Social media is being integrated more and more into search engine results. Everyone is making deals with Twitter to pull real time updates into the search results, including Yahoo! . But another important, possibly more useful piece of social media will be appearing in Google search engine results: Facebook pages.

The Facebook pages are separate sections available for businesses, celebrities, and organizations. The big news here is the ability to have status updates pulled into the real time search results. Facebook’s status updates allow for full links (no shortening required) and much larger updates than Twitter allows. So if you’re business has overlooked Facebook as a viable strategy for social media, it may be time to take a closer look.

You can read more about Google adding Facebook into real time search results at Search Engine Land.

TKG is looking to fill the following marketing positions:

Marketing Communications Specialist - Needs to be a solid writer, Social Media enthusiast, and major team player.

Marketing Intern – Needs to have a passion to learn about all things Web Marketing-related, from writing to event-planning to boring spreadsheets.

Search Engine Marketing Specialist – Needs to be able to hit the ground running, implementing SEO strategies for our clients.

If you’re ready to learn more or you already know you want to join our team, please contact us today!

Yesterday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Eric Schmidt and Hartmut Neven demonstrated a new piece of technology aimed to help aid in language translation. This new technology allows people to take a picture of text with a camera on their phone (such as a menu at a restaurant) and utilize OCR (optical character recognition) to then translate the text into another language. Although at the moment the demo only does German-to-English translations, in the future they plan to be able to translate text from images between the 52 languages Google Translate currently supports.

This new technology shows a lot of promise, especially for those who travel. Google is really pushing the technology on mobile phones. I personally traveled to Europe a few years ago and can think of several instances in which this technology would have been useful.

Below is a video of the software demo:

You can read more about this technology at the Google Mobile Blog.

Would this technology be useful to you?

Our web marketing team is very busy this month educating our community on the benefits of web marketing, mainly social media! On February 10th,  we presented on social media marketing for your business to the Jackson Belden Chamber of Commerce. It was a great turnout (despite the weather) and we met a lot of great people!

This morning, Corey presented with Kristie VanAuken, Sr. VP Marketing & Communications at CAK on Advanced Social Media.

According to Corey, it was a great mix of Canton Stark County CVB members that were interested in learning more about how to market their business with social media.

Check out TKG’s upcoming web marketing speaking engagements:

Society of Marketing Professional Services
February 18, 2010
Topic: Social Media
Panelists: Corey Hammond, BrandMuscle Inc, and Constructive Communication
(this event is by invite only)

TKG Breakfast Bootcamp
February 18, 2010
Topic: Email Marketing Techniques
Speaker: Dana Phillips
(registration is free)

Green Chamber of Commerce Business Lunch Forum
February 23, 2010
Topic: Social Media
Speakers: Jennifer Geh & Corey Hammond
(chamber members: $15; non-chamber members: $25)

For a list of all upcoming speaking engagements, check out TKG’s Press Room.

There is a rumor circulating that Google is taking Street View off the streets and bringing it inside of businesses. Oh Nuts, a nut and candy shop, tipped off SearchEngineLand with news that a Google photographer came into the New York City store and took pictures of products, displays, etc. This could allow users to shop before they even reach a store – talk about planning ahead! Another bonus is that businesses listed on Google with this new feature should expect to gain some publicity and, ultimately, an increase in visitors. That is especially important in this economy – businesses need all of the help they can get!

It is important to take this news with a grain of salt; no other businesses have claimed that Google approached them with the new feature. Why would Google contact a small candy store in NYC before any other businesses? It seems fishy to me that Google didn’t start with big, well-known brands; I mean there are plenty of those in the Big Apple. Terrence O’Brien from Switched.com also noted that the Google photographer was “lugging around a pretty standard looking camera on a tripod” not the 360-degree camera that Google Street View is known for. There is plenty of mystery surrounding this story, but Google is so far staying quiet. No statements have been issued and no questions have been answered.

I guess all we can do is wait…. and hope

There were rumors (Google CEO Eric Schmidt tweeted about it saying “hell had frozen over”) that Google would air its first ever major TV commercial during the Super Bowl. So while watching the Super Bowl yesterday, I eagerly waited to see if all of the tweets and rumors were true – and sure enough Google aired a touching commercial called ‘Parisian Love’. Google explained on their blog that the commercial had been up on YouTube for a few months and already had 1.2 million views. They had such positive reaction that they wanted to share it with a larger audience.

Take a look at ‘Parisian Love’ below:

The Karcher Group is growing and we’re on the lookout for SEM talent!

We’re looking for someone who already has experience with natural SEO, paid online advertising, link building (including content distribution), local SEO and social media marketing.

We offer medical, life, 401k, paid vacation and holidays, a great bonus system, and a young, energetic staff full of friendly people!

Learn more about what we offer & what we’re looking for in our next SEM rock star!