Did you know that the average Facebook brand post only reaches 16% of its audience? Mashable reported that Facebook has rolled out an updated feature that makes it easy to tell brands the percentage of fans that see their posts among other analytics updates.

CMO’s: Are you looking to extend your tenure? According to AdAge, social data may be the key. Their posts suggests that social data, when used well, can add years to your job’s lifespan.

Is your brand on Google+? Have you had any marketing success with the platform? Digiday writes about brands like H&M, Ferarri and Starbucks that have performed well on the social network. Not surprisingly, these were all B2C companies. Have you found any B2B companies with good Google+ profiles?

Where is the future of SEO headed? According to Search Engine Watch’s Andy Betts it is towards “investment, innovation & integration.” He includes a diagram that demonstrates how search engine optimization has changed over the past few months and is leaning towards more investment in the development of technologies that fuel innovation and integration.

Finally, for all of the recent college graduates out there, this article may be really helpful: Heather Ward of Boston Innovation writes about what she has learned during her first two years working in marketing. She emphasizes the importance of asking questions and spending time planning to make sure you don’t encounter too many “surprises.”

For more competitive intelligence and online marketing news, subscribe to the Pulse, Compete’s monthly newsletter. The Pulse includes the latest industry news, web analytics, market research, Compete PRO education and tips, and much more.

Image from: Financial Image / Shutterstock

This white paper provides an update on financial service (FS) consumer online behavior trends that occurred over the past year. We aim to provide you with a clear sense of what is currently going on in the online landscape by examining key metrics – derived from Compete’s panel of two million consumers – to evaluate and benchmark how the industry is performing.

Download the report today and learn:

• What has increased in demand in the last year
• What type of shopping is at a two year high
• What cards and campaigns are attracting super-prime shoppers

Download Digital Trends: Consumer Behavior in Key Financial Sectors

Image from: Indy 500 Image / Shutterstock

According to their website the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home to the Indy 500, has “long prevailed as an icon of motorsports excellence.” That may be true, but their online presence has a much less spectacular following. Their site, indianapolismotorspeedway.com, usually sees a fairly low number of unique visitors each month, but experiences huge month-over-month increases (590% last year, and 821% the year before) around the time of the Indy 500.

While these increases seem impressive, I think that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has the potential to see much more traffic, and that their search strategy is a huge missed opportunity for the venue. Below are the daily keyword destinations for “Indy 500.”

You’ll see that indianapolishmotorspeedway.com is the 7th most popular site, coming in behind a central Indiana publication, a mortgage company, and even an obituary site. If the marketers at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway were to re-focus their search strategy, they might be able to take a bite out of the 422,333 referrals that were sent to indystar.com, potentially doubling their traffic.

Image from: Emerson College ECommunication Thoughts

Tomorrow is one of the most important days in my young life. Star Wars turns 35. Let that sink in for a minute. It’s been 35 incredible years since those genius yellow words of sci-fi storytelling scrolled across screens around the country and inspired the world.

The franchise that has had one of the most significant impacts on American pop culture has held its staying power for 35 years for a reason. Star Wars is a marketing machine. Most recently, the films are being converted to 3-D to delight new generations of diehard fans. Although it’s not the first time a massively popular film has been re-released in 3-D, it’s the first time that 6 massively popular films have.

As a fan of all 6 movies (yes, even Phantom Menace), I wondered if re-releasing the movies in 3-D generated any buzz, knowing that many Star Wars fans have become disillusioned with the many significant changes introduced by George Lucas over the years. Apparently, most of the franchise’s younger fans (myself included) are still interested as nearly 40% of visitors to StarWars.com in April 2012 were below the age 35, far too young to have seen and understood any of the original trilogy in theaters.

Despite being panned by fans and critics alike, the 3-D release of Phantom Menace managed to gross nearly $103M at the box office after its February release, a trend that’s mirrored in daily reach and attention as seen above. And as you can see by the chart below, StarWars.com garnered more than 1.2M unique visitors in February.

How do you feel about a beloved series of films like Star Wars being released in yet another iteration? Is the success of Phantom Menace in 3-D due solely to good marketing practices? Will you be celebrating the 35th anniversary tomorrow? I know I will be. May the force be with all of you this weekend.

Image from: Ikea Image / Shutterstock

In the last year sales for IKEA have risen and with plans to expand even further it looks like the Swedish owned furniture store may just land on every continent. But with the success of growth internationally, how is IKEA fairing in the US?

Looking at Compete.com we can see that visitors to Ikea.com are spending a good deal of time on the site. With an average stay of approximately eight minutes and roughly 15 pages per visit, are visitors to the site purchasing or perusing?

While Ikea does give customers an opportunity to purchase online, how are they engaging customers between clicks as they choose to shop offline at brick and mortar stores specifically for products that aren’t offered online?

As we’ve seen before, a good indicator of online-to-offline interest is a retailer’s store locator tool.

Looking at the daily search referrals we can see that customers are searching for an IKEA store in various locations throughout the United States.

But is IKEA losing customers because the click to the brick is too complicated? Are customers leaving the site when they realize that their item isn’t available for shipping and a store is too hard to locate? Will IKEA be able to keep customers engaged online so that they do end up at a store?

Edwin took the stage on Day three of the Digital CMO Summit and delivered his session Phase 2 of Video: Revolution Evolution. He shared how Yahoo! is helping brands understand how to best leverage the art of storytelling to better connect with consumers across paid, owned and earned (POE) media. Below Edwin provides a detailed summary of his session presented at the Digital CMO Summit.

In 2009, Yahoo! commissioned a study to help online marketers understand how they could take advantage of the emerging online video revolution. In just two short years, we’ve observed a change in online video that signals a maturation of this media format. Whereas phase 1 of online video was a revolution, phase 2 is an evolution. This evolution is happening on three fronts: video consumption habits, the sharing of video content and the video content itself. Marketers need to understand this shift in order to effectively reach their consumers in this truly engaging format.

As a follow up to our initial study, some key questions answered in this research include:

• How have online video consumption and viewing habits changed in the last 2 years?
• What type of video content is being viewed and what are consumers expecting to watch more of in the future?
• How does the professional production value of video content impact engagement and ad receptivity?

Methodology

Yahoo! partnered with Interpret to survey more than 4,100 online video viewers about their last viewing experience in the past 24 hours. To ensure accurate representation of online video usage as it compares to traditional television, we used last occasion coincidental methodology, a common practice in TV advertising research but unique in online video.

Key Findings

1. Big Growth

Video continues to grow significantly, specifically full length movies and TV shows. In a given day 57% watched an online video, a 33% increase from 2009. However, short clips still represent the majority of videos watched, roughly 75%.

2. Night Time Shift in Watching

There’s been a marked increase, +30pts, in online video viewership between the hours of 6pm to 9pm. Viewership during “business hours” (9am-5pm) has declined, with the majority of videos seen in the evening when viewers are home. The growth of services like Netflix and Hulu (both of which have more than doubled in 2009) have likely prompted the growth in evening video streaming.

3. More Streams Shared, but Less Sharers

While there has been an overall increase in streams that are shared, the percentage of viewers that share videos has decreased in the past two years. Only 26% of respondents stated they actually shared the video they just watched, compared to 34% in 2009. Interestingly, the overall video sharer has gotten older, as the 25-54 demographic has grown from 64% to 72%. We found that older demographics are less likely to share video, thus contributing to a smaller proportion of online video sharers.

4. Ad Receptivity Increases with Production Value

Video advertising receptivity increases when it’s tied to professionally produced content. We found that for professional videos, viewers are significantly more likely to remember seeing the ad, retain product information or recall the brand being advertised. Ads associated with professional content are also more likely to be viewed as relevant to consumers.

5. If You Build It, I Will Watch – Even If It’s Short

When it comes to online video, half will follow an online original series to learn new things and 60% intend to seek more professionally-produced short online clips in the future. Roughly 70% who watch these clips find them by way of their homepage, on large content sites or by going to a video site directly.

6. Video+

Consumers show greater engagement to professionally polished videos attached to “mixed media,” like articles. They’re also more receptive to ads in video environments that include content. 57% of online video viewers say they enjoy watching a video next to an article. We also found that when a video is viewed on a page that includes an article, viewers are more likely to watch the video to get more information, recall seeing the advertising, and view the video as “professional” – resulting in a consumer who is in a more open mindset for advertising.

Conclusion

As online video continues to grow and become more mainstream, an evolution is taking place on three fronts: viewer consumption habits, the sharing of video content and even the video content itself. By understanding these changes marketers can maximize consumer engagement by selecting the appropriate video content and sites according to their marketing strategy.

Marketing Implications

• Online Primetime. With the meteoric rise of online video viewership between 6pm to 9pm, online video is becoming a viable opportunity to connect with consumers during prime time. Capitalize on this trend by integrating TV and online video advertising.
• Happen Upon Your Consumer. While appointment viewing is more prominent for long form content, short form content is an integral part of consumers’ every day online experience – leading to more opportunities for advertisers.
• Get Shorty, but Professional. Leverage professionally-produced short video series on large video sites and content providers.
• Advertise on the “Right Content.” Consumers react significantly more positively to ads placed next to professional content, so make sure you know which content will be aligned with your ads.
• Social is About Short Clips I Didn’t Make. Plan media buys next to content that is shared most often – mainly professional short clips like music, entertainment, or news clips. Achieve advertising “viralocity” by investing in great creative that aligns with content consumers want to share.

Download the Edwin’s full presentation from the Summit here. And for more information contact Yahoo!

For more information on the Digital CMO Summit visit www.digitalcmosummit.com or contact Kristen Renda krenda@compete.com

Today’s mobile devices effectively combine elements of computers, entertainment centers and communications networks in a way that both extends and transforms the social networking experience.

The Dutch airline KLM recently came up with an interesting idea. When customers book tickets through its website, they can check out the Facebook and LinkedIn profiles of their fellow passengers – with permission, of course – and decide who they want to sit next to. This increases the chance of having an interesting conversation. Social is going mobile in a big way. In fact, the ability to make or improve real-world connections while on the move is one of the most appealing aspects of social media.

The future of social media is all about facilitating discoverable connections. Just updating your status or tweeting from your desktop is pretty lonely. But when you connect social with mobile and local, the power of social media increases.  Consumers are now able to ‘discover’ friends who are in the same vicinity.

In our 2011 survey of US smartphone users we found that 74% of them use their smartphone for social networking and 42% of them use social networks at least once per day.  And according to GroundTruth, an aggregator of US wireless carrier internet data and a mobile data partner of Compete, social networking is the number one mobile internet activity, composing 57% of sessions and 58% of total time spent online. The success of Foursquare – the location-based service which allows users to tell friends where they’re eating, drinking or hanging out right now – confirms that mobile and social make great companions. This is only the beginning.

When I’m sitting at the airport waiting for a flight, there’s a good chance that about 40 other people I know are in the vicinity. Social media can help me find them. The same is true of trade shows, which are so huge these days that there’s little chance of bumping into somebody you know if it’s not by design.

This insight addresses a common criticism leveled at social networks like Facebook: they encourage virtual, online friendships rather than warm, real world relationships. I’m not saying social media can create human experiences, but it can certainly facilitate them.

Social media have the power to bring people together. Twenty years ago, one lonely teenager obsessed by a particular cult comic book stood a good chance of remaining lonely. Today, thanks to blogs, Facebook and other social media, he or she can find hundreds of like-minded people. Social networks allow you to create your own crowd rather than be forced to fit in with one.

Social media like the photography app Instagram – which turns every Average Joe into a photojournalist – gain part of their power from validation. We are driven to create because our creations can be validated (“liked”) by our friends, in real time.

But there’s also a strong mobile element: we shoot pictures on our phones when we’re out and about. They become a public photo album or documentary that’s appealing to look at and fun to make. Similarly, Twitter at its best is a source of running commentary from a variety of situations, including major news events.

There’s one downside to all this: managing your visibility. It’s great to be able to let people know “I’m here” – but sometimes you don’t want to be found. When you’re busy or just feel like being on your own, you have to remember to hide yourself on your social networks. I think that’s a new skill we’re all going to learn.

*This post was featured on the Kantar Media E Room

Image from: Airport Image / Shutterstock

As Memorial Day approaches, people are packing up their things and shipping out for the long weekend. The Huffington Post published a piece that tracked last year’s popular travel trends, based on the number of FourSquare check-ins on Memorial Day last year. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport was the leader among airports, suggesting Atlanta had the most people visiting or passing through.

FourSquare data shows day-of activity; I wanted to compare that to data from Compete PRO to see which airport had the most popular website. Compete data are more likely to represent research before travel, rather than day-of, so potentially could be a leading indicator of FourSquare check-ins.

Based on unique visitors (UVs) over the past 2 years, the website for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (panynj.gov) has the most traffic by far. This makes sense given that this site covers JFK International, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty International, all three of which are websites on FourSquare’s top 10 most popular list.

Excluding that site, however, reveals a much closer race between the other airports’ sites. In May 2011, Boston’s Logan Airport site (massport.com) was #8 on HuffPo’s list and had the second highest amount traffic, clocking in at 111,960 UVs. Denver International Airport (flydenver.com, #7 HuffPo) had the least traffic at 14,264 unique visitors that month. Obviously, seasonal patterns can influence airport traffic as well.

Personally, when I am traveling I usually log onto the website of the airline that I am traveling for flight information and use Google Maps for directions if necessary, therefore cutting out the airport site all together. So for me, an airport website must offer a faster and easier way to get travel info that I could get elsewhere. So tell us, what are you looking for when you log onto an airport’s website? How likely are you to check-in on an airline site vs. check-in via FourSquare?

Image from: Gifts Image / Shutterstock

With Mother’s Day in the not-so-distant past, and Father’s day on the near horizon, there is no shortage of places to search for, and buy gifts online.  For those of us who are a bit “gifting challenged” there are also a few services out there that will help us find something for the guy or girl who has everything.

The “Gift Gurus” over at Gifts.com, experts in the art of the perfect present, will help troubled boyfriends and mothers alike in finding something for that hard to please loved one.  While I don’t think my girlfriend would approve of The Ex VooDoo Knife Set (at least I hope not!), there are all kinds of gifts consumers can search, and then find on the best retail sites online.

Gifts.com is growing at a healthy clip, including spikes up over 6M unique visitors during December of the last two years, and almost 2M more visitors this April than 2 years ago.

I wasn’t terribly surprised to see Mother’s Day seems to generate a bit more traffic than Father’s Day, although, I thought there might be more of a spike in February, with Valentine’s Day commanding so much gift giving power.  I’m sure this has nothing to do with “some guys” being a bit behind the 8 ball with gift giving, and not having time to order online…

Since Gifts.com is designed to send consumers onto the actual retail sites to purchase their gifts, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how effectively Gifts.com drives traffic to the retail sites they work with.

About 30% of Gifts.com traffic heads back out to a search engine, which isn’t too much different than we see with most similar sites.  Looks like Amazon, Target and other heavy hitters like eBay are getting some great lift from shoppers that come from Gifts.com.  Also of note, Shopzilla & Bizrate (another Shopzilla property) are grabbing a lot of traffic from Gifts.com.  While these sites are a bit different, in that they focus more around the whole CPG business, while Gifts.com is focused more on, well, gifts, it’s certainly interesting to see them ranking so high for outgoing visits.  While they may not be direct competitors, they certainly play in some of the same sandboxes, and with traffic of the caliber Gifts.com commands, we’re talking tens of thousands of visitors at even 1% of outgoing share.

What do you think, should Gifts.com be concerned, or is this normal consumer behavior?  Does Gifts.com need to watch where their shoppers go afterwards, or is this simply people being people, and looking for a great deal?  Hit me on Twitter @tkeene6, or throw me an email at tkeene@compete.com.

Image from: Food Image / Shutterstock

Last summer, we wrote about Gilt Groupe’s new website: gilttaste.com. Now that the site has been around for about a year, I thought it would be interesting to take an updated look into the site.

Traffic to Gilt Taste over the last year has been fairly steady, averaging around 100,000 unique visitors each month.

As for the demographics that we discussed last year, the age demographics of users has seen some slight shifts: users in the 45-54 age category  have grown significantly since the site’s original launch, while users ages 25-34 have decreased.

The income of Gilt Taste’s users has seen some shifts as well. Users in the 600-100K category have increased since the site’s original launch, while users who make under-30k appear to have stopped using Gilt Taste as frequently.

What do you think is the cause for this shift? Have you checked out any of Gilt Taste’s offerings? Which age/income group do you think their products cater towards?