social media

A Window For Advertising on Pandora

Friday, March 9th, 2012

Pandora, one of the most powerful music streaming devices for mobile devices, announced on Tuesday that it will not meet revenue expectations. The root of the problem is a lack of advertising partners. Pandora has more inventory than advertisers. Pandora’s need for advertising might just present a lucrative moment for social media agencies, as special pricing options might be agreeable. The problem with Pandora advertising is the audio and lack of a visual aspect to them, so new ads will need to be made. Regardless, a reduced price on Pandora’s end might just make it viable.

May people might be afraid to approach Pandora because of doubts about its future. This is not a valid concern. The obvious reason is because of mobile’s growth. More and more people are buying smartphones and better smartphones, which means a larger pool of potential Pandora users.

As this column has stated previously, Pandora offers a unique experience to the other music streaming services. Spotify is great if the user knows what he wants to listen to. As for a discovery service, however, Pandora is the leader. This position will bring in more listeners. Pandora is also increasing their spending in marketing and will reach out to people that may not currently know about its services.

Maybe its current troubles are reasons to be timid about approaching the service. That seems to be, however, precisely why some special pricing can be agreed upon which makes the investment into audio ads and the reaching out to the new service profitable.

Pandora Advertises

Tags: advertising, Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing, Pandora, social media, spotify
Posted in Internet Advertising, advertising, social media | No Comments »

Pinterest Teaches About Marketing to Women

Monday, March 5th, 2012

Pinterest is the hot new thing in social media and digital marketing. As discussed in this column earlier, Pinterest has added almost 10 million new active users from September 2011 to February 2012. Besides the growth there is other interesting data coming from the nascent social network. Just over 80% of those active users are women. More women than men use the other social networks, but the ratios are significantly more even than Pinterest. Because of this heavy ratio Pinterest offers a unique place to learn about marketing to women.

There are two general strategies brands have taken to market to women. The first is to explicitly display products and to try and sell them. In all of social media women, 85% to be exact, do most of the purchases made. Pinterest seems ideally situated for this model of marketing because of its heavy reliance on images and little written content.

The second model is about creating positive associations with the brand and not an immediate primary focus on selling products. One of the main differences here is that the brand will build community by engaging with others, which also means the brand has preferences and likes other brands and other users. Links back to a site for sales are present, but the main focus is about engaging and making users associate with the brand as if it were another user.

Pinterest and its growth are still too new to develop comprehensive strategies and have them validated by statistics. Pinterest represents an opportunity for brands to break the strategies into different approaches on various social networks. There is no reason why a brand ought to be forced to rely on a single strategy across all social networks and Pinterest’s image focus allows perfectly for those different approaches.

Pinterest Marketing to Women

Tags: Digital Marketing, pinterest, social media, Social Media Marketing, women
Posted in Digital Marketing, advertising, social media | No Comments »

Most Valuable Follower Is Active

Wednesday, 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.

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?

Tags: social media, Twitter
Posted in Twitter, social media | No Comments »

Facebook Insights Pared Down

Monday, 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.

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

Tags: Facebook, Facebook metrics, social media, Social Media Marketing
Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, social media | No Comments »

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.

Tags: Ann Arbor, Community, Digital Marketing, google, social media
Posted in Digital Marketing, digital agency, google, social media | No Comments »

Sociable Labs Offers E-Commerce Sites a Social Option

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Sociable Labs emerged from its building phase on Tuesday to announce some potentially lucrative new products for e-commerce sites. The company has been dark for the past few years as it perfected its quest to bring social sharing and data mining to e-commerce sites. Sociable Labs claims its products, Sociable RSVP and Purchase Share, are 20 times more effective than a simple ‘”Like” or “Share”.

The formula for how Sociable Labs is meeting these numbers is not disclosed. They do claim to use a combination of social apps, A-8 Testing (their proprietary models for driving traffic and conversions) and social expertise (a phrase usually notable for qualitative assessments and not quantitative computations). Whether or not it will be able to sustain these expectations remains to be seen. For now, however, Active.com uses the products and is experiencing 300% higher return rate than on Facebook Fan Page. Sociable Labs does have some other high profile clients, but they have not been as forthcoming about gains.

The internet marketing agency may be able to tap into Sociable Labs products or at least monitor them to learn something. The products for offer are probably beyond the range of the small e-retailer but with enough interest they may offer a scaled down version that the digital agency can also use to help clients.

Sociable Labs

Tags: data, Digital Marketing, e commerce, Facebook, internet marketing agency, sociable, social media
Posted in Digital Marketing, digital agency | No Comments »

About How Men Share Recommendations

Friday, September 16th, 2011

AskMen.com and Ipsos OTX Media CT conducted “The Great Male Survey” and asked men how they tell their friends about purchases and other recommendations. The data is broken down by the answer given and by the age group of the men. Most men, regardless of their age, prefer to do the recommendations through non-digital means: in person or on the phone. If a face-to-face encounter is not an option, then older communication channels are preferred, such as over the phone or email.

Even though the preferred channels are without advertising potential, or at least represent a small advertising potential, the digital agency should still be excited. 5% of the younger age group prefers to make recommendations over Facebook, with other social networks falling behind Facebook. That number, while small, still represents a significant number of men. The percentage also reflects a preferred method of communication, so the low ranking options are still often accessed, as preferred methods are not necessarily available.

The preferred methods reflect an ease of use. It’s easy to mention a certain lawnmower when talking to a friend about lawn care or everyday life. It is possible for the digital agency to inflate these preferences by making a digital recommendation more convenient or to imbue the recommendation with a status gain. Given the preference for email recommendations, ads need to be try to capitalize on this desire or to incentivize the public recommendation more than the private recommendation.

What is really encouraging about this data is the success rate. The most likely answer to “how effective is a Facebook recommendation from a friend?” was “somewhat” at 42%. 18% of respondents find Facebook recommendations more effective than “somewhat”. Men pay attention to what their friends are saying. Channeling into this sort of engagement needs to be a high priority for the marketing firm.

How Men Share

Tags: Digital Marketing, Facebook, internet, social media, Social Networking
Posted in Internet Advertising, advertising, social media | No Comments »

Facebook Updates Friends

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Google+’s big achievement was the Circles innovation. Circles allowed users to share content to only some of the friends on the network. Imagine being able to selectively share pictures from a night out without the fear of potential employers or family uncovering those shared items. A lot of the people flocking to Google+ did so citing this function. Facebook does have a similar function, but it was cumbersome to use and implement. Zuckerburg announced that only 5% of Facebook users actually use Friends. Posterous has even changed its platform from a light blogging service into a social network emphasizing this very advancement. Facebook announced on Tuesday that it is now revamping the Friends application to make it more powerful and easier to implement.

The question for the digital agency is whether or not this advancement makes pages stickier or not. Facebook is not currently at risk from either Google+ or Posterous, but without addressing this problem it seems possible that in time Facebook could face a serious challenge, most likely from Google+. Facebook will start the revamped Friends by creating smart lists, which are a list for ‘close friends’ and another for ‘acquaintances’. They are smart because Facebook will offer recommendations about whom should go into which list. The user then merely needs to accept the recommendations. Whether or not that is easy enough remains in the details of how Facebook determines the recommendations. If it works, then this should actually increase a user’s usage of Facebook. Many people self-censor themselves for fear of someone seeing inappropriate content, but an effective Friends system would eliminate the need for the self-censorship.

This change is not likely to increase Facebook’s user base. It will not hurt the user base, but it seems many people flocking to other services were doing so for reasons more than the Circles function. Despite this caveat, this development is still good news for the digital agency. People’s concerns about Facebook are still being (somewhat) addressed and those people will use Facebook more. Advertising on Facebook will remain and become even more profitable with this development.

New Facebook Friend Lists

Tags: Digital Marketing, Facebook, friends, google, social media, Social Networking
Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, google | No Comments »

Zynga Comes to Google+

Monday, August 15th, 2011

It is no secret that Zynga and other developers of social games significantly aided Facebook’s growth. Google+ announced when it opened its doors that games would be cheaper there than on Facebook. Facebook takes a 30% cut of all payments whereas Google+ says it will take a significantly reduced share. How long this arrangement lasts is open to speculation, but Google’s deep pockets may make it long-lasting.

Because Google+ is currently not advertising, many may dismiss this as important someday but not now, however, there are two reasons this is immediately significant for the digital agency. The first reason is because Zynga is changing its business model. As it approaches an IPO, Zynga is looking for additional revenue opportunities besides the add on purchases that customers make but are not required to make. The new source of revenue is advertising. Within the Zynga game the user will see advertising, even if Google+ is not displaying advertisements on the side of the page. That opens room for the digital agency to advertise on Google+, even if it is not available in a traditional sense.

The second immediate impact is that more people will probably be drawn to Google+. People that have yet to jump onboard may now do so. Some will dismiss this as inaccurate, after all, why would someone join a new service just to play the same Farmville game? They may do so because it may be slightly different and they may do so to start over, erasing mistakes, and for a clean slate among all Farmville users.

Google+ pages will become stickier with games, as well as increasing its overall user base. More people means Google has much more data in its social graph to aid its main business: search. Most digital agencies still rely on search as the main messenger of information and an improved Google search experience is almost guaranteed to help the digital agency.

Google+ Games

Tags: Digital Marketing, Facebook, games, google, Online Advertising, social media, zynga
Posted in google, social media | No Comments »

Google+ To Pass Twitter and LinkedIn Within A Year

Friday, August 12th, 2011

A new study shows Google+ has now signed up 13% of American adults and within a year will likely register 22%. Even though Facebook can claim 71% of adults as users, Google+’s 22% would make it the number two social network in the US. Among users on both Google+ and Facebook, 30% plan to cut the amount of time they spend on Facebook.

The digital agency is still in sit and wait mode on Google+ and this data doesn’t change things. This data does speak to the continued enthusiasm for Google+ though as people like their news feeds about their friends and coworkers. The study also shows some user shrinkage in FaceBook’s immediate future though. For now only FaceBook offers an advertising option, but when that changes the digital agency can expect to see a jump in ROI from Google search advertising as G+’s social graph will help make that advertising much more effective.

Google+ Gaining Ground

Tags: Digital Marketing, Facebook, google, Linkedin, social media
Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, google | No Comments »

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