Social Marketing: How Google’s Friend Connect Can Impact Your FriendRank

Google’s Friend Connect is the latest marketing tool in a long line of Google greats. As with all Google gadgets, Friend Connect keeps all Google tools tied together through one account. Now, small business owners may have yet another new social marketing competitor in Google’s FriendRank. Through social networking sites like Friend Connect, Google is able to see who has the highest number of contacts, related links, backlinks, etc. Here are just a few sources of data that may influence your worth via FriendRank:

Memberships. By joining social networking sites like Friend Connect, small business owners can improve their standing with Google’s FriendRank and improve their status in the social marketing arena. Both Friend Connect and FriendRank allow subscribers to make worthwhile connections with those of similar interests to positively shape the commercial attitudes of those who participate in the social networks.

• Quantity. Your social marketing strategy can only be successful through networks with a significant number of members. By joining those groups with a large following, you can more effectively impact the attitudes and actions of fellow members.

• Duration. Memberships that are not well-established indicate a newness that does not bode well for an enviable position with FriendRank. Long-term memberships tell FriendRank that you have made significant contacts and are a respected member of your various communities.

• Type. By allowing universal logins with Google, Yahoo!, AIM, and OpenID accounts, Google’s Friend Connect broadens your networking capabilities. The kind of groups you choose to join can then influence your target ad appeal according to FriendRank.

Friend Connect simplifies the process of finding and making “friends” through multiple social networking sites. FriendRank then uses information from the groups you choose to determine place specific target ads. By tracking group memberships and activities, Google’s FriendRank will try to present the most influential members with the most appropriate advertisements.

Friends. Your mother always told you that you are judged by the company you keep. Now Google FriendRank is following through with her threat. Small business marketing strategies may need some tweaking to take into account the target audience of not only the business itself but also those advertisers who are doing some targeting of their own.

• Number. With FriendRank, it is not just quality but quantity. Limited friendships mean fewer opportunities to have a lasting effect the behaviors within relative social networks and put a good word in for various products and services. Friend Connect can help you more efficiently find those friends that will add to your social marketing strategies.

• Frequency. How often other members choose to add you as a friend can affect how popular you are with FriendRank. Some reports show that FriendRank will even go as far as using your friends’ names in their target ads to attract your attention to the otherwise obsolete advertising banners placed of various social media pages.

Being selective when choosing social networking sites is becoming more important in the social marketing realm. Rather than joining every site you can find, your small business marketing strategy must now take into consideration which sites will give you more credibility and a higher rank among online advertisers.

Publications. “Publish or perish” has resurfaced as the motto to live by. Now it relates to the social marketing arena and those who are affiliated with various social networking sites. What you say and where you say it can give greater credence to your online presence.

• Articles. Say what you mean and mean what you say. And say it a lot. The more relevant articles you post the greater your chances of being judged an influential member of the online social marketing community.

• Comments. Your opinion is valuable with FriendRank. Take the time to not only join various social media sites but also contribute to them. By posting comments that will be read and passed along to other members, you can impact the placement of target ads as well as the probability of others’ following your advice.

Small business owners have been encouraged to take advantage of the social networking sites to spread the word about their products and services available. Sharing their expertise through the written word now carries more weight with those like Google’s FriendRank, who want to know who is reading, what they are reading, and where they are reading it.

Social marketing has been elevated to a whole new level. As the old saying goes, it is not what you know but who you know. By scanning the information from social media sites like Google Friend Connect, Google’s FriendRank can create target ads that will most efficiently affect the likelihood of generating business. As a small business owner, you are under the watchful eye of others to see how effective your online presence is to advertisers.

image credits to Binkiexxx

A Video Marketing Plan... Are You Ready?

So, you have perfected your social marketing plan, have you? You’re involved in blogs. You have a network of like-minded internet associates you communicate with regularly. You’ve established yourself as someone qualified to speak on topics in your niche area of expertise. Now, you’re ready to just sit back and rest on your laurels, right? Well, not so fast. If you have done all those things, then you are proficient at using the web to drive traffic to your website and interest to what you are offering. But, are there other social marketing strategies you can employ to further enhance your reputation and drive further traffic to your website? Is a video marketing plan in your future? Read on to discover how using video marketing strategies might increase your web traffic tenfold.

Viral Video... What is it?

When most computer users hear the words virus or viral they cringe with bad memories of lost data, locked up computers and general havoc. But, if you create a social marketing strategy based upon the concept of viral video you just might be pleasantly surprised. By definition a viral video is one that is uploaded to a social networking site, like You Tube, and suddenly “catches on” with users there. One person spreads it by posting it, or a link to it, in an email to all his friends. Those friends love it and soon the video has spread exponentially, like a virus, all across the internet. And, guess what… time after time these popular videos are embedded with someone’s video marketing plan, that is, a link to their website or some other contact back to the creator of the video. So, by using social marketing strategies, a business or enterprise or entrepreneur will drive new contacts to his/her site. Viral videos often get thousands, even millions, of internet hits in just a few days. What about it? You could stand that kind of exposure couldn’t you?

Video Marketing Plan... Where do you start?

How’s this for a smart aleck answer - start at the beginning. No, that’s not really a wisecrack. It’s just a statement of fact. The first step of implementing your social marketing strategies is to have, or invest in, a decent video camera that you can use to create the newest and best viral video out there. No, it doesn’t need to be a $1,000 to $2,000 dollar camera that could produce theatre quality video. In fact, you might already own one good enough to do the job. If not, $100 to $200 will get you in the game quite nicely. Do a little homework. Get a decent camera capable of delivering quality internet video for a reasonable price. With a good camera, your social marketing plan is off to a good start.

In the next installment we’ll discuss how to make a viral video that will captivate audiences and send your video marketing plan to the top of the charts. Just keep in mind these few pointers as you begin implementing social marketing strategies.

* It’s free - Where else can you get this kind of exposure, at any
price?

* It’s creative - Your video marketing strategies show who you are, and how
effectively you communicate your greatness.

* It’s fun - Seriousness is not the key of viral video… enjoyment is. A
video social marketing plan gets more results with a laugh than it does with a
sermon.

image credits to Sherman Tan