There was quite a variety of content making the rounds last week on our sister site, Sphinn, and this week’s recap reflects that.
Hot on the heels of the launch of Google+, our “Discussion of the Week” asked a simple question: Can Google Succeed at Social Networking? The general feeling among the commenters was not to completely discount Google’s chances to succeed in social, but Sphinn member bluephoenixnyc summed up the challenge in our favorite comment of the week:
A great comment making the waves around Twitter was this: Google is fundamentally a utility. Nobody wants to hang out at the electricity company.So the question is will Google be able to build the type of bar/lounge situation for its utility company aesthetic that would entice users? The problem with Buzz and Wave fundamentally was that both were a bit too convoluted for even the early adopters; if you can’t hook the early adopters, then the product doesn’t stand a chance.
What’s your opinion? Feel free to add your thoughts today.
Meanwhile, also popular last week was an article in which one online marketer declares his intention to “stoop adding junk” to the web — and by “junk” he means low-quality websites, low-quality links, etc. That story was the most retreated Sphinn article on Twitter last week.
Here’s a look at all of last week’s activity.
Most Comments
- Discussion: Can Google Succeed at Social Networking? – Google has been playing catch up in the social networking space for a while now. Google+ is its latest attempt to offer a compelling social product that complements Google search, Gmail and the many other products/services it offers. Although only a few people currently have access to Google+, let's talk about the bigger picture. In our "Discussion of the Week," we want to know: Can Google succeed at social networking? Is it in their DNA? What results will be needed for people to consider Google+ a success? The floor is open – feel free to take this where you want, lots of different angles we can go.
- The Benefits Of C Class IP Hosting – As usual, the new age SEO mystics like to say that anything that seems “exploitive” is useless and a waste of money. For this reason a common myth has circulated within the SEO industry that C class hosting is useless. Strangely, the people who say this mostly don’t even know what C class hosting is used for.
- Highlighting content creators in search results – Following through on rel=author, certain results will now display an author’s picture and name next to their content on Google Search results.
- A Tale of 2 Google Places Algorithms – Organic vs Places Ranking Factors Revealed – Great piece from Linda Buquet that opens a series of articles looking at the different local ranking factors between the old 7-pack style results and the blended results that debuted last October.
- 30 Things to Do If You Want Your Company Blog to Fail – Everyone struggles to maintain a great blog, but what if you've decided it's your goal to create a phenomenally awful company blog? Well, here are 30 things you can do to fast-track your trip to the bottom!
Most Tweeted (not already listed above)
- Why I Intend to Stop Adding Junk to the Web – A reformed affiliate offers some smart insight into the world of spammy SEO, churn and burn websites, and why most affiliates shouldn't quit their day job in pursuit of the 4 Hour Workweek.
- Google+: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly – When I first logged into Google+ I was a bit underwhelmed, but the more I used and explored the site, the more I liked it. While it has already been deemed Google’s Facebook competitor, it is quite different. I want to share my opinion on the pros and cons of the site to help shine a little light on what exactly Google+ is, and what it does (and doesn’t) do well.what
- Categorise Your Inbound Link Profile With Open Site Explorer Data – No 101-level content here. Richard Baxter shares a pretty high-level process for categorizing and analyzing the links in a website's inbound link profile. Bonus: He includes a downloadable Excel spreadsheet to help you get started.
- Your Web Metrics: Super Lame or Super Awesome? – Are you reporting crappy web metrics? Avinash explains which ones are lame and provides you with the information you need to report on metrics that truly matter.
- Personas 101: What Are They and Why Should I Care? – Solid introduction to personas from Linda Bustos: "A persona is not a demographic profile, a market segment or a summation of survey data. Rather, a persona is a combination of data modeled from ethnographic and behavioral user research, as well as narrative."
Hot On Sphinn: June 27 to July 3, 2011
- An Open Letter To Jeff Bezos On Terminating The Amazon Affiliate Program In California – Danny isn't happy that Amazon terminated all California affiliates over a sales tax issue.
- Should You Buy Facebook Fans? Maybe Not … – Do you want your business to appear successful or actually be successful?
- Bing & Google Require Social Spam for Businesses to Compete in Search – If you own or work for a small/new business, you should read this.
- 7 Repeat Business Strategies for Small Businesses – With so much competition online already and more coming daily, how do small businesses adapt? One competitive advantage that every small business has over their competition is the ability to reach out and solicit additional revenue from current and past customers. Soliciting repeat business is a viable marketing strategy that every merchant should consider. This article features 7 repeat business strategies recommended for small businesses with limited budgets.
- @ is the Universal Sign of Engagement – A solid piece by Brian Solis on how marketing is shifting from a broadcast model to a 1-to-1 communication model.
- Adwords Lead Generation & Communication Extensions – An interesting and thought provoking take on Google's monopolizing their SERP real estate with ads to monetize as many pixels as possible.
- Converting Customers from Marketplace Shoppers to Fans Who Shop on Your Website – Marketplace sites like Amazon, eBay, etc. can be great tools for customer acquisition, but consider these 3 tried and true tactics for converting those marketplace customers to fans of your brand who deliver lifetime value and shop your website instead of the marketplace.
- The More Marketing Changes, The More It Stays The Same – Where Hugo shows that the basis fundamentals of business haven't changed in the Internet age.
- How To Adopt a Long-Term Approach to Content Promotion – Some very actionable tips on how to make content marketing an ongoing thing as opposed to a one-time experiment.
- The 5-Minute Facebook Page Makeover – Over time, a Facebook Page can get stuck in the past and need some revamping to reflect the newest upgrades to Facebook’s layout. Many changes are quietly rolled out and go unnoticed by page admins. Few people keep up with Facebook’s constant evolution in addition to managing the day-to-day activity on the Page.
This is the latest in a weekly look at the stories that were “hot” on Sphinn in the past week. We’ll post these recaps every week.
Related Topics: Channel: Other | Features: General | Sphinn
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