Google Juice

If you type your name into a search engine or "Google yourself," what are the results? For me, I have my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn profile at the top of the list, my work's website next, my blog, St. Edward's PRSSA blog, and of course a blast from the past with a Dallas Morning News Article on my highs chool drill team (sighhhh...). We have learned in class that is VERY likely for a future employer to just type in your name into Google and see what skeletons you have hiding in the closet.

Reading a little into Edelman's "Search Engine Visibility," gives a little insight in how Google might "select" the hits that come up when you put a search in and also the direction search engines are moving. First, Google is said to have a democratic way of selecting what things will rank accordingly when you search for something. For example, Edelman discussed how the New York Times was particularly frustrated when sites like outdated BBC sites, wikipedia, and YouTube showed up before their new story when "Gaza" was typed into Google. So it makes you wonder, what does it take to get a high ranking on Google? Bribes? Turns out, Google is just like a friend and all "it" wants is a little bit of TRUST.

Not only does content have to be reliable, it must also be LINKED. I discussed earlier, Foremski's rants about linking in a press releases, but as it turns out, linking is also very helpful in SEO. This is not really new information, but the methods in which we are linking and changing from "static linking" to a new form that allows a company to build relationships as well. Today, many companies are taking advantage of social media to link and drive traffic to their websites. That is to say if you see a Twitter discussion about a particular topic and then see a news story about the same topic, that link is more likely to rank higher because of the popularity of Twitter. So the more social networking sites you link to, the more "Google Juice" you will get!

The secret to Social Search is to employ an "embassy strategy." Companies that set up meaningful, engaging and permanent outposts inside all of the relevant social networks will be more discoverable than those who don't. Today the benefits of visibility are measured via Google results. Tomorrow it will be within search engines that are embedded into the social networks.

Wave Goodbye?

This week, the reading for my Social Media for PR class tackled the mysterious Google Wave. After reading about all of its useful features, like email, IM, WebChat, message boards, and wiki, I decided to take a stab at it.

I didn't slice very deep, barely did I even make it to correctly uploading a photo.. Wave is confusing to a new user. Well, that's to be expected, I remember feeling completely lost with the new concept of Twitter. Part of the problem is the "lonely experience" I felt because I had only two contacts. Once I dived into reading more about Google Wave, the more I realized it is not so different from the technologies I have already been exposed to, it just surprising to see it all wrapped up in one.

I decided the wiki-feature of Wave is something very different. If I make a "wave" (the equivalent to an email), my document can be edited by the people I send it to. Weird? In my opinion, I would see that as a huge problem because how could the document be trusted if it was sent to a large quantity of people. For instance, say Wave took part as an internal email system for a corporation and was used to communicate about business meetings, events, and other corporate business, one individual could alter a date or time- which could be annoying.

On the other hand, I look at this for class projects and assignments as a great tool. If you are in a group with Snobby Sally or Cranky Chris, you might have zero initiative or ambition to ever actually meet with them, but the project has to get done somehow. With Wave, you can upload a document and send it to the unfortunate group members and work collaboratively on it (you can even use the IM to chat about your ideas/suggestions while editing the document).

Is Google Wave a hit or miss? I'm not sure it's effect yet because not everyone has access to it. From reading a few articles from class, I see it MIGHT have some potential in the future.