Healthy Blog Reviews

Although it comes as no surprise to most, the integration of e-mail campaigns and social media outlets is becoming more popular. Leading the charge are Facebook and Twitter which is probably no surprise either. What is a little surprising is just how quickly the numbers dive with regard to other options for social media integration. The following chart from eROI shows results from a survey they recently conducted (hat tip to MarketingProfs ). With Facebook being the most mainstream option of these outlets its appearance at the top of the list is almost expected. Twitter on the other hand is much more dependent on the type of e-mail recipient because it’s mass appeal is much less than Facebook’s at this time. In other words, Twitter likely skews toward a tech-savvy and generally younger crowd while Facebook hits a more widespread demographic target. What was interesting was the relative ignorance of the mobile market by these very same marketers. There seems to be confusion on subjects ranging from mobile’s usage amongst these companies’ customers to even how the company itself is utilizing the mobile web for their site in general and marketing as a whole. This points to the whole disconnect issue that happens when industry reporting and predictions leave reality in the dust. Why do you think it has been the “Year of Mobile” for about 7 years now? OK, so let’s step back for a second. If e-mail is very important and it is a pretty well known fact that there is a large group of consumers that get e-mail on mobile devices (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and more) shouldn’t marketers be a little more ‘in tune’ with mobile? If you pay attention to most industry reports they already are right? Is there a perception vs. reality divide present here? Is it possible that hype is out-pacing implementation? How can that happen on the Internet ? As we have warned in the past, it is probably a good thing for companies to make sure they are doing the Internet marketing basics like search and e-mail well before they jet ahead into the mobile space. It’s this rush to get to the next best thing without ever really taking full advantage of the LAST next best thing that gets businesses in trouble online. So where are you with e-mail, social and mobile? Are all three humming on all cylinders or is there work to be done to bring one or more up to speed? Even when the assumption is that everyone does all of this well and is ready to move on, are you going to stick to the basics or go to the next big thing?

Tags: black, cloud-computing, cloud-hosting, facebook, integration, internet, Internet Marketing, mobile, mobile-chart, numbers, Social, Social Media, time
Posted July 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

With half the year behind us, ZenithOptimedia has revised their 2010 global ad forecasts from a 1.5% decrease to a 1.3% increase in North America . The change is due to a surprising increase in consumer spending and confidence despite rampant unemployment and most of the change is coming from the online sector. Newspapers and magazine are both expected to continue their downward spiral, while radio, outdoor and cinema remain fairly flat. Television is on the rise again after a downturn in 2009 but it’s Internet that’s galloping along at a brisk pace. Looking at internet advertising by type, paid search leads the way and by 2012, the figure is expected to nearly double what was being spent in 2008. Display advertising dropped slightly last year, but is expected to rise again in the near future. The fastest growing sector is social media and mobile advertising.  Says Television Business Reports: “Between 2009 and 2012, ZO forecasts mobile advertising to grow by an average of 43.2% a year, while social media advertising grows by 30.2% a year , compared to 15.6% a year for the internet as a whole. The two formats overlap to an extent, since many consumers use their mobile devices to access their social profiles, and mobile social networking will become more and more important to advertisers over the coming years.” In terms of actual ad dollars, online advertising has passed magazine advertising but still has a ways to go to catch newspapers and TV. With newspaper rapidly folding and others experimenting with online models, it appears that internet advertising will catch up with them in the near future. As for television, maybe now that Lost has gone off the air, we’ll have a chance of wooing some of those ad buyers away from the networks and on to our weekly webisodes.

Tags: Business, cloud-computing, from-the-online, internet, mobile, networks, north, North America, Research, Social, Social Media, social profiles, social-networking
Posted July 20, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Despite Apple passing a death sentence to rival mobile advertising firms, the company has yet to enforce the iPhone advertising ruling handed down in June. According to CNET , that’s something that Omar Hamoui, founder and CEO of Google’s AdMob division, is very grateful for… “They haven’t been enforcing (the new regulations) yet. We’re very appreciative of that,” he said at the MobileBeat 2010 conference here. The language inserted by Apple into its iPhone Developer Agreement is a ticking time bomb for competing firms such as the Google owned AdMob. Essentially, Apple can prevent any ad network from collecting certain types of analytical data from iPhones. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Except that if AdMob and others can’t track simple click-throughs, then they can’t share that data with their advertisers. No data, no advertisers. Considering Apple’s recent launch of iAds–combined with just how peeved Steve Jobs was that Google snatched AdMob from under his nose–it’s surely just a matter of time before the kill switch is triggered. Of course, Google must have seen this coming. I guess it figured there are still plenty of other fish phone platforms in the sea!

Tags: analytical-data, Apple, been-enforcing, before-the-kill, death-sentence, despite-apple, iphone, Local/Mobile, mobile, mobilebeat, phone-developer, phone-platforms, phones-doesn, Rumors
Posted July 13, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Attention all members of the social media industry! Attention all members of the social media industry! It’s time to consider how the REST of the world uses social media in its various forms especially from a mobile phone perspective. I say this only because the chatter amongst social media experts, ninjas, gurus and Maharishi’s seems to lean toward the idea that everyone is accessing social media from mobile devices but reality may be very far from that. The Pew Research Center’s Pew Internet and American Life Project puts out some great data n its report called Mobile Access 2010 and it seems (as best as I can tell at least) to be free of the influence of someone who is doing PR disguised as research (another popular industry practice that needs to end). Here are a few findings. Please note the last bullet point in particular. Now, there is a lot more to this study like age specific breakdowns and also the use of cell phones for data applications amongst various ethnic groups which is fascinating. Please check out the report if you would like to learn more (PDF) . Honestly, I couldn’t get my mind off the 10% number because it seemed very low but at the same time seemed very real. At first I thought this can’t be right because everyone is using their mobile phones to access social media. Isn’t that the point? Being able to tell all of your ‘friends’ what you are up to at the moment and the place that you are up to it? If you read only industry media about this phenomenon you would suspect that this kind of thing is widespread and going mass market. Whoa there big fella! It’s not there yet and likely won’t be for quite some time. As with most everything I have ever seen in the Internet space the hype is usually about 5 years ahead of that nasty thing called reality. We get all lathered up about what is happening even though it is only happening for a very small percentage of people. This kind of overheating and over hyping is both annoying and dangerous. It’s annoying because it fuels the egos of those who are pushing this kind of irrational exuberance for their own gain (to be a quoted ‘expert’ etc). Secondly, it makes people lose sight of what they need to be doing right now to succeed. There is no doubt that this kind of activity will be more pervasive moving forward. We all have to remember though that when we attend a conference with thousands of people walking around staring at their iPhones, Android devices or BlackBerrys that we are experience this activity in a bubble. It’s not how most of the world operates yet. It just feels like it because like attracts like. The people that are married to their smartphones and record everything at every moment are a small percentage of the overall population and it may not make sense at this point to be getting all giddy over just how impactful this all is. Let’s face it, we are some 15 plus years into the commercial Internet era and A LOT of people are just starting to understand search marketing! We chuckle and say “Gee, I can’t believe that there are people that still don’t get search!” Huh? That’s pretty arrogant and actually stupid to say (you can complain that I may have called you stupid but I am first in line in having made that statement about search as well, so we are all in this together). Honestly, Google is still figuring out what is deemed ‘traditional’ search so why should we expect that everyone already has as well. Man, get with it, right? Search is so 2009! The masses haven’t caught up but we keep on running and leaving them further behind. That’s not good policy. I am glad that there are voices of reason out there like Pew so we can all have a head slap of reality and really help each other to concentrate on things that will help us today to move this economy out of the crapper. Pie in the sky business idealism will not get it done. Believing that the whole world is going completely mobile and will do everything from their mobile devices in even the next few years is silly. Segments of society will adapt and grow faster but where a lot of consumers are and will remain to be will not be part of this revolution. The truth is that there is a lot more money being held by people who are not part of this revolution than there are those who are. As marketers that should be your focus for today. Well, thanks for allowing my rant. I would love to hear the opinions of our readers on this subject. Is the use of mobile and social more widespread than this study suggests? Are we stirring up a bunch of industry Kool Aid that is keeping many from making good decisions for their business in today’s reality? Let’s hear it please!

Tags: Business, ethnic-groups, Local/Mobile, mind, mobile, mobile-access, pdf, phone, project, Research, revolution, Social, Social Media, study
Posted July 8, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Not content with gaining your attention during lunch–or that boring presentation your boss is making–YouTube would like to take over your TV and your mobile phone. In a double whammy of deliciousness, YouTube has announced both a new mobile site and “Leanback.” First, the mobile offering . It appears that Google is tired of the hold-ups and restrictions Apple places on its iPhone apps, so it plans to do away with the need for apps altogether. Using HTML5, the new m.youtube.com site promises to offer a better video experience on your iPhone–or any smart phone for that matter. Next, we learn that YouTube is launching Leanback. It’s like mindless TV on steroids. Tune into Leanback and YouTube will look at your settings, preferences, subscriptions, friends etc to compile a video channel personalized just for you! When you first watch Leanback, you clearly see it’s meant to be watched on your TV screen, not your desktop. * Just in case you thought the post title was poor grammar, here’s your reference .

Tags: Apple, attention, cloud-computing, cloud-hosting, desktop, double whammy, iphone, like-mindless, mobile, places-on-its, settings, video, video-channel
Posted July 8, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media