Calling all engineers, Linqia's hosting a happy hour Wednesday Feb. 8th!

Hi! We're Linqia, and we want to meet you.

Linqia is not the same San Francisco start-up story you’ve heard before. In fact, we’re absolutely sure Linqia is unlike anything you’ve seen.

Linqia is the place for influential content curators with an engaged following on the social web. We add the human touch to the curation process.

We are recruiting engineers who will play a critical role in Linqia’s growth. With an Australian female CEO with a love of culture and travel, Linqia is not your average tech company.

Wednesday, February 8th Linqia will be throwing a happy hour to meet engineers. There you will meet CEO Maria Sipka, featured in the video below along with other team members.



If you are an engineer--tired of being treated like a cog in the wheel at your current company--you might consider Linqia.

Join a team where you will have the opportunity to completely change the landscape of the web. Interested in bringing a positive disruption to content creation, distribution and communities? Join us for a beer next Wednesday, 5:30pm-7:30pm at District bar at 216 Townsend St. at 3rd Ave.


Questions? Email Maria.Sipka@linqia.com or 415.623.4442.

Google+ turns against Facebook, Twitter and other social network search results

Google+ is innovating at lightening speed. Latest news hot off the press is that Google merges Google+ into their search engine, in a service called "Search plus Your World". Google+ offers users to search the public web as well as private content from Google+ circles, photos and posts and other Google services such as Picasa.

Google+ profiles will be a part of the Google search, meaning that when you search for a person Google will finish your search query with the most likely in-your-Circles match. Google, in other words, is assuming that you’re looking for someone you know and not some random person with the same name. Similarly, when you search for a topic, Google will helpfully return results with “prominent people” who are experts in that topic, and lets you add them to your circle directly from the results page.

To use Search plus Your World you need to be signed in to Google+ and searching on Google’s secure search at https://www.google.com. Google has also added a button letting users switch between Search plus Your World and the traditional search.

As Google sees it, you’re getting more relevant results from people you've chosen to connect with. However the social media industry are not convinced and the launch has sparked criticism. Critics are not happy about Google only showing results from their own social network and disregarding Facebook, Twitter and others.

Twitter in particular pounced on Google's search changes "bad for people". In a statement, Twitter spokesman Matt Graves said "As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant results. We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users."

Google's reply was very clear: "We are a bit surprised by Twitter's comments, because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer". Google’s agreement with Twitter gave the search engine access to public tweets. The agreement expired in July and was not renewed. Now Google is implying it was Twitter that chose not to renew the deal.

Twitter came back fast with a clear example in form of a tweet with an image by Twitter general counsel Alex Macgillivray. “Folks asked for examples,” he wrote. “Here’s what a user searching for ‘@WWE’ will be displayed on the new @Google.”

Clearly, the results show the World Wrestling Entertainment’s website, Google+ page and other relevant Google+ profiles — but no Twitter page. Macgillivray’s example shows that, at least in some cases, people who are searching for a Twitter handle will no longer necessarily find its page at the top of Google’s results, though it varies from case to case. Other voices have suggested that the solution may be Google completely omitting search results from any social network.

Latest news is that the Federal Trade Commission will include Google+ in its ongoing probe of Google. According to Bloomberg, The FTC sees the launch of Google’s social network as relevant to its investigation into whether Google is violating antitrust laws by giving its own services favorable treatment.

So what do you think? Is Google crossing the line when people can't find the best possible search results because Google is favoring their own services? Or are we just forgetting that Google isn't a public service but a business? And most important of all, should Google include social media data in the search results or should they just go back to showing results that reflect the collected view of all Web users?

Linqia case study: 20,581 people engage with Moonit and their Love Calculator

Moonit, a New York based company offering Daily relationship horoscopes and Compatibility test through astrology approached Linqia to run several engagement campaigns to create awareness around their recently launched application. 24 online groups reaching close to 2 million people across multiple social networking platforms in the Spanish speaking market were invited to participate offering their members to try the Love Calculator for free.

The online groups selected focused on singles, students, love, friendship and the gay community.

Here are some examples on how the group leaders shared Moonit's content with their members:

Erasmusu, a community for exchange students across Europe, were creative and fun in sharing Moonit content in their various sub groups ("Real maths are hard, "Love maths" are cool"), making it relevant to their members and using several social channels:

The Infosingles community also shared the content in different ways and in multiple channels using both their community, Facebook page, Twitter and newsletter list:

Shangay, a leading Spanish gay community also loved the idea of Moonit and wanted to share it with their members. They selected the banner content and wrote an article explaining the Moonit concept:

Carlos Valladolid is a young creative professional with several groups and a blog targeting young people through engaging and fun content:

Festuc is a community targeting young people interested in nightlife, love and friendship. The community leader shared Moonit in the community and also included the application in their weekly newsletter reaching over 400 000 people!

The combination of Moonit's engaging content and creative and active group leaders gave fantastic results to all of the 24 participating groups who over-performed on their estimated clicks!

20,581 individuals have engaged with Moonit across these campaigns, which is 5,584 over the estimated 14,977 engagements Linqia was promising to deliver. Advertising partners launching campaigns through the Linqia platform only pay on performance and any engagement delivered over the estimated clicks are free!

Clicks vs Visits: why analytics tools show different results

We're often asked why the clicks vary from the analytics platforms our advertisers use to track their clicks to the clicks registered through the Linqia platform. Digging deeper into this topic, you'll discover that it's a common question asked by advertisers using various platforms across the web. We will explain the reasons that pinpoint the difference.

Firstly, it's important to distinguish between a click and a visit:

• The number of clicks show the number of times a person clicks on your content - a banner or a link.
• Visits indicates the number of unique sessions created by your visitors. A unique session is a connection between a user and your website.

Google sheds light on this distinction within their Help section for Analytics and in summary, the main reason why the sets of results don't match are due to:

• A visitor may click your content multiple times. When one person clicks on one content item multiple times in the same session, AdWords will record multiple clicks while Analytics recognizes the separate page views as one visit. This is common behavior amongst visitors engaging in comparison shopping.

• A visitor may click on your content item, however the page does not fully load due to navigating to another page or by clicking their browser's Stop button. In this case, the Analytics tracking code is unable to execute and send tracking data back to the Google servers. However, AdWords will still register a click.

• Whilst Google AdWords automatically filters invalid clicks from your reports, Analytics reports the resulting visits to your website.

• If a visitor who clicks on your content item has either javascript or cookies disabled, this visitor won't be recorded in Analytics, but AdWords will still register the click.

There are steps you can take to minimize any discrepancies:

• The correct Google Analytics Tracking Code is implemented on your landing page
  
• The Google Analytics Tracking Code is in the right location in your HTML source code (i.e not at the bottom of your page)
  
• The auto-tagging parameter is present in the URL of the landing page that the visitor ends up on
• You are not using a combination of auto-tagging and manual campaign tracking parameters
• Paid visits are not being filtered out in your profile
  

Advertisers using the Linqia platform can be assured that their clicks are genuine and safeguarded by fraudulent activities. All clicks are tracked by an integrated 3rd party tracking platform openx which is used by over 150,000 sites to track the results of millions of campaigns.

Digital Marketing Trends for 2012: Online ad spend to grow by over 20%

6S Marketing recently published an infographic on the Digital Marketing Budget Trends for 2012 highlighting an increase on digital marketing spend:

Key consumer insights:

• 35% of today's consumers spend 180 minutes or more online per day
• 20% of google searches by month are for local businesses
• 57% of internet users search The web everyday
• 46% of daily searches are for information on products or services

Activities consumers engage with online:

• 94% check email
• 87% search
• 78% do product research
• 75% get news
• 72% pass time
• 66% buy a product
• 61% use social networks
• 59% search "How To" info
• 32% rate product or service

Highlights on the Digital Marketing Spend:

• 28% of organizations are moving their marketing budget to digital channels
• 24% of overall marketing was spent on digital marketing in 2011
• 64% say they plan to increase budget for SEO
• 70% say they intend to increase investment on third party social media services such as Facebook.
• 54% increased their inbound marketing (blog, social media, SEO etc) budget in 2011
• Companies say that the social media sites that have generated most costumers are the Company blog and LinkedIn (57%), followed by Twitter (48%) and Facebook (42%)

The majority of companies understand the importance of having a great online presence and the online marketing is in constant growth.

Projected trends for 2012:

• Search marketing will lead the spending for interactive media followed by Display ads, E-mail marketing, Social media and Mobile marketing
• Online ad spending in the U.S. will grow by over 20% in 2012
• Mobile ad spending will reach over $1,1 Billion and over 75% of marketers plan to include mobile in their budgets
• Money spent to place ads on Social Networking Sites will increase from $1,4 Billion (2011) to $2,5 Billion

2012 looks to be an exciting year for the digital marketing business as more and more organizations allocate an increasing portion of their budget to an online presence. Brands need to identify their target groups and once found, listen and understand their needs. Brands need to be where their prospective customers are and as consumers spend more time online it's natural for the brands to follow.

Why High Sharers are Important to your Business?

Last week I saw a musical in Barcelona and absolutely loved it! I loved it so much that I immediately raved and recommended it to my facebook friends. I was able to share the happiness I felt coming out of the show, encouraging my friends not to miss out.

Today online channels have become a way to both ask and make recommendations. When was the last time you bought something important and you didn't reference a review site? Or ask your friends on Facebook when hesitating between various brands or models?

Mashable recently published an info-graphic featuring data from M Booth and Beyond, analyzing the social consumer and the way we share online.

Some notable facts:

53% use Facebook to interact with a brand

40% liked a product on Facebook

20% use Facebook to research products at least once a week

42% wrote an online post about a product or a brand

33% wrote a product review online

The info-graphic also shows the difference in efforts we invest into researching a product depending on the nature – Low vs High involvement products. In high involvement products you can find more expensive and less frequently purchased products, like technology and holiday trips. For these products we seem to put more effort and time into the research phase, whilst less costly products, such as baby items, makeup and music are usually purchased with a minimum amount of effort.

Furthermore, the study differentiates between two types of online consumers. On the one hand we have the high sharers (20% of online consumers) who are young, do not put much effort into researching products online but do recommend products, are brand loyal and own multiple internet devices. On the other hand we find the low sharers (80% of online consumers) who are older than the high sharers, put high involvement in researching products online, care more about quality then brand image, is less brand loyal and is more likely to purchase products as a result of research. Interesting conclusion: high sharers are 3x more likely to recommend a product online.

According to the study, 3 different channels influence the social consumer, each one with their sub channels:

• Earned channels (ratings and reviews sites, news articles, word of mouth and blog posts)
• Owned channels (brand website, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube videos)
• Search channels (paid search and organic search)

The Top 5 influential online channels are:

1. Search results
2. Brand website
3. Ratings & Reviews sites
4. News articles
5. Online ads

So what does all this research mean for a brand or business? It's no longer enough to buy an online ad. A combination of all channels will ensure a higher chance of reaching the core target. And what should a brand or business do?

1st step: Identifying the High sharers in your Business – who are they and where can we reach them?

2nd step: Offer them content that people will want to share, both inside the community and in other channels.

Our strong philosophy at Linqia to best reach any target audience is to be a part of their natural environment - the communities and online groups they are a part of. And to join the conversation, brands need to provide valuable and highly engaging content that leaders can share in a natural non salesy way.

Engagement beyond the Facebook "Like"

If you’re not on Facebook you don’t exist. How many times have we heard that? And as Facebook grows we find more and more business pages there. All of them strive to get as many "likes" as possible, as many fans as possible. But what does a "like" really mean?

I wanted to share some highlights from a report Exacttarget published exploring "The Meaning of like":

1. Only 42 percent of active Facebook users agree that marketers should interpret "like" to mean they are a fan or advocate of the company.
2. 93 percent of Facebook users engage in some form of "like" behavior at least monthly.
3. 74 percent "like" something posted by a friend on Facebook.
4. 52 percent click a Facebook "like" button on another site (news site, blog, website).
5. 44 percent "Like" something posted by a company on Facebook.
6. 45 percent "Like" a company Facebook page.
7. For most of the survey respondents a "like" was a great way to express approval for a specific piece of content.
8. Younger consumers (aged 15-24) tend to use "like" for purposes of self-expression and public endorsement of a brand.
9. Consumers aged 25 and older are more likely to expect something of value in exchange for their "like."
10. Consumers tend to view a "like" as a way of bookmarking content and sharing information with friends—not a form of consent for marketing.
11. 69 percent of 65 or older Facebook users have never liked a Facebook page.
12. 30 percent of 35-44 year old Facebook users have liked 11 or more Facebook pages.
13. Frequent brand-likers also express a greater expectation of having the company's name appear in their profile, sharing brand information with friends, and interacting with the brand.
14. 46 percent of Facebook users indicate that a "like" means that they "sometimes" are giving a brand permission to contact them.
15. 56 percent of respondents indicated that marketers should not access even public profile information after they "like" a company on Facebook.

Do you feel identified? For me personally, there may be many more reasons to click a like button:

• Interesting news: to keep me updated on the information that interests me.
• Buddy tip: a friend has "Liked" and curiosity makes me visit the page. The chances are high of me liking the same things as my friend.
• Good cause: Show me in solidarity, to support a good cause. Just today I "liked" the AECC's (The Spanish Association Against Cancer) campaign page for the International Breast Cancer Day.
• Contests: Who doesn't want to win a trip?
• Temporary interest: a special campaign that is in my interest at that moment, but maybe not next month.

Does liking these pages mean that I am an advocate of these brands? Well, sometimes yes, sometimes no. But brands should definitely not count on it.

There are countless blog posts about the correlation between the likes and the level of engagement a page inspires is not always related according to data recently made public by Facebook.

Facebook has created a new feature to show the success of a page beyond the “likes”. The feature, called “People Talking About,” calculates user-initiated activities on a page, including posts, comments, Likes, mentions, shares, poll votes, photo tags and check-ins.

This shows how much interaction and engagement a particular page has and the importance of creating high level content. It definitely favors those pages that work have to create great content that people want to talk about and share. And from an advertiser’s point of view this is really valuable. It’s a great way to see if, apart from having many likes, the page also manages to keep the user's interest and inspire them to want to spread the message to their friends.

At Linqia, our aim is to connect brands that provide great and engaging content with niche communities so that they can share the content with their members. The "People Talking About" feature not only lets us know whether a page is engaging with their members, but also allows us to measure the impact specific actions have in the community, apart from just measuring the clicks. So definitely a step in the right direction to ensure that the Facebook pages fill the role they should, providing a unique space to interact and engage with their members.