Facebook, General, Social Media for Small Business, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tools
This Week in Social Media
Aug 12 2013
Many social networks made some changes, both major and minor, that will affect your marketing methods. Facebook has made multiple changes in the past few weeks that will help businesses while Google’s new rules might be pushing some the other direction.
Previously, stories that showed up in our News Feeds were organized by a system called EdgeRank. This somewhat mysterious calculation is changing and improving by using new signals to organize News Feeds based on what stories and people a person interacts with most. Two new methods are on their way:
The new algorithm and updates will be released in the future. Last Actor is currently available on the web and mobile while Story Bumping is only available on the web (as of today).
How does this affect your brand?
If you’re posting interesting content and engaging users, this system will be helpful.
A recent Google rule change is causing many companies to reevaluate their press releases and articles. According to Google, the repetition of a word in your press release is suspicious and seems like you are pushing keywords to gain PageRank. Similarly, Google frowns upon cross-posting press releases on multiple sites. According to Google businesses should “create unique, relevant content that can naturally gain popularity in the Internet community.”
Ultimately, actions that seem to be designed to improve a company’s PageRank and SEO will be flagged by Google and could be penalized.
How is this going to affect you?
Like us, you might be revising your press release strategy and brainstorming what’s next. The fact is, Google can change their rules at any time, and they typically don’t like activity that seems unnatural.
Facebook lifted the rule that only 20% of cover photos could be comprised of text. There are now no restrictions on the content of cover photos.Facebook Page cover photos. 
What does this mean for your Page?
With just under 240 million members, LinkedIn’s mobile app took some big strides recently. This update will make it even easier for you to get in touch with possible employers. The day of typing up a resume to print out is quickly disappearing as many sites like LinkedIn are creating your resume for you as you maintain the information.
How does this help you?
It’s hard to ignore, more and more are employers judging you based on your social networks. Your personal brand as well as your professional networks are essential for success. Take advantage of this update when searching for jobs and if you’re not searching, keep everything updated so your LinkedIn profile is ready to go when necessary.
To stay on top of what’s hot right now, Facebook will be experimenting with a “Trending Topics” feature for its News Feed. Similar to Twitter, it will highlight top stories and topics and try to create relationships and conversations between users.
How will this affect you?
If you can’t get into the Twitter chatter, this could be your chance to jump into trends. This new feature won’t be much different than trending topics in Twitter but is the first Facebook platform that is truly mobile-first. First hashtags and now trending topics… wonder what Facebook will copy from Twitter next.
Be sure to catch up with us next Friday and if you see any big news let us know!
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