Cross-Channel Management Will Be Easier
Facebook and LinkedIn already allow advertisers to control how their ads behave on their platforms. Twitter has finally joined them. Prior to these changes, all Twitter ads had to be managed manually on Twitter’s website interface; this was time-costly because many advertisers want to use programs that allow them to change elements across an entire campaign. This new feature will make it easier for marketers to manage those campaigns. Since January, they have been testing the Twitter Ads API (application programming interface) with their partners; the service officially launched on Feb. 20. This means that marketers will be able to work with their Twitter ads using the services that they already use to manage advertising on other channels. For access to the Ads API, Twitter is partnering with Adobe, HootSuite, Salesforce, Shift, and TBG Digital. Twitter is currently evaluating other partners interested in joining the program.

Harness News and Events in Real Time
In addition to being more convenient for marketers, the new ad API will allow you to harness the natural news cycle in your ad campaigns. Users can make real-time changes to their ads to take advantage of special events, breaking news, and many other factors that may change the content of their ads.

More Targeted Ads
These new changes allow you to target specific interests, genders, locations, users like your followers, and users who log in on specific devices, which is good for those targeting mobile users. Agencies can quickly set their advertising budgets and schedule their campaigns. The additional options for targeting ads are quite an improvement. While the difference for small businesses may not be apparent, according to Mashable, the changes will affect big brands that run huge campaigns. Rather than manually sending different tweets based on demographics (for a 20-year old man or 30-year old woman, for example), the changes can be automated.

What This Means for Marketers
The social media site will likely receive a flood of new marketers now that their ads are more easily managed and targeted. You will be able to set automatic alerts to let you know when your tweets start trending. You’ll be able to seize opportunities as they happen, rather than waiting for changes to take place. Marketers should welcome these changes on Twitter, as now popular tweets can be seen quickly by as many people as possible. Finally, you’ll be able to coordinate your Twitter campaigns with those on Facebook and LinkedIn more easily. Because Twitter tries to integrate promoted items with as little interference to the user experience as possible, the users are more receptive to these ads. You’ll likely notice that Twitter hasn’t received nearly as much bad online publicity since they’ve opened their network to ads as Facebook has. To ensure items you want to promote are as user-friendly as possible, make your content interesting, unique, and engaging.

To speak with expert professionals about social media marketing, web design, and search engine marketing, contact Infintech Designs. They can help your business grow and succeed online.

Infintech Designs
3110 Magazine St., #120
New Orleans, LA 70115

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The University of Westminster has opened a Center for Social Media Research (CSMR), offering an MA in Social Media studies. The center will accept its first students in September 2013. The research program looks to explore what users think about social media and how it has changed society. Research will examine the cultural, economic, political and social aspects of social media. The center is one of the first in the world, and hopes to attract people who already work in the field of social media research.

Professor David Gauntlett leads the Center for Social Media Research, while Professor Christian Fuchs and Professor Graham Meikle lead the center’s MA program. Fuch’s own work examines how the power structures in society influence, and are influenced by, the rise of social media. Fuchs and his colleague, Daniel Trottier, have been working together on two projects funded by the EU to study privacy, security and surveillance in Europe, and their effects on social media. People have an increasing interest in how social media is changing daily life. Fuchs described the program as “necessary, timely and the right thing to do.”

Because of the complexity and unpredictability of social media, Fuch believes there is no way to predict what it will be like in 5-10 years. Instead of predictions, their program aims to assess how social media is used, what users think about social media, and their experiences with the services. They’re also interested in finding out how the field of research will be impacted by social media.

In the MA program, students will be talking about their experiences in social media by blogging about their course readings, posting videos and sharing photo essays. The center offers a one-year, full-time program, or a part-time program that takes two years to complete. The course features two core modules called Critical Theory of Social Media and Social Media: Creativity, Sharing, Visibility. While the center only offers a master’s level program at present, it may consider a bachelor’s level program in the future. The professors want their students to become experts in using social media, but also in understanding how it is used. The program will have a strong focus on ethics, one of the leading concerns of social media users worldwide.

Entry requirements for the program include a first degree from a recognized university with a GPA equivalent of 3.00; the first degree can be in any discipline. They’re looking for mature students with a professional background that is relevant to social media. High stands of written and spoken English are required, so those who speak English as a second language may be asked to prove their abilities. Interviews are conducted via telephone before an offer of admission is made. The interview is designed to assess the interviewee’s interest and commitment to the study of communication.

The CSMR will officially launch with an international conference, Social Media, in London, on 2-3 September 2013.

It is safe to say that this shows how important social media is becoming in all walks of life. For help developing a winning social media marketing strategy, get in contact with Infintech Designs.

Infintech Designs
3110 Magazine St., #120
New Orleans, LA 70115

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Smartphones at the Vatican
The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was followed closely not only by major newspapers, magazines, and news networks, but also by people who use social media as their primary means of getting news. When the white smoke emerged, the world of social media went wild with speculation as to who the new pope would be. More than 150,000 people were gathered in St. Peter’s Square to welcome the new pope, many of them with smartphones on hand to document the experience on Twitter and Facebook.

Services Emerge to Follow the Conclave
A service called PopeAlarm had emerged at the time to update what was happening with the smoke at the Vatican. Since the election, PopeAlarm now provides important news updates regarding the Pope. The website AdoptACardinal.org was set up to encourage Catholics the world over to “adopt” a cardinal to pray for. The end result was that more than 550,000 people had adopted a cardinal to hold up in prayer. Before the conclave convened, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa thanked his Twitter followers for adopting the cardinals, saying that their prayers would help them “discern God’s will.”

Holy Hashtags
Popular hashtags on Twitter during the papal conclave were #whitesmoke and #HabemusPapum. A seagull perched on the world’s most watched chimney sparked the creation of several Twitter accounts, the most popular being @SistineSeagull, which quickly gained followers. The announcement of the Pope resulted in more than 130 million tweets sent across the globe to share the news. #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope was also a popular hashtag that received plenty of action and sparked lots of laughter.

Tweets from His Holiness
Pope Francis can be found by the Twitter name @Pontifex. It was the old account of Pope Benedict XVI who resigned in February. Pope Benedict had only begun using Twitter in December 2012, but the account was locked when he announced his resignation. Only 40 tweets had been sent from the account, but all have been deleted since Pope Francis took it over. The first tweet sent from the account after the election was on March 13, 2013, and read “HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM”, translated, “We have a Pope Francis!” This particular tweet was retweeted more than 54,000 times.

Hesitantly Hopeful about the Vatican’s Social Media Presence
Although many are hopeful that Pope Francis will reach out more via social media, it may not be as much as everyone had hoped. Although he had a Facebook account before he became Pope, Bergoglio still used a typewriter for work, and the Facebook page was managed by his supporters. His Holiness’s Twitter account is followed by more than 2 million people, but he follows none of them. Still, there have been several tweets sent from the Pope’s account, each with thousands of retweets. His first official tweet was retweeted more than 37,000 times and dubbed a “favorite” by more than 21,000 people.

If you want to follow the Vatican’s example and increase your social media presence and online penetration, social media marketing may be just what you need. For advice and assistance in this arena, contact Infintech Designs.

Sources:
https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/313247631054864384
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/03/13/pope-francis-first-tweet_n_2869147.html#slide=more286132
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/13/tech/social-reaction-to-pope
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/03/13/pauls-rome-social-media.html

Infintech Designs
3110 Magazine St., #120
New Orleans, LA 70115

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The Study’s Setup
Null put up ads for four consecutive days on five different advertising platforms: Google Adwords, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and StumbleUpon. None of the ads ran when the others did (i.e., there was no overlap). The ads were linked to the home page of his small business called Null Media rather than to any of his social media profiles.

Adwords as a Baseline
Adwords, while not a social media platform, served as the baseline for Null’s experiment. The budget was set to $25 per day. First, he set his bids low (though he doesn’t mention how low), but this didn’t exhaust his daily budget. He then set the bids closer to $2 per click, which gained him a bit more traffic. When the results were in, he received 65 clicks out of 13,970 impressions and spent a total of $80.74. That averages out to a clickthrough rate of 0.47 percent at $1.24 per click.

Advertising Results on the Social Media Platforms
He then went on to test Facebook first. The results from his Facebook ads were only 25 clicks out of 253,207 impressions. With his total expenses at $37.70, the cost per click was $1.51 with a clickthrough rate of 0.01 percent. LinkedIn was tested next and fared the worst out of all platforms. He tried the CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) for the first day, but it used up his daily budget within an hour. Null switched to CPC bids at $2 for the remainder of his test. The results for LinkedIn after four days were 51,192 impressions, 13 clicks, $41.50 total spent, $3.19 average CPC, and a 0.025 percent clickthrough rate. Twitter’s results fared better, with 7529 impressions, 67 clicks, $62.87 total spent, $0.94 average CPC, and a 0.89 percent clickthrough rate. Finally, StumbleUpon was tested, with their ads costing a flat 10 cents. During the four day period, Null’s ad was displayed 1001 times, received 1001 clicks (users have no choice but to click them), spent $100 total for an average CPC of $0.10, and a 100 percent clickthrough rate.

What to Take Away From the Study
Null’s caveat was that the budget was small, and the duration of his experiment was also short. He also added that, because he targets businesses rather than consumers, that may have affected the effectiveness of his ad campaigns. So, setting those factors aside, he found that Facebook ads were ineffective for getting clicks likely due to their placement in the right sidebar. He found LinkedIn to be the most expensive service, yet their clickthrough rates were very low. Twitter’s clickthrough rate was the best and had affordable fees, but was difficult to target ads. StumbleUpon’s service guarantees clickthroughs because of how the service is set up, and the ads are cheap. Null feels StumbleUpon would best suit advertisers who are seeking general consumers rather than business consumers.

For a digital marketing agency that prides itself on honest and clear communication with clients, contact Infintech Designs. They can help you navigate online marketing for business success.

Source:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2030740/do-social-media-ads-really-work-we-put-them-to-the-test-.html?page=2

Infintech Designs
3110 Magazine St., #120
New Orleans, LA 70115

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Online Sales Will Make Up 10 Percent of All Sales by 2017
Growth of online retail sales is soaring past traditional retail store sales in both the United States and Europe. It is estimated that, in 2013, U.S. online retail sales will reach $262 billion; that’s a 13 percent increase from last year, making up 8 percent of all retail sales. These sales are expected to have a compound annual growth of 9 percent from 2012-2017, reaching $370 billion by 2017, in part due to traditional stores investing more in their e-commerce businesses. By 2017, e-commerce will make up 10 percent of all retail sales. The increase in using cellphones and tablets for shopping, and increased customer comfort with buying online, are expected to contribute as well.

Mobile Devices Allow Consumers to Spend More Time Online
Mobile devices are one source of the growth in online retail because they allow people to spend more time online. More time spent online means more buying opportunities, and thus, more sales for online retailers. Buyers use their mobile devices both to learn about products and to find the best prices for them. Traffic from tablet devices spikes during evening hours after consumers are home from work enjoying their leisure time. Online sales themselves have traditionally experienced spikes in the evening, too, rather than during business hours.

Traditional Retailers Becoming Savvy to Internet Shoppers
As traditional retail stores have been investing more in their online businesses, e-commerce has grown. Hybrid offerings like online purchases with in-store pickup have contributed to this trend. Nordstrom reported mobile devices accounted for 20 percent of their e-commerce sales for February 2013, up from a mere 4 percent just two years ago. The retail giant is expected to invest nearly $1 billion on its e-commerce division over the next five years. By the same token, Macy’s online sales grew by 41 percent during 2012. The retailer smartly used its brick-and-mortar stores to help fulfill online orders during the holiday season, thanks to a highly integrated inventory system. Macy’s hopes to eventually increase that to 650 integrated stores.

Loyalty Programs and Increased Comfort Drive Sales
The survey by Forrester says that the growth in e-commerce is not from new people shopping online, but rather from existing online shoppers spending more time and money in web stores. In 2012, 167 million people in the U.S. purchased something online. That number is expected to grow to 192 million by 2016. The monetary growth is partly driven by loyalty programs like Amazon Prime and ShopRunner, which offer services like free two-day shipping and other perks to their members. Another driving element is that customers are getting more comfortable making big purchases online, like furniture, appliances, and higher-end electronics. 

E-commerce Boosts Job Market
Forrester’s research has found that the boom in e-commerce has been boosting the job market in the United Sates. They estimate that there are currently 400,000 people employed in e-commerce jobs in the U.S. This number is expected to reach more than 500,000 by 2017. More people employed, in turn, means more income that can be spent on online retail goods.

The need for expertise in online marketing and advertising like that offered by Infintech Designs simply could not be clearer.

Sources:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/13/forrester-2012-2017-e-commerce-forecast/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/13/usa-retail-e-commerce-idUSL1N0C551620130313
http://mashable.com/2012/02/27/e-commerce-327-billion-2016-study/

Infintech Designs
3110 Magazine St., #120
New Orleans, LA 70115

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Android Apps

I Love Color
I Love Color gives Android users access to thousands of colors, patterns and palettes, and is one of the most popular color apps on Google Play. The colors can be shared, used as wallpaper, or used as a background. It is a great app for graphic designers or those who just love color. Color data is pulled from Colourlovers.com. The app is popular even among non-designers for its ability to create simple, yet sophisticated, wallpapers and backgrounds.

Real Color
Real Color generates color palettes from photos to create inspiration based on real life. It is a must-have app for interior designers and web designers. The algorithm automatically generates harmonious color schemes by pulling details from your photos, and generates the full color spectrum from the photo. Users are able to retrieve detailed information about the colors including HEX, RGB and HSB values. Palettes can be saved, exported to Adobe Swatch Exchange, or shared. The pro version, which users can upgrade to within the app, generates palettes based on color theories of complementary, monochromatic and analogous colors.

Color Pal
Color Pal helps Android users find color schemes and palettes for their design projects. The colors include information about their HEX, RGB and CMYK color values. These can be emailed to save for easy reference. Palette data is pulled from colourlovers.com. Unfortunately, the app does not have the function to export palettes. Unlike I Love Color, this app focuses entirely on color palettes, rather than on backgrounds and patterns. 

iPhone Apps

ColorToy
ColorToy generates color schemes on both the iPhone and iPod Touch. Color palettes can be generated, modified and stored. Color Capture mode allows users to capture the colors from their favorite photos and images. The first time the app runs, a random color, called the Key Color, is generated along with a suite of complementary shades. One of the complementary colors can become the new Key Color. Palettes can be saved to the scrapbook or emailed for future reference. 

myPantone
myPANTONE is one of the more expensive apps for creating color palettes, but it’s also one of the most popular among designers. The app allows the user access to more than 13,000 PANTONE colors to create palettes that can be shared with clients or friends. Users can extract colors from a photo to find the closest PANTONE color, generate color combinations, and email the palettes in both HTML and ASE formats. Users can also print palettes and notify others of the creation of new palettes via Facebook and Twitter.

Palette
Palette helps iPhone users create and maintain their favorite color palettes. Colors can be extracted from photos or websites, or added using one of the app’s five models. The app has three versions: Free, Basic and Pro. The Basic and Pro versions allow users to create and store any number of palettes, while the Free version is limited to storing three palettes. The Pro version has 25 colors per palette while the Free and Basic versions have only 5. Palettes and color schemes can be exported to a number of design programs including Adobe Photoshop, GIMP and PaintShopPro.

For more information on expert web design, get in touch with the experienced professionals at Infintech Designs.

Infintech Designs
3110 Magazine St., #120
New Orleans, LA 70115

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PicSay Pro is an easy-to-use photo editing app with powerful features. It has all the traditional editing tools that you’d expect from a photo editor, with the addition of lots of fun effects to choose from. Many of its filters and features are similar to Instagram. Its most distinguishing feature is its library of stickers and text bubbles to liven up your photos. Once you’ve made your edits and added fun stickers and text, you can share your photos on Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram. This is a great app for serious and not-so-serious photo editing.

PicsArt is one of the best and largest photo editing apps on the Android market, and works by enhancing the functions on your standard camera.  It even has its own social network, similar to Instagram. It features high quality, unique filters, and comes with a collage feature that is a favorite among its users. There are also different kinds of layering, masks, frames, borders, stickers, and more. The drawing effects make it easy to create doodles on your photos, and sharing on your social networks is a snap.

Snapseed is one of the newer photo editing apps, but it has already won a number of awards. The app’s biggest draw is that all enhancements can be done using swiping gestures. It offers simple editing tools, like autocorrect, to adjust color and exposure. If you’d like to edit more, white balance, contrast and brightness can all be adjusted to your liking. The app also makes it easy to crop, rotate, and straighten photos, and there are many filter options to create a unique look. You can share photos on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ with just one touch.

Pixlr Express has a number of features that makes it a favorite among serious photographers. The “denoise” option makes it easy to reduce noise in photographs. The tilt, shift, and blur tools are particularly good as well. You can save files at their original size to reduce quality loss. Recent updates have allowed users to be able to adjust the opacity of filters, layers and textures. You can add more than one filter and rotate or flip filters to create truly spectacular photos.

Touch Retouch is an app that you’ll want to have on hand, if only for its ability to remove distracting elements from your photos. The app’s simple functions allow you to easily use the lasso tool to select an area that you want to remove. Then, using algorithms and details from the surrounding area in the photo, it gets rid of the unwanted element in a natural-looking way. It can edit photos up to eight megapixels.

Photo Editor is a basic image editing app with the ability to save in .png and .jpg formats. The app can handle photos up to 16 megapixels. Adjust color levels and curves, skew images or apply filters to add artistic effects to your pictures. The limitations of the app are that it offers only a few filters and frames. For a basic editor, though, it gets the job done and has easy-to-use text tools to add words to your photographs.

If you prefer to have your design work carried out by professionals, Infintech Designs is ready and waiting to help.

Infintech Designs
3110 Magazine St., #120
New Orleans, LA 70115

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Evernote for Business

Evernote started as a simple clipping service for people to save cool things they found on websites. It has grown into an application that helps you organize your teams, according to forbes.com, and your team’s work products. Each member gets an account and has access to their own space as well as the Business Library.

The library is where teams can share all types of project information including research notes, presentations, and documents in progress. You can save all or part of a website into Evernote as examples or part of your research. There is a $10 monthly fee for the service. It runs on most smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops or accessed via a web application.

Dropbox for Teams

Dropbox was one of the early cloud-storage pioneers providing people with the ability to store and share all types of content. It has evolved into a collaboration tool for groups needing space to work on and share content, according to forbes.com. A simple app installs on your device that creates folders which integrate with your existing operating system. Those folders sync up automatically with corresponding folders in your Dropbox account. You can store documents, presentations, audio, videos, images and whatever files your team needs to share. Pricing runs from $99 to $795 per year depending on the number of team members you want to sign up and the amount of storage you need.

IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0

If you are an entrepreneur with limited resources but need to get a team off the ground fast, then this might be the tool for you. And if you’re over 40 then you’ve probably heard of Lotus. One of the earliest office automation tools, according to PCMag.com, Lotus has been resurrected based on the open-source platform OpenOffice. The is a full office automation tool with word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools. The interface has been completely reworked to make it easy for anyone to use. The price: free. It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux computers. A good tool for a small business that has other places to spend its money.

Abukai Expenses

If you’re on the go with a lot of business- and travel-related expenses, you probably dread sorting through receipts and filling out expense reports. According to PCMag.com, Abukai Expenses is a cloud-based service that’s lets you take pictures of your receipts and receive a completed expense report. It has a number of customization options and can be integrated with many different financial systems. The app is available on Android, Blackberry and iPhone. The price runs from $39 to $99 per year depending on the type of account you sign up for.

Toodledo

Sometimes you just want a simple way to keep a list of things to do and a few notes. Toodledo, according to toodledo.com, gives you that and the flexibility to do even more. Each task has a number of parameters like due date, status and priority. You can keep running notes on each task, store tasks in folders to organize them or sort them a variety of ways. You can print your tasks in a number of formats including a little pocket-sized booklet. They have third-party tools available to link your tasks with other applications. Apps are available to view and work with your tasks on the Blackberry, Android and iPhone devices. From the desktop, laptop or tablet, a web application accesses your Toodledo account. The price is free to $29.95 a year depending on the options and storage you want.

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