So Google is going to include their social network results in search?  And they are going to exclude Twitter and Facebook?  Ken Evoy, owner of Sitesell is very much up in arms about this, as well he should be since the Sitesell model is based solidly in the ‘provide-valuable-content-to-search-engine-query” school of online business.   That worked very well when search results were not slanted by the search engines.  Now, it appears that Google will be favoring content created by members of Google+, which could exclude all of those content creators who do not belong.  So traffic to websites like my AskMiketheCounselor2.com could drop precipitously.

Evoy says that Google is unfairly attempting to dominate both the search results and the social media results, and it sounds suspiciously like a monopoly to my non-legal ears.

I would add in that Google’s recent moves in the mobile market would add another component to a strategy to control the mobile market too.  They have bought Motorola, and they are penalizing non-mobile websites in the search results already.  So if you are not mobile friendly the way Google wants you to be, which means having a mobile website that loads fast and meets the needs of a mobile searcher, which are very different than the needs of your basic PC surfer,  your website will drop in search engine results.  I do have a mobile website built for this website, and if you search for this url on your mobile, you will see very different results than you would see for a PC search.  My unofficial observation so far is that traffic is up on my sites that have a mobile version built.  I know Google has indexed the mobile version of my sites, and that did not take long at all.

While I admire the business brass that Google is displaying, I am not sure what my response should be.  Ken Evoy is saying boycott Google and go to Bing.  I am sure many others will simply go along to get along.   One thing is for sure, there is an uproar.     I will keep you posted.

Michelle Wilgus is winning as of 12-28-11!   Michelle is the Belvidere Police officer who entered the Ultimate Saturday Night NFL Fan contest.  Michelle has made a savvy use of local media and social media to impact a contest that is international in scope, when you consider the reach of the NFL brand.

Not only is she leading the contest, her fiance’, who is a die hard Bear’s fan, proposed to her at half-time of last Sunday’s Bear vs Packers game.  The article describing the proposal in today’s Rockford Register Star noted that she was checking her contest ranking on her cell phone  when her fiance’ popped the question.  (The NFL is not about to miss out on any searches coming in from a mobile phone)!

So what a fun time!  Michelle is working hard to make a dream come true, and is getting more and more of the community involved, through her print and broadcast media efforts…years from now folks will be asking her if she is the Packer fan who was on Facebook.

So everyone follow the link above and go vote.  There is no limit to how many times you can vote.

Hope none of the folks that she has to deal with who are on the other side of the law are Bear’s fans though…could make the need for back-up greater.

Can one person engage in a social media campaign, against numerous competitors and pull off a win that most of us would consider improbable?

Meet Michelle Wilgus, a die hard Green Bay Packer fan, a Belvidere, Il. police officer, and a former staffer at W.A.V.E., which stands for Working Against Violent Environments.  W.A.V.E. is the unbrella organization for the Women’s Domestic Violence Shelter in Winnebago County.

Michelle has entered a contest sponsored by the National Football League to win a trip to the 2012 Super Bowl, and has enlisted her family and friends and a growing segment of local Facebook and Twitter users and an e-mail campaign which she created to cast votes for her candidacy.   I really admire how she had done her campaign.

Michelle solicited support on Facebook, and on Twitter, and also in the local newspaper which is where I ran across her campaign.  I e-mailed her, and we exchanged a couple of cordial e-mails, discovering that our paths had crossed in prior careers, and I promised to support her campaign, which is what I am doing today, in my blog, and I did cast a few ballots a few moments ago.  I have also shared her campaign on my Facebook page and Tweeted and retweeted some of her Twitter posts.

But what I really want to talk about is how easy it is for one person to run a Social Media Campaign.   As a die hard fan, I am sure that the outcome of the contest is very important to Michelle, but I think it is just as much about the fun of it, for both her and her online supporters.

Her campaign is a David and Goliath kind of event in my mind…when you consider who the players are in this, the NFL, Facebook, the Super Bowl…how can the owner of one little Facebook page leverage enough influence to move the behemoths?

Well, Michelle is doing it.  Last time I checked she was in first place, but there are 14 voting days left, so all you folks who have been putting off your clicks, get going and help Michelle get her free trip.