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Foursquare: Marketers Start to Jump Aboard the Next Social PhenomenonFoursquare – you’ve heard of it, probably even might be a member yourself. The quick-growing location-based social network is beginning to make reputable noise in the social space, and since August, traffic and user growth has soared for the new social noise maker.  According to co-founder Dennis Crowley, the platform is closing in on 500,000 individual users, with about 70% of the user base in the United States, and their international arm growing quickly – especially Tokyo, according to Crowley in an e-mail interview. These users are also checking in at an astonishing rate of 1.5 million check-ins a week. If you are not familiar with Foursquare, the concept is simple – you sign up for an account and then you began the process of checking-in wherever you go; the majority of check-ins that are being done are through GPS-enabled mobile devices.  This social city-guide and game rewards you then for doing interesting things. The motive is to encourage people to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighborhood in new ways. The rewards attached to this are tied to pseudo ‘badges’ a user is given for unlocking new places, times you check-in, how often, ultimately working your way to become the “Mayor” or “Deputy” of that locale. In addition, the platform makes it very easy to connect your updates to your Twitter and Facebook profiles – seemingly synching your entire network with each update you post on Foursquare. Something that was not in place last year when Foursquare introduced themselves at the SXSW, but is working it’s way into a much more seamless process in 2010 and allows for a much higher engagement and viral distribution. The concept is quite ingenious and despite it’s evolving stature; it is beginning to make quite the name for itself. Just in the past month, it’s been reported that Foursquare inked several major media partnership deals, including Bravo TV, Zagat, Warner Bros., HBO, the History Channel, ExploreChicago, and more. These “branded” type of channels could be, if used and marketed properly, great engagement tools that focus around brand awareness, content sharing, and goes one step further and creates a physical presence with your brand using local stops where you instruct users to go. With the user taking part in the brand’s “game”, it allows the brand to create custom badges with Foursquare directly to keep user’s engaged and work toward further outreach goals. Zagat @ Foursquare Zagat’s official Foursquare page is calling the partnership “Foodie Love” and there is a custom badge to go along with taking part in the Zagat experience. The page offers people to follow Zagat and then take part and in various venues where Zagat wants users to check-in from, mainly a variety of restaurants throughout the country; check-in there, become a Zagat Foodie, and unlock the Zagat Foodie Badge. And through further engagement – Zagat is going to have a online video series on their website called “Meet the Mayor” where they will feature discussions with prominent Foursquare mayors.  Harvard @ Foursquare The prestigious Harvard University has also partnered with Foursquare to create a channel where they list locations, experiences and ideas for students and visitors to go and check-in – taking part in the Harvard community; soon unlocking a custom Harvard Foursquare badge. Whether that helps with the admission process…I’m going to say doubtful – but hell of an engagement tool!  New York Times @ Foursquare The NYT recently closed a deal with Foursquare and created a branded channel that is celebrating the 2010 Vancouver Olympics by sharing tips on what to see and where to go in Vancouver and Whistler. And if you check-in to two recommended venues you get to unlock the Olympics badge.  Conclusion There is no doubt that Foursquare is growing quickly, with the focus mainly on gaining users, not revenue at the moment, according to Crowley; with now nearly 500,000 users, this number is likely to grow fast! After the Bravo TV deal was inked last month, a number of major brands, as shown above, came knocking at the door to work with Foursqaure, no doubt helping them earn some revenue. And with the ability for locales to offer up free food, drinks, discounts, coupons just for those who might become the “mayor” or “deputy” of their venue; being on Foursquare could soon become like being on Twitter…maybe? In addition, Crowley did confirm that Foursquare is working on creating actual incentives for users who garner specific badges and points in their account - not just pseudo "Mayoral" titles. To that end, Foursquare is working on a set of services and tools, according to AdAge in early February, to begin offering paid services on a three tiers: one for small (local) businesses, one for retail chains, one for large marketers. Begin throwing these offers around, and soon Foursquare will move pass just the “engagement” level that these major brands are seeing above as far as click, follows and check-ins; and offer nailed-down analytics (impressions, clicks, friends, etc…) and deals could be sold against impressions such as web ads, clicks such as search ads, or even what Kunur Patel in AdAge said, “ a completely new model: cost per check-in.” Foursquare TV Commercial Update: A tweet today, February 24, from the Foursquare Twitter account said that there is a rumor that a Foursquare commercial could be running tonight on Bravo alongside the show Sheer Genius from 9 to 10 PM. The rumor quickly went to fact is going to be a 20 second spot that highlights Foursquare’s new partnership with Bravo TV. Watch the ad spot here (something I’m sure will garner a few more users…): Labels: Foursquare, online marketing, Social Media Marketing Is Your Brand Resistant to Change?In 2010, the exchange between consumers and brands will in no doubt increase among new media marketing channels. Just in the first couple of months of 2010, I have already seen countless posts outlining CRM models that are stressing the point to consume ROI for Social Media and take action to begin integrating this into your brand campaigns that live within on and offline social media channels. With so much stress to one observation of social media marketing in 2010, it’s important to make light of another key observation in the Future of Social Media blog series: The Resistance to Change Ending. It was Benjamin Franklin who said: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”This quote, although philosophical in reasoning, is quite the pragmatic approach when applied to the idea of social media marketing. There have been countless charts and graphs that apply from reputable marketing research publications, such as eMark  eter.com and 2010 Forrester Reports that point to all directions of brands shifting dollars into interactive marketing, with a focus in new (social) media – however, there is still hesitation among the masses when it comes to the decision of whether this type of marketing is a intelligent investment.This drives me to think how and why a CMO would be hesitant to change their ways, and I believe between now and 2010 – this approach will change for the way brands who don’t consider social media or any type of new media an investment – to turn their eyes away from fear and begin shifting the paradigm. In light of this, I have come up with five reasons why it seems brands are resistant to change (this is an opinion – so I absolutely welcome comments)
Although these reasons are somewhat built around generalities, it’s important to recognize a few practical truths. Brands have taken time to absorb social media marketing into their programs, and that will continue to be the case, however between 2008 and 2009, U.S. Marketers alone using Social Media within their programs nearly doubled in percentages – an increase likely to continue.  Just alone in ad spending within online social networks worldwide, between 2008 and what is expected by 2011; the same type of increase is likely to continue.  Just another hint to where things are headed… In the end, a brand is afraid to change, and will never make this type of jump overnight. The five reasons above, I’m sure, point to a number of individuals you might know, or very well could be at your organization; it’s very likely. The resistance to change is led by a faithful bunch, your typical ‘old style’ leaders who oppose the new digital spectrum, but slowly are adopting to the early styles of interactive marketing, such as email marketing because he/she is forced to. They could also still rely on patchy TV & radio spots, and could be very excited buy out page five inside a dying magazine publication – this exists; it’s hard to think this is an actuality – but it truly is. This AdWeek Media Poll shows that the 45-55+ demographic are much more in tune to purchasing newspaper/magazine ads as opposed to the younger demographic. Is this because of they are cheaper these days? Yes. Is this because they are unfamiliar and afraid to commit to the digital space, definitely YES.  I’m not saying age is the key indicator, but it certainly is a diving off point when making certain predictions that pertain to driving home this thought of resistance to change. In all reality, and I’m not screaming from the weeds here, it’s fear. In a time of economic recovery, such as what we are sifting through at the moment – FEAR; scream it from the top of your building, or as high as you could possibly reach – there is a resistance to change because of a FEAR of what might happen in changing the way your brand is marketed - I can’t be any more forthright. Prediction: By 2012, if your brand has not already begun shifting the marketing channel to a more open, two-way communicative, “social” environment; you could very well be left in the dust, watching the grass grow over you. Labels: Direct Marketing, online marketing, Social Media Marketing Yahoo! and Monster – Dismantling the Yahoo! EmpireI got this interesting email from Monster today – another pillar being carved off and outsourced by Yahoo! First search goes to Bing, now Jobs to Monster. Check it out: Monster To Acquire Yahoo!'s HotJobs Dear Customer: Today, we are excited to announce that Monster has entered into an agreement to acquire HotJobs that will provide you with unprecedented access to job seekers and make Monster the leading site for job seekers in the U.S. Upon the close of the acquisition, Monster will also enter into a multi-year strategic agreement with Yahoo!, becoming the jobs and recruitment engine on Yahoo!'s homepage for both the U.S. and Canada. HOW DOES THIS ACQUISITION AND MULTI-YEAR TRAFFIC AGREEMENT IMPACT YOU? • Increased traffic to your jobs: Monster will become Yahoo!'s provider of career and job content on the Yahoo! homepage in the United States and Canada. This is not just a generic portal deal – people with a demonstrated interest in jobs and careers will be sent to Monster from Yahoo!. In fact, with an increase in qualified candidates, we expect that job response, our metric for apply per post, will increase significantly. • Broader industry seeker mix: HotJobs brings new strengths to Monster in the form of healthcare, retail, finance and insurance seekers that complement Monster's traditional strengths. As a Monster customer, you will be able to put your message in front of Monster's and Yahoo!'s vast combined reach of career-minded candidates. • Additional market presence: We will be able to leverage HotJobs's strong reach in markets such as Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. • Increased local presence: This acquisition expands our newspaper partnership network to approximately 1,000 weekly and daily newspapers, giving you local reach in all 50 states. THE RIGHT RESUMES. With Monster's larger and growing job seeker population, you will receive increased exposure for your jobs. Couple this with Monster's innovative patented 6Sense™ search technology and our Power Resume Search product and you'll receive precise, relevant resume results that match people with your opportunities faster and better than ever before. WHAT'S NEXT? In the immediate term and while we work to develop plans and programs that will deliver the value inherent in our new relationship, you can expect Monster and HotJobs to operate independently. Your Monster Account Manager will continue to provide world class support assisting you with all your recruitment needs. We will have much more to announce with respect to specifics after we conclude the regulatory process and close the transaction, which we currently expect to occur sometime in the third quarter of 2010. Until that time, if you have any questions, please reach out to your Monster Account Manager or call 1-800-MONSTER. In addition, you may read our press release or our frequently asked questions. At Monster, you are one of our most valued customers and we wanted to share this exciting news with you. We are confident that today's agreements will bring together the complementary strengths of Monster and HotJobs, thereby offering far greater opportunities, convenience and results for both employers and job seekers than ever before. Best regards, Steve Cooker Senior Vice President, U.S. Sales Labels: HotJobs, Industry, Monster, online marketing, Yahoo Social Media comes to the Age of Aquarius Hair - "The American Tribal Love Rock Musical" - is going to try a new way of reaching out to its audience. Starting tomorrow, the show's finale number where the cast and audience mix and mingle and dance to "The Age of Aquarius" will be recorded in high definition video and posted to the show's web page. The camera, controlled from the show's light booth, will follow a pre-programmed path to pan across the stage and zoom in on cast and audience members. Anyone visiting the site can then download the video, post it to their Facebook page, or send out a tweet to all their friends. Make no mistake - this is a first for the relatively stodgy Broadway theatre scene. Every new show these days has a web page, and some have videos of scenes or musical numbers from the show but Hair is about the only show where cast and audience actually interact during the show. What's in it for Hair? The best possible publicity for a show heading into its second year on the great white way - favorable word of mouth. Being able to spread the word about the show through social networks will probably give the box office a significant boost and keep the show running (and profitable) for many months. Here's link to a story in today's New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/theater/02hair.html?hpw Labels: Advertising, Facebook, online marketing, Online Media, Social Media Marketing, Viral Marketing, web 2.0 What Will Marketers Do To Invest More In Social Media? As marketers continue to traverse into the ever evolving social marketing playground, many of them will begin to allocate their conventional direct marketing dollars to enhance their social media presence. This represents an ongoing evolution of “old school” direct marketing tactics like direct mail and telemarketing, towards the “new school” of direct marketing, which includes social media, pay per click (PPC) advertising, SEO, and blog development. In a report by Brand Republic, Alterian found that that at least 40% of marketers will reduce their DM budgets to make room for social media marketing. A March 2009 report by Forrester complements the research done by Alterian. They asked marketers which traditional marketing budgets they would be most likely to cut to increase funding of interactive marketing. Not surprisingly, 40% said direct mail and 7% answered telemarketing. The approaching death of classic direct marketing may come as a sigh of relief to many consumers, whose mailboxes have long been tormented by junk mail: direct marketing’s “evil” offspring. Receiving unsolicited mail is a sheer annoyance for many consumers, who typically end up placing that flyer or catalog in the trash or shredder. Although direct marketing is widely recognized as a declining medium, brands sometimes find ways to get creative with it. A 2008 DM campaign for Honda supported the brand’s “going green” initiative by mailing out a letter that contained seeds. When planted, the letter would grow into a beautiful flower, reminding you of Honda every time you watered your plants. In 2010, it is likely the world will not see very many creative applications of traditional direct marketing, because frankly, when you have a channel as powerful as social media, why bother? Classic direct marketing, such as direct mail, creates a direct connection between a brand and a consumer, but in a closed space. There is no room for interaction. Through the collective interaction that is inherent in the social media landscape, brands can still create a direct connection with consumers, but in an open space that can also be shared, tracked, measured, and analyzed. A consumer-driven world also partly defines the evolution of direct marketing. Consumers now find the brand themselves, and essentially become a living part of the brand’s essence. With traditional direct marketing, there was never any opportunity for consumers to actively participate with the brand, because the brand tried too hard to find them, often in intrusive and annoying ways. So when you think about it, marketers are not necessarily shifting their DM budgets to make room for social media, they are simply changing their strategies to reflect the changes in how consumers interact with brands directly each and every day. Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=full+mailbox&m=text Labels: online marketing, Paid Search, seo, Social Media Marketing Hypertargeting Registered UsersHypertargeting, a term coined by MySpace, describes the social network's ability, as it puts it, to, "tap into self-expressed user information" and "reach the consumers most likely to be receptive to your brand." Basically, MySpace is saying that you can target consumers by the information they post in their registration information and profiles. The team at MySpace adds, "Thanks to the unsurpassed reach of MySpace, you can target highly specific user interests while still reaching a significant audience." This is basically saying that even though you are getting super specific about the consumers you are trying to target, there are so many people on MySpace who have registered and populated their profiles that you can still reach tons of people. While MySpace hasn't been the top dog for some time, let's give credit where credit is due. Its term, hypertargeting, perfectly describes what social networking, dating sites, and other sites that require registration can offer to marketers. They can enable marketers to target consumers with unbelievable accuracy and efficiency. As consumers we get a great deal as well. We get a huge variety of free and low cost Web services for simply letting companies advertise to us in a more relevant and targeted way. Typically, there are three main buckets of information that enable the "hypertargeting" of consumers, based on registration information a person reveals when joining a site or making a purchase. The buckets include:
"We allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements and we may use any of the non-personally identifiable attributes we have collected (including information you may have decided not to show to other users, such as your birth year or other sensitive personal information or preferences) to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. For example, we might use your interest in soccer to show you ads for soccer equipment, but we do not tell the soccer equipment company who you are." So if I wanted to, I could reach males ages 18 to 26 in New England who are interested in soccer. And because Facebook has 350 million registered users, chances are that even with that narrowly defined selects I will still reach a pretty good size audience. Note that this technology is typically used in a very ethical way. All of this stuff is no more intrusive or dangerous than credit card companies targeting people with offers from partners and vendors via direct mail. As Facebook puts it in its privacy policy: "We don't share your information with advertisers without your consent...For example, we might use your interest in soccer to show you ads for soccer equipment, but we do not tell the soccer equipment company who you are." Now, the ability to target consumers based on registration information is nothing new. Sites and services like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, and gated publications like the Wall Street Journal have been able to do it for a long time. But now that you have behemoth social networking and user-generated content sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, and even Match.com with hundreds of millions of users, the universe of hypertargeting opportunities is bigger than ever and promises to continue to grow. And, the addition of "self expressed" information that people post to their profiles combined with behavioral data makes for an even richer spectrum of targeting options. In many ways, this type of targeting is the future of advertising. Furthermore, companies like IAC own an entire network of sites including Match.com, Ask, Evite, Citysearch, and Shoebuy. Reading excerpts from Match.com's privacy policy is very revealing. (See below.) Basically, it shows that IAC is combining registration information from different sites to formulate some pretty amazing targeting options for marketers -- all on an anonymous basis of course. "We may collect information that can identify you ("personal information"), such as your name and email address, (i) when you (or other users) provide it to us when using our website or in some other manner, or (ii) from other IAC businesses, from our business partners, and from other third parties. We may combine the personal information that we receive from different sources." It goes on to explain how this combined information may be used: "We may use information to:
The purpose of this column is not to whip up a whole needless privacy debate. All people need to do is not use these primarily free sites, clear their cookies, or opt out of ad targeting by all member companies at the Network Advertising Initiative. Instead, my goal is to share the huge opportunity that we, as online marketers, have to hypertarget consumers more efficiently than ever dreamed possible in numbers that will soon make for viable advertising campaigns using exclusively hypertargeted media. This is huge and represents the future of advertising! Labels: ClickZ, Facebook, online marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing Four Dimensions of Online MediaUnlike print, television, outdoor, and any other form of media, online is hopeless, complicated, and ever growing in its complexity. Every day it brings a new list of ad units, serving options, compensation models, targeting options, and, of course, KPIs (define). To try and enter the industry now, without the benefit of gradually building up a knowledge base to get you up to speed, is difficult for many people. For clients who aren't seasoned online marketers but find their advertising increasingly channeled into the digital space, the task can be daunting. To help agencies help their clients make sense of all the dimensions and options that can go into an online media plan, I have outlined the four dimensions of online media in this column. They include targeting, compensation, ad units, and metrics. Even with all the options and opportunities we have to maximize value and customer impact, I still see agencies planning buys based on pre-determined ad units or creative concepts. The best plans take elements from all over the spectrum to create all-encompassing campaigns that deliver branding (impressions, reach, and frequency) as well as good old fashioned measurable return on investment (conversion, leads, sales, etc.). Also, any seasoned media planner should be able to give examples of each one of the items listed under the four dimensions. Read more... Labels: ClickZ, online marketing, Online Media, Strategy Predictive Modeling and Display AdsOften times we're approached by direct marketing clients who want to scale up their online sales, but have exhausted or saturated their successful channels. They're bidding on all the keywords that perform, they hit their e-mail list as much as they can, and they're applying all the focus in their power to SEO (define). The one channel they haven't successfully cracked open is display advertising. Unlike search, where you're limited to the volume of consumer queries around your performing terms, display ads, particularly banners, have a lot more scalability if done right. The amount of inventory and opportunities in some cases (if your target audience is broad enough) is unlimited. The challenge is to crack the formula of what sites, placements, rates, creative (offers, images, messages, etc.), and conversion environments (landing pages, conversion paths, etc.) will ultimately form a scalable and reliable channel that grows your business. The problem is that many companies have tried to use display advertising with sporadic bursts of banners, often in high CPM (define) and premium placements, without a foresight of predictive modeling and a sustained effort that applies an ROI (define) optimization process and methodology. They then fail and condemn the whole category of online display. Read more... Labels: Advertising, ClickZ, online marketing, Online Media, Strategy New Movie Releases Generate Big Buzz Using Social MediaTwo recent and upcoming movie releases have used the social media web in innovative ways to stir up interest and mystique surrounding the films. One in particular, “Paranormal Activity”, the horror film created on a reported $15,000 budget, has managed to become a run-away success this past weekend. Between October 9th and 11th, “Paranormal Activity” raked in an impressive $44,163 per screen average, totaling $7.9 million and is currently ranked #4 in the box office charts – and that’s with a limited release of only 160 theaters! The people behind “Paranormal Activity” generated buzz surrounding the movie by creating its own Eventful page in an effort to stir up one million user generated votes for a nationwide release of the film. According to Paramount Pictures, the strategy worked, “Over 1,000,000 people from around the country demanded the film play in their city by logging on to ParanormalMovie.com. In response, Paramount Pictures will release the film nationwide beginning Friday, October 16th.” “Paranormal Activity’s” initial release was limited to late-night showings in college towns, generating an intense buzz surrounding the movie on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. A second movie, “The Fourth Kind”, scheduled to be released in November, is just starting to generate a buzz online. The movie, centered on mysterious disappearances in the village of Nome, Alaska, portrays itself in trailers as using actual archived footage of real events as it follows Dr. Abigail Tyler’s inquiry to the strange events. “The Fourth Kind”, which derives its name from a “close encounter of the Fourth kind” with an Alien, aka an abduction experience, is using the internet and social networking sites in a unique way to stir up curiosity surrounding the release. One Local Alaskan Newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News, has done some investigative reporting into the film. The paper dug up a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and interestingly, discovered several websites, authentic in appearance, with news articles and biographies relating to the film. The websites, (both of which have domains that were registered in the last month according to a quick WHOIS check), highlight information about the main character of the film, Dr. Abigail Tyler. However, some of the articles appear to have been forged, the websites are extremely new and suspicious in appearance, and Ron Adler CEO of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute and Denise Dillard, President of the Alaska Psychological Association say “they’ve never heard of the Alaska Psychiatry Journal, or of Abigail Tyler.” And, suspiciously, although “The Fourth Kind” is purported to be filmed in the small coastal village of Nome, Alaska, the film was actually shot in the lush mountains of Bulgaria:  A screen grab from "The Fourth Kind" trailer shows the "Nome" Alaska used in the movie.Have you seen “Paranormal Activity?” Do you plan to see “The Fourth Kind?” Do you believe marketing films using social media will be a trend that continues well into the future? It’s hard to argue against the success of “Paranormal Activity”, but some have criticized “The Fourth Kind” for being too vague about the movie and blurring the line between fact and fiction. Let us know your thoughts in the comments! Labels: Campus Life, Facebook, online marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Expanding Your Reach on the Google Content NetworkThe Google Content Network is a great place to expand upon standard paid search campaigns, especially if your campaigns are utilizing low frequency terms or promoting a niche product or service. When search campaigns approach 100% impression share, the average cost per click can increase substantially as more aggressive bidding is required to capture the extra traffic on your relevant terms. However, simply flipping the switch on the content network for your existing campaigns is not typically a good way to get started with Content Network campaigns. Here are a few tips get you started with successful PPC campaign management and expansion on the Google Content Network. The first thing you should always do when setting up a content campaign is to separate the content campaign from search campaigns. Search campaigns often perform quite differently than content campaigns, so it is not enough to simply turn the Google Content Network on in an existing campaign; it is critical to make sure you create a separate campaign within the AdWords management interface . Keeping a separate campaign allows you to set unique budget caps for your search and content campaigns, ensuring your content buy won’t cannibalize the performance of an existing search campaign. Separate campaigns allow for easier PPC management and optimization as well. Content campaigns will always have a much higher level of impressions and lower click through rates, and will typically require a different bidding structure (usually lower bids on content). For keyword targeted content campaigns, you also might need to trim back to a core list of tightly grouped buckets of terms for each AdGroup. Content AdGroups should typically contain no more than 10-15 terms, and Google will ignore more than 50, so keep the list short. Google looks at the theme of grouped terms, not individual keywords in an AdGroup, so make sure your groups contain highly related terms. By keeping campaigns separate, you can also avoid taking a quality score hit to the search campaign as the CTR won’t take a sharp dive once the content program is launched. Optimizations are different for search and content as well so keeping things separate makes it easier to improve both campaigns. In terms of targeting by keyword vs. placement- there is no right or wrong here, and the goals and objectives of the campaign would need to be considered; one approach would be to utilize both forms of targeting. Start with the keywords. Again, use small lists of tightly themed terms with relevant ads and destinations. Set your caps and bids and begin collecting data. After you have some data built up, run a placement report to review performance by each URL where your ads are being displayed. Optimize the keyword campaign not only at the big and conversion level, but at the placement level as well. Pause any sites that spend money on clicks that don’t convert (assuming you are tracking actions and not just driving traffic). Also pause any sites that generate lots of impressions, but few clicks to improve quality score and lower overall cost per click. In addition to pausing non-performing placements, you can further improve overall PPC performance by placement targeting sites that have shown solid performance in the keyword targeted content campaign. Run the placement campaigns at the same time as the keyword campaigns, continuing to expand reach on the sites that perform well on keyword campaigns through direct placement targeting. Consider adding different creative formats to the top performing placements that emerge, including image or video ads. Additional placements that might perform well can be discovered through Google’s natural search results. Instead of searching through the categories and available content placements in AdWords, consider the inverse approach- starting with a search on the most valuable terms in your campaign. Considering the scale of the Google Content Network, you might find several placements that rank high in natural results for your most critical terms. A quick look at the sites with page one and two listings on your key terms should reveal whether or not they are part of the Google Content Network- just look for the familiar “Ads By Google” box. Then, placement target the sites that already rank highly for the most relevant terms in your campaign. Labels: Google, online marketing, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Social Media Weekly BuzzTwitter and Myspace have teamed up to beat Facebook to two-way Twitter sync, this coming shortly after Facebook rolled-out a feature for page admins to post page status updates simultaneously to their Twitter feeds. The micro-blogging service will soon also be launching a location platform that will be integrated within the API, and will allow users to opt-in at choice. Also, beware of hacked accounts and unusual direct messages, as a recent worm has been quickly infiltrating the Twitterverse. Also this week, the FCC pushed for net neutrality with the launch of OpenInternet.gov on Monday, while Nielson and Facebook have joined teams to help businesses better measure ROI from ads featured on the social networking service. A recent survey finds social media is most accessed while at work and while in the restroom, and will we soon be seeing a harmonization of social media and phone calls?
Facebook, which seemed to be ahead of the game with its integration of Twitter support, has just been jumped over by Myspace, a social networking service that until recently had been making very little noise. The two-way synchronization will allow users to update their Myspace status from Twitter, and vice-versa. Not only is this a way for current Twitter users to revitalize their deserted Myspace accounts (if they ever had one in the first place), but it may also encourage current Myspace users to make the jump to Twitter, or at least test the waters. Either way it’s a win-win situation for both services, and leaves Facebook in the dust. The survey conducted by Crowd Science leaves us with some interesting, and scary findings on the usage patterns of social media users in general, and Twitter advocates in particular. In terms of location, Twitter users are more apt to access the service in all categories except during a class or lecture. The frightening statistic is that many Twitter users post updates while driving in the car. With all the recent news about texting and driving, it’s hard to believe usage levels are still this high. On the other hand, tweeting in the bathroom is also quite popular, and one that might make you think twice before using a friend’s phone. One notable find is the fact that many Twitter users have only been on the service for less than 6 months, most likely due to the micro-blogging service’s significant growth as of late. Labels: Advertising, Facebook, LinkedIn, online marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Planning The Buy: Seven Value-Add Ad Placements to ConsiderWhen developing an online media plan, don't overlook value-added ad placements, such as text-based newsletter ads and advertorials. These placements aren't always popular ideas, but they represent an opportunity to add performance octane to a proposal full of expensive premium ad placements. For example, I have run campaigns that included the purchase of a large amount of premium placements with high CPMs (define). If we used average click and conversion rates in the mathematical models, many of the sites wouldn't have been included in the media plan or would have been canceled after the first optimization round. However, when the average CPC (define) and CPA (define) from the huge amount of value-added text links, buttons, and run-of-site (ROS) impressions were factored into the results of the overall buy, those sites came into line with the campaign's optimization requirements. In this case, value-added placements saved the day for the agency, publisher, and client. The agency fulfilled its mission to drive a certain level of performance. The publisher sold its pricey CPM inventory and avoided losing the advertiser by tapping unsold remnant inventory. And the client got the brand impact and visibility of the premium placements with the ROI (define) performance of low-cost placements. So when negotiating a media buy, check out these seven value-added placements I always advocate: Read more... Labels: ClickZ, online marketing, Online Media, Paid Search Social Media Strategy & the Importance of Listening to the ConversationSo, you’ve been tasked with developing a social media strategy, but where do you start? In most cases the focus is on building an actual presence, which means building your Facebook page, MySpace profile, Twitter page and YouTube channel. Then, just like a magician waving a magic wand, your social media channel will be up and running. 1) Listen 1. Listen to the Conversation Thanks to social media monitoring technology such as Radian6 and other tools, it’s now possible to monitor this river of news and understand what people are saying about your brand and organization. These tools enable you to see what people are saying on Twitter and in the Blogosphere and by monitoring the conversation, you can get a handle on what’s being said. *** Topics of Conversation *** *** Sentiment *** *** The Plan *** This is obviously a huge endeavor, but when based on steps 1 & 2 of Listening and Learning, it becomes much easier and more strategically sound. The reason for this is that your plan and all of its components are rooted in the realities of the social conversation that’s happening and what people are responding to. Therefore, you can be confident that the plan you put forth will ideally be well received because its based on the realities of what your audience wants, not what you think they want. In doing so, your key advantage here is that you will be building a platform that’s based on knowledge of how your constituents are already socializing, so it can be constructed with this in mind. Therefore instead of merely constructing a social media presence, what you can construct is a platform for socialization. With this being said, the following are a few key components to any engagement strategy and how listening to and learning from the conversation can impact them. Conclusion Labels: Application Development, Blog Outreach, Brand Awareness, Facebook, online marketing, Online Monitoring, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, Twitter, web 2.0, Widgets, YouTube Social Media Weekly BuzzFacebook continues to make headlines this week with the release of their application for Google Android users, their integration into the just released iTunes 9, the implementation of @Mentions in status updates, and the launch of Facebook Lite. Twitter again went down, though this time it was thanks to Apple and Steve Jobs’ keynote speech. The service also made some significant changes to its Terms Of Service, which opens the door for advertisements, and along with Facebook, was also integrated into the new iTunes release. In addition, a pair of teenage girls in Australia opt to call for help on Facebook instead of dialing 000, the country’s equivalent of 911. The rest of the top stories for this week follow in Overdrive Interactive’s 3rd edition of the Social Media Weekly Buzz: • Facebook Google Android Application – Facebook has managed to maintain a solid mobile phone presence through its development of applications for such popular devices as the Blackberry Smartphone and the iPhone. A mobile version of the Facebook website is also available for phones with internet capabilities. Now Android users as well can join in on the fun, as Facebook on Tuesday launched a compatible app for the OS. Though not as full-featured as the other apps, it does have some Android specific features, such as integration into Android’s Live Folders. • Girls Update Facebook Status While Trapped – The next time you find yourself in danger, forget dialing 911, and just update your Facebook status. That’s what two girls in Australia opted to do when they found themselves trapped in a storm drain. • Wordpress Now Functioning at Real-Time Speed – Nowadays, many people turn to real-time services such as Twitter to discover the latest news and updates from their favorite sources. The only way to keep track of your favorite blogs up until this point, however, has been through RSS, which can take up to hours to update. Wordpress has recently altered this medium by supporting something called RSS Cloud, which pushes notifications to followers that your feed has updated, and brings blog updates to real-time. • Steve Jobs Brings Down Twitter – Twitter again went down this week, but this time the source of the problem wasn’t malicious, or a malfunction. Really it was Apple’s claim to fame, as Steve Jobs made the keynote speech at their 9/9/09 event. The result? Mass tweets on Mr. Jobs’ return and lots of 503 errors. • Find Friends on YouTube – Soon YouTube, just like Facebook, will make it easier to find your friends by recommending users that it believes you may have a connection with. You will then be able to easily connect and subscribe with your acquaintances. YouTube will use Gmail account information and your video sending habits to determine the most appropriate matches and suggestions. • iTunes Implements Social Media Support – This latest release was a big one, and among the many changes of Apple’s popular music player was the integration of Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm support. For Facebook, the album art, artist and album name, and a link to the iTunes store will be posted to your wall. For Twitter, the only difference will be the lack of album art and the addition of the #iTunes hashtag. The Last.fm integration is a bit more in depth, such as giving you the ability to share your playlist with others. • Tag Your Friends in Facebook Status Updates – Facebook has long allowed users to tag their friends in photos, videos, and notes. This week however, the service took it a step further by allowing users to tag their friends in Facebook status updates, which is very similar to Twitter’s @Mentions. Just include the “@” symbol before typing your friend’s name, and a drop-down box will allow you to select the correct person. Apparently this feature will soon be pushed out to applications as well. • Facebook Lite Launches – Facebook has officially given the green light to the Lite version of its service which has been under testing for a while now. The experience is very bare-bones and Twitter-esque in simplicity. For now, only U.S. users are able to access this new experience. • Twitter Updates their TOS – Twitter overhauled their TOS this week now that they have a better understanding of how individuals use their service. Among the many changes implemented, the more important modifications include rules for advertising, spam, ownership, and APIs. The integration of social media into iTunes was a huge step forward for Apple. Though at the moment quite basic in function, Apple has the opportunity, after further experimentation, to leverage Facebook and Twitter updates as a marketing tool for their already popular music program. One of the core features of Apple products is the way they hold you to within the Apple environment. Apple’s products work the best with other Apple products. By expanding their reach to Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm, they further solidify their hold on their current customers. It’s quite scary, however, to see that as social media, and social networking in particular, become more widespread, individuals are turning to it as their main source of communication when not the most appropriate for the situation. The fact that two girls trapped in a storm drain would think of Facebook status updates before dialing 000, Australia’s equivalent of 911, is mind-boggling. However, it shows that as the younger generation grows up around all of this technology, these new forms of communication may naturally take precedence over more traditional methods. Facebook, it seems, is quickly emulating some of the more popular features of Twitter. The introduction of Facebook Lite gives a more stripped-down feel to the service, and limits it to only the core functions, giving it a simplicity that Twitter has been so revered for. In addition, the introduction of @Mentions in status updates is a direct stab at one of the most popular features of Twitter updates. However, Facebook isn’t the only one stealing ideas from other services. YouTube will soon be implementing a feature that is almost a carbon copy of Facebook’s suggestion box, and will allow users to find and connect with potential acquaintances. One of the most interesting developments this week for internet marketers is the new Twitter Terms Of Service. According to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, the door has basically been left open in terms of particular advertising options. This provides a great deal of revenue opportunities for marketers and Twitter alike. The company has recently been struggling to find a model that can result in a positive ROI. Could we soon be seeing ads on Twitter that correspond to tweets of the people we follow? Relevance will definitely be king in determining which marketing strategies will be met with success. Labels: Facebook, online marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, YouTube Social Media Weekly BuzzWelcome to the second edition of Social Media Weekly Buzz. This week, both Google and Facebook managed to steal the majority of the headlines. Gmail’s outage on Tuesday sparked widespread panic and led most people, ironically, to use Google search to investigate the incident. In addition, the oh-so familiar, yet quite stark, Google search landing page has finally been patented, five years after being submitted to the USPTO. Facebook tested out a new ad scheme with direct offer engagement ads, and is being accused of leading a Welsh citizen to murder their partner. Also, have you checked out Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on YouTube yet? All this and more follows below:  • Gmail Outage – At 12:30pm PST, a small fraction of Gmail’s servers were taken offline for routine maintenance. Unfortunately, Google underestimated the load recent changes placed on the request routers… The result? Gmail went down for 100 minutes, and online chaos quickly ensued. • Google’s Search Landing Page Now Patented – After 5 years of fierce debate with federal bureaucrats, Google has finally won the right to patent their unmistakable home page. Google now owns the concept of having a large search box in the middle of the page, on top of two big buttons, with several links scattered here and there. Does this spell trouble for sites which possess similar layouts, such as Yahoo search?  • Facebook Tests Direct Response Ads – Craving a Chick-fil-A Chicken Biscuit? How about if it’s free? Soon you might be seeing more ad offers like this on Facebook if their testing of direct offer engagement ads goes well. Facebook has recently been exploring different advertising options as it gradually shifts away from its traditional sales funnel. • Facebook Regional Networks No More – Regional networks on Facebook are now officially gone. This move comes as Facebook attempts to expand beyond its college roots to a worldwide communication platform, not unlike Twitter. But is that really what users want? • Facebook Jealousy Blamed on Murder – A murder trial in South Wales has taken an interesting twist, with a UK prosecutor arguing that Facebook-related jealousy pre-empted the tragic event. Apparently the whole thing got started when Mrs. Jones started to “expand her social horizons” online. The last straw? When she changed her Facebook status to “single”. • Kremlin Launches YouTube Channel – Russian President Dmitri Medvedev launched his very own YouTube channel, located at www.youtube.com/kremlin. The main purpose of the channel will be to reach out to and connect with the youth of Russia. So far he has covered topics from good neighborhood ties between schoolchildren, to the outcome of the Second World War. • eBay Sells Skype – On Tuesday, eBay officially announced that it would be selling th  e VoIP and chat service Skype to a group of private investors for $2.75 billion. eBay will still retain a 35 percent equity stake in the service however, which they hope will increase in value under the new management. The decision to sell was provoked by a lack of synergy between Skype and eBay’s e-commerce and payments services.The Gmail downtime serves as a reminder of how much of our lives are becoming dependent on the Internet. As more and more services become cloud-based in nature, it is imperative that network interruption be minimized at all costs. Fortunately the Gmail downtime occurred during the night, which helped save what could have been a large-scale interruption in productivity for the US. Twitter experienced a similar issue not too long ago, though that issue was more malicious in nature, and not just a big mistake. Facebook continues to modify its services in order to improve both the experience of both consumers and advertisers. The direct offer engagement ads are a great source of lead generation for businesses, however it will be interesting to see how many people are willing to enter their address and other personal info for discounts and promotions. This is definitely a jump in the right direction for Facebook as it tries to shift away from its traditional sales funnel. The major step in this development is that companies will now receive instant results from the advertisements they publish on the service. The Facebook alteration that might not be met with open arms is the decision to completely remove regional network categories. As Facebook attempts to take a more worldly approach to its communications platform, it has the potential of upsetting long time users of its service. For them, Facebook served as a tool to better connect with friends, not strangers. In addition, many users prefer Facebook over Twitter for the very fact that it isn’t… Twitter. Any step closer to the other service could be taken very negatively among its fan base. The sale of Skype was definitely a smart move for eBay, whose e-commerce and online payments businesses really have nothing in common with the VoIP service. The real question is what prompted eBay to make the acquisition in the first place? Earlier in April StumbleUpon was also sold off to a group of investors after a failed attempt to synergize operations. Fortunately now the company can turn to focusing on its core eBay and PayPal businesses. Labels: Facebook, Google, Industry, Landing Pages, online marketing, Online Media, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, Video, web 2.0, Yahoo, YouTube Great Free Media Planning ToolsMedia planners have many tools at their disposal to research and select sites that will help clients reach their target audiences. Very often we're targeting large audiences by demographic or region, and we can use standard syndicated data tools such as @Plan, comScore, or the SRDS, a provider of media rates and data, to help us identify sites that index high with our target audiences. This is fine for clients who want to reach very large groups of people such as females 18 to 24 in the northeastern United States. But what about when you're going after a niche audience such as users of a particular technology or collectors of classic cars? In these cases, those data sources are not as helpful because many niche sites do not show up on their radar screens. Instead, you have to start prospecting online to find sites that cater to those audiences. However, a slew of available tools and tactics can help you find and research those sites. So here is a list of free resources that planners can use when trying to find hard-to-find sites: Read more... Labels: ClickZ, online marketing, Online Media Social Media Weekly BuzzWelcome to the first of many social media recaps that will be featured right here on our eMarketing blog. We will be gathering a weekly digest of the top stories and latest happenings within the social media sphere, and from these headlines offer our suggestions and conclusions on what the overall impact might be for marketers and casual users alike. This week, not unlike any other, threw us some interesting developments in the social media world. Most of the buzz was focused on new Twitter and Facebook developments, both good and bad. YouTube also managed to make news with a new revenue sharing platform, in addition to lending a helping hand to Lindsay Lohan. Without further delay, here are the top social media headlines for the past week: • Facebook Privacy Changes – Facebook has been falling into trouble lately with Canadian authorities due to being in violation of the country’s privacy laws. In particular, the privacy issues which surround the retention of customer data after a user cancels his or her account. This could cause wider implications for other social networks concerning the way user data is currently being handled. • Should Twitter Sell? – With strong competition coming from Facebook’s end, especially after the recent FriendFeed acquisition, many individuals have suggested that it might be time for the popular micro-blogging service to sell out to a larger and stronger partner. However, while it might be profitable prospect, there is still a debate over how much growth the service still has left in it, and therefore this decision should not be taken lightly. • Woofer – 140 characters holding you back from what you really want to say? Why not use 1400? Enter Woofer, a carbon-copy of Twitter that alters the service from a micro to a macro-blogging atmosphere. Just sign in with your Twitter name and Woof away! • Bit.ly and Yfrog Partnership – One of the most popular URL shorteners available on the web partners with Yfrog, a current underdog in the Twitter picture-sharing landscape. The result? Much trouble for TwitPic, currently the leader in this segment. • YouTube lends a helping hand to Ms. Lohan – The LAPD released video footage of an apparent break-in of Lindsay Lohan’s home with the hope of catching the three suspects. Even police departments these days are realizing the true potential of social media. • YouTube Videos a Source of Revenue? – YouTube announced that it may soon be offering money to individuals whose videos have a specific number of views and the potential to go viral. The source of the income? Advertisements that the service will sell against the video. • Social Media Use in Companies Continues to Rise – In a recent report by eMarketer, it was found that currently 59% of brand marketers are now using social media. What’s really interesting is that within 12 months this number is predicted to jump to 82%. The most popular social media channels? Facebook, Twitter, online videos, and blogs. Canada continues the trend of cracking down on privacy issues that have been surfacing recently due to increased usage of social media outlets. The result could be stricter laws and regulations across the board, with increased security for users, but also a decline in the ability for companies and other services to gather important statistics on potential clients. Twitter is again in the news thanks to Facebook and bit.ly. Certainly the partnership of bit.ly and Yfrog will mean TwitPic must scramble in order to retain its dominating market share, that is if Twitter is still around in its current form. Though Twitter adamantly denies it is for sale, the prospect is that there is a lot of money to be made. The key in this situation is determining whether the service has any significant additional growth, as selling out too soon could result in lost profits for founder Biz Stone. Speaking of profits, the fact that popular videos on YouTube, which meet the correct guidelines the service has laid out, can soon be making an income from ad revenue is a pivotal move forward, and might even serve as an incentive for posters to submit higher quality material. It is interesting to see that as the service continues to grow and transform, even police departments are jumping on the social media bandwagon, with the LAPD revolutionizing the way we will search for suspected criminals. Could this be the beginning of social media law enforcement? The fact of the matter is, social media is here to stay. The eMarketer report only solidifies this position, as 82% of companies within the next 12 months will have integrated some sort of social media platform into their marketing programs. Only 13% have said outright that they do not use, or are not planning to use, social media any time soon. The main reason? They just don’t know where to begin. This is why it’s important to find a social media marketing company who has a clear strategy for this revolution. They can provide insight as to why social media marketing must be a pivotal aspect of any successful company’s overall business plan. Labels: Facebook, Friendfeed, online marketing, Online Media, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, YouTube 11 Things to Measure Besides Clicks and ConversionsHere we are in the midst of a true digital revolution. Dollars are being slashed from traditional ad budgets, and anemic online ad budgets are growing in proportion with the total spend. The new media economy is turning the old on its head, and marketers are looking for new ways to measure the impact of their investments. As a result, many online marketers are still enjoying days in the sun despite all the doom and gloom. The prospects get better if you look down the road to when overall media budgets start to grow again. Even better is that branding dollars are moving online at an unprecedented rate. And why not? Online branding doesn't just drive impressions. If done properly, it encourages high-value brand engagements. And these engagement open the door to a new world of measurement possibilities that go way beyond clicks and conversions. These new metrics also have far more immediacy than awareness studies and traditional brand measurement methodologies. Today I'll share a list of high-value brand interactions that can be measured and reported. These items are often overlooked metrics that can be shared with your clients, who are more anxious than ever to show value and ROI (define) from their advertising investments. Read more... Labels: ClickZ, online marketing Mobile Advertising in Plain English For those unfamiliar with the mobile advertising, the IAB recently released a mobile media buying guide for advertisers and agencies covering topics such as the mobile ecosystem, key mobile ad terms, shortcode campaigns and example of various mobile ad executions. This booklet contains everything one would need to get their first mobile campaign up and running.Mobile advertising is not so new anymore, but advertisers have been slow to adopt mobile as a viable advertising medium. As a recent MediaPost article stated, “An interactive marketing forecast released by Forrester Research projects mobile advertising will increase 70% to $391 million this year and to $1.3 billion by 2014. The firm called mobile one of the "most anticipated, least adopted" interactive channels in the mix.” Advertisers must remember that mobile is not so much different from any other advertising medium. You still need to set performance goals and objectives regardless of the advertising medium. You still need to determine where your target audience resides and you still need to determine how to reach them. In the world of mobile advertising, this may include mobile websites, downloadable applications, mobile messaging and mobile video. Mobile advertising shouldn’t take the place of online or offline, but rather compliment other advertising efforts. For more information on how to get a mobile advertising campaign up and running please refer to the IAB’s Mobile Guide here. Labels: Integration, Mobile Marketing, online marketing Facebook Pages Move Closer to FriendsThe direction Facebook is moving in is a dream for social marketers since the lines between the functionality of Facebook Pages and Profiles is becoming continuously blurred. Constantly we struggle to create a personality and relationship through the Facebook Pages of our clients in the same way we manage our own profiles with Friends. The ability for a Page to act like a Profile however, has limited the opportunity for companies to build deeper relationships with fans and customers on Facebook. Today Facebook has announced that all users will see a change to their friend lists whereas “All Friends” will now be “All Connections”, and it will now be possible to add your favorite fan pages to these lists. To see what your new friend list looks, view your friends page. The possibilities for this functionality are endless. I’ve already started brainstorming creating a list of all my favorite bands with my core group of music-loving friends. Sorting this list in my news feed would allow me to stay on top of concerts, CD releases, and general music news. The best part is the mixture of bands and music lovers that would provide me with 360 degree view of the music industry. Recently, I just created a list encompassing the people and groups I turn to for online marketing resources. This includes both professionals like Harry Gold and a great social media resource page created by Dell Small Business.  As I continue to build out this list more to include pages like Mashable and AdAge, I will be able to sort my news feed in a way that only shows the updates relating to online marketing for the day. This is comparable to the way TweetDeck gives you the ability to organize the way you see incoming tweets with groups, and also gives Facebook a feeling of a personal RSS reader. I use Google Reader to watch all the most recent news come in from the blogs I am following, but Facebook is now giving me a way to see not only that information, but also how my friends are reacting and responding at the same time. As Pages continue to move more towards Profiles, the opportunity for online marketers is only going to grow. Social media has created this great potential for any size company to grow as close to their customers as a friend. This level of brand loyalty is priceless. Labels: Facebook, Industry, online marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing Eight Things You Need to Manage Social Media"Who Owns Social Media Campaigns? written last week by ClickZ columnist Rebecca Lieb, explores who should manage social media for companies - public relations firms, search firms, or agencies. I'm grateful to Rebecca for getting me a gig at ClickZ as a columnist more than two years ago. This week, I'm appreciative because she gave me fodder for my column here. Below is a comment I posted last week in response to her column; I'd like to elaborate. Online Marketing firms who have search, online media, creative, development and tracking technology under one roof are the only entities really qualified to deploy and manage a robust social media channel alive with good content, creative and interactive applications. Agencies might be close but most PR firms are just not equipped to deploy creative and technology-infused online assets and blend them with high-octane online media programs. Certainly "search only" firms are not the right folks for this either - they don't have great creative or online media buyers. The one thing PR firms may have a leg up on is good blog-relations programs. Let me list skills and components that a company needs to manage a social media campaign in a comprehensive way and explain why online marketing firms are the right ones to make it happen. First, the lines between search, online media, online creative, and online technology are blurring and nowhere is that more true than with social media marketing. A social platform is a channel that will forever build your brand, encourage engagement, and drive site traffic, leads, and commerce. Only online marketing firms adept at maintaining, managing, tracking, and optimizing "always on" online channels and technologies should be in charge of managing these platforms. A robust social platform has tons of moving parts and technologies behind it. So in exploring what type of firm is best at managing a social platform consider the following. You wouldn't have your PR firm build and manage your Web site, right? You may have your branding agency do it but probably not. However, you would retain your pure-play online marketing firm that has all the creative, search engine optimization (SEO), and technical/Web development skills under one roof to build and manage your Web site right? Well a social media platform is like a huge Web site that not only integrates with your site but lives all over the Web. That's why a full-service online firm is they way to go. Read more... Labels: ClickZ, online marketing, Online Media, Social Media Want to be on the Cover of Harley-Davidson's 2010 Catalog?Harley-Davidson has always been known as a brand who is more than just product - it's a culture and such a big part of people's everyday lives. Therefore, what better tribute to riders and fans then the opportunity to be immortalized on the cover of their 2010 Motorcycle Catalog and in their online photo mosaic. In order to create the image, people will need to submit their individual photos, which will be used to create one big mosaic. Photos could be of fans/riders, their bikes or a riding related experience. Help Harley-Davidson reach their goal of 10,000 photos by next Friday, 5/15!! Click here to get started: http://www.harley-davidson-mosaic.com/  Labels: Client News, online marketing Six Tips to Get Prospects to ClickI have a saying that I often apply to many situations in life: "Don't go to China to get to California." How does that apply to online marketing? More often than not, we determine an online campaign's success through some high value action, like lead capture, video view, or something similar. But just as often, and even though these actions are at the heart of a campaign's success, those actions are hidden or put at the end of a process or banner. Critical messages and calls to action are obscured by creative, images, and messaging, and they're relegated to the back of the visual and click-path sequence. Yet those items' resulting metrics are the first thing people look at when evaluating a campaign's key performance indicators (define). This is done for a variety of reasons, such as simple ignorance of best practices, an aversion to asking people for what you want, extraneous pages and content, or an overly hard sell that focuses on selling a product rather than the escalating or high value action on a landing page. The result is always the same: users are forced to jump through more hoops to engage in the behavior we want and conversion rates go down. Users are being forced to go to China to get to California. Below are six tips to helping your users get to California by a more direct route:
Labels: ClickZ, online marketing, Online Media, Strategy New Facebook Redesign Creates a Brilliant Marketing Platform for BrandsFacebook made a bit of noise last week when they introduced the new Business Pages layout. Then, several days later, made changes to the Home page of all user profiles, and integrated a 'Twitter' like wall stream - Facebook's strategy in building out a more real-time conversation tool. As usual, when Facebook decides to make changes, your entire office, your close friends and other random people you might see throughout the day - they all have something to say, and I am sure you've heard the complaints already. However, I am here to bring calm to the storm...rest assured, Facebook is making a very intelligent change in status here. And most importantly, businesses will be able to flourish greatly from this move. When it comes to the new business pages - it will now look and function much like personal profiles, offering stronger brand connections via the wall stream, which now takes center stage. When a fan comes to your page now, the very first page they look at is the 'wall stream'. On this page, businesses that create content often, will thrive in this new environment. As a brand, the wall stream page will gather content and post information about the page and posts by the page itself. Also, content shared by you, links, photos, videos and short text updates via the status updates, and posts by your fans left for you - all now show up in the wall. In this update, which is really the holy grail here, the wall updates you post will publish to your Fans' news feeds, and posts by your Fans will go to their friends' news feeds as well. So, think about this a second - the more content you are able to place and create in your channel, the more you engage with your fans, in turn, the more people you will be able to reach constantly. A single status update of your business profile seeds through Facebook into your fan's news streams. Now, all their friend's see this, and can 'like' or 'comment' on the update, and possibly go one step further and become a Fan of the page. The wall stream will be a large key in driving attention to your page - use it wisely! You are familiar with how Twitter works, Facebook is integrating the same concept using this wall stream - homepage stream. The more frequency of status updates on your page, the more chance you have to stand out with your fans in the Facebook stream.  When it comes to the layout of the page, Facebook rid themselves of the long 'leaderboard' layout, and moved to a tabbed layout - exactly how your user profile pages now function. And now, when a fan goes to your business page, they are defaulted to the Wall tab, so that fans can see the most recent added content to the page. And for non-Fans that visit your page, you can set a default landing page within your business profile page.  With the ability to send new potential fans to your business page, you can highlight a specific default tab to send them to that might have the most appealing or interactive elements within your page. This will allow users to better promote different portions of their page by driving ad traffic or new fans to certain sections of your profile. By driving potential fans to landing pages within Facebook, you can dramatically grow your fans and leads that ultimately improve conversion rates. If you are running a specific campaign, or have a new application, event, or interactive element on your page you want new users to connect with - now you can easily create that conversion path for the user. Some interesting analytics were also integrated into new business pages. Facebook now allows you to track video views, comments posted, news feed posts viewed, and this is all in addition to page views and unique views. And even better, all this data is exportable via CSV sheets. New Design Makes Advertising on Facebook Irresistible Facebook is clearly trying to drive more advertisers to use the platform, and it makes a lot of sense now with Facebook allowing you to drive non-fans to specific pages inside your business profile. This is going to add value and interest for users who will make their way to your Facebook page. Brands should embrace this tactic and give Facebook advertising a shot - you won't be disappointed this time around. People in the past have been reluctant to spend money on advertising within social networks. The real fact is, social network members are co-creators of content, and in turn, feel they have a sense of ownership within the site. Advertising needs to be more about participating in relevant conversation with consumers rather than simply pushing ads onto a social network user. Advertising should focus on being part of the conversation, not invading the social space. Advertising needs to be about adding value to a user's experience, as social networks are built around members adding value to each other's lives through interaction. This is why fan sites and sponsored groups are truly one of the most successful strategies when marketing within the platforms. This act touches on the principles of interactivity, and adds value to a user's experience via offers, previews, and the ability for user's to help create content. The true challenge though in creating a perfect marriage between social network advertising - marketing and that network's user, is time. There is no quick-fix in social network marketing, sure there can be exceptions, but those are few and far between. Much like a friendship, social media marketing requires effort, time and a continual investment in the platform to build and foster relationships. Remember, your messaging needs to be authentic and humble, and built on two-way conversation, not a push (one-way) model - in the end, this will add value to the consumer's decision. For more information on social media marketing, please review our services, and contact us or myself if you have any questions. Labels: Advertising, Blog Outreach, Brand Awareness, Facebook, online marketing, Online Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter |
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