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February 3rd, 2010
The Internet is a rapidly changing environment that doesn’t stop or sleep for no one. What may have worked yesterday may not work the next day, or vice-versa. Tools that people used just a few months ago get out dated quickly as new tools come online and people figure out new ways of using the Internet. Knowing there are so many forces at work, it’s good to review occasionally what state the Internet is in today.
Social Media Marketing, or SMM, as become the norm. What was a buzz word last year is not a staple in many businesses and is a driving factor for today’s online marketing efforts. Social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Mixx, and others have all saw huge traffic boosts over the past year. Especially during the second quarter of last year where many social sites saw a large spike in users and rankings. Since that time, may have slowed from the rapid pace they were on, but are still quite dominate and will not be going away any time soon.
Today, companies are trying to take advantage of the social sites by figuring out what users on each of the sites are like, their surfing habits, as well as what makes them click an action online. Building apps, widgets, and other tools to interact with users directly on social sites have become much more important as users are getting more loyal to certain social sites and not wanting to leave them just for a link to a site.
Real-time search is also in play now and are typically updates from these social sites directly into search result pages on major engines. This new feature, which just went live about a month or so ago is changing the way people search, click on links, and share information with others. In addition, it’s giving companies something else to think about on the web and their own marketing efforts online. No longer are the days of set it and forget it, as publishers, site owners, and online marketing professionals are all scrambling to figure out how to get their brand, message, or site in front of audiences using these new outlets.
Affnet, is leading the way in this arena with online tools for publishers like widgets, interacting with social audiences directly on their own sites with apps for Facebook, and communicating messages to followers on Twitter’s Affnet page. All of theses tools, along with expertise in online marketing, social media marketing, and pay click advertising, puts Affnet on the forefront of this new evolution of the search marketing as both an innovator and contributor.
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August 14th, 2009
SMM (Social Media Marketing) is not just another online marketing acronym – it encompasses a whole host of networking strategies worthy of department vernaculars in any business. For those who have been in the industry for some time, you may have heard “SMM” references become commonplace in 2006 when the term was officially coined at Ogilvy Public RelationsWorldwide, describing the company’s efforts [paraphrased] to leverage all the links and marketing value derived from social and business networks.
To date – SMM made’s quite an impact in the statistical realm:
WhitePaperSource.com produced a ‘Social Media Marketing Industry Report’ white paper in recent months, showing SMM trends based on the open-ended response from about 700 marketing professionals. Of those surveyed, 88% use social media for business, of which Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook are the most popular.
The statistics themselves show why…
According to the Thefutuerbuzz.com, there are more than 133,000,000 blogs in existence.
Facebook meanwhile has over 175 million users and received 30 billion page views in March alone. Twitter’s also broken into the billions, where users have tweeted more than 1.1 billion times to date.
The Future of SMM
International markets and new technology are two factors that have already changed the scope of SMM. Take China – the country already has the largest blogger community in the world, (about 50 million bloggers.) Social networks are picking up steam as more users adapt to web2.0 functionality and appearance. Sites such as Xiaonei and mop.com are already touted as China’s version of Facebook and MySpace respectively. To date, Xianoei had about 70 million users.
On the backend (yet very much on the forefront of influencing trends and the evolution of human socialization) is staggering new technology designed to recognize faces (Biometric Face Recognition technology), streamline logins via an open authentication protocol (OpenID), and small circuit boards (like the Arduino) that enable inanimate objects to Tweet.
Affnet and SMM
Socializing with Affnet is easy. Like those 88% of marketers surveyed, the company’s profile and people are on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and in the blogosphere. As many online marketers have experienced, the benefits of SMM are all measurable whether it led to new account, increased brand awareness, created viral conversations, and much more.
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January 28th, 2009
Lifespan of a cellphone
Every two years, over one hundred million cell phones are cast aside in favor of the next hot item that hits the market. Where do all those cell phones go? Most cell phones find their final resting place to at the bottom of a dumpster, which can cause quite a few problems environmentally and economically. The good news is, there are other, more effective and profitable ways to dispose of old cell phones.
Falling apart
We’ve all seen it. An overused, dropped one too many times, excessively texted upon cell phone that has seen better days…and that was only four weeks ago! Why does it seem cell phones are just too fragile for the real world? Perhaps it’s because manufacturing companies understand consumers expect to replace their cell phones within a year or two of purchase, and spend more effort on the cosmetic features than creating a more durable product. We’re a visual society and while sleek and lithe are in so to speak, phones possessing those same characteristics make require gentle handling.
Consumer nature
As new phones are released into the market on a rather consistent basis chock full of new features, improved technology, and clearer pictures and sounds, it’s no wonder our old phones suddenly appear outdated and lackluster. It’s not that old cell phones don’t work – they’re just not up to par with the latest models’ enhancements that streamline communication and entertainment. There’s no reason to feel remorse because you just chucked a perfectly functioning phone. Just be sure to chuck it in the right direction – not in the trash.
Donations, donations, donations!
Since the trash can’s out as an option to discard old cell phones, where else can they go?
Organizations including RecyclePhones.org collect old phones for a number of causes such as battered women’s shelters and victims of domestic violence who can use the restored phones in the event of an emergency, as well as environmental (see RecyclePhones.org). Other organizations such as Eco-Cell collect cell phones that are sold to refurbishing companies who then sell the phones to developing markets in Africa and Latin America.
Currently only 2.3% of Americans recycle their old cell phones. It’s predicted as many as 500 million cell phones sit idle in homes or trash dumps across the U.S. The numbers prove opportunity looms for those wanting to recycle old cell phones for a good cause.
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July 30th, 2008
Find hundreds of mobile phone savings at DotCells.com’s Friends and Family Sale.
Dotcells.com is giving friends and families the chance to save up to 60% off retail MSRP prices off today’s hottest cell phone brands. Our inventory includes Balckberry®, Nokia, Motorola, Palm, Samsung, Panasonic, and Sanyo phones to name a few.
And there’s even a way to save more! Take an additional 15% off the friends and family discounted rate by visiting http://www.dotcells.com and enter your personal promotion code in the checkout screen:
(Your Personal Promotion Code is: FAMILYCELLS15)
Orders can be placed starting today and will continue through Friday, August 8, 2008. The order and credit card transaction must take place online at http://www.dotcells.com.
These summer savings won’t last long. Now’s the time to take advantage and upgrade your mobile phone or PDA at a fraction of its original cost!
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March 7th, 2008
Want to wow your site’s viewers, draw a ‘whoo’ hoo, and enrapture them with total amazement? Why not add a widget? Facebook’s fabulous Srabulous widget draws 600,000,000 pageviews a day according to Advertising.com. These mini-applications are stickier than a glue-based mousetrap and can spread like jelly via word of mouth (especially on social networking sites where they thrive).
Performance-wise, how do you get your widget to work its wonders? First, select what type of widget will work best for your site.
Choose from a desktop widget that can be downloaded onto user’s desktops. Common desktop widgets include the Yahoo! weather widget, election political tickers, and stock quotes. Or, if you want to expand the widget’s reach, you can post it on a personal webpage. Last year Google renamed its personal homepage iGoogle, which includes a widget-happy interface that allows users to post YouTube videos, personal photo albums, games, and lots more. Finally, the widgets with the most exposure are known as public web widgets can be installed on multiple sites.
By design, widgets are meant to by dynamic, interactive and fresh. People are information hungry and a stale application is doomed like moldy bread. Image and interaction are key factors to sustaining a working widget. A widget’s best quality is arguably its ease of use. Applications can showcase video, text, images, links, and more; providing several monetizing opportunities. Proponents will say that a crafty widget will draw more traffic to their site than any search engine. Widgets are effective branding, advertising, and marketing tools. They’re seen daily, constantly updated with information, and perceived as credible as they’re chosen by the user.
To conclude, widgets are wise and when carefully calculated to reinforce a company’s product or brand, can work wonderfully.
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February 22nd, 2008
Affiliate Summit West is just around the corner. Well, actually it starts in two days meaning you may already be in your car, sitting uncomfortably in a discount carrier, or flying high in your own private jet on your way to Las Vegas. If so - you’re in for a few days of non-stop networking, training, interacting at the Palms, and even catching a bit of live Gospel music along the way. Really - the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association is hosting a Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues Mandalay Bay Sunday morning.
Quite frankly, it’s a lot to consume in three days. Considering most in attendance will be hoarse and in need of a podiatry appointment upon return, how can participants be sure their time spent at Affiliate Summit is profitable on some level or another?
Tip #1: Check the Show’s Agenda Ahead of Time
This may sound fairly obvious, but industry vets know most days are jam packed leaving little time to preplan just about anything. Plus - if you’ve attended enough events, you find you navigate one you can navigate them all. While this may get you by, it’s not making the most of what a show has to offer.
Take Affiliate Summit West for example. At any given point during the day you can attend online marketing workshops hosted by industry experts, hob knob with new acquaintances, and listen to keynote speaker and founder of Mahalo.com, Jason Calacanis. The trouble with doing things on the fly though is that you may not know ahead of time that the top five activities on your list are all scheduled at the same time. Take your PDA and schedule workshops and activities ahead of time. Just remember not to overbook yourself and allow room for spontaneous encounters and impromptu meetings.
Tip #2: Network - Several Days Before the Show Starts
Peruse the list of attendees and make a point to contact companies of interest ahead of time to at least put your company on the map. Even if nothing comes of it, the phone time will at least put word out that your company will be at the show.
Talking to other attendees beforehand can also save you a ton of time at the actual event. Pre-event conversations may reveal the business relationship is not worth pursuing for either party. The opposite can occur as well where your initial conversation sparks interest from the other company who’s reps can meet you person with a clear idea of how the two companies can work together.
Tip #3: Market Yourself
We’ve all done it - forgotten to bring our business cards to the biggest networking event of the year. Luckily technology gives us some leeway should we forget to stash that box of 500 cards in our suitcases. Your iPhone, Blackberry or even that standard free cell phone that comes with a new plan can serve as a notepad to exchange info. A scrap of paper and “borrowed” hotel pen works fine too - functionally anyways. If there’s any convention where a business card stands out - it’s a tech related one. Companies are now passing out CDs and even USBs in lieu of the traditional business card. There are also several online companies that will print and deliver new business cards in a day.
Three pre-show tips are manageable, as you’ll have enough to think about upon setting foot in Las Vegas - especially if you’ve just realized you left the office without your business cards.
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February 8th, 2008
The definition of the term guerrilla is defined in many ways depending on the context. In the military, guerrilla refers to operations carried on by independent or semi-independent forces. Business-wise, guerrilla refers to a form of marketing that is low budget and against the grain of traditional marketing practices. In the online world, guerrilla marketing conjures a number of definitions and leaving many to wonder exactly how does online guerrilla marketing applies to campaigns?
From the source…
In the 1984 book, Guerilla Marketing, author and GM creator Jay Conrad Levinson further explains guerrilla marketing tactics in his 1984 book, as ones that, “rely on time, energy and imagination instead of big marketing budgets.”
In its basic form, guerrilla marketing is designed to break through the mess of traditional marketing and hit an audience unexpectedly. Messages are attention grabbing and intended to capture individual interest rather than an entire demographic.
Sound like a pop-up ad?
Online marketing does incorporate several forms of guerrilla marketing. In fact, there are a number of sites that offer tutorials, tips by the hundreds, and even boot camps that will teach online marketers the secrets to delivering ads to that unknowing, yet, ultimately willing customer.
Current online marketing trends thrive on demographic data, yet technology has enabled marketers to deliver highly segmented ads by tracking individual user actions. This results in calculated pop-ups, highly segmented banner ads, and a slew of targeted emails in consumer inboxes. Despite this pinpointed delivery, these ads reach consumers by surprise in what is usually a captive setting. Plus, several online marketers employ low-budget, yet highly effective marketing strategies including blogs, article archives, and free offers. A guerrilla marketer would refer to these strategies as ‘weapons,’ while traditional marketers would look at them as - well, traditional marketing tactics designed to promote brand recognition and customer retention.
If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that online marketing tactics take on new forms by the campaign. Information is instant and often ignites a viral response no matter the marketer’s original intentions.
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February 1st, 2008
Microsoft Corp. may have made an offer Yahoo! simply can’t refuse. An offer of $44.6 billion dollars to be exact. Even combined, the Microsoft/Yahoo combo wouldn’t edge Google from its estimated 60% market share. What Yahoo! does have though - a built in audience - one of the largest out there. Plus, approximately 27% of the search engine market share. That’s at least enough to make Google nervous.
The motive: Well, Microsoft’s motivation isn’t anything new. The company’s been trying to purchase Yahoo! for the past few years, to no avail. This time though, they’re hitting Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang up with some serious stock options. Microsoft is currently offering a 62% premium bid on Yahoo’s closing stock.
The forecast: Online advertising. Despite Google’s falling stock value, the future for online advertising looks bright. So bright analysts are expecting online ad dollars to double from $40 billion to $80 billion by 2010.
Yahoo’s in peril, but is it bad enough to shut the doors? Financial losses have been stark for Yahoo, with stock prices dropping to a four year low in January. And what about Yahoo’s devoted fan base? Well - a quick perusal of Yahoo Ask didn’t reveal much in the way of people inquiring about the buyout. It may be too soon to get a sense of a collected sentiment from Yahoo regulars and whether or not they’ll venture over to MSN.com if the buyout occurs.
While Yahoo execs have yet to respond, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is adament the purchase will go through. The courts will also have at it, determining whether or not anti-trust laws are being violated. In any event, time will tell if Microsoft will win with its fiscal fists, or if Ballmer and co. are simply California Dreaming.
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January 25th, 2008
T minus two hundred and eighty-four days till election day is here, and while talks of tax breaks, primaries, and Fed interest rate cuts still dominate the media headlines, there’s no time like the present for candidates and their camps to step up their online campaigns.
Online advertising is critical to political campaigns. Exposure through banner ads, blogs, and keyword searches to name a few don’t make or break an election, but are effective ways of reaching out to current and prospective supporters, and sustaining a steady campaign buzz. Political advertisements reach widespread audiences throughout the world who receive controlled campaign messages via savvy online strategists. It’s political branding at its best (or worst) and feeds an endless stream of content to fair-weather and fully committed viewers alike.
Political reports spread like wildfire the very moment candidates utter something even slightly offbeat. Just think what would’ve happened to Lyndon B. Johnson’s controversial ‘Daisy’ advertisement (the one that begins by showing a young girl counting flower petals in a meadow with the last scene ending in nuclear explosion) if his campaign team had access to YouTube, RSS feeds, blogospheres, and more?
While the internet is inundated with political content and countless pages of propaganda, how does a candidate effectively stand out from the others? Given the fact that the internet invites anyone and everyone to pick apart online political advertisements frame by frame, word by word, and pixel by pixel, designers have a bevy of challenges. As with any ad, all components must point to the overriding objective of getting the candidate elected.
Unlike more traditional forms of advertising however, online ads open the door for tremendous viral response - both good and bad. The online audience is basically a candidate’s test audience.
The internet has become the preeminent political advertising front. Before the Iowa caucus began, ValueClick Media reserved 300 million online advertising impressions to last candidates till the February 5th primary. On the opposite end, political analysis firms such as the Rimm-Kaufman Group found candidates underutilize ppc strategies. The firm claims a more focused ppc campaign would connect candidate messages, in the form of ads, to all name searches.
Political strategy is alive and kicking on the internet. It’s no accident a Google search of the name ‘Hillary’ returned an entire page of positive, campagin controlled, Hillary Clinton sites and ads. No other medium offers even close to the same amount of candidate information as the internet.
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January 14th, 2008
The point of using a significant portion of business dollars is to earn a return wherever it’s invested. Sometimes this is tangible, meaning advertising and marketing campaigns can be tracked by the penny. Other times, the much sought after ROI is attained via exposure and brand penetration. While small businesses may spend more time tracking ads dollar for dollar, what about the big corporations with huge spending budgets?
We can assume companies that advertise on Super Bowl Sunday aren’t your average start-up. While employees, consultants, and stat trackers alike will be glued to their computer screens come Feb. 3rd, do companies pay this close of attention year round?
Are big companies tracking their ROI dime for dime, or only when a whopper of an ad hits the big time - or goes bust like the Golden Globes? The answer appears to be yes.
Web 2.0 quickly took online ads from slightly sticky to dynamic sponges that absorb every last drop of attainable user information. However, with big companies, the people tracking the effectiveness of these ads usually aren’t employed in-house. Companies like Allstate, American Express, and IBM use advertising giant, Ogilvy, to create, run, and well as analyze every last bit of web induced data available.
According to Paul Slogan’s article in Business 2.0, “Ogilvy’s in-house optimizer runs 5,000 to 10,000 calculations each time it evaluates the performance of an ad campaign. The optimizer collects data on scores or even thousands of ads and analyzes which ones are working, and why, on the fly.”(excerpted from an article previously posted on www.cnnmoney.com).
As our media devices grow and change (they may all be featured at MacWorld this week) it will become even more difficult to track the successess and failures of each individual campaign. Software will catch up however, and soon data from every portal will be seamlessly synced and ready to, well, determine if it made any money or not.
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