Social Media Gladiators: a Fight to the Death?

Have social media begun to reinvent the way we use search engines?

To understand what might be in store for this marriage in 2010, we can start by looking at a chain of events that started last October.  First Microsoft announced a deal with Twitter, allowing Bing to index Twitter’s entire public stream. The same day, they announced a similar deal with Facebook. And before that day was through, Google announced their own deal with Twitter. A busy 24 hours for the real-time search revolution.  Later on, in December, Google made a vague announcement of a content deal with Facebook which just might have been similar to what Bing had pulled off.  By the end of 2009, the two big players in search had each teamed up with the two big players in social media.  The digital community finally had their John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Why is this such a big deal?  Consider this week’s report from eMarketer (”Facebook Dominates Social Content-Sharing“) which identifies Facebook as the the top social media site on which U.S. internet users share online content (representing 44% of the audience).  Twitter was second at 29%.  Combined, that’s almost three-quarters of the U.S. internet population.

(By the way, Google has MySpace streams in its index, too. Take that, Bing.)

In the new front of the war for search engine dominance, Google’s tremendous lead over Bing in terms of market share (65% to 11% according to comScore, or 65-28 if you factor in the eventual consummation of the Yahoo-Bing search alliance) matters little.  The new front is social search, and the playing field is far more level… especially with the recent news that Google would be indexing content posted to Facebook pages.

That is indeed a nice step forward, but here’s what it’s not: personal status updates.  Those go to Bing.  So in the world of social search, there’s a clear line in the sand beginning to emerge.  Facebook Pages, at least the most visible and content-rich ones, tend to be managed by organizations.  And status updates, those are managed by individuals.  Is Facebook pitting Google and Microsoft against one another, giving each party one half of the puzzle, and letting them fight it out?

Let’s add one last layer, just to up the ante once and for all.  Apparently Facebook has not charged either Google or Bing a single penny to access this valuable data.  According to Danny Sullivan, Google did all they could to keep the financial terms ambiguous… but Facebook was happy to talk.

The battle for social search is a battle for individuals’ motivations, aspirations, biases and opinions.  Mastery over these translates into a gold mine of consumer insight. This was the basis for our discussion back in January about commercially-oriented behavior in the social media space (”Peer Purchase Influence: Quantifying the power of word-of-mouth“).  There are a lot of people out there using social media to gainfully influence consumers’ behavior — for example (source: PostRelease survey conducted by Synovate):

• influencing a decision about a product purchase – 54% of U.S. internet users
• sharing advice based on online research – 41%
• rating/reviewing products online – 26%
• outright recommending a purchase to someone – 25%

And nowhere are these actions, or the seeds that underlie them, captured with more accuracy and scalability than on Facebook.  If one social search engine indexes pages, and the other indexes personal status updates, each is left needing a key missing ingredient to complete the circle.

In time, we may see that Facebook teaches these two giants a lesson in Marketing 101: a loss leader today could pave the way for a windfall tomorrow.  If social search continues to evolve within Google and Bing, the absence of the other half of Facebook’s data will become ever more apparent… and ever more costly to rectify.

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The impact of social search engines on SEO practices?

Recently we posted our thoughts on the importance of understanding and differentiating between UGM, CGM, UGC, CGC ” key terms of the Web 2.0 space. The discussion made us ponder on the impact social media and social search engines are having on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) practices. 
It is important to note we define Search Engine Optimization [...]

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Web 2.0 Definitions: UGM, CGM, UGC, CGC – What’s the difference?

These terms are thrown around quite frequently with the rise of web 2.0 and social media but often they’re mistakenly used to describe the same thing when, in fact, the differences are rather important, particularly for marketers. Although these terms are the latest buzzwords to join a long list of industry terminology, it is important [...]

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Video is the new darling of the online industry

It is official, video advertising is the new darling of the online industry.
The growth of video has been spectacular. In 2005 video advertising accounted for a scant $121 million in spending. In 2006 that figure grew by 82%, to a respectable $410 million. In 2007, that figure is expected to reach $775 million; accounting [...]

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Copywriting and fair linking coming to your browser

Following months of legal battle, Google has lost a copyright lawsuit in Belgium brought on by Copiepresse, a publishing group composed of 17 mostly French-language newspapers. The newspapers complained that Google breached copyrights by publishing headlines and links to news stories without permission. Copiepresse also claimed Google’s cached links allowed searchers to find and read [...]

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PPC search obsession flies high!

The UK commercial search accounts today for a staggering 90% of the search marketing spend or £1.26 billion whilst, natural search accounted for £147 million in the UK in 2006 (Travelution, November 2006).
Research from Nielsen/Net Ratings indicates that in 2006, 265m people used a search engine (81% of the internet population) creating 27bn search [...]

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Why ad agencies need to change

The advent of Web 2.0 in which consumers are empowered to promote and shape the persona of a brand will challenge the role of advertising agencies. The same way in which media congolomartes, owners of the airwaves and print press used to be the custodians of public information, advertising agencies used to be archites of [...]

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More Advertising 2.0 than Web 2.0

When YouTube, the darling of the social media revolution was acquired by Google, many hailed it as valuable advertising partnership, which would see Google AdWords and Ad Sense programs propagated across the site. This approach was further cemented by the agreement signed between Google and News Corporation which will see the search giant deliver at [...]

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Online Media Planning, Buying & Optimisation Case Study: XL Airways

In late 2003 XL Airways appointed Web Liquid as its Digital Marketing Agency of Record. Before engaging into communications and media planning we defined a series of commercial imperatives to achieve.
These commercial imperatives helped us identify and guide our media and creative approach. Furthermore, this approach helped us identify and make recommendations on optimising the [...]

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Creative Concepting, Design and Production Case Study : Avis

Avis UK challenged Web Liquid to concept, design and produce an online creative communication for its latest domestic offers. The offer was based on a simple proposition – “7 days for the price of 5″ and “3 days for the price of 2″. While the offer was incredibly competitive, the challenge laid in bringing the [...]

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XL Leisure Group has become the new name for the Excel Airways Group

22 December 2006. Clickpress. XL Leisure Group has become the new name for the Excel Airways Group.
XL Leisure Group is to become the new name for Excel Airways Group and along with the name change there are to be new logos for the Group and two of its main Divisions: XL Airways, the charter airline, [...]

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Excel gains online boost with XL.com

Excel gains online boost with XL.com. 1 February, 2005. Philip Buxton Revolution
Excel Airways has launched into the wider world of online travel after buying the URL XL.com. The airline, known for its low-cost flights, has expanded its online offer to include flights from other airlines, car rental, hotels and package deals. The push sees [...]

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Web Liquid is voted the Most Efficient Online Marketing Agency

Web Liquid is named the most Efficient Online Marketing Agency in 2006 by New Media Age. The previous year, Web Liquid was named the second most efficient Online Marketing Agency and identified as an ”Agency to Watch” in the 2005 Top 100 Interactive Agencies Report. 
The efficiency table published by New Media Age as part of the 2006 Top 100 [...]

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Word of mouth becomes CGC

Our Consumer Generated Content research and marketing practice has been stirring up quite a bit of interest from savvy marketers recently as CGC garners more attention and recognition as an exceptionally insightful and influential channel. Still, we find that whilst many people understand the concept of word-of-mouth online they struggle to see how it [...]

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Avis to improve ad targeting by shifting 50% of funds online with Web Liquid

16 March, 2006 New Media Age. Avis to improve ad targeting by shifting 50% of funds online with Web Liquid.
 Car-hire company Avis is shifting 50% of its GBP £600,000 marketing budget into Internet activity in a bid to target its advertising better and to channel traffic to its site.The move reflects demand from customer as [...]

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In 2005 we generated £57 million in revenue and an average ROI of 20 for our clients

With 2005 gone by and a lot of air over our wings we took a moment to reflect on our second full calendar year in business. We’ve added clients, staff and are doing work in 8 countries across all digital channels.
But beyond all that we’ve identified one metric that really matters – the success of [...]

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Web Liquid increases conversion rates via behavioural targeting

MediaBrokers is bringing a new behavioural targeting tool to the UK next week in a bid to provide an alternative to search marketing.  The solution, called MediaBroker’s Selector, lets advertisers divide users into cookie-based segments by tracking action tags on the Atlas Publisher ad network. It has been tested by Web Liquid across its client [...]

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Hilton plugs world destinations in ads targeted at US audience

11 August 2005 New Media Age. Hilton plugs world destinations in ads targeted at US audience.
Hotel group Hilton is trying to tempt Americans to travel abroad more this summer with a major new online campaign promoting its hotels in the UK and the rest of the world.
The campaign has been developed by the New York [...]

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Unoduo plans brand push for UK and US

3 February 2005 New Media Age. Unoduo plans brand push for UK and US.
Online leisure network Unoduo has appointed a digital agency to promote its services in the UK and US. The Australia-based company will work with Web Liquid in London to develop an online strategy to raise awareness of its ability to connect people [...]

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The great e-scape / Guardian Unlimited

2 August, 2004 Guardian Unlimited by Guy Clapperton. The great e-scape.
More people are visiting holiday websites than ever before, according to new research. So is it just because of the wet summer, or is the net now the only way to book travel, asks Guy Clapperton.
It’s so tempting to start a piece on the holiday [...]

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