BersonDeanStevens Blog

Marketers Plan to Use More Social Sites

BersonDeanStevens — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:03:20 +0000

Marketing efforts spreading beyond Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

Social media sites beyond Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are seeing significant boosts in usage, both in the US and elsewhere in the world. And where users go, marketers will follow.

Research from social marketing software firm Awareness Inc. indicates US marketers plan to do just that this year. The December 2011 survey found that the leading area for new social media marketing investments in 2012 would be increasing marketer presence across platforms, cited by 70% of respondents.

For some marketers, that will mean a new presence on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. While the vast majority of US marketers already use these sites for marketing, some laggards plan to join them there this year.

But smaller social sites with less current marketer usage will benefit even more. Nearly one in five respondents said they would begin marketing on YouTube in 2012. And though just 10% of marketers said they would have a new presence on Tumblr, that is on top of only 15% already using it, for an increase of more than 66%. Proportionally, usage of SlideShare and online forums would increase even more than that.

By number of marketers, blogs will be the greatest beneficiary of new efforts, with 28% of respondents saying they were not currently using them but would this year. Among the most experienced social media marketers surveyed, 91% said they planned to increase their use of blogs. – eMarketer

Find out which Facebook pages are growing the fastest.

BersonDeanStevens — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:14:19 +0000

Ever wondered which musician has the fastest growing Facebook Page? Or what TV series? A new beta service called SocialMedia-live is tracking the growth rate of 38 million Facebook Pages, with 2 million of those available to view. It has statistics on total number of likes, fan growth, interesting newcomers and male/female breakdown. These statistics are categorized and users can create comparison graphs. The bad news is that there is no apparent search function.

The answer to the first question, by the way, is Adele, who gained 175,000 followers over the last 24 hours (at time of writing). Adele’s popularity on Facebook is mainly due to her female fans; 62% are female and 38% male. The fastest growing TV show is Mob Wives, perhaps thanks to the current “swear jar sweepstakes” promotion on its Facebook Page. This type of data is useful, albeit limited at this point.

A sister site called Likes Matter offers a real-time view of Facebook Page growth rates. There I discovered that Eminem’s Facebook Page is currently attracting about 35-40 new likes every minute.

The main site, the awkwardly named SocialMedia-live, updates Facebook Page data on 90,000 “big players” every 10 minutes – including Eminem, Coca Cola, YouTube and other very popular brands. A further 1.8 million “medium-sized pages” are updated every 12 hours. The other 36 million or so “little pages” are refreshed every 5 days.

There’s a special page for “Hip Fanpages,” those Facebook Pages “that have distinguished themselves in terms of layout, navigational ease, interactive fanpage features, etc.” Current members include Adidas Originals, Snooki, Livestrong, Star Wars and a German comedian named Linda P. That last pick is a clue that SocialMedia-live hails from Germany.

There are some useful comparison tools, too. Below is a chart comparing the growth of Adele, Jennifer Lopez and Katy Perry over the past 90 days. We can see that the popularity of Adele’s Facebook Page spiked in January of this year. She has about 12.6 million fans at time of writing. Meanwhile Lopez is growing faster than Perry. Although note that Perry has more fans than Adele and Lopez combined. She has 37.6 million fans, while Lopez has 8 million. A likely explanation is that Perry is much nearer to peak popularity on Facebook than either Adele or Lopez. Growth rate could also be affected by when the fan pages were started. So, as always, take these statistics with a grain of the proverbial salt.

The big thing missing from SocialMedia-live is search. I could find no way to get statistics about our own ReadWriteWeb Facebook Page, for example. There also seems to be no easy access to the 36 million or so “little pages.” Both of those issues severely limits the usefulness of the site for marketers, who would be a prime audience for this data.

But this is a beta site, so we hope it will expand over time. For now, if you’re interested in finding out how fast certain brands are growing their Facebook Page fan bases, then SocialMedia-live offers an interesting set of statistics.- Richard MacManus, ReadWriteWeb

7 Digital Marketing Trends

BersonDeanStevens — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:33:45 +0000

Changes in digital marketing continue to be fast and furious. It can be challenging to keep up and to know which online services help and which services are a waste. As marketers, we all know our audiences have moved online to search for suppliers, products, and services, and digital marketing is the most effective way to connect with your prospects and customers.

Seven digital marketing trends to watch:
1. Video
Videos are inexpensive to produce and distribute. Plus many people like to watch instead read. Need some video ideas? Try interviews with executives, product managers, product demonstrations, customer testimonials, or on-site visits to customers where your products are in use. It’s better not to use video, than risk damaging your brand with unprofessional videos. For easy and affordable custom videos try www.VMakers.com, a new service from the Hollywood studio experts.

2. Online events
Virtual events, webinars and/or online trade shows, are made possible by high bandwidth availability and technologies that allow media companies to produce and host interactive experiences. Targeted online events offer an opportunity to showcase your products and services, build brand awareness, provide content, and connect with prospects and customers. What’s more, it’s convenient – you and your audience can do it all from your desktop.

3. Social Marketing
Make sure you have a social media plan and consider your specific reasons and goals. Many companies use social media for branding, awareness and lead-generation purposes, yet only 3 percent of companies state that social media is one of their top three sources for leads. Increasing brand awareness and building relationships are the outcomes most effectively achieved. LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform for business audiences, followed by Facebook and then Twitter. Remember to include sharing on all communications.

4. Digital Content
Content still is king. Look at the large volume of e-readers, like the Kindle, Nook, iPad and other devices. And it’s not just Web pages. There are videos, Webinars, PDFs, e-books, interactive tools and more. Your customers and prospects need content to help them do their jobs and make better decisions. Your job is to create that digital content and get it to them.

5. Online Banner Advertising
Banner advertising has strong value because of highly targeted advertising networks that can place your ads on specific sites visited by industry professionals. Online advertising networks also offer the convenience of reaching many sites with a single buy, helping you save time and effectively use your budget. Plus banner ads are available on social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Banner ads are highly visual; with great branding and lead generation opportunities. They are a great vehicle to get people to your website.

6. Mobile
Make sure your web site, email campaigns and ad campaigns are optimized for viewing on PDAs, smart phones, iPads and other small devices. More and more people view and triage email via mobile device.

7. Testing and Analytics
One major advantage of digital media is that it is easy to test and measure. A/B and multi-variate testing is a great way to optimize e-mail campaigns, landing/web pages and other online media. Every company should perform web site analytics, such as measuring traffic, page views, browsers, and visitor behavior to help make informed decisions about optimizing your campaigns and web site.

Brands Embrace Google+ in Hopes of Coming Search Boost

BersonDeanStevens — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:01:36 +0000

Google Still Experimenting With Adding +1 to Search Algorithm, But Brands Aren’t Waiting

Google has long told marketers that though buying AdWords won’t help them in natural search results, creating great, well-linked content will.

But some marketers are preparing for another shift: Google’s incorporation of social signals from Google+ in its rankings. Brands aren’t waiting for the giant to make it official, which is a big reason they’re investing in Google+ pages. Their worry is that early adopters will reap the search benefits, while others will be buried by those who have collected more +1s.

Google is already “experimenting” with making a click on +1 buttons one of the more than 200 signals informing its search algorithm, according to a company spokesperson. But it could go much further and factor in the number and size of a “circles” — the pools of Google+ users following a brand — as well as how widely its Google+ content is being shared. That could give brands an incentive to be active on the platform and get fans to engage with content there.

Google+ brand pages were rolled out last month (http://adage.com/article/digital/google-open-business/230862/), but few organizations are committing major resources to them at this stage. Dell and Macy’s are among the brands to have worked with Hangouts (http://adage.com/article/digital/brands-start-test-hangouts-google-pages/231053/), Google+’s group video chat feature, one of its main differentiators from Facebook and other social networks.

The vast majority are still treating Google+ as an experiment. Most are reproducing Facebook content on their Google+ pages and not worrying about making their content SEO-friendly — even though it’s a looming consideration.Everybody at this point is in trial and discovery mode around best practices, and I believe Google will start to give some degree of preference to Google+ pages over Facebook pages, because it’s in their own best interest to do so.

Chad Estes, Vitrue’s VP-client partnerships, said some major brands working with his firm are carving out a Google+ presence defensively, as a hedge against changes to search.

“Chances are they don’t want to wait until Google finally admits that it’s happening to start creating content,” Mr. Estes said..It’s also possible that signals from Google+ won’t directly alter search rankings but will instead be used as a results “validator,” according to Kevin Lee, CEO of search-marketing firm Didit. For example, +1 clicks could be used to confirm that a recently launched news site merits a high search ranking if it has been linked to and written about extensively.

“They want it to continue to be the best user experience,” said Mr. Lee. Making social signals a big factor in SEO would open the door to marketers’ attempting to game the system and offer incentives to users to engage with their content in the Google ecosystem, he added.-AdAge

New Mobile Ad Size Standards

BersonDeanStevens — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:41:34 +0000

The Mobile Marketing Association on Wednesday rolled out an updated set of mobile ad guidelines that aim to streamline mobile ad buying by creating six standard display units for mobile phones as well as recommended ad sizes for tablets.

The MMA came up with the units after analyzing some 150 billion mobile ad impressions in the second quarter to find which had the most frequent and consistent usage. An initial list of 60 common mobile ad formats was boiled down to six, forming what the trade group calls the standard Mobile Universal Ad Package.

It includes three smaller sizes geared to feature phones — 120 x 20 pixels; 168 x 28; and 216 x 36 — and three larger banner ads for smartphones: 300 x 250; 300 x 50 and 320 x 50. Initially, all the major ad networks have agreed to support the new standard set of units, along with significant, major U.S.-based publishers.

The universal ad package will be finalized in January and all networks and publishers will have until the end of March 2012 to become fully compliant.

To develop the ad standards, the MMA partnered with research firm ImServices Group and a group of executives from companies including AT&T AdWorks, ESPN Mobile, Google, JumpTap, Medialets, Millennial Media, Ogilvy and Tribune. Ad networks and publishers that support the standards will be issued “MMA Universal Mobile Ad Package Compliance” stamps for use on their Web sites and marketing materials.

The effort also extends to tablets, where the MMA did not adopt formal standards but instead published guidelines for ad units for the nascent mobile category. The suggested sizes include 330 x 250; 468 x 60; 728 x 90 and 1024 x 90. Because the tablet market is presently dominated by one device — the iPad — the MMA said it will offer refreshed guidance every six months going forward.

The growth of mobile advertising has been seen as held back by fragmentation among devices, ad networks and operating systems.

The IAB itself has geared up efforts over the last year to encourage the expansion of mobile advertising, including standard-setting. To that end, the organization has proposed a set of API standards governing mobile rich media ads called MRAID (Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions). The aim is to eliminate the need to modify campaign creative for each ad network or app.-MediaPost

Happy Holidays!

BersonDeanStevens — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:06:45 +0000

Click on black box to play.

Social Login and Social Sharing Trends Across the Web

BersonDeanStevens — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:03:16 +0000

The social media landscape is fragmented. People use Facebook to interact with friends and family, Twitter to follow influencers and share opinions, LinkedIn for their professional network, and Gmail, Yahoo! or Hotmail to communicate directly with contacts. Combined, these networks boast over 1.5 billion accounts.

Coupled with increasing reluctance from consumers to maintain distinct usernames and passwords on each frequently visited site, brands are rapidly seeking ways to leverage social network identities within their own properties. Through a secure process known as social login, these identities can be used to speed up registration on sites across the web. But which identities do people prefer both for sign-in and content sharing?

Each quarter, we seek to answer these questions by analyzing social login and social sharing preferences for online users across the 365,000 websites using Janrain Engage. Today, MediaPost published an update of our quarterly social login and sharing data.

More.

Happy 4th of July!

BersonDeanStevens — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 06:54:00 +0000

How to Find The Right Creative Professionals

BersonDeanStevens — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:48:13 +0000

How to Hire Creative Professionals – July 9
One-Day Art Center Workshop, Instructor: Lori Berson

If you’ve ever struggled to find the right agency or creative professionals to hire, you’re not alone. As global competition intensifies, businesses are increasingly recognizing the importance of creative services. Employing the right professionals not only helps you differentiate your products and services, but can also help you jump ahead of the competition. Too often, time and money are wasted. Learn what you need, where to find it, what to look for, the review process, how to avoid costly mistakes and how to get what you want in a timely manner.

Enroll Now!
Private consultations available. Contact Lori at 877-447-0134, x111.

New Fall 2011 Workshops:
Instructor: Lori Berson, BersonDeanStevens.com
• Email Marketing Fundamentals
• HTML Emails For Designers
• Design Effective Landing Pages
• How to Manage Successful Photo Shoots

For more information contact Lori at 877-447-0134, x111 or lori@BersonDeanStevens.com.

BersonDeanStevens
Branding Marketing New Media
877.447.0134, info@BersonDeanStevens.com

New Google Dashboard: How to Manage Your Online Profile

BersonDeanStevens — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 20:04:49 +0000

Google launched a new dashboard that allows you to monitor what has been posted about you on the Web. Alerts are based on phone numbers, addresses, and your name or email address. Go to: the Google Dashboard right beneath the Account details.

For help with your social media marketing contact Lori at:
877-447-0134, x111, lori@BersonDeanStevens.com