The week came and went so quickly, it was a blur. However, a few things did catch my eye. So without further adieu, here we go!
First and foremost, when I read this post I laughed, I cried, and I spoke out loud to my Mac saying, “This is exactly me”! Tina Sharkey, Chairman and Global President of BabyCenter, does a great job summing up exactly what moms use their smartphones for. All you have to do is walk into my son’s pre-school to see 98% of the moms at his school texting, talking, “Facebooking” and updating their calendars. To me, this is living proof that this report is right on. I will admit, I could not live without my smartphone. As the article says, it’s “indispensible”. And if you like stats, the report is full of them!
Actually, Facebook Marketing Does Work (If Done Right)
No one can make a blanket statement and there is no “one size fits all” solution when it comes to marketing on Facebook. This post on ReadWriteWeb does a great job of explaining how customizable Facebook marketing can be. Every brand and every campaign needs to be handled differently based on goals, objectives, targets, strategy, etc. We find ourselves educating clients on this quite often. It’s important to remember that what may work for one brand, may not work for another.
Web Advertising Eclipsed Newspapers in 2010
In case you don’t already know, Web advertising beat out newspaper advertising in 2010 with double-digit growth. According to the IAB, web ads are outpacing traditional media and surpassing newspaper ad revenue for the first time, rising 15% to $26 billion last year. Search saw a 12% growth and was the most popular ad format, sponsorships saw an 88% growth, and display increased 24%. What does this all mean? It means, plan for a shift of your ad dollars if you haven’t already. While newspaper, television, and other traditional mediums are all part of the mix and great vehicles, increasingly, our audiences are distributed in many places and we want to be sure we are reaching them where they spend the most time. And the ability to advertise with with highly targeted messaging doesn’t hurt.
Search Marketing To Reach $19.3 Billion In ’11, Mobile On Rise
- SEM on the rise
Search engine marketing is projected to rise in 2011 by 16% to $19.3 billion, according to SEMPO and Econsultancy. Their study shows that generating leads is the top objective for paid search. Additionally, the report states that mobile and behavioral targeting are also on the rise, showing that media is getting more and more fragmented resulting in a need to personalize our messages based on the medium and to use those mediums for what they do best. It will be interesting to keep an eye on how marketing budget dollars continue to shift over the next few years.
The Virtual Water Cooler: GetGlue Hits the Million User Mark [Infographic]
I love Foursquare. But my new love is GetGlue, which recently hit 1 million users. This may be due to their recent partnership with Foursquare, but I think it’s because people love entertainment and the idea of checking into an “event” with their friends. Most of the time this simply means sitting on the sofa and checking into American Idol. But hey, it’s fun to do! Instead of checking into the place I am at, I can check into what I am actually doing (which, by the way, keeps away potential stalkers). So, whether I check in to watch the new Kate Hudson film or I check in to catch the Boston Red Sox game with my hubby, I can share this experience with my friends and family.
The New Yorker uses a ‘like-gate’ to find fans of long-form journalism on Facebook
We always recommend to our clients that using a fan gate on Facebook tabs is a great way to acquire new “Likes”. The New Yorker has a great article this week that provides Facebook fans with an exclusive piece of content that would normally require someone to be a subscriber. The fact that it is only available for a limited time provides a brilliant sense of urgency. It will be interesting to see if they continue to use this strategy moving forward. It is the perfect way to have users engage with their unique content and potentially turn them into subscribers by using a “sneak peek” of sorts.
Accelerate Results: 5 Secrets to Achieving Organic Social Media Growth
Check out this article for a review on some best practices for growing the number of “Likes” you have on Facebook. Tom Johansmeyer provides a great list to review over and over again to ensure you are consistently promoting and seeding your social pages in every aspect of your marketing plan. Remember, social media is a key component of your overall marketing strategy and many brands deem it as important, if not more important, than their website. It’s all about transparency and joining the conversation to show consumers that your brand is human. My favorite quote from this article is “The challenge often overlooked is how best to accelerate social media growth for your company. Well, the answer is pretty simple: do everything you thought social media would replace.”
22 Analytics Tools for Online Businesses
Being a big fan of infographics (see GetGlue above) as well as big lists of resources, the list in this post by Matt Ferner was too good not to share. This is a great list to keep on hand when looking to measure your website metrics, learn what is showing success, and understanding user behavior.
Well, that’s a wrap for this week! Make sure you let us know if there was any other buzz-worthy news for the week that we may have missed.
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