In this week's blog we take a look at the rise of Google's power once again, this time in the Smartphone market with recent figures suggesting that Q3 imports of Smartphones saw Android leading with 75% of the market. Facebook is back, this time in not so good light as we discover why experts are starting to tell us, in the form of blogs, why reaching your sales audience through social networking sites is no longer top of the list. Also in the world of blog news we see the power of yet another new feature from Google AuthorRank and how it will effect SEO as it becomes more recognised and valued in time.

 

 

It seems that Google can do no wrong and in the third quarter of 2012, the update from the IDC has found that 75% of imported phones were Android operated with three out of four phones on shop shelves also Android. The International Data Corporation found that out of the 181.1 million Smartphones shipped during the third quarter of 2012, 136 million of them were in fact Android Smartphones. Not only was this a record-breaking number of units shipped, the amount of Android Smartphones shipped for the third quarter was more than were shipped in the entirety of 2007. So what does this mean for the end of 2012 for Android? Even with iPhone winning that much publicised court case, with the lack of new innovative features for 2012 and only a larger screen fronting their new iPhone 5, Apple's iOS Smartphones only just crept into double figures market share for the third quarter. Although Samsung lost their battle against Apple it looks like Google's Android is winning the Smartphone market share war.

 

 

A recent blog focused on a company measuring the ROI in their social media page on the hugely popular Facebook. Facebook in recent years has been seen as a great way for large and SMBs to interact with their consumers and fans, whether it be via special offers or news. However, as the blog explains, with Facebook now charging to promote certain posts, it is becoming increasingly difficult for SMBs to advertise on Facebook. Why? This is for a number of different reasons which the blog goes into greater detail with, one of the main reasons is ROI. Now having to spend money on promoting posts, these posts aren't being seen by the intended audience such as consumers in your area (e.g. Queensland, Australia), instead they are being shown purely for likes in places such as SE Asia. The blog shows the exact numbers for the number of people that are actually going to purchase a product or service from you, which turned out to be very little, with under 5% of the targeted audience being reached. With this in mind it is probably time SMBs said goodbye to Facebook and searched for more cost effective marketing strategies, for the best ROI.

 

 

Google are masters at coming up with innovative ways to help businesses and users take full advantage of their search engine. Their latest tool, AuthorRank, has been featured in many blogs, including an indepth look by the SEJ - Search Engine Journal. The blog looked into the features of the new tool and how it is set to reshape SEO going into 2013. AuthorRank bases the quality of content on the authority and reputation of the author. This rank is given by linking the blog to the author's Google+ page, other blogs, social media and linking them together; each of these then pushes the ranking up. The credibility of the author is based on their interaction with and endorsements such as Tweets, +1 on Google+, likes and shares. Authors are able to become authorities on certain subjects based on how much they have written and the comments received. AuthorRank can benefit businesses by getting an individual higher up the ranks when writing blogs and content allowing searches in Google to rank them high. SEO in 2013 will need to bring focus on AuthorRank which is set to lower PageRank's hold over SEO.