Will instant communication kill e-mail?

Facebook is moving into the e-mail business. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder, calls it "modern messaging system" and users soon will be entering into the @facebook.com world. This announcement reinforces the idea that in the future people will be more interested in instant communication than traditional e-mail and services like Gmail or Yahoo Mail will have to deal with the consequences.

An article by Brian Barret published on Gizmodo, give us a good idea of this trend that may be possibly change the future of cyber communication:

"Zuckerberg insists that this isn't going to be a Gmail killer, and for the time being, at least, he's right. But Facebook's looking towards the future, towards a generation that's steadily and increasingly been abandoning email for instant communication. And the more we abandon email for text and chat, the more Facebook's going to be the communication hub."

You can read the full article HERE.

The Nike hit on Facebook

A recent article published on Bloomberg Businessweek about advertising on Facebook gives us an example of the way big companies are using the social network for advertising purposes.

During the last World Cup, Nike produced the video "Write the Future" that was originally posted on Facebook before moving into TV, the traditional advertising channel. That new way of approaching advertising not only saved big bucks to the company but also became an incredible way of reinforcing the brand's name.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

"The video started as an ad on the site. Then it was passed from friend to friend, often with comments and members recommending it. In the resulting discussions, the clip was played and commented on more than 9 million times by Facebook users—and helped Nike double its number of Facebook fans from 1.6 million to 3.1 million over a single weekend. Getting the ad onto Facebook cost a few million dollars, according to the companies".

If you want to read the full article please click HERE.

Free stuff about Web Marketing and Social Media

Today, I discovered and interesting site which offers hundreds of free reports and documents about various subjects. One of those is web marketing and there are several documents dealing with this hot topic.

The site is called TradePub.com. Click HERE to go to the site and enjoy your research.

Writing the most effective message online

A post by Roger Rae on B2C Marketing Insider, remind us of 5 basic things you should always keep in mind when dealing with social media communication:

1. Keep your message simple.
2. Customize your message (every site is different).
3. Make your message about the people not you.
4. Know where to promote your message.
5. Be in the right place at the right time.

Read the full post HERE.

Social media charts

Today, I read a post with some interesting charts about the popularity of some social media sites. Click HERE to read the full article.

Can Facebook ads take on Google Adwords?

According to Inside Facebook, the social media giant could reach this year the billion point mark in terms of revenues. Half of that comes from ads.

Keeping on mind this, do you think that Facebook ad platform represents a serious threat to Google Adwords?

This is a sentence I read from an article on Daily India:

"Much of Facebook’s revenues comes from advertising with half of that coming from their ad platform. Facebook ads are still in its infancy when compared to Google Adwords and it pales in usability and efficiency to Google’s. But if improvements continue it may challenge Google down the road as the top ad platform on the net."

A powerful move: Yahoo and Twitter together

The interaction between different players within the social media world is starting to look like a war. Google gets Buzz and now Yahoo partners with Twitter. The latter represents a powerful alliance that could benefit both parts in significant ways.

To read more about the implications of this alliance, take a look at THIS ARTICLE from Channel Web.

82% increase in social media use!!!

According to a Nielsen report, social media use has increased 82% during the last year! This is thanks to the fact that the average time spent on social media per month has moved from 3 hours to 5.5 hours. Amazing stuff, ah?

Read this quote from a CNN Money article regarding this:

"This Nielsen report establishes social media as a trend that is not only here to stay, but one that is growing at a mind-boggling magnitude," stated Bloggerwave Director Ulrik Thomsen. "The findings more than validate Bloggerwave's business model of leveraging social media for marketing opportunities -- a business model I am proud to admit we developed years ahead of the trend."

Ladies and gentlemen: Social media is the future!

It's Facebook time

These are good days for Facebook. The social media giant is near to reach 400 millions users around the world and the promising future of social media gives Facebook a lot of good reasons to smile today.

The new trend in terms of optimization seems to be oriented towards the SMO (Social Media Optimization) and it's going to be interesting to see how SMO will play along the lines of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Take the following note from this article I read today in Min Online:
"Just as “SEO” became the key to publishers riding the search engine ecosystem, “Social Media Optimization" may be the buzzword for the next few years as more and more of us discover news and information through friends on Facebook and Twitter."

In addition to this trend, Facebook is now generating more online traffic than Yahoo and Google' Buzz is just a response to accomodate the company to the impact social media is generating on the Internet.

Keeping on mind all this, Facebook is starting to set up the pace on the Web and when a company does that, there are many reasons to be happy and confident about the future.

The YouTube Scholarship

YouTube is one of the most useful tools of social media. Today, I came accross a pretty cool project promoted by the Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands that gives scholarships to the best videos produced by prospective students.

This is a very interesting project that provides prospective students with an innovative opportunity to demonstrates their creativity and potential.

Read the full post from BusinessWeek HERE.

How social media is affecting online traffic

According to an analysis carried out by the Palo Alto firm Gigya, "Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other types of sites."

This interesting note appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle website.

Another part of the article I found interesting was this:

"...David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy for the digital marketing firm 360i of New York, said the importance of search engines isn't going away.

"But there's always been one downside to search," he said. "Consumers only spend about 5 percent of their time online searching and the other 95 percent of the time at the destination. Social media is quickly accounting for a large percentage of that 95 percent. Google's biggest acquisitions, DoubleClick and YouTube, have been all about playing a big role in the rest of consumers' Web usage."..."

It's going to be interesting to see the evolution of this trend.

I just passed my Google Analytics IQ test!

Conversion University is a site created by Google that provides a great online training course in Google Analytics. After studying all the material, I decided to take the test today and I passed it!!! That means that I am certified by Google as someone who is qualified in Google Analytics.

I have to say that the test was tough and there's no way to pass it without covering every single presentation included in the course. Before taking the test, my understanding of Google Analytics was very general and I think that's why the test ended up to be quite challenging.

For someone like me, who has built a professional profile as a Web Editor and Content Manager, this course offers a great opportunity to gain a set of skills that are very much appreciated today in the job market.

This is a great course that I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in improving his/her knowledge of Google Analytics. If you have any questions about the test and/or the course, I am happy to share with you my own experience.

8 ways to use social media

I just watched a very nice video made by Lewis Howes that summarizes the best 8 practices for using social media. Very clear and to the point. He also provides suggestions for books related to social media.

I highly recommend it if you are interested in developing a good social media strategy.

To watch the video, click HERE.

The mobile and integration dilemma

There are many predictions out there for social media in 2010. I just came accross an article written by Mike Koehler ("Key Trends in Social Media for 2010") that talks about some of the things will happen this year.

According to Koehler, "The two key words for 2010 will be mobile and integration." This statement made wonder about my own place in this new world of social networks. I mean, I don't browse the Web with my mobile (I actually find it irritating), I don't have an iPhone and I can't even think about getting my hands on the latest Google's Nexus One.

Considering that, am I going to be really behind if I can't accommodate myself to the experience of using the Web with my mobile?

I'm just wondering...