Google+ Launches Branded Pages

Posted by on Nov 10, 2011 in Blog, Social Media | No Comments

Google has finally unveiled brand pages for Google+, allowing businesses and brands to join Google’s growing social network.

“So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people,” said Google SVP of Social Vic Gundotra. “But we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands—so today we’re rolling out Google+ Pages worldwide.”

 

Google Plus Goes Corporate

Posted by on Nov 8, 2011 in Blog, Social Media | No Comments

Google had officially banned brands from using Google Plus (Google+) since its launch in June. That all changed Monday when they unveiled a new feature which, for be frank, makes it similar to rivals Facebook and Twitter.

The new feature, called Google+ Pages, marks a long-awaited policy change, finally allowing other businesses and brands to be able to create profile pages and adding other Google+ users to their “circles” (that’s Google’s version of Friends and Followers).

“So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people,” wrote Google SVP of engineering Vic Gundotra in a blog post announcing the news on Monday. “But we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands—so today we’re rolling out Google+ Pages worldwide.”

The few brand pages that have popped up so far are understandably bare bones, but  Mashable offers a compelling vision of what a fully-developed brand page might look like in the near future.

The real question at this point is to what extent brands will help Google grow its audience and engagement. The company has reported 40 million Google+ users have joined in the five months, giving it a faster rate of initial growth than either Google or Facebook.

It should be interesting to see what happens.

Infographic: Why Small Firms Don’t Use Facebook

Posted by on Oct 15, 2011 in Blog, Infographic, Social Media | No Comments

A survey by Pagemodo of 1,674 small business owners found “no time” was the reasons cited by 32.7% of them related to why they’re not using Facebook.

Infograhic: Social Media By The Numbers

Posted by on Aug 21, 2011 in Blog, Infographic, Social Media | No Comments

[Found via Mashable]

Google Dumps Twitter

Posted by on Jul 5, 2011 in Blog, Social Media | No Comments

Well this is an interesting development, via Business Insider:

Yesterday, Google suspended its Real Time Search feature, which gave users results from Twitter and a bunch of other real-time news sources. Today, Google told Search Engine Land the reason: its 2009 deal to suck information from the Twitter “firehose” has expired, and the companies haven’t reached a deal for Google to continue using it.

Google signed the deal in October 2009—right around the time Microsoft announced its own real-time search deal with Twitter. There seemed to be a “me-too” element to the deal at the time, like Google was almost forced to sign with Twitter so Bing wouldn’t have an exclusive.

But last week, Google launched its own social networking service, Google+. Part of the reason for Google+ is to give the company a home-built source of information about what people like and are following on the Web —the kind of “interest graph” that Twitter could so easily build by tracking what people are following.

So with Google+, the company doesn’t need Twitter as badly as it did two years ago.

Say what you will about Twitter, it is popular beyond words and if you really want to know what the “buzz” is at any moment on the Internet, it is the first place you should visit. Not really sure what Google is thinking here.

Cool Twitter Infographic

Posted by on Jun 26, 2011 in Blog, Infographic, Social Media | No Comments

[Found via The Next Web]

Warren Buffett: Social Networking Sites Overpriced

Posted by on Mar 25, 2011 in Blog, Business, Social Media | No Comments

Via Bloomberg:

Though he didn’t mention a specific company, Facebook’s valuation recently rose to $65 billion after private equity firm General Atlantic purchased 2.5 million shares. It’s not the only pre-IPO site with a billion dollar tag. Daily deals site Groupon is said to be valued at as high as $25 billion, while micromessaging network Twitter’s valuation just climbed to $7.8 billion.

Does anybody believe it takes an investment “wiz” to figure this out? You know, just asking.