Google Changes the Game Again – How Does It Change Your Strategy?

Google is at it again, their much feared “GoogleBot”  is going to start penalizing sites that over-optimize to gain first page Google results in the coming months.

At this years South by SouthWest Googles Matt Cutts said the goal is to “level the playing field” between sites that focus on excessive optimization to reach the top of Google search results versus sites that reach the top search results of Google naturally through relevant content.

“We try to make the GoogleBot smarter, try to make our relevance more adaptive, so that if people don’t so SEO we handle that. And we are also looking at the people who abuse it, who put too many keywords on a page, exchange way too many links, or whatever else they are doing to go beyond what you normally expect. We have several engineers on my team working on this right now,” Cutts said.

Google hasn’t, and never will,  go on record with any additional details as to what its optimizations might include.  This isn’t exactly a big surprise because after all if everyone knew exactly how they choose which sites hit the top of the search results this would just lead to more”abuse”. It’s still unknown as to what type of penalties these sites could expect and how you can know for sure if your are included.

Follow these 4 steps to keep your site relevant to Google

• The bottom line is Google will always feel that rich, engaging content is king. Continue writing blog posts and articles that interest your audience

• Make sure your audience enjoys and shares your content through social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc) and blogging networks.
• Send out Press Releases regularly
• Create videos on topics interesting to your audience and share them regularly.

Google will always update their dreaded “GoogleBot”, but you don’t need to run in fear.  All you need to remember is what Google wants to provide from the search results, an actual answer to what people are searching on, not garbage websites and you will be fine.  Having a good team on your side that keeps on top of these things isn’t so bad either.

Facebook Timelines for Business Pages

Facebook’s new design for pages combines the much anticipated timeline with pinning, I guess Pinterst has caught everyone’s attention and now Facebook wants to try to copy this popular feature..

Its simple to preview how timeline will look on your business pages.  Go to any page that you administer and you will see the above buttons available on the top.  Hit preview and then only you and any other administrators will see the new design until you make it permanent or March 30th, when all pages default to the new layout.

Important points about Facebook new timeline:

• Pinned posts keep important stories at the top of a page timeline for up to seven days.
• Now people can contact you via private messages.  You will see and be able to respond to these messages through your administration panel.
• The new administration panel makes it easy for page administrators to track their performance.
• Larger stories, milestones, and page timeline. The new page design allows page owners to tell richer stories through bigger photos and milestones that can include a date and other content.
• Facebook has removed the ability to create a default landing tab. However, you can still create fan gates. If you are designing new tabs, be sure to design with the new 810X size.
• Photos, likes and apps are now at the top of your Page. Photos show in the first spot, but you can change the order of everything else so people see what matters most. You can show a maximum number of 12 apps, so make sure to put your most important ones first.
•  The cover photo can be up to 850px by 315px but may NOT contain the following:

Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”.

References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features.

Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”.

Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section.

We are in the process of upgrading to the new layout, and will let you know how that goes. Meanwhile, readers, what are you experiencing with your own upgrades and perusal of other pages going through the transformation?

In a recent post on HBR, David Aaker discusses a 1966 report based on a study of word-of-mouth persuasion. It is interesting how relevant this report is some 50-plus years later. Social Media Marketing is indeed not new nor are the principles of success in building your local brand using word-of-mouth.

Some large corporations have been treating social media as a new advertising platform. Advertising in a social network is like having an old-school MLMer at your party. They keep trying to talk about their “opportunity” and everyone keeps retreating to find someone else to talk to.

So, how can small businesses use social media to build their local brand and get the word out about their business? Notice how the findings in the HBR report can help your social media efforts.

1. Product-involvement (33% impact): When your product/service is worth talking about, people will talk about it. If you are remarkable in someway that is important to your customers then they will tell other like-minded people about you. If your business is not serving its customers well then social media will amplify your problems (which can be useful in fixing them).
2. Self-involvement (24% impact): People like to be the “source” of good recommendations. Who knew? So, if your company has something unique to offer there is a good chance a certain tribe will want to spread the message. Of course, they also do not want to be the source of a bad recommendation. So, you better deliver the goods consistently.
3. Other-involvement (20% impact): People also want to be good neighbors. This helped Groupon spread rapidly. Jane finds a great deal and “has” to tell her friends about it. Conversely being a good neighbor also means warning your friends about bad companies. Offer something worth spreading so your customers can be the hero that brings good deals to their tribe.
4. Message-involvement (20% impact): Do you have a message (not an ad) that absolutely must be shared? Something that is so informative, shocking, or humorous is more likely to be spread. Make sure this aligns with your audience and type of business. You could be the source of the local gossip but does that really align with a law firm? If it applies it can be powerful.

Social Media Marketing can be a huge boost to your local brand IF your company truly delivers. Unhappy customers can really amplify your problems and tarnish your reputation so be prepared to address them quickly.

To read more about this check out the post of HBR:
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/secrets_of_social_media_reveal.html