Google's vision of creating open platforms for both OpenSocial (using a single API) and Android (Open Handset Alliance) is absolutely genius. Not only does it help Google competitively but it also helps create a stronger user experience and a strong support community. Here are some of the major benefits to open platforms such as OpenSocial and Android:

So you were all excited when you first discovered Facebook Groups and noticed that all the cool kids had their own group so you quickly jumped on the bandwagon to create one for yourself.  You went through the process of creating an enticing title/description, selected the perfect logo and then proceeded to invite all your friends to join…but now what???

First of all, I don't think Facebook Groups work for everyone and if you're creating one from a business perspective it is important to understand the purpose of the group.  They work similar to blogs and forums in that you can use them to communicate with members in the community as well help increase awareness of products, news and services in your organization/industry.  Below are a few items that you should consider addressing to help prolong the life of your Facebook Group:

• Growing the Community: It's important that you can continue to grow the number of members in your community for a couple of reasons. First of all, mentally, it gives other group members the confidence that your group is of interest.  Secondly, more members usually means more eyeballs viewing your content and more perspectives in the discussion.
• Fresh and Relevant Content: As with any blog or information portal on the web, users will come back if the content stays fresh and is relevant to their business needs.  I try to post relevant links to PDFs, case studies or posts regularly and this is useful in providing content for my members as well as promoting content from other industry sources.  Besides textual content, consider uploading images for your members to view - if you're in travel post hot destinations or discounts, if you're in entertainment post brochures or advertisement, if you're in search marketing post cool landing page or conference pictures.
• Promote Discussion: It's difficult to get your members to initiate conversation, however since you are quite familiar with your vertical it allows you to get the conversation rolling with questions related to hot topics.  Discussion boards are an excellent way to share ideas and get multiple perspectives on a given topic.
• Leverage the Community:  If you have a community that is truly engaged with your group (i.e.: they actively participate in discussions, communicate with you offline, post links/images video) then you can leverage the community by promoting new whitepapers, events and industry news; this can be done with mass messaging to the entire group.  You can also segment the delivery of the content based on the members' geographic location or type of organization.   However, I do recommend you don't abuse this power because an information overload could lead to members leaving the group.

The social media strategy using Facebook Groups is still in its very early stages, therefore it's important to experiment with different tactics and share the results on ones which have and have not been successful.

Widgets continue to be all the rage on the Internet. The popularity of them is pretty amazing and the viral spread of widgets is pretty impressive as well. Widgets are kind of like Gremlins, you don't want to get water on them or feed them after midnight… For those who don't know what a widget is, a widget is simply a piece of embeddable code that can be found on one site, and embedded in another that can be used to promote your own site, blog or brand. We have discussed widget marketing a number of times in the past. We've touched on the fascination with widgets and the importance of widget marketing in the near future if not already.

So we knew that it was only a matter of time until Google would try to branch out and distribute ads into widgets. In fact, yesterday was that day as Google announced that it will begin distributing ads within "widgets". Google's statement as to what exactly Google Gadget Ads are:

Gadget ads enable advertisers and agencies to engage audiences on the Internet's largest ad network with a rich and interactive new ad format.

The announcement of the "Gadget Ads" has been well received in the financial arena as Google's share price has jumped nicely since the announcement as it is currently near the $554/share mark. (Google's all-time high was around the $558 mark)

What Are Google Gadget Ads?

So just what are Google Gadget Ads? Google describes them as "applications incorporating data feeds, maps, images, audio, video, Flash, HTML or JavaScript in a single creative". This new ad format will allow advertisers to create these interactive ads within widgets that can be spread virally across the Internet. Widgets as you know are simply pieces of software that can include video, images, and dynamically updated data feeds. Advertisers looking for more "pizzazz and flash" will find the use of widget advertising somewhat pleasing as they make use of display advertising over text based ads.

According to Google, benefits of Gadget Ads for Advertisers include the fact that:

• The Google content network comprises thousands of high-quality websites that partner with Google to display targeted ads.
• As an advertiser, you can select sites or let Google's ad targeting display your ads on the most relevant pages.
• Analyze performance by selecting from dozens of predefined interactions and optimize based on those results.
• Gadget ads are built with the same technology as gadgets on iGoogle, which currently has tens of millions of users.
• Use gadget ads to drive significant traffic to your iGoogle gadgets to maintain an ongoing conversation with your target audience.

Currently, gadgets/widgets are being adopted by numerous products from the likes of AOL, IBM and thousands of websites. There is growing use of RSS feeds and widgets that many are using to syndicate their content out to the masses. You can bet that Google's competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft are also working on similar platforms.

Here is a look at some existing ads from the Google Gadget Ads Gallery.

Need more information on Google Gadget Ads?  Here are a few links to Google Gadget resources.

Official Google Gadget Ads Links

About Google Gadget Ads
Benefits of Google Gadget Ads
Features of Google Gadget Ads
Success Stories Using Google Gadget Ads
Tutorial on Google Gadget Ads
Google Gadget Ads Help

• The Right Configuration: Make sure you select a title, category and description that is relevant to your brand because this will entice people to join your group. I also suggest that you be as transparent as possible and offer information such as contact information, website, phone number and location. This allows group members to associate the group to an actual person rather than any old computer generated content. To offer a real community appeal, enable the ability for anyone to post discussions, wall posts, pictures and videos. Initially you should make the group public which allows anyone to join and invite people to the group; remember you do have the ability to remove members if needed.
• Leverage existing Facebook Friends: It's important to attract a strong base of members to your Facebook group, so invite existing friends that may find your group valuable and who could become evangelists for your group. This is where the viral part comes into play: your friends' friends will notice that they joined a new group which will spark interest from them to check it out as well.
• Use your email contacts: Don't forget about your friends outside of Facebook because Facebook Groups provides the ability to import and send group invitations to your contacts from Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail.
• Press Releases/Blog Posts are other methods which you can use to invite new members to your Facebook Group. Personally, I created a call to action and placed it above the fold which reminds my readers to join my group.
• Keep the Content Fresh: Update your group's Recent News, photos, videos, events and links regularly so that members have a reason to return. Another simple tactic is deploying a welcome message which greets new members and enforces the 'human factor' of the group.
• Create relationships with new members: If you have a group which is open to the general public then you will notice people who are not your 'friends' join your group. These are the types of people are there to get a feel for the quality of the group therefore make it a habit to personally address them.

Tracking Your Group's Success

Here are some metrics and tactics you can use to measure the success of your Facebook Group:

• The number of members you have in your group.
• New members who join per day/week/month.
• Ratio of new members to people who left the group.
• Ratio of members who are your Facebook friends vs. not.
• Engagement: Activity on Wall Posts and Discussion Boards.
• Members who also accepted invitations to join your events.
• Links posted in your group back to your blog/website should have parameters appended to them so that they can be segmented in your analytics separately.

Original Post: Web Analytics World

Google Alerts have been around for a while now, yet when I mention using them to many clients it is apparent that they have not used Google Alerts or do not understand how they can be used as an effective online reputation management tool. 

What Are Google Alerts?

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. 

There are 5 types of alerts that you can sign up for: 

1. News alert is an email aggregate of the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google News search.
2. Web alert is an email aggregate of the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top twenty results of your Google Web search.
3. Blogs alert is an email aggregate of the latest blog posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Blog search.
4. Groups alert is an email aggregate of new posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top fifty results of your Google Groups search.
5. Comprehensive alert is an aggregate of the latest results from multiple sources into a single email to provide maximum coverage on the topic of your choice.

Why Use Google Alerts?

Google Alerts can be a useful tool in two main areas:

1. Gathering Competitive Intelligence – use Google alerts to see what is happening with your major competitors in the news, on the Web and in the Blogosphere.  It can be a great tool for finding out about new developments in a timely manner.
    
2. Reputation Management – find out about what people are saying about you and your products, what people are blogging about.  Use Google Alerts to monitor your brand reputation on the web and in the blogosphere

How Do I Set Up Google Alerts?

1. Visit Google Alerts by going to: http://www.google.com/alerts
2. Enter a search query that you would like to be “alerted” about.  This could be a product name, a company name, a website URL or a more general key phrase that is specific to your industry.
3. Specify one of the 5 types of alerts that you would like to receive.
4. Specify the frequency of the alerts.  Your choices at this time are once a day, as-it-happens or once a week.
5. Enter your email address.  Not if you are setting up a number of alerts, you may want to considering creating a new email account such as a Gmail account to use as your Google Alerts email.
6. Click “Create Alert”

Checking/Managing Your Alerts 

The easiest way to check your alerts is through a Gmail email account.  With a Google Gmail account you are able to:

• Create Alerts without email verification
• Change how often an alert is emailed
• Access other Google products like Answers, Google Groups and more!
• On the 'Manage Your Alerts' page, you can view, create, verify, edit, and remove any alert you wish.  This page is accessed by logging into your Google account.

You can create up to 1000 alerts in total.   

Google Alert Resources

Google Alerts FAQ
Using Google Alerts for Intelligence Gathering
Google Alerts at Wikipedia

Original Post: Online Reputation Management: What You Need to Know from SEO-Space

It's safe to say that reputation management is vitally important for all organizations that exist. In fact, whether it's on a personal or corporate level, everyone should be concerned about their reputation. On a personal level, having a damaged reputation can mean being a part of the "in-crowd" or being a loner. For businesses a damaged or negative reputation can mean millions of dollars. The importance of reputation management cannot be emphasized enough. In the wake of a negative experience and tarnished reputations, organizations have lost millions overnight, have had CEO's step down immediately and have even folded within months of negative publicity.

Prior to the development of the Internet, news often travelled slowly and methodically, but with the increasing popularity of blogs and social networks, news tends to travel rapidly and reaches the masses with swiftness as never before. In many cases, the general public is aware of information about your organization that you may not even be aware of yet. Online reputation management is a necessity.

Online Reputation Management What You Need to Know

Rumour, gossip, disgruntled employees and customer scorn can be highly damaging for brand reputation. Competition is increasing and PR firms are often reactive as opposed to proactive when dealing with their client's reputation. In fact studies about the world's top 10 PR firms suggests that around half of them have been linked to supposed PR disasters. So how do you go about protecting your online reputation? There are five keys to online reputation management.

1. Monitor Your Existing Online Presence - consumers use search to find information. When they perform a query in hope of finding information on your organization or brand, you want to make sure that your website and online properties are listed high in the search results. In order to manage your online reputation, you need to know what is being said about your brand online. An easy way to do this is through tools such as Google Alerts to see how your brand is fairing in the online world of Google. Set up alerts for key branded phrases including your company name.

2. Analyze Your Online Presence within the Search Engine Results - the search engine results update their index on a regular basis. With the increase in consumer generate content out there, it is not uncommon for a blogpost or negative article about your company to surface in the first page of organic search results. A company scandal or an ongoing law suit can provide fuel for the fire and can appear in the prime real estate of Google or other search engines. You need to get a grasp and develop a keen understanding of your search engine environment and that of your key competitors.
3. Control Your Online Destiny with Optimization - optimize your site and online properties so that you dominate the search results for your important branded terms. This includes optimizing your main corporate site, any micro-sites and sub-domains, corporate blogs, press releases, articles as well as online properties such as employee blogs and partner sites.
4. Control Your Online Destiny with Participation - Be active in industry forms, social networks, consumer review/opinion sites and the like. If your online reputation is suffering, participation within these areas can help change the negative perception that you may be incurring. Blogs are extremely popular for consumers and are often the first place they will go to find information. As a reuslt commenting on blogs can help communicate your stance and promote your company in a positive light.
5. Repeat Steps One Through Four - online reputation management only works if it is ongoing. Being proactive and understanding the consumer's perception of your brand and your organization is one of the best ways to begin with your online reputation management strategy.

To prevent the loss of revenue and repeat business, an ongoing online reputation management strategy should be developed by all organizations. Online reputation management can ensure the ongoing success of your brand and your organization.

I was reading Adotas this past week and noticed an article titled Google To Acquire Facebook? Google has been on a purchasing frenzy as of late and the acquisition of Facebook would further strengthen their arsenal. However a $900 million pending deal with MySpace (who provides Google with 11% of Google's traffic) and a no-compete clause makes Google have to tread very gently. Google does not want to end up losing MySpace to Yahoo! Personally, I think the purchase of Facebook would have quite a positive outlook for both Facebook and Google, here's why:

• Facebook would receive hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars in return.
• Google would get access to more personalized information from the millions of Facebook users. This would help Google in offering the most relevant search results.  Google does own Orkut, however Orkut only owns approximately 0.5% market share in the Social Networking space, primarily in Asia.  Personally I think Facebook is the superior product of the two.
• Google would gain yet another point of access to user behaviour data including upstream/downstream data at Facebook, Popularity of Groups / Locations / Users / Applications and time spent.
• Google could display contextual advertising throughout Facebook, furthermore they could offer users the ability to display AdSense on their profile/group pages allowing them to make money through Facebook.
• Facebook would receive enhanced search functionality.
• Google would have the ability to integrate many of its other services including gadgets, maps and checkout.
• If Google opened up Facebook profiles publicly (outside of the log-in), users and groups would become indexed in the organic search results. Public profiles would also allow images in Facebook to get indexed in Google's image search. Facebook users tag their images and this would make the images very relevant to search queries.  I know that this would violate the privacy of users, however Facebook could do something similar to LinkedIn where you can specify what is public and what is private.
• Google could apply authority based on the amount of friends a user has or the amount of people a group contains.
• When Google purchases a company they often make many services free, as they did with FeedBurner. Perhaps with Facebook they would offer gifts and polls (and related demographic data) for free.
• With Google's resources and deep pockets Facebook could receive numerous enhancements.

Facebook provides an excellent service and if Google does plan on acquiring Facebook they will have to work fast because Microsoft and Yahoo! are most likely lurking very close behind.   With the recent rumblings of a Facebook IPO the chance of Facebook being Acquired is looking much slimmer than ever before as I am sure Michael Zuckerberg and team have plans of their own.