Now that Facebook has entrenched itself it can be difficult for smaller social networks to gain momentum. Pinterest has grown like crazy and proven that many internet users prefer a visual interface to lines and lines of text. The webapp Rummage takes advantage of this by letting you view eBay results in an interface that’s nearly identical to Pinterest. More »

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Those CEOs routinely tell the state-controlled Chinese press that they’re beating Facebook, Twitter and Google+ in growth among Chinese users – never mentioning that Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and most other foreign social networks are banned from operating in China.

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“It’s always interesting when the CEOs of Chinese social media companies tell the press that they are beating the foreign companies in China,” said a member of a U.S. communications firm that has offices in China. “Not exactly difficult when your competitors are blocked. The press, both local and foreign, tend to stay away from the story. Nobody wants to lose access.”

Zuckerberg has been traveling to China since 2010 in an effort to improve relationships and explore business opportunities. Not only would Facebook like to offer its service to the increasingly connected country, but the company has been forging relationships with Chinese software and app developers.

While some Chinese Internet users are able to circumvent the so-called Great Firewall and access U.S.-based social networks, most are blocked and forced to rely on government-approved platforms.

“We continue to evaluate entering China,” Facebook said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of its initial public offering. “However, this market has substantial legal and regulatory complexities that have prevented our entry into China to date.”

Earlier this year, China launched a pilot program in five cities requiring users of Twitter-like microblogging sites to register their real names. Known as “weibo” sites, about half of China’s 513 million Internet users access the sites, and their use has quadrupled in the past year.

China has given no time frame of when or even if it will open up to U.S.-based social networks, but the pilot program seems to favor a social network that requires users to register with their real names. Twitter famously allows people to sign up anonymously, and Google+ was banned in China one day after it was launched last summer. But Facebook has tight rules on users registering their real names, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly planning another trip to China.

Despite the restrictions on free speech, which also prohibit Internet users from saying anything negative about the ruling political party, China remains the world’s second-biggest economy and a largely untapped market for major U.S. tech companies. Last year, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told Time “it’s impossible to think about connecting the whole world right now without also connecting China.”

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Advertisers trade in adjectives and adverbs. Campaigns and creative executions are filled with them. However, with all content increasingly filtered through social networks, it’s what people do with advertising rather than what they say about it that will make all the difference this year. Guaranteed.

The change started last September when Facebook revealed that the ubiquitous “like” and “share” features will soon be joined by all kinds of verbs. Two of these — “read” and “listen” — are already live. Others are coming soon with the debut of Facebook Actions. “Buy” and “watched” are likely to be two.

Facebook users who install certain news and music applications such as Spotify and The Washington Post social news reader can opt to share their actions. In other words, read news or listen to music on the social network and it gets broadcast to friends friction-free.

The arithmetic, therefore, is simple. The more marketers can evoke social actions, the more likely it is that their wonderfully crafted narrative will stick to people’s screens.

The empirical evidence is already there.

Increasing Traffic

Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow estimates that sites that simply add an optional Facebook share capability to common online applications, such as an online poll, can increase traffic 12.98%. (Yes, he’s done the math.)

Media early adopters have already seen strong results from their embrace of verbs. The Guardian has garnered 1 million additional monthly page views since it launched a revamped Facebook presence last fall. Yahoo is so pleased with its early results that it has expanded its relationship with Facebook to 26 more sites. The social network is already deeply embedded into Yahoo News.

It’s not just Facebook though. Technology companies have long understood that pointing and grunting are arguably the most innate human gestures. It’s something children do at a very early age. Cavemen basically invented both. So they’re building these natural interfaces at the core.

Siri on the iPhone and Kinect on Xbox* are two early implementations: users talk or point. But soon similar gesture-based media will show up everywhere. These will drive a lot more frictionless sharing. The social networks and search engines will gobble up the data and use these signals to shape the algorithms that already guide so much of what we pay attention to.

Here are three strategies to consider:

Build verb hooks everywhere

You wouldn’t think that people want to share that they completed an online poll or registered to enter a contest, but data prove the contrary. A small percentage will, and this generates a network effect that pays off big. Look for ways to attach social verbs to even basic online features.

Here’s why this matters to marketers: If they adopt the verb structure and API’s into their assets, they are more likely to surface through Facebook’s algorithms. For example, Ford should consider adopting the “watch” API for any video content on its site.

Consider the lens of friends

Content finds us though the lens of our friends. This means no two people see the same web. It’s all personalized. Execs need to think hard about their audiences and pay particular attention to psychographics. This can help guide decisions about the language and creative that will generate verbs, not just awareness.

Prioritize media that think in verbs

When making a media buy, look for partners that get the power of natural gestures and have started to build it into their armada. Insist that they add social functionality to even basic banner ads and rich-media executions.

Your mission this year is not just to be heard but to inspire action. Tapping into the network effects of verbs is a must in a social digital age.

Image credit: sAeroZar

*Microsoft is an Edelman client.

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