Category: Featured News

The massive search engine is now allowed to crawl public posts and data of some of the network’s members.

Facebook is now permitting the Google search engine crawlers to work their way through some of the public data of its members so that the indexing could lead searchers directly to the source, in a move that could considerably change the face of social media marketing.

This appears to be an opportunity that could be advantageous to both Facebook and Google, but marketers as well.

Now that the announcement has been made, many marketers are already starting to look at ways in which their social media marketing can have a more direct impact on their search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. Google searches conducted over Android-based smartphones will start to display public Facebook information such as Pages, profiles, Groups and Events. Should the user click a given Facebook link from among the results, they will be directed to the specific source on the page within the Facebook app.

This new social media marketing opportunity is being created through Google’s strategy to add search to apps.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which was a first source to actually announce this mobile marketing news, “Google is making inroads in confronting a big challenge – searching inside apps.” This agreement between the two tech giants also suggests that the execs from the top social network are now discovering that sending searchers into their social media platform directly from search engine results presents a range of possibilities.

On the side of Google, it provides users with an even greater incentive to choose that company’s search features as opposed to opting for one of the alternatives, such as Bing. On the side of Facebook, more traffic will be driven to the platform because users who are searching for information will be exposed to links to the social network on a much more regular basis.

From the side of users, particularly in terms of brands with pages and groups, it will be interesting to see how this change will impact their social media marketing strategies and what they do to ensure they achieve the top possible spot for their desired keywords and phrases.

MFS Africa is enabling millions of consumers to embrace mobile payments

A startup comprised of 30 people is helping accelerate the growth of mobile commerce in Africa. In 2009, MFS Africa began offering a new mobile payments platform, allowing consumers to use their mobile devices to complete transactions. The platform was embraced by some of the continent’s largest telecommunications companies, which account for more than 500 million consumers combined. With smartphone penetration on the rise throughout Africa, the demand for mobile payments services is growing quickly.

Remittance is being supported by mobile devices, allowing more consumers to send money back home more easily

According to the World Bank, remittances, money that foreign workers send home to their families, had increased in sub-Saharan Africa by 2.2%, reaching some $32.9 billion. Many consumers are beginning to use their mobile devices to send money back home, seeing these devices as more convenient than traditional remittance processes. MFC Africa has been enabling consumers to participate in mobile commerce of all kinds, which has also made the remittance process easier for consumers overall.

MFC Africa allows those with low-end mobile devices to participate in mobile commerce

While smartphone penetration is on the rise in many African countries, the majority of mobile consumers have conventional, low-end devices. MFS Africa has developed a platform that these consumers can use, ensuring the mobile commerce is not solely the domain of those with smartphones and other high-tech gadgets. The firm has allowed some 55 million people in 17 African countries to connect to one another. Approximately 15% of its users are considered active, making two or more mobile payments every month.

As mobile payments grow, consumers are being targeted by groups that want to exploit financial information

The growth of mobile payments may represent some promising economic opportunities for companies operating in Africa. As consumers become more mobile-centric, businesses are feeling the need to provide mobile services to these consumers. One of the issues these organizations will have to overcome, however, is security. As mobile payments continue to grow, security is likely to become a more problematic issue for consumers.