By: Britton Edwards, Senior Digital Strategist
The world of social media is constantly changing. As an agency we are lucky to be plugged into the pulse of social, but many of our clients don’t have the time to keep up with the latest. In the past month, three of the major players have made significant changes to their services. Here’s a quick round up of the things you may have missed:
After years of dominating the social networking scene Facebook has taken a leap into the realm of search. Currently in Beta, Graph Search allows users to find out more about Friends and Connections through data mining. The team behind the new tool is made up of a Ph.D. in psychology, linguists, statisticians and of course, programmers.
In response to the launch, one Tumblr account “Actual Facebook Graph Searches” has aggregated some pretty interesting searches
Here are some great articles about the new search feature and some questions that you may have:
What about Privacy? Meghan Kelly explores on VentureBeat.com
How will this affect Advertising? Mark Ballard of Search Engine Land
TechCrunch called it “Twitter’s response to Instagram,” a great analogy. Vine is short (6 seconds!), visual, different from other video apps, and allows you to upload to Twitter instantly.
We recommend that brands hop on this app and play around with the functionality. It is a little tricky to master, but the organic and user-generated short videos have a powerful effect.
Some brand examples, including GAP
http://goo.gl/uVaP1
How do I get Started? Kelsey Uebelhors has a quick guide on Exact Target
According to Jamey Brown the Everywhere Google+ expert “Google Communities are like Facebook Groups but more effective. They have different “categories” where you can post specific content so the main feed doesn’t get clogged with random content you don’t want to see. You can use the Hangout feature within the community which is awesome!”
Why is this important? Because previously there was no real draw for users to join Google+. You had to circle someone to get see their content and follow news. Now you can join a community and receive large amounts of content that you are interested in immediately. Please also note that their moderators heavily curate communities so abide by all rules of the community.
Should Google+ Communities be a part of your Marketing Strategy? According to John Lincoln of Marketing Land, Yes
How Google+ is being harnessed by users and organizations:
Mark Traphagan shares 6 Ways Brands Can Leverage Google Plus Communities on Social Fresh
Arik Hanson of PR Daily lists 14 Examples of PR & Marketers using Google+ Communities
What the platform looks like:
With the exponential growth of social media, staying in the know is essential. That’s what we’re here for.
The Google+ communities are a blast!
Great update Britton!