The Search For Social Media Metrics

(the following post is from Terry VanHorne)

One of my favorite jobs is doing traffic audits. After publishing ' How I became a Social Media Convert' and monitoring the early activity I was looking forward to doing a traffic audit because we always learn more about a target audience from the audit then from any other sources. The difference between conventional traffic audits and Social Media audits is the extra layer of sources.

You have Twitter as the web source, however, from a marketing standpoint the second source of "who took the action" using Twitter is more important than the traffic source in your analytics. In some cases a third source may be important. The device can have implications if it is a download or device specific promotion.

Much like when we started marketing using websites the realistic near term goals were identifying the means to which we could leverage the communication and infrastructure of a business using the technology. To some degree Social Media isn't much different and to a large degree is just a reflection of the improvements to the original web technologies and devices.

There is still a long ways to go on the sales side. After all in many ways Social networks are walled gardens running on proprietary platforms which stifles marketing innovation by limiting the players and degree of innovation possible.

A blueprint for a truly social search engine

Not to be left out of the rise of social mayhem, the fine folks at the ‘plex are more active in the social spheres than many would suspect – at least not at first glance. In truth there is evidence of deep hooks and commitment that might even be going a bit too far… does the social stand for social engineering?

Last time out we looked at some of the potential and problems for Google and the quest for social signals. This time out it’s a glimpse at Google’s world of social networking, behavioral targeting and the data streams that they may be, or more likely already are, pursuing.

Now personalization and social search are great and there is certainly a future for them. What’s not so sure is how they are going to get there. While some of the technology makes me dazzle, there are underlying aspect that can make one nervous as well… As a search geek is a love/scare kinda dealy..

First let’s take a peek at some elements in play…..

Another look at implicit feedback and beyond

Since we simply can’t get enough of the social web world and the trappings of ‘real-time social search engines’ – it seems that having another look at potential signals Google could be using (today or in the future) would be fun to do. This year alone we've seen increased activity with FriendConnect and Open social not to mention Google Reader even, which recently got more social... it's in the air if you take a deep, slow breath, you can almost taste it.

But how does a search engine become social? This isn't the media darling of the year, 'real time search', this is more about personalizations based on yours, and your networked friends activities. Let me show you what I mean....

It is always important to note is that major engines such as Google tend to be constantly evolving. As goes the technology, so does the evolution. This journey into the social sphere that we’re in, will likely be no different. There will be a process of hit and miss layers on top of the existing infrastructure.

Delivering quality results is always a process of understanding user intent, ranking relevant documents and dealing with the ever present spectre of spam. Think of it as the trinity of search…

Thoughts from an old-school marketer after a stint on Twitter

(the following is a guest post from Terry Van Horne)

So... after about a month of studying the ins and outs of Twitter and the ever emerging Social Networking media space I can safely say that I was wrong, admittedly, for the first time in a long time, Social is not a fad it is a real growing trend.

I've seen a lot of fads come and go in the time I've been doing internet development. I remember when the first mobile sites were being built and thinking... hmm definitely people with a lot of time on their hands. Well, 10 years later and Mobile is still not a big deal in NA. I've found if you just let things take their natural course when the time is right the new will mesh nicely with what you're already doing i.e. leverage your current activity with the new activity.

I was an early adopter but back then everything was new and everyone doing it was an early adopter so there was no no need to wait and do the "safe play".