Aug 27

Google updates Realtime Search

By Robert McKenney Articles 899 Comments »

We have been seeing social media comments from Twitter and Facebook as part of the Google search results since late last fall. Now that experience has been significantly refined and enhanced. Today, Google Realtime Search has been refreshed with three key additions: conversation view, location refinements and Google Alerts for updates.

Conversations Not Just Comments

The new conversation view feature lets you display tweets chronologically from the original comment and grouping replies and retweets so that you can see the evolution of the conversation and not just the most recent comments. Readers can click “Full conversation” below an update to access the threaded-view.

Monitoring Local Sentiment

The improved location features now let you zero in on your community of interest. If you are a small business and interested only in the conversation about your industry in your town, you can now specify exact locations in the “Custom Location” box to narrow results to a particular city, state or country. If you are a larger organization and concerned with looking at results from a number of different regions, there are also quick links below each update to show only results from that same region.

Automated Alerts

Keeping an eye on the conversation just got a little easier. Google has now made it easy to add your social media search to your Google Alerts. Simply click the “Create an e-mail alert for [search term]” to setup a Google Alert for “Updates.” Updates is a new type of alert for the status updates that Google Real-time Search indexes. You can choose the frequency of your email alerts to be as-it-happens, once per day or once per week basis.

Where To Find It

Google Realtime Search, continues to be accessible via the left-hand search options menu as “Updates”, and now also exists as a standalone product at google.com/realtime. It is currently being rolled out to all users. If you don’t yet have access and want a sneak peak, you can do so here.

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Nov 20

Twitter: The Serendipity Engine

By Robert McKenney Articles 2,837 Comments »

This ten minute video of Chris Brogan’s speech at the New York Web 2.0 Expo is worth watching. Chris is the co-author of the NY Times best seller, Trust Agents.

In this talk he examines how we use Twitter and the serendipity factor in building relationships.  In the end he asks six important questions about how we use social media for our businesses.

1. How do we share?

2. How do we extend experiences?

3. How do we collaborate?

4. How do wire new people based networks?

5. How do we change distribution?

6. How do we develop relationships that yield?

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Nov 13

What is Social Media Marketing?

By Robert McKenney Articles 768 Comments »

Cartoon characters in conversationWhat do you say in an inaugural post on a new blog? Yeah! We are live.

OK, now that I have that out of my system, I am excited about our new blog and I am looking forward to sharing my discoveries, best practice tips, and of course just things that amuse me. We will cover a wide range of topics under the umbrella of Online Marketing and in particular the evolving practice of Social Media Marketing.

What is Social Media Marketing?

According to Wikipedia …

“Social media marketing is a term that describes the act of using social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other collaborative Internet form of media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.

In the context of Internet marketing, social media refers to a collective group of web properties whose content is primarily published by users, not direct employees of the property (e.g. the vast majority of video on YouTube is published by non-YouTube employees).”

OK, but what does that really mean? All of these electronic tools are just new ways to accomplish the same old best practices of successful businesses.

  1. Listen and build relationships.
  2. Be helpful. Give back to the community.
  3. Encourage word of mouth advertising.

Facebook is like a personalized collaborative community newspaper that lets you keep up with what is happening in the lives of people you know. It is written by the readers and it is interactive. Comments on what others have posted are immediate and become part of the conversation of the wider community.

Twitter is like the local coffee shop or the office water cooler. It is a place where people pop in and out and exchange brief conversations about what is going on in the world. It is used to solicit opinions and recommendations. It is used share something interesting and tell everyone where to find it. This is often where buzz on any given topic gains momentum.

LinkedIn is more like a professional association. You get to meet people who have similar interests or business backgrounds based on people that you already know and who they know. As with face to face networking opportunities, an introduction or referral from someone you already know is much more valuable than a cold call.

So, going forward we will talk more about these tools and how to get the most out of them. We will also be offering more detailed analysis and coaching in our public seminars. So, if you are in the Ottawa area, fill in this contact request form and we will let you know when the next seminar is scheduled.

Online Marketing is an evolving business and that makes it exciting.

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