For more details on the story, you can find the complete online article here: http://www.wkrn.com/story/16611111/whats-behind-googles-new-privacy-policy

Below are a few things you will see over the next few weeks, if you have not already.

Policy Interruption
When signing on to Google you will get the following message that will confirm this new change. There really is nothing you, as a user, can do about this. It’s forced upon us. This is just an indication that it is happening to you now.

Google Email Notification
You will also receive an email notification alerting you of the policy change. Here is an excerpt from the email:

Dear Google user,

We believe this stuff matters, so please take a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.

If you see any other notifications of these changes, please share them with me.

Google’s new policy combines 60 different policies across multiple Google avenues into one main privacy policy. To the average user this means, instead of signing-up and agreeing to the various terms for different products (Calendar, YouTube, Gmail, etc.), users just have sign-up with “Google” as a whole.

As they often do Google created a meaningless, but fun video to summarize the new changes.

“What does this mean in practice? The main change is for users with Google Accounts. Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.” – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/updating-our-privacy-policies-and-terms.html

With the recent release of “Search Plus Your World”, this announcement of combining information is not that big of a surprise. The up-side is that Google can target your search, visits, and trends even more, thus, showing you even more relevant ads and search results.

The technology media community is quick to point out this is against Google’s “No Evil” philosophy. However, that’s coming from an industry eager to watch Google fall. TechCrunch.com points out the problems with the “no evil” argument.

“What specifically is evil about this particular action? What is happening is a consolidation of privacy policies across most of the services Google offers. Other companies and services do this already rather than maintain separate documents, agreements, and records across several related sites. This way there is a single privacy policy that applies across Google products. That is a good thing: it’s simpler for users to understand, they don’t have to sign multiple documents, they know that certain things are and aren’t private across multiple services, and now something like removing demographic data from yourself applies universally, not just on one service. Why shouldn’t it be that way?” – http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/24/you-call-that-evil/

What are your concerns with this combination of data?

Google Adwords Ad Extensions help searchers learn even more about product details and services. There is not an additional charge to create these ad extensions, except for the standard click rate that the ad generates. In some cases, there is very little charge at all, if any.

Over the next few weeks, I will dive into each Google AdWords Ad Extensions in more detail. In the meantime, here is a general overview.

Google Ad Extensions

• 1.Location Extensions – Adds local business address and phone number to ads. This extension allows for multiple addresses to be included in campaigns. As well as often showing up in traditional Google search results, these extensions will also show in mobile searches. It’s a great tool for local, brick-and mortar, stores.
• 2.Call Extensions – Adding a clickable phone number to the ad, allows users to click and call directly from search. This is another great value to advertiser to mobile searchers. Through call metrics, which is still in limited availability, ROI can be tracked to phone calls.
• 3.Sitelinks Extensions - Sitelinks allow advertisers to include additional links within their text ads. This is a great opportunity to deliver searchers to temporary specials, new landing pages, or additional details on a product.
• 4.Product Extensions – This extension allows advertisers to integrate products from Google Merchant Center into their text ads. This ads great value and a visual presence to search engine results that really allows a product to stand out among other text ads.
• 5.Social Extensions – It should be no surprise that Google is integrating social into paid search. By including +1 in ads, it allows advertisers to gain additional social recommendations.

Are you using Google AdWords Ad Extensions? What has your experience been?

The idea behind this new feature integrates traditional search results with shared items from a user’s network of friends.

Google’s new “Search Plus Your World will have a new “Personal Results” view that will show to users by default. These “personal results” will be tailored results based on Google+ shared content, personal web history, online habits and social connections. For those that have been following my series on social signals in search, this should not be a surprise that Google is “all-in” with Google+.

We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships. We began this transformation with Social Search, and today we’re taking another big step in this direction by introducing three new features:

Google+ people suggestions are also integrated into these new results. If users search for broad topics, like music, Google will show what it considers “prominent people who frequently discuss this topic on Google+”. Again, Google is gauging social authority from Google+. Of course Google is only pulling these “prominent people” from Google+, not Facebook or Twitter. As we know, that’s a substantial less amount of people. To stay that Google is showing special bias toward Google+ is a big understatement.

As another sign that Google is pushing Google+ hard, they are also adding profiles to search. This will give a whole new meaning to “Googleing” someone. By typing the first few letters of a name, Google will auto-complete the name based on the network of friends. See example below that Google provided, since it has not rolled out to me yet.

In even more interesting move, this new feature is not indexing Facebook as deep (nor did it ever). However, that’s more likely a Facebook problem than a Google problem. Facebook’s term of service don’t allow for search to crawl to deep within the site. That’s great from a security and privacy aspect, but not so great if business wants content ranked well. Google+ shares almost everything (also a good and bad thing), and they’ve made that clear from the beginning.

See the video below to learn out about Search Plus Your World … and paperclips.

The best Facebook ads consist of three important areas: Action, Offer, and User Benefits. Below I will cover these in more detail.

1. Action – Each ad needs a call-to-action. The call-to-action can be established with one question: What do you want to the user to do? Some examples include: “Reserve a Ticket”, “Watch this video”, “Join”, “Download”, and many more. The action of the user is the ultimate goal of any ad.

2. Offer – In a competitive industry, many products need to have an offer to get the user’s attention. Examples of offers could be “Free Shipping”, “This Week’s Deals”, and “Free Return”. Offers are not always the solution, but they certainly help.

3. User Benefit – I am under the assumption that your product or service has a benefit to someone. If not, then Facebook advertising is not going to help. You probably already know the user benefits, but the trick is working that into clever, short, copy. The following good examples are succinct and make the point: “42 mpg”, “one size fits all”, “All-Natural”, ”Large Selection”.

I’ve often found the better ads incorporate all three of these items. Of course, this is not easy. How does one say so much in 135 characters? Not only is it 135 characters, it’s often the shorter text that gets more results. This is one, of many areas, where great copy writers earn money.

Let’s look at some examples of actual ads that were targeted toward me on Facebook.

Ashley Furniture

It’s missing an Action. However, this is a strong case where it may not be needed. It’s likely that the goal of any furniture store is to get users to come into a store. The offer, in this case offers, was delivered. I know they have deals and financing. I don’t need to click the ad. Ashley Furniture was able to deliver the message … without spending a dollar on me.

AuthorityDomains.com

This ad is missing an offer. A free trial would certainly give me an extra incentive to click. With a product like this, where I am already skeptical, it would be hard for me to jump in feet first.

Lander University

I could not resist this ad from my Alma Mater. Lander University, a small college in South Carolina, is where I earned my Bachelors degree in Computer Science. Apparently, Homecoming is around the corner. (1)User Benefit – I have the opportunity to “reunite with classmates and reminisce.”

I do not see a discount on lodging or meals (Offer). I would bet that local hotels have made arrangements on lodging. If not, they should. I also do not see an Action. Do I need to reserve a spot? What’s the process for attending?

These areas (Action, Offer, Benefit) could apply to many areas of marketing. Not just Facebook. Not just online marketing. It’s often the case, where online marketers forget, or never knew, basic marketing common sense. The technologies change, but people are predictable.

What success have you seen with Facebook advertising? When do you take action an ad?

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897.

Today, we will start with ad images.

The image in your Facebook ad is probably the most important element. The big message has to be delivered in such a little space. It’s what often separates the good and the bad with Facebook advertising.

The Facebook audience is there to share, play, read updates, and socialize. They are NOT there to look for your products. This is where Facebook has a disadvantage in advertising over Google. (There are many key advantages Facebook has over Google, but we will save that for later.)

As always, it’s important to know your audience. That applies to choosing your imagery for ads.

The image chosen for ads need to grab attention. Facebook users are inundated with content. They quickly scan text and images to find what interests them. Images are of high importance to Facebook users. The image adds need to cut through the clutter of Facebook.

Below are essential tips to keep in mind, when creating Facebook image ads.

1. People Love People – Because of Facebook’s social environment, it should be no surprise that pictures of people work well in Facebook. And yes, let’s be honest … and attractive women sell. I will let you take that bit of information and expand on it how you see fit. Just remember, “attractive” means different things to different people. Know your audience and be careful not to push “attractive” over to “offensive”.

2. Image Size – Facebook requires that ad images are no greater than 110 x 80 pixels, and less than 5MB. The height and width is important, because images that do not match the 110 x 80 dimensions will be resized automatically to fit. This often results in an image losing quality.

3. Test Images – A/B Testing is a great rule across all online marketing techniques. Running multiple image ads with the same message, can provide wonderful data on what attracts your users. Because of Facebook demographic targeting details, you may discover, for example, that certain colors and images work better for over 40 crowd vs under 40.

4. Know the Policies– Facebook has specific ad guidelines and policies that all advertisers need to know.

• The positioning is appropriate for your targeted audience.
• The creative is relevant to the product or service advertised.
• The ad or sponsored story does not assert or imply a user’s prohibited characteristics.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=245316378826196

5. Use Landmarks – Facebook users are bombarded with images constantly. One way to stand out among thousands of images is to display something familiar and comfortable. Advertisers stand to have an advantage if they can work in a familiar local landmark, favorite football team, or any other topic that can be pulled from the user’s “likes”.

6. Crop it – As discussed above images are limited to 110 pixels wide and 80 pixels high. That leaves little room to sell. Too many marketers try to squeeze too much in this space. By zooming out and showing large images, advertisers are essentially showing nothing. Why make users work that hard? Cropping and/or zooming in a larger picture will deliver a much stronger message.

For example, if showing ads for a church it does not make sense to show a zoomed out picture of the building. First, because I’ve never known anyone to choose a church based on a building. Secondly, the church advertising committee would have a better result by focusing on a specific door, sign, alter, or pew. Or even better forget about the concrete items, tap into people and personalities by using people as mentioned above.

Share with us images that have worked well for you.

]]>

Thank You

The Mission Church Trustees don’t want you to think about – Gavin Richardson

Show Your Work – Kenny Silva

What Google+ Needs To Do – Joey Strawn

Announcing: Brand Against The Machine – John Morgan

Breakfast is Ruined – Dave Delaney

In August, Google announced that Google+ public posts will begin showing in search results. Similar to Facebook’s social influence on Bing, the Google+ integration will show you when your “friends” have shared a story or link.

In the example above, not only does it tell me who has +1’d the article, but it also has added the extra layer of “Google+ post”. In tells me which of my friends has posted this link to their profile, as well as how many comments it has. In this case, 33 comments.

Now that we know Google+ is showing in search engine results, how do we optimize? I have listed a few a optimization tips below. I would love to know if you have discovered any more tips or tricks.

Google+ Optimization Tips
1. Link to all other profiles. Make Google+ your central hub for all your accounts. This allows Google to make an easier connection on who you are and where you are located on the web.

2. Don’t go stale. Search engines love fresh content. Google+ is no exception.

3. Use and Optimize Every Field. The more information you add, the better your chances of increasing your adds/follows

4. User your name multiple times. If you are having trouble gaining traction on your name, especially if it’s a common name, be sure to use it multiple times throughout your posts and your Google+ profile settings.

5. Content is still king. Good content leads to more sharing. If you develop something worth sharing, it will be shared.