Linkedin – New Spam Venue
I have recently have found a good use of Linkedin other than looking for a new job. The groups within Linkedin are active and it is a very good platform for message syndication. However, while doing this investigation I have also witnessed the dark side of Linkedin. Spam.
I am not really in tuned into sending personal messages within Linkedin or even Facebook. I am kind of old school. If you know me and really want me to work with you, you will take the time and send me a email. (Just for reference. It is in my profile in Linkedin and in the about section in Facebook.)
I have been on Linkedin for 4+ years now and have not received any spam messages, but now marketers (aka. spammers) but now I am getting several a day. Below is an example of some of the spam i am getting. No I do not want to give you $250 dollars for what I do for a living, nor do I want to help you build links for your campaign.
This is a little frustrating and Linkedin needs to get a handle on spam in personal messages.
Google Plus White Space – Speculations
Everyone on the web right now is talking about the new Google+ layout. I personally like it. It is easy to use, the content is laid out nicely, and last but not least it is easy on the eyes. But as everything Google does the internet buzzes with speculation. What is the white space for? What will they do with the timeline? They copied the Facebook image layout. blah, blah, blah.
Well I was doing my own research on the new layout to see if they white space was truly that big. My results. No. I have screen shot what the experience is on 1200 x 900 (default 15″ Mac laptop) and 1024 x 768 (default Windows 7 15″ laptop). You can see with the screen grabs below that the layout fits well with little to no white space.
Google+ with screen resolution 1024 x 768
Google+ with screen resolution 1200 x 900
Facebook’s “Awesome” Addition
I noticed that Facebook now offers Skype integration. This must be “Awesome” addition to Facebook that Mark Zuckerberg was eluding to during his last trip to Seattle. With the partnership that Microsoft has with Facebook it comes and no surprise that Facebook would have a partnership with Skype / Microsoft. With the release of Google+ and their video hangouts, this should make things interesting within the social space.
First Imperssion of Google+
First Impression of Google+
With Google+ launching in a closed beta phase, I am fortunate to be a part of it early on and I wanted to give a first impression breakdown of Google+ as it stacks up against the giant Facebook.
At first glance the two have the same look and feel. Very clean lines and content is the main portion of the user experience. But after looking it over a little more Google+ has a slight advantage over Facebook with no pushy banners, over power events and let?s not forget the nonsense horoscope, game requests, or look who answered a question about me bullshit.
Google+ is not initially positioned for the average users, but for the super social users. (aka. Geeks) Rather Google+ is being pushed for business class; mind 20?s ? 40?s demographic. Google+ is not currently a Teen venue like MySpace was and Facebook has become. ?It is more of a civil way of being social online. ? (Imagine me saying that in a tight jawed British accent ? no offense to our London peeps)
Google+ seems to have gotten the community activity right. Google+ has “hangouts” a video group chat application that lets groups communicate via webcams. This will be one of the game changers for Google+. This will allow users to conduct meetings, conferences and plain family events with their selected groups. This has the potential to be a social Juggernaut if Google can incorporate the hangout with mobile.
The other main differentiation for Google+ will be its ability to have full analytics data to go along with it. Google has been rolling in social data and Google +1 data for a few months now. So I think it is safe to say GA will be able to have full analytics for user engagement for Google+ in the near future. That is where Facebook has fallen short in the past.
I do not see my mother jumping on the Google+ bandwagon, but it will be fun to watch these two major corporations who have unlimited funds to play with. Facebook is not going anywhere anytime soon due to their sheer number of users and worldwide adoption, but Google will start to make an impact.
Social Media & SEO Benefits:
Most successful social media campaigns utilize back links to complement the SEO campaign. This is one of the metrics for producing a ROI for the campaign. Link building is one of the top factors in SEO and it has been proven to be a strong component of long term SEO success. Link building via social media allows the company to focus on two key areas to any business playing in the online marketing space.
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Social Media and SEO
Recently I had an interesting discussion about social media and the effects it has on SEO. The main focus we couldn’t escape talking about the famous “Dominos Pizza YouTube Incident.” The incident It happened quite a while ago, but I’m pretty sure everybody’s seen at least part of the famous YouTube video where Dominos employees Kristy and Michael film themselves doing some pretty disgusting things to the food.
The main area of the discssion was the Dominos video because it’s an excellent example of viral media, using social media, and how social media relates to SEO. Shortly after it was uploaded to YouTube, the video was being spread around the web at one of the faster rates recorded for viral content. On its first day, over 1 million people viewed the video – even before the news stations started running the story.
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