Huffington Post Gains Steam

February 3rd, 2012

Since the Huffington Post merged with AOL last year, it has been able to expand its services significantly. There has been a 47% monthly increase in users to a current 36.2 million active users. The news service has also added editors and reporters, which more than compensates for the initial layoffs after the merger.

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Huffington Post has also been successful over the past year launching 44 vertical services, which are services geared towards certain sectors like environmental sustainability and the gay community. The other big advance for the news service will be coming. The Huffington Post will launch a streaming news service whose aim is to take down CNN and otherwise help cord cutters.

All of this means increased outlets for advertisers on the Huffington Post network. The internet marketing agency can expect The Huffington Post and AOL to demand increased inventory of advertisements. Impressions will increase with the launch of he new services and the accompanying push for increased stickiness of its current users will help advertisers make conversions. The increased user base as well as a diversification in content options will also allow AOL’s advertisement targeting to improve as AOL learns more about what its users are interested in.

Huffington Post Streaming Network

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Most Valuable Follower Is Active

February 1st, 2012

Yesterdy this column wrote about Twitter’s coming new analytic tools. The social media agency should be excited about those, but Tuesday saw the launch of a helpful tool that is for free and run by a third party. Most Valuable Follower is an app created for fun. The app will show the top five followers of a Twitter account and hos large their follower base is.

twitter

A feed that has 5,000 followers is a healthy and popular feed, but it only reaches a very small percentage of the Twitterverse. Measuring how many followers those followers has opens up the Twitterverse in new ways. That is preceily what this app allows the social media agency to do. There is also an opportunity to tweet congratulations about the MVF. Some brands can use this mention as a way to build a desire for more followers, akin to FourSquare’s mayorship.

While MVF does not offer a very important tool in the arsenal, it helps some. It is also emblematic of what makes twitter so valuable. There are numerous third party apps out there which when combined can provide some useful ananytucs for the digital marketer.

Who is Your MVF?

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Customers Do Care About Data Collection

January 25th, 2012

A study produced by Forrester Research shows that customers do care and are increasingly concerned about data collection methods. More than 37,000 US and Canada residents were surveyed and more than 70% said they were concerned about sensitive data such as social security numbers and credit cards. The number drops to less than half when it is about phone numbers and the results finally taper at 17% when the data in question is about online reviews. Customers are able to discern qualitative differences about types of data.

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The age of the customer is also relevant to the concern about data collection. Almost half of 55-64 year olds are concerned about data collection of their online behaviors. The percentage of 18-24 year olds concerned is a third. These numbers are increasing when compared on the long view from year to year.

The most important issue for the digital agency is that almost half of customers have cancelled a purchase because of something they read in an online privacy policy. This is the easy lesson for the digital agency. Customers do read these and do make use their privacy as a factor in deciding with whom to shop.

Brands need to be careful what they do with data. They need to be vocal about what is done with their data and they need to be careful to abide by those statements. It is too easy these days to run afoul of the right person with the right Klout score if privacy concerns are handled haphazardly. The SOPA protests should reaffirm the power of symbolic protest on the internet when privacy is concerned.

Data Collection Concern

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Facebook Insights Pared Down

January 23rd, 2012

Amy Porterfield, a successful Facebook marketing coach, has an essay where she offers some advice for the digital agency overwhelmed with Facebook metrics. She argues that there only three of the available metrics that really need observance.

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The most important new metric is People Talking About This. Unlike the other metrics it is visible to the public. This metric is simple: it measures any engagement. If a person comments, shares, likes or links to a post then it is counted in the measure. The metric operates on a weekly basis and shows the percentage change from the previous change. This is easily the easiest way to measure engagement and it is easy to know when a post needs attending.

Another metric is Engaged Users. This measures every time in the past 28 days when a person has clicked anywhere in the post. The metric will also reveal where people clicked, so the digital agency can see what people are responding to.

The other invaluable metric is External Referrers. It measures every time a page is landed on from an external site. This is helpful to measure of the social media marketing agency is adequately performing outside of Facebook. It also helps reveal how to better reach people outside of Facebook.

Facebook Metrics

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Online Ad Spending To Pass Print Spending

January 19th, 2012

2012 is expected to see more spending on online advertising than spending on print advertising. If that expectation holds, then it would be the first time that has happened. This change is not because of declining print advertising spending, but the astounding growth of online spending. The new study by eMarketer shows online spending gaining on TV spending, but not eclipsing it by the end of the study’s projections in 2017. Print and TV will still play an important role for advertising, but online spending is the only one showing significant growth.

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The message for digital marketing companies is that business is about to get really crowded. Consumers will spend more time online, so the inventory increases will have additional audiences to display to, however, there will still be increased competition for the digital agency. This makes the engagement and non-advertising side of online presence even more important. Building a strong brand presence now before the market becomes over-saturated is important. A strong FaceBook page is an example of a presence that can help combat the coming masses of digital advertising.

Online Advertising Soars

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Spotify Hits The End of Trial Period

January 12th, 2012

Early adopters to the Spotify service are finding their six-month trial at an end. Many of those users are not upgrading, which means they are now looking for a music streaming service.

Spotify

This is good for the digital agency. Even though Spotify exploded on the scene, it will hurt itself by ending free streaming services after the trial period expires. The other services provide an advertising outlet and will gain more users. The front-runner is probably Pandora. It is already well known and it allows the user to experience new music through its recommendation engine. Grooveshark will compete with Pandora to gain more user share. The quality of the track falls short some because it’s all uploaded music. There is also MOG Free Play and Rdio to consider.

The digital agency should, however, focus on the services that offer a recommendation engine. It’s no secret what people listen to when they are able to select, but there is something to be learned when a random track comes on and the user can either listen to it or dismiss it. Data measuring these cycles can help improve the effectiveness of ads, especially rich format ads.

Spotify brought people into the streaming music service and now that is kicking many of those new users out of their system others are picking up the slack. This is a great opportunity for the digital agency to step up and capitalize on this opportunity.

Growth of Streaming Music

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Posted in Internet News, music | No Comments »

Tablets To Replace Laptops

January 11th, 2012

The exploding tablet market has always been entertaining to watch. Not only did the genre explode onto the scene, but it helped reshape the way digital agencies need to approach mobile computing. Although the issue had always been about supplementing computing needs. The thought was that people would have tablets and smartphones and also either a laptop or a desktop. According to a new study by Poll Position that assumption is suspect.

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46% of adults believe that tablets will replace laptops. This belief is especially true among adults (30-58) and young adults (18-29). This has a couple of meanings for the digital agency. People either think tablets are productive enough or that they are close to productive enough to be productivity devices in the near future. This will open up space for the digital agency to target tablet ads towards productivity devices and not just as consumption machines. The digital agency needs to also recognize this as the beginning of the end for non-mobile marketing. If productivity turns to mobile devices then it makes sense to only specialize in advertisements geared towards mobile devices, which can be displayed on desktops.

Even if the tablet does not replace the laptop, this belief will accelerate tablet sales. Tablets will take a larger share of people’s computing attentions in the future.

Tablet Future

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Social Media Director - Ann Arbor, MI - Job Opening

January 11th, 2012

Leading digital agency seeks endearingly persistent and oddly charismatic candidate for opportunity in social media marketing. The Social Media Director will create and implement comprehensive social media strategies across a variety of platforms, in accordance with individual client needs and broader media trends. The ideal candidate must have a demonstrated passion for social media, digital culture, and college sports.

Responsibilities

The Social Media Director will coordinate with our digital team to provide cohesive and consistent branding strategies for a variety of clients utilizing platforms including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Youtube. In addition to monitoring current social media trends, the Social Media Director must possess the ability to analyze these trends and think critically about the possible ramifications for the social media landscape and, ultimately, for our clients.

The Social Media Director will work with the Ingenex team to create clever and effective campaigns to garner positive attention for our clients in accordance with their business objectives and brand strategies. The Social Media Director will develop manageable, cross-platform campaigns that will deliver measurable results, with a focus on creating and cultivating relationships between client and consumer.

The Social Media Director will also have the opportunity to attend and use social media at industry related events (TEDx, SXSW, LA2M, ETC.) representing Ingenex and its clients.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate is ambitious, enthusiastic, and innovative, with both the willingness to collaborate with a team and the ability to be autonomous. The candidate must have an intricate knowledge of the technical aspects of social media usage as well as the ability to use various platforms to successfully market products, build brand equity, and interact with consumers. Our ideal candidate is a leader, a listener, and a highly social person.

Rather than a specific number of years of experience, we seek in our candidate an eagerness to continually evolve with the medium. The ideal candidate must be able to adapt and react to an ever-evolving digital landscape quickly and effectively. Must be team-oriented and recognize the value of strong customer service. Our ideal candidate is flexible, confident, and communicative. Ability to recognize linguistic trends and utilize rhetoric to effectively market preferred, but not required. Client must be willing to work hard and have fun.

To apply, please send resume and cover letter to Derek Mehraban derek (at) ingenexdigital (dot) com @mehraban on Twitter. Applications will be accepted until Friday, January 20 at 5 PM. Thank you. Salary commensurate with experience.

About Ingenex

Ingenex is a full service Digital Marketing agency with offices in Ann Arbor and Chicago. Our mission is to be the world leaders in engaging digital media users in highly enjoyable experiences that deliver break-through results for our partners.

Ingenex Digital Marketing services include mobile application development, Interactive Branding™, web site design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click management, optimized public relations, direct marketing, new media training, social media marketing, email marketing, web-driven event marketing, generational marketing, podcasting and blogging.

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Games Increasingly Appeal To Women

January 10th, 2012

There are now more women who play games online than men. There are games that are made to be female-centric but women’s willingness to play games that do not fit in this category is growing. Over the past two years console game playing by women has significantly increased. A new study — studying console gaming and browser based games but not social games — by comScore Media Metrix has some interesting results for the digital agency.

The good news for the digital agency is that women do tend to have different gaming characteristics than men. Women prefer to play less competitive and more story-driven and character-driven games. The other important data to come out of the new study is that once the gamer hits the 35-year-old mark, then women are more likely to continue playing games than men.

It is no secret that people appreciate games and rewards. Some of the more effective ads involve an aspect of gaming and the digital agency can use the demographic data to help craft gaming-like ads to appeal to customers. As women become more amenable to online gaming then the ads targeting them can too.

Woman Gamers

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Amazon’s Kindle Line Stealing iPad Ground

January 5th, 2012

Amazon reports that over the holiday season more than 4 million Kindles were purchased, most of them the Kindle Fire. Because of the much lower price point than then iPad2, a $300 difference, some of these purchases were not a loss to iPad 2 sales. Some of those sales, however, were a loss for Apple. The firm Morgan Keenan thinks the Kindle Fire stole 1 million to 2 million sales from Apple over the holiday season. According to comScore 97% of all web traffic from tablets came from iPads, but with such a high number there is only one direction for movement to occur.

All of this points to the digital agency needing to analyze its mobile presence. The Kindle Fire has different dimensions than the iPad, so mobile layouts may need to be altered. Because there is a question about the Kindle Fire’s ability to compete with the iPad, that means there might be a qualitative difference between what consumers are looking for on advertising. Advertisements geared towards productivity are less likely to find an audience on a Kindle device.

Kindle Competition

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Posted in apple, tablets | No Comments »

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