Posts Tagged ‘Mobile’

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Instagram Now a Full Social Network

Thursday, February 7th, 2013

Instagram had been a limited service only on mobile devices using the Instagram app. On Tuesday, however, that changed as Instagram is now available to PCs via web browsers. Because of the social component to Instagram that means it is a new social network and one, like Pinterest, based completely on visual models.

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Photo by: BrentOzar

Like other social networks there is a newsfeed. There is also an ability to share pictures, which is the same as liking a picture and a commenting function is available on each picture as well. Some things are missing such as an explore function. An interesting addition to the newsfeed is a significant chunk of blank real estate. The speculation is that Instagram will be bringing in advertising. This is the real gain for the internet marketing firm. A new advertising exchange will help increase the available inventory on the web. The social and visual components should help make that advertising successful. The internet marketing firm can also use Instagram the way other social networks are used, as platforms for clients and brands. We must wait for more details to see how effective the service is or how effective they want it to be, but for now it is an encouraging debut.

Instagram No Longer A Mobile-Only Social Network: The Feed Makes Its Web Debut.

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Posted in Instagram, Mobile applications, social media | No Comments »

Facebook Building a Location Tracking App

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

There are reports that Facebook is building a mobile app that will track a user’s location, even if the app is not open. The justification is so Facebook friends can easily find each other when they are nearby. The app might also allow people near each other to recognize that they have some shared interests and hence might be good Facebook friends. The app is rumored to debut in March. There has not been any confirmation of the project from Facebook, although Zuckerberg has said that mobile apps are now the priority for Facebook development teams.

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Photo by: Johan Larsson

The social media marketing agency should tread carefully with this application. If there is no opt in feature (other than downloading), then it may anger privacy enthusiasts more than it is worth. It would be nice, however, for stores to have an ability to see who is in their stores or even nearby and then link up to those people. The amount of data collected from this app would be significant and useful because knowing where people actually go instead of where they would like to go is a significant difference. Before tapping into or contributing to this data the social media marketing agency should watch and see how the privacy concern is treated, especially as Facebook’s credibility about privacy concerns is waning.

Facebook Is Said to Create Mobile Location-Tracking App

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Posted in Facebook, Mobile, Mobile applications | No Comments »

Facebook Now Has More Mobile users Than PC Users

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, announced on Wednesday that for 2012 Q4 Facebook had more daily users on mobile devices than there were users on PCs. Not only were the numbers very large but mobile advertising accounted for over 23% of Facebook’s revenue for the same quarter.

Photo Credit: Anthony Quintano

This news has two enthusiastic impacts for the social media agency. The first is the increasing profitability of mobile advertising. Part of the reason it is so profitable is because of how effective those ads are. Facebook ads were already some of the most effective ads, but on mobile devices they are even more so. Another benefit of this mobile trend is the increasing simplicity of using the social network. More and more mobile devices are being used for social networking and social networking is taking up more and more timeshare of a person’s time on a mobile device. The digital media agency is living in the beginning of a boon time for its missions.

Facebook: Mobile Daily Users Exceed PC Users

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Posted in Facebook, Mobile, Smartphone, advertising | No Comments »

iOS Still Dominates the Market

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

Over the past few weeks it was leaked that Apple stopped production orders on iPhone 5 after slower sales than expected. Many investors panicked and sent Apple stock falling. Chitika reports that despite weak demand for the iPhone 5 (Chitika does not confirm that demand is weak) iOS still dominates web based traffic on mobile devices.

Photo Credit: Methodshop

There is one possible error, it is important to stress that this is only a possible source of error, in the Chitika report. The company was looking at advertising impressions from its servers. It then assumes that advertising impressions are congruent with website views. While this is probably a safe assumption to be made, it is still an assumption. But for the purposes of the digital marketing agency it is a good working assumption, because the agency is concerned with ad impressions.

Almost two thirds of all impressions delivered to a mobile device are sent to an iOS device. The digital marketing agency needs to take this into account. Few of those are accessing Google+ if they are accessing a social network. Those ads also need to be optimized for iOS devices. This is easier than for Android devices because Apple devices lack the fragmentation issues of the Android universe. In fact, if ad optimization occurs without accounting for fragmentation, then the digital media agency ought to optimize for iOS devices.

Report: iOS Continues To Dominate Web Traffic

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Posted in Mobile, Technology, apple | No Comments »

EBay As The Next Amazon

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Colin Gillis, the Director of Research at BCG Financial, is publicly predicting that EBay will continue its meteoric rise and it will be on the backs of mobile devices. As of now one third of mobile devices access EBay or its property PayPal. That is a tremendous statistic and if true does indeed bode well for the ecommerce site. EBay and PayPal have been at the forefront of mobile developments and the company does show a continued emphasis in that direction.

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One of the main goals for EBay is to change their image from that of an auction company to one where someone can buy anything. This is good for the digital marketing agency. Amazon is currently the leader in m-commerce, where people go on their mobile devices to be able to buy anything. To gain this ground EBay will offer discounts and promotions. The agency can use this as another outlet for its clients to sell their wares online. EBay is also more willing to offer Facebook integration so for the digital marketing agency there will be symmetry. If EBay is not currently used as a vendor, then a strategy reevaluation would behoove the brand that sells online.

2013 Could Be the Year eBay Takes on Amazon for Real

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Mobile, Online Shopping | No Comments »

Facebook Mobile Ads for Apps Shows Success

Monday, January 7th, 2013

Adparlor is a marketing partner of Facebook and it has released data from a month long study recently concluded about the viability of mobile ads in the Facebook newsfeed. Average click through rates for these ads is close to .5%, which is a remarkably high percentage compared to other advertising units across the industry.

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One of the specific types of ads the study focused on was for app installs. The numbers were very encouraging. The average cost of each install is less than $3, so the return on the advertising is well worth the advertising cost.

For the digital marketing agency the easy lesson is for those who sponsor apps. Apps can be very effective at delivering messages and these results show advertising on Facebook mobile is an effective way to do so. The other lesson is that more and more apps are being installed and many of those apps use advertising as an income stream. The social media will see more and more opportunities for advertising on mobile devices as people turn more and more to apps.

Early Studies Show Facebook Mobile App Install Ads Perform Well For Devs, Indicating Big Revenue Potential

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Posted in Business Social Networking, Facebook, Mobile applications | No Comments »

Google places Coming to Vehicles

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013
Hyundai motor Company, who makes Hyundai and Kia brand vehicles, has announced that it will be using Google Maps and Places on its new smartcar features.  Ford, Audi and BMW already allow smartphone users to send data to their cars on-board computers. This new change, however, will default to a platform running Google products for driving directions and recommendations.

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This is big news as Siri and Apple have been gaining momentum as the go to service for immediate mobile directions and recommendations. As more and more vehicles enlist in the Google suite, then it will be more and more important for search engine marketing services to tap into this suite. Not only will a presence need to be made, but it will need to be optimized for best no-hands access.

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Posted in Mobile applications, advertising, google | No Comments »

Measuring the Fat Finger Problem on Mobile

Friday, November 9th, 2012

Because of the small size of screens on mobile devices there has been talk lately about a fat finger problem. The problem is when the person clicks on something unintentionally. It is a problem because the user is not receptive to what comes next because they did not intend to go there, and yet the mobile ad server then bills the advertiser as though the click were intentional. The social media agency may seek a depressed price scale to account for these unintentional clicks, but mobile ad servers are understandably hesitant to meet these demands. New data suggests that advertisers have a legitimate claim about unintentional clicks.

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Goldspot Media conducted a study in October and found that of static banner ad clicks 38% were unintentional. Of rich media banner ads only 13% were unintentional. The method of measurement was about post click action. If within 2 seconds the user moved off the next page, then it was measured as an unintentional click. This makes a significant difference in click through rates, which is how billing is handled between the advertiser and the ad server. Of rich media banner ads a 4% CTR falls to 2% when the fat finger correction is applied. On static banner ads the 3.1% CTR falls to 1.1%.

The social media agency needs to demand a different metric for billing than CTR. If there is a way to transparently combine CTR and then measure post click action, then it will be a better measure of an ad’s effectiveness and value.

Measuring the Fat Finger Problem

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Posted in Goldspot Media, Mobile, clicks | No Comments »

Google Now Changes How Mobile Searches

Monday, November 5th, 2012

Google Now is Google’s answer to Siri, but it does more than Siri. Google Now learns a user’s preferences such as which sports team the user follows, what types of food the person looks for at certain times of day as well as offering suggestions for when to leave for the airport based on traffic conditions. Once users adopt Google Now the need to do local searching will very nearly vanish.

This can be great for brands or it can be awful. BY delivering up a recommendation the brand can benefit from Google Now unless its competitor is receiving the recommendation. The social media agency needs to begin to develop a strategy to make sure its clients are the recommendation. It does seem the mechanisms are already in place though. The things the social media agency does to increase organic rankings will also help brands in this area. Asking customers to leave reviews will also help increase a brand’s authority according to Google. One neat feature that the agency should implement is to plant reminders onto the user’s calendar. These reminders are serviced by Google Now and will help it create traffic into a store.

“Google Now” Moving Well Beyond Search Becoming Mobile Assistant

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Posted in Location based, Mobile, android, google | No Comments »

Tablet Usage Study Released

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

Google has just released a study that looked at how tablet owners use their devices. Most people use them primarily for game playing and emails. Less people use them for researching purchases (but the purchases are normally made on a PC). That last reveal is important for the social media agency. Ads that are resolved on a tablet need to be more entertaining and informative than ads that are calling for a purchase action. Those ads are better served on PCs.

One of the places where ads on a tablet will be very effective is when owners are using it as a second screen. Many people use their tablets while watching TV and use the tablet as a way to gather more information. The social media agency is in a place to know what customers are watching and then craft and serve messages around those shows at the appropriate times. The report is available for free and does offer some other insights that might be helpful for the social media agency.

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Posted in Mobile, apple, tablets | No Comments »

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