Its official there is a new big dog in the social media space. Just a week after Google launched Buzz, the social media service is already rattling the cage of top dogs Facebook and Twitter. It seems as if Google has finally made a successful foray into the social media world. Despite initial privacy flaws Google Buzz has proven to be an absolute success.

Google Buzz has surprised many experts who thought Google would never make it in the social media world. In the past Google suffered embarrassing setbacks with their attempts at creating a rival to Facebook and Twitter. Google Friend Connect and Orkut never really left the ground but Google Buzz shot into outer space.

The growth of the newest challenger to the social media crown has been phenomenal. According to statistics released by Google, just after the launch on the 9th of February 2010, there have been over 9 million posts and comments in about 56 hours, amounting to around 160,000 posts and comments per hour.

Google Buzz also generated big shock waves in mobile phone market. Google revealed that over 200 mobile check-ins per minute, nearly 300,000 mobile check-ins per day. The key to this success is the fact that Google Buzz is embedded into Gmail.

Gmail has millions of users around the world and by putting the Google buzz tab just under the inbox tab; Google applied a very innovative idea. When a user logs into their Gmail account they are greeted by a Google Buzz tab. The system is almost similar to Twitter the greatest difference is its integration to Gmail.

Many Gmail users find the system very convenient, when they open their e-mail account, they can quickly read the newest mail and won’t have to leave the account to create a social media post. Twitter, Flicker, Picasa and Google Reader can also be connected to the system. You can share pictures but this will be saved at Picasa. The most convenient aspect of Google buzz is that you don’t have to set it up if you have a Gmail account.

Key Features

• Simple interface
• No set up required
• Social media integration
• E-mail integration

Initially there were major privacy concerns. The system had an auto follow function where a user automatically followed people he regularly sent e-mails to. According to Ben Parr Co-Editor of Mashable “the auto follow function can let people figure out your email habits.” Google has changed this to an auto suggested model. This allows you to control who you follow. Another concern is that your inbox can be flooded by Buzz spam.

There are clear indications that Google Buzz is already taking some market share from Twitter and Facebook. People are spending more time on their Gmail accounts than before and this is surely taking some time from Twitter and Facebook. The Buzz threatens Twitter and Facebook’s ad revenue. Advertisers are certain to be impressed with the reach that Google Buzz has.

The future of Google Buzz will depend on how it is going to react to upgrades by the two social media giants. Some predict there is going to be a major dog fight between the three networks. If this fight gets very intense Google buzz will be the last network standing. Google has immense resources and will be able to match any upgrade. Google has been salivating for some time now at the prospect of properly sinking its teeth into the social media world. It has shown great determination at penetrating the social media realm overcoming numerous setbacks. Like a hungry dog biting into a bone it won’t let go of its new grip on social media.

Last week we saw the Virtuosa team heading to The Venue at Melrose Arch for the Habari Media Facebook Launch. The line-up of speakers  included Mike Stopforth a leading local social media expert, Blake Chandlee  a fairly important guy at Facebook and Mark Cohen.

Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

Among some of the topics discussed were social media  and how it  is changing the online world, its evolution of discovery, and the Facebook story itself. The interesting bit for me was the evolution of the Facebook ad.

The Facebook advertising strategy has evolved from the common banner and text ad into something much more engaging and informative for advertisers. For them communication in media is changing because the user has changed.

Facebook ads are evolving to drive user engagement and connections just as social media does.

They encourage users to interact and share advertising with engaging ad formats which range from the following:

Facebook campaign formats include:

• Quizzes: Brands can ask questions about your brand  or find out what consumers of your product like.
• Contests: Brands can advertise contests and promotions.
• Coupons: Brands can give away free samples to the people that chose to interact with the advert.
• Gifts: People are able to give brands gifts or recieve branded gifts.
• Sign up forms: People can opt in from the ad to receive promotional material and product updates.
• Fan Pages: People can become fans of particular products and brands. These fan pages can then in turn create connections and can be used for PR, Customer Services and Market Research.
• Polling: You can find out what people feel about your product and what they prefer.

This allows the user to engage and interact with the ad allowing a unique dialogue between the brand and the audience as well as share the advertising to others within their social network.

Only a few hours after Microsoft announced deals with Twitter and Facebook to integrate real time data into Bing’s search results, Google’s Marissa Mayer announces at the Web 2.0 Summit that Google Social Search will be launching in the coming weeks.

There has been so much said about this in the last 24 hours, and it is hard to keep up with all the blogs, news and article mentions. Let me try and summarize quickly…

Yesterday Microsoft announced sealed agreements to access real-time content from social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to boost search engine results in Bing. According to Microsoft executives at a presentation at a San Francisco Internet conference, Bing is hoping to take on current dominant search leader Google in the sphere of Social Search and will have access to Twitter’s entire store of public data in real time as well as content from social networking site Facebook. At the same conference, it was also announced that a standalone Twitter search service will be offered at Bing, with some ranking technology other than sort by date involved, and that shortened URLs will be expanded. And finally, there would be some integration within the regular Bing service itself.

Only a few hours later, Google’s Marissa Mayer announced Google Social Search will be launching in the coming weeks. This feature will allow you to see results for queries from people in your social network and will work only via your own Google Profile. In your profile, if you add add links to social networks you’re a member of, such as FriendFeed or Twitter, Google will scan who you are connected to and give your results from those people which will then be integrated in to regular results. Google emphasised their goal of creating the most comprehensive, relevant and fast search and believe that their search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, looking forward to having a product showcasing how tweets can make search better in the coming months.

There has been such talk for some time and even though Bing (MSFT) beat Google to it by first announcing the integration of real-time data into search results, it is clear that this move from both indicate what the future of Search holds for us. Social Integration. Real-time data in Search results! This indicates the importance of consumer perception and the value of comments made by the average consumer and the trust they have regarding brands and products.

This is somewhat confirmed by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg saying that The Future is Social, Not Search. While Google is by far Facebook’s biggest rival in terms of Paid Advertising, it was clear that no love is lost between Google and Sheryl Sandberg, an ex-Googler. Sandberg said that Facebook is leading the net from the information age to the social age, where people will be finding their important answers not through Google but through their friends. As for search, Sandberg said Google would still have a place in the future, even if it’s not very big.

The face of search is indeed going to change and the race to be there first is definately on. The next days, weeks and months will be very interesting.

How will consumer behaviour affect search and the ranking relevance of brands and products in the SERP’s?

My personal prediction is that this affect won’t be seen immediately, but that it will slowly take affect as both Search Engines integrate real time data over the coming months.

For me, the future of Search will neither be Search, nor Social. The future of Search will be “Social Search” – Integrated Real-Time Search, (hopefully) relevant, updated results, as it happens.

How Bing and Google will control what is included in the search results will be interesting to see, but this can only be a good thing for companies doing Online Reputation Management. Hopefully businesses and corporates will be forced to operate in the social spaces more to not only control the conversations, but also add to it, or respond.

Resources:

• Facebook and Twitter Now More Important to Search Rankings?
• Microsoft’s Bing seals Facebook, Twitter deals
• RT @google: Tweets and updates and search, oh my!
• Bing To Do Deal With Twitter, Launch Its Own Twitter Search
• Google Social Search Is Coming & More On Google-Twitter
• Microsoft, Google in deals with Twitter, Facebook
• Google’s New Social Search Is A Big Chess Move Against Facebook
• The Future is Social, Not Search, Facebook COO Says

Good Morning World!

Whilst putting together a social media presentation a week back, i stumbled across an awesome video on YouTube(see below). Its a Sony Vaio advert but incorporates a SMAA (Social Media Addicts Association) meeting. It made me think, could this be possible, in the near future will some of us (me included) become social media addicts. We can already look at global statistics and come to the conclusion that Social Media is definitely growing at a rapid rate!

They say that addiction is a “disease”? But is it, or can it be controlled. It made me wonder, could there be jobs for Social Media counsellors in the future?? Or could there be a rehab centre that these so called ‘Social Media Addicts’ will be able to attend. It does sound funny but if Gary – The Tooth fairy can get a near 34 000 fans on Facebook, anything is possible!

Would love to now everyones thoughts on this?

Check out the video here!

Social Media Addicts Association

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a talk held at HeronBridge College dealing with all the new online trends and how one can make a career out of this. Guest speakers Ingrid Rubin and Jaco Meiring did a combined presentation, highlighting what is happening within the “digital space” and what effect it is having in our day to day lives.

As a parent myself and a new comer to the digital world I was amazed that some parents still think this “Fad” that their teenagers are going through will fade away. With the stats that were revealed to us last night the digital world is growing at a fast and furious pace. It is not going anywhere and it is up to us as parents to empower ourselves with this knowledge. I also believe that schools in general should be working towards incorporating this as part of their education system.

This is the future of our children and generations to come. Is it not better to have the “know how” so we can also educate our children with the correct “etiquette” of social networking and how it could affect you in later years to come.

The next 12 months will see changes made to Facebooks privacy policy after agreeing to give users more control over their privacy settings. Changes will include clarification as to why Facebook needs users personal information, a new authority system for 3rd party aps and more information regarding deletion of accounts.

With huge amounts of information circling the web these days I’m sure these changes will be welcome ones. Sky News brings you more details.

Earlier this week Facebook announced some significant changes to the way users can search on their site. Users are now able to search for comments that friends have made in the last 30 days. In addition you can also find out what any users with a public profile are saying about a particular topic or news events.
This means that Facebook users with public profiles will have to be extra careful as to the comments they make as it will not only be their friends that can see this but anyone on Facebook.

The changes in Facebook search bring a new kind of emphasis to the significance of Facebook when it comes to Reputation Management of brands online.  It opens up a whole new source of information as companies will be able to monitor conversations between friends and acquaintances in relations to their brands.
It will be interesting to see how this develops as Facebook makes more changes and possible expand the range of search history in the future.

Brands and Facebook

In this document we see how brands can utilize Facebook! A very nice read!!!

We have just launched our very first Facebook application, TrashCanKidz! It has taken a lot of time and a lot of effort from a team of passionate people.

The purpose of the Application is to start to raise awareness of the TrashCanKidz Project which is going to be released further on this year. The driving force of the project is to raise money for orphans around the world through the adopting of “virtual kidz” and eventually having a personalized ragdoll as customized by the viewer, the funds generated by this will help real world orphans.

The application was Virtuosa’s first Facebook application, and was built in conjunction with Ensight, IceBlue and Datacyte. Being our first Facebook Application it came with its fair share of headaches and complications, but we persevered and now it has been released. You can find this application at http://apps.facebook.com/trashcankidz/. Add it and start FREEING THE LUV!

Be sure to lookout for the full site when it is released, we are looking forward to hearing comments and opinions on it.

Every time a new report by Hitwise or Nielsen Online is released we continue to see amazing data in terms of Search usage growth and increased interaction with Social Networking tools. These trends should come as no surprise and it could be expected that we will see more astonishing data being released in the few months ahead.

The latest data released by Hitwise or Nielsen Online not only shows current trends but perhaps some insights to future Search behaviour and online social engagement.

Let’s first look at data from Hitwise related to Search

“Google accounted for 72.39 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending April 25, 2009. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com received 16.27 percent, 5.68 percent and 3.95 percent, respectively.”

The report states that Search engines continue to be the primary tool(s) for Internet users to navigate to key industry categories. Compared to the same period in 2008, Business, Finance, Sports and Online Video categories showed double-digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines with Google continues way ahead of the pack. (based on U.S. searches alone)

Another interesting trend is that the length of search queries have increased over the past year, averaging five to more than eight words in length per search. Rather than using 1 or 2 words as search phrases, searchers are now using upwards of 3, perhaps indicating that they are finding less value in results presented when using less or the fact that they are aware longer-phrased search terms will present more accurate results than fewer.

For the full report visit Hitwise for the April Search data.

Trends related to Social Networking from Nielsen Online

Based on a report in September 2008 (Twitter Grows Fastest, MySpace Still The Social King), well-established social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn continued to grow at amazing rates. Nearly half of the biggest social networking sites were among the fastest growing and were also expanding beyond the youthful audience more toward the older generations. Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reunion.com were most popular among visitors ages 25-34, 35-49, and 55-64, respectively according to Nielsen.

Twitter was the fastest growing social networking site with 343% Growth over the last year.

The latest report from Nielsien, Global Faces and Networked Places, puts the global social network phenomenon during 2008 into context, providing insights and lessons for the networks themselves, advertisers and the media industry on how to take advantage of what’s happening online around “Global Faces and Networked Places”. Social Networks provide the trigger to improve the potency of advertising across all forms of media. For the full report, download the PDF here.

Interesting facts from the report:

• Social Networking has been the global consumer phenomenon of 2008. Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit a social network or blogging site and the sector now accounts for almost 10% of all internet time.
• “Member Communities” has overtaken personal Email to become the world’s fourth most popular online sector after search, portals and PC software applications.
• The staggering increase in the amount of time people are spending on these sites is changing the way people spend their time online and has ramifications for how people behave, share and interact within their normal daily lives.
• Social networks and blogging sites are now the fourth most popular activity on the Internet.
• ‘Member Communities’ now reach over 5 percentage points more of the Internet population than it did a year ago – a growth rate more than twice that of any of the other four largest sectors.
• Time spent on social network and blogging sites growing at over 3x the rate of overall Internet growth.
• Social networks and blogs are eating into the share of time held by other sectors. Because time spent on social networks is growing at a dramatically faster rate than the Internet average, social networks are gaining a larger share of all Internet time.
• As the online industry matures and the value of online real-estate is increasingly measured by time spent, rather than pages viewed, a significant shift in advertising revenue from ‘traditional’ online media towards social media could be realised.
• The changing audience offers advertisers the opportunity to use social networks as a vehicle for targeting all demographic groups.
• The global rise of social networks in 2008 has primarily been driven by Facebook, which overtook MySpace to become the world’s most popular social network. Facebook (168% relative increase) and LinkedIn (137%) have seen huge increases in reach.

Finally, the report also addresses challenges facing advertisers on social networks and offers advice. Here is just a few highlights:

What can advertisers and their agencies do?

• Work with the networks more closely
• New approaches to the ad model are required for this challenging and complex arena
• Advertising must be a conversation rather than a push model
• The tone of advertising must be more authentic
• Advertising should be about adding value

Generating ad revenue – the MySpace story
Although Facebook has come some way towards delivering a promise of targeted ads within a mass network, MySpace’s more focused overall offering seems to be proving more fruitful at the moment…

Why Facebook has become the world’s most popular social network
Based on a simple design, broad demographic appeal and a focus on connecting, Facebook has become the most popular social network in the majority of countries measured by Nielsen Online.

First-mover advantage and language have kept Facebook at bay in some countries
Although five years old, Facebook only came to global prominence in the last two years, allowing time for other social networks to take a strong hold.

Mobile Social Networking is Taking Off
Mobile is a natural fit for social networks, as consumers are used to connecting with friends via mobile calls and text. Using the phone to access social networks doesn’t require much change in consumer mindset.

What can publishers do?

• Understand that social networks are an opportunity for everyone
• Tap into what makes social networks successful
• ‘Internal’ – Increase interactivity within the publisher site
• ‘External’ – Participate in the conversation on social network sites
• Think about the mutual relationship with social networks and other media
• Whatever the successful ad model turns out to be in social networks – copy it

For the full article visit Social Networking’s New Global Footprint / Global Faces and Networked Places: A Nielsen Report on Social Networking’s New Global Footprint or download the full report here.