It’s that time of the year again when Social Media Week rolls into town. Now in its third year, Social Media Week offers ‘a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries.’

Of course, we at Neoco will be flexing our social muscle and sharing the knowledge with our very own event where we’ll be providing one-on-one sessions to alevialte your social media woes in our ‘Social Surgery’.

Book a session with one of the team and we’ll examine your social media symptoms, getting to the root of your social pain. We’ll endeavor to not only diagnose but also treat your ailments in the time it takes to have a muffin and a coffee

Plus as well as answering all your questions on all things web 2.0, such as what is the best social media platform for promoting my brand? What are the upcoming trends within the industry? We’ll also give patients a takeaway gift to make sure your social media strategy is on the road to recovery.

Ok enough of the sick puns, but you get the point.  In a nutshell a session will provide you with:

• 100% private one-to-one session to discuss your social media concerns
• expert advice relating to your social media problem
• Insight into how relevant, successful brands are using social media to meet their business goals

Neoco’s clinic: MADD – 53 Rupert Street, W1D 7PQ

Surgery times: Tues 14th and Thurs 16th February from 9:00am – 11:00am

Make an appointment email: surgeon@neoco.com

This event is ideal for anyone managing social channels (or in charge of someone who’s managing social channels!) but don’t feel they’re performing at their best. No issue is too big or small for us to handle so schedule an appointment with us now and get social media advice tailored to your brand; remember, it’s not psycho therapy, it’s social therapy!

Email us at surgeon@neoco.com – alternatively you can drop in during one of the sessions and we’ll try and book you in for an emergency consultation.

With over 40 million users already signed up, compared to Zuckenberg’s 800 million, in Google+ Improvements for Brand Pages: What are they? What do they mean for your business?, we explored how Google+ is attempting to entice brands away from Facebook.

Nikesh Arora, Google’s chief business officer, said he didn’t see Google+ as social network however:

“It is a platform which allows us to bring social elements into all the services and products that we offer. We are trying to make sure we use social signals across all of our products… It’s not just about getting people together on one site and calling it a social network.”

Good point Mr Arora, but how exactly do you build Google+ into your social media strategy? We run through some key points to consider before diving straight in:

Claim your page, but know why:

Ensure you know why and even if your resources are best spent on Google+, as opposed to alternative networks. Stake a claim to secure your business’s brand name and then get familiar with the platform before becoming inventive. Some brands may find it more beneficial to promote their services on Facebook or Twitter for example, due to the types of customers already using that particular network.

Google+ is rife with its own targeted demographic of early adopters and tech-savvy bloggers, start-ups, entrepreneurs and marketers – if this fits the philosophies of your brands, great; if not then confirm the reason why you’re creating a page to avoid wasting time and resources creating content to be left unread and unappreciated.

Combat digital waste and get consumers to truly engage:

A recent Digital Life survey found that Britons believe brands are polluting social networks with ‘digital waste’ – irrelevant or spammy content that clogs up users’ news feeds and brand profiles, of no real value to the user.

TNS’s survey is based on the views of 72,000 people in 60 countries, and found that globally half of all businesses’ efforts are wasted. In the UK, 61 per cent said they did not “do not want to engage with brands via social media”.

Just a third of Britons comment on brands online, compared to 74 per cent of Chinese. Google+’s introduction of brand pages may be just the answer to revert this opinion by pinpointing content that has been effective and successfully spread across networks.

Get closer to your consumers:

Google+’s four pronged areas: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and Huddles are customisable features that can be used inline with what suits the brand.

The Muppets, Dell and The New York Times  have recently used Hangouts to directly interact with their audience via video or Q&A sessions. About as close a connection you can make with people when online, Hangouts will be ideal for some businesses to offer feedback and build deep connections.

Check out the Muppets hangout in full:

Track key influencers for your brand:

Due to the wealth of Google’s other tools and products, Google+ for brands offers insightful features that let you track key influencers in your sector, a feat that neither Facebook or Twitter have yet managed to master. Sharing links from Google+ to other networks will help you rank in search results and may let you discover content before anyone else, like Twitter in the ‘old days’.

Known as ripples, take any post that has been shared and a timeline can be viewed of not just people sharing that content, but to pinpoint exactly who influenced that sharing. Such tools are key to widening your distribution, maximising reach of posts and targeting key taste-makers to develop stronger relationships on other social networks and beyond.

Maximise Google+’s tools for market research:

Google’s ethos is to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful. By having a social network based on these principles, the outcome for brands can only be positive. With greater access to research and insight connected to search, like its other products, Google+ will reward businesses who utilise its functionality to maximum effect.

Google+ is developing itself into a data hungry research tool taking your information to add a social element to the power of internet search. Due to Google’s hold over the search market, although determined to try, this is something that Facebook can only hope to achieve.

Google+ vs Facebook, the verdict:

Google+ has no desire to be the ‘new Facebook’ and consequently should not be directly compared. Instead it aims to attract the media-minded and tech-savvy amongst us to an outlet to socially share content in a measurable way, as the social element to Google’s stock of services.

Unless brands take heed and understand the segmentation of Google+ users as specific types of consumers before forging a presence, expect to see a lot stuttering before the Google+ engine really kicks into life for brands. For some, managing a presence on Facebook and Twitter is already enough.

The Telegraph’s digital media editor, Emma Barnett, hits the nail on the head: “I’m a bit tired of joining new things”.

Until Google+ is  completely baked-in as an integrated process, moving away from the bolt on service it currently feels, expect to see a host of brands jumping on the Google+ ship only to fall overboad, ending up surfing through the sludge of their own digital waste, whilst average users stick to the likes of Facebook where the rest of their friends are.

As an infant, social media spurred conversations, enabling users across the world to share photos and links. As it progressed into toddler phase, brands jumped on board exploring ways to best communicate with customers. Evolving into a boisterous adolescent in 2011, social media contributed towards riots, social movements and political revolutions as its true power and force gains momentum to create change for individuals, brands, businesses and political regimes across the world.

2012 is the year when social media comes of age.

If it didn’t already, social media will infuence sales in 2012 – ROI will develop and become measurable where marketers continue to seek appropriate methods of accounting for budget spend. Attention currency remains vital in 2012 with brands seeking initiatives that will maximise time spent with the business. We run down Part 1 of the future of social media and creative technology for 2012.

Facebook becomes the media:
Social media became the medium of choice for citizen journalists. With the onslaught of daily updates about political crisis in Egypt and the Arab Springs, the immediacy of social media is forcing major media organisations to change the way they approach news. In the recent case of Indian student Subhash Bidve killed in Salford on Boxing Day, his father learnt of his death via Facebook before police had time to issue a formal statement, highlighting just how vital a role the media outlets play in how we receive and consume news stories today.

Video streaming services such as UStream and Bambuster allow citizen journalists to broadcast live video connected via Twitter or Facebook, used for the first time providing updates for the Occupy movement both in the St Paul’s occupation and Occupy Wall Street.

Often removing the need for a reporter on the ground, these services offer a window to the world, a pair of eyes and point of view in every city around the globe to broadcast from.

Social commerce:
Social shopping and the concept of fashion entrepreneurs will develop into 2012, with services such as ShopMyLabel offering commission based affiliate sales from users own personalised storefronts on Facebook. Expect to see bloggers making the transition from tastemakers to businesses, as they maximise on their following to sell accessories and DIY fashion to fans. Astraea jewellery by blogger Penelope Armstrong of Fashion Fade is sold via Facebook and Paypal as an ideal outlet to begin F-commerce.

Apps including The Fancy and Svpply bring together that aesthetically pleasing Etsy storefront to a social platform as product-sharing networks, where items are pinned and ‘fancied’ with seamless transactional links and clickthroughs, expect to see these apps become especially effective for generating exposure for smaller independent brands with great products.   Highly successful for image-led fashion and homewares brands such as Aubin and Wills and Burberry, expect to see tech savvy retailers experimenting with these platforms in 2012.

News aggregation servcies:
Slotting in nicely with curation of the Internet, aggregators such as Flipboard and Zine tap into 2012’s trend for content curation and discovery. As social media develops and users relationship with it matures, along with the number of friends and people following, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff on first glance at a feed. These services pull together content from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google Reader to visually bring to life content in personalised magazine-like formats.

Expect to see a rise in the use of list making services such as Listorious to order content. Despite Facebook Subscribe and groups, the average user does not have time to organise their feed. Aggregator services overcome this by pulling together the best of the web in a visually appealing way.

Gamification:
The term has been bandied about will come of age with intelligent, location-based applications that encourage mass participation with thought-out content that truly engages users. Applications such as SCVNGR will direct users around real-world maps via their device, performing challenges and tasks – either for fun or sponsored by a brand to win prizes.

Examples of this in action, connecting the online world with offline works especially well for reinventing activities such as going for a walk. Natural Lands Trust used SCVNGR recently to encourage kids to engage with the natural woodlands, plotting treasure trails, competitions and activities accessed via phones and tablets to encourage kids to get out more.

Augmented reality:
Image layering and gaming using smartphone cameras wil become more commonplace, as applications explore ways to innovate in tying AR layers to real world objects. Apps such as Stiktu allow users to create augmented reality image layers that tied to real world images so that whenever and wherever the original image is scanned, the attributed image will display.

Instagram and the Museum of London made waves in 2011 with StreetMuseum, expect to see more informational AR services used within art galleries and museums as personalised tours and exhibition experiences via mobile are shared with Facebook and Twitter. The trick here is how to weave augmented reality into branded communications – expect some hits and misses as the technology finds its feet in 2012.

Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2 of our Need to Know: Future of Social Media & Creative Tech 2012 series next week.

On first look, scavenger hunts may seem gimmicky but are in fact ideal for brands in terms of audience engagement. Especially good at capturing attention to raise brand profiles, scavenger hunts can present brands as pioneers in marketing via new technology, able to deliver top-notch content to tech-savvy users and creating a fair few column inches in the process.

Working in teams connected via social media, players use services such as SCVNGR as location based gaming platform, to pick up clues. Check out how it works here.

Various brands, from fabric softeners to cars, have executed scavenger campaigns to get customers talking and interacting with via mobile devices. After all, what better way to gain deep consumer engagement than with a game?

“What we’ve learned is that when brands launch, they can get people to engage with them for 9 to 21 minutes per play,” says Chris Mahl, senior vice president of marketing at SCVNGR. “They often pull their friends in, too.”

Partnered with Google Maps, SCVNGR has over 320 million places in its database with a challenge set at each destination. Brands have the opportunity to script their own challenges, for example “find something blue” or “eat the fish dish” to gain points which can be exchanged for money off vouchers or specialised services.

Starbucks and Lady Gaga – SRCH:

Starbucks teamed up with Lady Gaga for SRCH as a digital scavenger hunt filled with puzzles and challengers for participants to win prizes provided by Polaroid. Activating various time-delayed images and clue trails, the games were leaked via a QR code that took users to the clue landing page where the game kicked off.

Starbucks and Gaga received over 300k visits and 23k game registrations were made during the three week period the campaign ran. Considering the average time for the first person to crack the clue was 21 minutes, SRCH highlights the high levels of engagement and attention currency spent on the game.

Over 20k posts talked about the game across various social channels, continuing the hype, along with media coverage from Mashable, CNN, PSFK and USA Today, all with zero paid media support.

Cathay Pacific SCVNGR Sweeps:

Cathay Pacific injected a shot of fun into the usually tedious business of flying, by introducing games linked to specific flight routes and destinations. With the chance to win 10 trips to Hong Kong for the top scores, the SCVNGR game ran at Boston, San Fransico, New York and Chicago airports.

“Travel is about getting out, seeing and doing things, and living life,” said Dennis Owen, Cathay Pacific’s vice president, marketing, Americas. “We want people to get into that spirit for this sweepstakes.”

The Gateway to China challenge required players to snap a photo of themselves at the entrance to Chicago’s Chinatown and the Comfy Seat challenged players to snap themselves in the airline’s new business class  seat on display at Terminal 3 of Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

All photo challenges and activity could then be shared via Facebook and Twitter to maximise the reach of the campaign and so friends could see what the

Back to school with Topshop and SCVNGR:

As the first UK collaboration, Topshop used SCVNGR to launch their recent student lock-in campaign in university towns with a fashionably styled digital hunt around stores. Choosing the reward they want – either 20% off in store of £500 shopping spree – customers were challenged to complete tasks including snapping a picture of their favourite ‘back to college’ outfit and linking products to trends.

“We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to engage our customers,” said Mary Homer, Managing Director of Topshop. “Following the popularity of SCVNGR in the US we wanted to offer our student customers the ability to interact with our brand, on and off-line in a more fun and engaging way.”

Chrysler Dodge ‘Search engine for the real world’:

Under the campaign heading ‘Search engine for the real world’ Chrysler Dodge has people all over the US searching for three hidden cars this September to coincide with its pitch as the Dodge Journey being the most adventurous car on the market.

Linked to YouTube, players could watch 24/7 feeds of the cars on their travels in an attempt to track down their locations. When the cars were found, players got to keep them as a huge incentive to keep playing.

Dodge Journey | Search | Commercial

Lasting just 17 days, the hunt generated over 1million YouTube views and 300,000 people watched the live feed for an average of 25 minutes.

The verdict:

As an innovative and highly engaging form of marketing, scavenger hunts present an ideal way of linking digital content with real-world objects and places. As a call to action, the hunts and challenges offer a gaming edge that can be shared across social networks across the world to attract more players and attention for the brand. With SCVNGR leading the way, expect to see more UK based brands using the location based gaming platform to create original and engaging campaigns in 2012.

The startling statistic is that social networking – with Facebook as the leader – is growing at an alarming pace. As of October 2011 Social networking accounts for nearly 1 in every 5 minutes spent online, as the most popular Internet activity for 82% of the global internet population of 1.2 billion.

Most engaged countries:

If you’re thinking about launching a global brand or internationalising your brand aboard using Facebook as the facilitator, these global stats are key for ensuring brand message reaches its desired audience.

In October, Facebook reached more than half (55 percent) of the world’s global audience and accounted for 1 in every 7 minutes spent online around the world. It also accounted for every and 3 in every 4 social networking minutes.

The Phillipines, Russia and Argentina most are the world’s three most socially active countries. In October 2011, social networking accounted for an astounding 43 percent of total time spent online by Filipinos, and the typical Filipino spent a significantly higher than average 8.7 hours on social networks during the month.

The average hours per visitor were highest in Argentina, Russia and Israel – perhaps due to the p0litical unrest in the Middle East – but acts as a stark indicator the impact the global adoption of Facebook is having on the way we communicate today.

Although cultural and demographic differences will affect adoption rates and must be considered before comparing statistics from any two countries, generally, Latin America as a whole leads the way with Asia-Pacific (predominantly China) as the least engaged.

Over 55s:
Previously Facebook was only used by the digitally-savvy 18-24 age group, but as adoption spreads the reach of social networks has caught up to near enough equal across the board of old and young demographics.

In fact, people aged 55 and older represented the fastest-growing age segment in global social networking usage, increasing nearly 10% since July 2010 to 80% in October 2011.

Not only does this present huge opportunities for marketers to showcase their products to a demographic notoriously under-catered for, it also presents countless chances for businesses to tap into a group of people with time on their hands and disposable income in their pockets to spend.

For an older market, Facebook and social networking sites present an ideal way of keeping in touch with relatives both locally and globally as the ultimate online family photo album. It also appeals to an older demographic in terms of Social CRM services; product reviews and recommendations by friends, customer service questions and complaints, all help encourage trust in parting with cash online.

Women:

Whether this can be contributed to the ‘housewife effect’ or that women have personality traits more  in-tune with Facebook’s services, the research reveals that women spend 30% more time on social networking sites than men, as 2 hours extra per month.

Across every age group women are up to 10% more engaged with social networking sites but adoption rates amongst men are rising, up 10% from July 2010.

Understanding audience behaviour traits is one of the first steps of converting these millions of eyes into money. Facebook has been collecting usage data  from its global new additions, with 2012 expected to be the year that Zuckerberg fully capitalises on it.

The research does raise questions however, as the service becomes well and truly mainstream. Facebook launched as a way for college students to keep in touch with an emphasis on tech-savvy users. With the introduction of adverts into the news-feed as of next year, only time will tell audience response to the commercial changes and how this will affect usage.

Possibly we’ll see a decline in figures in the current day 18-24 age groups as they move onto alternative social networks minus advertising, remembering the ‘good old days’ of Facebook. What is for certain though is the way people use Facebook will change, as it becomes a passport and gateway to other services. Either way, social networking is most definitely here to stay.

Presented in a pleasing infographic, the research reveals some interesting statistics useful to incorporate into brand marketing strategies for social media. However it does over-simplify results, not considering the overall implications that different brands will attract different consumers with varying wants and needs from a platform.

We sum up the findings with some suggestions to develop your social strategy further below the drop:

1) Concentrate on building a Facebook presence if you want to reach the mass market:

Facebook reigns king as the platform of choice for the mass market with 85% of those asked with a profile, compared to 49% on Twitter.

Enagagement levels were far higher on Facebook with 74% using the service daily compared to 35% on Twitter.

Facebook users had more friends, with 57% with 100+ friends, compared to 25% on Twitter, translating into more opportunities to see for the brand if users share content via Facebook.

2) Users are becoming more comfortable interactive with brands online, brands should make this as easy as possible:

The like was the most common interaction with a brand over social networks. 58% of those surveyed had liked a brand on Facebook with 39% tweeting about a brand and 29% retweeting about a brand.

41% have shared a brand video or link to company site, which indicated the importance of shareability of content that is optimised for not only desktop but mobile devices.

3) Brand sentiment is shifting to positive. Harness this and find  opportunities to increase kudos with minority audiences:

The presence of brands on social network sites is encouraging positive sentiments from customers. Where previously CRM was seen as a customer service tool, a brand only  mentioned as a way to voice negative feedback, consumers are now swaying to praising brands online.

50% more people said their brand status updates on Facebook were only positive and nearly twice as many people said their brand tweets were only positive. Harness this power of positivity by asking you community about which products and services they like and which campaigns worked well to discover what you should be repeating for future success.

Females are 2.3x kinder on Twitter. Instead of just targeting the ladies, work on strategies that can improve relationships with men to improve all-round brand kudos.

4&5) Understand the different types of Facebook  users and leverage their behaviour to create better brand communications:

The infographic explains this well, not every Facebook user will react in the same way to your content. Understand your target consumer, what category do they fall into on the chart: Mary, Joe or Fred?

Consider generating content that caters for these different needs so that your core demographic always feels included.

6) Give consumers what they want, predominantly discounts:

Again, understand consumer requirements of a brand social space and provide your faithful with what they want. Whether it is news, product information, questions and feedback, how-tos, interviews or coupons and discounts, be intelligent with what you provide.

Coupons and discounts were by far the favourite type of content with 80% of respondents listing them as their most appreciated.

7) Chose your communication tools wisely, depending on purpose:

32% of users said they preferred short updates from Facebook and Twitter, followed by 27% liking emails and 22% traditional offline ads.

At the bottom of the scale was videoclips and audio/podcasts, highlighting a key area for development for brand social channels. Remember; just because users don’t currently use a certain type of media or platform, it doesn’t mean it isn’t worth investing attention. That way brands can become possible pioneers to  set themselves apart in an increasingly growing social media sphere.

Characterising the hype and over-enthusiasm surrounding new technology, Hype Cycles aim to graphically display the adoption, maturity and social application of emerging trends and concepts.

Why pay attention?

Tracking a path from initial trigger through expectations, disillusionment, enlightenment into increasingly stable productivity, Hype Cycles follow the path technology takes through the adoption process, as defined below.

Vital for not only brands but major corporations, media outlets and even government organisations, the key advantage of this technique for brands is to make predictions about which services and products to invest in and develop for future productivity.

Hype Cycle’s yearly reports since 1995 shed a very revealing light on how fast technology has evolved. Just look at the ‘peak of inflated expectations’ for 1995 – ‘The Information Superhighway’ – our humble friend The Internet.

In 1995 on the up towards the mainstream was speech recognition, which interestingly, is at the same position five years later in 2001. Moving over onto the cusp of mainstream in 2011 with the introduction of Siri for the iPhone 4GS and Android, this illustrates the time taken for technology to mature to be accepted by the wider audience and the importance of understanding the whereabouts of any given technology on Hype Cycle before investing.

Confirmation – Hype Cycle 2011:

Gartner's Hype Cycle for emerging technology in 2011

E-books and e-readers were predicted to hit the mainstream in 2011, after 2010’s cycle saw them declining into a trough. After initial hype of a paperless future, and prior to iPad and Kindle tablet release, the thought of reading books on a digital device was sacrilegious to book lovers the world over. Now sales of e-books are eclipsing their physical counterparts, slotting into increasingly digital lifestyle; intelligence confirmed.

Predictions that QR codes, mobile application stores and biometric authentication methods will become socially accepted into the mainstream in 2011 all echo true. This year’s Hype Cycle predicts cloud platforms, hosted virtual desktops, virtual worlds and consumerisation as key areas of interest currently on their way up towards ‘enlightenment’.

Importance of Research:

One of the cardinal sins of marketing – and the one made most often – is failing to properly understand new technology and how it fits the consumer or the objectives and marketing goals of any advertising campaign. This handy Priority Matrix indicates the time-frame for key investment opportunities:

What level of benefit can an enterprise gain from a technology?

Gartner’s report highlights the fundamental need for constant monitoring of emerging technologies. The need for in-depth research and proactive development for brands, as they compete in an increasingly competitive and clustered market-place is directly linked to brand success.

Looking forward:

Knowing where your brand is in relation to competitors and where the market is headed is vital. Only with this information is your brand is best equipped to become leaders in any given sector and optimise real success in generating real value and revenue.

Whilst critics suggest the system is not scientific enough and does not suggest new technology trends, merely indicating those already in existence, as a research tool it’s highly beneficial to have in your armoury. Keeping a beady eye on the 2011 cycle and a finger on the technological pulse, brands could do a lot worse than to mug up on the key trends emerging from this year’s cycle.

The full breakdown of reports by industry sector can be found over at Gartner.

Top 10 Twitter tips to improve your reach

1) TweetDeck:

If you need to manage multiple Twitter accounts, regularly run keyword searches and track and monitor hashtags, TweetDeck is the ideal Twitter client to use. In desktop, web and mobile app formats, TweetDeck’s developers have community managers in mind, with all platforms covered for easily viewable results 24/7. With its black, white and yellow interface it also gains serious bonus points for looking like Nasa Control.

2) PeerIndex:

Mapping out the internet via a series of complicated algorithms, PeerIndex identifies opinion leaders and tastemakers across your networks. Return on influence is key for brands’ social media presence and this easy way of rating reputation gives you an indication of who to target with products or services to spread the word.

3) Twitter Grader:

Like many social measurement tools, Twitter Grader is a free tool that grades your usage behaviour and influence on the platform. As a quick indication of the type of user, Twitter Grader is the perfect at-a-glance tool generating keyword tag clouds and a health-check for your account.

4) Klout:

Sign in with your Twitter account and Klout will analyse your usage to produce a Klout score which can be compared to others’ in your network. Highlighting your most common topics of interest and the level of influence you have over your followers, Klout is an insightful way of comparing social media influence between users.

5) Alert Rank:

Used by PRs, SEOs and online marketers to identify authoritative buzz in their key sectors, Alert Rank is a time saving tool that highlights points of interest to follow up, so you never miss a story again. Jumping on breaking news, use Alert Rank to raise your authority and get your name heard using associated hashtags.

6) FYITag:

A one-stop-shop social media planner to schedule Tweets, links, Facebook messages and more via an easy to view calendar application. FYITag has the time-saving option to post to multiple sites from one social media dashboard.

7) FavStar:

Discover the best of Twitter with FavStar as a nifty tool that highlights favourite tweets as points of interest. Displaying personal favourites or favourites of selected tweeters, it acts as a quality control button generating key quotes, profound musings, quips and revelations from your followers.

8 ) Listorious:

Great for finding experts in a given field, Listorious scrapes all public Twitter lists and compiles them by their tagged keywords in an easily searchable  format. With the ability to ask each member on the list a question you can save key lists to your own Twitter account.

9) Twibes:

Grouping Twitter users together into tribes of tweeters or ‘twibes’  brands is useful for gaining an insight in what’s going on around that topic. Whether you join the conversation or listen to users, Twibes is as a vital tool that can easily tap into enthusiasts to build  solid relationships with users.

10) Mentionmapp:

Find out who  interacts with who by entering a username into Mentionmap. This nifty then creates an interactive mindmap of Twitter user mentions including hashtags to identify key influencers in that person’s network.

…And two more for luck. Not solely Twitter based but great for managing multiple social media networks.

11) Vocus:

Vocus is a huge media database of journalists, bloggers and key-industry contacts that can be utilised by your brand to monitor news and distribute press releases. With easily trackable features you can listen, measure and engage with content to see what is successful and where opportunities lie in the market. You have to pay, but give the test-drive a spin and see if you think it is worth the investment.

12) Sprout Social:

Indicating audience demographics, group trends,  buzz-words and taste-makers in each sector, Sprout Social presents tip-top analysis results in a visually pleasing way. The 30 day free trial may just sway you.

Google’s chief business officer Nikesh Arora also this week claimed the company did not see Google+ as simply a social network: ‘It is a platform which allows us to bring social elements into all the services and products that we offer. So you have seen YouTube come into Google+; you’ve seen Google+ with ‘direct connect’ go into our search business,’ he told the Telegraph.

‘We are trying to make sure we use social signals across all of our products… It’s not just about getting people together on one site and calling it a social network.’

Visualising Return On Influence (ROIn):

Allowing brands to easily visualise where, when and how their content is being shared enables companies to highlight key social influencers in their network. Unlocking powerful Return On Influence (ROIn) this means brands cam begin to monetise social media, one of the greatest challenges in the social media marketing sphere.

We take a quick run through the four key improvements for brand pages and what these will mean for your business.

1. Post Editing – Even the most diligent community manager has posted a typo or wrong information. Yes, it should never happen but it does. On Google+ brand pages added an edit function much to the rejoice of community managers.

2. Segmenting Likers – Large communities are diverse things. Among thousands of Followers/Likers, there is a wide array of interest. Google+ allows you to segment your community so that your posts are as relevant as possible.

3. Hangout with your Fans – Face-to-face connections are about as close a connection you can make with people when online. The Hangouts function gives community managers an excellent way to make a deep connection with their community. Expect to see weekly hangouts where members and managers meet and discuss how to improve the community.

4. Frozen Photo Strip – This one is a simple shift. In Facebook, the photo stream moves around. You can’t designate an order to them and it drives some people nuts. Google made them static. It’s a small change that can really add to the branding and image of a page.

Google+ Niggles and No-gos:

Despite the changes there are  still, some would say, shortfalls of the service. Apart from specific developer niggles we explain what Google+ currently cannot do:

1. Places – Considering the strength of Google Maps and in light of big scope for location based searches, you would assume that Google would implement to easily silence Facebook comparison critics.

2. Ownership of brand pages – Considering many people may be working on a page at any one time, still only one person can “own” or “post to” an account. There’s no way for a social media team, or a customer service team, to split up duties or on the other hand identify who is posting to the account. Google, take heed and creating a hierarchy of logins with certain privileges, please as trusting the sacred Google password to an entire social media team may just be too much for developers to bear.

3. Brand circles – Some argue Google have missed a trick not tackling the brand page as an alternative implementation of Circles, to combat irrelevant content for users. Rather than adding a brand to one of your circles, there was a suggestion that you would add yourself to one or many of a company’s circles that you found relevant.

The use of Direct Connect may overcome this. Tying Google search and Google+ pages together, Direct Connect allows users to easily find brands and pages they want to follow. Simply by adding ‘+’ to the front of the keyword in the search bar, companies can direct traffic to their Google+ brand page, which also helps the index of  your brand raising  it within search rankings as a result.

The verdict?

If brands are going to create a presence for themselves on Google+ they should claim their brand page ASAP. Owning a brand page can not only help elevate results in Google search, but by creating a unique page using the scrapbook icons – fixable, thereby avoiding Facebook’s pesky floating problem – A mention of your brand page from these key figures will and you’ll gain traction with influential bloggers and opinion leaders for true value amongst early adopters.

Google+’s main feat for brands, pitching themselves way ahead of Facebook, is the ability to track leaders of influence and points at which content or topics sparked discussion, via timelines. Utilising the services provided, brands should view Google+ as a professional platform as a thinking man’s Facebook or LinkedIn on dress-down Friday. Only by understanding how Google+ works will brands be able to create true value from  the platform.