Facebook won’t be letting you vote on privacy changes anymore.

There’s probably a good chance you didn’t even know you used to have the right to vote on privacy changes. The last time Facebook brought its privacy changes to a vote, turnout amounted to 342,632 users — or about 0.038% of Facebook’s user-base.

There’s some debate about whether or not Facebook did a good job publicizing this right to vote, but regardless, it seems that users had little, and now will have less effect on the changes Facebook makes to its privacy policies. Removing users from the equation was also a bit of given once the company went public and started having to answer to shareholders.

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How many times have you wanted to learn about some cool stuff online, typed “some cool stuff” into Google only to find that the first 10 articles listed have very little to do with what you were looking for. Other than the fact that the keywords “some cool stuff” are shoved into every nook and cranny on the page, there is not much useful content on the page. That’s what you get when computers control all search results. It’s just like in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Google was essentially saying  “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid you can’t learn about ‘some cool stuff’.”

Thankfully, I’m not seeing as many of those pages as I used to and one of the main reasons is Google’s recent focus on rewarding content that is user friendly (instead of search-spider friendly) with higher rankings. All of the major search engines have implemented numerous changes over the past year — from incorporating engagement measurements such as bounce rates and time on page to using real humans as content raters — designed to make sure that the top search results are considered useful by human users.
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Most people roll their eyes at the assertion that Google+ is a Facebook killer; after all, Google+ has been live for over a year and hasn’t put much of a dent in Facebook’s user base. But now with the incorporation of the new Google Local pages into Google+, its looking more likely that Google will become a dominant force in social networking.

There are hundreds of reasons you could argue in favor of one or the other network, but there are three main areas I want to focus on in this post and that businesses should keep in mind when deciding whether they want to invest time into Google+.
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Last week I reported on studies by Buddy Media and Bit.ly that analyzed the best times to Tweet and post to Facebook. This week I have some thoughts on how to utilize their findings and apply it to your own business.

• B2B Content vs. B2C Content: The difference between selling to businesses and selling to consumers will partially determine when you Tweet or use Facebook. If you’re typically interacting with other business accounts, Tweeting on the weekend or after work hours probably isn’t all that important.

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Two separate recent studies by Buddy Media measured the Tweeting and posting habits of brands using Facebook and Twitter. Their Twitter study looked at 320 of the world’s largest brands, while their Facebook study focused on 200 of their clients’ Facebook pages. Both studies measured the effectiveness of tweeting on certain days and times in addition to the type of content posted. Another study conducted by bit.ly looked specifically at clickthrough rates of (their shortened) links throughout different times of the day and days of the week on both Facebook and Twitter.
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Ever since Google introduced Google+ Pages, internet marketers have been preaching the value of using Google+ for business. With the merge of Google Places and Plus Pages into the new Google+ Local, that notion has never been more relevant. It’s clear at this point that Google is trying to cement their position in the social networking space, and is leveraging existing services to accomplish just that. Google+ Local is a far more social (and much prettier) replacement for Places that business owners should not take lightly. So here’s what you need to know:
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Why Google+ May be Better for Your Small Business than Facebook

In case you haven’t already heard, Google has drastically shaken up SEO with the release of Google “Search Plus Your World”. The search update integrates the new social network Google+ with good ol’ Google search results. Now, when users search a term in Google’s search engine the real-estate above the results list, to the right of the results (previously ad space) and under individual results will be populated with Google+ data.

The update was released last week and seems to only be active part of the time. So I’ve captured a search query with Google’s personal results filter turned on and off to better illustrate what this change means to overall SEO.

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At this stage in the game, most companies are well aware that social networking websites are an essential part of marketing. It is practically expected for a company to not only have Twitter and Facebook accounts but to also provide quick access to their profiles via the company website. But when it comes down to actually networking with a company, whether in the pursuit of a potential job, investment or project coordination, users turn to LinkedIn.

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