Twitter Launches Brand Pages

Twitter has announced that it will be launching brand pages as part of its site re-design.

      On December 9^th, Twitter announced a major re-design to its site with one of the main new components being Brand Pages.  Brand pages on Twitter are very similar to those on Facebook and are intended to give brands a greater and more controlled voice. The main features of Twitter Brand Pages are the following:

• Larger customised headers that place more emphasis on the brand’s logo and tagline
• Brands have control over which Promoted Tweets show up at the top of the page.
• Promoted Tweets will appear auto-expanded. This will allow users to instantly see photo or video content linked from the tweet.
• Brands can separate @replies and mentions in order to better manage the relationship with the users.

         Brand Pages currently launched with 21 brands and Twitter announced that this would be rolled out to more brands in the upcoming months. Brand Pages currently do not work on mobile phones yet this will be launched in upcoming months as well.

Twitter’s Re-Design

        Twitter has re-designed its platform in order to simplify the user experience and allow users to discover new content. The new platform has five tabs:

• Home: This remains like the regular Twitter feed where you can follow people that you have chosen to follow.
• @Connect: Through this tab, users will be notified about who mentioned/followed them, re-tweeted them or “favorited” one of their tweets. This tab will also suggest accounts that the user may be interested in following.
•  #Discover: This tab allows users to discover new content. It will show results related to the users’ interest, their location, what they are following, and current events.
• Me: This tab acts as the user profile. It allows others to Tweet directly to the user and it allows the user to feature the user’s interest.
• Tweet: This allows users to Tweet regardless of where they are on the site.
• This re-design has also included an updated to Twitter’s mobile apps.

     Advertisers can now have an increased presence in Twitter and manage their brand image to a more extensive degree.  Brand pages will allow brands to extend their conversation with consumers. Being able to control which sponsored posts show up at the top of the timeline will enable brands to highlight specific content they want users to be aware of and interact with. Being able to split up @replies and mentions will be especially relevant for brands with high consumer engagement. By splitting them up, this impedes the conversation with users from getting diluted and customer’s inquiries to be answered effectively. Twitter’s redesign overall will have an impact for advertisers as new brands and promotions can be discovered through the #Discover tab. 

        Launching brand pages is part of Twitter’s attempt to increase engagement with advertisers. This follows the launch of Twitter’s self-serve advertising which allows advertisers to set up campaigns directly without having to contact a Twitter representative. Starcom recommends brands to set up brand pages as soon as they are rolled out in Australia. This will enable the brands to publish content geared towards its Twitter users and stir the conversation using Top Sponsored Posts. Starcom also recommends that brands take advantage of posting engaging multimedia content within their brand page in order to create a buzz.  Overall, the #Discover tab opens a new opportunity for brands to create more awareness. Brands should follow trending hash tags and create content related to these in order to increase consumer engagement.

Google’s December Algorithm Changes

Google has announced that it will announce its algorithm changes on a monthly basis.

On December 1st, Google announced that it will provide monthly updates on search changes. This is supposed to compliment its blog posts about major algorithm changes. The latest search changes include the following:

• New parked domain classifier: Google’s search algorithm can now identify and penalise parked domains. These are domains that are used as placeholders and are often filled with ads and add little value for users.

• Detecting original content: Google has added signals that can better identify original content. This is mainly used to penalise site scrapper sites and reward original content.

• Top results selection code re-write: Google has taken back a previous announcement that allowed many results from one site to appear on the first page. Google has re-written this code in order to prevent host crowding.

• Related query results refinements: Google announced that it will ease on its suggestions for search results for “rare” words. This is the case because related queries may be less relevant to the user.

• Result Freshness: Google has announced more changes to ensure the “freshness” of content. They announced a change in blog search and image indexing that will enable for fresh content to appear more often.

• More comprehensive indexing: Google announced that more long-tail documents are now available in its index which makes it more likely for them to rank for relevant queries.

Google is trying to improve the quality and relevance of search results by rewarding original new content. Google is pushing sites to create new fresh content in order to have sites rank well. Google is trying to level the playing field by not allowing one site to dominate the first page. This allows competitors and other sites to appear in search results. In order for brands to rank well, Starcom recommends brands to create original fresh content as Google has announced multiple changes in its algorithm that give preference to fresh content. In addition to this, hosting content on multiple sites can help brands dominate top results. This can be done through the use of Google + Pages and other social media outlets, especially blogs.

Google + Updates

Google has launched several updates since the release of Google Pages

Google launched Google Pages on November 7th and since then there have been several updates to Google Plus. Google has begun displaying select Google+ Pages in search results by publishing Google+ posts and giving users the option to add pages to their Google+ circles straight from search results. These options are only available for those brands that are part of Google’s Direct Connect. Google’s Direct Connect is Google’s feature that allows users to search for Google+ Pages by typing + followed by the brand name. This automatically directs users to the brand’s Google + page. Direct Connect is being rolled out slowly to those brands that have made themselves eligible for it by including a Google+ badge on their websites.

Google has also launched a Google+ Badge Tool that creates badges that show people’s faces and count the number of +1s the page has received. These badges are meant to go on brands’ sites and they include the +1 button and the option for users to add the brand’s page to their circles. Google has announced that the Google count that appears in the badge will be a compilation of all +1s across a brand including those from the homepage, Google+ Page and any ads being linked through Social Extensions.

Google has also announced its partnership with 6 companies to create management tools for Google+ pages. These companies are Buddy Media, Contact Optional, Hearsay Social, HootSuite, Involver, and Virtue.

These changes have the potential of having great impact on SEO. By displaying Google+ Pages in search results, these pages dominate more of the search real-estate. This allows brands more tools for reputation management as people are less likely to encounter negative results in search when most of the real-estate is dominated by the brand.

Starcom suggests that once brands have created their Google+ Pages, they should connect it to their websites in order to become eligible for Direct Connect. Direct Connect will be a great differentiator especially in the early stages where only select brands are part of this. Having a Google+ Page with Direct Connect will also increase the likelihood of appearing on Page 1 of search results as Google+ Pages are being published within results. Having your Google+ Page connected to your site will also be beneficial for SEO as social cues are being included into Google’s search algorithm.

Google + is Now Open for Business

Google+ is Now Open for Businesses, Brands and Places

On November 7th Google announced Google+ Pages for Businesses, Brands, Places, and any other non-living thing! Pages can be created within five categories:

• Local Business or Place
• Product or Brand
• Company, Institution or Organisation
• Arts, Entertainment or Sports
• Other

Local business pages have special options such as including a phone number, address & hours of operation.

To create a Google+ Page, you first have to create a Google+ account and create a page within it. The admin of the Google+ Page is the person that creates the page and having multiple admin is not an option. Unlike Facebook, there are no vanity URLs on Google+ (at this stage)

Businesses can have multiple pages linked to the same Google+ account. With Google+ Pages a brand can do many of the same things that a personal account can do, including: share photos, share videos, share links & conduct Hangouts.

To actually follow a business you must place it in your Circles. However, you can +1 which will add to the number of +1 for the page. Businesses can create badges for people to put on their websites. These badges will link the user to the brand’s Google+1 page. Businesses can also have their pages be found through “Direct Connect” in Google Search. If “Direct Connect” is set up, brands will automatically be added to the user’s Circles. This will happen for any business that Google determines is particularly relevant for a search and if someone searches for the business with a + symbol in front of its name.

Businesses now have another social media outlet through which to interact with their consumers. Google+ provides different unique and new ways to communicate with consumers including the video chat, Hangouts. Circles allows for consumer segmentation which has not been possible through other social media platforms. Google+ has the potential to have a significant impact on SEO as Google’s is likely to place considerable weight on the adoption of Google + within it’s search algorithm.

Starcom recommends that in the short-term, businesses should secure and verify their Google+ Pages. Until Australian usage numbers are released, Starcom do not see the development of a Google+ page as business critical. A well thought out strategy should start to be planned for, including the role of Google+ as a social platform and it’s differentiation from that of Facebook etc. In the long run, as Google+ adoption & usage increases, this could be a key business platform. The unique features of Google+ including Circles and Hangouts should be used to the advantage of advertiser’s and can allow for different and more intimate ways of engaging with consumer’s.

To set up a business page, go to:

http://www.google.com/+/business/