Search Engine Preference Lets Wunderman See Users Hand

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Search Engine Preference Lets Wunderman See Users Hand

Why Google’s Super Bowl Ad Mattered

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Why Google’s Super Bowl Ad Mattered

Extracting value from Social Media Marketing

A recent report from the United States indicates that even as some businesses are watching profits crumble before their eyes and others struggle to keep their bottom lines in the black, that spending on social media marketing in 2009 is not predicted to decrease at the same rate as other online spending. In fact, amongst organisations that are faring well despite the economic downturn, social media marketing budgets are on the increase.
The review conducted by The National Retail Federation’s Shop.org and Forrester Research reveals that of the 30 percent of retailers planning to reduce their online spending this year 56 percent of them are cutting spending on search engine marketing. Only 24 percent will cut their social media marketing budget.
The term Social Media and social media marketing are used pretty fast and loose. What uses are Social Media being put to? What are the benefits and how are these companies using social media marketing to grow their businesses?
Key benefits include direct customer communication, the speed of feedback, learning customer preferences, the low cost, brand building potential, market research, credibility, reach and customer service. That only 20% of executives see social media marketing as being a great sales lead tool might suggest that SMM genuinely adding to the bottom line has a long way to go. At the moment it is little more than a component of the overall online marketing mix.
Whether the potential of SMM is being overlooked, under appreciated or simply not exploited properly is unclear. Certainly there are companies who’ve leveraged impressive sales through SMM. One immediately thinks of Dell and their Twitter special offers campaigns. If SMM is to directly contribute to bottom lines unlocking its moneymaking potential is key.
There’s plenty of scope for improvement and it’s the challenge of winning that extra business that those progressive companies increasing their SMM expenditure over the next year are hoping to enjoy.

Social Media Marketing and Facebook

Why You Need A Facebook “Profile” (If You Don’t Have One Already)

Over the past few years, social networking sites enabled by Web 2.0 technologies have dramatically changed the way we use the Internet. What was once a one-way connection has transformed into a dynamic connective medium, allowing users to share a wide range of content including blogs, photos, videos, and much more.

Yet how have social networking sites like Facebook changed the way online marketers advertise online? For one, they’ve made our jobs much easier. Facebook is the ideal medium for advertising within an environment that’s viral by nature. These online social directories use an interactive format that allows users to create a personal profile, connect to other users, and share content.

In a sense, these users have already effectively segmented themselves, coming together through like interest groups and connecting through content. These behaviors, which are inherent to social media and enabled by Web 2.0, create valuable networks of targeted and specific demographic groups. Now more than ever, the “Net Generation” is becoming involved in social media and presenting online marketers with the chance to market to predefined segments of online users, positioning branded messages on sites where these users spend time online.

Moreover, these social networking sites are growing at an exponential rate, adding more and more users from more diverse backgrounds. Initially, Facebook was created only for college students, but last year, it was opened to anyone with an email address. According to Microsoft, Facebook is the sixth most trafficked site in the U.S., and now has over 73 million registered users in 40,000 different collegiate, high school, work-related, and geographic networks. This represents a 530% growth rate over one year alone.

The tactic through which advertisers communicate with these segmented online audiences is known as Social Media Marketing (SMM). SMM has become a popular tool for search engine optimization (SEO) thanks to its unique ability to improve website visibility, name recognition, and brand awareness among specific online audiences through the acquisition of a network of relevant links.

So what opportunities does Facebook present for targeted online marketing efforts? Among Internet users ages 18-24, Facebook placed first on the list of favorite sites in Youth Trends most recent survey. Over 70% of females ages 17-25 indicated that Facebook was their favorite site in terms of time spent online. For males, this figure was still a powerful 56%. These demographic is clearly technology-driven, thanks to their growing up in a culture that considers time online an integral aspect of daily life. More than half of those surveyed visited Facebook at least once a day, logging an average of 35 minutes on the site.

Furthermore, these users are familiar with online environments and are adept at seeking out and finding specific pieces of content they’re interested in. Thus, social networking sites, especially Facebook, present online marketers with the opportunity to engage users with advertising messages at critical moments of relevance.

So how can we utilize social media marketing to effectively engage these elusive audiences of young adults? Below are several ideas on how to utilize social media marketing on Facebook.Connect Through Groups:

Facebook has an infinite number of shared interest groups which users join for a myriad of reasons. These groups cover an unlimited number of subjects and interests, from marine biology to snowboarding to politics to rap music to Italian food. No matter what your interest or target market, there is a group for you. Take it from me. I’ve been a registered Facebook user, or “Facebooker” since 2003, and I’ve seen a group for everything, literally. Many even have a local focus, like Denver Broncos fan groups or Denver Chinese Students Group. Each of these groups has its own page with a forum, discussion board, photo gallery, etc. This is the best place to position messages meant for specific niche audiences, as you’re almost guaranteed everyone who sees it fits your target profile. In the past, when I was trying to drive traffic to a video site I was working for, I placed descriptive and enticing links to relevant videos on the group’s “wall,” or discussion board. I saw great results as many of the members of this particular group, which was devoted to skiing, followed these links to watch videos about their favorite sport, skiing.Connect Through Applications:

Recently, Facebook has opened up its platform to outside developers who have created innumerable applications, ranging from fantasy stock picking simulators to video games of “beer pong” to world maps marking desired travel destinations. Users can add as many of these applications as they like to their profiles, creating opportunities for marketers and developers alike to subtly integrate marketing messages into these applications and their functions. Many developers have already done so and are not doubt reaping some major benefits, not only through increased brand awareness but through traffic driven from Facebook, which many have bridged to their own sites.Connect Through Content:

Because Facebook allows users to post videos, images, links, photos, and more, advertisers can seamlessly utilize social media marketing strategies to connect with these groups through content. By positioning your content where your target audience is, you can be assured your brand will be right in front of their eyes as they interact with your message. Facebook is a repository for an endless amount of consumer data, what many experts have dubbed “a community in a box.” So why not leverage this data by getting involved? Connect through content.Connect Through Events:

As Facebook has grown, it has added an “Events” section where users can post information about upcoming events and then invite their Facebook friends to attend. The entire section of events is searchable, and users can quickly locate events they’re interested in, find the host’s name, location, time, and even a description of the event. What’s more, Facebook gives each event its own page, where users can RSVP, decline to attend, or even post information on the event page’s public discussion wall, like what to wear, what to bring, etc. This presents social media marketers with a valuable opportunity to post events and then invite people that are most likely interested in attending. In my own experience with this medium, I’ve created events for clients and then posted information and invites within groups that align. For example, when promoting an upcoming reggae concert or college football game, find as many groups related to reggae music, college football, music and sports that you can, and post the event information on their group discussion boards to ensure that anyone who’s interested now knows and attends.Connect Through Mobile Devices:

Just this week, Facebook announced that it has partnered with RIM, or Research In Motion, and their BlackBerry device. In addition to BlackBerrys, Facebook is accessible to a wide range of other mobile devices. This presents valuable opportunities for advertisers to reach potential customers on a local level, positioning their company presence at the moment of relevance.

Still, Facebook’s explosive growth hasn’t been without challenges. In response to criticism from a plethora of groups, Facebook recently added additional security measures in an effort to better protect private information. In addition to assuaging privacy fears, this is sure to encourage more users to join the site and share more information about themselves. Yet this will also force social media marketers to be more innovative and creative when identifying and locating target audiences.

As you can see, Facebook users have taken care of the segmentation process, connecting themselves through content and shared interests. These behaviors, which are inherent to social media and enabled by Web 2.0, create valuable networks of targeted and specific demographic groups. Now more than ever, the “Net Generation” is becoming involved in social media and presenting online marketers with the chance to market to predefined segments of online users, positioning branded messages on sites where these users spend time online.

The company I work for, Fusionbox, uses social media marketing to combine the objectives of Internet marketing with the capabilities of social media sites and Web 2.0 technologies. Click here for more information on social media marketing.

Essentially, our SMM services create powerful forms of viral marketing that leverage the large audiences and user communities of social media sites. Whether on MySpace, YouTube, Digg, Facebook, Del.icio.us, Flickr, or any number of others, SMM revolves around the creation and connection of users to companies through unique content.

For this reason, SMM can be utilized to build a network of links, spread brand messages, increase visibility and awareness, and even manage your company’s reputation online. After all, these social media sites each have millions of registered users, grouped into like-interest communities. Now all you have to do is discern where your target audience is congregating online. What more could a marketer ask for? No other channel allows companies to declare their identity, service offerings, value proposition and location within such a targeted environment.

Our team of experienced and innovative social media marketers will effectively position your website content in a targeted digital space where it will be seen by those you want to see it.

Fusionbox is a leader in applying Web 2.0 technologies to the Internet marketing domain. Our services have been aptly deemed Web Marketing 2.0 because of our ability to connect clients to customers by engaging the market and initiating conversations through social media.

10 Places to Diversify Your Online Ad Budget in 2010

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10 Places to Diversify Your Online Ad Budget in 2010

Social Media Marketing: Bridging the Gap

Working in the Denver Internet marketing industry over the course of the past year, we’ve all heard far too much about the amazing potential of social media marketing (SMM). We’ve listened to the myriad reasons why it should be an essential component of our integrated search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns. Still, for as much as we’ve all heard, very few of us have taken the time to answer the most important question: Why? Why should you integrate SMM into your SEM campaigns?

Today, the push to integrate social media marketing into our SEM efforts is only gaining momentum as social networking sites like MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Del.icio.us, Digg, Flickr and many others continue to gain users and popularity. Of course, we all know that SMM can help us somehow. But how exactly? Oftentimes, it seems like more of a bandwagon tactic, especially when clients say, “We want some sort of social media marketing.” When asked why, the majority simply state, “Because our competitors are doing it.” Some even reply with more of a blanket statement, stating “Because everyone else is doing it.”

Every time I hear clients say this, I think of an adage my mother used to tell me when I was a child. Each time I wanted to do something just because it was popular, she’d ask “Would you jump off a bridge if everyone else was doing it?”

Even though I was a handful of trouble in my elementary school days, of course the answer was no. And even though I occasionally wondered if jumping off a bridge would be exciting, I knew that just because everyone else was doing it didn’t mean I had a reason to.

This lesson stuck with me, and I’ve applied it to many different life situations. From friends and school to peer pressure and even search marketing, it’s important to stay above the mob influence and not simply follow the social media crowd complacently. Think again about the one-word question all online marketers should ask (but oftentimes overlook) when integrating SMM into their SEM campaigns: Why?

Before delving into this, let’s define what exactly social media marketing is. SMM combines the objectives of Internet marketing with the capabilities of social media sites, and thus involves some form of viral marketing that leverages the large audiences and user communities of social media sites. Whether on MySpace, YouTube, Digg, Facebook, Del.icio.us, Flickr, or any number of others, SMM revolves around the creation and connection of users through content.

For this reason, SMM can be utilized to build a network of links, spread brand messages, increase visibility and awareness, and even manage your company’s reputation online. After all, these social media sites each have millions of registered users, grouped into like-interest communities. Now all you have to do is discern where your target audience is congregating online. What more could a marketer ask for? No other channel allows companies to declare their identity, service offerings, value proposition and location within such a targeted environment.

As we’ve seen, social media marketing can be used effectively for a range of reasons. Still, it’s not for everyone. Before even considering integrating SMM into any campaign, you must ask yourself “Who is my target audience?” and “What do they want?”

Whether you’re thinking about implementing a blog platform, joining or creating a social network, or just generating content, your primary concern should be identifying the ultimate objective of your web site or project and how your content relates to or appeals to this audience. Consider the following:

1)Who are my users?

2)Why are they here?

3)What are they looking for?

After answering this set of questions, use this as direction to guide your SMM efforts and content placement. Position your content in front of those who want to see it, and you’ve laid the cornerstone of an effective SMM campaign.

Before thinking about your content placement, however, you’ve got to research which social media sites your users are involved with and join them yourself. This provides a direct channel through which to distribute your content while giving you a better idea of what type of content is popular among these users.

Remember the cardinal rule of social media marketing: Connect through content. How? Like many principles, it sounds easier than it actually is. Of course these connections can take many forms, but perhaps the most valuable form is a link. Incoming links boost your site’s search engine rank and positioning, thus, they’re a essential component of search engine optimization (SEO). This tactic of link acquisition is known as “linkbait.” Gone are the old days of buying, trading, and begging for links. When done successfully, linkbaiting can produce dramatic results, oftentimes giving you hundreds or even thousands of new, relevant links.

On a similar note, social media sites allow marketers the unique opportunity to create and foster trusting relationships with prospects and customers through these content connections, while at the same time introducing them to the company’s brand and message.

Furthermore, the carefully targeted positioning of your content on social media sites grants your customers the chance to associate themselves with you and other customers. Social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us (one of many) are adding momentum to this trend, making it even easier for your customers to bookmark and return to your site.

These user-initiated conversations are your users’ opportunity to create and share their own thoughts and questions, and your opportunity to respond. This presents you with the chance to be there and further connect with them. Let them share their feelings, and ask them what you’re doing right (or wrong). Whether you’re aware of it or not, people are talking behind your back about your company online. So why not involve yourself in the conversation? You can monitor your brand, image, keywords, and even competitors through social media. RSS feeds are especially useful for doing this type of reputation management. Hopefully the conversation is positive, but if it’s not, social media grants you the ability to do your best to change it into something that is through connection and interaction.

That’s the beauty of social media marketing. More than any other channel, it connects companies to customers. Still, despite it’s many advantages, it remains a very complicated endeavor. To date, there is a huge degree of overlap in social media sites and their functional offerings, and no one has created a structure to work from. More often than not, these sites have multiple functions. The only way to discover where to position your company within the social media domain is to get involved in it. Join these sites, use them, meet people, add friends, and let the conversation flow.

Just remember to use this interaction with your target audience for a purpose that benefits your company in some way, not just because everyone else is doing it. Position your content in the right place and be the one jumping onto the bridge that connects you to your customers.

Twitter is a Social Media Marketing Success but Avoid Committing the Same Error that the NY Times Did

Twitter has been discovered and is being used by many businesses and individuals as a successful social media marketing tool. Even US President Barrack Obama is on Tweeter. In fact, Twitter was used heavily in Barrack Obama’s presidential campaign. Popular TV host Oprah Winfrey joined Twitter in January 2009. The New York Times has just appointed a social media editor, Jennifer Preston, and she promptly joined Twitter, sending out her first tweet on May 26.It’s so easy. Anyone can register an account. You can then click to “follow” other Tweeters and, hopefully, gain a large following, too. You can read the messages sent out, called “tweets”, by anyone you choose to follow but you can only send messages to those who follow you. Tweets are limited to 140 characters. Go over and your message will be cut. This includes prefixes. Among the prefixes used are “@” followed by the the person’s Tweeter username when replying to someone, or “RT@” followed by the source’s username when reposting a tweet, much like reposting a blog entry with a link back to the source. You can use the services of URL shorteners such as tinyurl.com or bit.ly to transform long addresses you can then use in your tweets.This is where you have to be very careful. The new NY Times social media editor, Jennifer Preston, sent out an RT on May 26 but she forgot to count her tweet characters carefully. As a result, her tweet was cut and the resulting address she sent out led to Ebay instead to her intended article, “10 Golden Rules on Social Media.” So count your characters before you send out your tweet.There are so many ways you can use Twitter to market your site. You can tweet links to your articles, making sure, of course, that your readers will find them useful. Really good articles will most probably earn RTs, spreading the word further and resulting in more visitors landing on your pages. If you have a good web site with rich content, it will deserve many return visits.You can also use Twitter to request and gather feedback about your site. If you have developed a good relationship with others in the Twitter community, you will surely get a lot of helpful inputs.Twitter can also serve as a bulletin board of sorts where you can make announcements about upates in your site or your products and services. Since your tweets are only sent out to your followers, it is not considered spam.One of the believers in the power of Twitter as a social media marketing tool is Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. Social media marketing is part of the internet marketing services offered by Web Dot Com along with search engine optimization and search engine marketing.From its base in Manila, Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. serves international clients from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Korea, and the British Virgin Islands, providing various business process outsourcing (BPO) services, including low cost advanced web site development packages. Its highly skilled programmers are experts in php, mysql, JavaScript, Adobe Flash and other programming tools and languages, taking on advanced interactive database driven web site development, advanced portal development, heavy web based programming, web application development, content management systems, website design, graphic design and multimedia components including flash animation development, e-commerce site solutions including a shopping cart using osCommerce, website maintenance and support, and internet marketing. Not only is it a web site developer, but Web Dot Com is also a web hosting provider with domain name registration services. Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. is your One Stop Shop Internet and Contact Center Solutions Vendor for the Global Market.Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc.Address: 2nd Floor, BT&T Center#20 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave., Libis (C-5),Quezon City, 1110 PhilippinesE-mail: info@webdc.com.phTelephone numbers: (632) 634-4625; (632) 635-6104

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