Earlier this month Greg Sterling did a post on Search Engine Land that talked about the limited impact of Google Search Plus Your World on Local.  As I mentioned in my comment on Greg’s post I think in the short term we will see little impact on local results, especially when it comes to some of the more obscure searches he ran like “Toyota Dealer” or “Window Replacement, Walnut Creek”.  I feel part of this is due to the fact that most of us probably don’t have a tight knit social network made up of users within close proximity to us, as Andrew Shotland pointed out yesterday in his post “Google Plus Connections Are the New Link“, but also because people simply aren’t engaging content around these topics.

The impact Google Search Plus Your World has on local search in it’s current state is fragmented and useless at best.  I ran a search for “Chinese Restaurants” on Google this evening and in the results I received a share frome a friend via Yelp for a Chinese restaurant nearly 45 minutes from my house.  Not exactly close enough for take out…  I ran another search for “night clubs” and received personalized results for for the top ten Los Angeles night clubs, the other was for dress codes in New York night clubs.  Not exactly relevant to where I am in Corona, CA nearly fifty miles away from the heart of Los Angeles and on the opposite side of the map from New York.

In order for Google Search Plus Your World to become relevant in the local search space, Google has to capitalize on what they did well with local in the beginning and focus on location, location, location.

Google Places+

In my predictions for local search in 2012 post, myself, Andrew Shotland, and Mike Blumenthal all agreed that 2012 will be the year that Google+ and Google Places would become integrated and I feel in order for Google Search Plus Your World to become relevant in local search, this has to happen sooner than later.  By integrating Google Places into Google Plus Business Pages, Google can ensure that the right local data is associated with a Page, making it more relevant to local searchers.  By having this information connected it would allow for local pages to have more clout than other pages in my circles.  Additionally, the most locally relevant businesses could appear in the Search Plus Your World page recommendations.

Friends In Local Places

Google+ profiles allow Google to know where a user lives.  It would only make sense for them to provide content from friends in the city I am searching from more prominent than someone out of the area unless the content directly relates to a local business or service.  If I’m doing a search for Chinese food in Corona, CA chances are users from that area are going to be the experts and ultimately have more relevant input that someone in Los Angeles, CA.

“We all turn to people we know and trust for great recommendations…”  

Straight from the horses mouth, Google says the focus of search plus your world is to turn to people you know for great recommendations.  Google put a significant focus on Google reviews on Places pages last year, I would imagine that along with integrating Places and Pages Google will likely showcase reviews of local businesses somewhere in localized search results from people within your circles.  Perhaps something similar to the share on Google+ from Todd Mintz below, but with the actual review instead of the Google+ post about it. On a side note, Beaverton is in a totally different state…way to go Google!

Just Checking In

Another prominent feature Google could utilize is the check-in feature.  If individuals in a circle are checked in to a local business during the time of a related search, it could show up in the search results telling you that someone you know is currently at a location in your area.  Sure, it’s extra creepy/stalker like, but it’s also extremely relevant and engaging not only for Google, but for local businesses.  Knowing that someone you know is currently at a location may be enough to make you join them, or simply follow in their lead.

Ultimately nobody knows the next move but Google, but I can almost guarantee that Google is working on some strategy to strengthen Search Plus Your World in the local search space.  Local is the one area that Google still has a lot of pull with small businesses.  By making Search Plus Your World more useful to local businesses, they can help capitalize on the invovlement from local businesses and ultimately their customers.  Will it create more Google+ users or greater Google+ engagement?  Probably not, but as I outlined in yesterday’s post, perhaps it doesn’t matter.

When I first signed up for Google+ the first thing I did was figure out my circles.  After all, what good is a social network without friends?  After that it was just a matter of posting, experimenting and familiarizing myself with all the features.  It is my guess that this is the path most novice Google+ users take when first starting out.  And it is because of this process that I believe Google+ is still having an impact.

Enter Google Search Plus Your World

Google Search Plus Your World relies on one element to function.  Your circles/friends.  As long as you have cirlces setup in Google+ you have the opportunity to see personalized results via Search Plus Your World.  Search Plus Your World injects photos, content, people, and related people and pages into your search results via your connections on Google+.  Even if you never use Google+ after your initial setup there is still a chance of seeing this content from people you are connected to that are using Google+.

What This Means For Google

Love or hate Google+, Google is doing a stellar job at making sure people know Google+ is there and making sure you will eventually have to use it.  First they are now  making Google+ the   By introducing Search Plus Your World, Google has basically guaranteed that users will engage Google+ content at some point or another.  Even if you never use Google+ there is a chance you will receive recommendations from your friends that are using Google+ and ultimately may clickthrough and engage via Google+ or at least view Google+ content.  In addition to hooking existing users that may not being using the social network, Google now requires a Google+ profile as part of signup, ensuring that all new users are injected into the Google+ ecosystem.

What This Means For Internet Marketers and Businesses

My wife is one of the probably thousands of users that signed up for a Google+ account early on only to abandon it a few days later.  Though she never uses the service she is an avid GMail, Google Reader, and Google search user.  As I look at some of her searches I see that even though she no longer uses Google+ her search results continue to be influenced by the users she initially added to circles.

Even if your audience isn’t active, it doesn’t mean they can’t be influenced.  Establishing a presence and making sure that you make it into that intial batch of circles could be crucial in your ability to influence the search results of your audience in the future.  Even moreso, creating content that may be shared by an inactive users inner circles could also create opportunities for you and your business.

This year I had a little fun and recreated my Google+ profile as a costume.  If you read the updates you’ll see that something strange is going on in the neighborhood…Hope you like it!

Your App Doesn’t Fulfill a Need

In a study published earlier this year by Localytics it was discovered that 1 in 4 mobile apps once downloaded were never used again.  There may be a number of reasons for this, usability, functionality, people who are just trying an app, but I would hypothesize that a larger culprit is the fact that the app probably didn’t fulfill a serious need for the user.

When clients talk to me about mobile apps the first thing I ask them is, “What will your app do  to make your customer’s life easier or offer that you don’t already provide elsewhere.” In most cases they can’t come up with a single legitimate response.  The reason for this is that most businesses want to deliver the same sort of content and user experience found on their website in app form.  What they fail to realize is that if users can get the information off their site, or a mobile optimized version of their site there is no reason to even bother with an app.  You are not offering anything unique to get them to download and use the app over traditional means. The only exception to this would be if the app made a task on a mobile device easier.  For instance I have the Haunters Digest app installed on my phone because it gives me access to all of their content and allows me to stream their podcasts directly from the app as opposed to having to use a separate app to play their content.  In this case they aren’t really giving me anything I can’t get elsewhere, but they are making a task on my mobile device easier.

Your Company Doesn’t Generate A lot of Repeat Business

The desire for a mobile app has come up a lot in my work with Plastic Surgery Studios because the idea of a doctor having their own app strokes the ego a bit, but what I have pointed out time and again is that plastic surgery patients don’t typically generate a lot of repeat business.  You come in for a consult, you get a procedure done, and you’re probably set for life at that point.  If you’re a company that doesn’t generate a lot of repeat business then there aren’t a lot of users who may use your app during the life of your business relationship and then never use it again.

You Don’t Have the Budget or Means to Continue to Grow

Mobile apps are demanding.  Both the iPhone OS and Android OS continue to evolve and with it comes new phones and new updates that need to be taken into consideration when developing a mobile app.  If you or the company developing your application can’t keep up with the changes then ultimately your app is useless.  Unlike a website, which can often site stagnant for months on end, mobile apps are having to be tweaked and updated constantly and if your business can’t keep up then a mobile app probably isn’t for you.

It’s important to realize that just because the world is becoming more mobile, not everything has to be handled through mobile apps.  Smart phone and tablet users are still navigating the internet through browsers and search engines, meaning you can still deliver your message to mobile users with a website that is properly optimized for mobile devices. As Chuck Martin outlined in a recent article on Inc.com, an app needs to either make life easier, make life cheaper, or make life fun in order to appeal to users and be successful.

]]> http://www.nevermoresearch.com/blog/three-reasons-your-business-doesnt-need-an-app/feed/ 0 http://www.nevermoresearch.com/blog/three-reasons-your-business-doesnt-need-an-app/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NevermoreSearchMarketing/~3/iMiJOOjj4Jo/ http://www.nevermoresearch.com/blog/dont-go-back-in-time-with-facebook-timeline-business-pages-are-sure-to-follow/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:41:55 +0000 Mike http://www.nevermoresearch.com/blog/?p=1427 As with anything shiny and new the introduction of Facebook Timeline and a slew of other new features has businesses and marketers rushing to find out how they can use it for their business. I have already seen a number of small businesses sign up for a developer account just so they could create a branded Timeline on their personal account, but I’m left to wonder why.  I have spent years battling with clients and local businesses to convert from a Facebook profile to a Facebook Page to create a better user experience and greater engagement opportunities for their business and even with a shiny new Timeline, my advice hasn’t changed.

Facebook has said for years that they want users to have a seamless experience on Facebook focused on a fluid user interface, and while some may say the numerous changes they have made over the years have made things hard, they have still had that in mind.  Yesterday Mashable posted an article that looked at what advertising pros might do with a Facebook Timeline if it were applied to a Facebook Page and in return received some really well designed and branded Facebook Timeline’s for brands like McDonalds, the New York Yankees, Coca-Cola and a number of other brands.

In the article, a Facebook rep suggested that Facebook was looking at the evolution of Facebook Pages in addition to the recent changes to user profiles.  “Consistency in both functionality and appearance is really important to Facebook, so we hope to make Pages more consistent with the new Timeline in the future,” he said.

As I pointed out in an article I wrote for Plastic Surgery Studios about early adoption of Google+, good things come to those who wait.  We saw what happened to businesses who adopted Google+ too rapidly, their pages were taken down and they were placed on a waiting list to try out the, still yet to be publicly released, business pages.  If you already use your Facebook profile as a business account, then first I’d highly recommend you convert to a Page, but if not by all means have at it.  Otherwise, don’t send your Facebook social media efforts back in time by engaging your fans via a profile.  Remember profiles require you to accept friend request, you don’t get Likes and your content can’t be easily shared.  All that extra effort definitely isn’t worth the shiny new Timeline feature for your business.

To be compliant by October 1, the following items must be addressed:

• all Website and Canvas apps must exclusively support OAuth 2.0 (draft 20)
• all Canvas and Page Tab Apps must use the signed_request parameter
• an SSL Certificate is required for all Canvas and Page Tab apps (not in Sandbox mode and not FBML)

A lot to absorb with just a few days left to comply.  Fortunately, if you are unable to address these issues in such a short notice your content will still be available, however Facebook users will be greeted with the message below.

While this isn’t due to roll out until October 1, I saw at least three instances today where a person was already being served this warning in place of a Facebook Page’s welcome tab.  If you are using a third party service or app to generate your Facebook tabs on your pages I would highly recommend contacting them to ensure that your tabs will survive the October 1 change.

SSL certificates are easily to come by and are offered by most hosting providers or domain registrars.  Certificates vary in cost, so do a cost comparison to get the best value, especially if you are only utilizing the SSL certificate to manage your Facebook Page tab or apps.

In some instances hosting companies offer shared SSL for free, where you can host your content under a subdomain on their main domain instead of on your own personal domain.  This too is a viable option if it’s available to you.

Facebook’s EdgeRank

Before we get into how these services can hurt you, let me tell you a little bit about EdgeRank.  EdgeRank is an algorithm utilized by Facebook to determine if your content is worth showing to its users.  It creates an affinity score between your page and a particular user by gauging how often you and that user interact, adds a content type-specific weight (is it a link, a picture, status update, etc), and then adds an age factor to round things out (How recent is it, when was the last engagement with the content, etc.).  The second you post something on Facebook the score is determined and is then increases based on interactions.  The more people interact with your content, the higher your base EdgeRank is.  If people aren’t interacting with your content, your affinity score drops and essentially your content will show up less and less, or not at all, in that users News Feed.

How Buying Likes Can Hurt You

With the idea of EdgeRank fresh in your mind, let’s imagine that you went ahead and paid someone $100 for 100 new followers.  In most cases these Like’s are provided by Facebook accounts created solely for the purpose of inflating the number of people that Like Facebook Pages.  They will never like your content, they will never comment on your content, and probably never visit your page again.  Their lack of interest in your content and Page instantly impacts the long term growth of your Page’s EdgeRank and the probability of your content showing up in the News Feed of legitimate followers.

Finding Legitimate Likes

The key to keeping strong EdgeRank is the focus on quality Likes.  Much like backlinks for SEO, it’s not the quantity that’s important so much as the quality.  To gain quality Like’s you need to give people a reason to Like you.  Create an experience that will make existing fans interact and draw attention of other users.

• Start Close To Home – Get your employees, existing clients, vendors, partners, friends and family to Like your page.
• Share Unique Content – Videos, images, and updates that people won’t find anywhere else.
• Post Content That Require Action - Ask questions, run polls, etc. Post things that make people click and interact.
• Say Thank You – When users post on your wall, thank them and interact with them. Show them that you’re listing.
• Integrate Social Media Into Your Business - Ultimately the more you entwine social media into your business culture the more fans you’ll cultivate.
  • Post signs in your business, “Join the conversation on Facebook”, “Find out about our latest specials on Facebook”, etc.
  • Have receptionsts end calls asking, “Have you joined the conversation on Facebook yet? Visit Facebook.com/YourNameHere”.

In conclusion, the number of Like’s you have doesn’t matter.  Build and maintain a quality fanbase that is willing to share your content and interact with it.  Your goal should be to become an influencer with content people enjoy and share, not a Facebook Page with 1,000 Like’s.

First and Foremost

The first thing I want to take a moment to address are the recent slew of rumors surrounding Facebook.  First, with the new updates came another round of the “Pass this on” posts saying that Facebook was going to start charging for the service.  Facebook has vowed never to charge users, so let’s kill this one immediately.  Ultimately if Facebook were going to do something like this they would mass email their users to let them know of the change since it is a significant one.  This is sure to come up again, as it does everytime Facebook makes a significant change, so please stop spreading this every time you hear it.

Another piece of misinformation that has been floating around is the meme telling users to unsubscribe from your friends’ comments and likes as a means of preventing your friends from seeing your information in the new Ticker feature.  With these changes, Facebook did not change privacy, so this information is available to the exact same people that could see it before the change.  Your comments and likes are only visible to people who can see the original post, so only if the post is published as “Public” will you need to be concerned, and even then your personal privacy settings may override this depending on what you have setup.

Changes to the News Feed

I’ll be honest, at first this was the one change that initially had me in a tizzy. When Facebook first converted the new layout I was forced to scroll through probably hundreds of “Top Stories” before I could view my “Recent Stories” and it made me a bit crazy because I assumed that was going to be a common theme moving forward.  Fortunately the next morning that was not the case.  The feed was much more manageable I could navigate between the two section seamlessly and I only had to go through a handful of posts that were marked as “Top Stories”.

How It Works

Unlike the previous news feed where users could choose between “Top News” and “Most Recent” the two feeds are now combined.  ”Top Stories” will now appear first in your timeline followed by “Recent Stories”.  The content in your “Top Stories” section are the updates from friends and websites that have received the most attention (e.g. Likes, comments, shares) and Facebook feels are most relevant to you based off of your past interactions. Top Stories are also designated with a little blue triangle in the upper left corner of the update.  If you don’t feel something warrants a Top Story, or you feel that something that wasn’t a Top Story should be you can click the blue triangle and Facebook will use that information to better deliver “Top Stories” in the future.

Item of Note

It appears that you can now tag anyone and anything on Facebook by using the @ symbol in your updates.  In the past the @ symbol followed by a string of letters would deliver friends and Pages you were connected to that started with those letters, now it appears to unveil anything and everyone on Facebook regardless if you are directly connected to them via a friendship or a “Like”. I have found this to be a bit confusing at time, especially when there are multiple Pages managed for a brand or sports team.

Friends and Subscriptions

Another element of the new Facebook is the “Subscribe” feature, which allows you to subscribe to a user as opposed to becoming friends with them.  Another valuable element to the subscription feature is the ability to limit the kind of information that shows up from your friends or someone you are subscribed to in your News Feed.  By default all of your friends are set to “Most Updates”, however it is still unclear what “Most Updates” means since when you hover over the “Subscribe” button on a friend’s profile and look at the list of items you can subscribe to, they are all checked.

The one upside to this is that you can limit the kind of information you see from certain friends.  This is great for folks you friended on Facebook that you aren’t that interested in knowing about.  Another cool factor with “Subscribe” is that it allows you to see public updates from users in your News Feed that may not friend you (e.g. celebs, public figures, and the like).

Introducing Ticker

In the past Facebook’s News Feed suffered from some lag, and even with the updated News Feed you’ll experience a delay or require a refresh to see what’s going on.  With the new Ticker feature, this is no longer a problem.  Ticker gives you an update on what’s going on within your network in real time.  Deemed by some of my friends as the “Stalker” feature or “Facebook on Facebook” it gives you insight into everything else your friends are doing (e.g. Likes, comments, new friendships, updates from apps etc.) in the upper right corner of your screen.  As Mark Zuckerberg put it during f8, this is the annoying stuff that used to pop up in your news feed.  One thing I did notice however is that app updates will show up in the News Feed if it happens to be an app that you use and interact with frequently.  For instance Spotify originally showed up just in the ticker for me, but after a few days of using the new Spotify integration on Facebook I started to notice it showing up in my News Feed instead of just in the ticker.  This again goes back to the point that content displayed in your News Feed will be relative to what matters to you most.  For more information on Ticker, including the concern mentioned earlier about people seeing your comments on other people’s stuff you can view the Ticker information page on Facebook.

Facebook Timeline: The Redesigned Profile

Though not public yet, this is probably the most highly anticipated new feature to come out of Facebook in the last couple of weeks. No longer is your Facebook profile just insight into who you are, it is now your entire story in a single place.  From birth, to graduation, marriage, and everything in between Facebook Timeline let’s you share your life story through images, updates, apps, and more. Below is my timeline, which is not publicly available for everyone to view, but because I setup the Foodskout app as a Developer I am able to test out the new format.

The new “Timeline” profile has a lot of cool little features that allow you to add significant information to your story.  Below is a breakdown of some of the core features I have had the chance to play with.

The Cover

For the first time ever Facebook is letting users get creative with their profiles.  For a long time Facebook stood by it’s decision to ensure user experience was seamless from page to page, but it appears that they have finally given up that effort to let users get a bit more creative with their personal profiles.

The Facebook cover is your cover story, insight into who you are.  It is a reflection of you and your life and you can choose to upload a unique image as a cover, or select an image from your image on Facebook to use as a cover.

Got Apps?

Below your cover is your main information, but it also features a favorites and recent apps section.  One of the other big pushes to come out of f8 was the introduction of social apps that allow you to display music, movies, television, news and more from a variety of apps across the web.  With the introduction of timeline you can now integrate these apps into your profile. I have setup Spotify as my first social app and it displays on my profile.  If you click on the app it takes you to a special page with a collection of my recent activity on Spotify in a Timeline format.

The fun part about the favorite and apps section on the timeline is that you can rearrange, add, and remove any of the elements that you want.

Writing Your Story

As I mentioned earlier, the idea between Timeline is to tell your story on Facebook.  You are no longer limited to a core set of life events and your Facebook updates to tell your story.  You now have the ability to go back in time and tell your story from the beginning adding dates, photos, and locations to any of your significant life events. Below are just a handful of the events available to choose from.

Other choices include:

• Add a job
• Graduated
• Military Service
• Moved
• Bought A Home
• Add a roomate
• Add a vehicle
• Broke a bone
• Had surgery
• Overcame an illness
• Learned a language
• Got a license
• Travel
• Achievement or Award

And if it doesn’t fit under any of those choices you can choose “Other Life Event”

I saw an interesting comment on Google+ the other day from someone where they basically said, Facebook users are not the customer, they are the product.  If you think about it, this isn’t far from the truth.  Facebook makes money with advertisers, if they have a database of information about you and your life think of how much easier advertisers can target you?  Let’s just say for instance you were a breast cancer survivor and you made not of this in the “Overcame an illness” category.  Now just imagine I am an advertiser wanting to push content about a promotion or event for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.  Guess who I’m going to want to target?

The Timeline Itself

Your actual timeline will feature a long list of updates from a variety of sources, such as apps that you’ve allowed, friends that have tagged you, Events, Places your friendships and likes.  However, for moments that you want to stand out, you can tag it as a Feature on your timeline by clicking the star in the upper right corner of the post.  This will cause the item to span the entire timeline and appear larger than the other updates in the timeline.

One thing to make note of here is that the new timeline format makes content a bit easier to view and skim.  In the past the content on a Facebook profile was very easy to pass by without noticing. In the new format you may notice things that you might not want the general public picking up on easily. If this is the case I would highly recommend doing a quick run through of your timeline once you’re converted and make sure that there is nothing that should be hidden from the timeline.  Fortunately this is easy to do by clicking the edit or remove feature that appears in the upper right corner of the update when you mouse over it.

At the end, even this comprehensive post on what’s what of the new Facebook is just scraping the surface. There are literally dozens of new features and changes that aren’t as prominent or important with the new Facebook, such as the added ability to send your friends celebrating birthdays a message all at once directly from the birthday notification in the sidebar.  In the end it will all just take getting used to the same way we have with every other change Facebook has rolled out over the years.  Hopefully this has given you some insight into the new Facebook and answered some of your questions.  If not please feel free to drop me a note in the comments below and I will do my best to answer your question or seek out the answer for you.

Below is an image of a tweet I came across a few weeks back while doing some research.  When I saw it I was confused. Why was this doctor telling people to follow him on Twitter from Twitter. Sure, if they came across it the way I did it may entice them to follow, but let’s be honest, this tweet clearly wasn’t intended for his Twitter audience.

Sure enough, when I clicked through I found that this doctor had originally posted this on Facebook as a means to get his Facebook fans to follow him on Twitter, but it was being fed from Facebook to his Twitter timeline.  I did a little bit more digging and found that there was a lot of cross posting like this.  Some posts were fine this way, where others left me scratching my head as a user on Twitter.

Earlier this week I posted reasons why posting via third party apps can impact Facebook engagement, and one of the things mentioned in the study from Applum was that the content was not intended or optimized for the social network it was on, and this is a prime example.

Aside from looking ridiculous (Do you get as annoyed as I do when you see people post Twitter updates on Facebook full of @username and # in the status?), you are creating a content echo chamber that is repeating your message over and over to those that have connected with you on multiple networks.  That’s the social networking equivalent to calling or emailing a client to let them know you are offering a new promotion, and then doing it again, and again, and again. Talk about annoying.

Each social network is different and they should be treated as such.  Does this mean it’s not ok to share the same content on multiple networks? Of course not, but be conscious of what you are doing.  Does your LinkedIn network want to know that you just checked-in to your favorite Chinese food restaurant on Foursquare? Probably not.  Do you need to ask your Twitter audience to follow you on Twitter? Absolutely not.   So before you start integrating all of your social networks into each other, ask yourself, does this network want to hear what I have to say on every other network? In most cases the answer is going to be no.  To ensure you get the best engagement for your content on the social network of your choice, take a few extra minutes to post the proper messages into the proper channels, and if you are going to automate make sure the content that’s being fed is suitable for that particular audience first.

When posting to Facebook directly from your page you get a lot of customization opportunities. You can change the title that displays, the description, and even the thumbnail associated with the post.  Like anything online, these are elements that can greatly impact clickthroughs.

However, with many third party apps, the choices are made for you.  For instance, in this post below made with dlvr.it, the app and Facebook are grabbing the RSS image from the website, and not particularly an image contained within the post.  In this particular case,this image displays next to every post on the Page made by dlvr.it. That being said, dlvr.it does offer options to improve this, but it will require some magic via Facebook Open Graph, but that’s for another post.  The point here is that the system is making the choice for you, and in this case in particular it’s a poor one.

Another thing to point out from this example, is that you are left without any insight from the Page itself. It’s nothing but a link dump in the feed.  This will limit engagement because it doesn’t offer the opportunity to ask questions, or share any added details about the post that might further interest or engage your fans.

At the end of the day it’s best to try out different solutions for automated postings to Facebook. Time, quality, and presentation will all play in to clickthroughs.  The key is to find a solution that works best for you and your fans. Find a solution that offers as many options and customization opportunities as possible. This way you are able to provide Page content that is on par with what you would post if you were on Facebook itself.