Late last week, Google updated the way social results display in search. They first released their social search experiment in 2009 with the hopes of adding more value to results on a personal level. Initially the social results showed up in one or two entries at the bottom of the page, below the top 10 organic listings. With the latest changes, social results show up everywhere, in any position 1-10.

You’ll notice in my search for a “milwaukee interactive agency,” Fullhouse is ranked number one. Below the listing it shows a notation that one of the people in my social circle, in this case Eric Zoromski, shared the link on Twitter.

Some highlights of the changes:

• Search results are tagged by recommendations from those in your social circle
• Your social circle is defined (currently) by your friends or connections on Twitter, LinkedIn and Flickr
• Pages that are linked to by users in your social circle can be ranked higher for a given search term than if they had not been linked to at all
• Social search results are only displayed when you are logged in

It’s all about the “circle of trust”

As an agency that strives to connect the dots by focusing on how we can make it easier to connect the buyer to the seller using interactive marketing techniques across multiple channels, we believe this change opens a lot of doors for our clients and their customers.  A 2009 Nielsen study showed a staggering 90% of respondents trust recommendations from people they know. A Pew Internet study showed that 49% of those responding use a search engine on a daily basis. Mash those up and what do you have? An interactive “word of mouth” solution for search.

What this means for your organization

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for organizations of all sizes to increase visibility in search due to the sheer volume of competition. We’ve written a lot about the benefits of optimizing for universal search, and these latest changes to Google social results are no exception. Taking every opportunity you can to increase visibility will help level the playing field and play a critical role in achieving organizational objectives.

In addition to improving the rankings of your pages in search results, linking your pages on social profiles will also work to increase your organization’s visibility on a broader level. While it may be that you are not personally on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, chances are your customers are using them. Simply having a basic social media profile on relevant networks will show your customers that you are listening and ready to engage when needed.

Going social doesn’t only help you in search

The best place to start is by taking a look at how your organization is represented in social media. If you don’t have a Twitter account, Facebook fan page and LinkedIn profile then you are missing out on free-to-use heavily trafficked outlets that may help you generate sales. If you do have profiles – make sure you are actively engaging your friends, fans and followers. Share links to your site that you think would be relevant and useful. If your audience truly does find value, then they will be more apt to tweet and share.

Make it an objective to get more social in 2011 – your customers will thank you.

Thanks to our clients, partners and prospects who attended our webinar today, titled “How to create a content strategy that connects with buyer 2.0.” We hope you found it valuable and that you came away with some ideas and information that will help you create and leverage content that connects with your buyers.

In the webinar, we discussed the importance of understanding your audience, the types of content relevant throughout the buying journey and how to prioritize delivery channels.

The session began with a look at the changing B2B buyer landscape and why a content strategy is more important than ever. We also shared how to map the buyer journey, the building blocks for a successful content strategy and a QuickStart worksheet. In addition, there is a real-life case study showing how we worked with InSinkErator to develop and implement a content strategy for their Evolution series product launch.

If you missed it, don’t worry, we recorded it so you can watch it at your convenience. Feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues too.

VIEW RECORDED WEBINAR >>

Please leave a comment below with any feedback about the webinar or topics you’d like to see discussed in our future webinars.

The iPad was a revolutionary advancement for consumers. A light-weight, simple platform that’s extremely portable and fun to use; who wouldn’t love it? The price point for the iPad has opened up a lot of possibilities because it’s considerably more cost-effective than most touch screen tablet computers. When it was unveiled, I was extremely excited about the potential to adapt the consumer-marketed tablet into a tool with commercial applications. The time has finally come to start making things happen.

The third party market for iPads has opened the world to savvy digital architects. We now have mounts available that cover the “home button” restricting users from escaping your application to play with other features and applications on the tablet. This in itself is huge. We’ve developed applications for the iPad already, but they’ve always required a brand specialist to facilitate the experience. Now we can develop self-guided experiences, reducing the cost per interaction.

There are a lot of additional new gadgets besides mounts. Bluetooth enabled bar code scanners, SD card readers, camera connection kits and air print allow us to create a myriad of new applications for client programs. Whether it’s an interactive sweepstakes using a bar code scanner or a photo-capture program, the cost of entry for hardware is much less thanks to these third party add-ons.

Digital signage programs designed for the iPad are also noteworthy. In the past, clients have recognized the value of using digital signage in a retail environment to grab a customer’s attention and influence their purchasing decision right at the point of purchase. Unfortunately the cost and complexity of the hardware has prohibited its use. Software manufacturers have now developed digital signage platforms specifically for the iPad. I look forward to testing these platforms and seeing how we can create low-cost solutions for our clients and provide a new brand experience for their consumers.

There have been quite a few mainstream news articles as of late touching on search and the impact it has on businesses, from the smallest shops to the largest brands. Over the weekend, the New York Times dropped a bombshell by bringing attention to an elaborate link scheme hatched by the search marketing firm managing the campaign for Fortune 500 retailer J.C. Penney. It’s the largest brand to get penalized by Google for violating search quality guidelines since BMW in 2006.

Background on J.C. Penney Paid Links

Curious as to why retailer J.C. Penney ranked in the #1 position on Google for search terms like “dresses,” “furniture,” and “skinny jeans,” the NY Times began investigating the search engine optimization tactics used to achieve the unusually high rankings. According to the article, and verified by an independent technical analysis, it was determined that J.C. Penney purchased a large quantity of links from networks and/or individual web sites for the primary purpose of ranking #1 in Google for those keywords, and likely many more. After the story went to press, Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Web Spam Team, confirmed via Twitter that they’ve looked into the issue and implemented steps to fix it.

On the surface the issue seems rather technical in nature; however, there is a lesson to be learned by marketers at all levels – achieving the top spot in Google is worth the investment when done legitimately, but costly and high risk when engaging in “black hat,” or unethical SEO tactics, like the one called out in the article.

Why They Bought Links

J.C. Penney and/or the SEO agency that manages their account didn’t buy links from Chinese cooking, Bulgarian property rental, or online gambling websites because they felt it could drive qualified traffic to JCPenney.com. They bought the links because Google and other major search engines place an enormous amount of weight on both the quantity and quality of links pointing to a page when determining how the said page relates to a user’s search. While you can look at the sites linking to JCPenney.com and argue that they are not from quality sources, the sheer volume of links alone were enough to tell Google, Bing and others that J.C. Penney was the place to go when searching for “dresses” and “skinny jeans.”

Building Links without Breaking Your Brand

Building links and benefiting from increased traffic doesn’t have to be a gamble. At Fullhouse, we help our clients develop link building strategies that work, while adhering to search engine quality guidelines. While there are many ways to attract links to your site, we’ve found some of the best ways include: 

• Creating content in the form of articles, videos, and whitepapers that are relevant and high quality so readers naturally link to and share them.
• Submitting your site to local, topical, and high-value directories & organizational listings
• Researching competitors and going after links pointing to their site

With so many options available, there’s really no need to buy links and break the rules. The short-term jump in traffic isn’t worth the long-term risk of getting penalized… or worse.

Living in the agency world, we attend a lot of webinars. I’ve found that even the most elementary ones usually leave you with at least one nugget to walk away with. So, while they’re not always the most riveting, they are usually worth it.

It’s also nice when an upcoming topic aligns with something your customers have asked for, or you have decided to proactively pitch. They can be a checklist of sorts that helps you verify you’ve covered all the important angles.

Also, as an agency, we recognize the importance of conducting webinars. It’s a chance to position ourselves as thought leaders, build name recognition, show clients and prospects how smart we are, all that good stuff we aspire to. In short, it allows you to create a brand experience (and hopefully differentiate yourself).

Today, I was pleased to get an invitation to a webinar about mobile barcodes. Recently, two colleagues asked me for some assistance positioning it with their clients, so I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to get us all on the same page and maybe even generate a few new thoughts.

My pleasure quickly turned to confusion, when having read the invitation three times, noticed no date or time was identified. I wondered, “Hmmm, maybe it’s a download or pre-recorded event that will be offered on demand. That would be cool because now I don’t have to arrange our schedules!”

Then I registered. Upon submitting my information, I was taken to a screen that read, “Thanks for your interest. A [company name] representative will contact you soon with details about the mobile barcodes webinar.”

“Really? OK, gonna cut them some slack here, maybe I’ll receive an auto-generated email with the specifics.” So far, it’s been an hour. No e-mail, no phone call – how’s that for an experience. Even on the off chance they do get me to attend, my opinion of this company’s “expertise” is falling pretty quickly.

Then I spotted it; the component of their integrated marketing plan that was clearly not thought out. The Thank You page offered me one piece of value…

Wait for it…

“Share This” functionality.

Yep, I’ve been able to share my experience very efficiently across Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz and a myriad of other channels.  I’ve shared more links than Uggs at a Bieber concert, and somehow I feel a little better.