Twitter

Twitter Hits Two Milestones

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

On Tuesday Twitter announced that it is now releasing promoted tweets into user’s timelines on mobile devices. The rollout is only for iOS and Android devices. Twitter is also allowing brands using promoted tweets to target desktops or mobile devices only, as well as specific platforms of the mobile devices.

Until this announcement promoted tweets were limited to users that followed the brand purchasing the promotion. Twitter says it’s testing has gone very well and now similar interests will be enough to deliver a promoted tweet into a timeline.

Twitter also announced on Wednesday that it now has 140 million active users. 55% of those users log into their Twitter accounts at least once per month from a mobile device. This is a huge base of people that can be reached via Twitter. It is also a very quickly growing base. The 140 million figure represents a 40% growth since September.

Being able to reach people that are not a brand’s followers but that do show similar interests is a huge boon for the social media agency. Given the size of Twitter’s base and the ease of reaching them with promoted tweets, Twitter should be a top social network for brands’ outreach.

Twitter’s Milestone

Tags: Mobile, social media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter
Posted in Mobile, Twitter, social media | No Comments »

Blogging Continues To Grow

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

By the end of 2011 there were over 181 million blogs of enough prominence to be tracked by NM Incite, which is a Nielsen/McKinsey Company. That number is a significant bump from the halcyon days immediately before FaceBook took over the internet. Blogging has shown a steady rise not only in publisher but also in the numbers of people that read them. Even with a FaceBook domination, blogging is still on the rise.

NM Incite also has some data about who these bloggers are. Most of them are women and most of them have graduated from college. Mothers are one out of every three bloggers and over half of the bloggers have children younger than 18. They are also most likely to post and share on social media sites and to share content on those networks and not just on their blogs.

Blogger, owned by Google, is the second largest social networking site second only to FaceBook. This is important for the social media agency because it is easy to overlook or even forget about blogs in the craze of social network growth. FaceBook, Twitter and, now, Pinterest are fantastic outlets, but they still lack a comprehensive hold on how people share their preferences on the internet. This is especially important because Blogger is owned by Google and many Wordpress blogs offering advertising are partnered with Google’s Adwords. Reaching out to bloggers can still be a valuable marketing campaign, possibly even more so than the services measured by Klout and other metrics.

Blogging on the Rise

Tags: Blogger, blogging, Facebook, google, pinterest, social media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter
Posted in Facebook, google, 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 »

Greystripe Updates Its Mobile Ads To Be More Social

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

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

Tags: advertising, Digital Marketing, Facebook, google, greystripe, Mobile, Social Networking, Twitter, youtube
Posted in Digital Marketing, Internet Advertising, Mobile, Mobile applications, advertising | No Comments »

Take Your Twitter to the Next Level

Friday, June 17th, 2011

By now most of you are using Twitter for business purposes. It is a universal tool that can have a profound affect on your brand image and brand loyalty if done correctly. And like many new media tools, Twitter is still growing and evolving. It’s potential as a tool for business has yet to be reached. Here are some of Twitter-centric tools that will help you take your corporate Twitter management to the next level.

Twellow: This is the unofficial “yellowpages” for Twitter. With over 30 million people registered on this directory, it gives you access to a large portion of the Twitter user base. This resource allows you to search for users based on interests and location. If you own a small business this is especially useful as you will be able to connect to local organizations, businesses and potential customers.

SocialMention: This is a great site that makes monitoring your online presence much easier. This free tool is simple to use and allows you to search the web for your brand, or keywords and see the discussion across all online media. In addition you can set up alerts so they will send you updates whenever your brand, or specific keyword comes up in conversations online.

Hootsuite: This is another priceless tool to make monitoring your brand on Twitter a breeze. Not only does this site allow you to update, and monitor several Twitter accounts on one page, but you can set up custom feeds, each with their own set of keywords and every time someone tweets with those words, it posts to your page. This makes it easy to see what people are saying and respond in an expedient manner.

Those are just a few of the tools out there that help you make the most of Twitter and take your social media marketing to the next level. These will surely help for now, but be sure to stay tuned as new, and better, resources are surfacing all them time.

Tags: Business, hootsuite, monitoring, social media, social mention, twellow, Twitter
Posted in Business Social Networking, Twitter, social media | No Comments »

Businesses Need to Better Utilize Twitter

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Data shows that Twitter users are quite likely to ask questions but not to direct those questions with an @ or a hashtag. Many of these users are asking for input from their followers or from businesses. Six out of ten Twitter users wish businesses would answer questions over Twitter and data also shows business replies are as trustworthy as replies from regular users.

webdevils.biz

This is a high burden for businesses. Monitoring Twitter usage is relatively easy when people use the hashtags or the @ sign. Monitoring Twitter without those tools requires much more time, but the payoff seems entirely worth it. The digital agency needs to incorporate this into its brand monitoring portfolio. It would also be a wise move to incorporate a method of Twitter contact into an advertising campaign. Maybe some users do not use the Twitter tools (hashtag, etc.) because they are not sure about the appropriate use of those tools. The digital agency can incorporate that education as a means of increasing affective communications.

E Marketer: Twitter Users Want Businesses to Answer Them

Tags: Business Social Networking, Derek Mehraban, digital agency, Facebook, Ingenex, Ingenex Digital, Internet Marketing, Linkedin, Social Harbor, social media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Survey, Twitter
Posted in Business Social Networking, Facebook, Linkedin, Mobile, Mobile applications, Social Harbor News, Twitter, advertising, social media | No Comments »

Children’s Exposure to Digital Advertising Is Increasing

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

The news that 7.5 million children under 13 were on FaceBook reached near scandalous proportions last month. That number, however, is not at all surprising given new data recently released about children’s online behaviors. 30% of children 3 and younger spend some time each week on online. That number increases as the children grow older. 90% of children between 6 and 8 are online at least some.

Photo: MonitoringSoftwareBlog.com

While there are laws making data collection of children more difficult there are ways the digital agency can capitalize on this changing demographic. Advertising which appeals to multiple age groups can be effective and also does not require data collection. While children are increasingly online, the parent is never far away and advertisement that is child friendly and yet appealing to parents is important. Data shows parents are still the main influence of children’s consumptive desire, even though children are increasingly spending more time on social networks.

E Marketer: Young Children Consuming More Digital Media

Tags: Add new tag, advertising, Ann Arbor, Children, Derek Mehraban, digital agency, Digital Marketing, Facebook, google, Ingenex Digital, Internet Marketing, New Media, Social Media Marketing, SocialHarbor, Twitter
Posted in Children, Facebook, Mobile, Mobile applications, Twitter, advertising, online children, social media | No Comments »

Demographics of Online Coupon Use Are Changing

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

A new report by Morpace shows the use of online coupons will continue to grow in nominal numbers, but who constitutes those numbers is slowly changing. Estimates don’t predict much change in the percentage of internet users adopting online coupons. 2009 saw 44% of internet users using them and 2013 predictions put that number just shy of half. With the growth of internet usage, however, that percentage bump will be almost 20 million people. Of the 2011 47%, 33% of those people have previously purchased a Groupon.

Photo: AllThingsD.com

Groupon is clearly the darling of online coupon vendors, but the fundamentals may be changing. Normally Groupon caters to the small business, which is great for the digital agency. However, larger firms are now beginning to experiment with daily deal vendors including, but not limited to, Groupon. This changing daily deal partner may have the adverse effect of crowding out some smaller businesses.

Photo: EMarketer.com

Not only is the daily deal partner changing, but so too is the demographic of users. Normally the Groupon market is mainly married women, akin to regular coupons, making more than $50,000. The largest single group to visit Groupon in January 2011 was over 55. The digital agency has often neglected this older group because of the lack of digital integration in their lives. That assumption seems to be changing, and it may be changing precisely because of economic savings offered by digital integration.

E Marketer: Groupon and the Deal Revolution

Tags: Add new tag, Ann Arbor, Business Networking, Business Social Networking, demographics, Derek Mehraban, digital agency, Digital Marketing, google, Groupon, Ingenex Digital, New Media, online coupon, Social Harbor, Twitter
Posted in Business Social Networking | No Comments »

A New Twitter Competitor

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Sina Weibo is a Twitter-like service that is currently available only in China. In China it is huge and the plan is to move the service into English speaking venues with Sina English. Budweiser is already on board and one of the few differences between Sina and Twitter is geared to marketing. One of those differences is Sina content is also linked to its portal, so links to longer content can still create exposure for advertisements. The main marketing advantage is the layout. Videos and pictures are displayed below the tweet-like message, Sina also operates on 140 characters messages, so viewing the content is easier.

Photo: PennOlsen.com

Even though this service will make itself more of a marketing platform, digital agencies should remain cautious. Consumers are notoriously cautious about gumming up their processors with another app that offers a redundant service. To answer the redundancy question, Sina supporters point to the explosive growth Sina has had in China. However, Chinese affords more communicative potential in 140 characters than English does, and the inline display advantage is also mitigated by using apps instead of visiting the web page. The good news Sina does offer the digital agency is competition. Twitter will now have external pressures to develop, especially the in the realm of the pro-marketing differences that Sina offers.

The Wall: Can Twitter still be beaten? Chinese rival to launch in the US

Tags: Business Networking, China, digital agency, Digital Marketing, Ingenex Digital, Internet Marketing, iphone, New Media, Sina, Sina Weibo, social media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, SocialHarbor, Twitter
Posted in Business Social Networking, Mobile, Mobile applications, Twitter, social media | No Comments »

Twitter is Still An Attractive Advertising Platform

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

There are two types of advertising that reach Twitter users. Twitter offers some advertising within a user’s feed, but these promoted tweets are infrequent and usually cater to large firms with deep pockets. Then there are the advertisements users see on the app delivering the Twitter stream, whether it be an app or on the Twitter.com website.

It’s the apps which has caused the latest noise. Tweetdeck is arguably the most popular Twitter client and Twitter just purchased it. Tweetdeck had been in negotiation with other potential buyers, but Twitter won out. Tweetdeck can account for creation of 5.5% of all Tweets generated. In March Tweetdeck users were generating 1 billion tweets each week. That is a lot of exposure. Now digital agencies can tap into that exposure when making an advertising deal with Twitter. The reason Twitter bought the app is because when users use Tweetdeck they are not exposed to the ads on twitter.com. That division has been solved by this acquisition. Advertising with twitter will now be even more profitable.
Tweetdeck and Twitter

Tags: advertising, Digital Marketing, tweetdeck, Twitter
Posted in Business Social Networking, social media | No Comments »

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