Why consumers can’t find you online

 Internet News, Marketing, Your Brand  354 Responses »
May 182012
 

Research shows that local search listings are now more important than any other type of listing because they provide the information searchers want quickly (URL, address, phone, coupons, operating hours, reviews, etc.). Local search listings were also found to be trustworthy because they immediately provide the relevant information consumers need to make a purchase decision.

Done in partnership by Localeze and 15miles, the 2012 Local Search Usage Study, conducted by comScore, found that 61 percent of respondents searching for local business information believe local search results are the most relevant, as shown in the chart below. Additionally, 58 percent found local search results to be the most trustworthy when compared to natural search results, paid search results, and paid results.

Gone are the days of “surfing the web.” Today’s consumers want to find information quickly, and they search with a purpose. They want to find information in the shortest time possible since many of them search on the go. By 2014, more users will access the web from mobile devices than from desktops and laptops — a shift that continues to accelerate.

Relevant local search results

With national advertisers dominating paid search, consumers searching the web for a local business near home will often get the closest national chain, which may or may not be the closest option. This leaves consumers dubious about web search because merchants close by are not found at the top.

This is why consumers go to local search, which has business listings and provides the best way for consumers to connect with businesses close to where they live and work. The popularity of location-based apps and social networks make it even more important for search results to produce business listings based on a searcher’s location. Needless to say, these listings must be accurate in providing phone numbers, directions, and so forth.

SOURCE  Why consumers can’t find you online – iMediaConnection.com.

 

New $74 Android mini computer is slightly larger than a thumb drive

 Tech News  344 Responses »
May 182012
 

Chinese retailers have started selling a miniature Linux computer that is housed in a 3.5-inch plastic case slightly larger than a USB thumb drive. Individual units are available online for $74.

The small computer has an AllWinner A10 single-core 1.5GHz ARM CPU, a Mali 400 GPU, and 512MB of RAM. An HDMI port on the exterior allows users to plug the computer into a television. It outputs at 1080p and is said to be capable of playing high-definition video.

The device also has a full-sized USB port with host support for input devices, a conventional micro-USB port, a microSD slot, and an internal 802.11 b/g WiFi antenna. The computer can boot from a microSD card and is capable of running Android 4.0 and other ARM-compatible Linux platforms.

SOURCE  New $74 Android mini computer is slightly larger than a thumb drive | Ars Technica.

 

5 brands that embarrassed themselves on social

 Internet News, Marketing, Meme, Your Brand  259 Responses »
May 162012
 

Social media is constantly evolving, and with this evolution, there are more opportunities than not to misstep. A campaign on social media has hundreds of ways it can go wrong, and most of them are unpredictable. Of course, it’s important to be as prepared as possible, but sometimes, social media fails are bound to happen. After all, we’re only humans managing accounts for brands, right? Learning from others’ mistakes is a great place to start, and some of us lucky ones have learned the hard way. Here are a few examples of the social media campaigns that turned total flop.

SOURCE: 5 brands that embarrassed themselves on social (single page view) – iMediaConnection.com.

 

How Brands Can Meet Consumer Demand With Content

 Marketing, Your Brand  230 Responses »
May 162012
 

With the cosmetics and hair care brand, they did a deep dive into data to discover what women were actually searching for when they thought about beauty and discovered a huge number of people were typing specific questions into google, like “how can I do my makeup like Lady Gaga?” In response, Demand worked to produce 1,126 videos in a matter of months and on a budget, each addressing a common “how to” search query.

Some key takeaways from this panel presentation:

– Search queries are getting longer – often ten words are more. People are looking for very specific content when they search, and if you can provide it, that’s a huge service.

– The best videos for this sort of marketing are “evergreen” – that is, they remain relevant for a long time (3-5 years) by containing generally useful content, rather than being attached to a trend, celebrity, or launch. A light touch on the branding also helps the videos feel authentic, and not tied to very specific products so much as the brand.

– If your brand is traditional, start with a test – produce just a few examples of the new content type and see how they perform in search and on your site. Success is your best shot at convincing the old guard to try new tactics.

– Social listening is of the utmost importance – in fact, L’Oriel has changed their call centers into customer listening and insight hubs. Understanding what people are saying about your products, and the surrounding industry, allows you to channel feedback to the right people and meet actual demand.

– Data is the key to staying on top as trends change – know where the landscape is headed, not just what’s working now.

SOURCE: How Brands Can Meet Consumer Demand With Content – Adrants.

 

Pizza Delicious Bought An Ad On Facebook. How’d They Do?

 Internet News, Marketing, Your Brand  183 Responses »
May 162012
 

So we hooked the Pizza Delicious guys up with Rob Leathern a social media ad guru.

The key question they tried to answer: Which Facebook users should they target with their ad campaign?

Their first idea was to target the friends of people who already liked Pizza Delicious on Facebook. But that wound up targeting 74 percent of people in New Orleans on Facebook — 224,000 people. They needed something narrower.

The Pizza Delicious guys really wanted to find people jonesing for real new york pizza. So they tried to target people who had other New York likes — the Jets, the Knicks, Nororious B.I.G. Making the New York connection cut the reach of the ad down to 15,000.

Seemed perfect. But 12 hours later, Michael called us. “It was all zeroes across the board,” he said. Facebook doesnt make money til people click on the ad. If nobody clicks, Facebook turns the ad off. Theyd struck out.

So they changed the target to New Orleans fans of Italian food: mozzarella, gnocchi, espresso. This time they were targeting 30,000 people.

Those ads went viral. They got twice the usual number of click throughs, on average. The ad showed up more than 700,000 times. Basically, everyone in New Orleans on Facebook saw it. Twice. Pizza Delicious got close to twenty times the number of Facebook fans they usually get in two days. The guys were stoked.

The campaign cost them $240 — almost $1 for each new Facebook fan they got from the campaign. “Is that feeling of exhilaration worth 240 dollars?” Michael said. “I dont know— hopefully, that translates into new business.”

It didnt.

SOURCE: Pizza Delicious Bought An Ad On Facebook. Howd They Do? : Planet Money : NPR.

 

Most Restaurant-Goers Rely on Online Reviews [INFOGRAPHIC]

 Internet News, Marketing  316 Responses »
May 152012
 

Before setting foot outside, about 45% of consumers have already chosen where to eat with the help of an online dining guide. Online reviews are a huge decider of what’s for dinner — 57% of patrons rely on them.

Even more interesting is that despite the rise of online food directories such as Urbanspoon or Menupages, 41% of consumers still wine and dine at a particular restaurant after receiving a promotional email.

The National Restaurant Association drew up the infographic below showcasing how technology is changing the food industry. Plus, check out the kinds of technology consumers are expecting to see in restaurants.

 

 

 

SOURCE: Most Restaurant-Goers Rely on Online Reviews [INFOGRAPHIC].

 

Dismiss Google+ At Your Own Risk

 Internet News, Marketing  76 Responses »
May 142012
 

Anything that can boast a 112% higher engagement is worth a second look. That is just one of the figures that Simply Measured (the social media analytics firm) released yesterday. Since February, two more brands from the Interbrand Top 100 list (Xerox and Nike) have activated pages, bringing the total to 64 of those 100. (The top 10 for Google+ engagement include Nike, Coke, Starbucks, Adidas and Ferrari, among others.) Also since February, average weekly circler engagement is up 112%, and content engagement is up 65%. Finally, 22% of the brands now have circler counts over 100,000, up from 13% including Nike, and after just two months. So it appears brands are prioritizing Google+ and trying to capitalize on participation.

But, as Josh Sternberg of Digiday describes, smart brands actively strategize on Google+, rather than treat it as yet another presence they need to fill. ESPN for example has 1.2 million Google+ followers. Sports fans like rich media, and ESPN knows that, so relies on high-quality images and videos of all-things sport, and interactions with fans.

The news media seems not to know what to make of it, and the highly-circulated Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today have piddling followings on Google+ compared to their other social platforms.

SOURCE: Dismiss Google+ At Your Own Risk – MarketingVOX.

 

Bing Scoops Up 30% of the US Search Market

 Internet News  44 Responses »
May 142012
 

The geek community at large seems to be pretty loyal to the Google brand, however, out what seems like nowhere, Bing is finally picking up steam. According to a Hitwise report, Bing now accounts for 30% of all U.S. web searches, and most of their gains seem to have come at the expense of Google.

Bing has managed to grow its US search quarries by an impressive 11% over the last twelve months, while Google in contrast has dropped by the exact same amount.

SOURCE: Maximum PC | Bing Scoops Up 30% of the US Search Market.

 

9 Essential Steps for a Killer Kickstarter Campaign

 Marketing, Your Brand  437 Responses »
May 142012
 

These days, more Kickstarter campaigns are achieving success than we can keep track of. The iPhone-friendly Pebble watch earned $7.6 million more than its $100,000 goal. And the Galileo iPhone platform closed its Kickstarter campaign at $702,000, far surpassing its $100,000 goal.

Not to mention, Kickstarter recently reported it has raised $200 million from over 2 million backers.

How does one cash in literally on the Kickstarter craze? For starters, it helps to have a unique concept, wicked ambition and one unforgettable pitch. The great news is that Kickstarter provides great tools to showcase all of the above.

We’ve read all of Kickstarter’s guidelines, FAQs and tips, and have researched testimonials from successful campaign alums to compile a set of tips that will help launch you into the Kickstarter hall of fame.

SOURCE:  9 Essential Steps for a Killer Kickstarter Campaign.

 

A separate mobile website: no forking way

 interface, Internet News, Web Design  422 Responses »
May 092012
 

Karen McGrane warns about the dangers of content forking and tells us that the problem responsive design is trying to solve is really a problem with the CMS

The experience of using a mobile website should naturally be different from a desktop experience – not just visual presentation, content should be prioritised and structured differently. The risk, though, is that you’ll wind up maintaining different versions. News flash: this will be a disaster. Duplicate content. Out-of-sync updates. Wasted effort.

When usability pioneer Jakob Nielsen argued that you should “Build a separate mobile-optimised site (or mobile site) if you can afford it” where you cut features and content “that are not core to the mobile use case”, many within the mobile design and development community got out their torches and pitchforks. Seems like people who spend a lot of time thinking about mobile agree that a separate mobile website is “180-degrees backward”.

But what does a “separate mobile website” even mean?

Whether you’re talking about content or code, what you want to guard against is creating multiple versions of your website. It’s called forking, and it’s a forking nightmare from a maintenance perspective. If you fork your website into separate mobile and desktop versions, then you’re stuck updating both of them every time there’s a change. Avoiding this problem is tricky, even with sophisticated content management systems. But before we get there, let’s start with a simple scenario.

via A separate mobile website: no forking way | Opinion | .net magazine.

 

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