The world’s leading social network giant recently announced that they would be paying users credits to watch certain Facebook ads – what does this mean for social media strategies relying on these ads however, and is this incentive going to catch on elsewhere?

Facebook Credits is a new system that the social network has devised to reward users for certain actions, such as viewing specific Facebook Ads. These credits can be redeemed on Facebook Deals – a group buying service much like Groupon. While one credit is only worth a mere 10 cents, this incentive could be enough to motivate users to click on ads that they see. For social media strategies that use Facebook advertising, this could mean more views and exposure on the social network – especially for gaming companies. Some of the top gaming companies who are participating include CrowdStar, Digital Chocolate and Zynga. Facebook is working with Sharethrough, SocialVibe, Epic Media and SupersonicAds to provide relevant ads, while TrialPay is set to provide analytics to track the success of this initiative.

The Future of Social Advertising?

While the benefits to users are obvious, especially for users who spend a large deal of time on the social network, the gaming companies who are participating in paid Facebook ads will also stand to profit from increased exposure. The nature of social advertising focuses on creating content that viewers want to watch and share with friends, and to this end, paid Facebook ads provide the perfect platform. Advertising then goes beyond its traditional roles, instead becoming closer to ‘branded entertainment’. Dan Greenberg, CEO of Sharethrough, stated that this new initiative is “a step away from interruptive advertising.”

The real question on many internet marketing consultants‘ minds however is whether this will create new opportunities for advertising exposure across other social platforms. So far, Facebook is the only network to offer credit to users for viewing ads – a giant leap from the usual sponsored listings or even sponsored hashtags that are offered by Twitter.

Whatever the future holds for social advertising and incentivised viewing, one thing is for sure – the growth of social media strategies offer a huge range of options for savvy marketers wanting to make the most of these constant changes and opportunities.

Twitter and Facebook Influence SEO – Confirmed by Google & Bing

On December 1, 2010 both Google and Bing confirmed the suspicions of many SEO’s, that links shared through social media platforms Twitter and Facebook do have a direct effect on SEO and rankings. This is on top of the positive effects that Tweets and Facebook posts may have on your link count.

This revelation came through an interview conducted by Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land. Danny presented Google and Bing with 6 questions:

1) If an article is retweeted or referenced much in Twitter, do you count that as a signal outside of finding any non-nofollowed links that may naturally result from it?

Bing:

We do look at the social authority of a user. We look at how many people you follow, how many follow you, and this can add a little weight to a listing in regular search results. It carries much more weight in Bing Social Search, where tweets from more authoritative people will flow to the top when best match relevancy is used.

Google:

Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news universal by marking how many people shared an article [NOTE: see the end of this article for more about that].

2) Do you try to calculate the authority of someone who tweets that might be assigned to their Twitter page. Do you try to “know,” if you will, who they are?

Bing:

Yes. We do calculate the authority of someone who tweets. For known public figures or publishers, we do associate them with who they are. (For example, query for Danny Sullivan)

Google:

Yes we do compute and use author quality. We don’t know who anyone is in real life

3) Do you calculate whether a link should carry more weight depending on the person who tweets it?

Bing:

Yes.

Google:

Yes we do use this as a signal, especially in the “Top links” section [of Google Realtime Search]. Author authority is independent of PageRank, but it is currently only used in limited situations in ordinary web search.

4) Do you track links shared within Facebook, either through personal walls or fan pages?

Bing:

Yes. We look at links shared that are marked as “Everyone,” and links shared from Facebook fan pages.

Google:

We treat links shared on Facebook fan pages the same as we treat tweeted links. We have no personal wall data from Facebook.

5) Do you try to calculate the authority of someone on Facebook, either say via their personal wall or their fan page.

Bing:

We don’t do this on Facebook. On Facebook, we only get what’s public, only updates and things you’ve posted to everyone as viewable. We don’t get things only shared with friends, so don’t know how authoritative you are on Facebook. There isn’t the whole convenient retweet mechanism we see on Twitter.

We do see valuable content shared by Facebook users, even though we only get what’s public.  For example when Gary Coleman died we saw a  video from Different Strokes, saying his favorite line “what ya talk’in ’bout Willis” gain popularity.  It happened to be what a lot of people are sharing on the day he passed away.

Google:

Again, the treatment is the same as for Twitter. And we have no personal wall data from Facebook.

6) Do you calculate whether a link should carry more weight depending on the person who shared it on Facebook?

Bing:

We can tell if something is of quality on Facbook by leveraging Twitter. If the same link is shared in both places, it’s more likely to be legitimate.

Google:

Same as question 5.

Well there you have it, are you still wondering whether you should be actively engaging in Social media marketing for your business?

The rest of 2010 promises to be a big one in the history of South Africa and the world! Not only have we successfully hosted the 2010 Soccer World Cup, but with advances in online business in South Africa, this year could and should be a year of enormous growth for our economy and for each and every individual.

Let’s take a look how you can drive your online business to new heights in 2010.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The importance of good SEO has become apparent throughout the last decade and will continue to have an enormous influence on your online success in 2010 and beyond. The good news is that good SEO will continue to be cost-effective to small business but are sure to become more expensive as the market gets more competitive. It is therefore essential that you make room for SEO in your online advertising budget in 2010.

2. Twitter Marketing

Twitter has taken off big time in 2009 and will continue to be a huge entity in 2010. The importance of Twitter Marketing lies in the fact that average business can capitalise on Twitter for top exposure as it is a viable marketing channel. There is also some speculation that Twitter will implement some form of paid advertising model, much like Facebook is offering at the moment.

3. Facebook Marketing

Facebook has become part of 29% of Internet users’ daily web activity. As a business owner advertising on the net, it is imperative for you to realize the benefit of Facebook marketing. This year will see more and more people joining this phenomenon and Facebook’s paid advertising offering will continue to give businesses the opportunity to advertise to a targeting market.

4. Mobile Marketing

Using mobile phones as a medium for advertising has endless possibilities in South Africa. The challenge in 2010 is not only to make your site visible to those accessing the Internet via their cell phones but also to use SMS message to communicate you services of products.

5. Bing

Although some believe that Bing, Microsoft answer to Google, will not reach its full potential in 2010 it is definitely worth implementing into your SEO campaign.

6. Video Marketing

With the promise of faster and cheaper Internet coming to South Africa, more and more local business owner will look to video marketing to advertise their product and service and to increase their conversion rate.

7. Pay-Per-Click Ads

As discuss before, sites like Facebook and possibly Twitter, will offer a good alternative to Google Ads but 2010 will continue to be a popular advertising strategy. Bing is also likely to start offering PPC ads which will offer just another way to increase your Internet exposure.

8. Online Business Networking

Connecting with other business owners and industry leaders on the Web became an effective way to build business contacts and leads in 2009. Prepare to take this to the next level as more and more social media sites are looking to cater for online business networking. Some believe that 2010 will see face-to-face networking opportunities within online business networks , and face-to-face networks will begin to integrate online networking more effectively into their programs.

9. Top Content

You don’t need a crystal ball to figure out that content will continue to be king in 2010. You can guarantee that the marketing of you good content will be just as significant as the quality of your content.

10. Innovative Design

Staying ahead of the curve in 2010 is extremely important for any successful online business. No matter how good your content is or how high you are ranking in the search engines, the appeal of your site as well as its functionality will contribute a great deal to your conversion rate.