This week the news of Facebook’s plans to float on the stock market has been all over the news with the social site looking to raise $5billion from its initial public offering (IPO). The point of an IPO is that Facebook needs money. Now for a company that has $3.9billion, that might seem like a strange think to say but when you put it into comparison with the $45billion that Google has, you start to understand why Facebook would want more money; to improve and compete with the other Internet giant by improving its mobile sites, making acquisitions and introducing new features. With the release of a letter from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that details previously unreleased information, some interesting facts have been revealed as Facebook looks to sell shares in the company.

For anyone who has an interest in the story of Facebook, or has seen the hit film “The Social Network”, you will know how Mark Zuckerberg is the brains behind Facebook and even after going public, Mark will retain charge of the empire that he has created. Shares in the company are split into two types, shares ‘A’ and ‘B’, with the ‘B’ shares actually being worth 10 votes per share compared to the single vote of shares ‘A’. Mark owns 28% of the company’s shares and obviously they are ‘B’ shares so that actually equates to Mark having a 56.9% say in how the company is ran. Not only that but in the case of Zuckerberg’s death, he has the right to name an heir to the company to make sure Facebook continues to be ran by someone that shares his vision.

It wasn’t only details of Mark’s control over Facebook that was detailed this week. The profitability of Facebook has been revealed as $1billion of pure profit with 2009 being the year when everything started going right in terms of finance. Income almost tripled from $272m to $777m and costs only doubled which of course means plenty of pure profit. So what happened in 2009 that made this happen? Well that was the year that Mark introduced the ‘Like’ button to the world. One thing the aspect of ‘liking’ has done has been to enable the site to target advertising, which of course is something Facebook depends on for revenue. The other aspect of revenue for the site is through in-app purchases and one company got a special mention in the IPO report. Znyga are the company behind popular social games such as Farmville, Mafia Wars and Poker and make up 12% of Facebook’s revenue and so are a very important company for them to continue working with.

One aspect of all of this that has been focused on by the media is how a lot of people are due to become very rich or become even richer. Many people already have shares in Facebook such as co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel and even U2 singer Bono. One great story is that of graffiti artist David Choe who was commissioned in 2005 to decorate the social sites new offices. He was offered a few thousand dollars or shares in the company and decided to take the shares, which could now net him somewhere in the region of $200million. Even the enemies of Facebook, the Winklevoss twins, are going to capitalise on this with their shares from their lawsuit against Facebook being potentially worth $300million. Employees that have been with the company for a number of years are also looking to benefit from any shareholdings they have with a number of them looking to become millionaires.

The story of Facebook is an interesting tail and there are many interesting stories to read and if you haven’t seen “The Social Network” movie then we’d suggest doing so. With Facebook going public, there will sure to be more to come as Zuckerberg and his social network look to shape the future of the Internet.

To discuss how social networking sites could help your business improve its web visibility, contact the SEO Coventry company HeadRed.

Facebook Timeline

Although announced at the end of last year, the new look Facebook Timeline hasn’t been a compulsory change for all 800 million plus users of the social networking site. Some people were able to get access to the new features but the majority are still using the traditional Facebook page layout. All this is about to change though with Facebook making the change compulsory over the coming weeks with users having seven days to play around with their new profile once clicking get ‘Timeline‘ before it becomes permanent. The idea behind Timeline is that it’s “the story of your life and [a] completely new way to express yourself.” The creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, says that he wants users to share their entire lives on Facebook yet still have complete control over how they share their content online. The new change hasn’t gone down too well with the social giants users though with many upset over the new features but some are enjoying the new layout and are being very creative with the design of their new Timeline.

Streaming Shows with NetFlix

The speed of the Internet has increased dramatically since its introduction and has allowed for a whole new range of sites, services and features. One such service which has improved dramatically over recent years is the ability to watch and stream movies and TV shows over the Internet. This month saw the UK launch of Netflix, the US online and DVD rental service and with a one month free subscription the sign up has been very positive. The service allows users to watch the latest movies and TV shows such as 24, Doctor Who and South Park whenever they want on a variety of devices including PCs, laptops, smartphones and video game consoles. But is this high uptake rate going to continue once the monthly subscription rate starts after the free period ends?

Netflix has been fairly active on the social media circuit gauging customers’ opinions and as with any direct customer feedback it hasn’t all been positive. Whilst Netflix has been posting about its great range of titles and increasing its catalogue range, users have responded directly back saying the range is limited and that they will leave as soon as the free period ends. The majority of users have said the service is good though but Netflix needs to make sure customers are happy to continue paying for its service. Social media is a great way to get instant feedback from customers and although it hasn’t all been positive for Netflix, hopefully they will be able to addresses the issues raised, improve its catalogue range and then engage more positively with users on its social media sites.

HeadRed Google+

The other week we blogged about the integration that Google is going to be introducing between its social media site Google+ and the search engine itself with ‘Search Plus Your World’. If you haven’t got one already then now is a great time to set up your Google+ profile and find out what it’s all about. If you have a personal Google+ profile or a business page then why not add HeadRed to one of your circles? The HeadRed Google+ page features the latest news and postings from ourselves as well as circles featuring interesting people from the world of SEO and the Internet.

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At the end of last week Google issued its latest update to its search algorithms, but don’t worry as this isn’t another big change like the Panda update of 2011. In fact on Google’s Inside Search blog they state that only one in 100 searches might see a slight reordering of search results and that equates to less than 1% of global search.

The algorithm update is to penalise sites that feature too many ads “above the fold” and make it hard to find the actual content on the page. Content should be visible as soon as a user lands on a page so Google is looking to not rank sites as highly that feature too many ads making up large sections on a site’s initial screen. As always it’s important to focus on the user experience on a website and if someone visiting can’t find the content they are looking for through the forest of adverts, they are unlikely to return.

Google have said that this is only one of more than 500 improvements to search that they are planning to implement this year, so whilst this one isn’t a major change that you will likely need to worry about, it’s always worth noting the changes that the search engine giant is rolling out to make searching the web a better experience.

To find out the latest news about Google Search and SEO, make sure to follow the HeadRed blog where our SEO Coventry team will be keeping you up to date on the latest.

A quarterly survey by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has reported that companies’ marketing budgets for what is considered the main media forms – TV, radio and press – have been cut, whilst Internet advertising has seen a big boost. Whilst there is an old saying that, “when times are good, then advertise your business; when times are bad, then advertise even more”, this advice isn’t being heeded. Confidence among UK marketing executives is at the lowest levels for three years.

So if companies aren’t advertising during the break in Coronation Street, having a page spread in the national newspaper or being featured on local radio, what are they doing to promote their products or services? The survey found that many were favouring price discounts and online advertising over the traditional advertising methods and with only 10% of marketing executives having a positive outlook on the financial situation for the ad and marketing industry, it’s no wonder we are seeing more companies utilising online methods for advertising and marketing.

The great thing about online advertising is that it’s not just restricted to adverts located on different sites that allow companies to advertise online. The dominance of social media on the web has allowed many retailers to engage with their customers and advertise their products directly to their audience. On Twitter, there are numerous companies that are constantly advertising throughout the day, with businesses such as video game retailer GAME, online entertainment retailer Play.com and fashion giant Next all engaging with users on a daily basis. It’s not just the big companies that can utilise social media as a form of advertising either, with smaller local companies being able to target people based on location and offer their services and products.

With Twitter, Facebook and Google+, any company has easy access to a huge audience, so it’s no surprise to see companies favouring online over the traditional methods of advertising. That’s not to say that offline marketing is dead though. The survey found that firms are looking to increase their budgets in 2012 compared with last year and with major events such as London 2012 Olympics approaching, advertisers will have a large audience to target.

To discuss how a social media or SEO Coventry targeted campaign could help your business, get in touch with HeadRed.

Cadbury reveal new product on Google+

What with Google announcing this week the inclusion of Google+ into search results, it will be interesting to monitor whether companies increase their presence on Google’s social network. One such company already using Google+ to their advantage is the chocolate manufacture Cadbury, who announced a brand new product via the social site the other day; the Dairy Milk Bubbly bar. This is considered to be the first time a company has used Google+ to introduce a new product and Cadbury was keen to let this be known by posting “remember this moment: the first time Cadbury revealed a new product on Google+”.

Although over 2,000 people have the Cadbury UK brand in one of their Google+ ‘circles’, the company maybe didn’t have complete faith in the Bubbly bar spreading throughout the net via Google+ alone, with reveals on Twitter and Facebook soon after. This is unsurprising due to the vast number of more active users on the other two social sites but it shows that companies are starting to view Google+ as a viable source for marketing activity.

Facebook add ads to news feeds

At the end of last year, Facebook announced that they would be soon implementing paid sponsored ads into users news feeds and this week saw the feature begin to appear on some people’s profiles. Facebook has featured adverts on its pages for a while now that can be related to anything, not just products or services you may have ‘liked’ and only appear outside of your news feed. These new sponsored ads will appear directly in your news feed but the difference is they will be related to pages that you have previously ‘liked’.  Say for example you like the KFC Facebook page, a sponsored ad could appear in your feed for a new burger that they are offering and be listed as a ‘Featured’ news item. This allows companies to offer new products or services directly to people that have expressed an interest in their company.

The reason some are viewing this as a bad thing is because of the terminology Facebook has chosen to use. If a news feed item is listed as ‘Featured’ then users may not be aware that this is actually a paid advert. Should they instead be listed as ‘Sponsored’? It will be interesting to see how users react to this or if they even notice as Facebook continues the slow roll out of sponsored ads into the news feed.

2012 Twitter Trending

The start of 2012 has seen a similar phrase appearing in the top trends in the United Kingdom everyday and if it continues we will be seeing it for the rest of the year. This year is a leap year and “Page # of 366”, where # indicates how many days into the year we are, has for some reason become a popular phrase to include in Tweets for a large number of Twitter users. Twitter is a great source for breaking news but sometimes the trends list can be taken up by useless phrases such as this. Although many users are using the phrase, not everyone is keen on seeing it everyday for the rest of the year and as one disgruntled Twitter user Tweeted today “Page 13 of 366 is trending… If this continues all year, I’ll officially know how little time ppl on twitter have”.

HeadRed offer web design and SEO Coventry services with over 11 years of web experience. Get in touch today to find out how an SEO campaign can offer  greater visibility to your site for more visitors, enquiries and new business.

The last few weeks our blog posts have been focussed around Google so for this week we were adamant that we were going to change that and write about something that didn’t mention the search engine giant. But then they went and released their yearly Google Zeitgeist which details “the most popular and the fastest rising” search terms for the year. The Zeitgeist lists the top ten searches across different categories across different countries and gives an insight into the events, people and products that shaped 2011 so we couldn’t help but let you know about the fastest rising worldwide search terms for 2011.

The top ten features a wide range of people and products, with three searches relating to Apple appearing in the top ten. At number 10 we have the “iPad2” which was released throughout the world during the first half of 2011 and sold 500,000 tablets in the first weekend. The sad death of Apple founder “Steve Jobs” in October made him the first or two deaths that feature in the top ten. Number eight is “東京 電力”, which relates to the Japanese Fukushima Plant nuclear reactors which were damaged during the devastating earthquake. Two days after the earthquake saw a massive rise in searches as support and donations poured in from around the world.

Pop star “Adele” was the seventh fastest rising search of 2011, with a 1,588% increase in searches from 2010. An interesting thing to note about this search is that it maintained constantly high searches throughout the whole year, where as other search terms peaked at a sudden point in the year. Another Apple search was at number six with the “iPhone 5“, even though the product wasn’t actually released. Many people expected Apple to unveil the product this year but they revealed the iPhone 4s instead. Video game fans made “Battlefield 3“ a high search term of 2011 with much anticipation for the first person shooter. The American case of “Casey Anthony“, who was charged with the murder of her 2 year old daughter but then found not guilty in July, was a high search term with people not only interested before and during the case but also in Casey’s life after the trial.

We begin the top three with the sad death of “Ryan Dunn” after the Jackass TV and movie star died in a car accident in June. During the news of his death there were nearly as many searches for his name as there was for the keyword ‘weather’. With speculation about drink driving and an emotional Jackass highlight reel shown at his funeral, fans kept searching for Ryan to make him the third fastest rising search of 2011. At number two we have “Google+“ as Google launched its newest attempt to capture the social networking crowd. Throughout the second half of the year the search term had a constantly high search volume due to the announcement, launch and then open sign-up of the product. Whether Google+ has the momentum to take on the might of Facebook is yet to be decided but as SEO Coventry specialists we will still be searching and following this throughout 2012.

And so we come to the number one fastest rising search term of 2011 and it’s safe to say that it most likely won’t feature again in the Google Zeitgeist in feature years.  A 13 year old American girl called “Rebecca Black” made a splash after releasing her pop song ‘Friday’ onto the unsuspecting public which went viral and resulted in over 167 million views on YouTube. At one point in the year Rebecca Black even beat global superstar Lady Gaga in search terms. If you are unaware to the phenomenon that is ‘Friday’ then have a look on YouTube to hear the song which made Rebecca Black the fastest rising worldwide search term of 2011.

There are many facts, graphs and information about the searches of 2011, so if you have some spare time then we’d highly recommend having a look at the full listings on the Google Zeitgeist with the top ten ‘Fastest Rising in Sports’, ‘What is…?’, and ‘How to’ searches for individual countries.