Facebook Becomes a Bigger Hit than Google

By: Chris Nuttall and David Gelles, Financial Times

Social networking website Facebook has capped a year of phenomenal growth by overtaking Google’s popularity among US internet users, with industry data showing it has scored more visits on its home page than the search engine.

In a sign that the web is becoming more sociable than searchable, research firm Hitwise said that the two sites accounted for 14 percent of all US internet visits last week. Facebook’s home page recorded 7.07 percent of traffic and Google’s [GOOG 560.00 -6.40 (-1.13%) ] 7.03 percent.

It is the first time that Facebook.com has enjoyed a weekly lead over Google.com. The lead may be slim, but it has become inevitable as Facebook’s popularity has grown rapidly from just over 2 percent of visits a year ago. Heather Dougherty of Hitwise said that Facebook had “reached an important milestone” with the weekly figures.

Facebook’s membership has more than doubled in the past year, passing the 200 million mark last April and 400 million in February.

“The true value of Facebook and social networks is just becoming clear to marketers,” said Augie Ray, analyst at Forrester Research.

Although Facebook is enjoying rapid growth, it is only beginning to cash in on its success. Revenues at the social media company are estimated to be in the range of $1 billion to $1.5 billion this year, while Google took in $23.7 billion last year.

Google has responded to the ascendancy of the social networking site with its own Buzz service last month. Buzz allows users to add status updates, friends, pictures, videos, location information, comments and links to other networking sites. Buzz, though, has struggled with privacy concerns just as Facebook has been criticised for encouraging members to reveal personal data to search engines.

The Hitwise figures only cover visits to the Google.com site, meaning that services such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and searches carried out in a box in a browser toolbar are excluded. Taking all Google properties into account, the internet company accounted for 11.03 percent of US website visits last week, compared with 10.98 percent for Yahoo [YHOO 16.44 -0.12 (-0.72%) ] properties and 7.07 percent for Facebook, according to Hitwise.

Facebook’s trajectory suggests that it will soar ahead of Google.com in the coming months. However, social networking sites have fallen in the past. Google.com had led since September 2007, when it overtook News Corp’s [NWS 16.56 -0.14 (-0.84%) ] MySpace.com.

Internet users worldwide spent more than five-and-a-half hours a month on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Nielsen Company research firm.

US users spent nearly six-and-a-half hours on Facebook compared with fewer than two-and-a-half hours on Google.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

© The Financial Times Ltd 2010. “FT” and “Financial Times” are trademarks of the Financial Times.

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Having an online presence isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.

Bing vs. Google

Read the article below or go to Time Magazine’s Article:
TIME ARTICLE

Bing vs. Google: The Conquest of Twitter
By JOSH TYRANGIEL / SAN FRANCISCO

Microsoft revealed a nice little coup in its dual quests to make search more dynamic and crawl its way into Google’s monolithic grill. At the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, the company’s digital head, Qi Lu, announced that three-month-old Bing had reached an agreement to crawl all of Twitter’s public results in real time. Bing’s Twitter search — Bing.com/Twitter — is already live.

For Microsoft, latching onto Twitter’s rise is more than just a big marketing win; it’s also a technological victory. Twitter is a huge, previously untapped resource in the movement toward search that relies on real-time data rather than archived links. (There was also a strong industry rumor that a similar deal between Bing and Facebook had been reached, though neither party commented on that.)

(Update: Not so fast, Microsoft. A few hours after Bing announced its Twitter deal, Google announced one of its own. The second Twitter deal of the day doesn’t quite erase Bing’s advantage. Bing’s Twitter search is already live, whereas Google’s Social Search, which was previewed at Web 2.0, is a few weeks away from launch. But it does change the day’s big-picture winner. That would now be Twitter. Neither Microsoft nor Google revealed the terms of their Twitter deals, but the critical point is that there were terms. For Twitter, and more importantly for its investors, that means selling its public data is the beginning of a revenue stream. And while the search giants battle over how best to aggregate that data, Twitter can celebrate the fact that companies with very deep pockets are willing to compete for the honor.)

In a demo by Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the online audience business group at Microsoft, a number of advances were immediately apparent. The most important for Twitter fans is that Bing reorders the massive, unwieldy Twitter stream by creating a “social relevance” score based on the quality of the tweet — “Life sucks” for instance, would not achieve high relevance — as well as the popularity of the tweeter. Then the tweet is run through spam and obscenity filtration to get a final result.

Bing-Twitter search also allows users to separate the most popular embedded links from the tweets that surround them, allowing people to understand the source of a conversation without having to endure the din surrounding it. Bing-Twitter also expands a tweet’s bit url and shows users the real domain, creating greater transparency before you click. In short, Bing makes Twitter make sense.

What this means for Twitter, which has been answering questions about possible revenue streams almost since its founding, is still unknown. Qi Lu refused to announce any terms of the deal, and Twitter CEO Evan Williams was similarly mum. But for Microsoft, it’s another territorial advance in what’s shaping up to be a very interesting search war.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1931532,00.html#ixzz0hw7pggut

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Having an online presence isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.

10 Ways Twitter Will Change American Business

Microblogging platform Twitter has 32 million users, an increase from about 2 million a year ago, according to research mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. Some Internet measurement services show that figure increasing 50% to 100% month over month. While it is not clear that Twitter will become as large as social networks MySpace and Facebook or video-sharing site YouTube, the company could certainly have 50 million visitors by the end of the year. View the 10 ways Twitter Will Change American Business here.

Because Twitter can be used with ease on both PCs and mobile devices, and because it limits users to very short messages of 140 characters or fewer, it has become one of the largest platforms in the world for sharing real-time data. A number of large businesses and celebrities have hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. This includes personalities like Oprah and Ashton Kutcher. JetBlue (JBLU), Whole Foods (WFMI) and Dell (DELL), along with other multinational corporations, are among the most followed names on the service.

As Twitter grows, it will increasingly become a place where companies build brands, do research, send information to customers, conduct e-commerce and create communities for their users. Some industries, like local retail, could be transformed by Twitter — both at one-store operations that cater to customers within a few blocks of their locations and at the individual stores of giant retail operations like Wal-Mart (WMT). In either case, having the opportunity to tell customers about attractive sales and new products can be done at remarkably low cost while providing for greater geographic accuracy.

For Twitter to be a part of a company’s efforts to communicate with customers, the customers must be willing to “follow” the company on Twitter. That allows the individual consumer to choose which firms he is willing to get messages directly from. It may not be surprising that “new age” brands like Whole Foods and JetBlue have large followings and older and much larger brands like Kroger (KR) and American Airlines (AMR) do not. Whole Foods and JetBlue have successfully marketed themselves as being “customer-centric” — the kind of companies that would not misuse the access to a customer’s private Twitter information.

While there may be commercial value for using Twitter to communicate with customers, the danger is that the Twitter community could turn against a marketer viewed as being too crass by being relentlessly self-promoting. Twitter users have set up their own rules of conduct when using the service, not unlike those with MySpace and Facebook. These rules were not put together by Twitter itself, which mandates only rules of use. Like many social-network sites, Twitter is self-governed by its members, and companies must take that into account as they join the service.

Twitter is still in the early stages of developing a plan for making money as a company, but plenty of large corporations like Starbucks (SBUX) are already using it as a marketing tool. Twitter will probably evolve into both a community of individuals and a community of companies that provide goods and services for those individuals.

24/7 Wall St. has come up with 10 ways in which Twitter will permanently change American business within the next two to three years, based on an examination of Twitter’s model, the way that corporations and small businesses are currently using the service and some of the logical extensions of how companies will use Twitter in the future. Some of these firms are already using Twitter, but their efforts are in the earliest stages of development. 24/7 Wall St. evaluated other sensible and potentially highly profitable ways Twitter’s real-time, multiplatform presence is likely to be exploited — in the best use of that word — to expand businesses both large and small.

— Douglas A. McIntyre

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1901772,00.html#ixzz0hw6fFtF0

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Having an online presence isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.

Google Buzz = Facebook + Twitter + Flickr + GChat + YouTube + Wave

Google Buzz = Facebook + Twitter + Flickr + GChat + YouTube + Wave

By Peter Ha on February 9, 2010

Today in Mountain View, CA, Google revealed Buzz, a Twitter- and Facebook-like social networking feature that’s been integrated into Gmail that also extends into Android devices and iPhones. It does a little more than inform your followers or friends as to what you’re eating for breakfast, though. Buzz allows you to share links, images and videos in a IM-like manner that makes sense.
Buzz’s five key attributes are as follows:
Auto-following: Buzz automatically follows the Gmail contacts you converse with the most, so there’s no need to find people to follow.
Rich, fast sharing experience: Pictures that you choose to share aren’t relegated to tiny thumbnails that you’d otherwise need binoculars to see. Buzz has an integrated slideshow feature that enlarges photos on the fly.
Public and Private Sharing: Your updates can be shared with your “circle of trust” or with everyone in your list of contacts in Gmail. Based on who you’ve shared your Google profile with are the folks who will see your private updates. You can toggle back and forth for each update.
Inbox Integration: Because Buzz is integrated into Gmail, you’ll always be in the loop if someone decides to comment on your Buzz and vice and versa. No need to get your notification in one place and have to launch a new tab in your browser to see what’s going on.
Just the good stuff: We all have friends that like to “check in” or share what they’re eating for lunch and Google realizes this, so they’ve taken updates of that nature and pushed them to the bottom of your Buzz feed. Buzz can also recommend folks for you to follow if a number of friends have commented on someone’s else Buzz that you might find interesting.

Google has extended Buzz to the mobile space. You can Buzz from your device to share what you’re doing while you’re out and about. The mobile Google homepage has been updated to include Buzz. What’s most interesting about mobile Buzz is how the service finds you when you’re trapped in a building that seems to block out the satellites hovering above. It takes into account your relative location based on carrier towers and time of day to present a list of nearby establishments that you could be at. Google Mobile Maps will also be getting the Buzz treatment via a new Layer.

* Buzz.google.com: This web app provides access to Buzz from your iPhone or Android phone’s browser, allowing you to view and create buzz messages. It has two different views: ‘Following’ view shows buzz from the people you follow, just like Google Buzz in your Gmail; ‘Nearby’ view shows public buzz that has been tagged with a location near you, and might be from people you don’t follow. From Nearby view, you can also select a specific place from the list of nearby places and view posts attached to that place.
* Buzz on Google Maps for mobile: The new Buzz layer allows you to see buzz near you or anywhere on the map. You can post public buzz directly from the layer, and even attach a photo from your phone. Also, try visiting a mobile Place Page to read recent comments or to post buzz about that place. You can access Place Pages from the web app as well, by tapping on the place name in any location-tagged post.
* Buzz Shortcut from Google.com: You will see the buzz icon in the top right corner of the google.com homepage. Just tap on the icon to trigger the posting box.
* Voice Shortcut: The voice shortcut, which is available in the quick search widget on Android and in Google Mobile App on iPhone, allows you to post buzz without typing anything. Just say ‘post buzz,’ followed by whatever you’d like to post.
But something I wonder is whether or not Gmail users will cling on to the service. I, for one, hardly ever go to Gmail on my computer. Nor do I ever use Google Chat. It does, however, make complete sense to launch Buzz within Gmail as opposed to its own stand-alone product like Orkut. You know what Orkut is, right? Me either.

Read more: http://techland.com/2010/02/09/google-buzz-facebooktwitterflickrimwave/#ixzz0hw5lziWu

http://techland.com/2010/02/09/google-buzz-facebooktwitterflickrimwave/

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Having an online presence isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.

How To Stay In Touch With Prospective Employers

How To Stay In Touch With Prospective Employers

By: Caroline Ceniza Levine

A former coaching client reached out with this question: Is it okay to connect to a prospective employer on LinkedIn?

The short answer is, “Of course!”

LinkedIn is a professional networking site, and your contact at the prospective employer is a burgeoning professional relationship.

However, this client shows reluctance similar to what I hear from other jobseekers around staying in touch with prospective employers.

There is the fear of appearing too aggressive, too desperate or too forward. Whether to connect on LinkedIn is part of a broader question around the best way to stay connected to prospective employers without being a pest.

The first step is to establish the reason to stay connected.

This is why it’s so important to focus the interview on establishing a relationship that will lead to more conversations, rather than trying to close on a specific job.

The strength of the relationship, even if it’s a starter relationship, gives the prospective employer the desire and the rationale for staying connected (via LinkedIn) or otherwise.

Did you give your contact good reason for wanting to stay in touch?

The second step is to understand the best way to stay connected.

Does your contact use LinkedIn?

If they are a recruiter, they most likely will be active and welcome a connection. If they are a senior executive and many levels above you, their LinkedIn connections might be more privately held, and you might want to first connect via email and phone. At the interview (or mixer or wherever you met), ask how best to stay in touch. Ask explicitly if they’d like to connect via LinkedIn.

Finally, when you do connect, the third and subsequent steps are to follow up, follow up and follow up.

This is not about checking in on openings.

This is about expanding and deepening the relationship by focusing on their needs.

Ideas for business solutions. Referrals to helpful people. Congratulations when you hear good news about their company.

These are just some of the many connection-focused touches that demonstrate your expertise, reflect your generosity, and have the added bonus of allowing you to stay in touch.

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Having an online presence isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/35725491

Ads Posted on Facebook Strike Some as Off-Key

Interesting article on CNBC – CLICK HERE

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Make Blogging A Part Of Your Business Strategy

Blogging can really deliver many benefits to a business. Make blogging a part of your business strategy.
by: Lawrence Perry

Read Below or go to the link HERE

Social media use continues to grow. Millions of people now spend many hours online daily and so companies can really benefit from using social media as well. Blogging is a cost-effective way of using the internet to send messages to the public. It can be as formal or as informal as you like. You just have to think of blogging as serious business. You can use tour blog to boost your image online.

And because in today’s business environment, your image means a lot, you really need to take advantage of blogging for business. If you want to make blogging a part of your business strategy, you need to make sure that you create a good blog that is easy to navigate and contains great content. How your blog looks, how easily people can navigate through the pages and the kind of contents you have in your site will determine how beneficial your blog can be for business.

It is very important to have a blog that represents your business well. Even an informal blog with humorous content shouldn’t be badly done that it affects your business image negatively. How your blog looks matter; what you put in the blog matters. Always remember that.

CatchFriday, a virtual assistance company in the United Kingdom understands how important blogging is for businesses. This is why it aims to create and manage the best blogs possible for its clients. If you want to make blogging an integral part of your business’ communication strategies, you have the option of hiring a virtual assistant from CatchFriday who can do all the blogging tasks for you. The VA can write, do research, upload content, moderate comments and do all of the other tasks associated with blogging. Blogging may seem like an easy task but with all of the other tasks in the workplace, blogging is most likely the task that you will end up neglecting.

Make sure you have fresh contents for your readers by hiring CatchFriday to manage your blog. For a minimum of $10 per blog entry you can have a well-maintained blog that offers fresh and meaningful contents to clients. The company can help you create and maintain a blog that will deliver results for your business. Now you can take advantage of blogs for your business even if you don’t know where to begin or if you do not have time to dedicate to blogging.

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http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=106609&catid=548

Facebook Pages Get More Business Friendly

Great article and great source of cool marketing tips:

DUCT TAPE MARKETING ARTICLE

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Creative Business Uses of Twitter

Business Week Article – Blogspotting

LINK TO ARTICLE

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Social Media: The New Career Norm

by: Phil Stott

LINK TO ARTICLE – or read below

Last week, several signs came together to further underline the fact that social media is no longer an emerging trend or passing fad, and that it’s gone beyond the realm of the personal and become a fully-fledged part of our working lives.

Consider the following pieces of evidence:

Facebook surpassed Yahoo to become the second most visited Web site in the country.

In January this year it drew some 133.62 million unique visitors, while Yahoo [YHOO 15.79 0.48 (+3.14%) ] came in just behind with 132 million.

That left Facebook second only to Google [GOOG 532.69 5.89 (+1.12%) ] in terms of internet popularity.

Consider the possibilities for your career—or your business—that exist in a place where more than 130 million people regularly congregate to share information and ideas. In the U.S. alone: worldwide, Facebook now has more than 400 million users (including a certain career information Web site).

If you’re not already on Facebook, the only question that remains is: why not?

Holding out at this point is akin to being the last guy in the office in the ’90s to switch from typewritten memos instead of email, all the while maintaining that this PC thing was just a fad. Even if you’re not planning on using Facebook for networking yourself, having a passing acquaintance with something a third of the country—including most of your current colleagues and competitors and everyone you’re likely to hire in future (at least in the 35-and-under demographic)—can hardly be a bad thing.

The new director of BBC Global News has mandated that journalists working under him either “get with the social media program or get out.” Socialmediatoday reports that he told the Guardian, “This isn’t just a kind of fad… I’m afraid you’re not doing your job if you can’t do those things. It’s not discretionary.”

More specifically, the Guardian report says that:

“Aggregating and curating content with attribution should become part of a BBC journalist’s assignment; and BBC’s journalists have to integrate and listen to feedback for a better understanding of how the audience is relating to the BBC brand.

Horrocks, formerly head of the BBC’s multimedia newsroom, finds clear words for it: ‘If you don’t like it, if you think that level of change or that different way of working isn’t right for me, then go and do something else, because it’s going to happen. You’re not going to be able to stop it.’” (Emphasis added).

Anyone think that the section emphasized above will only apply to the media field? Me neither. And even if it does, major media organizations shifting their models to account for social media means two things: first, that they’ve seen the writing on the wall for traditional aggregation and distribution models and, second, that anyone who’s hoping to keep up with events relevant to their industry in this age of information overload would do well to follow where the most trusted names in media are leading.

Where would a discussion of social media be without Twitter? Billboard reports that Twitter’s traffic increased some 8 percent from December to January. The 73.5 million unique visitors it drew in January means the company “can boast year-over-year growth of more than 1,000%, as it had only 6 million unique visitors in January of last year.”

Look around you.

The only other thing still expanding in this economy is bonuses for bankers, and even they’re nowhere near 1,000 percent gains in a single year. The only place that Twitter—and the rest of the major social networking tools—are going is deeper and deeper into our psyche and culture.

If you’re not sure where to start in the social media realm, sign up for an account with both of the tools listed here: they’re free, after all, and require you to invest nothing more than a little bit of your own time. From there, do some digging. If you’re interested in what the tools can do for your business, check out what your competitors are doing. Google some best practice tips. Above all else, get involved: that’s what all these tools are there for, and you can’t start getting anything back from them until you put something in. So go on: you have nothing to lose but your inhibitions.

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