Tag Archives: linkedin

Feb 20 2012
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Digital Marketing, Social Media

LinkedIn’s Mobile Site Receives an Update

LinkedIn has just made changes, very good changes, to its mobile site. This is not the same as its mobile app, however, rather the update is to the in-browser mobile site. LinkedIn claims 11% of its page views are in mobile devices and the growth rate on the views is near 400% over last year.

The immediate change is the ease of sharing. Links and some content are dragable into a dialogue box in the upper right corner. LinkedIn also allows the user to instantly tweet about the shared info as well decide with whom the content is to be shared.

Another nice feature is what happens when a user clicks on content shared by a contact. Instead of loading the entire article, LinkedIn will display a summary of the article. That saves time and bandwidth, which is important on a mobile device. The content summary also still allows the user to open the profile of the person sharing the content.

The site is also very easy to navigate into a groups setting instead of seeing all contacts and all the shred content they have provided. This seems to be one of the biggest advantages because it helps trim the fat for each session, which is important for mobile sessions.

All in all, the updates seem to be about making LinkedIn a preferred social network destination for users on mobile devices. While that does not directly translate into more dollars or views for the social media marketing agency on the network it does boost the importance of the network. The more people using the service in mobile settings does drive the more use in non-mobile sessions where there is branding to be done.

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Jan 05 2012
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Facebook, Google, Social Media

Google+ To Add A Semantic Social Network

Google recently acquired 217 patents from IBM. 2011 was a litigation heavy year by all the players in social networking and makers of mobile devices. Most of the patents recently acquired are there to help Google defend itself in lawsuits generated at Android. One of the patents, however, speaks to the future direction of Google+. US Patent 7,865,592 is titled “Using semantic networks to develop a social network.”

If implemented it will help distinguish Google+ from Facebook. Currently the two systems require a user to add friends he knows and the suggested friends is based on mutual friends. A semantic system, however, would suggest people for a Google+ circle based on keyword similarities as well as shared discussion of ideas. One of the main criticisms of Facebook is about the sharing and status updates that are not important enough. Part of that is because people’s friends are often people they have been face-to-face with and do not necessarily share many of the same interests. A semantic network would, by definition, share more weighty and significant issues.

If this does happen this is a big boon for the digital marketing agency. Google+ will grow significantly as a social network and it will be treated differently. LinkedIn is special because it serves as a more serious forum for people. That difference increases the attractiveness of advertising and the potential sales of shard items. A semantic approach to Google+ will be more like LinkedIn than Facebook offering a better place for digital agencies to focus their attention.

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Dec 02 2011
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Digital Marketing, Social Media

New Data About How Social Media Is Literally Seen

EyeTrackShop is a startup that uses webcams to measure the eye’s movements. They recently cooperated with Mashable to see how the eye follows pages on popular social networking sites. There were 30 participants in the study. While that may seem to be a small population size it might also be enough to be statistically significant. The results are not presented in enough detail to know for sure. The results, however, seem entirely plausible so it may yield sound findings.

The clear lesson is about the importance of the profile picture. Except for LinkedIn, the picture is the portion of the page that draws the first and most attention. On LinkedIn it is the job title that gains the most attention. The digital agency needs to make sure the profile picture of clients is clear, large and not too bogged down with unnecessary details.

The other really hot spot, especially on Facebook is the top piece of content. The farther down the page content is the less likely it is to draw attention. This top piece of content even draws more attention than another very important part of the profile: whom you know. The grouping of friends draws a substantial amount of time and energy from viewers. Digital marketing firms need to make sure this information is carefully gleaned. While picture and content is clearly something well curated, friends are often overlooked and yet they are very important to the eye’s behavior.

There is some more data produced by the study. These few bits are the most important and offer very important lessons for the digital agency.

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