Here at Sitewire we enjoy a good debate, especially when it gives us the chance to show off our smarts and flex our brain muscle. Here’s a little glimpse of one such debate.

With Google’s continuous updates, increased emphasis on content strategy and the overall shift in digital media of late, the question of where and how organic search fits into all this is ever present. So, the brains on our media team began mulling it over. Travis Unwin, Director of Media Strategies, and Chris Corak, Lead Media Planner, had a fun back-and-forth on this very topic.

So, is organic search dead?

TU: I’m going with a solid YES. The new approach and how we should be focusing our efforts should include, among other things, a focus on content that resonates socially. Make more of that.

CC: My answer is NO. Every time search changes, there is a large segment of marketers who ask this question. Each time it stirs up a debate. And in the end, it hasn’t died. If anything, it’s become stronger. In my opinion the answer is  ”no,” but organic search now encompasses more than it previously did.  In addition to everything it has always been (and those things still matter), SEO is also now design, UX, content, social, local…we just need to be a lot more well-rounded in our approach.

And when it comes to socially resonate content, I couldn’t agree more. I just want to add, content has always mattered for SEO. Historically, we have not focused on improving it enough. But it’s been difficult to get clients to buy off on changing content. Thanks to Google, we now have a sales tool as to why they need to improve quality. Now there is an, “or else.

TU: But keep in mind, Google is heading towards semantic search. Keywords – as they were used in the past – will become next to useless.

CC: Google is moving towards semantic search, or at least they are trying. My gut says they are a long way off from depending on semantics entirely. They already have some semantics (understanding the true meaning or subject matter and giving you a search result based on that understood meaning, not dependent on a literal keyword) in search – and we are still very dependent on keywords.  Think about how advanced Siri is, and still she can’t answer 99% of all the questions I would need her to, if I was entirely dependent on her.  I believe there will be a semantic/keyword blend for years to come. Even if we get to the point of no keywords, there will still be organic search work in helping search engines truly understand the subject matter/meaning of your content.

TU: The keywords won’t mean anything unless we start focusing on a fantastic end-user experience. Design and UX matter.

CC: Couldn’t agree more!

TU: And we can’t just build social properties. We’ve got to grow the audience.

CC: Again, we’re in agreement here! I’m very excited about where SEO is going. I totally get your point, Travis, that organic now includes other work, out of our typical norm for SEO work (titles/header tags, etc.). And I love it. It’s going to be a massive opportunity for us and our clients. There is finally a literal tie-in relationship between search, social, content, UI.

There you have it. Organic search is dead. From a certain point of view. And organic search is just beginning a brand new life. From another point of view. One thing we know for sure: Sitewire will keep asking the tough questions and encourage exciting new research and schools of thought as the digital landscape continues to change around us.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we talk more about search, Google, content and how all these changes may end up effecting you.

When Facebook announced Timeline for members, it was only a matter of time before brand pages would get the overhaul. This overhaul now has a date, March 30th.

Brand Timelines come as Facebook strives to allow people to use the site as a channel to tell their stories, whether it is their life story or the story of their brand. Companies can use their pages as a means of expression and as a conduit to convey the brand’s persona.

What are Timelines?

By definition, a timeline is a representation of key events within a particular historical period, often accompanied by visual materials. Essentially, they are another method of telling a story, and Facebook Timeline for brands will be no exception.
Companies will need to think strategically about their brands and how their company page can reflect their story. What does the company provide users? How can they connect with their audience by providing engaging content? The cornerstone of successful brand pages will be accomplished by painting a story about the brand’s progression, achievements, milestones, and historical events.

How is Timeline Different?

Facebook Timelines are an opportunity to engage fans and create conversations. What they are not are megaphones that can be used to shout at customers or used for one-sided promotions. Facebook will be rewarding brands that successfully create engagement with their fans by expanding the brand’s reach, and ultimately exposure on the channel.

Brands will need to back-fill their Timeline with historical events and milestones. These will help to tell the story of the brand and its evolution. In addition to being able to highlight important past events, brands will be able to “pin” posts to the top of the page. While brands can only pin one piece of content at a time, this will likely be utilized as a method for highlighting new and interesting content. Pinned posts should include calls to action, be a clear indicator of the brand’s value or history in order to maximize using the top of the page real estate.

Brand Timelines will be most beneficial for brands that create engaging content and use the channel to feature their company’s persona and history. Further, brands will need to remain active on the page by updating featured content, albeit pinned or highlighted. This will also include highlighting apps and other benefits of engaging with the brand. Pages will need to listen to their fans in order to create interaction and engage users. It is only through stimulating content that a brand will be able to further increase its reach and awareness on the platform.

Cover Images

Upon landing on a new brand page, the user will first see a brand’s cover image. These pictures should encapsulate the brand and its persona. What is the company about? Is it their customers, products, or something else? This image can be thought of as the brand’s new billboard, but this is not a place for self-promotion, offers, or product launches.

At first glance, the cover photo should evoke emotion. Even more importantly, the image should be share-worthy. Fans can comment, like, and share cover images, so the more visually appealing the image is, the more likely fans are going to engage. Brands should also think about changing the image to remain relevant with the brand’s current endeavors. While the image does not have to already be featured on the company’s website, the image should remain within brand character. This allows for consistency and familiarity across all touch points.

Tabs and Apps

Directly underneath the cover image, apps (formerly tabs) will be prominently featured. While four apps will be visible at all times, brands can include up to 12 apps. The remaining apps will be nestled “below the fold” and will not be viewable until the user clicks on a dropdown arrow. The photos apps will always remain in the first spot. This placement further indicates Facebook’s emphasis on photos and visual images.

While these four apps will remain prominently featured on the page, brands must think about other methods of creating awareness for the “below the fold” apps. This could include Facebook ads that link to different apps or highlighting apps in posts.

Messages

Facebook really wants fans to be able to connect with brands. To do so, Facebook has now allowed fans to initiate conversations with brands by messaging the page directly. While brands cannot connect first, the page can receive messages. This provides a unique opportunity to resolve customer service issues within the platform. This will also remove potentially disparaging posts from a brand’s Timeline. While the feature can be disabled, Facebook will likely reward pages that use the feature to listen and engage fans.

Moving Forward

As with everything else Facebook does, they want the focus to be on the user and creating stories. Facebook wants brands to work to understand their customers and the type of content they find interesting and Facebook will reward these efforts with increased distribution.

In October, Facebook allowed members to tell their story, now it is time for brands.

Deft content marketing is more art than science. And when executed to perfection, it’s a beautifully seamless experience for your customers – and, most likely, a wonderfully profitable experience for your brand.

No one exemplifies this kind of content marketing genius better than Lucasfilm, the company behind the wildly successful Star Wars franchise. In particular, the recent wave of campaigns centered around the rerelease of Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D has showcased just how savvy the good people at Lucasfilm really are. Let’s break this down.

When talking with clients about content strategy and content marketing, we stress the absolute necessity of marrying brand goals with user needs. In order to do that, you must first understand who your users are, how they want to engage with your brand, and what content will be most valuable to them. It’s within this overlap of brand goals and user needs where the truly successful content resides.

So how does Lucasfilm do this?

Brand Goal: Promote the rerelease of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 3D.

User Needs: This part can get pretty tricky, and while I’m sure Lucasfilm has a legion of marketers running focus groups, user testing, polls, surveys and other such research, I’m going to make some educated guesses here (after all, I’m a pretty avid fan of the franchise myself). Star Wars consumers are multi-generational. You have the fans that grew up on the original films; you have the fans that grew up during the Expanded Universe explosion in the ‘90s, leading into the release of the prequel films; and you have the new generation growing up with The Clone Wars animated television show. Each segment engages with Lucasfilm content on a variety of levels, from novels to video games to TV episodes to Blu-ray extra features to comic books and beyond.

The Execution: Before releasing their marketing salvo, Lucasfilm apparently agreed on a theme: Darth Maul.

Wait, the virtually silent, double-bladed-lightsaber-wielding, demon-faced villain who dies at the end?

Yep, the one and only. His visage became a prominent marketing tool, lording over the rerelease poster, snarling on action figure packaging, even appearing on limited edition 3D glasses. The emphasis may have seemed an odd choice. But when the pieces of the marketing puzzle began falling into place, the brilliance of it all became apparent.

As far back as January 2011 (over a year before The Phantom Menace 3D release, mind you), rumors began swirling about a possible resurrection of the Darth Maul character for The Clone Wars animated TV show. This was confirmed in October. And it was huge news. An apparently dead character brought back to life, while not uncommon in sci-fi/fantasy franchises, was a relative first for the Star Wars universe, especially on this scale.

A slew of tie-in material was announced in preparation for the February 11 release date, banking on the Darth Maul hype. December 27 marked the re-issue of Michael Reaves’ novel Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, including a new Maul-centric short story, Restraint, by popular Star Wars writer, James Luceno. In the story, Luceno featured characters from the film and the TV show, beginning the process of tying the movie and TV worlds together. A similar re-issue of Terry Brooks’ Episode I novelization appeared on shelves on January 31, again featuring an all new short story, End Game, by Luceno. The focus of this short story? You guessed it, Darth Maul.

What followed was Maul-mania. Ryder Windham’s young reader novel The Wrath of Darth Maul (released January 1) gave youngsters a glimpse of what to expect from the upcoming Darth Maul story arc on the TV show. McDonald’s announced tie-in Happy Meal toys; Hasbro announced new Maul-tastic toy packaging; countless items of Maul merchandise hit shelves everywhere. And yes, there “was an app for that” with the “Darth Maul Me” app.

Then, on January 10, another major release: James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis novel hit bookstores. Not only did this novel flesh out Darth Maul’s backstory, it tied it together with the upcoming TV show story arc and delved into the backstory of yet another enigmatic character, Darth Sidious/Palpatine himself. A seemingly throwaway line from Episode III: Revenge of the Sith about “Darth Plagueis the Wise” was fully realized in novel form. The most common remark about the novel? It brought to light story elements that caused viewers to see Episode I in a completely new way.

But that’s not all. Collectors and fans of the Star Wars minutiae were thrilled when author Dan Wallace announced a follow up to his fan-favorite The Jedi Path, an in-universe manual for Jedi. Its unique style, electronic collectible case and gorgeous artwork had fans begging for a similar sequel. And on February 10 (a day before the 3D release), The Book of Sith was unleashed, complete with arcane information and secret tidbits that added yet another level of depth to the previously released novels, the 3D film and the upcoming TV show story arc.

Whew.

So how do we make sense of all this?

The Results: Successful content marketing is the sweet spot between brand goals and user needs, right?

• The kid fan: I love The Clone Wars TV show! But I don’t know much about all the hype around this “Darth Maul” guy…Mom, Dad! Take me to the theatre to see this new movie in 3D! The poster shows the guy from the TV show! And can I get this book about him too! It looks cool!
  • TV show watched – check.
  • Movie ticket purchased – check.
  • Young reader novel purchased – check.
• The novel/Expanded Universe fan: I’m excited to finally learn more about the mysterious Darth Plagueis in Luceno’s new novel. And it makes me think of Episode I in a completely different light!
  • Novel purchased – check.
  • Movie ticket purchased – check.
• The collector fan: I’m so psyched for The Book of Sith! And I can’t wait to see how it ties into the movies and the TV show.
  • Collectable purchased – check.
  • TV show watched – check.
  • Movie ticket purchased – check.

Obviously, this is a completely reductive view of the fans and how they ultimately engaged with these marketing campaigns. In fact, most fans are a complex combination of these characteristics and more. And, of course, there are those that wouldn’t be caught dead in a theatre reliving their perceived nightmare that was Episode I and those that probably ignored all this hubbub altogether, wanting nothing to do with this new wave of storytelling. And that’s fine. But the point here is this.

No matter where their customers were, no matter how they chose to engage, Lucasfilm was right there, delivering relevant content.

And the genius of it all – everything tied together. No matter where a consumer entered into the campaign, they could easily move through as little or as much of the experience as they wanted. The collector could enter via The Book of Sith and easily move into the novels, the movie, the merchandise and the TV show. Or, they could end their experience with their bright, shiny collectable and call it a day.

In addition, when viewed from a cross-promotional standpoint, the ingenuity of it all is staggering. While all this content ultimately pushes consumers toward the theatre, each individual piece of content promotes the others. It’s a veritable web of content that has endless entry points and seamless transitions.

So, was all this a success? I’d say so. The Phantom Menace has since passed the $1 billion mark, only the 11^th movie in history to do so, placing it at the number 10 spot (and climbing) on the all time highest grossing movies list. Several of the novels have ended up on the New York Times bestsellers list. The Clone Wars has had ratings at the number one spot for network and cable TV in boy demos.

What’s next? The Lucasfilm behemoth keeps on rolling, with no end in sight. Plus, there are still five movies to be rereleased in 3D. Next up, Episode II: Attack of the Clones. And with preliminary photos of marketing materials centered around Yoda, expect a similarly focused content campaign in the months to come.

Regardless of your opinion of the prequel movies, or the novels, or the merchandise, one can’t help but recognize the financial success that this franchise has enjoyed. And with a content strategy this vast and this well-executed…who’s surprised?

Google’s search results are undergoing one of their most radical transformations ever, as a new “Search Plus Your World” format began rolling out on January 10th. It finds both content that’s been shared with you privately, along with matches from the public web, all mixed into a single set of listings. When logged in to Google.com, users will see their personalized results displayed more prominently, and in higher concentration, than Google’s previous personalized/social search results. The release is already stirring up great controversy, accusing Google of showing bias to content found within its own social network, Google+. Google claims that it is not displaying content from Facebook/Twitter/Flickr because each has not granted Google API access. In any event, Google is definitely showing bias to content within Google+, making Google+ more important than ever. From a SEO perspective, it is as relevant now as it ever was. The ever-evolving mix of Search and Social, however, just took a significant leap forward. A brand’s level of social engagement now plays a more significant role in organic search than it once did. A brand that is not engaging socially, or has ignored social integration within its site, is now at a major disadvantage from an organic search perspective – or, should we say, from a digital marketing perspective.

You are going to start to see this symbol ,  next to results that are personally relevant to you. Other results are assumed global/public web results.

You are defaulted into seeing personalized results, but can choose to see only global/public results as well.

To summarize, personalized results include:

• Listings from the web
• Listings from the web, boosted because of your personal behavior
• Listings from the web, boosted because of your social connections
• Public Google+ posts, photos or Google Picasa photos (all of which are also listings from the web)
• Private or “Limited” Google+ posts, photos or Google Picasa photos shared with you

Controversy | Privacy and Google Bias

This is already creating controversy, most of which are misconceptions, or can be explained.

Privacy - People are seeing their own personal/private results in what appears to be public (private photos, posts, etc.). Google now has access to your content, but only because you are logged in.  Really, this content is not visible to the public web.

Google Bias – Many are accusing Google of favoring its own content over other equally or more relevant content.  Much of the social integration appears to be favoring Google+ content.  Really, Google is showing content from Google+, but mostly because Facebook and Twitter will not (have not) opened the flood gates to their platforms. Google wants to show Facebook/Twitter/Flickr in “Search plus Your World,” but claims it can’t until each social network authorizes access. Twitter/Facebook/Flickr post too much content (not to mention behind log-ins), making it hard for Google to adequately crawl in real-time. It needs the API.

Read More:

What is it?
http://searchengineland.com/googles-results-get-more-personal-with-search-plus-your-world-107285

People claiming Google to unjustly promote itself in search, not other social platforms
http://searchengineland.com/search-engines-should-be-like-santa-107400

**Google claims, not favoring its own results… and is happy to talk to Twitter and Facebook about Integration
http://marketingland.com/schmidt-google-not-favored-happy-to-talk-twitter-facebook-integration-3151

How | a Practical Applications | Clarification from Matt Cutts
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/search-plus-your-world/

High level, how it affects SEO (a couple of points could be pulled from this article)
http://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2012/01/how-google-plus-your-world-will-impact-seo.html

Why Google+ is now essential (at least for now) for all brands — some great points in this article
http://searchengineland.com/examples-google-search-plus-drive-facebook-twitter-crazy-107554

I’m an admitted Disney fan, so I was naturally psyched to see the upcoming re-release of Beauty and the Beast in 3D. I promptly liked the Beauty and the Beast Facebook page and have enjoyed seeing behind-the-scenes nuggets, pictures and trailers scroll through my News Feed these past few months in preparation for the January 13th release date. Obviously, Disney has other film projects in the works, most notably, their new Pixar collaboration, Brave, a tale about a (wait for it) brave Celtic princess.

Disney is a massive brand, with fan pages for each of their titles, theme parks, subsidiaries and more. So it makes sense that some cross-promotion takes place – heck, it’s a no-brainer. But I was surprised to see a bit of clever tagging on a post the other day:

Posting a picture from the movie, the Beauty and the Beast fan page captioned the photo with a cutesy warm fuzzy about bravery and fate. But soft, what tag through yonder update breaks?! They cleverly inserted the title of their new Pixar movie, tagging it and leading fans to Brave‘s own Facebook page.

I paused at this. Clever? Or spammy? Sure, it’s all Disney, but do I want a Beauty and the Beast experience divorced of other Disney properties? Or do I want to see how this movie fits with the overall Disney brand experience? I asked the office here at Sitewire and received some interesting responses, of which I’ve included some snippets:

I don’t see an issue as long as you’re cross-promoting within your own brand. -Sandy Catour

Sneaky sneaky…BUT I love it!! Pretty smart if you ask me -Paige Dell’Armi

I’ve seen a lot of things from Disney sort of uniting the common thread between their heroines. For any other brand, I might say that this is spammy cross-promotion that takes advantage of the tagging functionality. For Disney, it’s furthering a message that has been integral to them for years, while at the same time showing that they still produce films that instill the same values in young girls. -Emily Voris

So, seems like most people liked the idea, but recognized that it walks a fine line, and, perhaps, it’s only okay because Disney did it. But maybe it’s not so much the fact that cross-promotional tagging took place, but how it was used. For example, instead of working the tag into a sentence (which, by the way, is not a quote from Beauty and the Beast – might have been different if it was), why couldn’t they have been a bit more transparent? What if they had captioned the photo differently?

Belle is a strong and independent character. And in keeping with Disney’s long line of inspirational heroines, Disney brings audiences Merida, a Celtic princess who makes her feature film debut in this summer’s Brave.

Regardless, it’s fun to see brands experimenting with Facebook’s functionality. And I’m psyched for both Beauty and the Beast in 3D and Brave.

What are your thoughts? Are there rules to cross-promotional tagging on Facebook? Let us know in the comments!

Google+ Pages present a new opportunity for brands to be represented and interact with their audience in social media. For brands with a social presence — or who would like one — Sitewire strongly recommends Google+ Pages as a next step in improving visibility online.

Do I need a Google+ Page if I already have a Facebook Page?

With very few exceptions, yes! The adage says to “fish where the fish are,” and Google+ and Facebook represent different ponds of active users. The Google+ user base is already 50 million strong, and growing, comprising a young, affluent, early-adopter audience. In addition, the Google+ feature set offers some new options that Facebook does not, including delivering targeted messaging via “Circles” and live video chats.

Google+ had been promising to roll out pages for organizations since the social network launched in June 2011. As of Monday, businesses are able to create Google+ Pages for themselves in one of five categories:

• Local Business or Place
• Product or Brand
• Company, Institution or Organization
• Arts, Entertainment or Sports

These pages will function similarly to Facebook in that Google+ users can “circle” (or subscribe to) to the G+ Page to receive all of the content published on your brand’s page. Unlike Facebook, Google+ Pages are allowed to do many of the same things that a personal account can do, including:

• Share photos
• Share videos
• Share links
• Conduct Hangouts (a live video chat feature)
• Highly target specific messages to specific groups

How do I get started with a Google+ Page for my brand?

All you need to create a page is a valid Gmail email address. Once this address creates a Google+ page for your business, it will be the only page administrator. Multiple administrator support is promised in the near future. Unlike Facebook, there aren’t “vanity” URLs available (yet) that use a business name rather than a long string of numbers.

Google+ pages can be a great way to connect to and engage with fans of your brand, and we recommend taking one of the following actions:

1. Let us do it for you! While Google+ Pages certainly aren’t a tactic on their own, the growth we’re seeing this new channel — along with the immediate integration to the powerhouse that is Google — can’t be ignored.
2. Or if you just want to test the waters,  create your own Google+ Page.
3. Circle the Sitewire Google+ Page!

Regardless of which approach you take, a strategy to produce content and engage with those in your circles should be created based on your social media goals. Well… that third option doesn’t take much strategy, now does it?

We’re excited to watch this new property develop. Early indications point to a highly interactive but business-focused audience engaging on Google+. And for businesses, that’s a welcome addition!

A new graph has been making its way around the social media circles, part of an excellent white paper about long-tail CTR. While the piece was shared by some very smart people in the industry, and people that I have a lot of respect for, this kind of report makes me cringe because its implications are so often misunderstood. Here’s the graph:

As is true with any data, there’s plenty of room for misinterpretation. I think many  people get the wrong takeaway from this graph. Let me explain:

The wrong takeaway: “We need to get our site to the top of the search results, so we can get that click-through rate.”

That’s not what this graph means—it’s descriptive, not prophetic. You do want to get to the top of the search results, but a graph like this (or the similar ones from Optify or Enquiro) may be reflecting different types of search behavior that don’t actually benefit your site. I’m thinking of navigational searches and hyper-specific searches.

Navigational searches are the times when Google takes the place of bookmarks. We know the site we want to go to, but we have forgotten the specifics of the URL. I’ve personally looked over the shoulder of people who do this for everything, searching for “Google Docs” or “ESPN.” To drive this home, realize that every month there are 3 billion—with a “B”—Google searches for just the term “Facebook.” And there’s another 124 million hapless searchers each month typing in “facebook.com” as a search term. There’s even 30 million searches per month for “google.com,” searched for from Google search itself. In any of these cases, the first search result is always the right one.

Hyper-specific searches are just what they sound like, and are the cousin of navigational searches. For example, if I search for “HP Photosmart 4280 driver,” it’s clear that I’m searching for something specific, and it’s always the first search result—the first match in this case likely gets 90% of clicks, and the other results are useless.

The graph is still right, but the hazard is assuming that all search behavior is the same. When looking at these click-through rates, they make a lot more sense for generic search terms (“sports news”) than for something specific the searcher might have in mind (“ron artest hair infographic”).

The right takeaway: “We need to make the content on our site more relevant, so Google will reward it with higher placement.”

With Google’s algorithm changes over the last year, most notably its Farmer/Panda releases, a lot of the gaming of SERPs is gone. And that’s a really good thing.

In the good ol’ days of SEO (and this was white-hat SEO, too), human readability was removed from pages in order to make them more search engine friendly. A site title of “Doctors in Phoenix” was tweaked to be “Doctors Phoenix” to more closely match a high-volume search term. Individual pages were set up to capture specific search terms (“pediatricians phoenix,” “dermatologists phoenix”), with each page comprising a few paragraphs of keyword-rich text—pages that provided absolutely nothing useful to anyone who landed there. The good news is that Google is increasingly recognizing their treachery and penalizing them for it.

It sounds like an insurmountable task, but Google is legitimately rewarding real, human-relevant sites more than ever before. Our focus as marketers and business owners has to shift away from nit-picky details and loopholes of the Google algorithm back to people, and how real human beings consume content.

Ultimately, it would be just as fallacious to take this concept too far and assume that search engine rankings don’t matter—they matter immensely, and improving rank for a key search term can be an enormous boon to a company’s bottom line. The point, rather, is that our approach has changed. We should focus first on how humans will consume our site, and let Google reward us for the relevancy of our content—rather than focusing on Google itself. Once we do this successfully, we’ll get those terrific click-through rates.

And I’ve got a graph that can tell you all about it.

via androidguys

Two days ago, the buzz on the internet was all about Google+. (No, not Google +1. Drop the numeral and remove a space. How’s that for clarity of branding?) A handful of techno-nerds had their hands on it for a while, telling us that Google was finally making a solid push for the social space.

And we waited. But not for long.

Last night many of us who can’t stand to be anywhere other than the bleeding edge were allowed inside. Productivity dropped to all time lows as we kicked the tires and explored the corners of this new social network. I’m still a bit bleary eyed this morning, but I wanted to pen this quickly. See my earlier “bleeding edge” comment. Yeah, that’s me.

But I’ll let the social pundits tell you what is and is not cool in their own blog posts and news articles that will be flooding your inbox over the next week or so. Instead, I’m going to tackle Google+ from a marketing wonk perspective. That’s why you work with Sitewire, right?

What are the advertising opportunities on Google+?

None, really. Well, no more than Google already offers. I fully expect to start seeing Google-powered ads showing up all over Google+. Just like they show up all over the rest of the Google properties. Google has an excellent and ever-evolving contextually relevant engine that places ads. Getting more info about what users like and say will only make this better. Action: make sure you’ve got deep coverage in Google Content. It’s been important for a while.

Can my brand get involved in Google+?

Not in the way you are thinking. Unlike lots of social media properties, there is no “beachhead” (think profile or page) that a brand can establish. Google+ works with people’s existing Google accounts. Gmail. Reader. Calendar. You don’t have to “Go check Google+”. You see it as an integral part of the other Google properties you use on a daily basis. Action: Why exactly don’t you have a personal Gmail or Google Reader account? Go get one. Now.

Can I use Google+ to broadcast my message to people?

I cringe to say this, but yes. Like other social networks, sharing of links, images, and notes is an integral part of Google+. But all of this sharing is done at discrete levels. One or more Circles (think lists on Twitter or Facebook) must be selected for every shared item. You could put loads of people into one big list and broadcast out in their Stream. But considering how easy it is to add — and delete — people from lists, I expect tolerance for blatant promotional messages to be very, very low. But then again, I said that with Facebook and Twitter and was proven wrong. So YMMV. Action: Experiment with your content calendars. Go slow here. Please?

Should I drop everything and embrace Google+?

I wouldn’t go that far. We’ve seen Google stumble and fall many times as it’s made advances into Social. I think they are playing it smart by leveraging the vast network of users they’ve already accumulated through their various properties. But there may not be waves of people ready to get that much social chocolate in their productivity peanut butter.  Action: When Google opens up more invites, see if you can get one. Personally. Play in the space. And get ready to move if necessary. But don’t  neglect your other much more established properties.

Final thoughts:

This isn’t a Facebook killer. This isn’t a Twitter killer. It’s not going to kill anything. It’s worth watching and perhaps worth engaging. But it’s too soon to tell what the larger impact will be.

After years of deliberation and discussion, ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, voted to launch an initiative that will effectively allow for an unlimited number of Top Level Domains, or TLDs. As of right now, 22 TLDs exist — with .com, .net and .org the most recognizable — as well as nearly 300 country specific domains, such as .uk, .tv and .ly.

To call this announcement historic is an understatement.

Since inception, ICANN knew its TLDs were abstract organizers at best. Internet users have come to know no difference between .com, .net and .org. So if these TLDs hold new meaning, why not open the door further, allowing for more abstraction and the possibility of better organization at the same time?

But that doesn’t mean you should rush out and apply for .YourCompany. Or even .CommonNoun. First, there’s the fact that you have to pony up $185,000 just to apply. Not accepted? No refund. Then consider that this isn’t the same as registering a domain name. Because you aren’t registering a domain name. You’re applying to administer, manage, maintain and run a TLD. That is a serious technological hurdle to overcome. You’ll need more than a webmaster and a couple of DBAs to handle this. (Imagine operating the TLD “.org” as is today and the responsibilities attached.) This is an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, annually. And if you can’t prove to ICANN that you’re technologically ready for the challenge, you won’t be accepted.

The first round of new TLDs could be available by July of 2012. In theory. Assuming the entertainment industry or other groups can’t get an injunction to stop this from happening.

Immediate recommended actions

None. But if you feel the need to do something, read the proposed 300+ page gTLD Applicant Guidebook from ICANN here: http://bit.ly/9eVyyx

Future recommended actions

• Keep alert. Once someone applies to own a TLD, a 5-month “evaluation process” begins. It’s open to public comments, and is when you need to have your lawyers looking out for your registered marks. All will be posted on ICANN.org.
• Look for opportunities. Right now, .com is the hot TLD. But maybe a new and more specific domain will make sense? If you sell eco-friendly products, wouldn’t you want to be in .green?
• Prepare for post-scarcity. Only having 22 TLDs keeps scarcity — and prices — for domains high. Once thousands are available, the market will change. If you’re contemplating a domain name purchase right now, reconsider. It could be much cheaper — or free — in a year. Cybersquatters are about to be out of business.
• Redouble your SEO efforts. It will take some time, but users will come to rely less on .com. That means people will turn to searching to find things even more often than they do today.
• Stay tuned. As we learn more about what this means, we’ll keep you posted.

Google is making significant effort in 2011 to blend social elements into its standard search results. In February, Google launched an update to further integrate Twitter, Flickr and Quora information within its standard search results. Only one month later, nearly a year after Facebook’s launch of the “Like” button, Google announced its rival, the “+1” button.

Google +1

Google now enables you to share recommendations within search results. To recommend something, simply select the +1 on a webpage or ad that you find useful.

The +1 button appears next to each search result. After selecting, your +1 recommendation will appear publicly in search results around the world and within your social circle (there are options to only recommend within your network). You will see the total number of +1s as well as how many and who of your social circle has +1′d. Your social circle is currently defined as people you are connected with via your Google profile (Gmail, Google Talk chat list, “My Contacts” group in Google Contacts, users you follow in Google Reader or Google Buzz). It is expected that in the future, Google will allow +1s outside of your Google profile, expected to link to Twitter, Flickr and Quora profiles. This is currently rolled out to a small percentage of US users. Not seeing +1s in search results yet? Join Google Experimental to turn the feature ON in your profile.

How will this affect Paid Ads?

• Increased Click-Through Rates are expected.
• All ads will be get +1 buttons.
• There is an opt-out form for advertisers. Sitewire expects positive results from the new feature and does not recommend opting out at this time.
• Clicks on the +1 button next to ads do not count as a paid ad click.
• Advertisers will be able to see stats about which ads are getting the most +1s.
• The way Google measures Quality Score will not change.
• Organic +1s will also show up in ads.

How will this affect Organic Search?

• Soon after launch we should see +1 stats in Webmaster Tools.
• Soon you will be able to add +1 buttons within your site alongside other social buttons (such as “Like” or “Tweet”). Put in a request to be notified when +1 feature is available.
• +1s speculated to be the new PageRank, or at least another signal in Google’s search algorithm.

The Future

There have been rumors that Google is creating its own social network and that the new Social Search features will be major components of the network. Google claims that it is not building a rival social network and that each of its new features are meant to be social layers to its search offering.