using this as a way to entice users to upgrade to a Gold Membership (and to never leave their couch).

The Lighter Side of Social Media

• Outdated memes, hackers, and useless “technoloy” – the 50 worst things about the internet…according to telegraph.co.uk
• The “real” reason why Google is better than Yahoo!.
• The History and Confusion of #followfriday.
• Finally: the scariest thing about the movie Paranormal Acivity is how effective it’s marketing campaign has been.