All About Search for Facebook
On Facebooks 6th birthday they launched a new layout that will be available possibly tonight for 80 million of their 400 million users.
You read that right they now have 400 million users, not bad for a 6 year old company, what is really interesting is that the company started with a focus on social networks for the college crowd and now the fastest growing group on the site is women above the age of 50, how is that for covering every market, I am lazy tonight and did not go dig up the exact age range group but it says alot for the service that it does attract all types of consumers.
And that is what it is all about, learning what consumers are talking about, buying, recommending, etc. Facebook is gathering data at a level only Google could imagine. Except, some would argue, the Facebook data could be even more valuable.
All that said, today Facebook also showed they are dead serious about search, by making the search box more visible and prominent in the layout users are more likely to search Facebook which will make the site even more sticky.
For an idea of how prominent search is now check out this posterous link.
This may seem subtle, but changes like this can make a huge difference in user behavior.
More and more this makes me realize how social and real time SEO will matter to those that focus on search marketing. Makes me glad I picked up SEORealtime.com...
Social Media + Mobile Search + Local Search = Success
Filed under: Domain News, Facebook, Facebook Promotion, Low Cost Marketing, Online Advertising, local search, social media
If you have not read all the news about social networking sites being the future of how we access information instead of search engines then you must not be reading what is happening in the online world around you. I will help you with the relevant news articles in just a minute.
One thing I think people are missing sometimes is how the BLEND of mobile and local search along with the easy access to Facebook and Twitter on a mobile phone is making it an absolute must to have a plan on how to integrate all of these technologies together when you plan on promoting a product or service. The future is now and if you are not using all methods available then you are doing an injustice to your business promotion online.
For those that may be social media doubters and who do not realize that many people use search on their mobile phone before typing in a name (and I have not even mentioned visual search and verbal search) suddenly search is all that matters at times, be very careful basing everything you have on type-in traffic. Facebook has 350 million users and bypassed Google for traffic during the Christmas holiday, do you think Facebook is going somewhere? Yes they are, UP!
The people using Facebook (and even Twitter) are not typing in domain names, they are taking a friends recommendation without even looking at the site name. Sure the domain name is important for branding and I would never discount that, and for search an exact match name helps, but when all you are is a link hidden behind a URL shortening service that is not quite as important.
If you are still hiding in the dark and believing this change is not coming here are a few great articles to read:
Why Is Google Afraid Of Facebook
How Social Media Helps Website Marketing - My own example of usage.
If the stories do not show you what is happening then I cannot help you. This does not mean that you should not have a website with a great name, but the people growing up with the Internet today do not use it like those of us who had it come to be during the midst of our lives.
If your only plan is to buy a great domain name and wait for the type-in traffic to come you may be surprised at your competitor coming up behind you and using the power of social media to drive more traffic that has been recommended by a trusted peer network that converts even better.
Use all the tools together and success can be yours, ignore the holistic marketing approach at your own peril.
2+2=5
Setting Your Facebook Username On A Fan Page
Setting your Facebook username for a fan page is just as important as setting it up for your personal account. I have noticed many people have overlooked this step when creating their fan pages so thought I would point out the details here real quick. It is an easy task but has a few caveats around it before you can do it. I did have some of this detail in my post about Creating A Facebook Fan Page but it was deep in the post and I had enough email questions and comments about the username specifically I though it best to do a quick post on it.
To set your Facebook username go to Facebook.com/username
When you get here sometimes it is not obvious immediately that you can set the fan page username, if you look just below the yellow box concerning your personal username you will see a sentence that says Set a username for your pages. If you click that link you will then have the option to set the name. This will allow you to select a keyword or other specific word or phrase that describes your fan page rather than the long URL created when you first build your page.
Keep in mind, this is a one time shot, they make this very clear. Check and double check your selection. After you do make your selection I have noticed that the page access can be unstable for several minutes to a half hour after making the change. Its worth it.
Make sure after you have made the change that you go change the link on any of your fan page links from your site that you are promoting since they old link will no longer work.
On a side note, this pages do very well in SEO, I have noticed that both the ifones.com fan page and Missouri.me fan page both rank well for certain terms. This can be good to gather new fans to promote your site too.
