Stephen Darori on Social Media Marketing and Strategy: Google+

Saturday, 14 June 2014

Reasons why Facebook will never challenge Google in Search ( yet0.

Is Facebook trying to be the next Google?

After Facebook changed their news-feed algorithm to reduce organic reach to to 2% or 1%, the first thing that came to mind was Google.

Remember when marketers preached SEO all day long, and how your Website should be on the first page of Google search results?

Here's why I never really paid attention to those so-called SEO gurus.

Google changes its search algorithm around 500–600 times each year, so if your Website does make it to the top of Mount Everest one day, there's a good chance it will come down the next.

So why does Google change their algorithmic pagerank so often?

One reason is to prevent spammy SEO tricks by sneaky scumbags.

Another reason is Google Adwords!

In other words, advertising money. And lot's of it.

We're talking about $14.04 billion of advertising revenue, as reported in their first quarter results of 2014.

After Facebook officially announced that they expect organic reach to gradually decline, they claimed to having carried out the algorithmic changes to weed out spammy, non-engaging content.

But in an official document, titled "Generating business results on Facebook," theyrecommended brands should consider paid content distribution in order to avoid the new organic limitation and "to maximize delivery of your message in news feed."

How much did Facebook report in advertising revenue since the algorithmic changes?

In the first quarter of 2014, they claimed advertising revenues of $2.2 billion. Not too shabby.

But according to Social Bakers' 2014 First Quarter Ad Report, now, 92% of social marketers report that they are using Facebook for advertising.

So there's no telling how well they will do next quarter.

Is Facebook really following the steps of Google?

Short answer is yes. Let me prove it to you even further.

What makes Facebook remind me of Google the most is the $22 billion spent on acquisitions in the last 6 years.

Just how much did Google spend on acquisitions in the same time period? Also $22 billion!

Did a light bulb just pop up? I hope so.

I'll let the below infographics do the rest of the talking.

Source: http://visual.ly/life-death-history-google-acquisitions

Monday, 9 June 2014

Top Social Network for Marketers

Kindle

B2C marketers say Facebook is the most effective social network for their business, whereas B2B marketers cite LinkedIn, according to a recent report from Social Media Examiner.

Asked to select the most important social platform for their organization, 68% of B2C marketers surveyed chose Facebook; Twitter was second (10% of respondents), followed by blogging (6%), and LinkedIn (6%).

In contrast, 33% of B2B marketers surveyed said LinkedIn was the most important social platform for their business; Facebook was second (31%), followed by Twitter (16%), and blogging (11%).

Below, additional key findings from the report, which was based on data from a survey of 2,887 marketers (59% B2C, 41% B2B).

Most Used Platforms

Facebook is the most commonly used social platform by both B2C and B2B marketers surveyed (97% and 89%, respectively).
B2C marketers are relatively more focused on YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram, whereas B2B marketers are more focused on LinkedIn, Google+, and blogging.

Weekly Time Commitment

64% of marketers surveyed say they are using social media 6 hours or more on average per week—a slight increase compared with 2013, when 62% reported 6 or more hours a week.
19% of marketers say they spend more than 20 hours on average each week on social media.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

92% of marketers surveyed say their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses.
80% say they have seen increased traffic from their social media efforts.

Planned Investments

In the near future, marketers plan to devote more time to blogging (68% of those surveyed plan to use more), YouTube (67%), Twitter (67%), LinkedIn (64%), and Facebook (64%).
B2B marketers say they are more likely to increase blogging activity (74%) compared with B2C marketers (63%).

About the research: The report was based on data from a survey of 2,887 marketers (59% B2C, 41% B2B).