Google has added a feature that allows users to share directions, hotel information and other content from Google Maps to its social network, Google+.
Specifically, Google has added support for +snippets in Maps. +Snippets, which rolled out in August, adds a link, description and thumbnail to whatever webpage you want to share to Google+. When you click on the “Share” button on the black Google+ bar, the share will be populated with a description and image.
Shane Snow is co-founder of Contently.com, an “agile publishing” platform for brands-turned-publishers and freelance journalists.
Old school SEO pros cover your ears, or be prepared to adapt your craft: Search engines are changing, and social media is a huge part of that change.
Bing, Google, and an increasing swath of nimble little search engines like Blekko and DuckDuckGo are incorporating social data into their results. This is potentially great news for new businesses trying to achieve visibility in search. It’s less great news for sites that rely heavily on link buying (illegal, but hard to catch), producing huge volumes of borderline-useless content (long-tail, content farm approach), or just really old domains (previously an SEO trump card).
A man out of northeast England has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after he hacked his neighbors’ bank accounts using information they posted on Facebook and Friends Reunited, a U.K.-based social networking site.
According to The Telegraph, Iain Wood spent up to 18 hours per day using the personal information his acquaintances posted online to work out passwords for their bank accounts.
He used the personal details to get past security checks and steal more than 35,000 British pounds ($57,000) over two years, which he blew on gambling.
MySpace’s usual homepage was replaced this evening with a puzzling message, leading many (including this reporter) to initially believe the site may have been hacked. That apparently was not the case.
Visitors to the social network were greeted by a largely blank page topped with the browser title bar that read “All is wrong ” where the MySpace name would normally appear. In the upper left of the normally vibrant page was the message: “We messed up our code so bad that even puppies and kittens may be in danger. Please turn back …now.” It was followed up with the message, “* Have your pet spayed or neutered” in the lower right.
Twitter’s photo-sharing and uploading service is now available to all users, Twitter has confirmed. The feature, which made its debut in early June, allows users to add images to their tweets. Users will now find a camera icon on the bottom of the “What’s Happening?” box on Twitter.com. Clicking it will let users select a picture to upload, which they can then preview before sending it to the world. Tweets containing photos include a link to pic.twitter.com, along with a thumbnail of the attached picture.
Facebook makes it easy to share a few things: thoughts, links, pictures, and videos. It’s not exactly known as a productivity enhancer (quite the opposite), but that doesn’t mean you can’t get fancy and use it to share other files, like documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. Filefly is a great free FB app that lets you do all that. Here’s how to use it:
Google+ hit 20 million unique visitors this week, and the company launched a mobile app. The stats are impressive, but the new social network has room to grow in catching up with its massive competitors Twitter and Facebook.
Early adopters of Google+ are captivated by the network’s growth, as many tech elites — including Mark Zuckerberg, Robert Scoble and Kevin Rose — have amassed large followings in just weeks.
Google and Facebook are at war. We’ve known this for a while. Of course, neither side will admit to it, but they are. Winner takes the Internet.
After months of Facebook owning Google in just about every way imaginable (well, except search, of course — but the rise of social is slowly making search less important), Google has finally been able to strike back with Google+. And now a full-on social sharing race is getting underway. It may not be a winner-take-all race, but it will eventually be winner-take-most. We simply can’t share everything across 5 or even 3 networks. Google is fighting an uphill battle in this regard, but at least they finally have a weapon.
Google CEO Larry Page headlined Google’s earnings call today and of course revealed some interesting statistics on Google’s most recent product, Google+. Page said the new management structure he implemented is “working together fabulously,” and helping complete Google’s goal of making “sharing on web like sharing in real life.”
Page says that Google+ now has over 10 million users who have created profiles, and these users are sharing and receiving 1 billion items per day. Page explains that in particular, Circles, which allows users select and organize their Google+ contacts into groups, has been a popular feature of Google+ amongst users.
by Sanjay Dholakia
Nearly every brand has realized that integrating social elements into most or all of its marketing programs is essential. Companies are also thinking about social media as an integrated element that spans all of its campaigns and channels – not as its own silo. But enabling people to share a campaign with friends is only half the battle; you’ve got to give them a compelling reason to socialize.
Here are five creative ways to motivate social sharing. We’ll provide insights as to how you can structure campaigns to encourage more people to share, alongside examples of brands that are getting it right.
1. Increase the Payoff When People Share More
With the advent of DIY group deals, you can create campaigns in which the more people share among themselves, the more they all save. The idea of collective benefit also plays to team dynamics: people will mobilize when lots of folks can get a benefit.
Oscar Mayer’s recent program for its new Oscar Mayer Selects hot dogs provides a good example. Oscar Mayer offers consumers a coupon to try the product, and encourages them to come back to share a “Taste-a-Monial” (essentially their personal review of Selects Hot Dogs) to get a second coupon. But this second coupon is progressive in nature: for every 5,000 people who share their Taste-a-Monial, the value of the coupon will increase by $0.50. The value continues to increase until the deal becomes a free pack of hot dogs, or until the promotion ends on August 15. At that point, everyone who shared a Taste-a-Monial will be rewarded their coupon.
Snoop Dogg made headlines recently for the progressive group deals he runs from his Facebook page’s “Shop Snoop Now” ecommerce tab. Each day, one product is featured for a special group deal – the more “Likes” the product gets, the lower the price for the product.
2. Give Them Something Exclusive
Giving people something unique or exclusive in return for sharing can be a powerful motivator — we all want to feel privy to something special.
For example, in a recent campaign to build awareness for recording artist Cady Groves, RCA offered fans a free song download for registering on the Cady Groves website. RCA also incentivized fans to share Cady’s music with their friends by offering a free merchandise pack to every fan who convinces five people to download the song.
Many brands are also rewarding fans by providing early access to content. For example, a big trend we’re seeing in the music industry is “share to reveal,” where fans get advance access to music videos or song tracks in return for sharing with friends.
3. Appeal to Their Altruism
People are inherently good. If you make it easy for them to help, they often will — and your brand will get a major boost along the way.
For example, Clarisonic recently ran a fundraising campaign for “Look Good, Feel Better,” a program that helps women battling cancer cope with treatment-related skin changes and hair loss. It contributed a $1 donation for each new “Like” on its Facebook page. The campaign made it fun and easy to share the program with friends by designing different “calls to action” that visitors could choose to share. As a result, Clarisonic generated over 30,000 new Likes on the page.
Of course, many fans will share simply because they love the cause and want to spread the word — so make sure you’ve at least added social elements to all your customer touch points.
4. Let Fans Help Create the Offer
Giving fans the ability to choose which version of a product should be offered, or to vote for the discounts or special offers they want to receive, helps ensure they’ll share it. For example, HarperCollins’ Bookperk website, which keeps readers up to date on new books and special deals, lets members select which books will be offered at a discount. Once members have chosen a book, they have the option to log into Facebook and share their selection with friends, therefore spreading the word about the discount.
5. Identify, Recognize and Reward Superfans
Humans are inherently social beings, and like to be recognized for their expertise and achievements. Recognition can be a powerful motivator for social activity.
In the Cady Groves example mentioned above, not only was the campaign successful in getting many fans to share with their friends, but furthermore, quite a few “superfans” took sharing to the next level. They generated their own tweets, direct messages and Facebook posts. Some individuals managed to recruit several hundred new fans to the Cady Groves website and Facebook page.
These superfans aren’t necessarily motivated by the incentive; they’re interested in promoting the artist, getting free merchandise for their friends and establishing their reputation as someone in the know. Smart marketers will look to identify and reward these superfans on an ongoing basis, and further provide them with ways to carry on their message.
Once you’ve identified your superfans, make them part of your marketing mix. Give them preferential or early access to new items, and reward them with recognition on your Facebook page, Twitter or your website.
Whatever your methods, find a way to incorporate a social element into every marketing campaign you run by finding compelling reasons for people to share. That’ll make every dollar you spend on marketing look like two.
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