The social media and search industries are filled with major players, and that means you can expect major changes just about every month. We try to bring you those updates each month, sharing some of the biggest stories we’ve come across so you don’t miss anything that might affect you or your business.
It’s that time again, so let’s look back on some of last month’s news covering the search and social media industries.
1. Zynga Cuts Staff and Games
We hear about staff cuts pretty frequently these days due to economic concerns. Now they’re hitting the social gaming sector. Zynga, the creator of Farmville, recently closed its Boston office and laid off 5% of its employees. In further efforts to cut costs, the company also announced it will “sunset” 13 of its older games.
[source]2. Facebook Pages Experience a Decrease in Reach
Toward the end of September, Facebook announced a change to its EdgeRank algorithm. Since then, webmasters have noticed the effect of these changes — namely that their pages’ Reach has decreased. This is a result of Facebook trying to give more preference to updates they think users really want to see (things they’re more likely to engage with — comment on, share, etc.). Unfortunately for businesses with Facebook Pages, that means less exposure for many of their promotional updates and offers.
[source]3. LinkedIn Overhauls Profile Pages
The LinkedIn changes just keep on coming. Now personal pages are getting an overhaul. The changes are designed to help you keep track of changes in your network more easily, share your professional story, and discover more people with similar interests or network connections.
[source]4. Facebook Hits 1 Billion “Active” Users
Facebook reported that it finally reached the 1 billion active user mark. That said, their definition of “active” might not be what you think. For example, they include users who might never visit Facebook itself. Instead they might comment on blogs using their Facebook login or hit the Facebook “Like” button on a third party site. So take that number with a grain of salt.
[source]5. Google Offers Webmasters a Tool to Disavow Incoming Links
Have you been hit by Google’s Web spam efforts? More specifically, were you manually penalized for “unnatural links” to your site? If so, you might be happy to know that Google is offering a new tool that lets webmasters disavow incoming links from undesirable sites. In some cases you can have the questionable links removed. But if you can’t, you should visit the disavow links page in Google Webmaster Tools.
[source]6. HootSuite to Launch Social Media Command Center for Enterprise Clients
HootSuite is launching an enterprise solution for large companies and organizations. They’re calling it the HootSuite Command Center, and it will help companies and their teams better manage, engage with, and measure their social networks. Interested parties can register on their website to be notified when the service launches.
[source]7. Blekko Offers Premium SEO Tools
Blekko is offering a collection of premium SEO tools for $99 per month (with a 30 day free trial). Tools let you view a site’s inbound links by category, get Adsense and IP hosting information to find other sites by the same publisher, and view an SEO report card for a site.
[source]What other search and social media news caught your attention over the last month? Are these or other stories affecting you in any way? Tell us about it in the comments below.
