Google Search to include Your Social Circle...

The article (http://blogs.computerworld.com/14985/google_social_search_searches_your_social_circle) describes Google's Social Search feature that allows you to include content from friends into your Google search results. Google's Social Search uses your own lists of contacts from various services to build up a network, and then includes content specifically from the people you know. As an active user of Google Search this article caught my attention.  I have mixed feeling about Google’s Social Search.  Social Search seems interesting enough to tryout.  However, I’m not sure I want to weed through a lot of information from friends and family in my Google search results.

Google Social Search was “an experimental feature that helps you find relevant public web content from people in your social circle, you must be logged into your Google account to make this work. Google has a site that gives more information regarding the opt in and the set up at: www.google.com/experimental/. This experiment gives you the option to opt into or out of the experiment when logged in. If you choose to opt in, the Google search results will include your friends and contacts. If your Google account profiles lists the social  circles that you have joined, the search will be able to located your Gmail contacts, and people you are connected to through social services, such as Twitter and Friend Feed. An additional option is to filter the search results to only view results from people in your social circle. One caveat as mentioned in the site,” If someone you don't know shows up in your social search results, it's likely that they're connected to someone you do know. Social Search includes results from public connections of your immediate social circle, since there's a high likelihood that you know them as well.”

While you may not always want to look at search results based on you social circles results, for those who do, this may be a useful feature. One way to look at it, which may be the only way I would find it useful, is instead of the social circles, it can be used as an educational benefit to identify classmates in the same classes you are taking or classmates in future classes you are scheduled to take. Although this may be a great option, again for some, I do worry about security, if strict features for security are not built in, the risk may be greater than the benefit

What are your thoughts on Google’s Social Search feature?  Do you think this a useful feature?   Would you use this feature?

Social Media Marketing - "As with any marketing effort, it’s not about what YOU want to say, it’s about what YOUR CUSTOMERS want to hear."

Since the topic of the week is regarding whether or not Social Media is an appropriate marketing channel for large established business. I thought I would add my perspective as well as include a couple of interesting articles I found pointing out some things that should be considered as well as how it has been a successful strategy. I think that before businesses look into Social Media marketing strategies, they need to determine whether the bottom line can handle the overhead and time consumption it will take to maintain a presence in that a channel of marketing. What are businesses really trying to tell us? A better question, are we missing the message?

Many businesses who are using television  commercials, radio spots, as well as print ads, end with the tag line "follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter". To reiterate the questions above, usually I am trying to determine why must I follow them socially, the marketing message has been conveyed in the other channels, how will following them change my views of the company as a customer. I pick and chose those businesses I want to follow for simple reasons, mainly because I have am really familiar or word of mouth. As a customer, I am looking for the benefits of doing so, to date, I have not seen really seen the benefits of doing so. The option to follow a businesses in this new social arena has not enticed me to run out to support that it any more than I would have by seeing it in other media. Of course this is just my thinking, but I am sure others share my thought process.

Although I take that position, some companies have cornered this medium and has shown that it is truly an asset to their marketing strategies. Others are simply riding the wave forgetting the message and how social media will enhance their businesses.

So back to the original opening should established large businesses participate in social media channel marketing, sure if you considered all that is involved for a successful marketing strategy.

Pepsi Refresh Projects Racks Up More Votes than last Presidential Election - Successful Social Medial Marketing - Mashable

Sometimes, Social Media Is Right for Your Business - Harford Business.com

How will companies embrace the new trends of interactive marketing?

I must say, I am not much of a blogger because I do not have the time and quite frankly, I am really not the type to stay on a computer all day, following blogs and replying to them. For the sake of this Internet Interactive Marketing course and to take a stab at my first blog, I thought that researching new trends and tools related marketing would be the best route to start. It seems that the marketing campaign process is becoming rapidly a good example of cybernetic shared work. For example, advertising spot can be designed in China, approved in a company headquartered in Chicago and distributed by an e- marketing service in New York.

As we have witnessed in the past, most times when dollars need to be saved, advertising and marketing expense are the first be eliminated. Therefore, media agencies are now looking for more efficient ways to promote products and services using the boom of the social networks, while creating expeditious ways to reach the growing numbers of cyber-surfers. You-Tube has become overwhelmingly populated in marketing media arena, however has the spread of You-Tube's popularity actually shown to be an effective way of advertising? Facebook and Twitter is now added to many advertisements in efforts for consumers to utilize that medium of brand recognition. Large marketing consultants are trying to encourage their lists of clients to experiment with ads placed next to online videos on the You-tube browser pages. By doing so, can companies really measure the Return of Investment of the social network marketing campaign? Will these new trends of Marketing via the internet actually encourage or discourage companies to balance, add or replace traditional media for the new interactive trends.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_02/b4115048776067.htm