Mobile News Authority

7 Top Trends in Social Media

2012-01-06T10:48:00.001-05:00

Looking into the future is always fun and science fiction writers have had their creative ideas on robots, mobile communications and other seemingly magical devices often turn into reality.

In fact, even cartoonists have predicted the future with Dick Tracy’s phone watch becoming a real device.

Watching technology weave its magic is summed up in the quote by the science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic“.

Who would have thought that social gaming would become a multi-billion dollar business in just two years with Zygna (the creators of Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook) now the most valuable games company in the world with annual revenues set to pass $1 billion next year. Zygna has filed for an IPO this year with its value estimated at between $15 billion and $20 billion.

One of the major drivers of changes to society and technology is the evolution of the mobile phone from a dumb device that just makes calls and texts to a web connected “smart phone”.

Trend One: Social Mobile

The invention and evolution of the computer in your hand, the “smart phone” that is connected to high speed broadband Internet is revolutionizing our communications and society. Facebook and Twitter apps are enabling people to take their social networks with them. The latest change to this ongoing trend is that Twitter is now embedded in the Apple iOS5 mobile operating system at the menu layer. Twitter has seen user acquisition increase by 300% since the launch.

Does this signal the end of the humble simple “text”?

Trend Two: Socialization of Search

Google’s search results are determined by complex algorithms designed and developed by hundreds of clever mathematicians wearing white lab coats and calculated by computers in dark humming data centers.

Google has started rolling out its “+1″ button that they are starting to indicate will be the start of the rise of ”social signals” that will be used to determine what content is being voted on as valuable by humans rather than just machines.

Google and Bing have increased the visibility and priority of social networks in search results. You may have noticed over the last 12 months that YouTube videos, Facebook pages and LinkedIn profiles and other social media are ranking higher in search results when conducting an online search.

Trend Three: Geo-Targeting of Social Media Marketing

The rise of FourSquare and Google “Places” has made checking in for specials in your local area a reality…. again driven by the “smart phone”. The mobile web will continue to make a major impact over the next 5 years as the worlds more than 5 billion phones become “Smart”.

Another part of this local social marketing trend is the new development of post code targeting capability in social media marketing on Facebook which is being rolled out in the USA.

The self serve paid Facebook marketing platform is now starting to include postcodes along with the other demographic data that Facebook has in its database about you.

Trend Four: Social Commerce

E-Commerce has been with us for nearly 15 years and is now producing a major negative impact on “bricks and mortar” stores that are not also online. It is predicted that 20% of total retail sales will be online over the next few years.

Over the last 12 months technology has emerged that allows you to take your shop (via “Apps”) to the Facebook “network” so that users do not have to leave the Facebook eco-system to buy their favourite brands. In fact many of the worlds top bands and musicians have their own Facebook store on their “Fan Page”

Commerce is now becoming “Omni Commerce”

Trend Five: Social Gaming

Games used to be played on a field or park, around a board in the middle of a table or with a deck of cards. Gaming has been redefined with the evolution of “Social Gaming” enabled by rich multi-media and easy to use social networks.

Zygna (which was only founded in 2007) has usurped traditional gaming companies by developing Farmville and Mafia Wars that is currently played by 230 million Facebook users every month. In 2010 Facebook and Zygna signed a 5 year agreement on the use of Facebook credits which returns 30% of all games revenues to Facebook. Revenues will exceed $1 billion in 2012 which is achieved through the sales of “virtual” products.

Trend Six: Global Magazine Super Blogs

Publishing is transforming rapidly from offline print to online platforms with the rise of global blogs that attract tens of millions of readers every month.

Huffington Post which started as a political blog was recently sold to AOL for $315 million. Traffic to these these blogs are driven by social networks and the Huffington Post handles over 1 million comments every month from more than 35.6 million unique visitors. In fact in June, 2010, traffic to the Huffington Post passed the doyen of traditional media, The New York Times.

Blogs on various topics from social media (Mashable) politics, food and technology are attracting millions of global readers every month.

Trend Seven: Global Micro Niche Business

Niche industries were in the past restricted by geography, technology and the tyranny of distance. Now they are able to become multi-million dollar enterprises with the global reach of social media that is not restricted by place, time and poor logistics.

Examples of this include “AussieBum” (sells mens underwear globally) and “AquaBumps” (which sells digital photography around the world focusing on water, surfing and beach images).

It is not only the revenue of these social network enabled businesses that surpasses the previously location bound industries but the speed at which they scale which is due to the virality of social networks including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

By the way ladies you do have to admire the “WonderJock”!

Social networks and media accelerate the speed and the leverage of the global reach of businesses that have not been seen before in the history of commerce.

The other driver that is essential to these changes is the rise of the mobile enabled “smart phone”.

Expect to continue to see more traditional industries disrupted by young technology upstarts that are social media savvy!

What other social media trends do you think are important and worth watching?

Originally posted on Jeffbullas.com Please take a moment to check him out!

Mobile search rose in final months of 2011

2012-01-06T10:36:00.000-05:00

Market research firm comScore recently released its latest MobiLens analysis and found that mobile web browsing increased between September and November of 2011.

According to the report, 42.1 percent of smartphone users accessed their mobile web browser in the three-month period ending in August. In the following three months, this figure rose to 44.4 percent. While the 2.3 percent jump is modest, the increase, paired with the influx of new smartphone users following the holidays, places an especially large focus on mobile SEO and local search for 2012.

As businesses rely more heavily on search marketing, targeting mobile searchers as well as desktop users is critical for success.

Similarly, social media access on mobile devices increased in the measured time frame, demonstrating a 2.1 percent gain. The same study measuring mobile access from June through August found 30.9 percent of smartphone users check social media on their handsets, compared to 33 percent during the three months ending in November. The most recent poll found one-third of those with iPhones, Android-powered devices and other smartphone access social media. Additionally, blogs were factored into this portion of the study, placing an emphasis on corporate blogging as a means of reaching smartphone users.

Brafton reported in October that businesses relying on SEO and social media marketing would likely broaden their reach by optimizing their campaigns for mobile audiences. More than 60 percent of smartphone users say they frequently access the websites of businesses they patronize.

originally posted on brafton.com please take a moment to check them out!

Mobile Predictions for 2012

2012-01-06T10:31:00.001-05:00

We asked CMOs of 15 top consumer brands to predict how digital media and technology will impact brand marketing in 2012. The feedback we received ranges from proving that mobile and social are no longer just hype to confirming that content can still be King. Regardless of their point of view on which electronic medium is preferred, the consensus from each CMO is that digital is critical to the survival and success of their brand. In this first series, marketing chiefs from Dominos, Motorola, Progressive and RadioShack explain why mobile is a priority.

It’s not very surprising that Eduardo Conrado, SVP & CMO of Motorola Solutions, is bullish about the effectiveness of mobile. That being said, Conrado feels that 2012 will be the rise of the purpose driving brands. Technology will become critical in sales enablement, bringing marketing and sales even closer in developing customer relationships. “Marketers will move from a focus on ‘product’ to a focus on ‘solutions’ – enabling key experiences for customers,” said Conrado. And mobile is a key enabler.

In just two years, smartphone adoption in the United States has skyrocketed from 18% to 44% and shows no signs of slowing. This represents a significant opportunity to engage consumers at their point of decision, on their terms. Phones are no longer the third screen of interaction – behind televisions and PCs. Increasingly, they are the first screen. Consumers are utilizing cameras, sophisticated apps and other wireless capabilities, including mobile commerce, to guide their purchase decisions in real time.

Lee Applbaum, EVP & CMO at RadioShack, explained to us the brand’s strong heritage in mobile innovation, having sold more than 72 million cellphones since 1986. As smartphones and tablets are becoming the preferred devices shoppers use to research and locate products and services, Applbuam and his team plan to leverage the products they sell as a medium to connect with our customers. “For RadioShack, it is more than a just a commerce opportunity, but actually a brand imperative,” stated Applbaum.

Russell Weiner, CMO of Dominos, is in full agreement that mobile will be imperative this year. “In my opinion, 2012 will become the year where ‘mobile’ moves to the other side of the ampersand in every marketer’s ‘Internet & Mobile strategy’. Mobile will start to lead, not follow a brand’s technical priorities.” According to Weiner, companies have historically thought of web first with regard to their marketing programs. Even at Domino’s, Weiner explains that their web ordering site online has been leading and then followed by iPhone and iPad apps. “So in the past it was, what do we do online and then how do we adapt it for mobile? With many of our new projects, we are now thinking mobile first.”

At Progressive Insurance, their CMO, Jeff Charney, and his team have always been focused on innovation and digital technology, which is proven by their multitude of apps, games and other industry-first mobile technology. “We want bold results. Period. In this uber-competitive marketplace, you don’t get bold results by staying in your comfort zone. Lots of marketers overuse the phrase, ‘be everywhere.’ If you say you’re going to ‘be everywhere’ you’d better really… be everywhere,” stressed Charney. And now that it’s the first screen, mobile is clearly everywhere.

Charney warned that brands can’t just decide one day to just go mobile or digital: “It’s got to be in your bloodstream as a marketer, your DNA, your MO, ingrained in your culture, like it is in ours. The bold, breakthrough brands that have embraced this years ago will be the ones to be reckoned with – putting up bold, breakthrough numbers – while those brands choosing the more traditional routes might have to settle for results that remain…traditional.”

Originally posted on Forbes.com Please take a moment to check them out!

5 Hot Marketing Trends

2012-01-04T13:08:00.000-05:00

For marketers, a new year is about opportunities. It's another chance to roll out better campaigns and gain further insight into what customers want, as well as find new ways to engage those customers. More than ever, it's also about staying on top of technology developments and trends. CRM magazine asked marketers, analysts, and thought leaders about the top five technology trends that excite them for 2012. Here's what they said.

Mobile Marketing | It's Going to Be Huge
More people are turning to smartphones for entertainment and to manage their daily lives as these mobile devices become increasingly sophisticated and affordable. In 2010, Morgan Stanley Research predicted that smartphone sales would exceed PC sales in 2012. And according to a report from Gartner research group, by 2015, tablet computers will outsell PCs by 60 percent.

"Smartphones and tablets are taking over," says GMR Marketing's senior vice president, Bryan Rasch. "As we get past more than fifty percent of people having smartphones, we're getting into the meat of consumerism, in which people will have a device that allows them to have a richer engagement with content. This presents lots of opportunities for retailers to introduce a full-blown mobile program."

In addition, the best mobile campaigns are those that are integrated with other channels, Rasch notes. "The perfect trifecta is mobile combined with local and social engagement," he says. "That's how to get consumers to start feeling connected with your brand."

Companies have already started to test the waters with creative mobile campaigns that are embedded in an app, a Facebook link, a quick response (QR) code, or even a combination of all three. In taking mobile campaigns to the next level, Robert Brosnan, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, points to geolocation tools as an increasingly popular way to give consumers more tailored information about a company's products.

"Anyone carrying a modern smartphone brings with them a far more accurate geolocation service than anything Foursquare, Gowalla, or Google could provide via the Web," Brosnan says. "Most smartphone apps from retailers, say BestBuy or Amazon, already access location information [even though] they must ask for permission first. Expect this feature to move from relatively simple check-ins—i.e., where is the user when the app is activated?—to actively triggering marketing programs and offers in real time. You can easily imagine BestBuy deploying different offers and content when the user is casually investigating products at home, versus scanning products at a rival consumer electronics retailer, say at Target down the street."

Analysts also expect location-based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla, which both offer users online badges and other rewards for checking in on their site, to gain further traction as more people switch to smartphones.

"Foursquare shows a lot of business potential," says Brent Leary, managing partner of CRM Essentials. "Location is a key feature of marketing. It's harder to convince people to get into their car and drive to your store. Using Foursquare or something like it to show nearby customers that your store is just across the street makes a compelling argument to get them to come to you."

According to a study by Google and OTX research firm, the most popular mobile shopping activity is locating the nearest retailer. When consumers find local information, 88 percent take action within a day; of this number, 61 percent call a retailer and 59 percent visit a store.

Combining localized information with enticing offers makes businesses even more compelling, says Jeff Ernst, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, who experienced the value of a location-based service firsthand. "I was visiting San Francisco and I used Foursquare to find out what was around me. I found a tavern, and when I checked in, a deal popped up for two-for-one beers. That deal enticed me to go back the following night with two friends, and I told more people about it," Ernst says. "Restaurants and retailers are starting to use Foursquare actively, but it's still underutilized. From a marketing perspective, rewarding frequent customers with special offers is a great way to build customer loyalty, but it's still at the experimentation stage."

Some businesses are more excited about using Foursquare as a branding tool than as a lead generator. Kaysha Kalkofen, a co-owner of tSunela, a digital marketing agency with locations in St. Louis, Mo., and Portland, Ore., notes that her clients use Foursquare mainly to interact with their customers.

"A lot of our clients have tried Foursquare but haven't had much success with the deals," she says. "They've had more success in using it for social interactions. They like the check-ins and having customers post comments. It's free, and all they have to do is make sure it's linked to their Web site and that their [Foursquare] page is accurate."

QR Codes | Expect More Creativity
QR codes have been touted by early adopters as a fast way to get information to customers. These square bar codes can be scanned with a smartphone to display text or contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a Web page in the phone's browser.

Over the past year, businesses have slapped QR codes on magazines, business cards, bus stop ads—anywhere consumers can easily utilize mobile devices to get product information.

The uptake has been slow, however. Educating consumers on how to access the codes and understand their benefits have been the biggest challenges to using this technology.

Some companies, such as Macy's and The Home Depot, made an effort to ensure they were not leaving their customers in the dark when they launched their QR code programs last year.

Recognizing that not everyone is tech-savvy, Macy's released a YouTube video explaining how the program works (http://bit.ly/gdXcN9). Macy's also made sure that customers who didn't have a smartphone could still participate in the program by texting.

On a similar note, when The Home Depot launched its QR code program, it also ensured that customers could access the program by texting, as well as by scanning the code with a smartphone.

In June 2011, 14 million people in the United States used a QR code, representing 6.2 percent of the total U.S. mobile audience, according to comScore. Kalkofen is confident that the use of the codes will continue to increase.

"I think we'll see a big influx of QR codes as businesses get more creative about using them," Kalkofen says. "More businesses are starting to use codes as coupons or ways to get more info. I was at a car dealer and they had a QR code on the cars, so if I went back, I could show them the car I had looked at. It's all about providing information that a consumer would want."

"What's even more interesting than standard QR codes is a branded dial code," says Ernst.
Branded dial codes—QR codes that consumers can access with a keypad—are gaining in popularity. "The NFL ran a TV ad where you could dial **NFL and get a free app," Ernst says. "More companies are using this as a way to connect offline with customers. Dial codes are a good alternative to snapping a photo [of the code], since not everyone has a camera on their phone, but everyone has a keypad."

Social Media Monitoring Tools | Look for VOC Integration
As the use of social media networks has grown, so have systems for tracking what customers are saying about companies through sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Social media monitoring systems will continue to become more sophisticated, say analysts, and more systems will include integration with VOC data.

"Listening to what your customers are saying is already huge, but it will get even bigger," Ernst says. "When Salesforce bought the market leader, Radian6, that indicated social listening is going from a niche to a core platform."

Integrating social media monitoring sites with VOC data is a natural evolution, Ernst adds. "Companies are moving from just listening to their customers' moods to figuring out how to respond. It's one thing to know what people are saying about you, but it's another thing to know how to react and engage your customers."
Users can also expect more customization options when analyzing their VOC data, says Bruce Temkin, managing partner of the Temkin Group, a customer experience research and consulting firm.

"Companies need information in a form they can act on and, historically, voice of the customer data has been centralized," Temkin says. "Now more and more platforms are coming out that will let you tailor it to specific roles, such as the store manager, the regional manager, etc."

Temkin also expects to see more mergers and acquisitions occurring between traditional VOC companies and social media monitoring companies. "We're just starting to see a wave of M&As, like Attensity [buying] Biz360 and Verint [buying] Vovici. The customer base has grown so rapidly that providers are behind and need to catch up," he says.

Social Media Marketing | Target Loyal Fans
Companies are continuing to learn that customers respond best to social media networks that are used as a communications channel, rather than an overt marketing tool. "

Using new tools to push the same traditional marketing message is "just a fast way to get people not to listen to you," CRM Essentials' Leary says. "If you want to be successful, you have to understand what's important to your customers and interact with them."

Marketers are wising up to the fact that customers are more likely to trust their friends than an impersonal ad when making buying decisions. As a result, savvy companies are looking for ways to help their customers share their favorite brands with their friends.

Asking customers to write positive reviews or "like" a company's Facebook page are what Ernst calls "social amplification."

"Companies are spending a lot of money on paid media campaigns—which is still important—but they're also looking at social media as a way to amplify what they're spending on those campaigns," Ernst says. "A big question that companies are working on is 'How do you amplify the messages of your happy customers?'"

After a few missteps (think Beacon, Facebook's ad platform that was terminated for violating consumers' privacy), Facebook has fine-tuned its sharing capabilities. When you "like" a company's Facebook page, you can also see who among your friends likes it too.

In addition, more brands are including a "shop" page on Facebook that looks like an online catalog with share options. If you like a dress on Express's page, for example, you can recommend it to friends and post comments about it before adding it to your shopping bag and purchasing it.

Businesses that need help identifying their most loyal customers can also turn to a social media marketing company like Zuberance.

"Every company wants brand 'lunatics,' and sites like Zuberance will help you find them and enlist them as brand advocates," Ernst says.

Intuit, the financial and tax preparation software maker, is one of Zuberance's clients. With Zuberance's help, Intuit asked satisfied customers to write reviews of what they like about Intuit's service, which the company now displays on its Web site.

"Now we realize it's not just about us sending out marketing materials, but it's also about getting people who love us to share that, and there's a lot of value in that," says Laura Messerschmitt, senior marketing manager at Intuit, in a testimonial video on Zuberance's site.

Video | Fewer Obstacles but Not Quite Perfect
Once costly, online video is becoming an increasingly easy and affordable way for companies to communicate with their audience. More videos are also being watched. According to comScore, nearly 40 million online videos were viewed in September 2011—a 28 percent increase over the previous year.

"With bandwidth getting cheaper and the proliferation of smartphones and other recording devices, video is becoming a viable way of engaging with consumers, building awareness, and driving new customer acquisitions," notes Jeff Zabin, CEO and research director of Gleanster, a market research firm. "The winners will be brands that engage their prospects in a contact-sensitive way."

Businesses concerned about producing polished content to engage their customers need only look at the viral videos on YouTube to know this is no longer necessary.

"It's not so much about the polish as it is about the meat of the content," GMR's Rasch says. "If you can answer a consumer's question or show them something new, the production quality becomes less valuable."

In addition to the growing popularity of online videos, two developing trends are the demand for videos that are compatible with mobile devices and advanced technology for tracking video analytics.
"There's going to be an exponential increase in video that is heavily weighted towards mobile in both B2B and B2C," says Nick Balletta, CEO of TalkPoint, a company that provides technology and services for interactive Webcasting and virtual meetings. "We've seen a thirty percent increase in mobile viewership over the last quarter, and it's only going to increase."

Esteban Kolsky, principal and founder of ThinkJar, remains unconvinced of video's usefulness as a marketing tool, unless it includes an effective video analytics system. "Video is still a toy for marketers," he says. "We don't have an easy way of tracking video to know how much time people are spending on it and how it translates into business. Until we can do that, video is just hype."

By themselves, these technology trends are unlikely to be groundbreaking—what is exciting is what you do with them.

Why Group Buying Is Falling Fast
Group buying and daily deals sites are losing their luster faster than the amount of time it takes to snap up a deal, according to marketers and industry experts.

Groupon, the former golden child of daily deals sites, has seen its IPO tarnished by questions about its unorthodox accounting measures, scaled-back expectations of how much money Groupon can raise, and revisions of its sales figures.

Even large companies like Facebook and Yelp have run into problems. Facebook announced it would test its own daily deals service in April 2011. Brands like the Gap, Chipotle, J.C. Penney, and Harrah's had partnered with Facebook Deals and were ready to start offering discounts through the social network.
After running Deals for just four months, Facebook shuttered it last August.

"After testing Deals for four months, we've decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks,"
Facebook told Mashable in a statement. "We remain committed to building products to help local
businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals."

>In addition, Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of the local business-review site Yelp, said in a blog post that his company was scaling back its own daily deals site and slashed its daily deals sales staff by half.

"As time goes by, group buying becomes more fragmented," Bryan Rasch, of GMR, says. "Group buying started under the idea 'I'll put in a good deal and get a lot of people interested.' But as people get hundreds [of deals], no one pays attention anymore. I think it'll just get to a point…where it's no different than getting a flyer."

CRM Essentials' Brent Leary agrees that the excitement over daily deals sites has cooled but believes there is still a place for them. "Group buying has definitely come down to earth, but it can be a good way to experiment with generating leads," he says. "You just don't want to continually go back to it, otherwise it could eat into your revenue."

Originally posted on destinationcrm.com Please take a moment to check them out!

Social Media Trends for 2012

2012-01-03T14:47:00.000-05:00

It was the year of the tablet computer, the release of Apple’s iPad II and the birth of Amazon’s Kindle Fire. It was also the year Google challenged Facebook with Google+ and caught up to Apple with the Android mobile operating system.

With such a dramatic year behind us, the question is, what next? It is always risky to make bold predictions about social media trends for the future but some things already underway should reach their full development in 2012.

1. People will get more news from friends than from major news outlets.
Social media has always been a platform for self-expression as much as a platform for staying connected to people. So as more people start their day with Facebook rather than the morning paper, they are going to encounter numerous postings on the current news, and links to articles people want their friends to see.
Those articles are more likely to be opened because they come from trusted sources. So what people post on Facebook, and to a lesser extent on Twitter, is likely to serve as the first exposure many people have to any news item.

But it isn’t only Facebook status updates that impact the news people get. Search engines, including Google, YouTube, and Facebook, now individualize their search results, ostensibly to give people what they really want to read. The result, however, is that alternative viewpoints are harder to find than ever.

2. Content will continue to move to mobile devices.
While most of the content people consume in 2012 will continue to be created on desktop or laptop computers, an increasing percentage of it will be consumed on smart phones and tablets.
According to statistics, there are more than 200 million devices with Apple’s mobile operating system, the iOS, including all iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches on the market. But that’s just 44% of the mobile market. Hundreds of millions more mobile devices in use today that use other mobile operating systems, most notably Google’s Android.

That also means that anyone creating content today has to expect that a significant portion of the audience will be using these devices, either at home while doing other things, or on the bus or train on the way to work, or any number of other places where computers generally weren’t used in the past.

3. Social media will converge with traditional media.
Five years ago, Social media, or web 2.0 as it was then known, was viewed as a revolution in Internet communications. Today’s an indelible part of our lives.

Marketing and communications, therefore, is increasingly moving away from isolating social media campaigns from the rest of a company’s marketing efforts. Today, the savviest marketers combine social media with traditional marketing. Domino’s Pizza, for example, set up a digital billboard that featured unfiltered comments about the company from the Internet.

There are other trends to track across 2012, including the growth of “the cloud” – software that stores your documents and data on the Internet instead of on your personal computer; the growth of social shopping sites such as Groupon; and photo sharing from mobile to the Internet through sites such as Instagram.

It’s also a good idea to keep an eye open for urprises. If there is one thing that can be said with certainty about the current era, technology is advancing faster than we can track it.

Originally Posted on honestreporting.com Please take a moment to check them out!

Six quick tips for integrating social media marketing into your working day

2012-01-03T14:29:00.001-05:00

Let's cut to the chase here. Social media isn’t going to go away anytime soon,and the opportunities for small and medium sized business to fuel rapid growth via social media marketing is enormous. But just because you are on Facebook and Twitter, it doesn’t mean you have a social media marketing strategy and in fact most companies still don’t know what to do with social media marketing.

Let’s get social
I meet with companies every day who tell me that they would like to somehow engage with social media marketing but have neither the time nor the basic knowledge to do it. While consultants and journalists are happy to showcase the successes of the likes of Dell and Coca Cola as social media success stories, these names (and their massive marketing budgets and resources) hardly even resonate with SME marketers who may be both cash and time poor.

But make no mistake, the opportunities for SMEs to profit from social media marketing are out there and often just call for slight changes to your working day to implement. Here are my six quick tips:
1. Socialise your email marketing activity

Your email marketing subscribers, as loyal customers or prospects who have already engaged with your business, are your most lucrative market. The mere fact they have opted-in to receive regular communications of offers from you shows that they trust you and want to hear from you. By adding Social Media tools such as a Facebook “like” button or a Twitter “tweet” button to your emails will encourage them to share your email content with their friends and followers and could potentially turn an email viral.

2. Schedule your social media output

You don’t need to be sitting in front of a computer to post messages to Facebook and Twitter. Software tools are available that allow you to schedule your posts to the social media networks. This means you can plan and launch multiple campaigns to run automatically over the coming days or weeks. This is particularly useful if you are targeting customers across different time zones or just outside of normal office hours.
3. Learn to listen

Just as you may schedule time to answer your emails, you should schedule some time to monitor or “listen” to your feedback relating to your company or brand via the Social Networks. Larger companies may want to employ sophisticated software such as Radian6 or Brandwatch – but smaller companies can keep costs down by very simply using the search facility on Twitter, monitoring their Facebook pages and setting up Google Alerts to catch mentions on blogs and forums, etc. It’s also a good idea to monitor your competitors brand terms and compare sentiment towards them with your brand.

4. Don’t be afraid to engage

There is a very good reason it is called social media. Don’t be afraid to engage with people via Social Media. Thank people for kind words or recommendations. Try and assist people who might have problems and never ignore an angry comment.

5. Add value with your own content
Too many people use Social Media to re-appropriate other people’s content. Just because you are 10th person to re-tweet and interesting news article or blog post does not mean you are a Thought Leader. Add value to your Social Media output by creating your own content. This could be a blog post, a competition or even just a simple photo or image which showcases your business.

6. Maintain momentum

Once you have started, don’t stop. An ill-tended or redundant social network gives the impression of a slack organisation or may even suggest you have simply gone out of business. It might take a number of months to see any real return on your investment (in terms of followers and revenue) so stick at it and be prepared to build slowly.

Originally posted on utalkmarketing.com Please take a moment to check them out!

Optimizing Mobile Marketing To Deliver The Ultimate Customer Experience

2012-01-03T14:25:00.000-05:00

Let’s face it: today’s consumers — myself included — are obsessed with their mobile phones. In fact, recent research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project has indicated that 65% of adult smartphone owners sleep with their phone on or next to their bed.

The cutting-edge features of smartphones such as the iPhone and Android are great contributors to this evolution. From the instant communication of short message service (SMS), to the media-rich experiences in applications and the robust, yet compact, Internet experience of mobile web, smartphone technology seems to have it all. To that end, innovative retailers are leveraging mobile marketing strategies to interact with tech-savvy shoppers in the new era of customer engagement.

One of my recent retail experiences spotlights the potential impact of an effective mobile marketing strategy. Since I was in need of new furniture, I decided to search for the best deal during the red tag sales of Columbus Day. After conducting extensive research via my iPhone, I discovered that JCPenney carried the exact furniture style I was looking for, at the right price. Upon completing my purchase, I opened a JCPenney credit card, signed up for the rewards program, and opted in to the retailer’s email and SMS programs so I could be alerted when my bill was available and when I was eligible for deals.

A day after opting in, I received a “thank you” text and email, and a coupon for a future purchase. This retailer has hit all the touch points of the shopping process, securing me as a new customer and motivating me to consider additional purchases.

Although my personal shopping experience shows the power of mobility on an individual basis, the recent Retail TouchPoints Mobility Report drives these points home on an industry level. In the report, retail analysts and experts identified the customer-facing benefits of SMS, applications, quick response (QR) codes and geo-fencing strategies. Based on consumers’ position across the buying lifecycle, retailers can find the perfect message and channel to boost engagement. Some examples follow:

-SMS: Similar to my JCPenney experience, shoppers have “raised their hands” via SMS to receive news updates and specials directly in their text message inbox. Retailers such as Urban Outfitters, eBay and Victoria’s Secret have optimized this strategy by tapping into shopper history and preferences to send relevant, targeted messages.

-Applications: Mobile storefronts have changed the way shoppers browse, buy and interact with brands. Retailers including Sephora have set the bar high by creating a multi-media brand experience with videos, tutorials, customer ratings and reviews, and social media integration.

-Geo-location apps/geo-fencing: Applications such as foursquare have taken the mobile marketplace by storm. These programs turn everyday experiences into a game by promising check-in points, badges, offers and the greatest honor of all: to become the mayor of a location. When I enter a restaurant or store, I am anxious to check in and find out how many points I have earned. Retailers can take advantage of this “gamified” strategy to drive foot traffic. However, geo-fencing is moving to the forefront as a new way for retailers to push out digital coupons when a shopper is in a store aisle. The goals of this strategy are twofold: boost impulse purchases and increase basket size.

-QR Codes: These scannable codes allow retailers to connect the dots between print and digital marketing. For example, Crate and Barrel, Best Buy, and Macy’s have leveraged QR codes on in-store signage, catalogs and print advertisements. Once shoppers scan a code, they can obtain detailed product information, access to deals, and behind-the-scenes videos.

With the holiday season in full force, I find myself struggling to make the time to buy gifts for my friends and family. However, by simply tapping into my iPhone, I have the resources to research items, purchase gifts, redeem deals and share my wish list. Looks like it will be a jolly holiday, after all.

To learn more about the latest mobility trends, click here to download a complimentary copy of the Retail TouchPoints Mobility Report.

*Alicia Fiorletta is Associate Editor for Retail TouchPoints. Working closely with industry analysts and experts, Alicia reports on the latest news, case studies and trends coming to forefront in the retail industry. With a focus on cross-channel strategies, Alicia follows consumer-driven applications in the industry that increase brand loyalty and shopper engagement in-store and online. Through her work with G3 Communications, Alicia also acts as Managing Editor for Channel Marketer Report, a blog that spotlights new marketing strategies, research and news within the channel.

Originally posted on TheMobileRetailBlog.com Please take a moment to check them out!

Going Mobile: Businesses Increase Use of Location-Based Marketing

2012-01-03T13:50:00.000-05:00

On a rainy Saturday night in Evanston, Chris Morales checked in to Buffalo Wild Wings using a location-based services (LBS) application on his phone.

“I check in so it looks like I’m doing something,” said Morales who attends Mather High School in Chicago and was at Buffalo Wild Wings for the UFC watch party.

Morales did not redeem any discounts for checking in. However, he could have had a free Coke Zero or six free wings with a few clicks on his mobile device.

Businesses are shifting marketing strategies to put emphasis on mobile devices — a way of responding to a rising consumer market: individuals who are always on the go. In just the last year, smartphone use among 13 to 34-year-olds rose about 20 percentage points, according to a recent Nielsen study.

Discounts Move to Your Mobile Device

The use of mobile marketing has increased over 40 percentage points in the last two years, according to an Association of National Advertisers study.

“It now becomes possible for marketers to say how can I be relevant knowing where you are,” said Tom Collinger, the executive director of the Medill IMC Spiegel Digital & Database Research Initiative. “That’s not a question that was really all that relevant until this.”

“The way that media was planned, bought and sold was not so much where you are, but what you are interested in.”

Location, Location, Location

Today, location plays a huge role in marketing efforts to entice consumers.

At LuLu’s in Evanston, consumers who check in on Foursquare and spend more than $15 can get a free brownie desert. Through 55 days, the reward was unlocked 139 times, according to William Guth, the web project manager of the North Shore Media Company and manager of LuLu’s mobile marketing strategy.
“The brownie did surprisingly well,” Guth said. “It is a good motivator to get people to come in.”
LuLu’s also offers a loyalty reward on Foursquare where if customers check in three times before Dec. 31, they can get $10 off their next bill.

“The number of customers we do a day… the number of redemptions we get… it’s a very small amount,” said Owner Daniel Kelch.

Buffalo Wild Wings uses SCVNGR — a mobile application that allows customers to check in, post photos or complete challenges at locations to receive points. Customers can get $5 off of their purchase of $25 or more for 35 points and a free Coke Zero for seven.

However, Sheridan Foster, the manager of the Buffalo Wild Wings in Evanston, said she only redeems two SCVNGR deals a week.

“I’m not seeing many people do challenges,” Foster, 32, said. “It surprises me when they do have it.”

Consumer Skepticism

As of now, only 5 percent of cell phone owners, 12 percent for smartphone owners, use their devices to check in, according to a 2011 Pew Internet survey.
Mackenzie Bronk started using Foursquare about two months ago when her friends told her it had deals at local restaurants, she said. Bronk, a senior in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, has only redeemed one reward at a McDonald’s in Chicago.
Like Bronk, many consumers do not seem to be using these deals regularly. Desai Clay, a part-time associate at RadioShack in Evanston, said people “don’t have the incentive to check in here by themselves.”

“A year ago we had 20 percent off if you checked in and we all mentioned it at the counter,” Clay said. “People were checking in left and right.”

However, RadioShack employees were not supposed to mention this deal to customers. When they stopped prompting customers to check in, Clay said he noticed the number of people who check in on Foursquare dip to roughly two people per week.

But the modest number of unlocked LBS rewards does not stop at consumer electronics as Red Mango has seen a modest number of unlocked rewards at its Evanston location. The frozen yogurt chain offers one deal on Foursquare and Assistant Manager Pablo Zayas said “no more than five” rewards have been redeemed.

Privacy vs. Commerce

As businesses begin to offer more LBS focused deals on mobile applications, the challenge arises for the business to be more relevant than intrusive.
“We are on the very front end of this wonderful, wonderful sea change of making it possible for people to get what they want, when they want it, where they are,” Collinger said. “The problem is that, from the consumer side, if it really isn’t seen as cool, if it’s seen as an invasion, they [businesses] have started to kill their golden goose.”
Eddie Lakin, the owner of Edzo’s Burger Shop in Evanston, does not use mobile marketing because it is “too crowded and confusing.”

“I’m ‘anti’ all of that,” Lakin said. “It’s just too much information. I can’t wrap my brain around it.”
But like Lakin, some consumers feel the same way. Carlos Agrelo, a banker from Chicago, does not use those applications because they “seem a little silly” and invade his privacy, he said.

“Those coupons are geared if you have expendable income not for staples of the household,” Agrelo said. “People aren’t eating out every day. Let me check in to Trader Joe’s for some hummus.”

Originally posted on northwesternbusinessreview.org Please take a moment to check them out!

PayPal: Mobile payments and location-based offers go hand-in-hand

2012-01-03T13:43:00.000-05:00

As we have been reporting, PayPal is gearing up to launch an in-store payment system that will compete with Google Wallet, Isis, Square and others. But the company isn’t just building out a point-of-sale transaction network. It’s looking to engage consumers well before they set foot in a store.

Walt Doyle, the CEO of WHERE, which was acquired by PayPal last year, said that will be a key battleground in mobile payments, pulling in consumers off the street. WHERE, which operates a location-based ad network, will be used as a way for merchants and retailers to engage consumers with deals and offers and lure them into stores, where they can check out using PayPal’s upcoming payment system. Doyle told me in an interview that the system will make mobile payments interesting to both consumers and merchants.

“If you only enforce payments without content advertising or offers, it’s simply not compelling from the acceptance side or from the consumer side,” Doyle said.

WHERE is able to target consumers based on a variety of factors including location but also search and purchase data. The goal is to be able to find nearby users and walk them into a store so they will buy a product based on an offer or deal. That will allow PayPal to close the redemption loop and show merchants how much business they are getting from PayPal, Doyle said.

We talked about the potential of offering local deals when PayPal bought WHERE. But it is interesting to see that PayPal considers WHERE a key tool in its larger mobile payments efforts. It’s not surprising, considering Google Wallet is being combined with Google Offers, but it shows that this is becoming table stakes in mobile payments. You can’t just have a great payment solution; you also need to have marketing and outreach tools to distinguish yourself from other offerings. And you need to provide merchants with more benefits than just an alternative to a card swipe. Having a way for merchants and retailers to grab people off the street is going to be key for successful payment systems. And putting coupons and deals in the hands of consumers can help convince them that it makes sense to use an alternative to credit cards or cash.

One of the problems I see, however, is that with WHERE there is no guarantee that consumers must pay via PayPal at the point of sale. A user could receive a mobile ad for a deal or coupon and then choose to pay with cash or a card, which would leave the redemption loop open. That, Doyle said, is something PayPal will be working on as it rolls out its payment system.

But he said this is part of the bigger challenge for all mobile payment providers. They have to provide more benefit than a card swipe to both consumers and merchants. It is going to take an ecosystem to accelerate adoption, said Doyle, and there is a lot more learning needed in the years to come.

“2012 in mobile payments is where location-based services were, like, three to four years ago. It’s, like, the year when things begin but it’s not where the critical adoption curve kicks in. You need consumer adoption on handsets and merchant adoption on the point of sale side. You will see it begin this year, and we will all learn a ton,” Doyle said.

Originally posted on gigaom.com Please take a moment to check them out!

McDonald’s aims to increase in-store traffic via geotargeted mobile ads

2012-01-02T20:17:00.001-05:00

Fast food giant McDonald’s is promoting its hot beverages via a new mobile ad campaign that aims to bolster its Hot McCafe sales, as well as in-store traffic.

The company is promoting the geotargeted mobile ads within Pandora’s iPhone application. The mobile ads recognize the user’s location and show them how far away the nearest McDonald’s location is.
“The rise of local market targeting has been one of the overarching themes this year in mobile advertising, and brands are increasingly using mobile to reach local consumers,” said Mack McKelvey, senior vice president of Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD.

Ms. McKelvey is not affiliated with McDonald’s. She commented based on her expertise on the subject.
McDonald’s did not respond to press inquiries.

Hot target
The McDonald’s mobile ad reads “Any Small Hot McCafe or Hot Chocolate $1.99 Learn More.”

The McDonald’s mobile ad

When consumers tap on the mobile ad, they are redirected to a mobile-optimized landing page that promotes the company’s hot beverages and features the nearest McDonald’s location where consumers can go and taste them.

The geotargeted mobile ad shows users the nearest McDonald’s location

Additionally, the mobile ad lets consumers download free holiday wallpapers to their mobile device, as well as learn more about the limited-time only hot beverages.

McDonald’s is also using social media with the mobile ad campaign and letting users let their friends know about the hot beverages via Facebook or Twitter. Running a mobile ad campaign such as this is effective for McDonald’s.

Not only are the mobile ads timely – they feature hot beverages during the winter holiday season – but they also incorporate location-based technology to help consumers find the closest McDonald’s location.

Past efforts
This is not the company’s first foray into mobile advertising. Earlier this month, McDonald’s turned to mobile to engage and drive consumers to its locations via a new mobile ad campaign that promotes its breakfast selection through an interactive memory game.

The company ran mobile ads within Pandora. The ads encouraged users to play a memory game to get to know its breakfast items. Most recently, the company used mobile advertising to promote its classic Big Mac sandwiches to on-the-go consumers.

McDonald’s ran the ads on Pandora’s iPhone application. The ads used a video pre-roll that then directs users to a mobile-optimized landing page. “Location based ads can be an effective way to deliver a timely and relevant message, and it allows advertisers to reach consumers who are in a location where they can purchase specific products available for sale,” Ms. McKelvey said.

Originally posted on MobileCommerceDaily.com Please take a moment to check them out!

Taco Bell Scores with QR Codes and Social Media

2011-12-31T13:41:00.000-05:00

If you order one of Taco Bell’s new 12-pack products, be sure to check out the QR code on the packaging. Including a QR code on their 12-pack products is part of a 360-degree marketing campaign that includes mobile, radio, in-store signage, web, television, and social media.

Taco Bell has also partnered up with ESPN to target football fans. Once scanned, the QR code will reveal exclusive content and videos of the BCS games on the ESPN mobile site.

According to Mobile Marketer, “The videos feature ESPN college football analyst Mark May and focus on four bowl games. Users can watch game highlights and learn about specific teams via the mobile bar codes and share content via Facebook and Twitter.”

The content changes weekly, which gives football (and Taco Bell) fans an incentive to keep coming back for more. For those without a phone with a QR code scanner, Mobile Marketer notes, “[Anyone can] participate in the campaign by texting the keyword ESPN TACO BELL to the short code 76477 to receive a link to the content.”

Taco Bell has also included instructions on what QR codes are and how to use them to help avoid any mobile technology confusion. The QR code/ESPN promotion is for a limited time, but Taco Bell is no stranger to incorporating mobile technology into their marketing efforts.
The company has a mobile site and has previously used mobile applications and advertising to reach their target audience.

We want to know: Do you scan the QR codes you see or do you prefer a more standard form of marketing?

Originally posted on business2community.com Please take a moment to check them out!

QR Codes - A Franchise Industry Trend

2011-12-31T12:51:00.000-05:00

For franchise businesses and locations, making the most of current trends in social media sites and technology advances are a great ways to reach broader audiences online. Social media outlets are significant franchise resources. With this in mind, the buzz around Taco Bell’s recent QR Code promotion with MTV is a testament of the latest movement in social media towards the smartphone market. Many franchise industry experts are giving special notice to the merits of QR Codes.

While this type of marketing and franchise development services have generally been used by big-name corporations and larger businesses, their merits are being recognized by smaller businesses and franchises as well. The general public is creating a movement towards the digital market and these franchise resources are an excellent option for smaller businesses because they are relatively inexpensive to generate.

Since QR Codes can be printed on most anything, they are great option for smaller businesses looking for ways to bridge the gap between their physical location and an online presence for their customers.

A franchise website, Facebook page, Google Places account, or even a Yelp listing can be linked to a QR Code; by simply scanning whatever the code is printed on with their smartphone, customers are able to quickly access the linked webpage, increasing visibility for large and small businesses alike. Franchise development services such as QR Codes are quickly growing in popularity because of their ease and low cost.

Using QR Codes as franchise resources allows the codes to be updated with new information and locations, making it easier to promote locations without expiration dates like regular printed coupons.

A restaurant chain in Michigan used QR Codes to promote a new outlet opening, including the codes in ads, on posters and in newspapers around the University of Michigan campus. The franchise received about four thousand scans, which stands as a true testament of the viral power of these simple black and white squares. Cost is kept low because the codes can be generated at a low cost and the only additional cost comes from paying for whatever poster, pamphlet, or other printed material the code is being placed upon.

With the general public becoming more and more digitized, many franchise internet marketing experts maintain that QR Codes are destined to become one of the newest staples of marketing for franchisees and business owners alike.

Originally Posted on business.ezinemark.com Please take a moment to check them out!

Amazon.com Widgets

NFC service for stores offers ‘tap and go’ digital receipts

2011-12-31T12:30:00.000-05:00

Proximiant is a service that uses NFC to let brick-and-mortar stores send digital receipts directly to shoppers’ phones.

With the rise of services such as Square, there’s no doubt that retailers large and small can now easily accept credit card payments. Now focusing on the receipts for transactions — Proximiant is a service that uses NFC to let brick-and-mortar stores send digital receipts directly to shoppers’ phones.

Stores begin by installing a free, phone-sized Proximiant transceiver at the checkout counter; fees only incur “when we bring you sales,” in the company’s own words. Shoppers, meanwhile, install the free Proximiant app, which is available for both Android and iOS devices. Then, customers with NFC-enabled phones can simply tap their phone on that transceiver and a digital copy of their receipt will be sent privately and securely to their phone, without the need for them to share their email address or any other personal information. Those whose phones aren’t NFC-enabled can get a free Proximiant tag instead, which they can then pair with their phone for use with the transceivers. Either way, all receipts can then be stored digitally in one searchable place without the need to worry about paper. Proximiant also finds and alerts shoppers to local coupons and deals based on their shopping habits so far. The video below explains Proximiant’s premise in further detail:

Roughly 9.6 million trees are cut down each year to produce paper receipts, according to a report on 2nd Green Revolution. Time to help slash that number with a similar innovation of your own?

Website: www.proximiant.com
Contact: www.proximiant.com/contact

Originally posted on springwise.com Please take a moment to check them out!

Entrepreneurs Launch Innovative Mobile NFC Rewards Program

2011-12-31T12:22:00.000-05:00

EMC Business - What's in a name? If it's Spoonity, there is meaning and value. The name is a combination of "spoon" and "community", reflecting the food-based community value of Ottawa's newest customer loyalty reward program.

Founded by young entrepreneurs Max Bailey and Myron Gomes of Kanata, Spoonity partners with local businesses to solve a common problem with a high tech solution.

Amid a sea of multinational high-tech companies in Ottawa there is a relatively small group of local start-up companies developing cutting-edge technologies.

"Spoonity is poised to redefine the concept of a rewards program for restaurants and cafés," says Myron Gomes.

"Spoonity uses a unique key-fob wireless device that diners can "wave" near a Spoonity reader in the restaurant that tracks reward points. Those points become tasty restaurant rewards such as coffees, lunches, desserts and more. Diners can use that same wireless tag at any restaurant in the Spoonity Community."

It's a win-win for both the customer and the retailer, says Max Bailey.

"Customers enjoy the benefits of rewards for loyalty while businesses benefit from return customers and increased volume."

Spoonity virtually pays for itself by gleaning a commission from sales. There is no direct cost to the customer for joining Spoonity and no cost for retailers to participate.

At present, Max and Myron are working with a handful of local businesses such as Luna Crepes and Café on March Road in Kanata and Gaia Java in Stittsville in a pilot project of the system with plans to expand to more than 20 locations across Ottawa in the coming months.

"We spent most of 2011 researching and planning our business," said Gomes. "Then we had to make the software function properly and now we're into our first pilot phase."

So far, the results have been rewarding for everyone involved. Spoonity is catching on with regular customers and those who appreciate being rewarded for return business.The young businessmen have high hopes for the company, and plan to develop new ideas to keep the concept new and fresh.

It's not surprising for the pair who has been entrepreneurial since an early age.

Max Bailey of Carp, is a winner of an Ottawa Young Entrepreneur Award. Bailey recently graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from Queen's University who started his first business on his family's farm in Carp, at the age of eight.

Myron Gomes of Kanata, is a recent Commerce graduate from the Telfer School of Management at University of Ottawa with six years in the restaurant business. He has excelled in national business competitions placing first in the Entrepreneurship Case at the 2011 JDC competition and in International Marketing at the 2010 Happening Marketing. Through his own family's restaurant, Gomes experienced many of the problems a small business runs into with limited resources.

Both are graduates from All Saints Catholic High School in Kanata.

The company also recently received a $30,000 grant from Coral CEA to develop its unique technology, which is based on Near Field Communication (NFC).

"We're very excited about developing this concept. We are both entrepreneurial and we recognized a need for this service in the local market."

Though the company is focused on Ottawa area locations at present, the partners agree that the concept could easily be expanded into markets coast to coast, and beyond.

"We offer the small retailer the same advantage that large corporate outlets get with their reward programs. We are cost effective and loaded with benefits for both the business and the customer," added Bailey.

"The idea for Spoonity came about as a way for restaurants to get to know their customers better and be able to reach those customers after they had left the restaurant. Spoonity's goal is to bring restaurants and consumers closer using technology to make it as easy and cost effective as possible," said Gomes.

Retailers are free to offer whatever rewards they want in the program, though Spoonity will provide guidelines to help newcomers get the program established. There are three levels to awards, the 'Teaspoon' for occasional users, the 'Tablespoon' for weekly regulars and the 'Big Spoon' for daily customers.

"In a global economy, ingenuity is our advantage," said Gomes. "We are a knowledge based economy and service-based industries are part of the intellectual property services that we can offer to expand outside our country," said Gomes.

"Spoonity can be part of the sales voice of a privately-owned restaurant. The low overhead makes us an affordable vehicle with plenty of benefits."

You can find out more about Spoonity online at www.spoonity.com or visit a participating location and pick up your tag.

Originally Posted on emckanata.ca Please take a moment to check them out!

5 Building Blocks for Your Mobile Marketing Strategy

2011-12-31T12:14:00.000-05:00

Plus: Top 10 digital-marketing trends for 2012; 99 million tablets to ship in 2012; marketers to raise 2012 online video ad budgets; and more

5 keys to building a mobile marketing strategy:Nearly 50 percent of consumers use their mobile phones for shopping activities, ranging from researching prices to downloading coupons to taking product photos. And you say you don't have a mobile marketing strategy? Here are five building blocks to help you get on track.

Top 10 digital-marketing trends for 2012: Give your eyes a rest and watch this slide show that covers CMO.com's top 10 online trends for next year. Sure, it includes the usual suspects such as social media and ROI metrics, but there are some surprises, too.

2012 tablet shipments outpace original projections: 99 million tablets are projected to ship in 2012, a jump of 55 percent over 2011, says investment banker JP Morgan, which revised earlier forecasts of 70 million to 80 million shipments. Apple is expected to ship 45.5 million iPads in 2012 (including a new model), representing 46% of the market. Amazon predicts it will ship 20 million of Kindle tablets. 2012 tablet shipments could go even higher if Microsoft launches its Windows 8 tablet in the second half of the year.

Marketers will increase online video ad budgets in 2012: In a Break Media survey of 300 ad and marketing decision-makers, two-thirds said they'll increase funding for online video advertising next year, with 32% of them shifting funds from their TV budgets to do so. This and other recent studies show that online video ads will continue to grow despite concerns over a lack of standard metrics and the difficulty of measuring ROI.

Consumers spend more time on mobile than print media: The average time spent each day on mobile phones increased 30% in 2011 to 65 minutes, eclipsing the 44 minutes spent reading print magazines and newspapers combined. Last year, the mobile and print metrics were equal at about 50 minutes. The boob tube still reigns as media champ. While Internet time in 2011 increased 7.7% to two hours, 47 minutes, TV viewing (live and recorded) increased by 10 minutes to 4 hours and 34 minutes a day.

Originally posted on advertising.yahoo.com Please take a moment to check them out!

2011 The Year Mobile Finally "Turned a Corner"

2011-12-31T12:06:00.000-05:00

Mobile has been dubbed as ‘the next big thing’ for what seems like forever now. But according to Google, 2011 was the year that people finally started to take mobile seriously.
Last week Google published ‘A look back at 2011’ in which it identified 5 major mobile trends that emerged in 2011, and in Google’s words, “will carry us into 2012, and beyond.”

1. Everyone goes mobile

Smartphones and tablets have fast become ‘the norm’, with everyone from your little sister to your nan connecting via these once geek- only devices. This shift has allowed us to communicate with each other, and with businesses like never before – the consumer has been ‘mobilised’.
According to research;

79% of smartphone users use their phones while shopping, from sourcing retailers, comparing prices or searching for product information & reviews
70% use their smartphones while in a store
77% have contacted a business via their mobile, with 61% calling and 59% visiting the local business

2. Mobile search transforms shopping

In 2011 Google “learned a lot about the ‘timing’ of mobile and tablets”; in that they enabled users to be constantly connected to the internet.
This round the clock connectivity has changed the way users connect with businesses, with more people searching for deals prior to visiting a store, or within a store. An example of this growth is highlighted by ”Black Friday” related mobile search queries, which were over 200% higher than 2010.
Google also predicted that 44% of searches for last minute gifts and store location queries came from mobile devices over the Christmas period.

3. Mobile advertising progresses

It may be very early days for mobile advertising but the past year has presented some huge progressions, with advertising standards and the momentum behind HTML5 helping mobile marketers make the most out of the platform.
Another key point in progression was getting existing tools to “speak mobile”, which was key to helping mobile advertising grow with the demand of businesses and consumers.
Google is making gains with familiar search and display tools, which are slowly but surely becoming ‘mobilised’. There’s still a way to go, but 2012 will surely present some monumental changes.

4. Tablets join the party

2011 was undoubtedly the year of the tablet, with people using the devices to shop, play games and consume media, the majority of people doing so in the evenings.
November 2011 compared to December 2010 saw 440% growth in traffic from tablets on the AdMob network. As Google says,“tablets are a third screen to be reckoned with for marketers”.
The potential opportunities that tablets offer are huge. Research has proven that users are more inclined to shop and make purchases on tablets. In addition, campaigns run across several screens have been shown to work ‘better together’.

5. Businesses start thinking mobile first

To quote Google, “Smartphones and tablets aren’t small desktop computers – they’re new devices being used in entirely new ways”. Indeed.
2011 was the year that businesses began to grasp this concept and embrace mobile as a unique platform, with many good things happening in the form of mobile specific sites and ad campaigns.
There’s no denying it’s been a huge year for mobile, and it’s amazing to think we’re still just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Bring on 2012…

Originally posted on browsermedia.co.uk Please take a moment to check them out!

2012 Social Marketing Shifts

2011-12-31T11:57:00.000-05:00

If 2011 is marked ad the year brands monitored social networks, 2012 will be the year brands begin acting on social feedback, says one expert. Added to that, business to business brands, as well as business to consumer, will move into the social space.

"In 2012, companies will start looking beyond the brand toward reporting solutions that reveal insights on specific hotels, store branches, restaurant locations and more," said Borge Hald, Medallia CEO. "Specific location-based data will help employees pinpoint and alleviate customer concerns faster. [Also] technology has emerged that optimized the survey experience on specific devices. Mobile is a powerful channel to receive feedback and close the loop 'in the moment'. We'll see growth around mobile data collection, mobile reporting and mobile technology such as text-based surveying and QR codes."

How important is social? Experian Hitwise reports Facebook was the top-searched term in the US marketplace for 2011. This is the third straight year the social network was the top-searched term; four variations of the word were in the top ten searches for the year.

"Navigational searches dominated the top search results as users typed in terms versus typing in the URL in the browser bar,"said Simon Bradstock, general manager of Experian Hitwise. "Hitwise saw 11% growth of single-word searches in 2011 as terms like 'face' and 'you' made the top 50 searches. Marketers need to be particularly brand-savvy when managing their search optimization campaigns because of this behavior, which is a result of predictive search functionality across major search engines."

According to a recent StrongMail survey, 2012 will see significant growth in both email and social marketing budgets; 68% of respondents say they'll work to integrate email and social in the coming year. More than half (55%) plan to increase social spending while 60% say they'll increase email budgets for 2012. Other increases will be seen in mobile (37% spending increase) and search (37% increase). The biggest challenge, say most respondents, will be integrating customer data into marketing efforts.

Meanwhile 'alternative' social networks - sites like Tumblr and Pintrest - are getting more play, especially with consumers. According to Experian/Hitwise Pinterest is now one of the top 10 sites within Hitwise's Social category, getting 11 million visits the week of December 17. Comparatively, the week ending June 18 received 40 times fewer hits.

Sites like Tumblr encourage users to share images or short, micro-blog type posts. The 'quick hits' style have appealed to publishers like Mother Jones and The Atlantic. These publishers aren't just linking to their own copy, they're sharing information they find interesting - which is driving engagement with the consumer base.

While these sites aren't driving a ton of revenue for publishers are advertisers, they're 'adding value' to consumers following advertisers or publishers. Moving in to 2012, that added value shouldn't be ignored.

Originally posted on bizreport.com Please take a moment to check them out!

5 Ways to Use QR Codes to Inspire Opportunities

2011-12-30T15:30:00.000-05:00

It’s funny now to think that QR codes were originally used as a way to track car parts. Of course, QR codes now serve a much different purpose. They provide us marketers with opportunities to reach more of our target audience through their mobile devices. This gives prospects access to our offers and messaging – anywhere and at anytime.

With such an extended reach, businesses are eager to add these codes to their marketing mix, but many don’t understand how to get started. With those businesses in mind, I’ve put together five excellent ways businesses and organizations have put QR codes to use in their marketing mix.

Here are 5 Excellent QR Code Uses to Inspire Marketing Opportunities:

1. Give a discount – I believe it’s important to reward clients or a prospective client with special offers from time to time. Try putting QR codes in your print and online advertising for discounts on products or services.

Examples might include: Free consulting sessions, markdowns on professional services with a purchase of your product or even discounts if your prospect or customer shares the QR code with a friend.

2. Add an inside look at your offer – When you receive a product brochure or collateral piece, would a more detailed look at the product help inform your purchasing decisions? Sure, most would say yes.

This creates a perfect opportunity to incorporate QR codes in your marketing materials directing prospects to demos or instructional videos. For instance, look at how the Radisson Edwardian uses QR codes on their restaurant menus to help diners choose their selection.

3. Special incentive – Targeted content distribution is another inspiring way to use QR codes. For instance, if you have a free report or MP3 of information that is valuable to your ideal audience, embed the link to a mobile friendly site, where they can download the content.

4. Virtual tickets – With mobile technologies growing each year, more travelers rely on their mobile devices while away from the office. Many businesses and organizations understand this and have put QR codes to work for them.

For instance, many major airlines are using QR codes as boarding passes. Other businesses are using them as virtual tickets to events, such as conferences or seminars.

5. Evolve your resume – Another unique way to utilize QR codes involves bringing more attention to your own cause. If you like practicing what you preach, follow Victor Petit’s cue and make your resume stand out.

Although still relatively new to the marketing world, QR codes have emerged as a technology with vast opportunities. It is up to us marketers to find the ways to apply QR codes to marketing programs and grow our customer reach.

Originally posted Business2community.com on Please take a moment to check them out!

Top 10 New Year's Resolutions for Mobile Marketers

2011-12-30T15:26:00.000-05:00

As we ring in the New Year with overflowing glasses of champagne, the countdown to midnight, and crowds of family and friends, it’s time for the annual tradition…making resolutions.
So without further ado, I bring you a countdown of the top 10 resolutions for mobile marketers.

10. “Get out of debt”
We’ve all seen the predictions for increased mobile marketing spend (now projected to grow by more than 30% by 2016) but what’s the return?   The newness factor is wearing off and companies are expecting it to ‘work.’ As marketers divert more funds to mobile, the pressure is on to prove its value and realize a strong return on investment relative to other channels.

9. “Help others”
The mobile phone has become a key part of our day to day lives and mobile marketers realize the value they can add when the right message is delivered at the right time and place. The key is knowing your customers – and their needs – and then delivering what offers real value at the time it really matters. And let’s remember, it’s not always about an up-sell or cross-sell. It may be as simple as an educational message, alert, informational message, tip or trick.

8. “Get organized”
Ever noticed how much time you spend searching for your kids’ baseball glove when your garage is busting at the seams and nothing seems to stay in its’ ‘place’?   I hate to admit it, but sometimes I just redirect my son’s attention so I can stop the search.   Same thing goes for mobile data.   The beauty of it? There’s so much rich data to leverage.    The challenge? There’s so much rich data to leverage.   The key is having the right tools in place to automate the gathering and mining of the data so you can actually act on it.

7. “Quit my bad habits”
When you look at your 2012 plans, what are you doing differently than 2011 and previous years? I’m pretty confident that every company could do a few things better.   Mobile marketers are realizing that the ever evolving mobile world requires an ever evolving marketing strategy.   Customers expect more which means that using the same approach with mediocre results will not only have little impact on the bottom line, but hurt your long-term ‘health’ with your customers.

6. “Learn something new”
Mobile marketers are beginning to dabble in the whirlpool of data points that the mobile channel provides. Yes, there is more than absolute location. With an understanding of how certain contexts, e.g., customer lifecycle stage, time, relative location, purchase cycle, social interactions, etc. impact how customers behave, marketers can engage them in unique, meaningful ways.

5. “Tame the bulge”
More doesn’t necessarily equal better.   Although staying top of mind is important for marketers, so is staying relevant.   Mobile marketers are vowing to focus on what matters to keep their customers satisfied by enticing them with what is tailored to their individual preferences versus what is deemed appealing for the masses.

4. “Reduce, reuse, recycle”
With tools designed specifically for gathering and mining mobile data, mobile marketers can determine what data e.g., previous purchases, social connections, locations, etc. matters most and hone in on precisely that.   Understand what’s working and what’s not working; build upon your successes and tweak the misses.

3. “Spend more time getting to know people”
If you’re still referring to your customers as ‘24-35 year old females’ or ‘high income males’, it’s time to get with the program.   The mobile channel allows you to engage with an individual in their everyday life. On the flip side, it requires that you know your customers – their likes and dislikes, what influences their behavior, the best way to engage them, the optimal time for doing so, and how. Mobile marketers are thinking beyond traditional segments and getting to know their customers on a one to one basis.

2. “Exercise”
Marketers are ready to put their brains back in work out mode and do what their best at – being creative. While mining through data and consolidating spreadsheets of results may be what mobile marketers are accustomed to, the reality is that there are tools available to help you do the dirty work. It’s time to get out of the hamster wheel and start exercising your brain by putting your creative skills to better use.

1. “Stick to my goals”
Ah yes, one that is so easy to sway from yet so important to achieve. Without the ability to keep our eye on the prize, we’re destined to get bogged down in tracking open rates and determining reach. Instead of setting one-off campaign goals, align tactics to the one or two long-term company-wide goals that really matter e.g., delivering a better customer experience, building customer loyalty, maintaining market leadership. And don’t wait until December to measure your progress – build in gut checks and be ready to iterate and optimize over and over again.

Originally posted on blogs.imediaconnection.com Please take a moment to check them out!

2011-12-30T14:06:00.000-05:00

This year was filled to the brim with tech IPOs, acquisitions and major moves to the expanding mobile landscape.

1- Second screen focus

This year we started seeing TV programs create hashtags for viewers to stream live comments and questions about programs such as Glee and American Idol. In fact, a study done at the very beginning of 2011 showed that 86% of people were already using their mobile devices while watching television and throughout the year more people started taking that time to tweet or comment about the shows they were watching.

Next year we will see an even deeper focus on assuring that people watching their shows and perusing the Internet at the same time will be focused on the program on TV.

In addition to TV networks including hashtags in the aired programs and streaming content encouraging watchers to comment and share what they are viewing, many companies have started capitalizing on the advertisement revenues available when joining forces with major programs.

GetGlue is a new service that, by April, had already amassed 1 million users, compiling 100 million data points - likes, reviews, check-ins.

With GetGlue, users can 'check in' to a TV show just as you could with Foursquare. Other companies in this space include IntoNow (acquired in April by Yahoo!), Miso and PHILO.

There has been a great deal of buzz around the second-screen phenomenon. In our media-saturated lives, it is no longer enough to watch a show on you television, many people are concurrently contributing to forums and tweeting about the happenings on the program.

One of the major players in the social media around second screens, is a one-year-old start up called Miso.

Recently Miso secured its Series B funding of $4 million, led by Khosla Ventures. Currently, most of the Miso users are based in the U.S., but it appears that more people are starting to pop up from the UK, South America and Asia, as the platform has gained buzz and traction. Users can access the Miso platform via Web browser or iPad, iPhone or Android app.

The small 12-person team at Miso is catering to more than 250,000 users and is looking to double their team size over the next year and continue building out their services with the new funding.

Miso is also a free service and has not yet positioned itself to receive revenue outside the venture model.

People are using second screen devices (mobile, tablet, laptop) as they are watching TV, and in the commentary-heavy drive of online communication, the natural progression is to create a space for TV-centric communication to happen in real time.

Next year, more companies will be popping up and more viewers will be aware of these second screen options. I even expect more offered perks for those that contribute to the online dialogue.

2- Re-emergence of MySpace

Since the re-focusing that happened this year to design MySpace as a music networking site, Internet enthusiasts are interested in seeing if one of the original social networking sites can make a comeback after Facebook wiped out much of the field.

MySpace is reconfiguring its system to be the independent music scene's Spotify with the release of its first major product since it was purchased by Specific Media: a music player with a search engine and Facebook integration.

In June, Specific Media acquired Myspace from News Corporation. Although terms of the deal remain undisclosed, sources say the site sold for $35 million.

When Rupert Murdoch’s Corp. originally bought Myspace back in July 2005, it had paid $580 million.

In the year following February 2010, MySpace saw its traffic drop 44% to 37.7 million unique U.S. visitors, according to comScore. As the users fled, so did advertisers: revenue from advertising, eMarketer predicted, would decline from $288 million in 2010 to $184 million in 2011.

Currently, MySpace has 42 million songs with an exclusive library of 30 million songs from unsigned artists -- a great alternative market for the mainstream focus that Spotify capitalizes on. This year, MySpace has kept a consistent traffic pattern of 25 million monthly visitors.

In the new year it will be interesting to see if reinvention will save the site that was sending out S.O.S signals for the last two years.

3- Airtime launch

During the Web 2.0 Summit this fall, serial entrepreneur Sean Parker announced that he has a new project coming out called AirTime. This new service is expected to have some similarity to Chatroulette and its random video chatting services but without the commonly criticized problems with nudity.

As with most of the endeavors that Parker is involved in, people are taking notice of the strength in his business choices. Since Parker came on the Internet tech scene with Napster, Twitter, Facebook, and Spotify, the potential of AirTime is promising.

Video services have been growing rapidly in past months and have become signature features in big Internet companies such as Skype, Google+ Hangouts and YouTube. Very few details have been reviled thus far, but when it does roll out, we can be sure that everyone will know about it and will have to see what was kept under wraps for so long.

4- Facebook reaches a billion users

At the start of this year, Facebook was just over 650 million users and is closing out the year well over 800 million. At this pace, Facebook will be celebrating a milestone in 2012: the one billion user mark. This will be a momentous moment that will carry over the buzz of the company into its expected IPO in the spring.

With estimates putting Facebook's IPO price at $10 billion --and a valuation of more than $100 billion -- the word billion will be closely tied to the networking company.

The company will then have the powerful tool to sell investors and marketers -- we reach one in every seven people on earth.

But this milestone will also provide a challenge for the company, since any continued growth from that point forward would require serious talks with companies that censor Web sharing (such as China) -- where additional growth would be compulsory.

5- Legal battle for social media ownership

This month a legal battle broke out between a former PhoneDog blogger and the publishing company over who owns the Twitter followers accumulated during his time with the company. In October of last year, Noah Kravitz left his gig at Phonedog.com and agreed to occasionally post some Phonedog.com-related content in exchange for keeping the Twitter account, according to The New York Times, but months later the company sued Kravitz seeking damages equalling $340,000 (or $2.50 per follower per month.)

This lawsuit has many bloggers paying attention to the case to see what might be in store for their curated Twitter followings.

Many writers spend a great deal of time and effort creating their own brand on social sites such as Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook, which add value to their insight and would be non-too-pleased to hear that all that work would stay at the company when they move on.

While it is still unclear what the Phonedog_Noah account was intended to be (a place for the writer to curate a following or a place for Phonedog.com to build a readership) many publications choose to create more specific handles like the Guardian UK has done with its Twitter accounts -- creating @guardianbooks, @guardiannews, @guardiantech and several others to build its topic specific followers, while its reporters maintain their own accounts to build author specific readers.

In the coming year we will hear more about publishing companies creating very specific rules about the creation and maintenance of Twitter accounts and who will maintain the followers when employees leave.

6- Political push

With social media becoming inseparable in communication and marketing anything, the political year of 2012 will involve social media in a significant way. Even though the 2008 Obama campaign had a lot of support and following political figures on Twitter is commonplace, the immediacy and direct communication with voters is a growing political tool that will put candidacies to the test for this upcoming election.

We saw some inkling of how social media can hurt political campaigns when the Rick Perry's "Strong" ad became the video on YouTube with the most 'dislikes' and negative comments.

From Twitter town halls to YouTube channels and Facebook polling, there will be a lot of social media elements to the campaign and its seems impossible that any politician is going to take the nomination without strong social media support.

7- New buzz words that make us cringe

Every year there are new tech words that get folded into our vernacular. This year we were inundated with words like monetize, optimize and crowdsource. Many platforms were taking this year to boost their user-base and create revenue models for their services. Next year, I am expecting the explosion of a few new focuses and words.

Gamification: We were seeing the very tip of the iceberg of gamification. This is taking advertisements or services and creating games out of them -- complete with badges, notifications and the exchange of virtual goods for interacting with online services.

Brands that want to increase the interaction that their users have with marketing campaigns are using ramification techniques to increase the time spent and number of clicks on ads they run. News sources are expected to offer up badges for readers based on their loyalty to the company.

Mocial: It's mobile plus social. Yeah, cringe. But this is where every company is going to be putting a lot of focus on next year. With studies showing that most people using social networks are accessing them through their smart phone, the improvement of the mobile functionality is key to growing the dependance. From improving the usability of mobile web access to providing apps (sometime multiple apps) for social features and services, the word mocial will likely be a big conversation in 2012.

MoSoCom: The world of mobile, social and commerce all rolled into one. It may be the worst word I've run into but it is a market that people are running toward in order to get revenue from their online services. One of the biggest areas that is seeing this growth is in the commerce section like Amazon or eBay. These sites are trying to make it easy for someone to post that they purchased a particular item and with one click, allow friends to see and purchase the same item.

8- Sharing e-books will help transition more people to tablets

I have been slow to adopt the e-book revolution because I am a big fan of loaning and borrowing books from friends and it has been very tricky to get that convenience from Kindles and Nooks. In 2012, I am predicting that the world of book loaning and sharing will be a key factor in the growth of the digital book industry.

We have already seen some moves in this direction with public libraries offering digital copies and some books that are no longer under copyright are available for free download.

In order to get more people to buy these mobile book readers, Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble and others will need to start offering services to share books with friends for a small fee or for free -- then we would be combining the wonders of social media, book recommendations, and digital readers.

I might even be willing to deal with a few ads for the access to digital copies of books that my friends have.

9- Facebook will get iOS integration

It hasn't been announced but I am making the call -- the next iOS upgrade will include Facebook integration in i-device native apps. Twitter made the cut this year and introduced thousands of new users to the fun of micro-blogging and it only seems natural that the next would be the largest social networking site, Facebook.

Facebook would also love to jump on this bandwagon as it inches closer to IPO and is looking to be everywhere it possibly can (gaining more eyes on ads) and build an even stronger relationship with Apple.

From posting photos to checking-in, i-devices are ruling the one click social sharing and will continue to support the social media evolution.

10- Yelp and Facebook will bring back confidence in tech IPOs

This year was a lackluster time for tech IPOs -- from the Demand Media flop and the dim showing from Zynga to the nose-dives that Pandora and Groupon have endured, we are all awaiting Yelp and Facebook to put some boost back into the Internet tech sales.

Investors are excited to see the $10 billion IPO of Facebook and the possibly $100 million Yelp debut.

These IPOs are expected to put air back into the investment sales. I am anticipating exciting pops in both stocks and continued announcements of revenue growing endeavors that may put additional fire under their competitors' feet.

Originally posted on Vator.tv Please take a moment to check them out!

How brands navigate the social media route

2011-12-30T13:54:00.000-05:00

Digital media experts share some common myths and mistakes marketers make when it comes to tapping social media and suggest steps to avoid them.

Myth No. 1: A million ‘likes’ doesn’t mean a million returning customers
Talking about the first myth, Srinivas Chari, CMO, Xerago, a marketing services company, said, “A majority of customers hit ‘like’ on your page only to avail the one time offer.”

Agreeing with Chari, Yashraj Vakil, COO, Red Digital, said that one needed to understand why a user liked a page, post or picture. He said, “Users ‘like’ pages on Facebook so that they can publicly display their brand affiliation to their friends or the user could be interested in the latest offering by the brand.”

Myth No. 2: A share doesn’t mean liking a brand. It means liking a friend
According to Chari, a share didn’t mean liking your brand, it was just liking your friend. But Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, Communicate 2, disagreed. He remarked, “Share definitely means liking brands, or at least the consumer sees that it is a great idea to share and propagate the offer or campaign.”

Vakil cited the example of Coca-Cola, which recently launched an advert where it aimed to help people from the Philippines working outside the country due to financial constraints and hadn’t been back home in a long time. Coca-Cola proposed to sponsor an air ticket to be home with family this Christmas. The video has gone viral and is being shared across the globe.

Vakil noted, “Like in this case, the reason to share could be multiple. It could be because you drink Coke and follow the brand, you formed an emotional connect with the initiative because you yourself are away from your family or you could even be a marketing guy who loved the execution of the campaign. Anyone could share content with varied objectives, but at the end, Coca-Cola is the one that benefits the most.”

Myth No. 3: A million followers don’t mean a million brand ambassadors
Chari stressed that a million followers didn’t mean a million brand ambassadors. Agreeing with him, Red Digital’s Vakil added, “Brands are fighting for recognition and attention of the consumers in a highly cluttered market. You give fans the importance they deserve and rest assured, you will be in their good books and part of their top of the mind recall.”

He further said that more than followers, engagement was more important, and, therefore, the engagement rate should be increased between the brand and its consumers, thus building the loyalty and relationship.

In a similar vein, Kanika Mathur, President, Digitas India, remarked, “From the number of fans/ followers, it cannot be accurately deduced yet as to how many people are active consumers.”

However, Bhargava of Communicate 2 had a different view. He noted that if one took a purely numerical count, a million followers might mean a million brand ambassadors. “However, the key is whether they are the right brand ambassadors for their brand,” he pointed out.

Social Media Mistake No. 1:
Xerago’s Chari pointed out that one of the mistakes that most companies made was failing to understand that one passionate customer was better than 10,000 who didn’t care.

Vakil of Red Digital agreed with Chari to some degree. He said, “The best part about social media is that one passionate customer is important, but equally important are the 10,000 others who might not care, but are subtly reminded by the brand that they exist.” Additionally, he said, that social media had the potential to create two more customers through one passionate customer.

Social Media Mistake No. 2:
Talking about another social media mistake, Chari said that companies failed to understand that lack of personalisation and one size fits all communication did not work with customers. Agreeing with this, Bhargava added, “Digital, including social media, has a lot of personalisation capabilities. In the past we have run campaigns where each ad copy was targeted towards a specific age – ‘Are you 28 years old?’ – and targeted those ads to only people who were 28 years old, or wished people on their birthdays, etc.”

Social Media Mistake No. 3:
Another bad practice that Chari pointed out was spamming followers in shared areas like walls with promotional offers. Agreeing with this, Vakil said that there were many reasons people on Facebook followed a brand page and one really didn’t want to risk losing them by spamming their wall.

Social Media Mistake No. 4:
Yet another mistake was treating the comments section as just another billboard, Chari pointed out. Commenting on it, Vakil said that whether marketers treated the comment section as a billboard or not depended on the guidance they got from the agency that they were working with.

Bhargava added here, “Not all companies are treating the wall as a billboard. In fact, the Facebook wall is one of the fastest ways to get in touch with customer support or management, along with Twitter. I think marketers have understood that social media is not just another billboard.”

Digitas India’s Mathur had a different view. She said, “Comments help in engaging with people on a one-on-one basis in a more human voice.”

Originally Posted on Exchange4media.com Please take a moment to check them out!

Google + Growth Accelerates To 65 Million Users

2011-12-30T13:44:00.000-05:00

7 Marketing Predictions for 2012

2011-12-30T12:47:00.001-05:00

While many things will happen in 2012 here are 7 that I think we’ll see and in some cases I really hope we’ll see.

QR codes will be the “IT” thing. Which also means it will be the most “misused” item of 2012. Marketers will slap a QR code on anything and everything, if it has our clients name on it it must have a QR Code on it. A few standout campaigns will come of it, after all if you throw enough stuff up against the wall something is bound to stick.

Retailers finally get it. Retailers begin to add and integrate social into the in-store shopping experience, reminding users to leave reviews, check in, and share their experiences. Look for more tablets at retail locations as retailers begin to take social much more seriously at the store level in 2012.

Google+ takes a totally opposite approach from Facebook, in that in 2012 they worry way less about users, and focus more on working with brands. Once they convince brands of the search weighting of Google+, brands will flock, and from search alone, Google+ becomes an immediate customer service and conversion vehicle, despite the fact that users will NOT use this network socially.

Analytics platforms will improve or incorporate mobile Analytics, which, to a large extent, has been lacking in the first and second generation platforms. The platforms will continue to improve and workflow, which has often been lacking or disparate, will start to merge with business requirements, providing in 2012, the first actually useful platforms for business analysis that incorporated social data, that have been more or less hit and miss, up to this point.

Online reputation management. Your company’s online reputation is going to become more important than ever in 2012. You’ve got to monitor and maintain your online reputation closely. You don’t want to lose sales because of a negative post that appears about your company on Google Places. It’s important that you take control of what’s being said about you online. You’ve got to spend time each day putting out positive content about what you do.

Local search. In 2011, geo-targeted local search exploded and it’s going to continue to be a major trend for 2012, More and more, people want to know what is near them. What restaurants should they go to? What stores should they shop at? Everyone wants this information, especially on their mobile phones. That is why geo-targeting your company is so important.

Social Television. When watching prime time program we all see the #program. With the networks needing to create ways to watch your favorite programs ‘live’ and not on TIVO I can see more and more programs partnering with twitter. There has been some great dialogue with live events and programs on TV so how can they create the same feel with produced programming.
What do you see happening in 2012 or hope to see happen?

Originally posted on TheCustomerCollective.com Please take a moment to check them out!

QR Codes Promote Responsible Drinking

2011-12-30T09:56:00.000-05:00

MillerCoors has come up with an innovative way to encourage consumers to enjoy their products responsibly: QR codes.

They’re partnering up with bars and restaurants in the Seattle area to become part of their “Click-It-2-Ride” program. The program includes placing QR codes in participating establishments that, when scanned, link directly to a taxi company. Scanning the QR code lets a consumer quickly and easily speed dial a cab and links to information about safe drinking.

Perhaps MillerCoors will expand their QR code Click-It-2-Ride program to all states once they see if their initial efforts in Seattle have been a success. Anything that promotes safe drinking – through the
holidays and beyond – is a smart move for a beer distributor like MillerCoors.

Plus, it makes it convenient for bar and restaurant patrons to dial up a cab, keeping themselves and everyone around them safe. Sounds like a win for everyone involved!

Samuel Adams Launches QR Code Campaign

2011-12-30T09:24:00.002-05:00

Boston Beer looking for a creative way to promote their holiday offer, decided to use the interactive coaster developed by Wall Printing Company. For the holiday season, Boston Beer wanted to create a bar coaster that would make people notice the Samuel Adams brand and the special offer. The interactive coaster has four panels, instead of the normal two, and it creates a never ending fold that gets people’s attention.

For the holiday season Boston Beer wanted to create a bar coaster that would make people notice the Samuel Adams brand and the special offer. The interactive coaster has four panels, instead of the normal two and it creates a never ending fold that gets people’s attention. Through a three dimensional design the coaster allows Samuel Adams to create a complete story. Two more panels on a coaster creates interest and doubles the amount of space available to get the message out.

Trish Witkowski of Fold Factory says, “The goal shouldn't be to get into somebody’s “great idea” file. You want them to notice the piece and take action. It has to have purpose and accomplish a goal — which is response.” Samuel Adams accomplished this goes through the use of this interactive coaster.

Samuel Adams also used a QR code to make it easy for people with smart phones to take advantage of the offer. A QR Code is a quick response barcode that makes it quick and easy for smart phones to connect to the web. If a smart phone has the QR reader app installed just scanning the barcode takes you to the website.

The interactive card has a number of uses for coasters. It can be used as a trivia game, to educate people or as a quiz. The coasters are printed in the United States on Neenah 17 point blotter paper. In addition to coasters, the interactive card has been used for marketing pieces and business cards. Wall Printing has helped companies worldwide create unique marketing pieces with this origami design.

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