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Friday 19 August 2011

Marketing With Facebook Places And Deals

Mari Smith of Social Media Examiner explains how Facebook Places and Deals work, why you should pay attention to them and how you can use them to grow your local business.


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The Sweet Tweet Of Success - Getting Your Content Retweeted


Dan Zarrella is well known for his scientific study of social media and those of us wishing to harness the power of Twitter will find this infographic of significant interest.

A couple of key points:
  • Focus on news communications and provide a link back to expanded content
  • Be proactive in asking people to retweet what you have posted






There is also strong evidence that use of Twitter boosts your search rankings on major engines. These social signals are used to rank regular search results according to Danny Sullivan.

Other pointers for the Sweet Tweet of Success:

  • Build your Followers base but remember that the quality of your following also counts, as the above Matt Cutts video explains. 
  • A retweet by a third party will be more valuable when it comes to search engine ranking, than one you retweet yourself 
  • Content relevance is important so if your tweets are on a theme or topic you will be more successful in achieving search engine visibility.
New Scientist recommends that you use don't use exclamation marks but do use question marks, as they pose questions which others are more likely to pass on.

Strong and positive words in your tweet are more likely to be re-tweeted than negative words.  There is a reluctance to pass on rude or inflammatory language.

Paradoxically, if your use a negative emoticon in a tweet such as :-(  you stand a greater chance of having it passed on than a emotive one such as :-) .

If you content is in the broader public interest then it will have a greater chance of success and this ties in with the Dan Zarrella recommendations above.

And the old adage of bad news travelling fastest holds true with Twitter. Bad or unpleasant news gets  re-tweeted more frequently as does that which expresses strong sentiments around a topic.  A tweet cloud related to the topic 'Norway' demonstrates this.


And if you want to find out how far your tweets are reaching trying using this tool.  You may be surprised to learn just how many people have received your content.


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Tuesday 16 August 2011

A Supercharged Android Ecosystem

Google's CEO Larry page announced today that the company has made its first significant hardware acquisition; the purchase of Motorola for the sum of $12.5 billion.  Naturally they paid cash.

At the time of this purchase Google has more than 150 million Android devices worldwide and each day another 550,000 devices are added through a network of about 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries.

While some may be worried that Google's commitment to running Android as an open platform might waiver, Larry page has reiterated that. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open.

The purchase price also represents something of a coup for Motorola shareholders who were paid a premium of 63% n the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares last Friday, August 12, 2011.  Motorola hasn't been faring so well in recent years with only 3% market share.

One wonders what this purchase means for Google's current partners, HTC and Samsung in the long term?

Motorola's  hundreds of patents (24,5000 of them) add additional value as Larry Page acknowledges in his announcement:

"We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies"

What Google Got For Its Money
There is another side to this purchase. Gigacom reports that if Google hadn't made the purchase they would have been in an even greater patent hole.

"Our sources say that Motorola was in acquisition talks with several parties, including Microsoft for quite some time. Microsoft was interested in acquiring Motorola’s patent portfolio that would have allowed it to torpedo Android even further. The possibility of that deal brought Google to the negotiation table, resulting in the blockbuster sale."
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Sunday 14 August 2011

Google+ First Impressions




A different vibe due to a new interface but what is the Google+ value proposition when compared to Facebook?

It is certainly Google's best social network attempt to date but will it kneecap Facebook. I don't think it will, but its ability to integrate with smart phones could well cement its niche.

Neither does Google+ currently appear to be a threat to Twitter, which is an open and outward looking platform.  Google+ is all about Google and lacks the simplicity and singular focus of the 'blue bird'.
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