Mark Traphagen › Comments

"Surprised you left out Google+, which has perhaps the most beautiful social media app of them all." - Mark Traphagen

"HI Erik, sorry I missed your question earlier. I'm hoping you'll see this now. Most of us who are watching the Google Authorship project closely do not believe that Authorship as a direct ranking factor is "full on" yet (although Google reps have consistently said it will be, at some point). They are gathering data on how people are using it, and when it does kick in in full, those who have been using it (and building up a trusted profile with good, highly-engaged content) will see an immediate boost. In the meantime, it certainly affects the results of your logged-in followers...and their followers as well. So the bigger you grown your Google+ network, the more exponential that effect will be. And there are the present benefits of 1) the rich snippet result, which shows to both logged in and non-logged in searchers, and is proven to dramatically increase CTR, and 2) protection from scraped content outranking your OP of it. All that being said...our testing has us fairly well..." - Mark Traphagen

"This is a tremendous article, and I want to put it to use, but where do I download my Zemanta recommendations reports? I've been all over the site and can't find it. Any help you can provide would be much appreciated!" - Mark Traphagen

"Thanks Hashim. The new ability for users to create subscription circles will make topical pages really take off!" - Mark Traphagen

"Thanks for your comments Barry. Great feed back. I think you and I actually agree; I just might've drawn too tight a dichotomy between "push" and "pull" in my opening. Really what I'm advocating here does exactly what you are talking about, just within the microcosm of Google+. I use my general stream as a multi-lure fishing line lying in the stream. When someone gets caught because of a particular bait I put out, I can introduce them to my topic page for that bait, where they can get all they can eat." - Mark Traphagen

"NEWS FLASH!!! Facebook is the largest and most popular social network! Why wasn't this all over the TV news last night? Seriously, what is there here that is useful or actionable? This is a little Ike writing a blog post titled "5 Reasons Why Humans Should Live on Earth."" - Mark Traphagen

"Great post Corey! You've nailed it, as I expect you would. There is no other social network that gets you access to an audience that way." - Mark Traphagen

"Anyone who ignores Google+ as a major player (especially because of the connected Google Authorship program) doesn't really understand search marketing and is missing the biggest reach opportunity in the history of the web." - Mark Traphagen

"Glad to see this is being covered, and no one better to speak on it!" - Mark Traphagen

"It will be interesting to see if, as this research becomes more widely known, fundamentalist theologians will try to use the same dodges some of them use for young earth creationism. Mark Traphagen Blog <http: blog="" www.virante.com=""> | Twitter<http: marktraphagen="" www.twitter.com="">| Google+ <http: profiles.google.com="" trappermark=""></http:></http:></http:>" - Mark Traphagen

"It will be interesting to see how both philosophy and theology handle these discoveries in neuroscience. If you take a step back, this discussion is really about something even more fundamental: what does it mean to be "us"? At what point do unconscious processes leave off and the "me" I experience as making (hopefully) rational decisions and choices begin?" - Mark Traphagen

"Yeah, I wouldn't hold your breath for that check. Definitely call AT&T and have them remove the charges. Also have them put a purchase block on your text message account." - Mark Traphagen

"Amen to Chris Lang above. I would just add that posting only 3 times a week is going to hurt you as well. I am circled by about 14,000 people (and get tons of engagement and traffic from it, by the way) and follow about 3500, mostly very active users. I'm on Google+ a lot, but not all day. A post only every few days from the NY Times is probably going to slip by unnoticed in my busy stream." - Mark Traphagen

"It is maddening, isn't it? Mark Traphagen Blog <http: blog="" www.virante.com=""> | Twitter<http: marktraphagen="" www.twitter.com="">| Google+ <http: profiles.google.com="" trappermark=""></http:></http:></http:>" - Mark Traphagen

"Here is John Green's playlist for the book quoted above: http://johngreenbooks.com/pape... I'm going to see if I can recreate it in Spotify." - Mark Traphagen

"John Green is a Mountain Goats fan. Read John Green. That is all." - Mark Traphagen

"If anyone wants to know more about why I'm betting on Google and Google+ over Facebook, sign up for my SocialFresh webinar on "What Marketers Need to Know About Google+' I'll be the guest of SocialFresh Director of Training Corey Creed. The live webinar is at 2 pm ET on Thursday, April 5. Free registration at http://socialfresh.com/webinar..." - Mark Traphagen

"If anyone wants to know more about why I'm betting on Google and Google+ over Facebook, sign up for my SocialFresh webinar on "What Marketers Need to Know About Google+' I'll be the guest of SocialFresh Director of Training Corey Creed. The live webinar is at 2 pm ET on Thursday, April 5. Free registration at http://socialfresh.com/webinar..." - Mark Traphagen

"If anyone wants to know more about why I'm betting on Google and Google+ over Facebook, sign up for my SocialFresh webinar on "What Marketers Need to Know About Google+' I'll be the guest of SocialFresh Director of Training Corey Creed. The live webinar is at 2 pm ET on Thursday, April 5. Free registration at http://socialfresh.com/webinar..." - Mark Traphagen

"There are several things that I think this post misses. 1) It is not clear to me that the search that Facebook is working on is a web search, and not an improved internal Facebook search. Do you have some definitive information on that? I'd be surprised if it is a web search because results would take people out of Facebook, which breaks Facebook's whole power. They rule because they keep you on Facebook. 2) You fail to understand what Google is really up to with Google+. While I'm sure that they'd love to have as many people as possible engaging on the network, they don't need them to be to accomplish their real goal: an even more powerful Google search because of personal and social signals. The reason they don't need everyone to "use" Google+ is that the real purpose of Google+ is identity. If you have a Google account of any kind, you have a G+ profile, whether you use it or not. And when you're logged in to Google (which a huge number of people are, whether or not they "use"..." - Mark Traphagen

"There are several things that I think this post misses. 1) It is not clear to me that the search that Facebook is working on is a web search, and not an improved internal Facebook search. Do you have some definitive information on that? I'd be surprised if it is a web search because results would take people out of Facebook, which breaks Facebook's whole power. They rule because they keep you on Facebook. 2) You fail to understand what Google is really up to with Google+. While I'm sure that they'd love to have as many people as possible engaging on the network, they don't need them to be to accomplish their real goal: an even more powerful Google search because of personal and social signals. The reason they don't need everyone to "use" Google+ is that the real purpose of Google+ is identity. If you have a Google account of any kind, you have a G+ profile, whether you use it or not. And when you're logged in to Google (which a huge number of people are, whether or not they "use"..." - Mark Traphagen

"There are several things that I think this post misses. 1) It is not clear to me that the search that Facebook is working on is a web search, and not an improved internal Facebook search. Do you have some definitive information on that? I'd be surprised if it is a web search because results would take people out of Facebook, which breaks Facebook's whole power. They rule because they keep you on Facebook. 2) You fail to understand what Google is really up to with Google+. While I'm sure that they'd love to have as many people as possible engaging on the network, they don't need them to be to accomplish their real goal: an even more powerful Google search because of personal and social signals. The reason they don't need everyone to "use" Google+ is that the real purpose of Google+ is identity. If you have a Google account of any kind, you have a G+ profile, whether you use it or not. And when you're logged in to Google (which a huge number of people are, whether or not they "use"..." - Mark Traphagen

"When author markup really kicked in for me (some time in January all search results for my content started showing with my author rich snippet), I too began to see my organic rankings and traffic rise. I immediately assumed it was some kind of artificial boost because of Author Rank. But calmer heads like AJ Kohn weren't so sure, and cautioned me that other factors could be in play. 1) Rich snippets are known to increase CTR. Increased CTR is a signal to Google that the result is relevant to the query, so your ranking may rise for that query because of that. There's a known reason for the higher CTR: human eyes are attracted to faces. So a search result further down the page that would have been passed over before now might get clicked before higher results. 2) I think for your example you may be overlooking that your Klout post got a lot of backlinks and was widely shared on social media. That undoubtedly had an effect on your relevance and ranking. After a lot of consideration, I've..." - Mark Traphagen

"I read up some more on the Facebook search rumors, and I'm a little more open to the idea that this could be a "big deal." The question for me now (re: web search built into Facebook itself) is whether people would form the habit of searching while in FB. People are on FB to hangout with family and friends, as I said before. When they're ready to buy (but not yet sure where to buy), they reflexively "Google that." It would be a major behavior change for people to start instinctively searching purchase intent within Facebook. But if FB can pull off that switch, it could be huge, and trouble for the Googs." - Mark Traphagen

"Let me make that more clear. I no longer think of Google+ users as just those who actively post on the site. Rather I think of Google+ as Google's way of gaining an identity profile for every Google user that they can use to tie that user to all his or her activity across the web." - Mark Traphagen

"Glad you checked Tonya! That's the way they've been making millions of dollars. Most people never bother to follow up, or even read their phone bills." - Mark Traphagen

"Yes, Tonya, definitely call AT&T. STOP only stops the subscription, but if you've already been charged by them, then there will already be $9.99 on your bill. AT&T took it right off for me, and I also had them put the "no purchases" part of the Parental Controls for SMS on my number so it can't happen again." - Mark Traphagen

"If you're talking about improving search inside of Facebook, I'm all for it, but I don't see the same marketing value as Google search. Google search (or Bing for that matter) is so valuable because it catches people at the moment of intention: when they are ready to buy something and actively searching for where to buy it. I don't think many people would use Facebook search for the same reason. When they are on Facebook they are not in buying mode (which is why so many major retailers have had to shut down their Facebook stores). They are there to be entertained and catch up with family and friends. What about the other way round (more integration of Facebook into Bing search)? That could be a little more interesting, but I still think it falls short of what Google+ could do for Google search. All Facebook can provide to Bing is static demographics. Even collecting what you Like is recognized as not all that valuable (it's too easy to "like" stuff). Google+ enables Google to link a..." - Mark Traphagen

"The Parental Blocker to which you refer is the text purchase blocker I mentioned in my post. It has two components: blocking purchases and filtering adult messages." - Mark Traphagen

"What everyone fails to take into account is that Google+ isn't a success if it is just another Facebook where you talk to the same people. Google+ will be a success because it is tied into and influence Google search. And those of us who know and understand that are laughing all the way to the web traffic bank as we ride this wave while experts like you are saying "Google+ is dead because I don't get a lot of clicks when I post five links on it at 7 a.m" (which you did today.)" - Mark Traphagen