Google +1

Back in December 5, 2010, the first rumors surfaced on the social aspect of Google that is to be incorporated in searches: Google +1. This new Google initiative is said to take over what was rumored to be called "Google Me".

Yet, unlike the rumors, Google +1 is not set to kill Facebook, it's only competing with social networks' "share" buttons, the digital version of word-of-mouth and an epic weapon for viral marketing. Google +1 will certainly shake the digital world, at least from a marketing perspective, social sharing has reached a new peak by being incorporated in searches.

I was happy to hear that Google +1 will not be directly affecting SEO (awesome), the only effect it might have would be an increased traffic to certain recommended sites which will indirectly affect the rankings (very fair).

Check this video, it was posted on Google's official Youtube channel... and if you would like to test this Google service first-hand, join the experiment, I did.

Is Facebook Slowing Down?

Facebook is taking over the web. Like buttons are populating the digital world, and there is barely any website you can visit where you cannot find a Facebook icon. True. Almost everyone I know has a Facebook profile by now, and I say “almost” because a few newborns still do not have a page dedicated to them. Great! What next?

Facebook's Fall

Over the last few years, Nielsen has published the Top 10 US Web Brands. When it comes to the average time spent on the site, here is what was featured; the average US user is spending on Facebook:

June 2009 -  4:39 hours/month
January 2010 - 7:01 hours/month

With a 9.7% growth, digital analysts were starting to think that Facebook was unstoppable and was still in for a long haul. In fact, online predictions still seem to share the same vision.

Yet, what’s happening today?

January 2011 – the average US user is spending 7:24:12  hours/ month on Facebook.

A mere 6.6% growth for Facebook, almost at par with Wikipedia’s 6.8% and Google’s 6.0% growth for average time spent. 

My Personal Feedback

I must add, I no longer enjoy this website:

• Its walls are filled with compliments “thank you”s and “I miss you”s, and it stops at that, but nothing substantial.
• Its Top News feed displays the posts with the most likes and comments, consequently, if you have a high number of likes, you can be sure that half your Facebook friends have seen this post, and guess what? If they haven’t “liked” it, chances are, they do not.
• Not to mention that the algorithms tend to only show the people you have interacted with lately; thus, nothing new. Yes, it does get boring, seeing the same faces.
• Finally, some of its new features are really annoying; like the black background for the pictures; CoolIris was interesting, but only as an added feature, thank you.

To put it boldly, Facebook is no longer as interesting. I predict a decrease in the time spent on the site by next year.

#uniteLB for a #unitedLB

Trending on Twitter lately, are hashtags with many MENA countries, all "leading" their own revolutions/ reforms, or should I say "supporting"? Given the mayhem in the dictatorships and monarchies around, Lebanon, a democracy, was left out. For once, appearing serene and free from turmoil, for once, Lebanon was the safest in the region.  

...and then suddenly we were starting to identify opinion leaders in the region. Suddenly, we saw the power of the Twitter platform. Suddenly other media were quoting Twitter activity... and consequently people were interested in Twitter.

Well, we have seen @Ghonim among others tweet for Egypt... What about Lebanon? who can lead a revolution here? Lebanon might be "quiet" lately, but this does not mean that it has gotten rid of its problems... and we all know, Lebanese like to take part in the action; so #uniteLB for a better Lebanon.

Well, it seems like we have our own thought leader in Lebanon, one, as famous as it gets to the online community, even if not as a tweep, @habibh simply being the founder of http://www.yamli.com gives him enough authority. 

...So why the hashtag? No, we are not stupid enough to think that a tag can change the world. Yet media has its role to play, if it does not break systems, at least it builds hope and motivates people. What more does the media do anyway? ...and yet we refer to it as the "fourth branch of government".

Why Twitter Users Are Better Marketeers

Aside from being a great social media tool to gain up-to-date information in your industry, Twitter has many undisclosed utilities to marketing experts.

• You can study the impact of a message, copywriters, this one is for you! Look at the twitter replies and traffic generated to links, study the top tweets - you can get a good idea on what triggers the public's interest; a good lesson on how to formulate your slogans. 

• You know the reach of every user, you can study his impact as well. Use tools like klout. Who is a thought leader, and why? If you can identify them online, it would be easier to identify them in the real world.

• You can measure the frequency of every tweet, and how long it takes to generate an action... and this to me, is the most important point. We all get dragged by following trending hashtags and discussions, we all end up clicking that link that keeps getting retweeted. The question is, what frequency does it take?

I would say all three factors play a role. It takes a credible source (tweep), an intriguing tweet, and a certain frequency to incite people for action. 

All eyes on Twitter, watch and learn!

The Viral Marketing Revolution - Leads a Real Revolution #Egypt #Jan25

Jan 25, 2011 Egyptain Revolution:

Trigger

It all started with a protest on a Facebook page for Khaled Said, said to be killed by the Egyptian police (denied by the government). Organized on Facebook, and spread through viral marketing; the Egyptian revolution is the first of its size that takes full advantage of social networks.

Leaders

When we talk about a revolution, we talk about Leaders; and real leaders have followers. ..So what better place than Twitter for an online revolution?

Following the Egyptian revolution on Twitter is all the more touching - with the hashtags #tahrir,  #Egypt and #jan25. My personal favorites were the Lebanese @bloggerseif and @sarahkaram1 *ok, I am biased*. Here are some exerpt tweets:

 Action

This time around, it is not only the journalists that the government fears. No.  This time around, the torch of freedom is held by bloggers, twitter users and social media community leaders such as  @Sandmonkey and Google Marketing Manager Wael Ghoneim. 

Reaction

No wonder the internet got disrupted in Egypt following the #Jan25 revolution. This comes only to attest on the great role the techsavvy youth is playing in this upheaval. 

Barcode Marketing in Lebanon!

For the first time in Lebanon, barcode marketing gets adopted.

Granted, Lebanon is not the typical location where you would walk down the streets and get access to outdoor advertising, as is the case in the European metro stations where barcode marketing was most witnessed.

Yet, Captain and Captain found it adequate to use it on the "opening soon" poster on their new retail shop in City Mall- to be inaugurated on December 1st, 2010. "Scan barcodes with your mobile phone to find out more!" Linking to their Facebook and Twitter Accounts.

Save your Christmas shopping list, you are about to be dazzled!

Twitter- Lebanese Online Community Shines

Beirut, Lebanon - As Lebanon faced some security issues on its Southern borders with Israel, I happily noted a strong pro-Lebanese presence online. Israel might have been the first to spot the importance of internet marketing in this evolving world. However, August 3rd, 2010 witnessed a change in the scope of the digital world. It seems that Lebanon, with its dedicated individuals, need not an online army to counter the Israeli propaganda.

While the words "Lebanese" and "Israel" were trending on Twitter, (with an increased effort by the Lebanese tweeps to make "Lebanese" rank higher), I was surprised to see that the absolute majority of tweets were pro-Lebanon, but the best surprise was yet to come.

The top tweet for both words was by one of our own, shining with wit @sdarine, an awesome Lebanese marketeer, tweeted: " Israel should publish a guidebook “How to start a war and blame others 101″ #lebanese " and ended up with more than 100 retweets. (Check out her post on her top tweet )

Lebanese countered online Israeli spam with patriotic creativity.... and all I have to say is this: I am proud to be Lebanese.

..and finally to prove my point, I get tweeted at by a certain @idiplomats : "Israel Web Diplomats @idiplomats @BTRIsrael @carmelxp @mackrad @youmny Let's get the party started! http://bit.ly/idiplomats"

Talk about spamming and organized crime!

Diagnosis: Online Existencial Crisis

The digital world - I recall when we used to look up definitions and conduct research in big dusty encyclopedia's, scanning the letters, and trying to figure out the spelling. Not long afterward, we had the Encarta's CD encyclopedia, then came Wikipedia, the open-source encyclopedia. What's left for tomorrow?

Undergoing a course in customer behavior, the instructor asked us to look up a certain product. While, a few years ago, we would have used Google, the teacher was stunned as most students resorted to Youtube instead. I wonder what tools students are using today. Statistics show that Twitter has most recently become the top Search Engine in the world in terms of growth. What does that place all the SEO professionals who were used to channel all their efforts on Google?

The World Wide Web exonerates change, fast and irrevocable change.

No one can let his guards down. Everyone and anyone is "producing", "creating", "informing", can we keep up and "listen" to everything we HAVE to hear? I am loving Google Alerts at this point. However, how long can I keep this trend up? I am not sure.

I keep getting the feeling I am outdated, like a laggard. The reality of it all? Time, already a scarce resource, is becoming harder to find than ever. The real-time effect of technology is a killer, you get so many details in real-time feeds, that are bound to change tomorrow, it is overwhelming to track down all the progress, even of elements of interest. We are getting engulfed in minor details. We are looking at the world through a microscope and categorizing the findings in lists, favorites, bookmarks, as well as on pages like Stumbleupon and Delicious...

How many social profiles are you managing today? Personally, I can count at least 10. The day is already here when they are getting combined in one dashboard, thanks to social management tools made easier with API. What exactly does that mean? To me, it simply means that my privacy is dead, it was already in agony with watchers, followers and friends around on all those social websites.

Today, I, feel the need to take a break and set my eyes on the bigger picture, a vision of the lasting future... Forgive my agony.

Flattr - Flattr.com, My Review

Flattr - After reading Is Flattr the new Facebook Like, but this time with real money? on TechCrunch, I got excited about the concept and thought it was revolutionary. I @youmny tweeted about it. My tweet consisted of the following characters: "#Flattr a new social media that allows you to share funds, the same way you #digg... Interesting concept!" It took @flattr_e (yes, I liked the username too) less than 12 hours to respond with a Beta invite.

I was flattered by Flattr_e and happily accepted the invite to flattr.com Kudos for an amazingly well monitored environment, you might think. Those people impressed me too.

As I took a closer look at the offerings, I was repulsed by the Flattr terms of use, as they wer subject to change without notice. Was I to put money on a site with such terms?

Investigating a bit further, I found out Flattr was not much of a benevolent website. They took 10% of all transactions! Moreover, considering that revenues cannot be withdrawn unless they reach a certain threshold, the only real winners at the end of the day are Flattr.

I took a step back before posting this on my blog, as I thought how grateful I should be to have received a Beta invite. It did get me excited at first, but then again, looking at it objectively, every single additional user is equal to additional money for them, as each is required to pay a minimum of 2 euros per month. (yes, it's in Euros so far, I wonder how long that would last)

This got me thinking that the Beta invites might be just a smart way to make people feel special, give an exclusive feel. At the end of the day, you can even request an invite on the Flattr home page. Kind of smart, I agree. (Wasn't exclusivity at the beginning, reason behind Facebook's success?)

My last thought before leaving the site: This Flattr can turn out to be as profitable as a casino.

Social Voting Marketing

Social Voting Marketing has taken off with websites like Digg and StumbleUpon and Reddit. However, Social Voting Marketing is not only about "link baiting" even Youtube with the 5 stars rating has a type of social voting established. The concept helps the visitors get worthy content, and gives them a say in the standing of the subject.

SVM might have started with bookmarking. Nonetheless, the digital marketing world has learnt a valuable lesson from this trend.

After the success of voting websites in driving traffic and getting visitors hooked to their "cause", the trend spread over the internet. One of the initial broad successes, the new 7 wonders of the world, stem traffic by capitalizing on the feeling of Patriotism.

It relied on its participants' marketing efforts in their respective countries, thanks to which, it got promoted in offline media around the world and its results were publicized on news-worthy channels. The success of their first campaign was so prominent that they soon introduced the new 7 wonders of nature allowing the visitors to nominate the participants first and go through the voting process next. Eventually, the concept evolved to a ridiculous "open source" contests, where the visitors contribute to the competition creation as well as the voting under "vote 7 campaigns".

Social CRM, the Future of CRM

Social CRM is the future.

Social media and CRM combined, social CRM has a lot to offer.

While most CRM tools work on cross-tabbing the CRM data the company introduces to generate new CRM insights, the future of CRM will come once social media will start contributing data: Once the CRM systems will automatically excavate the web 2.0 social profiles to find additional profile data about our customers.

I am thinking something like Google Buzz or Rapportive, a profile that combines all online information, to be automatically added to the MIS customer entries and matched to the company's CRM entries to generate new marketing synthesis.

Maybe in the future everyone will have a single internet web 2.0 CRM page where CRM data can be updated online to include all information from governmental to personal on the internet. The stored social CRM data could serve everything from VISA applications to user verification and save precious form-filling time. CRM privacy settings can be applied by type of visitor. Then all we would have to do is give a CRM reference code. The OpenID initiative is already a good step to a web identity creation.

...Just a globalized digital vision of the future.