Google has been the biggest kid on the block for years, but something has the 800lb gorilla spooked…

Apple’s ecosystem clearly came out on top after the holiday season… even though 6 million+ Android-powered Kindle Fires were sold.

If I had to guess, I’d say that’s why Google is pulling all the stops — doing everything it can to dominate the headlines and overshadow all the good news at Apple.

But Google’s not about to concede defeat. They’re doubling down.

Powering almost every tablet on the market that’s not an iPad, Android is definitely moving the needle. According to TechCrunch, Google’s OS has reached 39% of the tablet market.

In another smart move yesterday, Google is working to improve the quality of its apps by creating a page for Android developers on G+. Quality, design, and usability are where Apple has really been dominant. So it’s going to take a VERY serious effort to catch up.

Here the thing to keep in mind: This is ALL about the battle of the formats I’ve talked about before.

Winning the device battle is about controlling mobile, which is about controlling social media, which is all about controlling the most powerful emerging marketing channel on the planet: The dominant ecosystem.

At our Traffic and Conversion Summit last weekend, I was watching Laura Betterly talk about Search+ (if you’re not familiar with it yet, it’s a feature that shows Google users “personal” search results, including recommendations from their Google+ network).

Once again, the question came up: Is Google+ is going to be a Facebook killer?

Her answer was the same one I’ve been giving: It doesn’t matter, because Google is going to treat it like one.

As the world’s largest search site — and the owner of the second largest (YouTube) — Google has every intention of pushing its ecosystem over Facebook’s and over Apple’s.

If you were to ask Google, they’d probably tell you that Facebook has one foot in the grave… that Facebook is the new MySpace.

That doesn’t mean it’s true…

While 2011 was all about partnerships, 2012 is going to be all about the titans of the internet butting heads. The battle of the formats is ratcheting up a notch.

When it comes to digital marketing, there are trends that whisper…. and trends that SCREAM.

Capitalizing on trends that whisper is what makes you seem cool and ultra-informed. But it’s the trends that scream that you really can’t afford to miss out on.

Right now, one of the loudest trend I’m anticipating in 2012 is video taking a bigger slice of the online marketplace. It’s not like this is some kind of bombshell prediction. It’s been building for years….

Right now, almost all of the biggest players are pushing to video and pushing HARD. Netflix, YouTube (owned by Google), GoogleTV, iTV (Apple), Amazon Prime, and countless others are all dumping big money into prime video.

Not to mention, the tablet devices that are reshaping our browsing experiences are all designed to stream video.

Here are a few quick facts just to show you how strong this trend really is.

Just yesterday, it was announced that there a full hour of video is uploaded on YouTube every second — 60 hours every minute of every day.

Cisco is re-engineering its routers to deal with what they call the “video onslaught,” i.e. they’re projecting that 90% of all internet traffic will be video by 2015.

Past 5:00 at night, more than half of all internet traffic is already video traffic — Netflix and other companies serving prime video.

What does this mean for marketers? Obviously, it means you need to start embracing video — YESTERDAY.

For over a year, I’ve been recommending that you test video sales letters, no matter what industry you’re in. We offer a ton of great trainings at Digital Marketer.

Recently, my team stumbled onto the power of the YouTube thumbprint. Here’s a hint: If your Google search result has a YouTube thumbnail, it ranks higher and it gets a LOT more clicks.

So there you have it… this trend is practically screaming its head off. All you have to do is listen.

It’s impossible not to draw parallels between Facebook and the other network that could have been Facebook…

That network is, of course, MySpace, or my_____, or whatever catchy spelling that schizophrenic company is going by these days.

According to a study published last week, Facebook is on its way to a billion users worldwide in August. We’ll say that again, one BILLION!

MySpace, on the other hand, is on its way to zero… The once mighty network has watched its users leave gradually, then suddenly, then in droves.

Currently, MySpace is hanging out at around 20M unique visitors per month. While that’s nothing to scoff at — for a startup — it’s fewer unique visitors than a site like Reddit gets, a tenth of the visitors that Twitter gets. Here’s the real kicker, that’s half as much traffic as MySpace got a year ago!

Only four months after its official launch, Google+ has already surpassed MySpace.

So what did MySpace do wrong, so horribly offensive, that it caused their users to pack up and leave? And how did Facebook manage to steal tens of millions of recovering MySpace addicts?

Obviously, design was a big part — Facebook’s was much better. But it wasn’t the visual design that really made the difference… it was how Facebook designed its information.

The key is RELEVANCE.

We all know why people log in to their social media accounts: To see messages, photos, and updates from the PEOPLE in their network.

MySpace didn’t create or impose any of the firewalls necessary to keep annoying promoters from spamming your account. As a result, it became a lot harder to find relevant content, posted by actual friends.

Remember how, by 2007, your MySpace account was a big ugly mess of irrelevant, automated spam?

In contrast, Facebook was slow to allow its network up to non-college students, and even slower to open it to brands. Zuckerberg was wary of marketers, because he understood that relevance and genuine human interaction was the engine that drives social media.

It’s a lesson that has impacted all social networks since Facebook. And it’s a lesson that all marketers should drill into their brains.

Users have become much more sophisticated. They can tell the difference between real content and automated gibberish.

That’s why it’s so important to not rely too heavily on automated content distribution. By all means, have a human write your Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ posts.

The second that we suspect that a piece of software is generating messages, and not an actual person, it cheapens the user experience and destroys the perceived value.

When most people watch a football game on TV, what are they looking at? The ball, right?

It’s like that old saying, “Keep your eye on the ball.”

The next time you watch a football game (and considering the staggering ratings numbers the NFL is putting up these days, most of you do), I want you to try something new — spend at least an entire quarter watching anything BUT the ball.

You’ll be surprised at how much more you’ll actually learn about the teams… about the match-ups, the coaching, and the play calling.

At Digital Marketer, we have a saying (ironically, one that we stole from a superstar of an entirely different sport); “Go where the puck is going to be.”

Sometimes the ball (or puck) is just a distraction. It represents the past… What really matters is everything else.

Not that the current play is irrelevant. BUT isn’t the current play really designed to set up the next?

I mean you wouldn’t be much of a football coach if you couldn’t think a couple of downs ahead of the current play.

I’ve said all of that to say this: Most people are watching the ball. You want to be watching THE GAME.

For example, while most people are wondering how successfully Google+ can compete with Facebook — HubSpot understands that’s not what Google+ is about. Instead, Google+ is really about generating social media ratings and recommendations to enhance Google’s search capabilities.

Ebay, Microsoft, Best Buy, Yahoo… these guys are losing their spot on the starting roster. They may make a big play on special teams now and then, but their missing out on the bigger picture.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google are the 4 bigs, and they created even more separation from the rest of the pack at the end of 2011.

For example, as of right now Apple’s iOS owns 52% of the mobile web market share. That’s more than just a competitive edge.

To take our sports metaphor a step further, we should all be watching film on these guys. These guys are where 2012 is going. Why?

Because the “Big 4″ were the first to realize a truly “big picture” strategy. You won’t find these guys on the field. Or on the sidelines with a clipboard in hand. They’re in the skybox. They own the teams AND the stadiums.

In other words, they own the platforms — iOS, Android, Facebook, Amazon.com, etc. As an entrepreneur, or a marketer, you can either compete against these owners — or you can bet on their teams.

Clearly, the easiest way to profit in this type of game is to place educated bets. That means it’s time to get well-educated. Right?

With Amazon’s killer holiday sales and its Kindle Fire competing fiercely the tablet war, Amazon is a fine place to start studying up. We’ve got an excellent $7 report at Digital Marketer, “Partnering With Amazon,” that help you do just that.

Right now, a company is suing one of its former employees for…

… 17,000 Twitter followers — each valued at $2.50 per month.

According to the NYT, that’s a grand total of $340,000 folks!

It’s the first time I can remember a lawsuit that places an actual dollar figure on Twitter followers, but I’m positive it won’t be the last.

In a nutshell, the employee (Noah Kravitz) left the company (PhoneDog) on supposedly good terms. After leaving his post as a writer on PhoneDog.com’s blog, Kravitz switched his Twitter handle from “phonedog_noah” to simply “NoahKravitz.”

Can you see where this is going?

In the lawsuit, the PhoneDog is basically saying that the following Kravitz built while working for them amounts to intellectual property — a customer list of sorts. Therefore, even though the word “phonedog” has disappeared from his Twitter handle, the company alleges that they actually own the account.

Before you dismiss this as ridiculous, consider PhoneDog’s side of the argument. It would be one thing if Kravitz created a different account and tried to poach all of PhoneDog’s followers, but he literally took the account with him. The account and its followers were built by Kravitz as part of his employee duties…

Anyone interested in social media marketing, should be paying attention to this case…

BUT not simply for the legal outcome. Even though it probably won’t go to trail (few cases do these days), it will be interesting to see how PhoneDog tries to substantiate it’s dollar figures.

If there’s a settlement, it’ll require only a little long division to figure out how much PhoneDog received per Twitter follower.

Old school marketers are always asking: ‘What’s social media really worth? What’s the ROI?‘

Well, you’re about to get a pretty good idea.

If you haven’t watched the video Gary Vaynerchuk’s keynote speech at this year’s Inc 500, you SHOULD (be advised, the guy really likes profanity).

In the speech, he lays out some amazing predictions for the the future of marketing. In specific, he explains how social media is flipping the marketing model.

What I really like about Gary’s approach is that he’s clearly not a social butterfly. I mean, he’s funny and engaging…

…but he makes it perfectly clear that he doesn’t ENJOY obsessing over social media. He only obsesses over social media interaction because that’s how you sell stuff in today’s marketplace.

It’s an important distinction to make really. One of the challenges that I hear about constantly from marketers I meet is “I’m just not a very social person. I don’t like sharing my personal life on Facebook.”

Fair enough, but let me ask you this: Do you like cold calling? Do you like direct mail? Do you like spending money on ad buys that produce less and less ROI?

You don’t have to LIKE social media in your personal life. However, you do need to understand how to use it to connect with leads and customers though… It’s ONLY the future of marketing, folks. No big deal.

Think about it. Every time a new technology emerges, most of us say, “No thanks, Twitter’s not for me. I think I’ll sit this one out.” It’s human nature.

Of course, most of us have eat our words. Just imagine how ridiculous it would be if you decided to “sit this one out” when it comes to the internet, or cell phones, or texting.

I think you get my point.

As Vaynerchuk points out, social media is rapidly replacing the old “push” model. Email, banner ads… all that stuff is losing value.

Will it die out completely? Probably not, but marketing today is becoming more and more about the “pull.” Rewards marketing, thanking you gifts, and offering customers special deals based on their unique interests, that’s the future of selling.

Here’s the beauty of it though, with social media your customers actually tell you all kinds of information about themselves automatically.

Forget surveys, follow your customers on social media. You’ll learn a lot more about them — what foods they like, where they shop, what football teams they like, etc.

It’s always been a marketer’s job to study and connect with customers. Now, social media is taking the guesswork out of the equation.

Consider Facebook’s new Timeline feature. A marketer can go on timeline and learn all about a FB user’s life. It’s like peeking into their scrapbook.

Scratch that, it IS peeking into their scrapbook… and they’re inviting you to do it.

In a weird way, Facebook and Twitter are helping to create the most valuable and complete customer profiles that any marketer could ever hope to buy. Use those profiles to turn your customers into your friends.

You know how sometimes you’re struggling to find a way to explain a marketing concept, then someone else just NAILS it? That’s how I felt when I was reading Seth Godin’s blog over the weekend.

It’s one of the most important marketing trends to take place in marketing in the last five years and I’d been searching for a simple, powerful way to say it… until now.

Here’s what Seth wrote: “Stores went from being buildings to becoming websites… and now to devices.”

There it is. The best new strategy is about more than just having a mobile-friendly site (although that’s also crucial). It’s about realizing that mobile devices are becoming actual storefronts.

There are hundreds of a grand openings every single day for Apple, Google, and Amazon. Every time someone takes an iPad, Kindle, or Android out of the box, these brands just opened a new location. At this new type of store, you don’t have to pay with cash or swipe your card… you just put it on your tab.

And your credit card stays on file. So all you need to do is click one time and your transaction is done. And the apps, what are they? The sale associates?

You typically don’t have to shop with a particular app, but it’s usually more convenient. The credit cards that Amazon, iTunes, etc., have on file? They’re really no longer credit cards, but a new brand-specific currency.

In a nutshell, these brands are attempting to achieve what text books often refer to as “vertical integration.”

Now, I’m not saying they have evil, monopolistic designs on the internet, or that consumers have a lack of choices. Far from it.

What I’m saying is that, as marketers, we have our share of choices to make as well… about how we deal with the increasingly personalized marketplace.

The big winners will be the ones who figure out how to use these new tools efficiently. The ones with the smartest apps that deliver the best experiences. The ones who can leverage iTunes and Amazon to build their own business, and use these online giants to reduce their own overhead.

For years, programmers have griped about having to cater to Microsoft’s browser near-opoly. Internet Explorer, designers complained, didn’t play by the rules and wasted tons of their time.

Most of these web designers will be happy to know that IE’s kung fu grip on the browser market is finally and quickly breaking down. Last week, StatCounter broke the news that Google Chrome is now the world’s second most-popular browser, narrowly edging out Mozilla’s popular Firefox for the number two spot.

Even more important, Internet Explorer’s users are abandoning the browser in droves. As it stands, IE is clinging onto 40% of the global market, down from 56.6% just two years ago and 95% in 2004.

What can we learn from this?

• Microsoft is missing the boat. It doesn’t take a genius to see that smartphones and tablets are taking over. Google and Apple are heavily invested in the mobile marketplace and therefore their browsers are getting a bump.
• IE is a default, not a choice. It’d be interesting to find out how many Mac users have actually downloaded IE to their machines – far fewer than have installed Chrome or Firefox, I’d be willing to bet. As user sophistication increases, the power of manufacturer biases decreases – an important lesson for all (Google and Apple included).
• Google is doing a much better job keeping users inside its universe.  Like Microsoft did with IE, Google is cranking out proprietary features that run best on Chrome. For example, Gmail offline only works on Chrome.  If and when Google releases a version of Chrome for the Android, Google house brand compatibility issues will probably become more common.

Five years ago, it was hard to imagine a world in which Microsoft was not a dominating presence, but here we are.

As Apple, Amazon, and Google continue to expand into mobile territory and online retail, their ecosystems will only become more attractive to marketers. And each of these mega-brands appear to be taking a page out of Microsoft’s playbook, leveraging their own products to shut out the competition.

Amazon is the big winner coming out of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday mayhem.

Since launching the first Kindle in 2007, it’s been pretty clear that Amazon is looking to duplicate Apple’s insanely successful business model. That is, create addictive, must-have devices and use those to sell (mostly digital) products.

While they’re not beating Apple at its own game or anything (Apple had a record-breaking holiday too), Amazon is clearly gaining ground. Look, I’m not going to go into a long, glowing review of the Kindle Fire or anything… I don’t need to.

All I need to do is point out that the Kindle Fire was the bestselling product across Amazon.com on Black Friday. According to Amazon’s numbers, they sold four times as many Kindles as they did on last year’s Black Friday. The $199 Kindle Fire was also the best-selling tablet at Target.

Keep in mind that Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire AT A LOSS.

And the reason they’re doing this is because they believe the real money is in digital content…

This is great news for digital marketers. Whether you’re marketing ebooks, videos, music, or whatever, Amazon is beefing up its already massive marketplace and it’s  hungry for your digital products. If you’re not working on a place to market your digital products through Amazon, you’re missing out on a potential BOOM.

And don’t get me wrong, Amazon’s still a great place to sell physical products as well. According to Comscore, Amazon.com pulled in 50% more Black Friday visitors than its closest competitor – a little outfit known as WALMART.

Yes, Amazon absolutely owned Walmart, Target, Apple, and Best Buy online. And what was the top-selling product on Amazon.com again? Oh yeah, a device specifically designed to sell Amazon’s digital content.

I’m not saying you need to run out an buy a Kindle Fire or anything. I’m saying that if you sell any kind of digital or info product, you absolutely NEED to start studying up on the best practices for marketing those products to Amazon’s millions upon millions of hungry users.

*** DM Members, check out our in-depth report “Partnering with Amazon” on DigitalMarketer.com

Facebook advertisers are about to get some new real estate to play with. “Sponsored Stories” – the ads that allow advertisers to glom onto the posts, “likes,” and check-ins of your Facebook friends – were launched last August. Starting on Monday, these context ads will break out of the greyish “Sponsored Story” box and into the fast-moving and slightly obnoxious Ticker section.

So, say your friend decides to “like” a burger joint. If that fine dining burger establishment advertises on Facebook and has selected the proper options, you may see your friend’s profile pic and comment alongside that restaurant’s logo… in the Ticker section.

Why is this potentially better than having the same ad in the “Sponsored Story” area?

That’s easy – Facebook users are likely to develop “banner blindness” (the unconscious ability to ignore advertising) when it comes to the “sponsored” area.

In fact, some of you reading this are probably so good at ignoring ads that you didn’t even notice Facebook had a sponsored section – a fact that Facebook HATES and is looking to change.

By placing these “sponsored stories” in a real-time, moving Ticker feed, users are more likely to notice the ads…

…maybe even mistaking the ads for something that more closely resembles a friend’s straightforward recommendation or endorsement.

Sure, it may be a little sneaky. But the best marketing usually is. Right?

In all of our research at Digital Marketer, we’ve found that banners with animation, obnoxious colors, etc., get more clicks. That’s why you’ll see those in my banner ads. Hey, as long as being obnoxious sells, marketers will keep doing it.

By this logic, making sponsored stories a little more noticeable, and a little more obnoxious, there’s a good chance they’ll get more clicks. This should definitely make sponsored stories a more attractive feature for advertisers.

I’ll stop short of endorsing the new feature until we’ve been able to test it out and track the results. Still, as a marketer, I’d be surprised if this development didn’t boost CTRs.