Google Removes Mashable, Sesame Street & Other Prominent Accounts From Google Plus

"Some of the biggest company/brand accounts on Google+ have now — finally, some might say — been removed.

The Google Plus pages for Mashable, Ford and Sesame Street are all gone. Our own Search Engine Land page has also been removed. Mashable was, according to SocialStatistics.com, the No. 4 most popular account on Google+ with more than 103,000 followers.

All of those accounts have been replaced by a 404 error message. (Update: see postscript at the end of this article.)

Google has been removing business/brand accounts for more than a week now, but some users were unhappy with the random nature of the process. Some accounts were zapped early on while others seemed to get special treatment, or at least were ignored, and continued to increase their following."

Read the full article at searchengineland.com

Yelp Hits 20 Million Reviews

User review and search service Yelp is keeping up its brisk growth, and to celebrate that its 20 million reviews, the company created this infographic showing a heat map of all user submissions across the United States.

Even though Groupon, LivingSocial and Google are making great strides in the local space, they’re not really in the reviews business — which still allows Yelp to enjoy explosive growth.

Read the complete article on mashable.com

Google+ Changes Game for Gaggle of 'Not Facebook' Startups

"Features That Facebook Left Out Once Looked Like Opportunities. Then Along Came Google+

Google's new social network Google+ may never dent Facebook's dominance, but its entrance into the fray is scrambling the emerging market of startups billing themselves as Facebook alternatives.

The current crop isn't looking to take down Facebook, now 750 million users strong. Rather, they're offering a more intimate social networking experience in the vein of Google+, positioning themselves as another option for Facebook users who might be tired of sifting through status updates from hundreds of so-called "friends" and navigating the site's sometimes cryptic privacy settings but who would never abandon it altogether."

Read the full article on AdAgeDigital

Another Try by Google to Take On Facebook

"Remember Google Buzz? What about Orkut, or Google Wave?

Google has tried several times, without much success, to take on Facebook and master social networking. Now it is making its biggest effort yet.

On Tuesday, Google introduced a social networking service called the Google+ project — which happens to look a lot like Facebook. The service, which is initially available to a select group of Google users who will soon be able to invite others, will let people share and discuss status updates, photos and links, much as they do on Facebook."

Read the complete article www.nytimes.com

Google launches indexed local directory portals

"Google has just released city-specific business directories that are clearly going to compete with Yelp, Citysearch, and for travel with TripAdvisor in terms of highlighting popular local businesses.

Google has been trying hard to get a secure position in the local scene. As Marissa Mayer described it, local was one of the important aspects of the current web – with the others being media, search, mobile, and social. With YouTube, Google has the media stage. With Android, Google has mobile. But the social sphere and the local platform are both owned by competitors (specifically Facebook and Groupon), and Google has to fight to catch up."

Via hotelmarketing.com

6 Tips to Increase Your Facebook EdgeRank and Exposure

Ever wonder why you can have 548 friends on Facebook, yet only 15-20 show up in your news feed? It’s not that those other friends have stopped using Facebook; chances are they’re still there. It’s just that they aren’t showing up in your news feed.

If you haven’t noticed, there are now two settings on your Facebook news feed: “Most Recent,” which shows most of the content published by your Facebook friends in chronological order and “Top News,” which filters content based on EdgeRank.

Friends and fan pages with a high EdgeRank are more likely to show in your “Top News” stream. Users with a low EdgeRank may not even show in your “Most Recent” news feed.

For businesses or others looking to market, promote or just interact through Facebook, the implications of this change are huge. “Top News” is the default setting, so unless a friend or fan changes their default, it’s quite possible that they will never see your updates. No matter how good the content, no matter how well you manage your Facebook page, EdgeRank might be holding you back.

>> Click here to read the rest of the post.

How To Use Facebook Answers As Free Research

When the new Facebook Questions launched in March, the assumption was that individuals would mostly use the new tool, for things like restaurant recommendations and favorite movies — two examples given on the social media giant’s site.

However, communicators, public relations professionals and marketers are taking the lead in putting Facebook’s new polling feature to the test, using Questions as a fast and inexpensive market research tool.

Page owners can access Questions by logging into their page and then heading to the Questions page to enable the feature.

 

Snapshot In Time

Because Facebook Questions is so easy to implement, it’s a boon for small businesses who can’t afford in-depth market research. Questions offers a quick and easy way to get fans responding by using multiple choice questions as opposed to fill-in-the-blank.

Many small businesses have used the Questions feature to simply take the temperature of their fans. Some examples:

• A sports bar wants a sense of which game to feature on TV that night
• Which ice cream flavor should be featured that week at the local ice cream parlor
• A music station wants to know the hottest song of the week

Like any good marketing tool, Questions can help customers feel engaged, and there’s an added boost to the customer base when they see the impact of how they answered by seeing their favorite ice cream on display.

Or, if a brand doesn’t act on the fan recommendations, Questions has a comment feature where voters can weigh in.

>> Click here to read the rest of the post

 

 

Lodging Interactive Advises: What Google +1 Means For Hotels

Clearly Google+1 is a direct ‘across the bow’ shot at Facebook.  While Google+1 might seem similar to Facebook’s Like button, it is a stronger power of influence when it comes to validating the popularity and authenticity of a website.

It should not be news to anyone at this time that the search engines have been quietly incorporating “social signals” into their search engine algorithms.  Algorithms are mathematical computations which help the search engines to determine where your hotel website listing will appear on a search results page.  Starting this week, if you are logged into your Google account, you can expect to see Google+1 buttons in your Google search results pages.  When a user clicks +1, they’re declaring their affinity for a particular search result, which Google is considering as ‘human vote of confidence.”  In the near future you will also see the Google+1 buttons on websites across the web, much like Facebook’s Open Graph and their Like button.

 

So here is the a-ha moment for hotels; Google has found a way to make us all become influencers of relevancy and as we +1 our way throughout the web, we will be shaping and helping to determine which website will be listed on a results page...and which one’s won’t.

We believe Google+1 is superior to Facebook’s Like button because in order to +1, you have to create a publicly accessible user profile.  This will make it difficult for companies to game the system by creating fake profiles.  While Facebook is closing in on 700,000 million users, we all know people who have multiple profiles as well as zoo animals who have their own profile pages.

So what does this all mean for hoteliers?  Clearly hotel search engine listings, organic and paid, will increasingly be influenced by Likes and +1’s.  Does your hotel have a strategy to ensure consumers +1 your search engine listings on Google when presented with the opportunity? If your website ranks well on Google now, are you prepared for the loss of rank position when your competitors have more +1’s than your hotel has?  Hoteliers should no longer think as marketers do, but rather think as publishers do.  Only relevant, informative not overly promotional content will encourage consumers to +1 your website.  Gone are the days of simply providing ‘marketing speak’ to get attention, now and in the future it will be all about providing valuable content.

For more information about Google+1 you can visit the Google+1 website:  http://www.google.com/+1/button/

Hotels Turn to Social Media to Connect With Travelers

"Hotels have begun offering direct bookings through Facebook and smartphone apps, and they hope that the convenience and direct contact will lure back travelers who have been turning to online travel agencies."

Read the full article at www.nytimes.com

Google, TripAdvisor redefine roles in distribution

"Although the most recent changes to the distribution landscape might not directly affect day-to-day operations today, experts say hoteliers should pay close attention as major players in the space are making moves that could shape the future."

Read the full article at www.hospitalitynet.org