Google the other day quietly unveiled what is to be their in-house answer to Digg. Since they opted out of outright ourchase of Digg, (more than likely because they felt; rightly so, that they could do a better job anyway) there was much speculation about what Google would do. Well, here it is.

Kudos to Chris Lang for bringing “Google Reader Adds Friends List, Sharing, Bookmarking and Blog Recommendation Engine” to our attention.  In his post Chris goes into much detail as to how Google will be using this new capability, and what it may mean for those of us who use social bookmarking services, want to keep up with Google, or who merely want a sane alternative to the capricious whims of Digg.

Some of the more interesting items to me include the ability to add individual pages (posts) to your Google Reader, amd then share them with your friends, which you can now import from Gmail. They even provide you a sweet little bookmarklet to make the task ever so much more simple. It also appears that your Google Reader profile will take on more significance, and that Google may even use this to base rankings upon. More to come on that one. However, it is interesting to note that does follow links that appear in each shared post. It uses the permalink to the blog post and also links to the domain in each shared item.

Another tool for the toolbox!

~Keith

One, if you’re not making Google the focus of your search engine optimization efforts, you’re making a mistake! According to Hitwise Google’s share of search now is at 69.17%. Whether this number is real or not, (some think it’s low!) it’s clear that that at least for the moment, the big G is really the only show we’d like to attend! Yahoo hovers just under 20%, while MSN has tanked to about 5%.

The other item is that Google apparently is toying with the idea of ranking your searches. This is part of a Google Labs experiment, and it’s really not clear just what their eventual aims may be, but the output does look very Digg-like! Take a look at the article on TechCrunch and see for yourself!

If you haven’t considered yet what your social bookmarking strategy is, or what it might be, or even if you need one, then here’s a few things to think about. A good social bookmarking strategy is essential on many levels, not the least of which is that if you do this wrong, you’ll find yourself locked up in the social bookmarking pokey in short order! (Don’t ask me what sites I’m banned from: wait for the T-shirt!)

Even the term “wrong” is relative, because each of the social bookmarking services is a bit different. What is cool at Mister Wong may be taboo at Digg, and vice versa. Certain subjects or topics are not in favor at certain sites, and you find this out the hard way sometimes. Anyhoo, here are a few things we’ve found that are usually not what you might consider a best practice:

• Promoting your own content - A big no-no on sites like Digg. Many of lesser elite sites don’t mind so much, but for the most part, you’re much better off letting your friends or network Digg, Stumble or otherwise discover your site.
• Multiple accounts - This is a tactic used by people who wear dark color hats! They register many accounts, use proxies, automated posters and other means to “game” the system. This one is against most all TOS of any of these sites.
• Duplicate content - Not in the sense you’re probably thinking. What I mean is the use of the same exact wording, headlines and text at every social bookmarking service you use. Mixing it up a little is at the very least a way of testing different headlines, anchor text and keywords. At best, it creates even more unique content with just a small tweak. 
• Frequency - Social bookmarking every single solitary post you make is not only not necessary, but can be looked upon askance. Bookmark your best stuff. What I like to do is rotate where I bookmark, kind of spreading the wealth, so to speak.
• IP addresses - If you do a lot of bookmarking for clients or friends, be aware that most of the bigger services, like Digg, monitor your IP adddress, and will come down hard on you of they suspect you’re trying to spam the system. Remember, moderation, and not your own stuff!
• Social Bookmarking AutoPosters - These software tools are an accident waiting to happen to your rankings.  A bunch of bookmarks with the same text, timestamp, and IP address all pointing to your site? Hmmmm….
• Google Slap Rumors - There are rumors rampant that Google may come down with one of it’s infamous “slaps” soon, this time targeting all the spam associated with social bookmarking sites. We shall see…

Those should give you plenty to obsess about over the next few days! Seriously though, a sane, well thought-out social bookmarking strategy can be implemented and should be. Just make sure you’re doing your level best to use the services the way they were intended to be used. The real winners when this all shakes out will be the people who’ve taken the time to create a following that will naturally bookmark and otherwise vote for their posts. This after all is the essence of the social web.

~Keith

Now that you’ve jumped into the deep end of social media marketing, one of the very first things you’ll notice is that’s theres a LOT of voices vying for your attention! And most of them are trying to outshout one another. If you’re going to make a dent in this medium, something has to be done!

Just getting past all the noise and developing a plan for your social marketing efforts will be the first major challenge you have to conquer. There is no one right way for everyone to crack this egg; you’ll have to choose cafeteria style which sites, programs, networks make sense for you and your projects. This can change also, as Web 2.0 moves at a speed heretofore unseen! What was here today is gone tomorrow, and it truly is a flavor of the day type of marketing.

Some may use Facebook, MySpace, Mixx, Digg and others, while others may find it more doable to focus on just a few sites. Some depend on an network of blogs, others blog comments and trackbacks. the possibilities are many, but however you decide to do it, make sure that you do it frequently. Remember all those voices vying for attention? Well, you;re one of them too, and if you’re AWOL for too long, you’ll have to regain all your lost ground and relations. This kind of marketing is hands on, in their face, and in a word, social! We want to get to know you!

You may have neard this last week of two items that came across our screens regarding Google, Yahoo and Digg.

The first of these was the announcement by Yahoo that it is contracting with Google to serve up contextual advertising on their sites, and will share in that revenue. Yahoo feels it can raise some serious cash by allowing Google to place their advertising next to Yahoo search results. The prevailing sentiments are that Google is far better at targeting this kind of search anyway, and it will be a win-win for both sides, as well as for advertisers and consumers. The deal still has to pass muster with government anti-trust types, so it may well be several months before we see any of this.

Also, Digg has apparently entered into some sort of arrangement with Google as well, possibly even the sale of Digg to Google. No one’s saying anything officially yet, but Digg would fit in nicely at Google, especially as how Google is trying to make inroads into the social marketing scene. These developments both bear watching!