Post-Advertising Survival Guide Vol 5: Introduction to Social Media

Posted by Jon Thomas, 23 Aug 2012

Social media has emerged on the marketing landscape and quickly helped redefine how brands market to today’s always-connected consumer. Tools like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram have created two-way avenues of communication and media sharing between brands and their audiences. The possibilities seem endless, and many brands that have yet to embrace these tools are peering down off the edge of the diving board, ready to make a big splash. But it’s not that easy.

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Is Google’s Social Search the New Normal?

Posted by Jon Thomas, 23 Jan 2012

Additional reporting by Story's Director of Audience Generation Cyrus Karimi.

In early December, Google updated their search algorithm to provide each user with personalized results—the information Google deemed most relevant to the specific user. The news garnered little chatter in the social media realm. According to Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land, less than 50 news articles and blog posts were written about in its initial week (and only 290 to date).

Earlier this month Google made another important change, updating their search algorithm to include personalized search results specifically pulled from Google+ activity, naming the new results “Google Personalized Results.” Once again the news spread through social circles and landed on a few of blogs, but compared to the hoopla surrounding SOPA, Facebook Timeline, and emerging technologies like Pinterest, its effect was more of a ripple than a tidal wave and has many users and news outlets slamming the change.

However, love it or hate it, these changes may be the new "normal" for search, forever.

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Google, Facebook and Twitter, sitting in a tree...

Google+ Friends Both Facebook & Twitter

Posted by Jon Thomas, 20 Jul 2011

In the media frenzy leading up to Google+, a slew of articles preemptively warned that Facebook should be shaking in its boots, painting Google+ as a defacto “Facebook Competitor,” even implying a gladiatorial showdown where two social media juggernauts would enter the Thunderdome, but only one would come out alive. But after using it for a few weeks now, I see some pronounced differences between the two that make me far less sure that Google+ is ready, or even intended, to cut Facebook’s unbridled success.

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Could a Google + Branded Page look like this?

5 Ways Brands Can Leverage Google+

Posted by Katie Edmondson, 14 Jul 2011

Brands are champing at the bit to get onto Google+, but the new social media experience is not quite ready to accept them. Last week, Google Product Manager Christian Oestlien, made a statement discouraging brands from creating pages (aside from a few close partners like Ford and Mashable, who are merely keeping their branded personal pages for the time being) on Google+ because they are introducing a unique business experience later this year. The project will include rich analytics and allow businesses to connect their G+ identities to other Google services like AdWords.

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