Public Relations & Social Media Insight

As users and marketers are maturing in the use of social media, platform providers are also entering a new stage in their life cycles. In the following, you will find three pertinent social media trends that will shape the social media world as we know it.... Google+ looks like it's building momentum as the social media channel of the future...

First, there was the internet. Then, social media came along. Now, the newest untamed frontier is ‘human media.’ That is to say, human media is a closer, more personal form of social media, but where people communicate face to face, as opposed to communicating through text. And more and more people and businesses are starting to realize just how big human media is and is going to be. What Is Human Media? Human media connects people more intimately than regular social media sites. Through platforms like Google+, and using tools like G+ Hangouts, people and businesses are able to defy geographic distances to talk face to face. The entire world is at your disposal, as you can join or watch Hangouts in an infinite number of topics. You can join or watch Hangouts that are cooking lessons, virtual knitting circles, financial advice, DIY projects, medical care, and so much more. If you can think of it, a G+ Hangout can be done on it....

Back in December, Google News was granted its second continuation patent in ten years, giving the layman some insight into the search giant’s algorithm, and how it chooses which articles to feature.

 

...The Claims section of the latest version of Google News’ patent shows a shift away from the traditional signals of a news source’s importance. Now rather than where a story is being reported, it is how a story is being reported both online and off that makes a difference in terms of ranking.

 

These signals, per the patent, include:

- How quickly an event happened before publication of an article about it took place,

- The “usage pattern regarding traffic associated with the source” means that the search engine is looking at things such as how many people click upon a link to specific articles from the source, monitoring traffic to articles from a source to see how often people click (or don’t click) on links to particular articles from individual sources.

 

They tell us in the patent: “Well known sites, such as CNN, tend to be preferred to less popular sites, such as Unknown Town News, which users may avoid. The traffic measured may be normalized by the number of opportunities readers had of visiting the link to avoid biasing the measure due to the ranking preferences of the news search engine.”...

Recently I tweeted the following: i’m a google glass skeptic. Who’s with me?

 

Turns out most people think Google Glass is going to be awesome. Frankly, I was surprised- I figured it would be more balanced.

 

But it turns out that people are more excited about the idea of Glass than any particular use case. And I’m excited about the product category too, but think the v1 might suck.

 

Google Glass is the new Apple Newton.

 

One day wearable computing glasses may turn out awesome, but I’m convinced that the Google Glass will be like the Apple Newton- a visionary product well ahead of its time, and maybe 10 years after its release, someone will figure out how to make it mainstream using a different design....

Will Google fold YouTube, Gmail and Places into Google Plus? Suddenly 1.5 billion users on one platform, with Businesses having only one Page to manage. Good or no? Oh, and Google’s Authorship Markup suddenly screws with your SEO (search engine optimisation) and SMO (social media optimisation) in ways that you can only imagine. (Google’s SMO search algorithm) The images show the eery similarity between the rebranding of YouTube into OneChannel and Google Plus. Of course Google Plus could get a new name of OneChannel instead?...

The news that Google will be retiring its Reader service has been met with criticism by many circles. A dedicated fan base has been left out in the cold and have been given three months to now look for an alternative service.

 

... Before you start looking, you should first download your Google Reader data from Takeout. By following the link here, you can download all your data on a handy xml file. Google says that it should be easily transferable to alternative services, but that really depends on whether said services are allowing users to do this. Some like Feedly already do, but other services will quickly follow suit. Even if you don’t use the file straight away, it’s handy to have for future reference....

Great marketing case study... Most brands struggle to get appropriate attention for their new ideas. Typically, new products have a highly orchestrated PR strategy, calling in favors from influencers and media, and drawing crowds by having The Black Eyed Peas or Pearl Jam play at an event. For Glass, Google took a page from the Apple playbook, and created “demand before supply” by using a more understated strategy centered on exclusivity and community. The Plan: Exclusivity and Community Instead of relying on press, analysts, and influencers tell the story; Google relied on the voices and visions of the market. “Less then 1% of the total buzz was generated by the top 6 press outlets (e.g. Mashable, Laptopmag, etc.), while almost 92% of the traffic was generated on Twitter...

Through a series of photos and videos, Google shared some more information about Project Glass early this morning... More than a catchphrase, "OK, Glass" is how the wearer will engage the headset, enabling it to listen to commands....