Marker Studio - Full Service Digital Agency » Online Reputation

What Google’s Social Search Means For You

Evan Mather — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:54:45 +0000

This week Google starts rolling out “Search, plus Your World”. It is the search engine’s latest & biggest push to making search more personal and social through further integrating its Google+ social network into users search results. Google search has 3 new key features:

1. It gives searchers the ability to get personal search results – pulling posts & photos from your Google+ circles.

2. Google+ profiles are made more prominent in search. When selecting a Google+ profile in the autocomplete, you will be returned results about THAT Ben Smith that you already know instead of those you don’t:

3. Searching for a topic will also return results of people who frequently discuss the topic on Google+.

Thinking about these developments for a moment (and using your imagination of what else there is to come), if appearing in search results is important for you, you would want to get a Google+ page and invest in it as best you can as you would your Facebook page.

Google is recognising the people behind the content and the influence of those using it. It has taken steps recently towards this integration such as utilising authorship tags and pulling +1 button recommendations into search results and ads. It is taking search to the point where, in this latest move, the influence and network of the people that follow your Google+ page could be more important than all the pagerank & SEO you have achieved to-date.

Last year you didn’t need a Google+ page. The network’s market share plateaued, its usage slowed after its loud launch and we were all doubtful it would actually fly given Google’s track record in venturing to the social space in the past. However, the introduction of heavily personalised search results based on Google+ data outweighs any resistance to be involved.

Your standing on Google+ will soon determine how you perform on search. This is why it is important to have a Google+ page. Because search is becoming social. And by social, Google is only really interested in Google+.

Videos & screenshots of the new features are on Google’s blog.

A tag cloud for brands

Marker — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:26:43 +0000

The controversy regarding Tag Clouds is on-going. Some in our office think they are a great element that measures the pulse of the site its on. Other think they were and are passée and about as useful as blinking web text. Whatever your inclination towards tag clouds, I think Brand Tags will have you pleasantly surprised.

Brand Tags allows users to contribute to the collaborative perception of a brand. Contribute by tagging big names such as Nike, Pfizer, Visa and at least a hundred other well-known international brand names. It’s fun to see what tags others have given to your favs as well as contribute your honest tag opinions. A good time waster at the very least.

Get Ready You Tube – It's Hammer Time

Marker — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:00:57 +0000

MC Hammer (born Stanley Kirk Burrell) is behind the newest online video start up, due to launch soon. DanceJam.com is going after the niche of dance/music videos and hopes to become the key community for professional dancers and enthusiasts. Who can forget his unique dancing style and famous crazy large pants. The last I heard was that Stanley had reinvented himself as a TV evangelist having started his own church. He reportedly lost his fortune from his hit music career ending up over $13 million USD in debt.

There have been a few articles written about this already suggesting that DanceJam is going to give You Tube a run for their money, which is just crazy talk. This is a niche site from a start up with USD $1 million in venture funding. Add to that, the fact that You Tube doesn’t yet make a profit given the enormous costs of hosting and delivering online video, I think Google’s share price will be okay for now. They claim to have allowed for existing social networks in their strategy, but even so, I just can’t see how they can deliver something better than what you could put together already on a You Tube channel, a Facebook Group and a bunch of widgets. Let’s just hear from the man himself, you can watch the interview with Stanley on the GigaOm Show:

What is interesting is that this isn’t the first 90′s rap superstar to be involved in the Web 2.0 scene. Last year I posted on my own blog about The Tax Rap campaign featuring one hit wonder Vanilla Ice.

Another celebrity who reinvented himself as a web geek and has been an early blogger and now podcaster for Revision 3 is Will Wheaton who is most well known for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Stand by Me.

Who else do you think will resurface from the 90′s to the brave new world of Web 2.0?

Technorati Tags: dancejam

Facebook Beacon – The Saga

Marker — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:12:23 +0000

This blog post from the New York Times is an excellent summary of what has happened since Facebook launched their Beacon advertising service in November 2007.

Beacon is a programme that allows their advertising partner sites to prompt Facebook users on their website to post information about what they are doing back to their Facebook profile.

What happened when they launched was that this information was being sent by default, unless you specifically opted out of the service. The result was a massive campaign online to petition Facebook to change this to an opt-in service.

Facebook was accused of ruining Christmas as boyfriends inadvertently told their girlfriends, via the Facebook News Feed, what gift they had just purchased for them.

Anyway, read the post as it is an excellent synopsis.

Technorati Tags: facebook, beacon

The Lazy Marketer's Way to Understand How to Use Social Networks

Marker — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:21:22 +0000

Google OpenSocial, MySpace, Facebook. Are you confused yet?

No problem, our resident Half-Geek, James Fleet, will break it down for you with these three posts:

Technorati Tags: facebook, google, myspace, opensocial

Don't Mention The War – VW Lawyers Tell YouTube

Marker — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 09:55:02 +0000

Volkswagen were less than amused by a YouTube user creating a parody of one of their TV commercials featuring a Nazi theme.

They have filed a subpoena demanding that YouTube release the identity of the user that uploaded the video.

I’m struggling with this to be honest. I know that VW’s ad agency in the US developed the following TV commercials with the intention of pushing them on YouTube and other online video sites, effectively diverting traditional media spend into creative, production and talent.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the reasons why they would be upset, but you can’t have it both ways. Either you are embracing the benefits of social media and factor in the potential risk as part of the deal, or just don’t do it at all. Don’t try and leverage the medium to get free reach and then complain when it doesn’t go your way.

Legal remedies are not the answer, except for the lawyers. They are the only potential winners from all the online copyright legal action. You can’t control the web, and probably you just do more damage to your brand in the long term anyway trying to duke it out in the courts. I personally hadn’t picked up on this story before they filed the subpoena, and it will probably get more coverage now than if they had just let it be.

Technorati Tags:
vw, youtube, vwyoutube

Banking my way to brand loyalty

Marker — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 05:12:07 +0000

In the last couple of years I?’ve been a bit of bank whore. I?’ve had my experiences with their customer services and different aspects of the banks but the one main interface for my interactions was with internet banking.

Some internet banking sites just exude bad customer service. No doubt these sites are where most of their customers use the bank the most, and they are saving the banks tons of cash by staying out of the branches and off the phone so it would make sense to reinvest in getting your online services immaculate. It doesn?’t just need to do the job, it needs to do the job easily, quickly, reliably and then leave a mint on my pillow.

ASB ? you?’re going well. The system usability and design is great, but more customer service and friendliness would help. Netcode text verification makes you feel secure too about the bigger transactions. With you ASB, I?’ve banked my way to brand loyalty.

Westpac ? you?’re swell. The way you talk to me through, I like you. Very personal, easy to use and it doesn?’t look like DOS. It talks you and I would.

National Bank and ANZ. Honestly? If staff in your branches looked like this no one would ever visit

Yellow.co.nz Strategy: Sell advertising, without the selling

Marker — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:36:50 +0000

Recently as a part of an online interactive banner advertising campaign we had decided to include Yellow.co.nz into the media plan.

In summary ? it’s impossible to advertise on Yellow.co.nz. For such a big company that makes a majority of its money (perhaps close to all) from advertising, I was surprised. First a sales freeze, and now waiting on false promises. It?’s been over a month and I still haven?’t even seen a rate card when I was ready to book last week and even let them know. Compare this to using a console like Google AdWords, and I?’d take any day.

I do have to admit; the new site looks nice and works a lot better than the old one. However, it has been the biggest challenge to book any advertising.

The saga started over a month ago when I first contacted them for a rate card. First via an online form and after no response for 3 days, I followed up with a phone call to find out the funniest part ? they had a sales freeze.

Monday last week, I tried calling again and talked a nice young guy, who seemed to know what he was talking about and said he would help me by sending out an advertising rate card. Well that just made my day, until about 4 hours later when nothing had come through yet. So I called back, was transferred to him and left a message on his voice mail. Then, called back one more time about 5pm and got his voice mail again, I think the harsh role of advertising sales had taken its toll and he had gone home for the day.

I gave it a couple of days and tried calling again, this time making sure I let them know my situation of waiting on false promises and a lovely lady this time seemed oh-so friendly and surprised with my bad service to date. She vowed she?’d get a rate card out to me soon.

The next day rolls around and I get a call back (Talk about exceeding customer expectations, gold star for this). This time she just wanted to find out some more details about the campaign and some more contact details about me and who I was and said she?’d confirm availability and get a rate card to me ?"soon?". Brilliant.

Here I am today (one week later from first telling them I want to book) and I?’m waiting for the return of a call from multiple messages I have left.

Anyone else want to sell us some advertising?

I won the Free Lotto!

Marker — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:06:20 +0000

It looks like it’s come straight from the 90′s, the days of the suckers believing the false promises of being rewarded for being the 100th visitor to the website (probably a decent achievement at some point in time).

The funny thing is – people STILL seem to be suckering for it. Take a look at the sometimes sob but mostly anger stories.

When my cheque comes, I’ll let you know.

iPhone Mania

Marker — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:06:57 +0000

The blogosphere is going crazy with activity around the imminent launch of the Apple iPhone in the US this week. How would you like to see this level of activity…before your product and campaign has even been launched! The ability to see potential demand well in advance is one of the key benefits of Web 2.0 that I think is largely undervalued by marketers at the moment.

BlogPulse shows a rocketing level of activity over the last 2 months.

Meanwhile Technorati has so far tracked 182,971 posts tagged with “iphone”.

This must be the most widely anticipated mobile device product launch ever. Everyone is excited including this guy with his post “I can’t wait to steal the new iPhone!“. Kids on the streets of London had to stop wearing the distinctive white iPod ear phones as they were an open invitation to get mugged and have your shiny new iPod stolen. I wonder if iPhone is going to ignite another wave of street crime.

Here’s Apple’s official video demo of the iPhone:

Interestingly not many of the big tech bloggers seems to have been given preview handsets to review. The articles online so far seem mostly to be from mainstream media. Are Apple trying to avoid any Microsoft-stlye blogger outreach backlash? This is the most comprehensive review I have read on the Wall Street Journal.

Alas, the rest of the world must wait patiently for Apple to bestow iPhone status on them. No doubt UK will be next I think. I don’t know if you’ll be able to buy one overseas and then get it unlocked for a local GSM carrier, however, I’m sure some hacker/blogger will figure that out in a matter of weeks.

Technorati Tags: apple, iphone