Rumour has it that an official announcement is imminent for Google's development of a social networking site to rival Facebook.

The Internet giant has had talks with online gaming companies including Playdom Inc and EA Games to include some of their games on the site.

Following the recent announcement of Facebook's 500 million user success, it's only natural that Kings of Search, Google Inc have decided to develop what could be the next social media phenomenon.

This may well work in their favour to once again dominate the web for all search queries. In recent years, social networking sites have become more intimate and trustworthy than search engines when making decisions, such as finding the best restaurants or choosing a city break.  Real reviews and recommendations via social networking sites have taken the lead - results almost seem as though they come from someone you know.

Users have now come to expect a more personal, descriptive answer to their online search query, as opposed to a simple list of sites, and there's a strong trend for preferred choice of options that come from within a users social circle. As Google would agree, social networking is certainly the way forward.

Social Media is becoming increasingly popular in the marketing world, and a highly effective tool in promoting brands for much less money than through traditional channels.

Two examples to illustrate this recently have been The Fairtrade reporting a 12% increase in Fairtrade goods following their online marketing campaigns through customer focus and understanding, and viral videos becoming widespread amongst music music labels.

It's clear that when we go back to basics, it's the very simple marketing techniques that work. In the world of social media marketing, the key being, to create conversation, follow the conversation, and join the conversation. We're all aware that understanding our customers is essential in the marketing process, and how better than to address your target base first hand? Engage your audience, find out what makes them tick, and more importantly, find out what doesn't.

The more time you dedicate to building a strong network of contacts, followers and industry experts, the quicker you build credibility, recognition and ultimately, convert those strangers into twenty minute meetings.

As if networking wasn’t fun enough, Bump, the app that makes it even easier to exchange information with other users by bumping phones, has just been released for the iPhone.

The app allows iPhone users to compare calendars, instantly connect on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and send messages back and forth. This is a great app for professionals that travel in groups of other smartphone users as it makes it simple to transfer information without the need to pass out business cards.

It’s easy to use; just open up the app and make the “bump” gesture with the device to share your contact information.You can set up your contact profile by selecting your existing address book entry or by creating something brand new. You can then customise which information you want to include or exclude. The ability to compare calendars and set up meetings on the move is a great addition and could be ideal for business networking events.Sharing your Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn information instantly, Bump can even compare contacts you have with the user you are “bumping” and show you further details – another great way to network on the move.

Businesses of all sizes and nature are flocking to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

The fact is, that a presence on these platforms not only allows companies to engage in conversations with consumers, but also serves as an outlet to drive sales through deals and vouchers.

And while some of us have been participating in the social web for some time now, the rate of adoption among small businesses is increasing too. Social media as a marketing tool in small businesses has doubled from 12% to 24% in the last year. Last year, businesses were learning about social media.  This year, it's more about engaging it and using it properly to increase busines opportunities.

Businesses are finding different benefits and techniques to make proper use of social media marketing and it has become the most cost effective way of reaching the people we need to build a network and generate opportunities.

Since it's launch in February 2004, Facebook has become the most popular social networking site on the web.  This week, Facebook will reach a milestone of an impressive 500 million users.  

To celebrate, it’ll launch “Facebook Stories,” a visual memorial to all the ways the social network has changed people’s lives. Amongst the love stories and natural disaster reunion tales, it will be clear to see that the social network is no longer simply used by kids or peer groups - it has also become an important business tool.

Whilst previous announcements of the social networking leaders' milestones have been about the numbers, this time the company wants it to be all about the users.

This demonstrates the continued growth of the social networking site. People are now paying it the attention it deserves, and is has become the most cost effective way to do paid search and highly effective in reaching geographic and demographic areas.

Facebook reached 400 million users five months ago. This time last year, it had just reached 200 million and eight months before that it was at just 100 million. It's not surprising to see the social networking phenomenon has now become a key element of business strategy across the globe.

Coca Cola saw phenomenal results this week when they joined an online discussion using Twitter’s “promoted tweets”.

Where the usual number of visitors to click on a regular ad is around 0.02%, Coke saw impressive stats with an engagement rate of 6%.

Twitter first introduced the new advertising system in April, allowing companies such as Starbucks and Sony Pictures to pay to display their postings on pages of search results for popular topics. Disney Pixar became the first company to buy an ad within its “trending topic” section just last week.

Unlike search results, this form of sponsorship appears on the main page Twitter users see when they are logged into the service, at the bottom of the user-generated list of the 10 most popular talking points on the site.

Coke tweeted messages congratulating the England and US teams, linked to videos on YouTube and invited people to celebrate their teams’ success.

Naturally, many advertisers are now excited about the potential of social networks to promote word-of-mouth recommendations of their products.Using social networks as a business tool allows great opportunities to establish relationships with consumers that can’t be achieved through TV and press.

It looks as though search is about to enter a new era as it begins to mix into social media. Search engines have already attempted to place some kind of ranking on social updates and we already know that search engines take things like follower quality into account in how they rank tweets.

Now there is a lot of talk of Facebook "likes" and Twitter retweets taking the place of links. Not that they’re dying out – there's plenty of room for link sharing on either of these services, but in some ways these kinds of sharing are replacing links in many cases.

With Facebook's Open Graph and social plugins devouring the web, suddenly liking is taking the place of linking in some provisional scenarios.

While I don’t think anyone specifically saw the Open Graph stuff coming too long before it was announced, it's still reflective of what we've known for some time. The way people are obtaining information online is diversifying. Google's real competition isn't coming from other search engines. It's coming from different avenues of information access.

The biggest threat to Google the search engine (as opposed to the company, which offers a lot more) is people not having to rely on the traditional search engine. While I don't think Google has anything to truly worry about in terms of losing users, it has to worry more about users just not using it as often. Instead they're getting their information from apps, from friends via social networks and even when they're not necessarily at Facebook but on a site or app, via things like social plug-ins.

Here are 5 reasons Google and Search might not dominate the next decade:

    1. The search process is inefficient
    2. Mobile GPS Eliminates the need for location-based search
    3. Social Matching Could Create Valuable Connections
    4. Content Recommendations to Replace Search
    5. Suggestions Will Be the Core of Our Shopping Experience

On a not so negative note, Facebook likes may not translate to better Google rankings, but so what? It's not about choosing between likes and links. Both are ideal.

The point of all of this is it's not just about getting links anymore. Links will always be of use, but social interactions may equal them in importance, and in some cases may be of greater use to your visibility, and ultimately getting people to your site, your content, your store, or your shopping cart.

Facebook and Twitter get a lot of the credit for all of the conversation that’s going on around the web these days, and quite rightly so - they certainly account for a great deal of it! However there’s still public conversation happening in many other channels - blogs, Q&A sites, news sites, YouTube, other social networks, and forums.

Google's newly redesigned SERPs place a great deal of emphasis on conversations, as I mentioned in my previous blog post. The new ‘Discussions’ option lets users refine their search results by time, relevance or date and they’re given the option for all discussions, forums or Q&As.

They can refine this even further by filtering for discussions of any length, short, medium, or long. In addition, they can sort by standard results, sites with images, and page previews, and by all results and results from nearby locations. That's some pretty deep down drilling!

Anyway, no matter which parameters you choose to search by under discussions, the non-everything options are Forums and Q&A.

Businesses looking to increase their exposure and visibility ought to consider answering questions from consumers in areas that they are qualified. This has always been something to consider for a successful online marketing strategy, but now forums and Q&A sites not only attract targeted traffic, but appear in search results. Not to mention they help you sell your expertise in your line of work. The difference now is increased visibility. Google's search options may not be new, but they're more visible now, and you can pretty much count on them getting used a lot more.

Q&A sites are also not new, but lately it seems that we're seeing an increased focus on them from a variety of players. Yahoo, the top Q&A site recently served its billionth answer, but others are bringing different elements to the Q&A table. Some are integrating local business listings with them to provide. Others are finding their own unique spin. Google itself even purchased Q&A property Aardvark recently. It will be interesting to see if this becomes more heavily integrated with the Discussions option.

The storefront windows of tech-savvy businesses may be getting rather crowded soon. Following the example set by "People love us on Yelp" and "We're a favourite place on Google," Facebook has started sending out promotional stickers of their own.

The Museum of Making Music recently received one such sticker, which you can see below, and accompanying it was a letter from Tim Kendall, Facebook's director of product marketing.  Kendall wrote, "We invite you to place it prominently on your window or sales counter, since businesses that promote their Page off-Facebook tend to see a 20% or greater increase in connections."

Who could say no to that? That’s a nice result for businesses.  Of course, Facebook stands to receive more traffic too. The social network will also be able to get money in a direct fashion as it offered a free trial of Facebook Ads as a thank you for displaying their sticker. Obviously the idea is that businesses willsee positive results and decide to pay for Facebook Ads, no doubt.

Now it should be interesting to see how many other businesses receive envelopes from Facebook…

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