Hiring the Internet

Preparing Your Site for the Holiday Season

Mikey Rox — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:30:34 +0000

After the major disappointment that was last December, retailers will be spending more time and energy this year in preparing their Web sites for the holiday season.

You might be thinking though, how can I compete with major retailers whose sites are all shiny and sleek? Trust us, even the shiniest, sleekest sites have their problems. And their oversights could be your gain.

So what exactly should you do to prepare your site for the holiday season.

In an article on MultichannelMerchant.com, James Gardner details a few important steps you should take now to help stay ahead of the curve a month from now.

1. Don’t Forget the Basics

A common mistake that most retailers make, says Gardner – and we agree – is that too many times they concentrate their energy on a particular promotion or holiday campaign. But what about the rest of the site? What happens when all those people who are impressed by the company’s Christmas creativity can’t access others parts of the site because of poor functionality? Well, they answer, all too often, is that leave. They don’t want to be bother with a slow site that isn’t working correctly.

So, before you go spending all your resources on your holiday push, go through your site – meticulously – to make sure that everything is in working order. Make sure there are no unnecessary obstacles that stand in the way of consumer and checkout. Make sure that they have no reason to leave your site because of broken links and videos or images that don’t load. You owe it to yourself and your customers.

2. Make Your Site a Holiday Destination

It’s not just the discounts that will drive sales. Smart marketing can help.

Gardner suggests taking the holiday shopping experience to the next level by capturing customers’ attention with something unusual and unexpected.

Like branded games or quizzes, for instance, that add a bit of fun to the shopping experience. Perhaps an interactive feature – like answering questions about the gift recipient – will add an interesting element for customers who are shopping for the hard-to-buy-for on their lists. Whatever it is, offer visitors something unique that gets them in the spirit and keeps them coming back for more.

3. Think Outside of the Site

Engage in social media to help build brand buzz by using video, customer recommendations, deal tweets, and whatever other novel ideas you can think of to get the word out about what you’re offering this holiday season.

Gardner says, “There is nothing more compelling to a customer than hearing a recommendation from another customer, which is why tools like Twitter, Facebook and other social communities can be so powerful in generating brand buzz. During the holiday season, these tools can serve as an invaluable advocate in quickly spreading your brand message and driving traffic to your site.”

It’s true. We post about how valuable social media marketing is during the off-season, so it stands to reason that it’s even more powerful during holiday time when the Web is jammed with increased traffic.

For more tips on how to fine-tune your site for the holidays, check out Gardner’s entire article here.

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Is Social Networking Separated by Social Class?

Mikey Rox — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:51:36 +0000

That’s what a new Nielsen Claritas study suggests.

The study says that there are class differences among users of social networks – particularly Facebook and MySpace. Wealthier people are 25% more likely to use the former, while the less affluent are 37% more likely to cling to the latter.

More specifically, the research found that “almost 23 percent of Facebook users earn more than $100,000 a year, compared to slightly more than 16% of MySpace users. On the other end of the spectrum, 37 percent of MySpace members earn less than $50,000 annually, compared with about 28% of Facebook users.”

MySpace users tend to be “in middle-class, blue-collar neighborhoods,” said Mike Mancini, vice president of data product management for Nielsen, which used an online panel of more than 200,000 social media users in the United States in August. “They’re on their way up, or perhaps not college educated.”

LinkedIn and Twitter were also part of the study – and the two skew even higher among affluent users.

Nearly 38% of LinkedIn users earn more than $100,000 a year, and there’s a strong overlap between Facebook and LinkedIn users.

There are lots of theories – scientific and otherwise – about the results of Nielsen Claritas study in this article on CNN.com.

But we want to know your take on this issue. Why do you think the less affluent are more apt than the affluent to use MySpace – and vice versa? What is it about these social networking sites that seemingly separates us by the amount of money we make?

Fundamentally, why do you think people (in general) have made the move to Facebook from MySpace. And why are the less affluent still pledging their proverbial allegiance to the fading portal?

The Official Launch of VisibleU is this Wednesday!

Mikey Rox — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:22:36 +0000

Months of intense labor has finally paid off … Visible Shops is very happy to announce the launch of VisibleU!

The official launch of VisibleU is on Wednesday, October 21, 2009, at the NY XPO for Business. It’s the region’s largest B2B show, featuring a full day of business opportunity, growth and value. Not to mention plenty of time to network! If you have time to stop by, we highly recommend it. You never know who you’ll meet – besides us, of course.

In the meantime, we wanted to let all of you know that VisibleU is up and running right now, and we’d like all of our friends from Visible Shops to see what we’ve done and how you can benefit from it.

Through the past several years we met with many small business owners who really liked our concepts, our methodology and our people, but said that we simply cost too much for them. We decided a year ago to do something about that. We resolved to find a way to bring our concepts, methodology and expertise to every small business owner that wanted to take advantage of Internet marketing.

The rules we set for ourselves were simple.

1.    Must be affordable for all businesses no matter how small.
2.    Must be able to educate small business owners on Internet Marketing concepts and tools.
3.    Must provide access to our professional Internet Marketing Staff.
4.    Must be scalable so all businesses can get what they need.
5.    Should not require a long term contract.
6.    Should always deliver a positive ROI.

We did it! Now it’s available to you. Visit the VisibleU Web site and check it out.

But wait – there’s more…

We’ve also created what we’re calling a “Seedlings” course, an 8-week e-mail sequence with useful information on how to use the Internet to begin marketing and growing your business with substantial results. You can try it FREE by signing up here!

MarketingCharts Help with Internet Research

Mikey Rox — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:29:34 +0000

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that we use a lot of statistics and facts to present compelling cases for all manner of arguments regarding Internet marketing.

Of course, we don’t make that data up. No, we use sources such as eMarketer, MarketingProfs and other research entities that compile information that allow us to draw conclusions and provide our two cents on various topics on advertising and marketing across channels but especially online.

Unless you’re a subscriber to these services, however, you may not have access to all the information they hold. Information that can help you when planning your own marketing campaigns or campaigns for clients.

A great resource that we’ve found – which is available to everyone – is MarketingCharts, charts and data for marketers in Web and Excel formats.

The available info is as current as you can get, with some charts revealing the top 10 Web sites in various categories for September 2009, among many other interesting articles such as “Men More Likely to Ditch Traditional Media for Digital.”

More on that later. But for now, check out MarketingCharts and find a way to make it work for you.

The Rich Don't Always Get Richer

What Happens When Your Future Boss Finds You Online?

Mikey Rox — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:48:04 +0000

Sometimes you get fired. Before you get hired.

That’s the subject of a recent article on CNN.com, titled “How social media can hurt your career.”

In it, gory details of how job seekers ruin their chances of gainful employment by prematurely posting unflattering status updates and sending Tweets that have led to rescinded job offers, reprimanding at work and pink slips.

Not all of the examples are tragic, however. Some are quite funny. Depending whose side you’re on.

Like this Tweet, for instance, from a potential Cisco employee who wanted the world to know about a recent job offer:

“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work,” read the Tweet.

Not missing a beat, Tim Levad, a “channel partner advocate” for the company, responded: “Who is the hiring manger, I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the Web.”

Ouch!

And the pain without gain doesn’t stop there.

Paul Wilson, a freelance/corporate Web marketer and blogger, compiled this list of the “Top 10 Tweets to Get You Fired.”

1. “hate my job!! i want to tell my bosses how dumb they are and how meaningless this job is, then quit, and be happy!”

2. “So my job was to test all the food at the new resturant, can I just say, ughew. I’m going to taco bell then twistee treat.”

3. “Workin… This job sucks worse then the economy!”

4. “I’m going to work! Walmart! Must find better job! I hate it when chicks there have a deeper voice than me and refer to me as foo!”

5. “Also I’m really bummed that I’m working today, i asked off so i could study but my boss is a ******* **** ***** ***** who can’t read.”

6. “Coworker smuggled out a chair for me. Currently being paid to SIT around and listen to John Barrowman on my iPod. I don’t hate my job today!”

7. “having sex dreams of people you work with makes for an awkward day.”

8. “smoking weed at work is so [EDITED] great ”

9. “It’s bad when you overhear the n00b programmer say “I used to work at McDonalds with him” and you wonder if he is talking about the CEO…”

10. “Huh, with my boss on twitter, maaaybe I should take down that sexy picture of her… but her reaction will be priceless!”

Notwithstanding poor grammar and misspellings, we have to admit that these sad, probably unemployed saps are sort of hilarious. Their Tweets made us smile, at least.

There’s plenty more horror-humor where that came from, too. Check out the entire article to read about how Facebook got some people fired (like the guy in the pic above who attended a Halloween party instead of the “family emergency” that got him out of work), and three of the top social networking don’ts.

Of course, if you have a story to share with us about how you or someone you know got the ax (or a stern talking to) from “The Man” (or Woman) about your online habits, let us know.

We promise to keep your identity a secret. Until we update our status.

Online Media Statistics from The Economist – “Shift Happens”

Mikey Rox — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:36:03 +0000

Last month we posted a video with all kinds of statistics about online media and the Internet.

There was a minor debate over the validity of the statistics, because the video was produced as a marketing piece by an author who’s selling a book on the same subject.

This video from The Economist, however – from its periodic series “Did you know?” – shouldn’t leave much room for argument. The Economist is nothing if not reputable – and this video contains up-to-the-minute info on where we’re headed in this digital revolution. Truly exciting stuff!

Watch the video after the jump.

10,001 Winners: Staples Scores With Clever Viral Campaign

Survey Says More People Watching TV Online Than Ever Before

Mikey Rox — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:28:03 +0000

The Los Angeles Times reported recently on the results of a survey conducted by the nonprofit Conference Board that says Americans are tuning in to their favorite shows on the Internet at a higher rate than ever before.

The quarterly Consumer Internet Barometer showed that nearly 25% of households in the United States now view TV programs online – up a staggering 20% over last year.

Most online viewers, or 43%, are watching new shows, while 35% are catching the sitcoms, comedies and dramas they missed on traditional TV. Less than 20% viewed reality programs, and another 18% got their adrenaline fix via sports programs online.

These statistics are congruent with data released by the Jack Myers Media Business Report, courtesy of eMarketer, that suggests that online ad spending will surpass print ad spending in 2012 to claim 13.6% of the total U.S. ad-spending pie.

Still, there’s a long way to go to regain traction. Overall U.S. ad spending is expected to drop 13.3% this year.

Find the full chart after the jump.

The Theory of Social Media Marketing Evolution

Gmail Users Read More Marketing E-mails

Mikey Rox — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:26:26 +0000

According to MailChimp, a fast-growing e-mail distribution service, Gmail users were most likely to open and click on marketing e-mails.

In a recent study, which eMarketer neatly compiled below, open rates varied among users of the top e-mail services, from a low of just over 20% for e-mails sent to AOL users to a high over nearly 31% among Gmail users. The click rate on e-mails sent to Gmail accounts was more than 7.4%, compared with rates between 4% and 5% for Yahoo!, AOL and Hotmail users.

The study also shows that Gmail accounts had the lowest hard bounce rate, but that may be due to Gmail’s way serious spam protection.

And believe it or not, Gmail is not – probably contrary to popular belief – the most popular means of e-mailing. The Google-owned service ranks third among U.S. Internet users, with Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Hotmail claiming the number 1 and 2 spots respectively.

Gmail showed the highest growth rate among the top three, however, increasing unique visitors by 46% between July 2008 and July 2009.

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Google search: Supersized!

gabehoward — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:52:15 +0000

It’s not your imagination, there IS something different about Google.com!

It actually took me two days to notice that the face of Google Search was different; I blame that on my browser’s super-convenient Google search bar, personally. In any case, it’s a subtle shift, but one that draws the eye. The buttons, the search box, and the suggestions text are all bigger, supposedly to make Googling even easier than before. And what does Google have to say about the change?

Google has always been first and foremost about search, and we’re committed to building and powering the best search on the web — now available through a supersized search box.

Are You an Annoying Facebooker?

Mikey Rox — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:25:08 +0000

For all the wonderment that comes from Facebook – we’re hooked on FarmVille! – there are even more annoying aspects to the popular social networking site. Like all the app requests you receive on a daily basis. Virtual chug, anyone?

But for all of Facebook’s idiosyncrasies, none are more annoying than the people who use it.

In the video below (after the jump), CNN correspondent Josh Levs unveils the 12 most annoying types of Facebookers. Watch it and ask yourself if you fit into one of these categories. Chances are, you do. Even we’re guilty of committing a couple of these Facebook “crimes.”

Can’t win ‘em all…