This year’s soccer World Cup has become the first major tournament where Social Media has changed the way fans experience a global sporting event. Traffic on Twitter and Facebook has literally exploded since the tournament began and has continued to grow as supporters use these platforms to voice their support (and their disappointment) in real time. Conversations on Social Media have meant that the distinction between the fans who are at the match and those that are watching it on TV has become less important.

So these games suddenly have many more direct spectators than just those in the stadium.

Social Media can make fans feel like they are part of the event even when they can’t be at the game, and the level of tweets and status updates during the current tournament have been greater than just about any other event on the planet – a new record of 3,283 tweets per second was set as Japan knocked Denmark out. On June 12th, 30% of all status updates on Facebook were related to the USA’s game against England, and after the USA got through to the knock-out stages, their qualification was responsible for over 80% of the hot topics on Twitter.

When the last World Cup took place, Twitter was just a fledgling with nowhere near the 105 million users they have now. And with the activity that these and the 500 million Facebook users are generating, advertisers are looking to make hay while the sun shines. Major sponsors of the tournament and other big brands are focusing more of their marketing efforts on these Social Media platforms during the World Cup, with brands like Nike and Adidas getting millions of views for their tournament related campaigns.

It seems part of the reason for this huge increase in Social Media activity during the World Cup has a lot to do with the global TV coverage. Despite previous worries that Social Media could actually be a threat to television, it seems that millions of fans are combining the two, watching the events as they happen and then immediately voicing their opinions on their favorite networking sites.

Figures show site traffic for some of main news websites on the first day of the World Cup peaked at nearly 50% more visitors per minute than when President Obama was elected, showing the link between the internet and TV might be a lot stronger than expected, particularly when it comes to major sporting events.

Fans can even integrate their viewing and networking with a variety of plugins that let them watch the game and see real time updates as they come in. And many of the major TV networks have integrated Facebook, Twitter, and other feeds into their sports programming as it becomes adopted by more and more fans.

It looks certain that whoever wins this year’s World Cup, the real winner is going to be Social Media and the goalposts will have moved forever. As more and more people are using Social Media to hold their conversations in real time, sites like Facebook and Twitter have changed the way fans will watch this tournament, and just about any major sporting event, in the future.

As search engines go, Google has a fairly comfortable position at the top of the tree. Even Microsoft’s attempts to suggest that there is an alternative, don’t seem to be doing much to change that. So could it be that Google’s biggest challenge might come from a less likely source, like Facebook? With over 400 million active users, many experts have felt that Facebook always had some search potential, but there didn’t seem to be an obvious way to turn this into a reality. So what’s changed, and should Google and Bing be worried?

One of the biggest and most recent changes to Facebook could be a signal that they are ready to throw their hat into the ring and offer their users a search function that might become a real alternative to the usual search engines. I say “could be” because there haven’t been any big announcement that this is the plan, but it certainly seems to be becoming more and more likely.

These days, if you carry out a search on Facebook, as well as the usual Facebook pages you might expect to see, there could also be a number of links to external sites. While these are listed as pages, if you click on them, you are taken out of Facebook and into the third party’s website.

This has all come about because of the recent launch of Facebook’s Open Graph API, as well as 1 billion “Like” buttons across the whole internet – linking millions of pages to Facebook and its users. Websites that adopt the Open Graph API, and place the Like buttons on their pages, give their viewers the chance to link these pages to their Facebook profiles.

Once a site is “liked” by someone on Facebook, there is an good chance that it will show up in their, and their friends’, searches. Facebook seem keen to play down this search capability, saying that their Open Graph API and the Like buttons simply allow other pages on the net to effectively become Facebook pages, but what it could lead to has got some people quite excited.

As more and more website optimize their pages for inclusion in Facebook’s search results, the amount of third party links that will start to show up should increase, but could this really pose a threat to the other search engines. Well, the answer seems to be yes, and no.

Where Google is pushing ahead with real-time search and the Caffeine search index, to provide users with the very latest content, Facebook’s search results lag quite a bit behind. But there does seem to be more of a focus on providing search results based on a user’s location, and the sites that they and their friends have “liked”. Could this be the start of a more personalized search engine?

While Facebook might not have Google worried just yet, you can bet they’ll be keeping an eye on how things develop. And if they do develop the way many expect, it could be Facebook’s exclusive search partner bing, that actually has more to worry about.

I caught an interesting article over at MarketingPilgrim about some reports following the rates of abandonment from online shopping carts. This is of interest to anyone who wants to do business online, and it certainly raises questions about the value of online sales.

So let’s have a look at two studies quoted. The data was drawn from eConsultantcy Reports and came from a wide range of sources, but the article focused on two studies specifically.

One study by Forrester was quoted as stating that 88% of consumers had left shopping carts in the dust before, and they gave the top 5 reasons customers often abandoned a website shopping cart. Here’s the data presented:

1. High shipping costs – 44%
2. Not ready to purchase – 41%
3. Price checking – 27%
4. Price too high – 25%
5. Wanted to save products for later – 24%

A second survey by Webcredible gave another picture.

1. Hidden Charges at Checkout – 41%
2. Having to Register to Buy – 29%

Other reasons in the Webcredible study included a long process for checking out, unclear delivery details, and no phone number provided, but each of these reasons constituted only about 10% of the abandon rate.

So let’s have a look at these different data.

First off, it comes to no surprise as me that high shipping costs or hidden charges led to abandonment. In fact, I find it extremely annoying that so many internet marketers make you wait until you check out to see a price – does that even make any sense at all?

That phenomenon also leads to the “not ready to purchase”, the “price checking” crowd, and the “prices too high” in the Forrester study. Not to mention the 41% responding to hidden charges in Study 2.

So the real question is, why are marketers continuing to do this? Well, the ones who do must be convinced that getting more people to their shopping cart will mean more sales, regardless of why they are there. The thinking here is understandable, but I think flawed.

For one thing, by building up a sense of distrust with your customer, you make it much less likely they’ll buy. Think about how you feel when you click all the way through just to find out how much a product is and find out it is exceptionally high, or you click through just to be surprised with an extra charge, almost as if it were being “snuck in” there? Do you feel like buying from that person?

I think it’s best to just get it out in the open immediately. Make it clear how much your product costs and all charges involved so there are no surprises. Your customers won’t feel like they’re trying to dupe them, and you’ll get a much better idea of where your losing the prospect’s interest and why because if it’s out of their price range they won’t go clicking away just to find out.

Not to mention that I can personally confirm having left web pages simply because I saw no price…sometimes because I assumed the worse and other times because I didn’t feel like wading through a shopping cart for possibly no reason at all.

How about the other reasons given? Well the first study mentioned that consumers’ wanted to save the product for later, which makes it that much more essential to get their email address and stay in contact with them; however, if we look at Study 2, we can see that a lot of people detested the thought that they were being forced to register before a purchase.

It’s a bit of a contradiction of interests. Obviously, if you were in a store, you would say, “Great, you’re ready to buy – don’t worry about the registration for now then, and if you want to sign up for updates later, here are our details.”

But an online site is a bit too static to make those decisions for us. Still, you can make up for it by not forcing anything on your customers. They’ve got so many passwords and accounts spread across the Internet, the last thing they want is more – but if you make a COMPELLING enough reason for them to register, they will.
But don’t make that reason be the right to buy your product or you just might lose a sale. Make it optional, and make it attractive whether they buy or not.

If you’re already using Google News to get your hit of all the latest stories every day, you might have noticed there’s been a bit of a change. This is a result of the fact that the way users want to receive information over the internet has changed, and we now want to see more of the stories that affect us directly – as soon as they happen. Google knows this, and has always said they’re interested in how they can provide information that is more personal to the individual viewing.

And so as well as the changes they have made to their standard search index, and the launch of Google Chrome, they’ve also improved Google News, making it more flexible, personal, and sociable.

The latest News site is being rolled out in the US to start with, and the first thing you’ll notice when you land on the home page, is that is has a slightly different appearance, but you’ll have to look a little bit closer to find the best bits. The first is a new feature Google has introduced called “News for You”. Here you will find news stories automatically selected for each user based on what Google thinks they’re most likely to be interested in.

The idea is to provide the news stories that are relevant to each person, as well as the rest of the news from around the world. To fine-tune this function even further, you can help Google out by telling them what kind of stories you’d prefer to hear about. By letting them know if you’re more interested in business or sports, health or entertainment, you get more of the news that you want.

You can even include particular subjects you’d like your own personal newsfeed to focus on. The personalization options don’t stop there. If you tell Google News which news sources you are more interested in, the content on your news page will focus on including more information and stories from the sources you rate, and less from those you don’t.

Of course, there are still news stories that effect us all, and the Top Stories section gives you instant access to the big stories being covered by all the major news agencies – without overloading you with information. Each big news topic has a single link in the Top News section, and when you click on the link, it takes you to a list of all the stories about that topic, from each of the major news outlets.

There’s also more focus on the other stories which, although they might not be breaking news, don’t deserve to get lost in the sheer volume of news that gets generated. Google created its new Spotlight feature last year, to make these “other news” stories more visible, and it’s become so popular it’s got a better position in the new layout.

With easy access to the top stories, options to personalize your newsfeed and focus on news and information that’s local to you, the changes to Google News are designed to give you all the stories you want to see in one place. And with new options that let you share stories with your friends, by e-mail and other social networking sites, you could be breaking the news and not just reading it.

After defining your target audience and doing keyword research, you need to evaluate your competition. You need to figure out what makes your company different and market accordingly. The only way you can do this effectively is by “spying” on your competitors to learn all you can about them and their strategies.

Now, you can’t just trash your rivals and brag about why your company is “so much better”. This will only turn consumers away from you. Instead, focus on finding their flaws and exposing them without making yourself appear to be the bad guy. You also need to learn why your competitors have the consumers they have and how they attract them.

So, what steps do you need to take in learning all about your competitors?

This research goes beyond comparing websites and tags. We’re talking about everything from product features to social media marketing strategies. What do your competitors do for linkbait? How do they respond to questions asked by consumers on forums and networking sites? What are the pros and cons of your rival’s products? What information can you gleam from reading reviews?

You need to not only research the details, but the overall picture as well. Visit their Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, and other social networking accounts and look over everything. Read user comments to find out why people are following them. Once you gain an idea of why rival companies are so popular, you can begin to create your own strategy.

All Internet businesses have pros and cons. Once you find out what consumers like about other companies, you can begin researching what they don’t like. Once again, you don’t want to outright trash your competitors. But what you can do is take their failures and use them as inspiration for your own products.

Whatever it is that consumers don’t like about your competitors’ products, you can create something more positive as an alternative. Consumers like knowing that there are other options available to them.

Other things you need to consider when doing your research on a competitor include:

• The owner’s name and background
• The history of the company
• The names and histories of the products
• The company’s business philosophy
• Financial status
• How popular the company is with certain keywords
• Search engine rankings
• Tags, content, and on page optimization
• Backlinks and off page optimization
• The quality of the customer service
• Whether or not the company has a mailing list and, if so, the number of subscribers
• Whether or not the company has ever been accused of spamming

If your Internet business is brand new, and your competitors have been around for years, it’s going to be a huge challenge for you to gain momentum. If nothing else, you can study their history and learn about the mistakes they’ve made in the past. You can learn which mistakes to avoid and which marketing tactics to follow.

You can also become a customer yourself and buy your competitors’ products. What do *you* like about them? What don’t you like about them? This is a great way to gain invaluable information about their pricing, strengths, and customer service. This is a free market we’re living in, after all, so take advantage of that fact and learn how to outdo your business rivals.

Facebook has nearly half a billion users. According to Alexa rankings, it’s the #1 site in the world, after Google. Twitter follows at #11, after hitting the 100 million users mark. With practically the entire world participating in online communities, it’s obvious why businesses are using these websites for marketing and networking.

According to eMarketer studies, 70% of internet users in the US will be visiting social media websites by 2014. Consumers of all demographics visit sites such as Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis. No matter what type of company you run or products you sell, you can reach out to potentially thousands of consumers thanks to social media opportunities.

One example of social media marketing (SMM) effectiveness includes Nature Valley. This granola bar maker ran a campaign in which it offered money to charitable organizations for every new follower on Facebook.

Within 24 hours, the company gained 75,000 followers.

While Nature Valley didn’t receive any direct sales through this campaign, it still acquired an extensive network of potential consumers to whom it could market future products.

At social networking sites, users can share their interests with one another. This gives businesses a way to study demographics and do market research without spending a lot of money. You can connect with other people and let them know what your company is all about. In short: social media marketing gives you a chance to build a positive relationship with consumers.

What makes SMM so wonderful is that it involves creating awareness about a brand without resorting to spam. You can present information about your company subtly rather than forcefully. The trick, of course, is getting people to actually follow you. You don’t have to go the same route as Nature Valley, but you still need to find a way to gain the trust and interest of online communities.

You can do this by participating in conversations. There are thousands of conversations on any topic imaginable. And they’re not just at Facebook and Twitter, either – you can visit a number of online communities and forums and participate in Q&A sessions, conversations, and debates.

Interaction is the key to social media marketing.

If somebody asks a question about your niche, step in and give them an answer. If another member of the community gives them information that you feel is misleading, let them know. Don’t be afraid to participate in online discussions. Sometimes all it takes is one good video, post, or article for a company to go viral. Other times it takes a lot of hard work and effort for a company to create awareness.

In regards to Twitter, don’t spam the system with Tweet after Tweet. Make each Tweet as informative as possible. If you want to share an article, create an intriguing introduction to it in order to get people to click on the link. Prove to others that you are the source of whatever it is that they need. Let them know that they can count on you to provide them with the answers and information they seek.

Social media networking is here to stay, and is going to grow even more in the years to come. Make sure your company is a part of it.

When it comes to search engine optimization, you need to use the most effective tools necessary in order to create quality content. Quality should always be your first priority, over both quantity and cost. It’s human nature to want something for nothing, but just as no doctor will get anywhere with cheap equipment, so will no web company.

This isn’t to say that there are no good, affordable SEO companies out there. There are some search engine marketing professionals out there who are reasonable with their prices. Nevertheless, a good SEO company can increase the value of your site, so if you want good results, you should be willing to invest accordingly.

You can also create your own content and build links yourself. Outsourcing some of the work can be beneficial as well, just as long as you outsource to the right professionals. If you’re still new to the Internet marketing world, though, you might not have the right knowledge and skills for taking on your competitors.

Content, in particular, is highly important, especially when optimized for search engines. Some would even say that the quality of your content will make or break your company. Think for a moment: if you pay for cheap content, people will view your company as cheap when they visit your website. What you present to visitors should reflect the level of quality of your products and services.

Paying for good SEO services and content is a better option than paying for banner advertising. Although the latter can be effective too, nothing can beat well written content and SEO. People are more likely to trust information they find about products through actively searching Google than through random advertisements.

Unless the content is sloppy and poor.

If you want people to find your website, use search engine optimization. If you want people to like your website, use high quality content. If you are unable to produce a lot of high quality content that will impress visitors, pay for good SEO services.

Here are a few tips for choosing the right SEO company:

• Communicate with them via chat or phone. Do they type or speak like a native-English speaker? Do they evade questions? Are they happy to share past success stories and references with you?
• Do some research on various companies. Ask around Internet business and marketing forums to see if any members recommend any particular services.
• Does the company have experience with your particular niche? Some SEO professionals specialize in certain markets.
• Some offer free consultations. If anything, they should be willing to read over your concerns and proposals. Ask them if they can come up with a good approach for your business.
• Ask for links to sites they have worked on in the past. Ask if you can read articles they have written and determine whether or not their own skills surpass your own.
• What type of methods do they use? Do they use any underhanded, or “black hat SEO” tactics? This can get your website in trouble. It’s better to use honest methods; although they take longer to work, they are a lot more effective in the long run.

Don’t forget that there is no price on search engine optimization. Don’t be afraid to invest in SEO specialists with excellent tools, skills, knowledge, and experience.

Consumers always want to hear good news – especially during difficult times. In a tough economy, many businesses go under and consumers begin to lose faith in the markets. It can be very disheartening to hear nothing but negativity on the news about the state of the economy and financial markets.

You can give consumers some hope by sharing good news about your company.

You can use social media networking to your advantage by letting everyone know about how stable your company is. Image is everything, after all, so it’s your job to present the best things about your business to the world. Don’t lie or make things up. Instead, boast about the positives to boost your image.

Some businesses underestimate the effectiveness of social media marketing. Sure, there is always article marketing, link exchanges, PPC, and so forth, but socializing is a natural way to get in touch with potential customers and clients. Your website is exposed to many people and you don’t have to pay a dime for advertising.

Another reason why this type of marketing is beneficial is because it allows you to connect with consumers in a friendly, honest manner. You can market your business subtly as you offer advice and tips to others. Give them chances to learn more about you and your company without forcing them to look at advertisements.

Once they trust you, you can begin sharing information about your products or services. They will share that good news with their friends, and before you know it, word will get out about how great your company is. Social networking won’t bring you money directly, but it will create a buzz about your website, which results in more potential sales.

With so many scams on the Internet, people are reluctant to put their trust into online businesses. And since the economy is in such a poor state, people really don’t have much money to spend. By giving them hope and gaining their trust, you can have an advantage over competitors.

The great thing about social media marketing is that you can actually interact with consumers. You can get to know them, and in doing so, you’ll get an idea of what they want. This makes it easier to determine which products to promote. This is a great way to do market research without spending a lot of money.

Even if you suspect that your company might suffer soon, you still need to place an emphasis on the good things happening NOW and in the past. Branding your product(s) is the key here. Generate a positive buzz now while you can in order to counterbalance any negative publicity you might receive in the future.

If there’s one thing we can all say about marketing is that consistency pays off. This is particularly true when it comes to the Internet where most businesses and affiliates fail. You can be one of the few who profits if you put effort into your marketing plan.

Don’t sign up for a Facebook or Twitter account and forget about it. You must participate in discussions, actively engage others, offer advice and tips, and be involved in online communities. As you acquire followers, keep them updated on all the latest good news.

Give them hope about the industry.

PS: This article was based in an article of SocialMediaJam

In a recent lawsuit filed against Google, one woman claims that Google was at fault, or at least partially at fault, for her being hit by a car while crossing a road in the dark, following Google’s walking directions on her Blackberry. At about 6am, while a highway was relatively empty, the morning was still pitch dark, and Google was touting the road by the name, Deer Valley Drive, rather than the more well-known name, Route 224, she was directed to cross the road to a supposed sidewalk that existed there and a vehicle came and hit her while she was crossing in the dark.

To make matters even worse, there was a dirt path on her side of the road, away from the highway, but it was not shown on Google maps, even though it shows up on the Street view photographs you can find online. Unfortunately, no one at the company actually looks at these photographs. They’re simply set up for users. Instead, they rely on complex calculations of only the registered paths, walkways, and streets.

Google admitted when releasing the walking directions options that they still had a lot of kinks to work out and that in many cases there might be a better, safer route, which is why the product was released in beta and they highly stressed the use of common sense and following the rules set by the law.

That’s great, and they should do that – not to mention it could be next to impossible for this system to ever be perfect. But still, it is their system, so where does responsibility end? And how useful is a service with so much room for error?

The plaintiff’s lawyer claims that if Google is “going to tell people where to go, they need to have some responsibility to warn them that might not be the way to go.” He’s got a point. And they do have warnings about the beta nature of the service on their website, but unfortunately for this woman, those warnings apparently don’t appear on the Blackberry version, or any other mobile version. That’s pretty ironic and a bit dangerous considering that mobile users would be the most like to need this.

Young also alleges that Google didn’t have the warnings even on their website when the accident took place in January of ‘09. Google, meanwhile, says that they’ve had the warnings up since 2008, but since the suit has not officially been filed yet they have not said much about the case.

This in a way reminds me of the case recently filed against Facebook by the California man who claims his privacy has been abused because recent changes go against the contract he agreed to when setting up his account. While that might seem unrelated, what I see as the similarity with these cases is that the companies are refusing to accept responsibility because they say the user has a certain level of responsibility.

I do agree, and I’ve never been a fan for people who sue based on their own lack of common sense, poor decisions, or bad habits. But these companies put a lot of money and time into getting people to use their services as if it’s second nature – to heavily rely on them, trust them, and adapt this tech as a part of life.

We’ve got so many new features hitting us on our phones and so much new technology, we just expect it too work and take care of us. Sure, consumers need to slow down a little and take another look at the role of technology in our lives, but shouldn’t the people providing all these services and promoting this new paradigm have a role in slowing themselves down a little too? Shouldn’t they have a role in education about the dangers – not with just a message on their site – which isn’t readily available to mobile users.

At the very least, they should slow their roll a little bit and fine tune a service a lot more before releasing something that has so much room for error, embarrassing them and putting users in danger.

We talk a lot about search on this blog, and for good reason. Search engines are a great resource for pulling in website traffic if you target the keywords with the right traffic, and there are plenty of ways to figure out how many people are searching for terms online before you put out the money and effort to rank for those terms. But many people are starting to see a trend of the Internet moving away from being a search-based system.

In fact, Yahoo itself, one of the big players in search, recently announced the results of a study that showed only 1/6th of online activity was search-based. So what does this mean for the search engines, and more importantly for readers of this blog, what does it mean for the future of search engine optimization?

What studies like Yahoo’s are starting to see is that while Internet is gaining exposure around the world and in all pockets of our communities, the mobile revolution responsible for much of that growth, a lot of new Internet users are surfing the web now through their social networks and local-savvy phone apps. They are typically being guided to their destinations through other mediums besides search.

Indeed, the search engines are taking note of this trend, and in response we are seeing many of them push to integrate with social media giants like Facebook or Twitter, and even focusing on the development of social networking capabilities themselves.

What does it all mean? Well, what it means is that the search engines are not disappearing. Not by a long shot. In fact, those who follow the industry closely note that the search engines are often the drivers of change, or at least the first to respond and help guide technology to meet the hungry demand of trends. We’ve seen over and over again how they are pushing their platforms to align with localized queries and mobile capabilities.

The data shows that internet users are spending a lot more time interacting and browsing online than they are in the search engines; that much is clear. And yahoo also acknowledge that the ads, which most big search engines look to for their income, are getting the least amount of attention, meaning not finding a way to step up the game has the possibility to spell decline.

But one thing they are looking towards is the new face of searching in a society that is changed by technology as fast as its trends change technology. Many are focusing efforts on image and video search, and Google is working on the release of a feature that allows search by taking a quick photo.

To go further, all are working towards searching with spoken word, which I personally think will have a huge effect on the amount of people that take the time to submit a query; imagine how simple a search would be if all it took was voicing your concern. Combine this with the new mobile face of the Internet, and the implications for search are obvious.

So what is the answer is search engine optimization in limbo? Sure it is, but to be more exact, the whole world is constantly in limbo with the rate of change in modern society. These issues simply remind us why it is so important for businesses to work with SEO experts, who dedicate their careers to studying the changing face of the Internet, to help them change with the times.

Search isn’t disappearing; it’s evolving. Are you?