Google and Facebook

Phil BradleySummer 2014

What’s the issue?

http://www.spicytec.com/2011/07/facebook-vs-google-plus-funny.html

Facebook V Google

• They want to BE the internet

• Facebook owns social• Facebook wants to

make lots of money from adverts

• Google think they ARE the internet

• Google owns search• Google wants to

continue making lots of money from adverts

They both want to use YOU as livestock

A good Google search leaves it behind

A bad search leads to an advert click

https

://w

ww

.flic

kr.c

om/p

hoto

s/ab

hijitt

embh

ekar

/355

9150

772/

If Google is GOOD at search it doesn’t make any money

If Google is bad at search, clicks on adverts make money

BUT in any case, you leave Google behind

With Facebook search

You stay on Facebook

Clicking on Facebook advertsYou stay on Facebook

With Google, a list of meaningless results

With Facebook, friends I can trust

Facebook can create instant results

Google V Facebook

With Google• Results are based on

websites• No easy, immediate way of

checking the authority of the content

• Google finding it increasingly difficult to index social media based content

With Facebook• Results are based on friends

recommendations• Can immediately check with

friends• In the future results will

include status updates as well as likes etc

What are companies doing on Facebook?

Time Magazine

• Grown Facebook likes by 44% in 3 months to 5.4 million

• Ahead of Buzzfeed (2.9 million), Huffington Post (3.3) and close to New York Times (7.6)

• Facebook is now Time’s 3rd biggest traffic source

http://digiday.com/publishers/time-com-winning-facebook/

What are they doing?

• Posting more stories – 3 per hour

• Reduced status updates to a single line

• Trained staff to optimise their headlines for social media

• Found the right voice

Law Firms on Facebook doing it right

• Brand specific landing pages, with clear introductions to the firm

• Emphasis the human side of the firm with images, updates, commentary

• Related likes that match the firm’s practice and ethos

• A clear sense of the audience• A casual but informative tone

More examples

• Blend legal news with updates on the firm• Use Events to promote firm hosted seminars

etc• Engage with visitors from the CEO downwards• Integration with other social media• Information on the firm’s subject area to

emphasis expertise

http:

//al

lface

book

.com

/goo

d2bs

ocia

l-the

-soc

ial-l

aw-fi

rm_b

1282

16

But...

• It’s often just a token effort, demonstrating a poor level of understanding of social media

• Many are not making content interesting or valuable

• They have a low level of engagement with the readership

• They do not understand the value of social media in engagement

http:

//w

ww

.insi

defa

cebo

ok.c

om/w

p-co

nten

t/up

load

s/20

14/0

6/A-

face

book

-min

ute2

-1-

1.jp

g

How is Google fighting back?

Google+

• Google search incorporates information from the Google+ social network

• G+ offers communities, video hangouts, events, pages, local options

• Reached 359 million monthly active users

Google+

• Tries to combine all of its ‘real estate’ into its own version of Facebook

• Links Google+ closely to YouTube

• Grew at rate of 33% from 2012-2013 (Facebook grew 23%)

Is it one or the other?

• Need to be active in both markets and go to where the conversations are

• Both provide access to markets

• Both do very different things

One or the other?

• If you spend time getting good rankings for your website, you HAVE to do the same for Facebook

• Remember: Facebook is NOT about ‘friends’, it is a hardnosed business environment being used by global businesses

For more information

• Email: philipbradley@gmail.com or philb@philb.com

• Web: http://www.philb.com • Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/philipbradley • Blog: http://www.philbradley.typepad.com • G+: https://plus.google.com/+PhilBradleyUK