With so much competition among the many social media platforms it takes something very unique about the platform in order to drive the most traffic. So perhaps the world’s new obsession is “pinning”; browsing the web for the latest trends in style, food creations, photography, and home décor. Pinterest is sure beginning to catch the attention of many web surfers, specifically the online pin board accounts for 3.6% of the total referral traffic from January, according to Shareaholic (which is based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors). Pinterest is up a notable 1.1% just from December, making it almost even with the amount of traffic driven through Twitter; while Google Plus on the other hand dropped 0.02% to a total of only 0.22%.

The above chart tells us that Facebook, to no surprise, is still the leading social media platform, accounting for 26.4% of total referral traffic. So although it seems like Pinterest has a way to go before becoming the next Facebook, its noteworthy enough to cite the extreme jump in numbers in just one month, not to forget to mention that it is driving more traffic than Google Plus, LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube combined.

The infographic below, “Is Pinterest the Next Social Game Changer?” helps us visualize how much attention the new social networking site really has gained in comparison to others. A shocking increase of 429% occurred last year from September to December, putting its estimated unique visitors at 7.21 million. According to Monetate (creator of the infographic), Pinterest is now part of the top five social networking and forum websites driving the most referral traffic, with Facebook taking the number one spot and Google Plus not even making the list.  Having only been around for two years now, we are excited to see if Pinterest will remain on the Internet as the hot new trend, or is it just a fad that will leave our minds soon enough?

With the holidays right around the corner, many forget to stop and think about those who have little to nothing. Now we can thanks to Google. Since the launch of  Google+, many nonprofit organizations have been able to raise awareness about their contribution to society. The social networking site has also recently served as a gateway for people to connect with specific causes around the globe. Google was thrilled to see in the past few days countless celebrities and entertainers beginning to direct attention towards their favorite charities; using the clever phrase #CauseILoveEm. They then are finding creative ways to show their followers what they love most about these nonprofit organizations. Here are some ways public figures are reaching out in attempts to give back to the community:

+Dolly Parton is encouraging followers to add +Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to their circles in hopes to benefit the children of her home country in East Tennessee, USA.

+Usher is also attempting to spread the word about +Usher’s New Look Foundation, which certifies young people in four leadership pillars (talent, education, career and service) to ensure their success as leaders throughout the world.

 +Linkin Park also posted a video asking people to share information about the nonprofit organization, +Music For Relief, which supports disaster relief and works to reduce global warming. Specifically he directed attention to the Power the World Give Light campaign, which encourages people to donate to provide solar-powered light bulbs for families in Haiti without electricity.

So join in on the cause this holiday season and include #CauseILoveEm with any post directing followers to your favorite nonprofit organization. Let them know what you like most about the nonprofit and don’t forget to type “+” before the nonprofit name.

Do you ever wonder who started the juicy gossip you catch up on from day to day? Well now you can find out who were the top contributors to those stories and much more through Google+ Ripples. A few weeks ago Google announced this “Ripple” feature that seemed to almost be overlooked, when in reality it should be of much consideration to us marketers, and here’s why:

The ripple effect allows us to:

1. Find a influencer (Dalai Lama)
2. Make a connection to that influencer
3. Repeat to find who the influencer is sharing with (Vic Gundotra) to virally spread your content even more

The above example was a public post shared by Dalai Lama which illustrates the spread of the post (you can find the Ripple of any public post using the dropdown arrow menu at the top right of the post). If you watch the spread, you will see the content being shared to more and more users over about a months’ time frame.  Also, at the bottom of the page you will see the influencers (people with many public reshares), Statistics (how this post publicly spread), and Languages (of public shares of this post). As seen below:

So How Will This Help Us?

If we’re able to locate the influencer that is sharing content of our interest, then we’ll be able to connect to that influencer through Google+. Usually many other social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) are linked with their Google+ account which allows you to tack action with your preferred method of making a connection.

Once you’ve made the connection, put out something of value to them or possibly share their post so they know you’re interested in what they’re sharing. Hopefully at that point, they will see you sharing their posts and return the favor by sharing your content to their huge circle of followers. It’s important to not bombard the top contributor with too much content; rather research into who they’re sharing posts with (the influencers of the influencer) and reach out to them as well.

It’s all about finding that niche target market, and now thanks to Google, it’s easy (and fun!) to watch content go viral with the use of Ripples.

There are billions of searches placed on Google from day-to-day, most of which inquiring about brands and businesses. Most businesses have the  ultimate goal to turn those queries into relationships by making meaningful connections. Therefore, Google launched today Google+ Pages (similar to Facebook Pages, but with more benefits for your business).

First off, Google+ Pages will now come up in potential clients search results. This is important for your business because it allows them to not only recommend you with a +1, but make a real connection by adding you to one of their circles. This will create a long-term relationship by allowing them to listen in and spend time with your team. Your most loyal customers and super fans will want to say hello as soon as you start sharing.

Secondly, a new feature called Direct Connect serves as an even faster way for your business to get connected to your prime prospective consumers. Maybe you just heard about a new company on a TV commercial that you want to know more about, or you saw on a billboard a cool new product you want to try. In both scenarios, you want to get connected with the desired product/service right away; Direct Connect makes that happen in an easy and even automatic way. Just go to Google.com and search for [+], followed by the page you’re interested in (like +Internet Marketing Inc).

You will then directly be taken to their Google page, and if you desire, an option to add them to your circles immediately. As of today, Direct Connect only works for a limited number of pages, but give “+Google” a try to be the first to see this cool new innovative feature! If your organization seems fit for this great new opportunity to not only get more clients, but create a relationship with them, you can learn more about Direct Connect in Google’s Help Center.

Ever since Google+ released in late June, the amount of new users has been on an exponential uphill rise. With that kind of competition now in place, it’s no wonder Facebook had to do something to maintain their ‘top dog’ spot in the social media world.

One clear distinction between the two networking sites was how each managed to segment ones friends. Google+ allows the user to segment people into what they named, “Circles.” The user can create circles of relationships ranging from friends, family, or acquaintances. It was finally possible to share those “girls’ night out” pictures selectively, with whom you wanted to share them with, rather than your 500+ network of friends.  This new segmentation option posed as a definite pro to joining Google+, and therefore resulted in tens of millions of new users.

Facebook saw this as a clear advantage Google+ had on them, therefore they had to keep the ball rolling with its latest update, Smart Lists. Unlike Google+ Circles, Smart Lists will automatically segment your friends into three groups:

• Friends you attended school with
• Friends who live <50 miles from you
• Friends you work with

If these automated lists still aren’t privacy-effective enough, Facebook is promoting a feature that allows one to manually segment friends into the following three groups:

• Close Friends – People you want to hear from often
• Acquaintances – People you do not want featured prominently in your News Feed
• Restricted – People who you do not want to share information with

With these new Smart Lists in place, Facebook users can now easily share the content they want to share with a specified list of friends by using a filter on their news feed. So when comparing the new features of Smart Lists, Friends Lists, and updated privacy settings on Facebook versus Circles on Google+, who do you see as the social media networking leader?

Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google +, have recently begun to affect what comes up in your search engine results. The problem is not that people don’t understand that social media affects SEO, but how it affects SEO. Google released Google Social Search tool back in October 2009 and made it available to all users in January 2010. This tool basically allows you to find articles written by people you know and trust, the same basic concept as following someone on Twitter. What people really want to know is; how much does social media news really affect search engine results?

Back in December of 2010 Google’s Matt Cutts stated, “I filmed a video back in May 2010 where I said that we didn’t use ‘social’ as a signal, and at the time, we did not use that as a signal, but now, we’re taping this in December 2010, and we are using that as a signal.” Social media has fit its way into SEO and has started to alter traditional organic search results. If you are logged into your Google + while searching for something on Google, your search results will be different than if you were not logged into a Google account. If one of your friends has a web content that is related to the topic you are searching for, then Google gives that web page higher placement on SERPs. Google and Bing have both admitted that they look at their users’ social authority when making search engine ranking decisions.

Social media can influence search results depending on the number of times an author’s content is shared on a social networking site. If you are not connected with any social media sites, do not fret because there are steps that you can take to change this. To get more traffic through social media, you first want to build a presence on a social media site and stay up to date with your followers. Optimize your website for social media sharing, for example if you are based in WordPress you can install the Sharebar plugin to enable sharing. Lastly, you are going to want to constantly encourage your followers/views to share your content through other social media tools. Just because social media is booming doesn’t mean that traditional SEO is irrelevant. There will always be that group of people that don’t prefer social media sites, so traffic for non-social media site users will not completely diminish, but realize that traditional SEO is beginning dwindle, so changing with the times is not a bad idea.

For more information on this topic visit:  Quicksprout.com

Mark Zuckerberg watch out- Google+ is not going anywhere. It has been open for a little over a month now and everyone’s been asking whether the new social networking site is here to stay, and YouGov took matters into their own hands to find the answer. They conducted a survey for 1,003 adults in the US regarding Google+ usage, future use, and usage of other social media websites (like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter). Their results bode well for Google, which they summarize here.

There are already 25 million Google+ accounts, which is 13% of the US population. While Facebook has penetration of 71%, Facebook has a considerable head start. YouGov predicts that over the next year, there will be an additional 9% of the population acquiring a Google+ account. According to their survey it looks like 30% of Facebook users, that also have Google accounts, are planning to cut down on time spent on Facebook.

When compared to the Facebook demographic, there are some stark differences that YouGov points out:

• 3 men on Google+ to 1 woman
• 59% of Google+ people have a college degree while Facebook has 37%
• 48% are single, while Facebookers are 33% single. In my own experience with Facebook though, many relationships are jokes between friends. In my opinion, the count on “real” relationships reported on Facebook cannot be determined by Facebook relationship status.

Google has a different target market than Facebook, which appeals mostly to college students while Google+ aims for college educated young men

In fact, Google+ is predicted to become the #2 site behind Facebook in the next year with 22% penetration while LinkedIn, Twitter, and Myspace all have under 20%. With the next push for Google+ accounts over the next 12 months, the social media industry is going to have a run for its money… well, whatever part of it isn’t owned by Google already.

Twitter has just announced that they have acquired Bagcheck, a new fun way to talk about and share what’s inside our “bags” with our Twitter followers. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but a warm welcome is put out to Sam Pullara to the Twitter engineering team! Mr. Pullara is the CTO and co-founder of Bagcheck.

Bagcheck is an innovative way to share and discover what’s inside your “bag.” Now you may be wondering what exactly characterizes a bag. In a broad sense, the startup refers to any sort of curated list or collection as a bag. As you can see to the right, people can post bags of backpacking essentials or coffee-making gear to what their favorite apps and accessories are.

The brains behind Bagcheck found their inspiration by simply wanting to expand their discussion of the products they love to use with the rest of the social networking world. It provides people with a place to share their “bags” of items they feel most passionate about with others who may share the same interests – whether it’s photography, cooking, computing, or sports.

Bagcheck still remains in service online for all those who already have accounts. Therefore, the content already created in current users bags will still remain with the same URLs. However, soon enough things may change so Bagcheck has made it quick and simple for current users to export your bags anywhere you like.  Your bags will be wrapped into a set of HTML and JSON files that you may then save or post to other social networking platforms.

On behalf of Bagcheck, they’d like to take the opportunity to show appreciation for all the people involved in creating bags and sharing their passions with others throughout the site thus far. They hope you’ll continue to do so. Happy Bagging!

Google just bought high tech facial recognition software called PittPatt. As many of you might have already guessed, it is likely to be used for Google+. According to the articles Google Buys Facial Recognition Company PittPatt by Rob D. Young and How Google’s New Face Recognition Tech Could Change The Web’s Future by Kit Eaton, this new innovative technology could change everything on the web.

PittPatt

PittPatt was founded as spin-off company based on a decade of research project on robot technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Henry Schneiderman teamed up with fellow graduates, Michael Sipe and Michael Nechyba to start up the company. PittPatt has developed many innovative software systems that recognize people’s faces from images and motion pictures.

What is so special about PittPatt?

Google has already worked with other existing companies such as Image search, YouTube and Picasa. Some people might think that there is no use for PittPatt to step in with other Google products. As a matter of fact, PittPatt is more than facial recognition software. PittPatt analyzes video dates and tracks people and objects. It can evaluate the number of the people on the camera, the movement of people, the popularity of kiosks and other business locations, and potencial resource for security backup for restricted areas. With these advanced technologies, PittPatt probably can adopt into other Google technology and support the accuracy of facial and object recognition.  Overall, PittPatt’s new technology may just bring Google the extra edge over Facebook even though Google has not disclosed their detailed future plan with PittPatt yet.

Google+ featuring with PittPatt?

It is obvious that PittPatt’s facial recognition system will incorporate with Google+. But how? Google+ is likely to stay away from suggesting tagging images with new facial recognition system due to privacy abuse. Rather, Google will enhance their video tool services. With the precise facial recognition system, their video tool will be able to focus on the main speaker during a video conference. Google will also improve the quality of video chat through Gmail, Google Talk and probably Google+. Perhaps, Google could learn a better way to deal with privacy issues and make it more restrictive tagging suggestions. At any rate, we can look forward to an exciting future with this new technology that Google acquired.

Google has recently bought three new start up companies to add versatility to its Google+ social networking site.

Members of Fridge and Just Spotted recently found notices of the website closure that warn users to download all of their profiles content or else it will disappear when the website finally shuts down.  The website’s legacies will live on within Googles future programing.

Just Spotted is a networking site which offers user’s shared information into grouped categories so as not to mix your bachelor party stories with your shared project at work.  Just as an individual would want to share items like family photos only with one’s family in the physical world, Google+ now implements the idea of “groups” in order to make your cyber profile as synonymous with your personal lifestyle as possible.  Just Spotted was purchased for an undisclosed amount.

Angstro offers products that can search the internet for news about your friends on social networking sites and then export information from these social sites.  The founder, Rohit Khare, seems to be a key acquisition in the deal as well since he has an outstanding reputation as an entrepreneur and internet researcher; just the kind of person Goolge likes on their team.

Just Spotted was the number one website for finding out where your favorite celebrities were most recently seen.  Now it has been bought by Google, but has yet to be implemented effectively into Google+.  The founders of Just Spotted are also making their way into Google in attempts to get more celebrities Google+ accounts.

All of these acquisitions and improvements are in attempts to make Google+ the next social media giant, implementing new ideas and efficient programming to take the relatively untouched Facebook head on.

References:

LA Times Blog

LA Times Blog – Google Buys Angstro…

Just Spotted

You Tube