Flickr/Shawn Collins
Google stuck its finger in a light socket last week with its new Terms Of Service update. Google’s new TOS allows “Shared Endorsements” – meaning they can show your name and picture in their ads.
All kinds of people went berzerko about this. The New York Times was indignant about them profiteering from all that Social Media information.
Allow me to explain what’s really going on here.
In August I said, “Mark your calendar in August 2015 cuz 2 years from now Facebook is going to be 3X bigger than they are now.” We’ve had a slew of success stories from our recent 80/20 Facebook Express course. Facebook has gotten its act together and it’s now a serious channel for quality ad traffic.
One of the most effective ad formats on Facebook is a news feed post that says,
“Suzy Johnson (who is a friend of yours) likes ACME corporation”
[Followed by an ad from ACME.]ACME advertises to friends of its fans, and ACME gets low cost per conversion and more fans. It’s a snowball effect because more fans means more friends of fans. Facebook is now harnessing natural forces and it works very well.
That, in combination with much better demographic and psychographic targeting, and NOT having to rely just on likes an interests, is making Facebook a force to be reckoned with.
Google is reeling from this. Advertisers that were banned from Google in the past are piling on Facebook like crazy. Google is jealous.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
We’ve all watched with amusement as Google has tried every scheme they can concoct to ram Google+ down our throats.
“No Google, I don’t want Google Plus, I don’t want Google to be a Social Media company. Stop being jealous of Facebook. Why can’t you just be content to have the world’s most awesome search engine? You’re totally confused about what business you’re in and you’re annoying all of us. I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam I Am.”
And in fact the only people who really give a rat’s butt about Google+ are SEO guys, because the SEO guys have figured out that Google gives way better rankings to websites that use Google+.
Let me explain what that’s about.
Social Media signals are now THE most reliable signals about which content is real and relevant and which is not. Think back 15 years to Google’s PageRank algorithm and how Google ranked websites based on inbound links.
That was great – before everyone started building link farms and fake websites and everything else.
Well today it’s pretty hard to build the illusion of a strong social media presence doing black hat. It’s hard to fake tens of thousands of Facebook fans and thousands of likes sprinkled all over your website and thousands of tweets from influential people.
So Google is in the quandary of knowing that its COMPETITORS now own the most reliable data on what websites ought to rank well!
Google’s competitors ALSO own the most reliable data on what will sell to YOUR customers!
There are three lessons in this:
1) The anti-business press thinks that we’re all just profit mongering. No, we’re trying to get new customers for less than the price of a first-born child. And we’re trying to not waste our ad dollars on people who ain’t gonna be interested.
I personally have no problem with Google telling my friends that I like something. I have no problem with Facebook doing the same thing. Social Media DOES work as an advertising medium. You should milk this for all it’s worth.
2) Social Media all by itself is largely a waste of time. But a Social Media HYBRID with targeted advertising is killer. You should be harnessing the natural forces of Social Media WITH paid, response-accountable, ROI driven advertising.
3) This proves that, as Paul Zane Pilzer says, there is no such thing as a market with a corner. Google is LEGITIMATELY jealous of Facebook. Facebook poses a LEGITIMATE threat to Google. Not because Facebook will ever be able to displace Google as a search engine. But because it is now possible for Facebook to serve more relevant advertising and content than Google. To know more about a customer than Google does.
Google is afraid.
If you’ve been around the block a few times, you’ve lived in fear of Google. Before that you lived in fear of Microsoft. Or Ebay or Amazon or whatever player currently owns the monopoly.
But pay attention cuz what this is telling you is that nobody’s monopoly ever lasts forever. Microsoft is a shadow of its former self. Google is no longer the undisputed king.
Fear not, for there is always a way over, a way under, a way around, a way through. There is always a path to getting the customer you want and need, affordably. You just need to pay heed to the signs of the times.
Meanwhile… Sleep with one eye open.
Perry Marshall
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
13 Comments on “Google's new Terms of Service & what it really means about Social Media”
Pshaw Adam. Empty response to Mia. True but……………….
I have to say thanks a lot for the tons of useful and actionable information you give me. God Bless you.
And I have a question: Why do you prefer to use a paid webinar service (such as Gotowebinar) iinstead of using Google Hangout service? Are you foreseeing a Google Hangout “Slap”?
We already are used to GoToMeeting, staff understands it etc. Inertia, mostly.
Inertia and Perry Marshall – now that’s an oxymoron!
Perry, your explanation makes sense. Your writing style is ever to be envied.
However, those of us who went to law school or wherever we were educated about privacy laws are not going to become comfortable with what is happening on the web. I don’t want somebody I don’t know using me, and I don’t want somebody to use my contacts without my permission either.
In the war for supremacy on the web we all lose our privacy. And that’s not good.
nobody is forcing you to use google or facebook
Dead on the money, Perry. FB ad targeting is so much more appealing… Google needed to take this step.
FWIW, I really like Google+. I personally think the UI is superior to Facebook. Now if they could just convince someone to really use it.
Perry, I want to signup for Facebook Express but who I can speak to that can help me out with a few Facebook questions that I have?
Email josh (at) perrymarshall dot com
I just left a conference of several hundred Local Internet Marketers. Being mostly SEO guys and gals, we ate up the tips about what actions improve search results without buying ads. The best techniques take advantage of ‘Google and Facebook Love’ rather than game the system.
Perry, your context is a sparkling nail in the coffin of understanding. Malcolm Gladwell’s new book pretty much spins a similar yarn when it comes to understanding why Goliath aint much of a threat. I’m happy to be David.
You teased us with the Facebook Hybrid, but, what is it? No explanation of that. Many of us already knew Google was a pain in the rump. I have NO affiliation with Google but would like to grab new customers on “chess,” my specialty.
Bob Long
Bob,
We will be re-releasing 80/20 Facebook Express in the future. Waiting list signup at http://www.perrymarshall.com/8020-fb/waiting-list/