Smartphone Owners Lead Daily Mobile Web Access

Smartphone owners, men, and consumers younger than 40 are most likely to access the internet via mobile phone at least once a day, according to a survey by ABI Research.

Half of Smartphone Owners Access Web Daily
Overall, ABI Research data indicates that about 25% of US consumers accessed the internet via mobile phone at least once per day in February 2010. Broken down into specific demographic segments, the data finds that about 50% of smartphone owners did so. Not surprisingly, this made smartphone owners the consumer demographic most likely to perform daily internet access with a mobile phone.

Close to 40% of both men and consumers younger than 40 performed daily internet access with a mobile phone. There was a sizable drop from this usage rate to the usage rate of next-most-active consumer segment, women (a little more than 20%). Consumers older than 40 followed with a usage rate slightly below 20%. Only about 15% of non-smartphone owners accessed the internet at least once a day in February 2010.

These results essentially reinforce stereotypes of technology usage. Early device adopters, males, and younger consumers are most likely to perform a technologically advanced activity, with women, older consumers and technology device laggards least likely.

Low Expense, High Personalization Drive Mobile Marketing Spend
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of mobile marketing and advertising will exceed 40% in the next five years, according to other data from ABI Research. In 2009, well under half a billion dollars were spent on mobile marketing and advertising. During the five years to the end of 2015, that expenditure will grow at a compound annual rate of more than 40%, according to estimates from ABI Research.

ABI Research says this robust growth will be fostered by several factors. Compared to campaigns in more traditional media, mobile marketing can be relatively inexpensive. Moreover, ads can be highly targeted and naturally paired with rich mobile content that growing numbers of consumers are accessing through smart mobile devices.

One-third of Mobile Subscribers Use Browser
Applying different metrics, comScore found that 30.1% of US mobile subscribers ages 13 and up used a mobile browser in the three-month average between January and March, 2010. Texting was the most popular mobile activity, performed by 63.7% of subscribers.

About the Data: ABI Research surveyed 1,003 US consumers about their mobile internet usage.

Google Confirms “Mayday” Update Impacts Long Tail Traffic

Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithms in 2009. This is one of the reasons I recommend that site owners not get too fixated on specific ranking factors. If you tie construction of your site to any one perceived algorithm signal, you’re at the mercy of Google’s constant tweaks. These frequent changes are one reason Google itself downplays algorithm updates. Focus on what Google is trying to accomplish as it refines things (the most relevant, useful results possible for searchers) and you’ll generally avoid too much turbulence in your organic search traffic.

However, sometimes a Google algorithm change is substantial enough that even those who don’t spend a lot of time focusing on the algorithms notice it. That seems to be the case with what those discussing it at Webmaster World have named “Mayday”. Last week at Google I/O, I was on a panel with Googler Matt Cutts who said, when asked during Q&A,  ”this is an algorithmic change in Google, looking for higher quality sites to surface for long tail queries. It went through vigorous testing and isn’t going to be rolled back.”

I asked Google for more specifics and they told me that it was a rankings change, not a crawling or indexing change, which seems to imply that sites getting less traffic still have their pages indexed, but some of those pages are no longer ranking as highly as before. Based on Matt’s comment, this change impacts “long tail” traffic, which generally is from longer queries that few people search for individually, but in aggregate can provide a large percentage of traffic.

This change seems to have primarily impacted very large sites with “item” pages that don’t have many individual links into them, might be several clicks from the home page, and may not have substantial unique and value-added content on them. For instance, ecommerce sites often have this structure. The individual product pages are unlikely to attract external links and the majority of the content may be imported from a manufacturer database. Of course, as with any change that results in a traffic hit for some sites, other sites experience the opposite. Based on Matt’s comment at Google I/O, the pages that are now ranking well for these long tail queries are from “higher quality” sites (or perhaps are “higher quality” pages).

My complete speculation is that perhaps the relevance algorithms have been tweaked a bit. Before, pages that didn’t have high quality signals might still rank well if they had high relevance signals. And perhaps now, those high relevance signals don’t have as much weight in ranking if the page doesn’t have the right quality signals.

What’s a site owner to do? It can be difficult to create compelling content and attract links to these types of pages. My best suggestion to those who have been hit by this is to isolate a set of queries for which the site now is getting less traffic and check out the search results to see what pages are ranking instead. What qualities do they have that make them seen as valuable? For instance, I have no way of knowing how amazon.com has faired during this update, but they’ve done a fairly good job of making individual item pages with duplicated content from manufacturer’s databases unique and compelling by the addition of content like of user reviews. They have set up a fairly robust internal linking (and anchor text) structure with things like recommended items and lists. And they attract external links with features such as the my favorites widget.

From the discussion at the Google I/O session, this is likely a long-term change so if your site has been impacted by it, you’ll likely want to do some creative thinking around how you can make these types of pages more valuable (which should increase user engagement and conversion as well).

Original Story by Vanessa Fox at Search Engine Land

B2B Marketers Gain Ground with Social

Business-to-business (B2B) companies are participating in the social space, but they are not yet as engaged as their business-to-consumer (B2C) brethren and face greater internal obstacles, according to a report from digital marketing agency White Horse.

Comparable numbers of B2B and B2C marketers were not doing any social marketing at all, but business-oriented firms were much more likely to say they had social media accounts but little marketing activity.

One reason: More than one-third of B2B marketers surveyed said there was low executive interest in social media in their company, compared with 9% of B2C marketers who said the same. Overall, about one-quarter of corporate marketers told White Horse they needed to learn more about social media to justify investment in the space, but the issue was more pressing for B2B respondents.

Fully 46% of B2B respondents said social media was perceived as irrelevant to their company, while only 12% of consumer-oriented marketers had the same problem. B2Bs also reported a much greater preference for traditional marketing tactics.

There was also a large disparity in the proportion of B2B marketers who said they were not measuring social success at all, at 34%, versus just 10% of B2C respondents.

Other studies have shown that B2B marketers are more effective at measurement because they focus on outcomes that matter to their bottom line, such as lead generation.

'Don't open Facebook beach babe post'

A major computer security firm has urged Facebook to set up an early-warning system after hundreds of thousands of users were hit by a new wave of fake sex-video attacks.

British-based virus fighter Sophos warned users of the world's biggest social networking site to be on guard against any posting entitled "distracting beach babes", which contains a movie thumbnail of a bikini-clad woman.

In a press statement, Sophos said the malicious posts appear as if they are coming from Facebook users' friends, but it urged recipients not to click on the thumbnail.

By clicking on it, users are taken to a rogue Facebook application informing them that they do not have the right player software installed, Sophos said.

It tricks users into installing adware, a software package that automatically plays, displays or downloads advertisements to their computer, and the video link is spread further across the network.

Sophos said that "hundreds of thousands" of Facebook users were believed to have received the posts over the past weekend.

It followed a similar scam that spread on Facebook the week before involving a fake posting tagged as the "sexiest video ever".

"It's time for Facebook to set up an early warning system on their network, through which they can warn their almost 500 million users about breaking threats as they happen," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"A simple message appearing on all users' screens warning them of the outbreak would have helped in halting the attack," he said.

"Unless something is done, it won't be surprising if there is another widespread attack this coming weekend, affecting thousands more users."

The social networking site is already under fire for revealing users' information too freely on the Internet.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Monday that the website "missed the mark" with its complex privacy controls and would reveal simpler features in the coming weeks.

Two-Thirds of Web Users to Visit Soc Nets in 2014

Social network usage explodes

Usage of social networking sites rose sharply in 2009, thanks to the ever-increasing popularity of Facebook. eMarketer estimates that 57.5% of Internet users, or 127 million people, will use a social network at least once a month in 2010.

“There is no doubt anymore that social networks, reaching more than 50% of the total US Internet audience, are an essential part of the Internet experience,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report “Social Network Demographics and Usage.”

By 2014, nearly two-thirds of all Internet users, or 164.9 million people, will be regular users of social networks.

Last year, the social network audience widened sharply beyond the base of teens and young adults who popularized the activity. This year, 59.2% of adult Internet users will visit social networks monthly, up from 52.4% in 2009.

“Teens and young adults are old news,” said Ms. Williamson. “This year, 60% of Internet users ages 35 to 44 and one-half of those in the 45-to-54 age group will use social networks at least once a month. Women, especially moms, are still driving much of the growth.”

By 2014, these changes will become more pronounced. More than one-half (56.8%) of 55-to-64-year-old Internet users will visit social networks regularly that year, up from 34.3% in 2009. Even seniors 65 and up, only 14.1% of whom used social networks in 2009, will get in on the act, reaching 37.9% penetration in 2014.

“The connections and interactions that social networking makes possible didn’t even exist a few short years ago,” said Ms. Williamson. “Status updating, commenting and sharing openly are all activities that will not go away.”

UK Social Networking More than Doubles

As overall UK web usage has dramatically risen, so has its social networking activity, according to data from The Nielsen Company.

Social Networking Accounts for 23% of UK Web Time
In April 2010, social networking and blogs accounted for 23% of UK internet time, or 13 minutes and 36 seconds of every online hour, according to the UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM), a division of Nielsen. This is up 159% from the 8.8% of UK internet time represented by social networking and blogs in April 2007

Social networking and blogs has become the largest specific use of UK internet time, with only “other” taking up more time (36.8%, or 22 minutes and six seconds of every online hour). Following social networking and blogs are personal (non-work) email (56 million hours / 7.2% share of time) and online games (53 million hours / 6.9% share).

Email Gains, IM Falls Back
The biggest casualty of the rise in social networking is instant messaging (IM) which, three years ago, was the most heavily used sector but has since dropped below email and online games. IM’s share of UK internet time has fallen from 14% to 5%, a relative drop of 66%. In contrast, personal email, which many predicted to be another casualty of the social networking phenomenon, has actually increased its share of online time from 6.5% to 7.2%, a relative rise of 11%.

“Despite the large increase in the amount of time people spend online and the increasing proliferation of websites and online services, one thing has remained constant and that is the bulk of time accounted for by communicating, networking and playing games,” said Alex Burmaster, VP of global communications for Nielsen’s Online division. “These are the pillars on which the internet as a heavily used medium is built.”

UK Web Users Spend Almost 7 Hrs on SocNets
On average, global web users across 10 countries spent roughly five and a half hours on social networks in February 2010, up more than two hours from February 2009, according to previous research from The Nielsen Company. Web users in the UK spent an average of just less than six hours, 50 minutes, and 56 seconds, enough to be ranked fourth overall behind web users in Italy, Australia and the US.

Small Biz Plans to Grow with Social

36% of small businesses look to step up with Twitter and Facebook

Small businesses are confident about their ability to weather the recession, with more than one-half saying they have either fully recovered or will do so by the end of 2010, and nearly three-quarters claiming they will drive recovery in the overall economy, according to the “Third Annual FedEx Office Signs of the Times Small Business Survey” from FedEx Office and Ketchum.

To that end, almost two in five small-business owners reported they would be growing their businesses with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. That was up from less than one-quarter who planned to up their game with social in 2009 and made social media the only tactic to increase in importance since last year.

About 42% of small-business owners said they would increase spending on advertising and marketing this year overall.

“Small businesses are definitely getting it right when it comes to identifying and investing in the tools that will help them bounce back from a difficult period,” said Randy Scarborough, vice president of marketing for FedEx Office, in a statement.

E-mail marketing solutions firm Constant Contact likewise found small businesses optimistic about their economic prospects in 2010, with 70% expecting to grow this year. Website and e-mail marketing were a bigger priority than social media, but Facebook was considered important by more than one-half of respondents.

More than one-quarter said blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter were other key tools for marketing their business.

Location-Based Content Draws Mobile Users

Research from Wi-Fi provider and mobile ad server JiWire buttresses reports on the effectiveness of mobile advertising, especially in apps and location-based services.

The company found that most users of its public Wi-Fi services had downloaded at least 10 smartphone apps and about two-thirds spent more than 30 minutes a day using the applications. In addition, 63% said they “frequently” use apps that require them to give their location to serve specific content.

JiWire’s audience was somewhat less likely to say they would allow an app to access their location just to serve more relevant advertisements, but more than one-half reported they would.

 

While users seem to understand the trade-off of advertising for free content, with 76% saying they prefer ad-supported, free apps to paid ones, they are more ready to disclose location-based information for improved content than just for ads.

Nearly two-fifths of respondents said they were more likely to click on a mobile ad that was tailored to their specific location, while about one-half said it would not make a difference.

Overall, more than one-half of mobile device users studied said they had engaged with in-app advertising within the past month, either by clicking an ad, going to the advertiser’s Website or making a purchase.

The Mobile Marketing Association and Luth Research found that location-based mobile ads had the highest response rates but a low ad recall rate of 9%. More than one-quarter of US mobile content users, by contrast, reported seeing in-app advertising.

Women May Welcome Targeting

Tailored ads provide valuable, relevant info to female Web users

Perception is everything when it comes to targeted advertising. Web users must feel comfortable with targeting for the practice to pay off for marketers, and many don’t. March 2010 research from predictive behavioral targeting services company Q Interactive suggests that women have positive perceptions of targeting and want to see more of it.

The vast majority of female Internet users surveyed wanted more targeted offers from trusted brands. Nearly two-thirds of those polled said they thought it was “cool” when they saw an online ad that was tailored to their interests, compared with only 10.8% who thought it was “weird.”

“Women, who are so entrenched online, are creating new expectations of brands, agencies and marketers,” said Emily Girolamo, vice president of marketing and corporate communications at Q Interactive, in a statement. “They are past any fear or suspicion when they get a targeted ad online—and now just expect, want and seek out brands online with meaning for their busy lives.”

More than one-half of women surveyed said they formed relationships with brands and Websites, indicating that a pre-existing level of trust may be important for ad targeting. Nearly two-fifths of respondents said they considered brands “good partners” that sent them relevant information they needed and used, while another one-fifth said brands were straightforward about deals and offers.

The top way for brands to win a good relationship with women was to give them things such as deals, following by getting to know them and providing them with valuable information. Discounts are a major reason people appreciate advertising in general, targeted or otherwise.

“A number of surveys reveal significantly divergent perspectives among consumers about the intersection of privacy, data collected about them and their relationship with targeted online advertising,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report “Audience Ad Targeting: Data and Privacy Issues.”

“So, it’s not surprising that survey results from Q Interactive show great acceptance of targeted offers from brands, since the company sells behavioral targeting services,” said Mr. Hallerman. “And at the same time, offers such as discounts and deals appeal to most consumers, as a recent survey from Econsultancy also shows.”

Social Media – Is Quality over Quantity More Effective

I had a little snigger to myself after reading an article in the Saturday papers that had suggested that Kevin Rudd, the current Prime Minister of Australia, had artificially boosted his Twitter follower numbers to make himself appear more influential in the social media world. The article goes on to suggest that a substantial number of his Twitter followers are based outside of Australia in countries such as Ecuador and Belarus.

If Kevin has inflated his numbers, he has done nothing that a lot of other individuals haven’t done to appear more influential in their chosen field, in fact I wrote an article about this called How to Fake Your Twitter Followers last year.

It’s easy to fake and inflate your social media following on sites such as Facebook and Twitter to make yourself look like a guru, but what is more of an issue to me, and I’ve seen it starting to appear more and more in business lately, is when KPI’s are tied to how many followers a marketing manager can generate.

This sends a totally wrong message to Marketing Managers that numbers are more important than quality when it comes to your social media community.

To me, quality amongst your social media followers should be far more important, and choosing who you should follow back is also a consideration when it comes to being recognized by search engines such as Google, they place more emphasis on quality of connections than they do on numbers of followers. 

Tying a marketing managers KPI’s to how many followers they can generate is nonsense, it displays a total misunderstanding of how social media should be used by senior management in these companies, KPI’s should be based on developing a solid following of consumers who will engage with you, who will buy your product or service and who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer as a company.  

Trying to judge your ROI is going to be far more difficult as well, having an artificially inflated following will not convert into sales, why? because the majority of these followers have no interest in your company or product, they’re just along for the ride.    

Your KPI’s should be based on building a solid community of quality followers.

Using this strategy is far more effective in creating increased sales and conversions than concentrating on building large numbers in social media, particularly when looking at your ROI.

So remember, the catch phrase is quality over quantity, it’s far more effective in the long term if you want your social media strategy to be successful.

Is B2B on Board with Social?

Missed opportunities for some marketers

Despite social media marketing’s popularity, business-to-business (B2B) companies are still fairly new to it. According to a survey from Business.com, 73% of B2B respondents have less than two years of social media marketing experience.

March 2010 research from marketing automation firm Genius.com and BtoB magazine found that about one-half of business-oriented marketers are staying away from social tools such as blogging and Twitter. Facebook was more popular, with nearly three-fifths participating, and business-focused social network LinkedIn was used by three-quarters of B2B marketers.

Both business-oriented social networks and general social networks offer B2B companies a variety of opportunities. They can improve communication between customers, prospects and suppliers; aid collaboration between business partners; help with product development; and identify leads.

B2B companies also have an advantage when using social media because they tend to focus on goals and results, such as leads, that visibly affect their bottom line.

Business.com found in 2009 that those B2B marketers who do use social media tend to do so more extensively than their business-to-consumer counterparts.

Those with at least one profile were more likely to manage a presence on several sites than the general B2B respondents to the Genius.com survey, and were more likely than B2C companies to measure their social success.

“While recent studies have shown that up to 90 percent of consumers are using social media to make their purchasing decisions, B2B marketers seem to be out of step and are using these tools much less frequently,” said the Genius.com report.

Complaints, Trademark Violations and Retweet Requests: How to Handle Anything on Twitter

There are a lot of examples of companies that handle the unexpected well on Twitter; there are just as many, if not more, of companies that didn’t.

Don’t be in that latter group. Following is a brief list of expert suggestions on how to handle several common issues related to marketing via Twitter.

You Get a Complaint, Legitimate Or Otherwise
First distinguish between the two, Lisa Barone, Chief Branding Officer of Outspoken Media, writes on the company blog. Barone, in fact, was discussing what to do when your company gets a negative review on Yelp, but the theory is largely the same for Twitter.

“Not all bad reviews are created equal,” writes Barone. “Sometimes going in and engaging a disgruntled customer will help them see your company in a new light and other times you’re just opening yourself up to more negative attention.”

Respond contritely if you genuinely need to make amends, advises Barone. “It often doesn’t take much to smooth over one bad experience.” Respond as well if they are misstating the facts, she says. “Speak up and politely let them know that they may have simply misunderstood something …if it’s a matter of bad facts, you should step in to correct them.”

Take all of the complaints seriously, even the ones that seem frivolous, because they all have the potential to develop legs, Barone concludes.

You Spot A Possible Trademark Violation
The law on the use of trademarks in Twitter and Facebook is not any different from their general application on the web, according to Finnegan attorney Jon Gelchinsky. As reported by MarketingVox, Gelchinsky says that in some cases, if the infringement is benign, it may the company’s best interests to leave it alone, considering how quickly cease and desist letters can go viral. But if the use is likely to cause confusion or dilution, then the brand owner should take action.

Gelchinsky says that now that Twitter and other social media real-time feeds are becoming archived - and searchable - it is more important for brands to be vigilant about trademark protection on these sites.

Someone Asks You To Retweet Them
Of course, many companies automatically retweet positive comments about their products or services. Each situation is different, depending on the company and industry. But it is worth considering a purist’s view of retweeting before you indiscriminately hit the send button.

Peter Shankman has at least 50,000 followers that he attracted, he says, following a simple formula reported by MarketingVox: “Honesty, transparency, brevity, relevance, and top-of-mind presence – i.e., offering you valuable information in exchange for you letting me into your life. The day I start shilling for other people is the day my Twitter stream becomes nothing more than advertising, or than a press release submitted over a wire.”

His formula for retweet requests: polite honesty, or the following excerpt of his form letter.

“As we get closer to the date of the conference, I will make mention that I’m keynoting your event, in a way that benefits my followers. I will not, however, advertise for you to my followers, who sign up to receive valuable insight from me, not blatant advertisements. I tweet about all my keynotes. But I do it in my voice, on my time, in a way that’s not blatantly advertorial, self-promoting, or self-serving. Those are my rules. I don’t violate them. Ever. I’m sure you understand.”

Twitter bug, users lose followers

Twitter was hit by a bug on Monday that caused users of the micro-blogging service to lose the followers of their accounts.

'We identified and resolved a bug that permitted a user to 'force' other users to follow them,' Twitter said.

'We're now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place,' the San Francisco-based startup said in a blog post.

Twitter's explanation came after a number of users of the fast-growing short-message service reported that the number of people listed as following their accounts had plummeted to zero.

'Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we're aware and this too should shortly be resolved,' Twitter said.

Twitter, which allows users to pepper their followers with messages of 140 characters or less, said last month that it has topped 105 million registered users and is adding 300,000 new accounts a day.

Story from Bigpond.com

Top 10 Viral Videos – April 2010

Athletic equipment company Nike dominated the top 10 viral videos selected by video-content distributor goviral for April 2010, landing three videos on the list.

Two of Nike’s videos were light and entertaining in tone. However, the number two video, “Earl and Tiger,” was much more somber. Recontexting old an audio recording of pro golfer Tiger Woods’ late father Earl Woods describing himself into a questioning of Tiger, the video asks Tiger what he was thinking and feeling, and if he has learned anything (presumably relating to his recent sex scandal). The video itself is a single black-and-white shot of a stone-faced Tiger Woods facing the camera, wearing Nike golf gear.

One public service announcement made the list for April, “Give Earth a Hand” from nonprofit environmental group Greenpeace. The video was released for last month’s Earth Day celebration and suggests that Greenpeace’s work requires participation from many people.

In a repeat of a trend seen in March 2010, many of April’s videos centered on athletes or some type of athletic activity. In addition to the three Nike videos, there was also a video from Coca-Cola highlighting the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, a Samsung video featuring possibly staged precision tricks with business cards, and a humorous Old Spice video centering on a heavily muscled man flexing his talking biceps and abdominals.

The top 10 picks for April, with links to view on YouTube:

1. Heineken – Men With Talent, agency: TBWA
2. Nike – Earl and Tiger, agency: Wieden & Kennedy
3. Old Spice – Flex, agency: n/a
4. Samsung – Master of Business Card Throwing, agency: The Viral Factory
5. Coca-Cola – Quest, agency: SANTO
6. Nike – The Secret Behind Nike Air, agency: n/a
7. Sony – Around the World in 80 Seconds, agency: Rapp
8. Nike – Music Shoe, agency: Wieden & Kennedy
9. Greenpeace – Give Earth a Hand, agency: n/a
10. Nestle – I Like Big Butterfingers, agency: n/a

About the Rankings: goviral issues a monthly top-10 list of viral video rankings on its site, including additional commentary about the videos, their approaches and why the firm thinks they are viral or likely to become viral in the future.

A Twitter Guide to Handling Anything Your Customers Throw at You

There are a lot of examples of companies that handle the unexpected well on Twitter; there are just as many, if not more, of companies that didn’t. Don’t be in that latter group.

Following is a quick guide to handling the worst of what your customers or followers can throw at you.

Routine Service or Product Requests
Automate that as much as possible, say Joseph Hughes, a senior executive with Accenture’s Customer Service & Support Business and Chris Boudreaux, a senior manager within Accenture’s Strategy business unit.

As reported by BusinessWeek, the Accenture executives say that way, “call-center workers can put the best approaches to work repeatedly.” Technology, obviously, is key to this and other best practices on Twitter, they say. In this case, “Clarabridge makes automation software to help with” such customer requests. Other software packages that would be of help include Attivio’s real-time analytical software, which can help companies quantify and react to customer opinions. Also, Dell’s IdeaStorm can “connect marketers with product development staff to build a bridge from the conversations happening on the web to the goods and services your company produces.”

If You Say Something that can be Misconstrued, Clarify Immediately.
Earlier this year Alex Payne, an engineer at Twitter, posted the following message, as reported by MarketingVox: “If you had some of the nifty site features that we Twitter employees have, you might not want to use a desktop client. (You will soon.)”

The comment, which was deleted, set off a firestorm among third-party developers, who thought Twitter would be implementing features that might compete with third-party Twitter tools such as Tweetdeck or Seesmic. As it turned out, they were right.

At the time, Payne quickly apologized - and in fact, shut down his blog in part because of this episode. But questions remained and weren’t fully answered until Twitter announced new plans for its third-party development later at its conference.

Do Whatever It Takes to Mollify Irate Customers
A recent clash between Southwest Airlines and actor-director Kevin Smith illustrates the difficulty a company can have defending or explaining a policy that may be unpopular with customers in 140-character increments. In some situations, just apologize. As reported by MarketingVox, the incident began when Smith was asked to leave a flight because of his size. Smith retold the event on Twitter; Southwest, for its part, responded within hours with its own side - and apologies as Smith’s defenders mounted their own attacks. Granted, Smith has a following because he is a public figure, but such incidents can quickly go viral no matter who the passenger is.

Five Steps to Online Marketing Success

Using competitive intelligence strategies and tools will be key to launching successful email marketing campaigns in 2010, according to a new white paper from Compete.

In the white paper “Five Simple Steps to Online Marketing Success,” Compete recommends that marketers take the five following steps to integrate competitive marketing into their online campaigns:

1. Know the Competition: First, Compete advises email marketers to create a list of competitors in their space and identify the specific reasons each poses a competitive threat. After identifying their competitive set, marketers are advised to dig into metrics and figure out their standing in the ones that matter most.

Frequently used metrics include unique visitors, page views, time on site, average stay, and pages per visit. All of these will give marketers a sense of real norms for their competitive landscape, thus allowing them to make logical business decisions and maximize ROI. Some competitive intelligence solutions provide visibility into metrics for competitors’ sites that are much like the ones analyzed using local web analytics tools.

2. Cover Search Marketing Bases: Increase search traffic and campaign performance through analysis of competitors’ search marketing trends and keywords. In addition, using local web analytics tools, marketers can see what keywords are sending traffic to their sites, how much of that traffic is paid as compared to natural, and what percentage of traffic the individual search engines contribute to a site overall.

Through optimization and testing of paid search campaigns, SEO keyword research, and content creation, marketers can maximize conversions and increase search ROI. However, optimization and testing are not guaranteed to provide beneficial results. Competitive search analytics tools let marketers quickly gain insights into your competitors’ search strategy so you can capitalize on their success.

3. Copying is a Sign of Flattery: Identify what websites are sending competitors traffic and get in on the action. Competition for web traffic will continue to grow as more everyday activities move online. Just like there are a few keywords that drive most of the traffic to a site (the head) and thousands of other keywords that drive a little (the long tail), traffic to websites works much in the same way. There are millions of websites out there, however only a small percentage account for the bulk of traffic. The relationships marketers forge with other online businesses can determine the fate of their marketing success.

By analyzing referral (upstream) and destination (downstream) traffic for their competitive sets, marketers can easily identify new affiliate websites, business relationships, and link-building opportunities. If competitors are receiving traffic from specific sites, it may be worth reaching out to those sites.

Compete advises that marketers use competitive intelligence tools to create a list of websites that send traffic to their competitors, excluding websites that they are already working with. Marketers can then determine which sites they want to reach out by analyzing how much traffic these websites receive. Analyzing traffic referral reports is a great way to generate new relationships and increase online reach with minimal effort.

4. Fix Your Leaky Bucket: Local web analytics tools will let marketers identify which websites are sending traffic to their sites. Based on page views, bounce rates, and conversion rates, they can easily identify which websites deliver the most benefit. Thinking of a website as a bucket, using various marketing tactics, marketers can scoop up site visitors that may be interested in their products or services. Then by creating conversion funnels, they can attempt to lead users to perform a specific action.

Using destination or downstream traffic tools, marketers can easily see where their users go when they leave the site. Are they going directly to a competitor, a search engine, or back to their favorite social network? Maybe they are searching for coupons on their favorite deal sites or conducting research before they decide to purchase your products or services. By regularly performing a destination traffic report on their websites, marketers can easily find opportunities to quickly “patch the holes” in their “leaky buckets.”

5. Stay on Top: Marketers should monitor, set benchmarks, and realize how their site enhancements and marketing strategies impact their competitors. In order to stay on track and continue to grow their business, marketers need an online marketing strategy that can adjust to ever-changing economic, technological, and social environments. Incorporating competitive intelligence into that marketing strategy can give them the critical information they need to minimize risk and ensure success.

Marketers should monitor their competitive set and use competitive intelligence tools on a regular basis. They will find much of the information they collect to be critical in making decisions about their overall marketing strategies. Then, they should set benchmarks and monitor changes across their entire competitive sets.

Google Dominates Search Engine Activity
US web users prefer to conduct online searches with Google by a wide margin, according to recent data from The Nielsen Company. In March 2010, Google Search maintained its comfortable lead in search engine usage during March 2010, with 6.39 billion searches, or 65.7% of 9.72 billion total searches.

Low Ad Recall but High Response for Location-Based Services

Mobile location-based services provide a variety of functions, including maps, navigation, friend finders and store locators. According to a study from Luth Research and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), more than one-quarter of US mobile phone users have used a location-based service, and 10% do so at least weekly.

Users of mobiles ages 25 to 34 were the demographic most likely to use location-based services at least once a week, at 22%. iPhone users also came in above average, with 63% using the services weekly. The most common activities were finding nearby points of interest, including stores, locating the user on a map and using navigation services.

Advertisers may not be taking advantage of the opportunities offered by such utilitarian services. A scant 9% of monthly location-based services users said they had noticed ads at least one-half of the time. In contrast, 35% of mobile Web browsers remembered seeing adds most of the time, as did 25% of mobile information searchers.

But among those location-based services users who did see ads, nearly one-half (48%) took action. Only 37% of SMS ad viewers and 28% of mobile Web ad viewers said the same.

“Consumers believe location-based services offer them significant benefits in functionality and relevance,” said Peter A. Johnson, vice president of market intelligence, MMA, in a statement. “Consumers’ significant adoption and appreciation of location-based services opens up enormous new opportunities for brands and agencies to leverage this unique virtue of the mobile channel.”

In Q1 2009, Brightkite found just 4.3% of non-iPhone users and 15.4% of iPhone users recalled seeing mobile ads on location-based services, indicating the ads may be somewhat more prevalent in 2010. A January 2010 survey from R2integrated found that nearly one-fifth of North American marketers planned to use location-based campaigns this year, but that could include non-advertising marketing components.

Facebook, Twitter Post Strong March Growth

Facebook and Twitter clearly surpassed all other major social networks in US year-over-year growth during March 2010, according to data from The Nielsen Company.

In March 2010, Facebook reported 117.1 million unique US users at home and work. This represented 69% year-over-year growth from 69.1 million unique US users in March 2009.

While Twitter only reported 20.1 million unique US users in March 2010, this still represented strong 45% year-over-year growth from 13.8 million unique users in March 2009. It is also worth noting that Twitter had a negligible 520,000 unique users in March 2008.

Myspace.com had the second-highest total unique US audience in March 2010 with 42.1 million users. However, this represented a roughly 25% drop from 55.9 million unique users in March 2009. As recently as March 2008, Myspace.com was the undisputed leader among major US social networks, with 61.3 million unique users.

LinkedIn and Classmates Online reported US unique audience declines of 12% and 30%, respectively, between March 2009 and March 2010. LinkedIn’s March 2010 unique audience total of 13.9 million is still almost double its March 2008 total of 7.9 million, while Classmates Online has lost about 15% of its unique audience in that time (13.6 million to 11.5 million, with a bump to 16.4 million in March 2009).

Global SocNet Traffic Dramatically Rises
Globally, more unique users spent far more time on social networks in March 2010 than in March 2009. Unique audience grew about 20% globally, from 261.7 million to 313.7 million. Total global minutes spent on social networks more than doubled, from 55.7 billion to 113.1 billion. Average time spent per user grew about 45%, from three hours, 32 minutes and 49 seconds to six hours and 25 seconds.

SocNet Usage Rises in Feb.
On average, global web users across 10 countries spent roughly five and a half hours on social networks in February 2010, up more than two hours from February 2009, according to previous data from Nielsen. Overall, the active unique audience to social networks grew nearly 30%, from 244.2 million in February 2009 to 314.5 million in February 2010.

Facebook was clearly the most popular social network globally in February 2010. Facebook’s reach extended to 52% of active social network users, and the site averaged 19.16 sessions per person and time spent of five hours and 52 minutes per person.

Dealing with Negative Online Word-of-Mouth

Consumers both praise and criticize retailers on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs. It is the negative comments, though, that test retailers’ ability to manage customer relationships in a dynamic, always-on and fragmented environment.

“Social media amplifies the voice of disgruntled customers and makes it easy for others to jump on the bandwagon if they can relate to the pain,” said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report “How Retailers Handle Negative Buzz on Social Media Sites.” “The potential for negative to buzz to escalate into mass criticism puts pressure on retailers to react quickly.

“To avoid a knee-jerk response, retailers need to take a strategic view of customer relationship management on the social Web,” he said.

A cornerstone of retailers’ approach is cultivating customer advocates. That means finding support in the retailer’s fan base, and according to Dynamic Logic and Millward Brown, retailers are the industry most likely to be followed by US social network users.

Many instances of negative buzz circulated by a person or a group stem from age-old retail problems such as poor communications, marketing blunders, operational snafus and bad customer service. Multichannel retailers can prove especially vulnerable, as large chains have more touch points between customers and store employees, providing ample opportunities for things to go wrong.

By contrast, online pure plays have more experience developing, embracing and connecting with their Internet customers.

“Once a retailer is criticized on its Facebook page or a similar social venue, it has three basic options: respond to the criticism, stay silent (perhaps to allow loyal customers to come to its defense) or remove the negative comments when possible,” Mr. Grau said.

“Retailers should have a plan in place and respond according to whether the problem is an isolated event or situation, a systemic problem or a personal issue, such as with a disgruntled customer who has a need for attention or a desire to bait the retailer,” he said.

Using Facebook & Twitter Alone is Not a Social Media Strategy

I recently came across a speaker and coach who during a recent seminar stated that all business needed to participate in social media was a Facebook page, now this coach is well known in the real estate industry as a motivational speaker and sales trainer, he is also a working real estate agent operating a very successful office, so the business owners who attended this session will believe what he says, unfortunately for them his advice is not only wrong, it is totally misleading.

So lets state for the record, a Facebook page and Twitter account do not constitute a social media strategy, in fact it is far from it.

This again highlights how you can be misled by so called social media experts who run around the country spruiking advice like this.

Facebook and Twitter are only part of a broader overall strategy and these are tools, which you use to communicate and socialise with your customers.

This raises the other big issue that companies have, and that is they don’t know how to be social, in most cases business gets involved in social media becuase your competitors are doing it, not because it opens up communication channels with your customers and allows your business to be social.

Today everyone of your customers is a reporter and every reporter is a customer, so being able to directly tell your story to your customers is a very valuable component of an online corporate communication strategy.

Before you start using a tools based strategy, which is what you have if you are just using Facebook and Twitter, think about what sort of relationship you want with your customers, connecting with them is a very valuable asset to your business in building lead generation, sales and loyalty.

Social media is fuelled by passion, so work out first, who you are, what you are and what you are trying to communicate, before you start. Most companies take elements of the business that are not really passionate and try and make them social, elements such as features and benefits etc.

Creating your own unique content is really important with social media, content and  passion become the king. Translating that into other mediums is also very important. Creating blog posts for example and then turning those posts into Podcasts and Video and distributing via YouTube and ITunes.

Video is a massively under utilised tool in business, and I predict in the next 12 months will have far greater influence than it does today. You now have the potential to have a streaming TV channel at your disposal, every piece of content you generate can be transferred to video. 

There is more to creating your social media strategy than just Facebook and Twitter, stretch the boundaries with social media, remember it’s about passion, it’s about you, it’s about your brand and most of all it’s about your customers.

Reach out to them across all the channels available to you, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.                

Online Retailers Socialise Shopping

A March 2010 study from the e-tailing group and PowerReviews found that one-half of Internet users research online before making any type of purchase—on the Web, in a store or through any other method. They typically said doing their own research online saved them time and made them more confident about their purchases.

Retailers’ sites played an important role in the research process, and respondents said the most critical capability for a retailer to have was customer reviews. A lack of user-generated reviews would cause nearly one-half (49%) of respondents to leave a retailer’s site.

Though the “2010 Social Shopping Study” found that customer reviews had a strong influence on the purchases of 71% of respondents—while only 25% said the same about Facebook fan pages—an earlier e-tailing group study of Web merchants found Facebook had caught on so strongly that more planned a presence on the social networking site in the next year than would have customer reviews.

Nearly as many retailers planned to publish on Twitter, but only 17% of respondents to the “2010 Social Shopping Study” said Twitter had a significant effect on their buying decisions. Overall, that survey found social media sites were the place shoppers were least likely to do research (6%).

Similarly, sharing tools were the capability rated important by the fewest shoppers (20%), but they were merchants’ top choice in social strategies.

“Customer reviews have become a critical piece of the marketing puzzle, based not only on consumer demand but also on the sales they deliver,” said Pehr Luedtke, CEO of PowerReviews, in a statement.

Is it Really Worthwhile to Market on Twitter?

A new study by Edison Research provides a complex and multi-layered picture of Twitter - along with some interesting data points that suggest it may not be worthwhile for some companies to focus their online marketing efforts on the micro-blogging site.

This, of course, contradicts other studies - at least about social media, not necessarily Twitter - as well as what has become conventional wisdom on how to advance a brand, according to MarketingVOX.The other studies include a small but now infamous study by Vitrue that found one fan on Facebook is worth $3.60 and a Facebook Page with one million fans is worth a minimum of $3.6 million in earned media annually.Then there is a study by Hubspot.com, which found that many B2C and B2B companies are successfully using social media networks to acquire customers, with more than four in 10 companies overall having acquired a customer from four major social media channels.

Brand Aware
The Edison study doesn’t discount the popularity of Twitter - in fact it reports that 87% of respondents have heard of Twitter, compared to 88% who had heard of Facebook. The findings also suggest that Twitter users are hyper-aware of brands on Twitter. The study found that 42% learn about products and services via Twitter and 41% provide opinions about products/services. An additional 19% seek customer support. A grand total of 49% follow brands or companies.

“Twitter users talking about marketing and brands far exceeds the usage on the other social networks,” said Tom Webster, the VP of Strategy & Marketing at Edison (via Social Media Today).”Combined with their above average income and above average education, Twitter users’ propensity to interact with brands make them a huge potential source for Mass Influencers,” Social Media Today concludes.

Does Not Convert into Interaction
Here is the rub: the data also suggests that Twitter users do not necessarily convert brand awareness to usage, Social Media Today says. Although 87% of Americans have heard of Twitter - only 7% actually use it. Compare that to Facebook, where 88% have heard of it, and 41% have a profile, which is a conversion rate approaching 50%, Social Media Today notes.Clearly some companies belong on Twitter - namely brands that are seeking to shape consumers’ opinions and possibly engage them in a conversation.

Who Shouldn’t
And just as clearly some companies don’t belong on Twitter - or at least shouldn’t be spending a significant portion of their marketing budget on it. These include:

Companies that don’t have a mobile strategy or presence.
There is a strong tie between Twitter and mobile, Social Media Today notes, with 63% of Twitter users accessing social networks via mobile phone, and 73% sending SMS text messages multiple times per day.

Mass-market brands with straightforward products.
Gillette is a good example, says Fast Company. Brands such as Gillette that are positioned based on functionality superiority are not likely to benefit from a social campaign, according to a study by Vivaldi-Lightspeed.

In that study, 96% of respondents in the study tout Gillette’s good quality and reliability. At that point, Gillette should take that goodwill and run, the study goes on to say.”Conversation might lead to a discussion of downsides such as price and alternative products,” says Markus Zinnbauer, a director Vivaldi. (via Fast Company).

Small businesses that don’t have a significant online or social media presence.
That group is far larger than one might realize, according to a recent Citigroup study.  Most small businesses today aren’t leveraging the basic online tools readily available to them to help grow their businesses, the study found.

Namely, in the last year 37% of small businesses have not used a website for marketing or expanding their business and 84% have not used e-commerce to sell their products or services. Additionally, 62% aren’t using basic email for marketing their business.Before such a company jumps on the Twitter bandwagon it would be far better off to master these fundamental online marketing tools - particularly email marketing. Local reputation tools such as Yelp would be the exception.

Commonwealth Bank Releases New Augmented Reality Application for the Australian Market

I first wrote about Augmented Reality applications back in October after I had returned from the Inman Technology conference in San Francisco, if you’d like to read that article, here’s the link to refresh your memory Augmented Reality What is it? 

I’ve been patiently waiting for the technology to start to be implemented here in Australia and now its finally arriving with news the Commonwealth Bank have announced the release of their new Augmented Reality iPhone application.

Here’s the media release from the bank:

“Building on Commonwealth Bank’s vision of banking in 2013, the Group is announcing its next digital innovation with the release of its iPhone augmented reality application for anyone buying or selling a home, or simply looking to keep on top of the property market.

The new iPhone application will take property search to a new level, revolutionising the way home buyers search for a home allowing them to make smarter property decisions with virtual reality insight in to any Australian home anywhere, anytime. 

The technology is supported by two industry leaders realestate.com.au, the nation’s number one property portal and rpdata.com, Australia’s leading property information and analytics company.

The core functionality of the application utilises ‘augmented reality’ where rich data including past sales history (on more than 95 per cent of properties in Australia), current property listings and recent sales, is mapped on to a real world view through the iPhone’s camera.

Users can also switch to a list or bird’s eye view to pull in insights on properties matching their search criteria. Home hunters can then track their ‘dream house’ in their favourites, send to a friend and make informed decisions with access to detailed suburb profiles revealing demographics, median price, property hotspots and capital growth trends.

According to Mark Murray, General Manager Consumer Marketing, “We are leveraging new technology and continually innovating to deliver convenient, relevant and real-time services to make buying a home easier.

“As Australia’s biggest home lender we have teamed up with rpdata.com and realestate.com.au, to help Australians make an informed decision when it comes to making their biggest financial commitment.

“The new iPhone application will be an industry first in Australia.  Home buyers and sellers can easily access a host of customised information, tools and insights on every home in Australia – for free.

“The application is a significant milestone in our 2013 vision of banking, bringing virtual reality property search to customers right here, right now,” added Mr Murray.

A video demo of the iPhone augmented reality application will be available next week with the application available for download from the Apple App Store, coming soon.”

If you can’t wait to see how the application will work, you can take a look at the video here.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph I can’t wait to be able to download this application and start playing with it, this hopefully will be the start of more Augmented Reality applications like this, and I’d also like to see the use of GEO Fencing technology and location based applications being employed by business here as well, the use of this technology has many benefits to the end consumer.

Whilst this application is aimed at the real estate buyer, this opens up the potential of this technology to all types of businesses, imagine the impact this type of technology has for restaurants and tourism.

Being able to access prices, menus, consumer reviews and book a table or a room directly from your phone opens up a new world of opportunities for business in this country.   

Well done Commonwealth Bank and I hope this is the start of more of these applications being widely adopted by both business and consumers.