Facebook, Amazon.com versus Google - Social Media Brands Get Ready To Rumble

Late last week all over the net there were news stories of how Facebook and Amazon.com were partnering for a showdown that has been brewing for sometime now. This showdown is with Google. These giant social media brands have been playing a fantastically complicated game of chess to see who will survive or get left behind.

Caroline McCarthy, of CNET.com put it this way,"Facebook dominates the social web, and Google dominates everything else. Google wants to wrest a bit of control of social media from Facebook." In the high stakes of social media, staying in control of your niche is crucial to you being top of mind. If you lose that edge and your brand awareness you lose everything. It doesn't get any more serious than this.

Google has been trying to grab a piece of the social networking space for many years, but last week they were arming themselves for a showdown. Google has released information about the acquisition of Slide. This company was started by PayPal veteran Max Levchin. What is so interesting about this is Max Levchin was responsible for designing some of the earliest breakout hits on the Facebook platform. This in its self would lead me to think that Google is getting ready to succeed this time with its movement into social networks. Their failures before have allowed them to learn and observe the strengths and weaknesses of Facebook.

At Facebook, it was reported by venturebeat.com , that Chief Executive, Mark Zuckerberg was in "Lockdown" preparing for battle with Google.



I personally, believe that products and industries change, modify and develop into new things. In social media and web 2.0, we have reached a point where the very large brands are changing and moving forward. This push by Google might be exactly what Facebook needs to become even better. Be careful what you wish for Google. You might not like what happens.

What do you think will happen next? Will Google succeed or Facebook?

The Most Important Element of Social Media Marketing

The single most important element of Social Media Marketing is not the technology, it is not the marketing analytics, it is something that social media marketers often forget about and that is "people". We all have the need to want to belong. To make connections, to grow and learn new things. We cannot do this by ourselves.

An article from Jennifer Cohen of SocialMediaMarketing.com http://bit.ly/aUWNSx discusses how chatter and talk is truly what the social media is based around. Without the chatter, both positive and negative, there would be no opportunities for marketers and advertisers to connect and introduce products and services to the target channels.

Another area of the social media that is often overlooked is the world of blogs. Without the 1 million plus blogs registered adding content, opinion and information and facts, you would really be left with a boring mix of social network software. It is like any connection in the real world, the more you put in, the more you benefit.