Facebook Beats Google during Holiday Season

On Christmas and New Year's Eve Facebook beat Google in overall web traffic. Since Google is the most popular online destination because of the centrality of search in finding information on the Internet, this is an amazing development. In contrast Facebook has to be one of the most stickiest sites on the web. When I state sticky I mean the time a person spends on a site.

When using search people try to find what they need as fast as possible. So Google isn't as sticky in that regard although through its other offerings in email, video, and collaboration (gmail, YouTube, and Google Docs respectively) it attempts to engage us more -- time wise.

For a site like Facebook to become both popular and sticky at the same time speaks volumes about its success. But the deeper question remains will search marketing and social media begin to converge or develop a symbiotic relationship?

From the vantage point of users will people one day use Google to find research type information from authoritative sources but use a network of Facebook friends to supplement that research with wisdom or experience? Or will people seek out experts on Google and develop a dialog with these experts on Facebook?

This type of synergy between search engine content and social media insights is very exciting in its potential to enrich our global knowledge on countless issues. I asked some of my Facebook friends about this possibility. We will review their responses in our next post.

Are You Ready for Digital Profiling?

So what exactly is a digital profile? A digital profile, from a marketing stand point, is the overall online presence of your business or personal brand. As Google, the search engines, and marketing interests can track your personal preferences online, digital profiling will be something else which is a discussion for another day.

It includes various and numerous places that your business or personal brand is mentioned, referred to or has a presence. It could be on a myriad of places.

It may start out as your business or personal website but would increasingly include your comprehensive presence on Google, Bing, and Yahoo!

For instance you could have an article marketing campaign and appear on tens of thousands of sites of other publishers or even in their RSS feeds. Such a campaign would get your personal brand out there on the Web and even establish you as an expert in your field.

In stark contrast your digital profile could also be an autoresponder series that’s preprogrammed with information you would like to share with your email subscribers. It could also be your posts on popular social networking sites like FaceBook, Ning, MySpace, or Twitter.

Moreover it would include videos on YouTube and mp3s on iTunes. It is any content you have online that represents you.

Your digital profile is your online expression and representation of yourself. A website is only the beginning of your online marketing efforts today.

You have to make sure everything you do online is a good symbol of your core values and put your best foot forward with this digital footprint. The online audience will be able to search and find your digital profile probably from this point on into eternity.

To Find Out How Digital Profiling Can Help Your Business Check Out