Kenya: How Google+ Compares With Facebook
July 25, 2011 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
Esmond Shahonya
25 July 2011
Nairobi — In the past weeks, social media has witnessed the birth of Google+ project. Facebook has also revamped its features in a bid to retain supremacy in the social cyber-world.
The roll-out of Google+ has rejuvenated Google’s quest for a strong presence in the social scene. It has in the past cast its might in the social scene with products like Orkut and Google Buzz.
The Orkut social networking site was launched in January 2004, one month before the launch of Facebook.
It was the project of a Turkish software engineer employed at Google, and the Facebook phenomenon springs from the social activities of a former Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook has experienced a meteoric rise since its inception. For Google, the quest has never ended.
The company has re-engineered its ambitions in the social scene by rolling-out the Google+ project. How is the new kid on the block faring with the dominant player?
Video Chat
The news of Google+ might have fuelled the revamping of Facebook with an additional feature called video-chat, which was aided by an agreement between Skype and the social network.
The same feature of video-chat is quite elaborate in Google+ under the Hangouts option. Here, users can video chat with others for free.
Though Facebook has added a similar facility to its network, the one by Google is slightly unique since it encompasses group video chats in addition to one-on-one chats.
The Facebook video chat feature lacks group chats for now. There are also other social activities under Hangouts which spice-up the social nature of Google+.
Groups vs Circles
The Google+ project has been designed with a much simpler way of grouping social friends and other users using the circles feature. For Facebook, there is an option of creating groups.
In Google+, the better part of circles is that the user can control what one is sharing with each group while in Facebook group users might unknowingly find themselves broadcasting information to everyone by default.
However, Facebook groups’ actions can be customised by adjusting the privacy settings. The circle feature of Google+ allows users to group people. It also allows sharing of the desired things with the right people.
The other features on Google+ are, instant Upload for photos, Huddle and Sparks. A contentious issue that remains unclear among the two companies is in regard to user data privacy.
The Google+ is yet to face the wrath of privacy proponents who have kept Facebook on its toes in regard to handling of users’ information.
Betting on the fact that on-line business and social media depend on user data for web-analytics and marketing purposes, the issue of privacy might as well be an illusion.
In Facebook, some suspected features exposing users to data breaches are designed in the website by default.
One case has been the recent addition of ‘Tag Suggestions’ which relies on facial recognition for photo tagging in Facebook profiles.
The Google+ project feature of tagging photos has technically avoided such an approach. The issue of privacy was among the snags in development of Google’s earlier social network, called Google Buzz.
The trouble with Google Buzz was glaring privacy issues and lack of transparent options for opt-ins.
This weakness, in addition to other factors, made users back away from the Google social product. It’s a lesson that Google seems to have learnt as it rolls out the Google+ project.
Future prospects and numbers
The Google+ project is still in its infancy and faces an uphill task against established social networks like Facebook and even against the micro-blogging site Twitter.
The features notwithstanding, the social media scene is bracing for a renewed effort by Google to get a slice of the millions of users currently hosted by Facebook.
Google company is ranked at number one globally in terms of traffic flow. On the other hand Facebook is the most used social network, with a leading membership and public visitations.
Facebook has more than 750 million active users and the number is ever increasing. Google+ social media has attained more than 10 million users within its first two weeks of launch.
Google is a titan in Internet search and Web related services and its muscle in the social scene can only be beefed up by refining and integration of Google+ with other Google services, and to some extent, by also tapping from symbiotic survival relations in cyberspace.
The writer is a telecommunication engineer.
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Five Small Businesses Win Digital Facelift from American Express OPEN at …
July 25, 2011 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
NEW YORK, Jul 25, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
The voting is over and the results are in. Five small businesses are
headed to Palo Alto, CA to get personal tutorials to learn how to make
social media work for them at Facebook.
Out of more than 11,000 entries, five winners of the “Facebook
Big Break for Small Business” contest can rest easy knowing they are
headed to Facebook with $20,000 to help them optimize their social media
presence and grow.
The winners are:
Winner Name of Business Location Type of Business
------------------------------ ------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------
Dawn S. Grosvenor HOPELight Media, LLC in Plano, TX Activity magazine for children with special needs
------------------------------ ------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------
Darquia and Gordon Biffle Big Daddy's Bar-B-Que in Gary, IN BBQ eatery services
------------------------------ ------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------
Lisa Bud Lefevre Distinctive Gardens Inc. in Dixon, IL Garden center
------------------------------ ------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------
Mark A. Carson Karen Carson Fat Brain Toys in Elkhorn, NE Toy retailer
------------------------------ ------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------
Stephen D. Fraser Gart Davis Spoonflower in Durham, NC Fabric design and printing service
------------------------------ ------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------
Background:
American
Express OPEN and Facebook teamed up to create the “Facebook Big
Break for Small Business” contest to give five small business owners
access to social media experts. Through one-on-one consultations in a
classroom setting, the five winners will receive valuable insights that
they can implement in real-time while they’re at Facebook. American
Express will also package lessons from the contest to help educate other
small businesses on how to better leverage Facebook for their marketing
efforts. The content will be available on OPEN
Forum, American Express’ award-winning online resource and
networking site for small business owners.
“Social media marketing is rapidly moving from nice-to-have to must-have
for small businesses,” said Julie Fajgenbaum, Vice President, Brand and
Social Media, American Express OPEN. “These five businesses have great
potential and will make excellent case studies for the millions of small
business owners out there who are looking to accelerate their social
media marketing efforts in order to grow.”
“We’ve always been committed to small businesses, and we’re inspired by
their initiative to adopt Facebook and use it to find new customers,
grow new communities and bring people into their stores,” said Adele
Cooper, Director of Global Customer Marketing and Communications at
Facebook. “Any company, big or small can use Facebook to be more social
and harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing at scale.”
The Specifics
Each winner will be tutored on how to maximize the power of Facebook to
better market their businesses, products and services to their existing
customer base, and target new customer segments. Each will get practical
and personal training on best practices for using Facebook
Pages, Ads
and Social
Plugins, and will also receive consultation about their current use
of Facebook. All expenses will be covered.
To enter the “Facebook Big Break for Small Business” contest, small
business owners submitted answers to a short questionnaire describing
how they would utilize the competition’s winnings to better their
business. From the more than 11,000 entrants, a panel of judges
including Laura Fink of American Express, Adele Cooper of Facebook, Guy
Kawasaki of Alltop
and John Battelle of Federated Media chose ten finalists based on the
following criteria: commitment to their business and growth; overall
social media need where Facebook could improve their business; and
energy and enthusiasm for small business. Fans of American Express
OPEN’s Facebook page then voted for their five favorite small businesses
based on videos of the business owners explaining why they deserved to
win. All ten finalists won $2,500 in Facebook advertising to help them
target and acquire new customers.
American Express and Facebook
Earlier this year, American Express OPEN and Facebook teamed to offer
OPEN Cardmembers the ability to pay for Facebook Ads using Membership
Rewards(R) points, marking the first time any company has connected a
rewards program to advertising spend in this way. Cardmembers can redeem
Membership Rewards points for Facebook Ads through American Express
OPEN’s Facebook Page at facebook.com/OPEN
or the Membership Rewards program website at membershiprewards.com.
American Express OPEN also unveiled a first-of-its-kind marketing tool, “Go
Social,” for small business merchants to create and distribute
coupon-less cardmember offers for mobile users of Facebook Places and
other location-based social networks, this past week. The announcement
was a part of American Express’ “Link, Like, Love,” the unique
application on Facebook(R) that delivers cardmember deals and experiences
based on the likes, interests and social connections of cardmembers and
their Facebook friends.
In 2010, American Express and Facebook partnered on Small
Business Saturday, a day designed to recognize the importance of
shopping at small, independently owned businesses. Small Business
Saturday falls on the day after Black Friday. Small Business Saturday
2011 will be held on November 26.
About American Express OPEN
American Express OPEN is the leading payment card issuer for small
businesses in the United States and supports business owners with
products and services to help them run and grow their businesses. This
includes business charge and credit cards that deliver purchasing power,
flexibility, rewards, savings on business services from an expanded
lineup of partners and online tools and services designed to help
improve profitability. Learn more at
www.OPEN.com
and connect with us at
www.openforum.com ,
www.facebook.com/open
and
www.twitter.com/openforum .
American Express is a global services company, providing customers with
access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build
business success. Learn more at
www.americanexpress.com
and connect with us on
www.facebook.com/americanexpress ,
www.twitter.com/americanexpress
and
www.youtube.com/americanexpress .
Facebook(R) is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.
SOURCE: American Express OPEN
Media:
M Booth for American Express OPEN
Sal Della Monica
212-539-3272
sald@mbooth.com
or
American Express OPEN
Rosa M. Alfonso
212-640-1712
rosa.m.alfonso@aexp.com
Copyright Business Wire 2011
