Posts Tagged ‘google’

Social Media Director - Ann Arbor, MI - Job Opening

Wednesday, 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.

Google Maps Goes Indoors

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

Google Maps has finally gone indoors. As of now there are limited locations available. Some airports (San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago) and some vendors (Macy’s, Home Depot and Bloomingdale’s) are the only currently available maps, but that will change. The new service allows people to see floor plans as well as the locations on those floor plans of certain areas (as in the vendors) and certain vendors (as in the larger maps of airports and malls, etc.). For now the update is only available on Android versions of the service, but eventually it will be available on desktops and iPhone versions as well.

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The obvious effect for the digital agency will be the growing importance of Google Maps. Google Maps had already been established as, at the least, an equal to AOL’s Mapquest. This change will make Google Maps much more consulted and much more important in the local search market. A synergy between Google’s search service and Maps will also help propel Maps.

The digital advertiser now has an ability to help its clients that may be located inside a large building like a mall or airport or skyway system. The new indoor function allows those smaller businesses to be represented whereas they remain invisible to non-Maps services. A proper campaign for a client will now need to involve Google Maps whereas it was potentially irrelevant before this update.

Before this update Maps was drawing 8.6 million users per month to its mobile site. The Maps app ranked third behind FaceBook and The Weather Channel among all smartphone platforms.

Indoor Maps

WordPress launches Own Advertising Option

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

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WordPress has announced that it will soon be launching its own advertising service. The service will be called WordAds, which is not to be confused with Google’s AdWords service. WordPress says that users have been asking for a way to monetize blogs for some time now, but the company has resisted because AdWords seemed to be a good fit for most of those users. What has changed for this new venture to happen is not clear.

There is not yet a discussion of the differences between WordAds and AdWords. WordPress for now is merely directing interested users to a form for completion. WordPress hinted at this change in October at its developer conference. With 50,000 new blogs coming online everyday this move can be quite the lucrative venture for WordPress and its partner in this venture Federated Media.

WordAds will be 100% optional for bloggers using WordPress; they will be free to remain with AdWords. There has not (yet?) been a response from Google. AdWords brought in $2.6 billion for Q3 of 2011, which represents 27% of Google’s income.

This is good news for the internet marketing agency. WordAds will be similar enough to AdWords that learning it will probably be simple, possibly as simple as keeping straight the name of the service being used. Because WordPress has such a large potential draw this service can be large and push a number of ads to viewers. While it will not replace AdWords it will help soften up the market from AdWords’ dominance. Bloggers will also probably find the new service easier to use because the widgets will be more seamless. This should help increase the number of niche blogs pushing ads that might have otherwise gone without any ads whatsoever.

Wordpress Ad Program

WordAds

Yahoo! Changes Its Search results

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

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In preparation for the holiday shopping season Yahoo! has updated how it reveals search results. The intention is to provide answers and not just links. Whenever a user conducts a search that might yield results about shopping, recipes or entertainment Yahoo! will then produce at the top of the search results information about the product instead of links to others.

This change will help its users better find what they are looking for. This should also attract more firms to beef up their budgeted dollars on Yahoo!. Where a firm could normally hope to be represented in Yahoo! search results or on advertising space with the network, now a firm’s products can be displayed at the very top of the search results. This premium spacing is not a paid-for space, but having a strong presence on Yahoo!’s rankings can help with placement there.

Holiday Results

Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft Team Up Against Facebook and Google

Friday, November 11th, 2011

The three dinosaurs of internet advertising have decided to cooperate in an effort to take on the growing shares of Facebook and Google in display advertising. The partnership will begin in early 2012 by integrating their real-time bidding systems. All three publishers have some display advertising which is considered reserved and these reserved ads will not be part of the integration. Some of the non-reserved space is still considered premium and the integration should help make it easier for advertisers, especially younger advertisers, to push their ads with better visibility and lower prices.

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AOL may be the biggest winner in this merger. There was rumor that some AOL clients might be leaving because of dwindling numbers, but this integration should stymie that flight. This merger will also help AOL reach advertising spaces outside of its own media properties.

A concern for advertisers is the further consolidation of the publishing side of advertising. However, the integration of three separate payment options and methods will provide an immediate help to the digital marketing agency. The scale of the three publishers once merged is also quite staggering and might just be large enough to make a dent in the growing domination of Facebook and Google in display advertising.

Partnership

Google Offers Personalizes Its Offers

Monday, October 17th, 2011

Last week Google Offers gave users a series of questions to help personalize the program. Users were asked about types of products they buy and what kinds of products they would like to receive news about. Users were then asked about where they go: neighborhoods they hang out, actual locations they go and locations they would like to go to.

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The digital marketing agency should already be using Google Offers as a place to push awareness of its clients. The personalization offered by Google Offers will help deliver ads and information that will increase conversion rates. Google Offers is also integrated with Google Latitude, a service that tracks the user’s location either passively or actively. This integration does two things: first it allows users to automatically receive offers when they are close to a participating vendor. The second benefit of this integration is Google’s ability to measure the user’s stated preference to actual preference. The questionnaire is filled out according to how the user would like to see himself, but Google Latitude can measure actual locations and make recommendations based upon that. Economists have long known that measuring actual preference solves the main problem of surveys, where a stated preference is a fantasy and not reality. Other daily deals companies cannot offer that level of accuracy.

Personalized Offers

Greystripe Updates Its Mobile Ads To Be More Social

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

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Greystripe, a leading mobile ad network, announced two new advertising units Wednesday which will makes its mobile ads more social and lucrative. These new units are called Ad Boosters. It is not yet known if the boosters can be applied to the same ads or if advertisers must choose between them. The first booster is geared for vertical industries allowing the advertiser to insert buttons for certain actions into the ad. The obvious application is a button within a retailer’s ad that allows the user to locate nearby stores. The button can have any design, usually the company’s brand, and its functions can vary.

The second ad booster allows for integration of the ad with social networking platforms. As of now the supported social networks are Facebook, Google+, Twitter and YouTube. The two new boosters can be applied at the bottom or within the ad itself.

These ad boosters join a lineup of boosters already offered by Greystripe. Advertisers already have the ability to add buttons for other actions, such as call the advertiser, coupons offered, buy or download more information. Greystripe does provide bundles at reduced prices geared for certain industries.

Mobile advertising is what’s hot these days and with the expected surge in mobile devices after this holiday season mobile advertising will become even more lucrative. The digital agency can use Greystripe’s new innovations to improve or even to begin mobile advertising. Greystripe’s advancements will also push other mobile ad networks to make more improvements.

Social Ads

Study Quantifies Multi-Platform Advertising

Friday, September 30th, 2011

Google and Nielsen have conducted a study of advertising to measure if there was more, and how much more, recall from users if they were exposed to ads on TV alone or in conjunction with other platforms. Users were shown an ad and those that were exposed to the ad across platforms were almost twice as likely to correctly remember the product and even details of the product. The reason this is news is because the traditional theory had been about exposure rates and not about the display of that exposure. Now the data shows a campaign that is seen on multiple platforms is preferable to the inundation method.

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There is also new data suggesting the tablet is really a consumption device. While there are some productivity applications, they pale in comparison to even the cheapest laptop. Most people are content consumers and not producers on their tablets. The data about multi-platform campaigns means the tablet needs to be a central component of the campaigns. The digital agency can to take this data to recruit new clients into a multi-platformed approach. Firms also need to be careful that their campaigns are seen in many locations. Banner ads need to be seen on desktops and on mobile devices. Video needs to also be seen on these varied devices.

Benefits of Multi-Platform Campaigns

Facebook Sets Up a Political Action Committee

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

Facebook must be feeling defensive lately. Their latest small business initiative is a way to secure and increase their advertising base as well as to increase the use of their options for brands. Facebook has also announced the creation of a Political Action Committee, otherwise known as PAC, whose purpose is to lobby Congress about the importance of social networks and Facebook particularly.

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According to The Hill Facebook has already spent $550,000 this year on lobbying efforts. That number has been increasing every year for a few years now. The PAC will allow employees and the company itself to contribute to the political campaigns of candidates that support social networking and digital innovation.

As long as Facebook represents the single largest and most influential online destination, this move is good for the digital agency. Congress has yet to settle the privacy concerns in digital advertising and the PAC may help promote pro-advertising opinions in Congress. Of course, there is concern this influence may not work for the industry but instead specifically for Facebook as Google’s anti-trust concerns increasingly comes to Congressional attention. The big payoff, with few of the risks, lies in devoting the PAC to the future of the industry and not in the issues specifics of Facebook competitors. The digital agency can probably breathe a little easier as it looks ahead to Congressional involvement in the industry.

Facebook’s PAC

A New Daily Deals Service

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Many pundits, including this column, have argued the daily deals industry is saturated. Some publishers are closing, recently Facebook Deals and Yelp!, but a new service is going into operation on Monday. The new service is the newspaper industry’s attempt to take their advertising digital so it is slightly different. Instead of sending a daily email, iCircular, no relation to Apple, will display the ads that are local to area newspapers. The newspaper’s weekly circular of advertising is now digital. For now, however, that digital life only exists on iPhones and the app will appear inside the apps of major newspapers. There are currently 40 newspapers participating, including the Los Angeles Times. The app will also allow users to build shopping lists and to enter into loyalty programs.

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The digital agency should remain hesitant about this new service. As it currently stands it will probably not make much money or do much to increase the visibility of clients. The main issue is that it is an app within an app requiring of the user an additional layer of navigation. The beauty of the usual daily deal was the ease (an email) of learning about a deal on something that otherwise might not be thought of, such as skydiving or a spa. These ads are commonplace and not at all as easy as checking an email. The ads will also be local, restricted to the newspaper at hand. However, a reader of the LA Times, even if in Wichita, will see LA based ads.

Despite these problems iCircular can make improvements to its service. While it may not currently be worth budget dollars, it is still worth watching and measuring.

iCircular