Yahoo Site Explorer identifies 20 links (followed and nofollowed) to the page with no content that was trying to rank for Davide Corradi , that and the trackbacks from my blog comments links plus Davide’s posts generously pointing to the page, seem to be enough to make the page rank.

A couple of screenshots:

These rankings come from a Google Chrome browser with personalization turned off (incognito window) and not from my computer so personalized search cannot kick in.

It looks like link maturity is an important factor for Google rankings.

Social networking in 2008 has spread like fire worldwide but the most interesting factor to highlight is that almost half the list of the most searched social media sites are based outside of the U.S.

Let’s take a look at the Social media penetration in China. Within the top 10 most popular searches we can find online sharing video channels such as Youtube, Youku or Tudou. We can see that video marketing techniques could be very effective in that market.

In India, Youtube, Facebook, Orkut (which is the most popular Social networking site there) populate both the list of most searched and fastest rising queries. In Brazil, Orkut is the most popular query rivalling with football related information and online games.

Interestingly enough, European countries with high number of internet users behave very differently in the popularity of social media sites. In Germany, Facebook shows up within the top 10 of fastest rising terms but also Yasni, a site to find out about personal social media data, Jappy, another local social network, as well as StudiVZ and Schuler VZ. However, Italians seem to adopt facebook as their one and only social network and although French rate Facebook and their local social medias source Skyrock as very popular, what really dominates the top 10 are music related sites. On the other side of the spectrum, Spain has 8 social media related sites in the top 10 of fastest rising terms in 2008.

In social media, importance of early adopters is paramount since they are the force that make the sites go viral. After a year when the role of social media has started to be accepted as a window of opportunity to tap into the Internet audience in their points of communication, we can say without risk that the Internet is now the Social media Internet, and that despite cultural disparities and degrees of adoption, the Internet world is shifting to more collaborative ways of communication. Companies like Facebook have seen the opportunity, and plenty of other local sites have got on the bandwagon of social media interaction, catering for the needs of their local audience.

Will 2009 be the time of the monetisation attempts of all those companies? Will many of them be weeded out by the ubiquitous Facebook or they will survive with their local approach? I will keep you posted.

Interestingly enough, a rival digital TV channel, renowned right wing biased broadcaster Intereconomia, featured that video live in one of the TV shows most critical with the cited comedian . Intereconomia presenter was ferocious in his criticism against the showman, accusing of being a bully and “lefty fascist”. Inevitably, many suspected that the video was a ploy but the gullible Intereconomia took the bait without verifying the facts. As expected, on Monday, in effect, “El Gran Wyoming” TV show “El Intermedio” confirmed that everything was a trap to mock and condemn the lack of journalistic ethics of his media rival.

The strategy certainly worked and “El Intermedio” got its best TV audience of the year with 1,549,000 viewers, a 7.9% ’share’.  The program scored its best ratings, thanks to the false video, which  has sparked a debate about whether anything goes on television without getting the facts right. Additionally, the journalistic community has discussed if  certain ‘journalistic practices’ are just a way to settle personal grievances or to gain audiences.

Either way, the truth is that Viral video is one of the most effective practises in order to do what is being called “Guerrilla Marketing”. A very little investment can reap huge benefits and big media corporations like main TV channels are not alien to make use of this word of mouth tools in order to get great results.

If you have any question contact me on twitter on http://twitter.com/oscarcarreras

Just to put things into perspective; Brazil is the ninth-largest Internet market worldwide, with 27.7 million users, while Mexico ranks 14th, with 12.5 million users. Brazil goes ahead of such countries as South Korea, Canada, Italy and Spain, while Mexico ranks ahead of The Netherlands. The Brazilian economy is predicted to grow a bit more than a 1% for this year, which although meager, is still much better than most of European markets.

The great opportunity about targeting South America as a prospective online market is that your optimisation efforts only need to focus on two main languages, Spanish and Portuguese. By using native speakers that comprehend the special peculiarities of the Latin market a business can expand in the continent with a reasonably little investment.

If you have any question contact me on twitter on http://twitter.com/oscarcarreras

As a result, going multilingual can actually expand your customer base substantially for a moderate investment through online marketing. Let’s see why:

1. Multilingual Online Marketing of your site will help you lure a  new number of global visitors and clients to your site.  It is very important though that you have done a previous market research, and have recognized your target audiences in the countries you want to target.  Having a native speaker that could adapt your SEO efforts to the language/country selected is a must.
2. We all now that almost 1 billion people (using the Anglo Saxon numeral) search in a language different language than English. You might be able to appeal to that huge demographic if you play your cards right. Having language versions of your site will help you to reach out to that elusive audience who doesn’t want to search in English.
3. Over-saturated online markets such as USA and UK have a big competition. Search Engine Marketing is understood and practised for most major companies. This doesn’t happen in emerging markets where Online Marketing techniques are in its infancy. Getting a big notoriety online in the form of high rankings and visitors can be much quicker than in the mentioned countries.
4. SEO wise, algorithmic factors are also to be taken into account. SEO for European languages can be based on keyword rich domain names, a bit of local link building (given the lower competition link building doesn’t need to be so intensive), basic optimisation and moderate content generation. Exact phrase match seems to be more powerful for other languages than for English since stemming algorithms are not so sophisticated than in English. A good native copywriter could work that loophole very well.
5. Global online expenditure trends can give you very useful information of healthier markets. Brazil for instance is going to spend US $5.9 billion online this year. It could be a good time to learn Portuguese : )
6. Thinking long term. With online penetration percentages of almost 70% in UK alone there is not much room for internet growth in the future. Meager figures of 19% of internet penetration, with an already outstanding 250 millions internet market in China alone give you an idea of the possibilities. China’s e-commerce sector is growing rapidly with 23.8 million using online payment services, up 72% from last year. 91 new million internet users only this year. You do the maths.
7. Working for the former colonies. You don’t really need to localise your site for 20 languages to reach 20 nations, there are other languages that let you lure visitors from all over the world. Maing languages to focus on the Internet should be what we call FIGS (French, Italian, German, Spanish) and you can appeal audiences in 3 different continents. Very little work for global visibility.
8. If you are fed up of trying to optimise for Google that is not  a problem. In such a big markets s Russia (Yandex) or China (Baidu), Google is not the big daddy.
9. Psychological effect. Being multinational gives your site an authority aura. If your visitors perceive that your company is big enough to appeal worldwide they might rely more strongly on your services
10. Political factors. In Europe multilingualism is a must. The European Union is encouraging language diversity so it is not hard to believe that Internet users will search in different languages regularly as part of their daily Internet routine. Business will have to adapt to those new behaviour patterns.

To sum up; expanding your business online will help improve your brand awareness. Doing it multinationally will mutiply tenfold the reach of your business and services. The companies that understand online globalisation the quickest will be more ready for downward economic trends.

If you have any question contact me on twitter on http://twitter.com/oscarcarreras .