Flick through the presentation below for some insight & examples of how some brands are doing it brilliantly…and how others are failing! Plus read my 5 steps to getting started in social media customer service.

(As my presentations are mainly visual, for the transcript, view the presentation on slideshare and click the ‘notes’ tab! Stats cited were correct as of November 2011)

What are your experiences? Let me know in the comments below.

When Google created their very own social network in the form of Google+ back in September 2011, they enabled people to create their ‘own little world’ on a Google platform; this has spawned their latest development in the ongoing search/social saga - ‘Google Search plus Your World’ - which launched a couple of weeks ago.

If (and it’s a big ‘if’, as we’ll talk about later) you are signed into a Google account and have a Google+ profile, you’ll be able to access the ‘personalised search’ feature. The crux of ‘Search plus Your World‘ is that it incorporates content from Google+ directly into your search results. Within the search results pages there are options to show personalised results; hide personalised results; and to just see personal results. It’s currently only available when searching on https://www.google.com/ in English but will undoubtedly be rolled out across the globe over the coming weeks and months.

The screengrab below shows a few of these features…

In full, the three elements to ‘Search plus Your World’ are:

1. Personal results

Content including posts and photos will be pulled from Google+ and included within the search results. For example, if you were searching for photos of somewhere you’d like to go on holiday, you may come across a photo that a friend (in one of your circles) took whilst they were on holiday there a couple of months ago and subsequently posted on Google+. You could then easily get in touch with your friend via Google+ to find out more about what they thought of it.

2. Profiles in search

If you start to type the name of someone in your Google+ circles, a number of predicted profiles will appear within the autocomplete box (although let’s hope you aren’t friends with a number of John Smiths). Once you’ve selected the person you were looking for, the results page will include their Google+ page (with recent activity), as well as other related web results such as twitter and LinkedIn profiles.

3. People & pages

When searching for a particular topic, you may see prominent people or pages from Google+ listed on the right-hand side. On Google’s official blog they have used the example of searching for the topic of [music], for which Britney Spears appears at the top - we’ll let you decide for yourselves if Google still need to do some tweaking here and there!

So, what impact will this have on search channels?

In order for users to see these new personalised search results they will need a Google account, a profile on Google+ and to be signed in when searching; this remains the major stumbling block, particularly as Google+ has a mere 60 million users compared with Facebook’s 800 million.

At present, the number of searches made by those logged in to a Google account is estimated to be between 10-15%; of that, only an estimated 20% of searches will be returning ‘Search plus Your World’ results.

In search, some markets will find it harder to attract clicks in a traditional manner from both paid and organic search as results are ‘polluted’ with Google’s own agenda, with social results effectively taking up positions in the search rankings that could otherwise have been showing ‘traditional’ results. So, brands will either have to embrace  Google+ by posting content and encouraging their website visitors to +1 them…or increase their activity (and therefore spend!) in paid advertising. Or, indeed, do both!

Is ‘Search plus Your World’ a good thing?

Along with many of our search industry peers, we’re not convinced that content from Google+ should be ranking higher than ’standard’ natural search results.  Should it be given prominence simply because it was posted on Google’s own social network?!

Given that Google already has a more than dominant share of the search market in the UK (which stands at 91.4% according to StatCounter), ‘Search plus Your World’ is adding fuel to the fire for those arguing that Google’s monopoly is bad for the Internet.

Twitter’s Alex Macgillivray declared that it was a “bad day for the Internet” and that search is “being warped” (by making it harder for people to find real-time information provided by Twitter) - with Google responding by saying that they were “surprised by Twitter’s comments” as “they chose not to renew their agreement with us” (a reference to the end of the deal which saw tweets included in Google Realtime Search results).

Time will tell

As with all new developments, time will tell as to whether this is going to be a game-changer or whether it’ll just die another slow death like other Google innovations (Buzz, Wave). But word is that Google employee bonuses are tied to the success of Google+ - so chances are that ‘Search plus Your World’ is here to stay and is a key part of the strategy to grow Google+. If it ever does compete seriously with Facebook in scale, then ‘Search plus Your World’ could well change the face of search.

Well, today is the day that the floodgates open - companies can now apply to register for .anything. This could be their brand name or something more generic, such as a product or category.

So, in future, we could end up with URLs such as http://eat.walkers.crisps or http://wear.superdry

No longer will the internet just be restricted to 20 or so top-level domains - ICANN’s new rules just created an explosion of potential domains!

Is this good or bad?

There are some who believe this will give brands greater control over their online presence - and prevent potential phishing or fake sites popping up. Would you be more reassured that you were on NatWest’s website if the URL was http://my.natwest ?

Personally, I believe this move will predominantly create consumer confusion. What’s the benefit to the consumer? At the moment, there are conventions that help consumers navigate the web - typically URLs are <brand name>.com or (here in the UK) <brand name>.co.uk.  With the new ICANN proposals, more guessing will be needed -  is a brand’s site at <brand name>.com or <something>.<brand name> or even <brand name>.<product> or <brand name>.<category>?

Apply now

With a hefty price tag ($185,000) and a bunch of risks and responsibilities of registering one, time will tell whether the take-up is significant. A few companies such as Canon have already come out & said they’ll register their own brand names as new top-level domains.

If you want yours, get your checkbook out and get your application form in before 12th April when applications close.  For more information, head on over to the new ICANN gTLD website where there’s a useful video which explains how it all works.

Your thoughts?

Good or bad for the internet? A new gold-rush? Or something that’ll never catch on? What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

This got us thinking about how the year had left people feeling about Christmas. As always these days, Twitter is a great place to look for immediate opinions on subjects. And with that we’ve decided to do away with a Christmas card - instead, this season we’re using Twitter to help people spread Christmas joy or humbug, dependent on their mood.

We’ve created a microsite, which acts as a pinboard for people’s tweets that are hashtagged #traxmas or #trahumbug. The tweets are then converted into hashtag snowflakes and dependent on how cheerful or miserable the messages are the scene changes. At the last check it was 74% cheery so things are looking quite rosy for Christmas at the moment.

One thing is for certain, regardless of the final result it’s generated a lot of interest and delivers an engaging way of presenting and recording the mood on Twitter. If you’d like to add your opinion to the scene visit http://traxmas.realadventure.co.uk today and add your Tweet!

Creatively, the likes of Facebook and Twitter have raised the bar

It’s not simply about coming up with a great TV execution that ports visually online and is replicated in print. It’s about adding more heart to the idea and looking to see how we can make more creative use of social media channels to enhance and add depth to a campaign.

The truth is we need to do this

Consumers have become much more selective and harder to please. Simply talking at them won’t cut it. They want to play with brands in their own time and way. In much the same way they like to watch their favourite TV shows when they want to, not when the schedules decree. Social media enables us to offer that flexibility. And people like that. Brands that get this, get ahead faster.

Above the line is now a door

It’s the entry point to potentially far richer experiences that deliver (often immediate) genuine rewards and dialogue. There are very few consumers who don’t like hearing their own voices or being recognized on a bigger stage.

The result? Overall higher ROI, better brand loyalty and awareness

We’ve extended the efficacy and longevity of campaigns by developing additional films and features (from games to quizzes and competitions to simply asking pertinent questions) for Facebook and Twitter. They elicit conversations, active participation and encourage further engagement. Everything feeds back in to the original idea, making it bigger and more inclusive.

But you don’t need a massive ATL budget to make it work

A good idea takes root anywhere, so even more modest budgets can make social media work creatively to support existing campaigns or even actively create engagement independently. You just need to factor in the requirements of these channels into your concepts. Remember, we need to engage people. Give them real reasons to respond and engage. Reach out to your audience in a manner you know they’ll love.

Saying social media is killing the big idea is missing the point

It’s not just about messaging and chat. People who say that are missing the point. It’s like saying that every company has just one phoneline. The truth is social media can message, provide support and engage and entertain.

It’s equally crazy to say everything needs huge amounts of social media exposure

Does the campaign REALLY merit social media elements above and beyond a basic level? Is the return on investment going to justify the investment of time and money? So think carefully.

As a creative the challenge is very much on to see how we can expand our ideas to have relevance and return within social media. And here’s the best bit, you don’t need huge amounts of money to make it work. In fact you don’t necessarily need a massive TV budget. Just a good idea and plan.

“The ‘subscribe’ button means that as well as friends on the site, Facebook users can now have followers that they don’t know, just like on Twitter. Interestingly when a Facebook user sends a friend request to another person on the site, they instantly become a subscriber to that user’s public updates – unless the user turns the subscribe button off” - Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor of The Telegraph.

To check your subscription settings, click the ‘subscriptions’ link on the left-hand side of your profile. If your privacy setting are already locked down like mine, then the subscribers should be turned off too.

Another new feature launched by Facebook this week was Smart Lists, a new tool which is being seen as a direct response to ‘Circles’ in Google+. This feature makes it easier for people to group their Facebook friends into different categories, so a user can control who they see the most or least information from. Smart Lists automatically groups friends with common characteristics into Friend Lists based on their relationships and what they have in common.

Source: The Telegraph

The revised EU e-Privacy Directive, which becomes law today, means that websites will be moving from an ‘opt-out’ to an ‘opt-in’ in terms of a user’s acceptance of website cookies. We are in the process of finalising a plan of action for complying with the directive; this will outline a number of steps to be taken in the interim, to ensure that our clients’ websites are fully compliant by next year.

We commonly use Google Analytics to track the performance of our websites and online activity through the use of cookies. Using an analytics package (and therefore cookies) is essential for us to be able to determine performance, identify areas for improvement, set goals and ultimately improve our clients’ websites and users’ experiences.

The UK  Government is currently working with leading web browser manufacturers including Microsoft (Internet Explorer), Google (Chrome), Mozilla (Firefox) and Apple (Safari) in order to identify how web browsers could incorporate a more prominent method for users to ‘opt-in’ to cookie usage. This would be the ideal solution to minimise disruption to the user experience.

• Over the past few years, the number of active users on social networking sites has risen dramatically.
• We’re also more likely to value a friend’s opinion over the opinion of “RandomBlogger29″ for example.

To take advantage of these two points and improve the relevance of search results for users, the boffins at Google HQ launched Social Search back in 2009. However, there have been some recent developments which could potentially revolutionise the way that search and social media work together.

What is social search?

Google Social Search pulls tweets and other posts or updates from your favourite social networks into Google’s natural search results. For example; you want to go out for a nice in meal in Bath and naturally, the first thing you do is search for ‘restaurants in Bath’ on Google. You notice that below one of the results is an annotation marked “@danmorganuk shared this on Twitter”. It’s then possible to click-through to the tweet and see whether I thought the restaurant “served tasty food at a reasonable price” or I “had to queue for 45mins to get a table”. The idea is that you’ll find this recommendation from someone you know to be a lot more useful than a regular search result.

How have Google changed Social Search?

Previously, Social Search annotations would have been listed together at the bottom of the page. This latest update means that they are now shown just below each appropriate result, wherever it appears on the page. If you’re signed up to Twitter, Flickr and/or Quora, a new development allows you to see Social Search annotations when your friends have shared content via these social networks. The third new development means that you can choose whether you want to connect your accounts publicly using your Google profile or privately in your Google account; this offers users more control.

What it means for social media and SEO

Search engines are increasingly realising the importance of social media in search; this latest news goes to show how important it is for brands to have a good presence within social media, as this should mean a better presence in natural search results. One thing that hasn’t changed is that the key to success in social media and search is creating engaging, unique content. A notable omission from Google Social Search is that of Facebook ‘likes’ which are used in Bing’s version of social search. What impact will these changes to social search have? Will social search on Bing prove to be more powerful than Google’s offering? We’ll have to wait and see!

We noticed a change today in the way Google results are being displayed for local searches. Instead of the typical format of the map being shown above natural results and pushing the organic listings down, Google seems to have changed it in favour of moving the map to the right hand side and pushing the paid listings down instead.

Google Local Search Results

The format choice is interesting as it seems to be implying that Google is putting the natural results in a more important position than the listings which advertisers are paying for. This is quite unusual for Google, who never usually lower the prominence of ads which make them revenue (only kidding – we love you Google)!

The change in design also seems to draw the eye to the natural results which have a Places page, with those listings being highlighted with the map symbol and user review stars. The contact details for that business is also pulled in from their Places page, meaning the user doesn’t even have to click through, they have your user rating, description and contact details right there on the results page.

So what does this mean for companies looking to appear for local searches? Well there are a few implications of this change in design:

1. Relying on paid search is no longer enough – you’ve been pushed down the page, so now the first Adwords listing is below the fold. Big impact, even in the top position.

2. You need a website – before this change, the map featured alongside it a list of Google Place pages, which meant even if you didn’t have a website you could still feature on the local listings by optimising your Google Place page and getting in the “7 pack”. Now, you might still be in the map, but you’re not in that crucial ‘top of page 1’ position in the general search listings.

3. You need a Google Places Page – if you have a website and are not on Google Places, despite being highly optimised and in a great position on page 1, you may be ignored in favour of a result further down that Google is highlighting.

I’m pretty sure paid advertisers will be kicking up quite a fuss as a result.

It does make you wonder whether Google has some more big plans for Places. The latest change is even more reason for advertisers to use Place pages, so maybe it’s paving the way for some kind of revenue generation on there as well?

Watch this space.

When it comes to making complex things really simple to understand, I’m a big fan of analogies. So I thought I’d share an SEO-related one with you.

SEO…it’s just like fishing

Imagine you’re sitting on the bank of a river. There are loads of fish swimming down the river…all the time.

Further upstream, there are a few more fishermen – with various sizes of fishing net.

Your net is pretty small. And it has a few holes in it. That, plus the fact that you’re sitting downstream, means you’re not catching many fish…and some of those that you do catch escape through the holes in your net.

Most of the fish are being caught in the nets further upstream…and many are swimming straight past your small, holey net.

So how do you catch more fish?

• Move further upstream
• Mend your net
• Make your net bigger

How does this relate to SEO? Well – people are out there, right now, constantly using a search engine to find information. They are the fish swimming down the river. Someone (your competitors, the upstream fishermen) will ‘catch’ those searchers before you by being at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs). And your small net? Well, that’s like your site only appearing for a small number of searches keywords. So…

Move further upstream – this is akin to optimising your site for the keywords that the searchers are using. By doing so, you’ll move further up the SERPs – further upstream.

Make your net bigger – adding content to your site (making it bigger) will allow you to attract people searching for content that you didn’t previously have.

Mend your net – once visitors do eventually arrive at your site, you don’t want to lose them. (Don’t let the fish escape through holes in your net!) So, make sure your site is easy to use so it fulfils the searcher’s needs. Search engines are starting to take usability into account when determining your position within SERPs – so make sure you keep them once you’ve caught them!

But remember - all the fishermen on the river will be moving further upstream, mending their nets and making them bigger! So don’t rest too long on your river bank chair!

What do you think? Leave a comment to let me know!