News on Social Marketing, according to Jeffbullas.com: In today’s digital world and fast evolving knowledge economy, we need to adjust our thinking and priorities regarding where we invest our time and money. Just as people want to consume content in multiple ways, today’s consumer wants the convenience to buy online when and where they feel like it.
Here are 5 essential online assets worth building and optimizing as it is time to invest in our digital assets with the attention and investment that the 21st century demands.
1. Website/Blog – Secure your domain name, arrange the hosting and buy the content management system or template such as WordPress to present your content to the 2.5 billion online netizens. A business owner or a professional services consultant that is not visible on Google is often perceived as a nobody.
2. Online Store – As technology and eCommerce software matures, it is important for businesses to create a serious online option for customers as competitors from other part of the world are just a click away.
3. Mobile – it is important to build apps and websites that are able to be easily viewed on mobile screens as most customers are now using mobile devices.
4. Social – Social media channels like LinkedIn, YouTube, Slideshare, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or Pinterest are some of the channels you need to secure and brand with your presence as these are often used by customers in search of your business.
5. Content – Content is the foundation of your online presence. Make content that is hidden visible to the search engines and attract readers with captivating headlines. Content is any digital information that can be built and shared online.
Read more at What are 5 Digital Assets Worth Investing In?
News on Google Marketing, according to Marketing Pilgrim: The Official Google Blog announced that after a long 19-month review, the FTC investigation into Google’s policies and practices has finally come to an end.
The Official Google Blog stated that:
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission today announced it has closed its investigation into Google after an exhaustive 19-month review that covered millions of pages of documents and involved many hours of testimony. The conclusion is clear: Google’s services are good for users and good for competition.
Google Inc. has agreed to change some of its business practices to resolve Federal Trade Commission concerns that those practices could stifle competition in the markets for popular devices . . . as well as the market for online search advertising.
Under a settlement reached with the FTC, Google will meet its prior commitments to allow competitors access – on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms – to patents on critical standardized technologies needed to make popular devices . . . Google has agreed to give online advertisers more flexibility to simultaneously manage ad campaigns on Google’s AdWords platform and on rival ad platforms; and to refrain from misappropriating online content from so-called “vertical” websites that focus on specific categories such as shopping or travel for use in its own vertical offerings.
The review led to three basic changes in Google; Third Party Content, Google AdWords and Patents.
Read more at Both Sides Claim a Victory in the FTC Case Against Google
News on Google Marketing, according to Wall Street Journal: To gain more online advertising dollars, Google Inc. is using one of the company’s most important recent initiatives, Google+. The company is challenging Facebook Inc. by requiring people to use the Google+ social network.
By using this controversial tactic, people who create an account to use Gmail, YouTube and other Google services are being set up with public Google+ pages that can be viewed by anyone online.
According to people who are familiar with the matter, Google Chief Executive Larry Page has sought more aggressive measures to get people to use Google+. This was created to prevent Facebook from dominating the social-networking business. By improving its integration with other Google services, Google+ seeks to challenge Facebook.
Both companies made the most of their revenues from selling ads. But Google wants to have the same kind of information Facebook gets by connecting people’s online activities to their real names, and knowing who those people’s friends are. By having a closer integration of Google+ across its many properties, Google will be able to acquire this kind of information and target people with more relevant and more profitable ads.
Other forms of integration have been done by Google in recent months. Like for people who want to post their reviews of restaurants or other businesses, they are required by Google to use their Google+ profiles. The same rule applies for reviews of smartphone software “apps,” as well as physical goods, obtained through Google.
By default, a user’s Google+ profile page is public and will turn up in a Google search. However, it is possible to change a setting so that the page doesn’t show up in search results. There is also a way for people to disable or delete their Google+ accounts.
Read more at There’s No Avoiding Google+
Other Social Marketing Articles of Interest
The FTC and Google: A Missed Opportunity
Facebook is No. 1 social network in 127 countries, study finds