It’s official. Online advertising is on the rise. It may not be a secret, but the fact that online advertising is on the rise is a strong indicator of the increasing importance of digital efforts regarding marketing and advertising. In 2010, $26 billion were spent on online ads in the United States alone. Ad revenue for 2011 is expected to increase by over 20%.
Video advertisements are expected to see the most growth, costing almost $1.5 billion dollars in 2010 and expected to surpass $7 by 2015. Additionally, more people are moving away from traditional ads in favor of online advertisements and the amount of money people spend on online ads is increasing faster than the amount being spent on traditional advertising options.
So what does this mean for businesses and advertisers? In addition to indicating the growing important of online and digital advertisement and marketing, it also shows that it is going to take increasingly more work to stand out amongst the competition.
Traditional media often keeps the power in the hands of the advertiser—you control where the advertisements are and they are more or less unavoidable. Someone will definitely see it or hear it at some point, so engaging these people is the goal. With online advertising, reaching people with your media won’t necessarily be as easy, especially when they are so many others fighting to reach out ahead of you. Knowing that video captures attention more than any other media will matter more. Knowing how to engage your audience and create an active community will matter more.
Online advertisement offers the potential to reach an unlimited number of people, but it doesn’t necessarily offer the benefits of a local community. As marketing online becomes more and more prevalent, aim to continuously build your own “local community” or collective online that will separate your target audience from the masses. This will help you focus your marketing efforts and help make sure you stand out in the ever-increasing advertising crowd.
It’s alive. Google’s “project,” Google+, is out in beta and invite only, just as Gmail service was when it first went into beta a few years ago. Being of the Google brand it’s obviously got a strong base and it’s reportedly very functional, but will the addition of the +1 button in the social media scene change the way people share content?
Obviously intended to compete with Facebook but far from finished, Google+ has several easy-to-use features, including profiles, photos, a mobile mode, “Circles” for groups, “Hangouts” for group video chats, “Sparks” for content recommendations and “Huddle” for group texting.
When it comes to the +1 button, Sparks is where it’s at. As it’s currently designed, the +1 button can influence ratings of content and, in turn, what content is recommended which could be huge since Google is and always will be a search engine. The question, however, is whether people will bother with the +1 after clicking the omnipresent Facebook “Like” button.
Facebook probably won’t be losing its status as the king of social networks anytime soon, but Google does have some advantages—it has a plethora of products which include its own mobile operating system, making it very easy to seamlessly integrate into many aspects of people’s lives. Only time will tell, as Google+ is still extremely young and has a long way to go, but if it is successful it could pull Google+ into the essential toolset for social media marketers.
Do you remember the days of filing through newspapers and junk mail in the evenings and on the weekends, clipping coupons and looking for local deals? Well those days haven’t disappeared, but they are slowly being phased as digital coupons become more popular. The use of coupons was on the decline for a straight fourteen years since 1992, but in 2006 the numbers started to rise again.
If the trend continues, 50% of online users will use online coupons by 2014 and—while coupons found in newspapers still account for the vast majority of overall coupon use, the redemption of internet coupons increased by 263% in 2009.
All things considered, these numbers really aren’t all that surprising. In the past few years the world has dealt with a recession, the continuation of advances in technology and encouragement to digitize everything from books to stores.
Digital deals can be offered via socialpda, Facebook, Twitter, email or even text message. This is likely to save money by avoiding taking out print ads or printing and mailing them oneself and it allows customers to see these deals in places that they’re more likely to pay attention to—their social networks as opposed to their junk mail.
Offering exclusive online deals is also a great way to encourage customers and potential customers to keep up with your social media pages. Offering limited discounts, coupons and running contests will keep users attentive and get them more engaged. Plus, it’ll be much easier for them to share these deals with others online, which will help increase your customer base.
Giving back to your customers is always a great way to retain them and to attract more. Since online deals offer a cheaper, easier and—possibly—more effective way of doing this than print coupons do, it’s no wonder that digital coupons are slowly taking over.
And did you know you can get started with socialpda’s merchant system and starting offering deals for free?
It’s always important to know your audience when marketing and when leveraging social media and networks it is particularly important to know how your target audience uses social media. If your company or organization is local and only seeking to reach out within the local community then your job is made much easier, but if there is any global potential or need for global outreach then you need to take into consideration the differences in normal social media use.
Know how people use social media. People in different parts of the world and different countries primarily use social media for different reasons. While in the United States people use social networks for messaging and sharing content almost equally, Canadians use it much more for messaging and those from Hong Kong use it more for sharing content. In general, western countries use social networks for forming online groups much less than eastern countries. The Philippines and Japan have the most and least overall users of social networks while the USA and Canada are just around average.
Knowing how people use social media in certain regions helps you know what kind of social networks and what aspect of them to really focus on in your campaign, helping you save time, money, effort and see better results.
Know what networks people use. Some networks are used globally, but many nations or communities have their own versions of social networks that may be equally or more popular than the biggest names in the scene. Knowing these specialized networks—especially if they are interest-based—can really help you target your campaign and reach out to a lot more people who are already likely to be interested.
Marketing hard means nothing if you don’t market smart. Knowing your networks means knowing where to find your audience, and knowing this will give you the greatest number of people to reach out to, maximizing the return on your efforts.
Has Virgin America just pioneered the newest social SEO technique? The 39th plane in Virgin America’s fleet has been named the #nerdbird—hashtag and all—in dedication to everyone who is a part of its social media network and—quite possibly—to the techies who frequent Virgin flights. Sporting the name along its side, the announcement was appropriately made via Facebook and Twitter.
The #nerdbird comes already optimized for Twitter and every other social media tool that does or will make use of hashtags, which basically means that it will always have a better chance at becoming a mini-meme than every plane in the world that doesn’t have a hashtag in its name.
So now the question is, how many companies are going to follow this example? Imagine how beneficial it could be for new products and startups—a name that starts with a hashtag could have a really strong influence on a social media marketing campaign without having to reach out to social media enthusiasts specifically. Even the non-social media saavy customer will be contributing to marketing efforts simply by mentioning the name. The possibilities could easily lead to a trend, but could the trend be a lasting one?
An abundance of hashtagged products and entities could easily counter these positive effects simply by generating too much content about everything. It’ll be hard to trend when too many others have the same advantage and, at the end of the day, the quality of one’s social media efforts will still trump quantity. While it will definitely be interesting to see if anyone follows Virgin America’s example, it’s probably safe to say that #nerdbird will be flying solo for now.
Lets introduce #spdaexclusive
June 17th marks the day that women around Saudi Arabia decided to take a stand against the ban on female driving by taking to the streets in their cars. The activist event was spurred by the arrest of Manal al-Sherif who posted a video of herself driving around Khobar as part of a social media campaign against the ban. As she is an important figure in this campaign, women around the nation—and around the world—were outraged by her arrest.
The original campaign spawned Facebook and Twitter amongst other social networks, but these pages were shut down over time. Similarly—in 1990—forty-seven women drove around Riyadh in order to stand against the ban on female driving, but all of the women were arrested and the story quickly fell from the headlines and was forgotten. This time, though, nobody is letting that happen. Though there have been pages created that are against this campaign—representing a very clear divide in the Saudi opinion on female driving—social media has kept the current campaign going since the arrest of al-Sherif a month ago, and even after the related social media accounts were shut down copies have kept it alive.
The fact that social media has single-handedly given these women a safe and resilient means of keeping this campaign alive goes to show just how powerful and important tools like Facebook and Twitter are in today’s world. In 1990, the arrest of 47 women could not remain a prominent story for more than two weeks whereas today people are being spurred to take action a month after the arrest of al-Sherif.
Once again we are back at the point where we have to fish out the best person to lead our nation. The GOP debate is the main event this week. To spice things up, CNN is using social media websites for the Grand Old Party debate.
We all know how important social media is and it plays a major role in our day to day lives. This is how most of us will get the latest update on the debate and as events unfold post debate. Everyone with iPhones and computer will be tuned in and hooked to CNN. The interesting news is that CNN is becoming a social media news anchor to bring coverage about the GOP debate.
How CNN is using social media is not just for the purpose of bringing the latest updates to followers. CNN also wants to keep in touch with the opinions and discussions about the GOP debates. To achieve this objective users have been encouraged to use the tag “#CNNDebate.” This will flag any mention of the debate and what people think. So it won’t just be about sharing videos about the debate tonight, every single conversation about the debate will be followed by CNN.
This is when you can choose that candidate which will make life better. We all want more employment, more business, more banking policies and more legal rights. We want better international business opportunities as well. This is our chance to be heard!
All social media websites are agile, bustling and ready for the big event. Twitter and Facebook being the giants of social media are the main focus and CNN is on both of these sites. Social media users will be under focus as the outcome unfolds. This might even mold the future of America because every word about the participants will make a difference. 2012 is going to be a big question for everyone now on.
How social media politics unfolds will be a very sensitive and interesting scenario post debate. Teens using social media will also have a major role to play. Using the #CNNDebate tag will make them an important participant in the outcome of the GOP debate. Their opinions and expectation express the future of America and what they expect might make a difference. CNN.com is not very famous with the youth, but Facebook and Twitter are.
The three players in the debate are Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich. This is their debut appearance in the world of politics. The most intriguing aspect is that some players in politics are returning. Tim Pawlenty, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul are also making a re-appearance. The question is what the outcome will be. It could be alarming, humorous or even hilarious.
This is why CNN using social media websites for GOP debate is a major incidence. Everyone on social media websites will be keeping track of what happens and what the future looks like. So let’s stay tuned and make our contributions as a united America.
Socialpda is about making things as easy as possible for merchants. This is the place where marketing and the needs of the audience find the missing link. This is where one gets to understand and adopt the responses of customers, their needs and their interests. The key to a merchant’s success is making sure the customers get what they want. Socialpda is where all this happens.
Users get to share their interests, experiences and activities on social media websites. The Socialpda network is a means of sharing and communicating with people in the same geographic locations. Marketing has become very effective because now information on interested potential customers is available.
Socialpda promotes local networking and local businesses through socializing and marketing. Forming a network of users makes this process smooth and effective. Now customers can shop anywhere in their locality by using their mobile phones. People can get personalized offers for business because people can share their interests on their profile. This makes it even better and opens more opportunities for businesses and saving money.
Now you can access the latest in the business centers, shopping malls, and whatever interests you. If there are offers and discounts from shopping malls of your interest are available Socialpda keeps you updated. The advantage of being part of the Socialpda is both ways. Both customers and business owners get to save extra cost. Additionally, there is relieve that comes with easy access. Business owners can produce and supply goods and services according to the demand. Recently, with the coming of online shopping, profits have increased by approximately 26%.
If you are an “eat-out” kind of person, you can make reservations in your favorite restaurants and hotels. Socialpda is the link to information and fun as well. You can find the place of your interest without any delay. Being part of the network allows users to find latest information on places they will love to visit and eat the best foods available. Likewise, if you own a restaurant you can provide interested customers information about the latest in your menu.
Staying connected is important for both business people and customers. Social media is where marketers, business owners and customers interact. Socialpda ensures availability of social media marketing tools and interaction to make business easier and better. Customers can interact with the owners and marketers and share their likes and dislikes about the products. At the same time marketers and owners can access these complains and suggestions and improve. Similarly business owners can get affiliate businesses to increase their success.
Socialpda is the missing link to social media and marketing, and is what makes a difference.
Content marketing is a new and evolving concept for most people using social media networks. This strategy is very crucial for B2B trading which provides both qualitative and quantitative profits and returns. Here are some tips for content marketing on social media networks.
The first requirement is the ideal content for marketing which requires the following:
1. Create a selling content: Content is about writing, videos, blogs and other components which the end user (readers) will appreciate. It must be rich in information and serve the purpose of attracting traffic on the website. Therefore it must have information about the product or services you are marketing. Writing the content must be done with caution to ensure it satisfies the following requirements:
• It should be non promotional
• Relevant to the product, service or firm
• Informative and relevant to target audience
• Well written
• Authentic and factual
• Easy to access for clients
2. Generate a content map: You need to consider information on industry, role, company size and geography in order to map the content. For example, it could be segmented into different sections such as stages of the process of buying. There are some things to consider while generating a content map:
• Existing content
• Keep the content short and effective
• Test and optimize the content
• Ensure content is flexible to changes needed
3. Ensure the content is social: Including comments, ratings and ability to keep the traffic interactive is important. You can also include options to share and bookmark your content to enable future reference of readers. Additionally, design the content to make it appealing for readers. Three important features to keep in mind include:
• Social Sharing: Do not forget that social media is not just limited to Facebook and Twitter. Your content must be sharable on a variety of social media networks. This pushed traffic to your content and increases marketing drastically.
• Social Confirmation: People like validation of information, therefore transparency and credibility is important. Share good comments by people to serve as an endorsement to attract more clients.
• Social Scrutiny: You must ensure that you monitor social media sites so as to improve your content to ensure maximal marketing.
4. Ensure the content is search optimized: Grouping the content by key words and phrases is necessary. This helps in making the content Search Engine Optimized. Using Meta descriptions and title tags is the best ways of achieving this. However the Meta description must be intriguing to get the attention of readers. To ensure the content is search optimized there are three easy steps you can take.
• Adjust the content: Categorize the content and organize it to ensure it provides a good appearance as a web page. In case you use a landing page, make sure visitors are redirected to the right page before they lose interest.
• Rewrite content: You can rewrite your marketing content into different formats. This increases the impact of information in the content across different channels. For example making a seminar content or webinar into a Slideshare optimizes the content.
• Archive Content: Create fresh and new content regularly and store older publications in archives for future reference by readers and for you as well.
To wrap things up, content marketing is easy. You just need to follow these tips to enjoy its benefits.
There are millions of users using Facebook for different kinds of businesses every day. At the same time there are thousands of applications being developed on a daily basis to help business organizations on Facebook.
Every application has its unique purpose and works to promote your particular businesses on Facebook. The main target for businesses is to attract a large number of customers and maintain them. Facebook applications serve this purpose. Apart from this main advantage of using Facebook as the best social media website, there are 10 business benefits of Facebook applications.
1. Creating Brand Awareness: Creating and using application can be used as an effective tool to promote your brand. There are people of all ages using Facebook and the applications available. Therefore, applications are the quickest way to gain popularity and building a relationship with customers.
2. Engage the Customer: One of the challenges of internet marketing is to keep the audience hooked. Facebook applications are the best means of doing so. They help by enticing people your brand, and keep them interested in your brand and services as well.
3. Maintaining and Managing Reputation: Applications can be designed to help in surveying what people think about your brand. At the same time you can use these applications to improve your reputation. The Facebook profile can be indexed in search results, and this works in your favor by improving your reputation.
4. Building Relationships: Profiles on Facebook help in searching for potential clients and attracting potential customers. Reviewing profiles of prospective clients and customers helps in lead generation. Building good relationships is also a key to retaining customers which is necessary for internet marketing.
5. Driving Traffic: Facebook serves as a portal connecting other sites with your site. People using other social media sites will definitely find you through applications and come to your web page. This helps in discovering new customers you may not have found otherwise.
6. Feedback from Clients: Any business owner wants to know what people think about his product. Facebook applications can be used to get a feedback from people using your products. This will help you in improving your business and managing a good reputation.
7. Building Opportunities: Facebook is the place where millions of users interact. Applications can serve as an advertisement. They can be the best way of attracting other business associates with same business objectives as yours.
8. A Source of Income: Designing and programming applications on Facebook can also be used as a source of income. There is a constant need for applications.
Facebook applications are definitely an exciting part of social media marketing and highly recommended.
