We began this series with a seed list of exposition hall vendors generously vetted by Search Engine Strategies for next month’s conference in San Francisco. At industry events like SES, the expo hall is one of our favorite places to network / kill time / disco dance / ninja bite-sized Snickers… the works- and the companies who set up shop there for 2.5 days are often worth checking out. Dude, they’re paying to showcase themselves – they want us to take notice . We encourage you to contribute to this list by suggesting vendors, platforms, agencies,  tool makers, content services, etc… via Twitter. Hit me up with a mention @beebow.

LinkWorth
Online advertising portal LinkWorth delivers dynamic marketing products for advertisers and represents a unique monetization venue for publishers. LinkWorth specializes in text link advertising, in-content pay-per-click, hosted content pages, paid blog reviews, SEO consulting services, article submission, directory submission, press releases, and custom content creation.

LivePerson
LivePerson develops and delivers online engagement solutions with an emphasis on real-time assistance. By linking over 8,000 businesses with their question-asking consumers, LivePerson is able to serve up relevant, compelling, personalized online experiences.

Local.com
Local.com is one of the nation’s leading local business search site and network, providing relevant listings and results to over 20 million monthly visitors. More than 50,000 small businesses leverage Local.com’s subscription, performance and display advertising and website products to help connect them with customers.

Localeze
Based out of Vienna, Virginia, Localeze is the largest business listings identity manager for local search. Localeze provides a variety of services including organic search marketing, and a variety of tools focused on managing and optimizing local listings across the Web.

LocalSplash.com
Focusing on organic, sponsored and blended search results, Local Splash aims to put local businesses on page one of Google, Yahoo!, and Bing SERPs. National chains, such as Extra Space Storage, also trust Local Splash for their search marketing needs.

LookSmart
Online search advertising network LookSmart provides performance solutions for search advertisers and online publishers. By offering clients targeted, pay-per-click (PPC) search advertising as well as a customizable Ad Center platform, this San Fran-based company represents a dynamic source of Affiliate & Performance-Based Marketing Solutions.

LucidMedia
Online demand-site platform LucidMedia provides display advertising management and  targeting for optimized, direct response, and brand advertising campaigns. Together with page-level contextual analysis and intelligent real-time bidding provided by ClickSense®, customers can choose between self-service or to have the service managed by external interactive agencies and brand advertisers.

Marchex
Marchex seeks to connect advertisers with customers across a variety of platforms such as mobile, offline and online channels. Products and services include performance-based call advertising, Marchex Pay-For-Call, Marchex Call Analytics, Affiliate & Performance-Based Marketing Solutions, Local Search Marketing Services & Directories, and online presence monitoring.

Marin Software
Marin Software represents a browser-based, enterprise-class paid search management application for advertisers and agencies with large-scale SEM campaigns with paid search monthly budget of at least $100,000. Founded in 2006, Marin aims to streamline clients’ work-flow, analysis, and optimization to improve overall campaign performance.

Market Motive
Market Motive is a training & certification company that seeks to certify users as authority search marketers. With an online video training library, top-rated faculty and dynamic testing and endorsement system, Market Motive provides top-notch online certification courses in SEO, Web Analytics, PPC, Social Media, Conversion Optimization, Online PR, Email Marketing and other facets of the Internet.

Marketwire, Inc.
Marketwire is North America’s only fully integrated global newswire for superior press release distribution, media management, multimedia and monitoring solutions. With a keen focus on precision, adaptability, innovation and simplicity, Marketwire represents a source of innovative products and services that range from Social Media to News Dashboard coverage reports.

Online Marketing Institute
The Online Marketing Institute is a career development company with a strong focus on education and the ability to deliver accreditation in various sects of online marketing. With a curriculum of case studies, best practices, peer validation and trend analysis, OMI offers comprehensive workshops, webinars, seminars and online learning channels for students, clients, and the public in general.

Onward Search
Onward Search is a leading Internet marketing and creative services company. Specialized in search marketing, graphic design, web development, and related creative services, Onward Search lets customers identify and source top-notch talent in a variety of fields. Recruited staff span Search Marketing Specialists, SEM Managers, SEO consultants, PPC managers, social media experts, copywriters, web developers, project managers, production managers, graphics designers, print production managers, to name a few.

OrangeSoda
OrangeSoda provides local businesses with a suite of online marketing services such as Local Search Marketing Services & Directories, Marketing Optimization Solutions, and Pay-Per-Click Networks and Management Services. Leveraging a combination of insight on consumer search behavior and local business functionality, OrangeSoda aims to match customers with the companies that best suit their needs.

Pixelsilk
Pixelsilk is a completely SEO-friendly CMS designed with a strong focus on SEO best practices. This web-based CMS gives users complete control over HTML and URL elements, offers real-time SEO advice, multiple site management capabilities and scalable design for external plugins. From editing content to customizing aesthetics, Pixelsilk is a user-friendly and sophisticated pick for a CMS.

PRWeb
PRWeb has been an industry leading online news and press release distribution service for over a decade. Pioneering the direct-to-consumer distribution strategy as well as a user-platform that focuses on optimizing press release content, this Ferndale, WA-based PR company is a subsidiary of leading on-demand PR management software manufacturer Vocus, Inc.

PubCon
PubCon is a renowned conference that offers a variety of educational tracks and sessions featuring Internet marketing, social media, search marketing and advertising. Hosted by WebmasterWorld, PubCon annually draws thought leaders together to share and learn the latest in design, development, promotion and marketing.

Quova, Inc.
Leading the way in IP geotargeting data is Quova, a dynamic company that specializes in geotargeting search ads to a users with location-specific keywords and search engine geo capabilities. In addition, Quova offers Click Fraud Prevention & Website Security, Content Management, and Website Search & Technologies.

RadioActive Media
RadioActive Media aims to increase browse time by “an average of 52%” by leveraging radio as a marketing medium. This full-service marketing agency focuses on direct response radio as a means to enhance clients online marketing campaigns.

Raven Internet Marketing Tools
Raven Internet Marketing Tools help clients efficiently monitor and manage SEO and social media marketing efforts by generating  comprehensive reports for a variety of online campaigns. Raven Internet’s suite of Marketing Optimization Solutions encompass performance research to campaign management and breaking down analytics.

Reply.com
Reply.com is an online marketing platform specializing in Local Search Marketing Services & Directories, Marketing Optimization Solutions and Pay-Per-Click Networks and Management Services. Reply.com is a streamlined alternative to complex and expensive online marketing platforms, making it a cost-effective, scalable alternative for small and mid-sized businesses.

ROI Revolution
With Google AdWords Qualification under its belt, ROI Revolution represents a data-driven company specialized in PPC ads with profitable and scalable results. ROi Revolution aims to improve clients’ click-through-rate, lower cost-per-click, and increase sales revenue overall.

Rosetta
Rosetta is a leading US online marketing company, combining top of the line technology with interactive advertising.This company’s team of creative online marketing professionals provide clients with breakthrough interactive marketing strategies and services for organic SEO, paid search management, online media planning, social media, mobile marketing, and in-depth analytics.

SearchForce
Founded in 2004, SearchForce offers Marketing Optimization Solutions, Mobile & Rich Media Advertising Solutions and Search Marketing Software to some of the world’s largest companies in a variety of verticals. SearchForce provides a single hosted platform for optimizing PPC performance, automate bidding across major search engines, and implementing dynamic reporting tools.

Searchmetrics GmbH
Berlin-based Search Analytics company Searchmetrics GmbH has been providing Marketing Optimization Solutions, Search Marketing Software and Website Search & Technologies since 2007. As a leading vendor of integrated Search Analytics solutions, Searchmetrics GmbH allows marketers to analyze their brand’s keyword rankings from a search engine’s perspective.

Sedo
Sedo is an international domain marketplace encompassing over one million members and 28 languages, with an inventory of more than 15 million domains across 2,000 categories. With services including professional domain appraisals, brokerage services, targeted marketing and domain parking, Sedo represents the world’s largest selection of premium domains.

SEMPO
SEMPO, Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, aims to promote search engine marketing on an international front with training and certification courses. This non-profit association has over 860 representive members who receive SEMPO benefits such as research, SEMPO Institute and event discounts, job board, networking opportunities, research, webinars, as well as membership committees and regional groups.SEO, Inc.

SiteWit
SiteWit is a top predictive analytics and PPC platform that offers simple campaign optimization and management. With usage fees starting at $29.95/month and free behavioral analytics and revenue attribution, Sitewit represents a cost-effective source of Marketing Optimization Solutions, Pay-Per-Click Networks and Management Services and Search Marketing Software.

SLI Systems
SLI (Search, Lean & Improve) Systems provides a variety of website functionality features including advanced merchandising capabilities and intuitive navigation for online retail and other content-rich sites.With its patented Learning Search technology that learns from and adapts according to customer behavior, SLI Systems is able to help boost sales and increase conversions.

SpyFu
SpyFu is a competitive intelligence platform that shows the keywords users’ competitors target, purchase, and optimize for. With a key objective to provide “the most powerful online advertising espionage,” SpyFu allows users to search by domain to reveal keywords, or search by keywords to reveal cost, advertisers, and similar keyterms. eb Analytic

Superpages.com
Superpages.com is a local search platform that also serves as a robust advertising network and local search marketing directory, with services including local marketing and Pay-Per-Click management. A suite of products that track clicks and calls to conversions make Superpages.com a multi-dimensional channel for clients’ local marketing needs.

Et voilà! Come on back next week for part 3 of the Giant Monster Online Marketing Vendor list, and don’t forget to tweet us with suggestions of vendors you’d like to see here.

credit: SESConferenceSeries

aimClear’s demographic research product includes social media influencers from a number of channels ranking from Facebook and YouTube to forums.  We then challenge Community Managers to take these “friend leads” and convert them to organic friends over 3-5 days, at a “cost per friend lead” calculated from how much time the friend-conversion takes.  This post samples techniques to identify and qualify friend-leads, influencers and several holistic tactics proven to convert those leads to friends.

1-Research & Target the Right Friends
When it comes to social media friend, we believe that quality, influence, loyalty and relevance overall outweigh quantity. There are tons of ways to locate cool people and vet their levels of influence. Mashable’s presence on Facebook reveals that their fans engage surrounding particular topics. Head over to Mashable’s Facebook page. Choose any blog post. Click where FB indicates that people “like” that post.

Take note of topic-specific Facebook users as target friends.

This approach works for many mainstream publications that feature extremely specific articles. Leverage this method to identify and locate a variety of users who are interested in highly-focused topics. These are your ideal social targets!

Let’s check out the New York Times, and use it as a means to target those so passionate about climate change that they “like” the article.

There are many other Facebook privacy leaks we can exploit for friend targeting.  That terminology may sound ruthless, but once we have the targets, we practice holistic methods for getting to know users, over time, by honest and mutually-beneficial methods.

For identifying target friends on Twitter, one directory we like is wefollow.com. Start with suggestions in the search box at the top. Let’s say we’re looking for friends who are into “landscaping.” It’s easy to see the relative distribution of users in relation to keyword permutations.

wefollow SERPs are comprised of Twitter users who self-identify (self-tag) with individual keywords.  The default SERPs are sorted by most influential according to the wefollow algorithm.  There’s also the option to sort by most followers.

Drill into individual users for more detail, wefollow rankings, and other self-tagged keywords. (This is a great way to stem segments and brainstorm.)

2- Demonstrate Interest & Familiarity On First Approach
It is impossible to overestimate the social benefits of taking time to understand a user’s predilections and interests. The person in the screencap below friended me on Facebook. I don’t know her in real life. When I went to check out her profile, I saw my own Facebook Ranking Factors blog post near the top of her wall. I usually don’t friend in FB outside my most immediate circle, but this time I did. It seemed she was truly interested in my work. That or a brilliant tactician.

Anecdotally, this technique has improved Facebook friend-lead to friend-conversions rate for Community Managers up to 30%.  There are many ways to demonstrate familiarity and real interest in a friend-target. It’s nearly always worth taking the time to do so.

Think about your own activities. Actually be the person someone with similar interests would want to hang out with.  Recommend terrific and relevant content to them. Listen to what they say, soak up feedback (and respond to it!), offer value without asking for anything in return. Dude, you can’t make friends if nobody likes you.

3- Answer With Questions
Years ago I had the pleasure of working with an accomplished Wisconsin Public Radio journalist.  We were collaborating on a documentary video, which involved a lot of interviews. He routinely replied to his interviewees’ answers with more questions, getting them to spill their guts in far more intimate ways than one would guess.  This was not an isolated phenomenon… most people, social creatures that they are, seem to enjoy when others probe thoughtfully.

Listen to what potential friends talk about. Ask them clarifying questions and take note of how they share themselves. We have recommended this tactic to many Community Managers and watched them shine.  The best way to create engagement is to actually be engaged in how you interact with others.

4- Automate Your Content Research
Don’t let the term “automate” shake you up. Most marketers know all about Google alerts and leverage it for keyword-driven reputation monitoring. These same alerts also represent a really cool application for social media. Use alerts to automate research for what your target friends are interested and where they’re hanging out.

Say, for instance, the topic you’re curious about is “baseball statistics.”  Set up Google alerts for permutations of this topic such as “baseball memorabilia,” “baseball history,” “baseball autographs” and the like. Use the alert email’s subject syntax to automatically route the alerts to a dedicated mailbox in outlook or Google Apps’.  Now you’re totally up to speed on a daily basis of every newly-indexed instance of those keywords in news, blogs and most places where Google crawls content.  From your steady stream of daily content, do a quick review of what’s cool and dish it out to those baseball-lovin’ users.

Often, this method (especially when the Google alerts are set up “as-they-happen”) can help you be the first to bring fresh content to the community.  Depending on the desired level of sophistication, consider setting up a dashboard to aggregate feeds from other neat places. One way to be perceived as a contributing authority in any interest segment is to actually be an authority. Keep totally current with content. Make the research job easier with automation.

5- Ask For Nothing in Return
Poll the audience on Twitter (or any social channel, really). Odds are most people do not appreciate being bombarded with sales pitches on first-touch. There’s little more frustrating than 24/7 self-promotional tweets and @mention spam from brands blind to the art of holistic befriending. We learned long ago that businesses who use Twitter as a “bullhorn” don’t get very far. On the flip side of the coin, you can’t put a price on a brand that reaches out to users simply for the sake of saying, “Howdy!” and, “How can we help?”

If the goal is to make more quality, influential and loyal social media friends, then treat them like friends. That means expressing genuine attentiveness to not only mutual interests, but overall well-being. Share content with friends without asking for retweets… don’t be afraid to casually chat without a hidden agenda or link to your webpage up your sleeve.

6- Add Real Value on Rebroadcast
There are an assortment of telltale indicators a brand flat-out doesn’t get social media. One is a Facebook wall with nothing but one-sided status updates. Another is a Twitter stream overflowing with monotonous, unmodified retweets. All that shows is you know how to click the “RT” button.

Take the time to show you actually read the source you’re rebroadcasting by adding brief, thoughtful editorial. Reshape the message appended by the preceding sharer so it incorporates your personal voice. Put a unique spin on the content’s emphasis. Just make sure you give credit where credit is due (ex: via @[username of initial sharer]).

7- Leverage Each Channel’s Tagging Vernacular For Visibility
In Twitter, users can find content that suits their interests by monitoring “#[keyword]” (known as hashtags) and “@[username]” (indicating specific users). Social news sites like digg and sphinn require those posting content to choose from their preset category grids. Tagging, sharing and bookmarking sites like delicious and YouTube employ classic tagging syntax, where you can type pretty much anything and everything. Some sites are hybrid.

Tagging and categorization schemes are all about helping users find and keep track of content. Self-tagging by categories and keywords that apply to your brand can also help boost visibility as a relevant player in that social space. Use categories, tags and hashtags as springboards into keyword-focused conversations. Drill into topics and content tags to uncover a well of community members interested in the same things you are. Drill deeper into specific, highly-active users– check out their other social profiles, find out who their friends are, how active they are, what else they like to contribute…

Consult cross-channel personas. If you’re targeting a user found on Digg, look them up on Twitter. Learn more about them. Then, engage benevolently.

There are myriad approaches to holistic befriending via social media channels. From targeting the right friends to conveying a sense of familiarity and interest from the get-go, expanding conversations with thoughtful questions to reaching out without selling, automating research, enhancing rebroadcasts with insightful editorials, and staying savvy with multi-channel tagging systems– we find these seven tactics, tested and proven effective, represent a pretty sweet starting point for community managers eager to make social media friends that actually matter.

7Search.com
7Search is a Pay Per Click search engine network that drives quality, diverse traffic from Web properties and search engines. A combination of unique, useful tools, exceptional customer service and no minimum for monthly spend makes 7Search a smart choice for cost-conscious clients.

Acquisio
Acquisio is the leading performance marketing solutions providor for agencies across the world. The Montreal-based company, which also operates a remote office in Seattle, takes pride in helping clients manage their paid search campaign and optimize their efforts for different search engines.

Adobe, featuring Omniture® technology
Omniture’s online business optimization software allows users to manage and optimize their business endevors both on and offline. With its comprehensive interface, Omniture captures, stores and analyzes website content so that users can have a better understanding of site performance and campaign efficiency.

adSage LLC
Asia’s leading SEM company, adSage has been managing SEM campaigns for clients across a variety of industries since 2005. The Beijing-based company focuses its services on campaign automation, keyword research and bid optimization.

American Express OPEN
American Express OPEN recently launched a new online solution for simplifying search marketing, SearchManager. Instant single-point access to the major search engines provides a streamlined user experience and enhanced effective campaign management.

AppNexus
AppNexus provides clients with a scalable real-time ad platform, allowing them to manage major inventory sources and media buys. The New York-based company’s ad technology offers data management, optimization, APIs, and financial clearing functionality, and operates as a single-point access to platforms including Google’s DoubleClick and Microsoft’s AdECN.

Ask Sponsored Listings
Ask Sponsored Listings’ PPC program links marketers with 75 million unique users and boasts the lowest average CPC across Tier 1 search engine competitors. Coupled with exceptional customer service, Ask Sponsored Listings delivers ROI to all customers, from small biz accounts to international companies.

Best of the Web
Best of the Web has been recognizing and cataloging the “best” site online since 1994, making it the Internet’s oldest directory. Sealing a spot in the Buffalo-born company’s listings can help increase traffic and improve visibility across the major search engines.

Bing
Ringing in the new generation of search is Bing, Microsoft’s own “decision engine.” The functionality of this search platform has a heavy emphasis on visuals, leveraging images in various ways to help users discover and select search results that best suit their query.

BlueGlass
BlueGlass is an interactive marketing based out of Tampa, Florida. Spearheaded by industry experts including Chris Winfield, Brent Csutoras, and Dave Snyder, BlueGlass offers a variety of services including search marketing, social media, viral marketing, conversion rate optimization and application creation.

Brafton CustomNews
Boston-based news agency Branfton CustomNews offers customized news feeds for client websites with a special focus on fresh, real-time content and breaking news stories. Branfton also services clients with Content & News Feed Providers, Marketing Optimization Solutions and Organic Search Marketing services.

Bruce Clay Inc.
Bruce Clay Inc. is a trusted veteran in the field of search engine optimization. Operating since 1996, the company’s accomplishments include the Search Engine Relationship Chart®, the SEO Code of Ethics, various on-site interactive tools and a recognized industry training course. Bruce Clay Inc. currently has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, London and Tokyo.

Business.com
Business.com is one of the top online company directories, with a traffic flow of over 40 million unique visitors per month.  With an inventory of more than 65,000 business categories and upwards of 35,000 biz how-to tutorials, Business.com represents a trusted content solution for B2B marketers and publishers.

ClearSaleing
ClearSaleing, Inc. provides clients with advertising portfolio management technology designed to help allocate ad spend in a cross-investment, multi-platform marketing campaigns. The company has been a leader in Marketing Optimization Solutions, Search Marketing Software as well as Web Analytics since it was founded in 2006.

ClickEquations
Blazing the path in intelligent paid search platform for large advertisers and agencies, ClickEquations’s 3-engine management, bidding, and reporting services are a trifecta for marketers. With a suite of products including ClickEquations Segments, ClickEquations Adviser and ClickEquations Manager and Analyst, this company represents a comprehensive, cost-effective solution.

ClickPath
ClickPath’s dynamic ad tracking functionality gives marketers a new way to view collective conversion performance, both online and offline. By linking all onlien marketing campaigns back to the same, defined source, ClickPath is able to accurately track analytics across a variety of mediums, including phone calls.

ClickSweeper
ClickSweeper provides agencies and marketers with highly customizable PPC management software that integrates keyword bid automation, content network features, ROI and conversion-based campaign strategies as well as ad copy evaluation. By streamlining tedious maintance tasks and identifying areas of opportunity for increased campaign profitability, ClickSweeper has been servicing clients with cost-effective PPC management since 2007.

Compete
By delivering actionable digital intelligence, Compete is able to help clients enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns both on and offline. Compete also offers a suite of products from online measurement tools to deep consumer and competitor insights across a variety of industries.

Covario, Inc.
San Francisco-based Covario, Inc. provides leading Interactive Marketing Analytics software to global organizations.Its comprehensive interactive and search marketing analytics solutions help clients manage paid search advertising, organic search engine optimization and display advertising in a cross-channel strategy.

Elsner Technologies Pvt Ltd.
Elsner Technologies Pvt Ltd is a leading IT company and software provider offering a variety of web services, including design, development, CRM, OpenSource, Mobile applications development and BPO / KPO services. Blurbpoint Media is its fully self-functional sub-division Search Agency, providing services for organic SEO services, link building, pay per click, online retail promotion, as well as marketing and branding.

Experian Hitwise
Experian Hitwise’s online competitive intelligence services give clients daily insight on how Internet users around the world interact with over a million different websites. This insider data allows clients to identify areas of opportunity or obstacle, which can advise effective marketing campaign. Experian Hitwise has an international presence, operating in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

eZanga.com
eZanga.com is a search engine with a special focus on online advertising and web services, providing users with convenient, accurate and feature-rich results from multiple search engines. eZanga also offers high ROI-focused advertising campaigns at the local, regional and national level, as well as personalized account management, in-depth toolsets and high-tech fraud prevention.

Findology Interactive Media
Findology Interactive Media, Inc. offers innovative search technology, personalized customer service, advanced fraud protection, and a powerhouse impression-generating publishers network, allowing clients to vary their online advertising strategies. Founded in 2000, Findology also provides pay per click network and management services.

Google
Created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998, Google is one of the world’s best known search engines, providing millions of users with accuaret, blended results for their search queries. Its highly popular, widely-used targeted advertising program allows small businesses and global corporations alike to create, run and manage pay per click campaigns in both its search and content network.

iContact
iContact is an e-mail marketing solution that allows clients to connect and communitcate with current and prospective customers, the end-goal being improved marketing and retention strategies. Cost-effective monthly price packages make iContact a good choice for budget-concious businesses.

iCrossing
iCrossing is a digital marketing company that helps clients from all across the globe identify, locate, and engage with their customers. A blend of organic search, paid search, search marketing, web development, social media, research and analytics helps iCrossing create dynamic integrated marketing programs. iCrossing’s clients include Toyota, Travelocity, The Coca-Cola Company and Office Depot.

Inceptor
Formerly Idearc Search Marketing, InceptorSM is a search marketing service with a strong focus on customizating strategies fit to each client’s business objectives. InceptorSM  also offers Pay per click, Search Engine Optimization and Comparison Shopping Engine services.

Indus Net Technologies
Founded in 1997, Indus Net Technologies provides clients with integrated services in the areas of Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click Management, Website Analytics and Conversion Optimization. Operating out of the UK as well as India, the company also has various online service brands including Promote2Please.com, Submit2Please.com, and Content2Please.com

iProspect
iProspect is a Search Engine Marketing Firm that offers a variety of marketing services including organic SEO, pay per click advertising management, online display advertising management, shopping feed management, and search leveraged public relations. In addition to global search markeitng office, iProspect operates out of Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Dallas-Ft. Worth.

There you have it – the first installment of our Giant Monster Online Marketing Vendors List. Stay tuned next week for Part 2

Search Marketing Expo | SMX East | October 4-6, 2010 Autumn in New York means SMX East, and members of aimClear hope to travel to the Big Apple just in time to attend. With a rich program designed by Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman, SMX is one of those not-to-be-missed industry events. Past SMX speakers include thought-leaders Greg Boser, Jessica Bowman, Christine Churchill, Matt Cutts, Eric Enge, Jennifer Laycock, Aaron Wall and Chris Winfield, among many others.

Direct Marketing Association | DMA San Francisco | October 9-14, 2010 Marty will be head back to San Francisco to speak at the Direct Marketing Association, a dynamic event that encompasses (and embraces) both traditional and digital marketing tactics. Blending  direct and digital marketing, DMA2010 will feature a diverse clan of keynote speakers including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, wine enthusiast & entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck, and acclaimed director James Cameron.

140 Character Conference | 140conf Detroit | October 20, 2010 This Twitter-focused convention is relatively young, but its star-studded cast of speakers–including Ann Curry, MC Hammer, Soleil Moon Frye, and Arianna Huffington– has garnered prominence and popularity over the last two years. Tech anthropologist-entrepreneur Jeff Pulver brings together an audience eager to share and soak up  Twitter success stories. Lauren plans to live-tweet Detroit’s concert-style conf, which features 150+ speakers and 10-20 minute presentations in one jam-packed day.

International Search Summit London | October 28, 2010 Making a second 2010 biz trip across the pond, Marty will be speaking at the International Search Summit in good ol’ London. This one-day event, hosted in the elegant British Library, features an impressive array of online marketing and social media experts from each corner of the world. Marty is set to deliver an afternoon presentation on Blending Search with Social to Harness Global Data

PubCon | Pubcon Las Vegas | November 8-10, 2010 Pubcon’s intense fusion of affiliate, SEO, PPC and technical makes it one of the coolest conferences around. Located in the stunning city of Las Vegas, it attracts industry superstars like Adam Audette, Brent Payne, David Wallace, Eric Enge, Michael Streko, Rae Hoffman, and Stoney deGeyter. Live-tweeting and blogging the sessions will be aimClear’s Merry Morud (@merrymorud).

We hope to see you at one, if not all of these events Reach out on Twitter if you’ll be there so we can meetcha in person. If you can’t make the trips, be sure to check back at aimClear Blog for extensive conference coverage.

* Sigh * As long as I can remember, spring and summer have been the time for (but not limited to) barbecues, swimming and the effects of semi-surprise search algorithm updates on our clients. Recently, we’ve seen Google tinker under the hood, announcing the Mayday and (long advertised) Caffeine algorithm changes. Yahoo has been making various mods as well.

To the benefit of our readers, we’ve put together a client case study that looks at measurement techniques for evaluating site performance through Google and Yahoo’s algo’ changes. Some precursor notes: for this particular study, we pulled conversion data using the surfing single analytics segments technique. The featured site is a small but very profitable trade publication in Google News.  Also, there was a major push to improve organic conversion in preparation for the Caffeine update. That adds for more intrigue to some cool reports further down the page.

Global Traffic April 1 – July
Doing well…wonder where that traffic’s coming from… It’s always important to have a look at overall traffic and where the visitors come from.

All Conversion
Here we have all of the conversion sources.  Remember we’re going to be looking at the effects of organic algorithm changes. Still, it’s cool to take note of how organic fares against PPC. Don’t worry, we know this is basic yet. Trust there are going to be some pretty sexy reports coming up in this post.

Traffic Effect On Yahoo Organic Through Yahoo Algorithm Change
Wow, we actually gained organic keyword traffic through the change. The red dot is where the algo’ shift took place.

Conversion Effect Yahoo Organic, Through Yahoo Algorithm Change.
How fun is this! In reality, we prescribed and the client executed a major organic conversion effort. It worked so well the organic change at Yahoo barely even mattered.

Bing Organic Traffic
The traffic trend is pretty similar that of Yahoo. We’re watching Bing because, well, sooner or later Bing will become Yahoo.

This is the same view by the week as opposed to by the month.

Bing Conversion
This data tells us straight-up that traffic from Bing does not convert. However this may be a red herring. Run the percentages. The percentage of overall organic search traffic for Bing is still low because it’s still Bing, although Bing is growing.

The Effect of MayDay & Caffeine on Organic Google Keyword Traffic
Interestingly enough, the downturn in traffic here was only a slight one for this client. The green line is the previous 30 day period of organic keyword traffic. The blue line is the current 30 day period.

Reduced PPC Expenditure
In the overall profile of this site, we look at the client’s 3o over 30 PPC investment. The client ratcheted down PPC spend because conversions now come from organic.  How cool is THAT!

Progression of PPC Conversion
Also, the reduced PPC expenditure has not hurt because PPC conversion is up. Hey, this stuff looks good.

Progression of Organic Conversion, Even Across Caffeine
Again, the organic conversion initiative success obscures the Mayday and Caffeine updates.

Something interesting to note is that the peaking, highly-seasonal search pattern for this client’s industry is in fall and early winter. This new data speaks to how the algorithm updates enabled site traffic and conversion performance, resulting in a stark difference from the normal ebb of seasonal traffic.

For further info on the three recent algorithm updates, check out some of the resources below:

Yahoo! Update
Yahoo! Search Algorithm Moves Towards Links & Authority Sites – SEObook, Aaron Wall
March Weather Report: Yahoo! Search Update – Yahoo! Blog, Dan Rampton
April Weather Report: Yahoo! Search Update – Yahoo! Blog, Dan Rampton

Mayday
Google Confirms “Mayday” Update Impacts Long-tail Traffic – SearchEngineLand, Vanessa Fox
Whiteboard Friday – Google’s May Day Update & What It Means for You – SEOmoz, Scott Willoughby

Caffeine
Our New Search Index: Caffeine – The Official Google Blog, Carrie Grimes
Matt Cutts Explains Caffeine Update – WebProNews

Welcome back to another Wednesday installment of our Facebook English Speaking Demographic Series. Back in May, we picked through the 60 countries with the largest FB userbase (that also claim English as an official language) in Population Graph: Where Are Facebook English Speaking Users?. After that, we observed  the self-identifying trends in the UK, Ireland, Canada, India, the Philippines, South Africa and finally, Singapore. We’re sticking around in the Pacific Ocean this week and drilling into social segments of Facebook English speaking users in Hong Kong.

As of July 7, 2010, approximately 1,198,500 of Hong Kong’s English speaking residents were registered with Facebook. How do those 1 mil+ break down? Who openly likes lingerie? Who hates cigarette breath? Let’s take a peek…

Total English Speaking Users 14 & Up

English Speaking Males & Females 14 & Up

English Speaking Straight & Gay Males

English Speaking Straight & Gay Females

English Speaking Males: Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, or Married

English Speaking Females: Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, or Married

Languages Spoken… Other Than English…
Because English isn’t Hong Kong’s only official language… and because not everyone speaks the official languages, anyway…

A Breakdown Of Age Groups By Gender

Birthday Boys & Girls In Hong Kong

Self-Tagged By Occupation & University

Self-Tagged Interests That Suggest Occupation

Musicians

College Students, Schools & Years of Graduation
Targeting users by expected year of graduation can give you an idea of just how much young fresh meat will be on prowl for jobs in what areas. Pretty tasty social segment for head hunters and executive recruiters…

College Students & Majors

High School Kids
While you can’t target Facebook users by the name of the actual high school they attend, you can identify the kids who indicate on their profile they are indeed high school students.

Saucy Segments
Don’t act like you weren’t curious.

No Butts About It
Nearly 19,000 English speaking FBers in Hong Kong go out of their way to show how much they dislike cigs & their stench.

Text Etiquette

Battle Of The Boy Toys: Biebs vs. Timbs
I regret to inform all you Gen X boy band fanatics, but teenie bopper Justin Bieber has stolen nearly 3k more young hearts than Justin Timberlake among English speaking Facebookers in Hong Kong.

Soda Pop Shootout: Coca-cola vs. Pepsi

Fast Food Face Off: McDonalds vs. Burger King

Battle Of The Social Networks
Given the nature of this series… burn.

That’s all for this week, folks. Remember – these are but a sample of bite-sized social segments, and there are hundreds, if not thousands of ways target Facebook’s demographics, from the mainstream to the curiously obscure. Stay tuned next week when we tackle yet another country and it’s English speaking Facebook population. Until then, 再见!

photo credit: riNux

Then comes the obligatory: “How are we going to measure it?” and, “When will we set business goals?” or, “Are we just doing this for the hell of it ‘cause everybody else does?” All are reasonable questions. This post offers time-tried blueprints for building out a social media marketing plan, while empowering data-driven, KPI-oriented community managers.

In order to know what to do, social media research should be undertaken. The process should be as diligent and exhaustive as keyword research is traditionally for SEO. In order to empower an employee to take the research and run, two components are necessary: a data-driven plan and a community manager strong enough to participate on behalf of the brand, while being tactical along lines commissioned by the research, strategy and KPIs (key performance indicators).

For today’s post, I’d like to share a scope of services, for easy cut-and-paste, that lays out a process for undertaking steps required to research, plan, train and execute. The following scenario assumes that your company has an in-house individual who has sort of taken the ball and run with it. Let’s presume you have a modest budget, can use external contractors within reason and are ready to rock.

As pre-clarification:
a) Here’s why this plan looks at search as part of the social media process: to our mind, search– segmenting out keywords which demonstrate sure-fire intent– is still the most focused medium. Dude, that’s why Google search SERPs cost so much more than Facebook Ads. It’s why Google’s storied Content / DoubleClick network does not convert as well as search and costs a lot less per click. Intent-focused search is still the most targeted form of marketing. Therefore, to fully understand the environmental context in which social media takes place, we believe it’s pretty important to grasp things from a search marketing perspective.

Think of it this way: many or most of the same people searching Google hang around in Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites. These users ask questions using the Google tool and Facebook’s social networking software to live their lives together in-community. Search clarifies social and vice versa.

b) The reason this plan leans on social segment research using Facebook Ads’ (paid) targeting tools is because Facebook is the largest sampling and best DIY social graph targeting utility on earth by far. Think about it. For SEO (organic search) we’ve been using tools that profile paid search inventory (PPC). Since search engines sell searches, they are forced to reveal their inventory in tools like Google AdWords Keyword Tool. The reason we use Google’s tool is because it’s the biggest sampling of search in America

Social is the same in that where sites sell their social “inventory,” revealing said inventory is required. Therefore, we look at Facebook paid segments to gain terrific insight, not only on Facebook paid and organic, but to get ideas for other channels. For instance, learning that Facebook has a vibrant fire marshals community also means we can find them on LinkedIn, see what videos exist on YouTube or how these users can be reached organically and paid on LinkedIn.

This process of coming to a plan (research, strategy, KPIs & data-driven channel tactics) obviously needs to start with blueprint as to how the team will come to it. We offer the following as a starting point.

The rest of this post is written in the style of a contract’s scope. This verbiage should not be construed, in any way, as legal advice by this writer. Rather, consume the language as representative of one team’s code-cracking theories. Grab what insight you like and go from there. I’d be appreciative if you would share any permutations or extrapolations you create with the community.

Marty Weintraub
Rome, July 2010

In this scenario “Client” is you and [Agency] is whoever is facilitating, in or out of house.

Scope. The objective is to provide organic & paid social (contextual) research, advise in the creation of a social media marketing plan to integrate with Client’s search marketing, and host community management protocol development and training.

Demographic Research & Training
Interview Client for deeper understanding of products, goals and big picture. Audit existing plans, accomplishments, liabilities, concerns, ideas and any available analytics including any paid and/or organic analytics, Facebook Fan Page(s) Insights, digital press releases, inbound links, chatter, sentiment, YouTube Insights any other statistics available from client or publicly and associated case studies.

Host training for Client’s Community Manager in [Agency] office for 5 business days to participate, as [Agency] does the demographic research. [Agency] and Client will work together to support and grow Client’s internal expansion of capabilities to execute [Agency]’s recommendations and self-augment the social media marketing plan.

Adapt and augment existing data and undertake new demographic research focused on identifying focused market segments. Conduct social interest and authority user research. Deliverables are .xls &. docx files segmented by master social segments. “Master social segments” means social segments sorted to sufficiently delimit categories and sub-categories, suitable for future social usage, but not segmented enough for responsible deployment in Facebook Ads.

• Perform Competitive Intelligence to research competitors (and/or related endeavors in other social verticals) previous and existing organic social marketing campaigns to see what was effective.
• Review search keyword inventory, sorted by query intent, for main product/service lines, users, etc… to advise the social research.
• Map contextual relevancy of inventory discovered to various social channels including Twitter and other niche topical communities we discover to be relevant. Identify authority users.
• Identify Facebook Ads (paid contextual) & (organic contextual) social participatory segments. For clarification, organic “interest segments” are FB groups, events, people, fan pages, friends, applications, etc. Identify inventory as FB tools and privacy leaks allow.
• Identify YouTube and other video sites’ social segments susceptible to Client’s messages & brand.
• Identify social segments as [Agency] & client define together and based on the new research.

Deliver research to client. Deliverable is a zipped directory of tabbed.xls and/or docx files. Deliverables shall be deemed as delivered, when [Agency] emails zipped directory to client or delivers DVD by physical delivery.

Create Integrated Social Media (Contextual) Marketing Plan
Build out demographic research to beneficial and attainable social marketing plan including suggested usage of research as applicable, including but not limited to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or other topical niche communities.

Recommend usage of research data by Client’s Community Manager and foster the ethic of analytics/KPI driven Community Management. Outline strategy, participatory protocol and recommend tactics. Create timeline for implementation, goals, outline of required resources and budget. Use research to advise marketing plan and goals.

• Evaluate Search & Social (contextual) Inventory in a Think Tank Environment, [Agency] & Client’s Representative.
• Determine Controlling Strategy to Guide KPIs & Channel Tactics
• Establish Reasonable KPIs (Goals/Key Performance Indicators)
• Set Branding KPIs
• Set Direct Response Lead Gen’ KPIs
• Set Direct Response Sales KPIs
• Set Friending KPIs
• Set Customer Service KPIs
• Set Other KPIs
• Outline Projected Costs & Recommended Vendors
• Define & Review Social Media Analytics For Measuring KPIs
• Client’s Community Manager, in addition to participating in research and marketing planning with [Agency]’s team, will spend self-directed time piloting and testing ideas the team generates.

photo credit: krow10

In March 2010, usage of Facebook’s internal search engine jumped approximately 48% to peak at 2.7% of U.S. searches.  Though April and May U.S. search share dipped, these numbers are still rather substantial given Facebook search’s obvious people-focus and legendary limitations.  That said compared to Google’s monolithic 63.7 percent of American search share, Facebook’s internal search usage does not seem like a big deal.

Still, many businesses investing precious dollars in Facebook Ads, apps, pages, community management, etc…  want to understand how to rank inside of Facebook.  “How do we get our application to show up,” “What factors determine which fan or community pages show up in the FB search suggestion box,” “What attributes dictate which events rank to which users?” Business want to know. This post offers our study’s findings regarding Facebook SEO ranking factors along with ideas to maximize organic visibility in Facebook’s organic  SERPs.

We first studied Facebook internal search about a year ago after they announced search enhancements. The improvements were  pretty weak, easy to spam and of little use outside of finding other users to friend. In preparation for SMX Advanced Seattle 2010, conference organizers  invited us to take another dive into Facebook SEO. We found that some things have changed, though reached similar conclusions as last year. The bad news is that getting internal and external content ranked by way of  Facebook SEO is a pain in the ass. The good news is that users probably don’t use FB search the same way as Google and Bing–at least not yet.

Qualifying Users For SEO Visibility
To a large extent Facebook SEO is all about leading users and their friends to certain behaviors (like visiting a FB page, liking, joining, being invited to an event, etc…).   These touch points make certain internal and external content visible in the SERPs to individuals and groups of users.  We noted a number of ranking factors, weighted towards behavioral triggers, as “qualifying” users for organic prominence. Our test studied 6 Facebook users, aged 21-50 something. Test users participated across different networks countrywide. These accounts are mature, all between 3-4 years old.

As we discuss Facebook ranking factors, we say “this factor trumps that” or “X,Y, & Z” are a more important ranking factors. The relative values were  compared one to one. In other words one instance of ranking factor “Z” trumps one instance of ranking factor “X.”  In reality, multiple factors work in tandem. Keep that in mind as you digest our data.

This process is analogous to classic SEO ranking factors testing, where we might study the strength of one tag against the other straight up. Ranking factors are listed in suggested order of importance. Also I’d like to thank our team, especially Matt Peterson, who led our research project and contributed brilliant methodology and insights.  Ok, let’s get started.

Introducing the Facebook Suggest Box. It auto-fills, much like Google, populating as the user types first letters. This mechanism seems to channel users away from the SERPs, probably with cause for lack SERP’s quality. It actually takes some effort to locate and click on the little magnifying glass to the right or the “see more results” link at the bottom of the box. In other words, the suggest box is where the action is.

We don’t have data from Facebook to prove this but it seems to make sense that getting your content into the search suggest box is very important and may account for a good amount of outbound-after-search-clicks within Facebook. The good news is that the suggest box is probably the easiest node of FB organic to spam crack with rankings.

Facebook SEO “Suggest” Ranking Factors

1. Targets Users Who Have Friends w/ Keyword in Name
Facebook is all about people-first.

2. Any FB Places Users Previously Visited
Suggested search is heavily effected by personalization including previous visits. Compare Matt’s first search & SERPs on the left to the same query 3 days later after only visiting the top 2 pages.

3. Event(s) Users Have Been Invited To or Are Attending
FB’s including of event invitations in the suggest box may be an example of Facebook’s increased focus on events, such as adding event management to the feed back in May.  Look below to our recommendations at the end of this post for getting your message into the suggest box. It’s way too easy.

4. Event Users’ Friends are Attending
Same as above, but for users’ friends.

5. Page User Liked or Users’ Profiles Likes &  Interests
Pages that a user explicitly “likes” (via button on the page itself) are 5th most likely to show up in suggested search, as a singular factor. Also included are any keywords listed on a user’s profile under “Likes & Interests,” if a page doesn’t already exist, Facebook auto-generates a Community page and it ranks in suggested search. We think it’s stupid.

6. Page or Interest a Users’ Friend Likes
Same as above but applies to users’ friends’ pages, likes and interests.

7. Pages, Applications etc. By Highest Friend Count
Unpersonalized, pages, app’s and everything else fight it out on fan count to an extent.

If a users do click on the magnifying glass or the “see more results” links, Here’s how SERPs are offered: All Results, People, Pages, Groups, App’s, Events,  Web Results, Posts by Friends and Everybody.  For the purpose of this study, we did not delve into people.

Facebook SEO All Results Ranking Factors

1. Users Have Friends w/ Keyword in Name

2. Pages Users are a Fans of

3. Pages Users’ Friends are Fans of

4. Users Friends Social Mentions

5. Keyword appears somewhere  in a Wall Post thread

6. Pages with High Number of Fans

Facebook SEO Pages Ranking Factors
Algorithmically, pages’ ranking factors are the most complex,  hardest to document and have twisted anomalies. Pages SERPs are heavily affected by users’ historic personalization.  The results are so wild that isolating attributes for scoring fan and community page ranking factors is like pouring sweet nectar down a rat hole.

1. Community Pages Triumph – Powered By Your Friends
The last time we ran this test, there were no community pages and SERPs looked rough beyond personalization. Regular “official” pages dominated results. Now with the advent of Wiki-laden community pages that aggregate friends’ wall activity, classic FB pages are often relegated to second chair, their SERPs dominance threatened for many queries.

Note that the top page result for “pizza”  has a about .01% of the fans as the position 2 result.

It’s actually a community page,  rankings bolstered by mentions from the user’s friends.

2. Pages a User Already Likes
This is roughly the same as how things work in the Suggest box. Pages & other FB properties users already “like” take priority.

3. Pages w/ Most Friends
See below.

4. Skew towards Page User’s Friends Like
It was interesting to note that the raw friend count of pages often displace pages that users’ friends like, unlike the Suggest Box. Part of our ongoing studies are to test more personalized & unpersonalized factors in tandem.

Interesting “Shared” External Implications
Some Page search results now take users to external domains (other than Facebook.com).

The above result takes user’s to Eventful.com, where several FB social buttons are deployed.

Facebook SEO Groups Ranking Factors
Facebook Groups were Most Average or similar Unpersonalized SERPs across all testers.

1. Users Are Already Group Members

2. Users’ Friends Are Members

3. Search Keyword is in Group’s Title

4. Number of Total Group Users

5. Keyword is in Group’s Page Info

6. Keyword count in the body seems to have a small but documented effect on group rankings. This was observed across several groups with close member counts.

Keyword frequency or density in the group’s body text seem to impact rankings.

Either way, keywords in the body have a strong effect in tandem with user’s group membership.

Facebook SEO Apps’ Ranking Factors
Apps were the 2nd Most Consistent SERPs across our testers. Rankings are most similar to Groups.

1. Users are already fans or active users

2. User’s friends are  already fans or active users

3. Number of Fans of App’

4. Number of Active Users of App’
Rankings seem to correlate better with higher fan counts than active users.

5. Keyword in Apps’ Title
As with all SEO, move the keywords you want to rank to the upper left of the apps’ name.

6. Keyword in Apps’ Body

Facebook SEO Events Ranking Factors
Events SERPs are pretty messed up. Invites, number of Friend Invites, Number of Attendees & Geo Network proximity did not or barely correlated to Event SERPs. Just look at the mess below culled from 6 different users.

The only way we were able to produce consistent results for Events SERPs were by the following method:

1. Users RSVP as Attending (not Maybe Attending)

2. Then, Users Visit the Event Page Once

3. Then, the Search Keyword is within the first few words in the event name

Yep, Events search in Facebook really sucks.

Facebook SEO “Web” Results
There are a smattering of weak-ass Bing results regurgitated as “Web” results in FB organic SERPs. Just follow best practices for Bing SEO and the the rest will take care of itself. We wonder how many users actually click on these results. Here are some takeaways.

Results Correlated to Bing

Whatever Makes Bing Tick

Small personalizations

No Verticals, pure search

There’s not straight up correlation to ads we see for the same query on Bing.com

Adult Filter
As an aside, Facebook web search has an adult filter. We’re touched. Try searching for naughty words and you won’t find much in the Bing  Web Results.  I guess 420 million Facebook users don’t fuck or aren’t interested in fucking outside of FB.  There’s probably some technical reason in the interaction with Bing, just more scattered FB stuff. Try searching your favorite naughty words.  We find the adult filtering ironic and hypocritical, considering advertisers ability to, umm…, target to more *cough* personal qualities in Facebook users.

In other words, Facebook lets advertisers target naughty bits, but acts like the proclivities don’t exist outside of FB to their users.

5 Ways into Facebook Search

1. Mass Invites to Keyword Rich “Events”
It’s simple! Create an event with your desired keyword in the title & and invite like crazy. You can even paste in email addresses when you invite attendees! The user doesn’t have to attend or even visit the page, an invitation will usually net you a second spot in their Suggest Search. It’s vomitously spammy .

2. Ads to Facebook Properties – Personalization
This one isn’t totally free, but would work for the right application. Use some bright & shiny ads, including search PPC (assuming users are signed into FB), to get people to whatever Facebook landing page you want to rank. The user can like, comment on or just leave the page, it doesn’t matter.

They’ll start to see Personalization from Previous Visit on keyword queries related to the content title

It’s Wednesday, folks, and you know what that means- another installment of our Facebook English Speaking Demographic Series. Over a month ago, we took a look at the 60 countries with the largest FB userbase (that also claim English as an official language) in Population Graph: Where Are Facebook English Speaking Users?. Last week we explored the self-identifying trends in South Africa’s English Speaking Facebookers, and before that, dove into social segments the UK, Ireland, Canada, India and the Philippines.  Today we head back to Southeast Asia, and take a dip in the demographics of Facebook English speaking users in Singapore.

As of June 23, 2010, approximately 2,272,560 English speaking folks over in Singapore had Facebook accounts. What do you say we take a look-see at how they break down?

Total English Speaking Users 14 & Up

English Speaking Males & Females 14 & Up

English Speaking Straight & Gay Males

English Speaking Straight & Gay Females

English Speaking Males: Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, or Married

English Speaking Females: Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, or Married

Languages Spoken… Other Than English…

A Breakdown Of Age Groups By Gender

Self-Tagged By Occupation & University

Self-Tagged Interests That Suggest Occupation

College Students & Majors

Happy Birthday To You!
Who likes getting free coupons? I know I do! But it’s almost in our human nature to be wary when we’re served seemingly no-strings-attached coupons. However, on our birthday, it’s damn near expected. Ever consider targeting users by D.O.B., then pitching “OMG It’s Your Birthday! Save 50% off!” esque ads through the FB platform? Bet you get a nice amount of bites…

Who Hates Stuck Up Bitches? Singapore vs. US
I know I do… but let’s see how many of Singapore’s English Speaking Facebookers can’t stand catty chicks.

Who’s Into Sex Toys? Singapore vs. US
I know I am… wait, scratch that last.

The Far Reach Of American Pop Country
The world just can’t get enough of these cowgirl cuties. Here’s some proof:

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen! Some bite-sized social segments of Singapore’s English speaking Facebook population. Be sure to check back next week when we hit up another country and observe the different ways its residents self-identify in cyberspace.

credit: anne.oeldorfhirsch
credit: niuяηicole

Welcome back, jet-setters, to part eight of our Facebook English Speaking Demographic Series. We kicked off this series with a study of the 60 countries with the largest FB userbase (that also claim English as an official language) in Population Graph: Where Are Facebook English Speaking Users?.

After trekking through social segments from English Speaking users in the UK, Ireland, Canada, and India, last week we ended up in the Philippines (where they really like McDonalds)– Australia should be up next, but we’ve already dissected their social network butterflies in Facebook AUS & NZ: Who’s Going On Down Under?. So now we’re skipping back over from the Pacific Ocean to the Rainbow Nation: South Africa.

As of June 16th, 2010, about 2,779,560 English speaking South Africans were members of the Facebook community. Let’s see how they self-identify, and how much their vernacular impacts the volume of social segments…

Total English Speaking Users

English Speaking Males & Females 14 & Up

English Speaking Straight & Gay Males

English Speaking Straight & Gay Females

English Speaking Males: Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, or Married

English Speaking Females: Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, or Married

Languages Spoken: Afrikaans, Dutch, French, Chinese, German, Italian, Russian, Finnish
From French to Finnish, let’s take a look at the variety of languages aside from English South African Facebookers speak.

English Speaking Facebookers Ages 14-18, 19-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, & 56-64

English Speaking Employees at South African Companies vs. American Companies

Interests In Professions

In fact, the number of English speaking South Africans on Facebook that claim to like American football barely amount to a third of those who like baseball.

Next to “football,” Rugby is an extremely close second…

Fifa Fever! A respectable segment size indeed…

Who Likes What Music?
More than double the English Speaking South Africans on Facebook prefer classical music over punk…

Talent Search TV Shows

Braai vs. Barbecue
Looking to market barbecue to Facebookers in South Africa? Make sure you choose the right keywords…

Sex vs. Making Love
Not everyone wants to admit they prefer a little loooove makin’ over straight forward “sex.”

Spooning vs. Cuddling
“Spooning” rakes in twice the population as  ”cuddling.”

Girl On Girl Action: UK vs. South Africa

At first glance, it may either look as if (A) the UK is brimming with folks obsessed with lady lovin’ or (B) South Africans have less racy interests… but when you consider the English speaking FB populations for each country (26,033,620 and 2,779,560 respectively), the ratios are quite similar! About 8.6% of the English speaking South Africans on FB dig girl smooches; 8.25% of total English speaking UK FBers.)

That about does it for this round, guys and gals. Be sure to check back next week when we tackle yet another country’s Facebook English Speaking Demographics in a variety of segments as insightful as they are… colorful .

credit: Axel Bührmann
credit: andrewrennie
credit: LaertesCTB
credit: Blyzz
credit: jdawn-