What does all this mean?
If there wasn’t enough talk about Facebook already on the web, this week has seen a new wave of news stories, blogs, press releases and the like, pop up in every corner of the online world with chatter focused on the company being listed on the stock market with an Initial Public Offering, or IPO. The sale is set to happen very soon, and although an official date hasn’t been announced rumours are that it will take place this Friday the 18th of May. With social media, and perhaps more importantly social media marketing, being such big business these days, it will be interesting to see just how this will unfold
Between predictions of how much money will be made, the effect it will have on Facebook users and everything in between, it seems everyone is keen to have their say and give an opinion on what will happen come Friday.
Here are some interesting articles we’ve noticed:
Changes on their way
With a huge sum of money about to be injected into Facebook, it’s only logical to expect changes. Whether branching out into new products, putting more effort into their search engine (finally?) or perhaps simply focusing on wiping out the competition, there’s little doubt we’ll be seeing a lot of growth and development over the next few years.
GMA News
Privacy concerns growing
As the Facebook machine continues to grow both its online presence and money making power, fresh fears have risen over the likelihood of users’ privacy being compromised. With the potential for making a lot more money just a few policy changes away, users with concerns may need to keep a close eye on this to protect their information.
Mercury News
Is this a case of founders and investors selling stock before it starts losing value?
This is a great post listing 13 reasons why Facebook is approaching its peak as a profitable company attracting fresh investment (and users). There’s a few very interesting posts raised as well as a few comparisons to the likes of Myspace and Groupon which really do support this theory.
Huffington Post
The state of California to make an expected $1.5 Billion in taxes.
A guaranteed winner here (aside from existing shareholders and Mr Zuckerberg of course) is set to be the state of California. The state has been having financial difficulties in recent times and news of this sale will certainly put a smile on some government faces, with a staggering $1.5 billion in taxes expected to be paid over the next financial year.
Seattle Times
The one thing that seems certaing out of all of this, is simply that there WILL be changes of some sort happening in the near future, and we can’t wait to see what they will be!
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I was reading a good little article on Flying Solo called “Do I have to do everything”. I know as a business owner myself the importance on focusing on what you do best, and delegating tasks out to my staff, or where it is not a skill set we offer (accounting, printing, fish tank maintenance (marine tanks are a tough one!) branding etc..), giving that service off to another company that specialises in these areas, allowing us to focus on what we do best (The Internet). This really got me thinking about how many people I talk to that take SEO and Social Media into their own hands to ‘save a bit of money’. If they have the skill set for it, I say go for it. But many business owners with very little resources are spending a lot of time researching and trying to understand different internet marketing tactics, taking up valuable time they could be spending working on what they do best, and making more money by doing so. They usually get very little results, and calculating the value of their own time, end up spending much more than paying a professional company to do it for them.
Are you a business owner that falls into this trap? If so, it may be worth a phone call to us to find out the benefits of having a professional experienced team take on SEO and/or Social Media for you.
Phone: 1300 3888 11
Posted in: SEO, Social Media
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Google has been on the warpath recently, doing their best to penalise websites which have been incorporating dodgy SEO techniques, and of their MANY recent changes, one has emerged as having the potential to be one of the most significant in terms of the influence it will have on the future of SEO.
While the changes certainly won’t affect all websites using unethical methods, and there will likely even be some innocent victims getting caught up in the crackdown, Google is definitely putting marketers who use black hat techniques ‘on notice’, especially when it comes to linking.
One of the changes made is the way in which Google decides the value and nature of a link pointing to a website. There have been rules for years now against buying or trading links but it seems the time has finally come for these rules to be enforced. Suspicious links will not only continue to be disregarded, but now there is more chance these links may even result in a penalty to the site to which they’re pointing to.
If the nature of links pointing to your site doesn’t seem right, Google has warned they will not hesitate in either reducing your position in search results, or simply removing your site all together.
One important thing to from this is to avoid buying links. However tempting it may be to buy links from directories etc, this is a practice that is a complete no-no. Also definitely avoid any kind of linking software which automatically gets links to your site from around the web as this will very likely have your website flagged as spamming the internet with fake links.
Some tips for quality link building and ensuring you aren’t penalised:
- DON’T buy links from directories
- Definitely DO NOT use (or allow anyone else to use) software which places links around the internet pointing to your site
- DO ask for links to your site from friends, colleagues, companies you are doing business with etc,
- DO include as many unique variations of text in and around your links as possible (especially ‘anchor text’). Rather than using the exact same title and keywords every time, have some variation in what is clicked on and also where that link points to on your site.
- DO put extra effort into getting new links to your site right after you have posted something new, such as a blog post, press release, or product etc.
To get the right SEO strategy for your website, call or email us today.
Phone: 01300388811
Email: click here
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Nielsen, a global consumer research company has found that 92% of consumers world-wide trust word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising. What does that mean for your business? It means if your brand has a story to tell then start tweeting, YouTube a video, let all your friends on facebook and all your potential employees on linkedIn know your brand’s story. Spread the word through social media and receive the impact throughout your business.
Social network sites are where people engage and create a relationship with your brand – what remains the place for transaction or conversion is still your brand’s website. Here are some ways businesses have used Facebook in their marketing mix.
Squishable.com, a plush toy manufacture uses facebook for market research to identify what plush toy fans want to buy. Once in the design phase, Squishable.com posts its sketches on Facebook, asking for fan feedback. All the key decisions—whether the Kiwi ends up being blue or purple, for example—are made by fans. Only the highest fan based plush toys are developed. At Squishable.com, 29% of the traffic now comes from Facebook.
The Smith Family uses cause related marketing to highlight disadvantaged children in Australia who stand out in school for all the wrong reasons. Their execution on Facebook allows users to pledge or share there intentions of sponsoring a child on an item the child is disadvantaged on. This may be such thing as a worn-out uniform, lack of shoes, no money for textbooks, excursions or a decent breakfast. When a user has pledged their intention this will immediately trigger an action in their friends’ facebook news feeds. There friends and family are then encouraged to make a pledge as well. All sponsorship transactions are sent to the Smith Family website.
1-800-FLOWERS.COM originally was using Facebook as a customer support page until they realized the potential it has from the feedbacks posted. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM installed Like buttons on its e-commerce site, letting visitors like a particular bouquet or other product they would be happy to receive. Every time customers clicked Like, the action triggered a story in their friends’ facebook news feeds – and that flower power meant people were talking to their friends about the brand.
Still not sure if social media is right for you?
Now with Google analytics you can measure the value of social media on your business. Google analytics will identify the full value of traffic coming from social sites and provide you with a complete picture of the social impact on your business and its conversions.
So, if you’re considering launching a new page on Facebook, its worthwhile looking at Facebook Marketplace Ads to spread the word, combined with a content strategy to get your audience immediately engaged on your page, Quantum can help build the momentum for your page.
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We noticed a fantastic post on Facebook last night. One which wasn’t particularly interesting, exciting, or captivating, yet virtually went viral overnight.
The company responsible for the post was Target, who shared a funny error that was made on the cover of their latest catalogue. They had noticed the oddity earlier in the day, and decided to upload it to the internet. Perhaps for a bit of fun, perhaps for damage control.
See if you can spot the error:
Traditionally in the past, when a business noticed an error in design work, they’d be fuming, giving the designers and proof readers etc. endless grief. These days though, with the power of social media at their fingertips, businesses can use bloopers such as this to their advantage. Rather than being the laughing stock of those who noticed the mistake, they can now leverage the hype to get people talking about their brand or products, and also showing more brand personality.
The post had over 4,000 ‘likes’ and had been shared over 850 times in the 24 hours since being uploaded.
To put this in perspective, Target’s next most successful posts were a flashback photo showing a lolly stand from the 80’s or 90’s which received a touch over 760 ‘likes’ from people reliving fond memories, and for ‘shares’ an image advertising a competition to find children to be “Little Stars” was shared roughly 150 times.
Ask yourself this question. How many times have you looked at a Target catalogue online? Or even just an image of one? We’ve never taken the time to do this, yet now we have, along with thousands of other people.
Maybe they did it on purpose!
Have you seen any good examples of other companies who’ve leveraged their mistakes?
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