| From Media Post |
| What is the most important thing in your marketing plan to measure? A) Campaign response. The fact is that there are so many things to measure, more and more marketers are getting wrapped around the axle of measurement -- and wasting time, energy, and money chasing insight into the wrong things. Occasionally this is the result of prioritizing metrics based on what is easy to measure in an altruistic but misguided attempt to just "start somewhere." Sometimes, it comes from an ambitious attempt to apply rocket-science mathematics to questionable data in the search for definitive answers where none exist. But most often it is the challenge of being able to even identify what the most important metrics are. So here's a way to isolate those factors that are really critical -- and, thereby, the most critical metrics. Let's say your company has identified a set of five-year goals, including targets for revenue, gross profit margin, new channel development, customer retention, and employee productivity. The logical first step is to make sure the goals are articulated in a form that facilitates measurement. For example, "opening new channels" isn't a goal. It's a wish. "Obtaining 30% market share in the wholesale distributor channel within five years" is a clear, measurable objective. From those objective statements, you can quantitatively measure the size of the gap between where you are today and where you need to be in year X (the exercise of quantifying the objectives will see to that). But just measuring your progress on those specific measures might only serve to leave you well informed on your trip to Nowheresville. To ensure success, you need to break each objective down into its component steps or stages. Working backwards, for example, achieving a 30% share goal in a new channel by year 5 might require that we have at least a 10% share by year 4. Getting to 10% might require that we have contracts signed with key distributors by year 3, which would mean having identified the right distributors and begun building relationships by year 2. And of course you would need all your market research, pricing, packaging, and supply chain plans completed by the end of year 1 so you could discuss the market potential intelligently with your prospective distributors. When you reverse-engineer the success trajectory on each of your goals, you will find the critical building block components. These are the critical metrics. Monitor your progress towards each of these sub-goals and you have a much greater likelihood of hitting your longer-range objectives. Kaplan and Norton, the pair who brought you the Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Mapping, have a simple tool they call Success Mapping to help diagram this process of selecting key measures. Each goal is broken down into critical sub-goals. Each sub-goal has metrics that test your on-track performance. A sample diagram follows.
By focusing on your sub-goals, you can direct all measurement efforts to those things that really matter, and invest in measurement systems (read: people and processes, not just software) in a way that's linked to your overall business plan, not as an afterthought. |
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Measuring What Matters Most
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Ten Ways Social Media Changed Our Thinking in 2009
by David Berkowitz (From Media Post) , Tuesday, December 22, 2009
All the top trend lists this year have been a blur. There's lots of talk of Twitter and Michael Jackson, but I wanted to dive deeper and think about what we really learned. In many ways social media managed to change our thinking about what happened, what's going on, and how the world's changing.
I'll focus on 10 ways in particular. Not all are exclusive to the past year, but many of the milestones from the past 12 months may well shape how we perceive the road ahead.
Democracy: The Green Revolution, Iran's populist attempt to reject the summer's election results, was a global eye-opener for how a tool like Twitter -- so easily dismissed as frivolous -- could change the world. The result may have been underwhelming, with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad maintaining power -- but for those who saw the tweets from Iranians, often retweeted wildly, it will leave its mark. Contrast this with other movements, such as when Philippines voters used text messages to mobilize and oust President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Philippines revolution followed a peer-to-peer model. In Iran, though, the tweets were largely public, and instant commentary on those tweets was publicized further, shattering the barriers between those who were taking part and the spectators hanging on every character.
Death: We now mourn in public. Michael Jackson inspired millions -- billions? -- to grieve openly. Myself, I stayed silent on Jackson but had to express public disbelief over Billy Mays' passing. As I write this, friends and strangers are opening up about Brittany Murphy. The self-expression becomes more problematic when it gets personal, as a Floridian mom learned when she tweeted about her son drowning. This led to the headline " Twitter played no role in drowning of military_mom's son Bryson." We don't yet know how to grieve publicly, and many such as military_mom will learn that others aren't ready for it. But in time, perhaps even by this time next year, stories like this won't be newsworthy.
All the top trend lists this year have been a blur. There's lots of talk of Twitter and Michael Jackson, but I wanted to dive deeper and think about what we really learned. In many ways social media managed to change our thinking about what happened, what's going on, and how the world's changing.
I'll focus on 10 ways in particular. Not all are exclusive to the past year, but many of the milestones from the past 12 months may well shape how we perceive the road ahead.
Democracy: The Green Revolution, Iran's populist attempt to reject the summer's election results, was a global eye-opener for how a tool like Twitter -- so easily dismissed as frivolous -- could change the world. The result may have been underwhelming, with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad maintaining power -- but for those who saw the tweets from Iranians, often retweeted wildly, it will leave its mark. Contrast this with other movements, such as when Philippines voters used text messages to mobilize and oust President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Philippines revolution followed a peer-to-peer model. In Iran, though, the tweets were largely public, and instant commentary on those tweets was publicized further, shattering the barriers between those who were taking part and the spectators hanging on every character.
Death: We now mourn in public. Michael Jackson inspired millions -- billions? -- to grieve openly. Myself, I stayed silent on Jackson but had to express public disbelief over Billy Mays' passing. As I write this, friends and strangers are opening up about Brittany Murphy. The self-expression becomes more problematic when it gets personal, as a Floridian mom learned when she tweeted about her son drowning. This led to the headline " Twitter played no role in drowning of military_mom's son Bryson." We don't yet know how to grieve publicly, and many such as military_mom will learn that others aren't ready for it. But in time, perhaps even by this time next year, stories like this won't be newsworthy.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
(more) Headlines Week of December 12, 2009
- Google Goes After Social-Network Search With Facebook, MySpace: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Google lifted the curtain today on a host of new features that incorporate time and place into its search results, including the coming integration of Facebook and MySpace status updates into search results.
- Santa Claus is Coming to Facebook to Infect Your Computer With Koobface [ALERT] Oh, scammers, you know no shame. In an effort to exploit holiday cheer, a new malware attack poses as a Christmas greeting on Facebook, but actually installs the nasty Koobface worm on users’ computers. The worm spreads as infected users post the greetings to the walls of their friends, who then in turn get infected when they check out the supposed greeting.
- Hotels check out social media: The inn crowd is desperately seeking more friends. As in other industries, social networks like Twitter and Facebook are proving effective and inexpensive marketing tools for hotels. Through them, hotels offer exclusive deals and try to build consumer connections to their brand. There are more direct business benefits, as well. One is driving traffic directly to a hotel’s web site. If customers book rooms there as opposed to a third-party site like Hotels.com, the hotel company captures all of the room revenue. A third party’s cut can be between 10 and 25 percent of a booking.
US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014 for Interactive Marketing Professionals
by Shar VanBoskirk
This year, more marketers are shifting budget from traditional to interactive media rather than
supporting interactive efforts with new monies as they have in years past (see Figure 1).1 To explore the circumstances behind this trend, we surveyed 204 marketing executives from firms with more than 200 employees across multiple industries. We dug into their current and planned interactive marketing budgets and found that the following factors influence interactive planning:
· Poor economic conditions. The majority of marketers find that interactive tools are more
effective than traditional ones, especially in a recession. When faced with
budget cuts or the need for immediate sales, these marketers find that interactive tools are less
expensive, more measurable, and better for direct response than traditional media. For example,
Busch Entertainment — the theme parks arm of Anheuser-Busch Companies — is using
Facebook and iPhone applications to try to regenerate slumping theme park attendance.
· Increasingly interactive customer relationships. Empowered consumers today expect a
customized, interactive brand experience that goes way beyond a 30-second television spot or
two-dimensional print ad. Forty-two percent of online adults and 55% of online youth want to
engage with their favorite brands through social applications.3 HRB Digital’s H&R Block took
this to heart. It used Facebook, MySpace.com, Twitter, and YouTube to make tax preparation
accessible, even social, and to engage consumers with the brand throughout the year — not just
at tax time.
· More strategic marketing organizations. Although not yet universally involved in setting
business direction, marketing is gradually assuming more organizational leadership in part
because of its close connection to customers. More than 40% of marketers say that “marketing
is the strategic leader in their organization.” As part of this shift, CMOs will begin to buy their
own technology, prioritizing interactive solutions like campaign management, Web analytics,
and email marketing.
· Moribund print inventory. Consumer readership of newspapers and magazines has dropped 17% and 6%, respectively, since 2004 while offline publishers have struggled to translate their impression-based ad sales model into viable online business. The result? Publishing giants Hearst Communications and Condé Nast are closing magazines like CosmoGirl and Men’s Vogue while Gannett and The New York Times Company are restructuring and selling off physical assets. This leaves more advertisers disdaining print for interactive options: The Publishers Information Bureau reports that advertising revenue is down 20% for Q1 2009 compared with the same time period in 2008.
· Proof that interactive marketing works. At last, even laggard industries feel that they have enough experience and data to prove interactive marketing’s worth. Online display spending by telecom companies in Q1 2009 grew 50% over Q1 2008.8 Pleased with double-digit growth in applications, Cornell University’s business school, The Johnson School, is increasing its investment in interactive to between 60% and 70% of its overall marketing budget. Randy Allen, the associate dean for corporate relations explains why: “If we do [new media] strategically, we can target more effectively and do it more cost-effectively as well.”
As with past forecasts, this year we adjusted our scope and approach to best align with marketers’ increasing interactive maturity. We also adjusted our modeling process a bit — this year working with an internal team of dedicated forecasting experts — in order to standardize Forrester’s forecast methodology and ensure consistent outputs and forecast updates.10 As you consider this forecast against former ones, note that this one:
· Shows delayed adoption of emerging media. In 2007, we projected that adoption of online video would begin immediately with mobile marketing following by the end of 2009. Because of the recession, however, firms have been too resource-constrained to trial untested media. With the exception of creating social media assets — which 86% of marketers expect to do before the end of the year — adoption of emerging media is currently flat. Our new forecast projects that video and mobile spend will initiate in mid-2010 and early 2011, respectively, as marketers emerge from the recession.
· Shifts contextual ads out of search. Contextual ads — typically text ads bought on a keyword or category basis — historically have been rolled into the search budget because of their cost- per-click model. But as search programs increase in complexity and contextual ads start to
include more visual elements — like images or video — they are shifting more wholly to the
display budget.
· Rolls online video into display. In our last forecast, because of its newness and limited
availability, we sized online video spend based primarily on reported earnings from the few
publishers selling it. The present forecast still sizes online video as pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-
roll ads but does so based upon the number of available video impressions and as part of the
overall display advertising category. We do not include video production costs or costs to
maintain on-site video assets as these are not typically part of the interactive media budget.
· Includes only email marketing delivery. This year, we forecast growth in delivery of retention, acquisition, and transactional emails. To be as accurate as possible, we limited our email sizing to just the delivery and services included in the CPM paid to email service providers. In years past we also estimated spend on professional services like data integration, analytics, or creative. However, as email becomes more integrated with other channels, it is increasingly difficult to tell which part of the professional services spend is dedicated to email.
· Sizes only integrated social media campaigns and created social assets. This time, our social media forecast includes only money that changes hands for: 1) campaigns that are uniquely enabled by social media — like the McDonald’s Big Mac Chant-Off, which encouraged users to record and post their own versions of the Big Mac chant using tools created by MySpace.
com; and 2) the creation of social media assets that a marketer will own, like a proprietary blog,
community site, or downloadable widget. We include online ads on social networks in our
display ad category and do not size internal social media staffing costs.
· Breaks out mobile. Limited available mobile marketing data in 2007 led us to wrap mobile
into a larger “emerging media” bucket for our 2007 forecast. For this forecast, however, better
data is on hand. We looked at a variety of inputs — mobile handset sales, usage rates, available
inventory, and pricing — and projected expected mobile marketing adoption rates based on
current trends and adoption of analogous media in order to create a unique mobile marketing
model.
INTERACTIVE MARKETING SPEND WILL NEAR $55 BY 2014
Marketers are getting better at balancing channel investments with consumer media time.
Newspaper, magazine, and television share is down while Internet spend stands at 12% of overall
advertising — a percentage that will continue to grow as marketers shuffle dollars away from low- performing traditional media into more relevant interactive channels (see Figure 3). Our forecast examines the pace of the shift toward interactive marketing as a more substantial part
of the marketing mix. We expect search marketing, online display advertising, email marketing,
social media, and mobile marketing collectively to grow to nearly $55 billion by 2014 (see Figure 4).
This year, more marketers are shifting budget from traditional to interactive media rather than
supporting interactive efforts with new monies as they have in years past (see Figure 1).1 To explore the circumstances behind this trend, we surveyed 204 marketing executives from firms with more than 200 employees across multiple industries. We dug into their current and planned interactive marketing budgets and found that the following factors influence interactive planning:
· Poor economic conditions. The majority of marketers find that interactive tools are more
effective than traditional ones, especially in a recession. When faced with
budget cuts or the need for immediate sales, these marketers find that interactive tools are less
expensive, more measurable, and better for direct response than traditional media. For example,
Busch Entertainment — the theme parks arm of Anheuser-Busch Companies — is using
Facebook and iPhone applications to try to regenerate slumping theme park attendance.
· Increasingly interactive customer relationships. Empowered consumers today expect a
customized, interactive brand experience that goes way beyond a 30-second television spot or
two-dimensional print ad. Forty-two percent of online adults and 55% of online youth want to
engage with their favorite brands through social applications.3 HRB Digital’s H&R Block took
this to heart. It used Facebook, MySpace.com, Twitter, and YouTube to make tax preparation
accessible, even social, and to engage consumers with the brand throughout the year — not just
at tax time.
· More strategic marketing organizations. Although not yet universally involved in setting
business direction, marketing is gradually assuming more organizational leadership in part
because of its close connection to customers. More than 40% of marketers say that “marketing
is the strategic leader in their organization.” As part of this shift, CMOs will begin to buy their
own technology, prioritizing interactive solutions like campaign management, Web analytics,
and email marketing.
· Moribund print inventory. Consumer readership of newspapers and magazines has dropped 17% and 6%, respectively, since 2004 while offline publishers have struggled to translate their impression-based ad sales model into viable online business. The result? Publishing giants Hearst Communications and Condé Nast are closing magazines like CosmoGirl and Men’s Vogue while Gannett and The New York Times Company are restructuring and selling off physical assets. This leaves more advertisers disdaining print for interactive options: The Publishers Information Bureau reports that advertising revenue is down 20% for Q1 2009 compared with the same time period in 2008.
· Proof that interactive marketing works. At last, even laggard industries feel that they have enough experience and data to prove interactive marketing’s worth. Online display spending by telecom companies in Q1 2009 grew 50% over Q1 2008.8 Pleased with double-digit growth in applications, Cornell University’s business school, The Johnson School, is increasing its investment in interactive to between 60% and 70% of its overall marketing budget. Randy Allen, the associate dean for corporate relations explains why: “If we do [new media] strategically, we can target more effectively and do it more cost-effectively as well.”
As with past forecasts, this year we adjusted our scope and approach to best align with marketers’ increasing interactive maturity. We also adjusted our modeling process a bit — this year working with an internal team of dedicated forecasting experts — in order to standardize Forrester’s forecast methodology and ensure consistent outputs and forecast updates.10 As you consider this forecast against former ones, note that this one:
· Shows delayed adoption of emerging media. In 2007, we projected that adoption of online video would begin immediately with mobile marketing following by the end of 2009. Because of the recession, however, firms have been too resource-constrained to trial untested media. With the exception of creating social media assets — which 86% of marketers expect to do before the end of the year — adoption of emerging media is currently flat. Our new forecast projects that video and mobile spend will initiate in mid-2010 and early 2011, respectively, as marketers emerge from the recession.
· Shifts contextual ads out of search. Contextual ads — typically text ads bought on a keyword or category basis — historically have been rolled into the search budget because of their cost- per-click model. But as search programs increase in complexity and contextual ads start to
include more visual elements — like images or video — they are shifting more wholly to the
display budget.
· Rolls online video into display. In our last forecast, because of its newness and limited
availability, we sized online video spend based primarily on reported earnings from the few
publishers selling it. The present forecast still sizes online video as pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-
roll ads but does so based upon the number of available video impressions and as part of the
overall display advertising category. We do not include video production costs or costs to
maintain on-site video assets as these are not typically part of the interactive media budget.
· Includes only email marketing delivery. This year, we forecast growth in delivery of retention, acquisition, and transactional emails. To be as accurate as possible, we limited our email sizing to just the delivery and services included in the CPM paid to email service providers. In years past we also estimated spend on professional services like data integration, analytics, or creative. However, as email becomes more integrated with other channels, it is increasingly difficult to tell which part of the professional services spend is dedicated to email.
· Sizes only integrated social media campaigns and created social assets. This time, our social media forecast includes only money that changes hands for: 1) campaigns that are uniquely enabled by social media — like the McDonald’s Big Mac Chant-Off, which encouraged users to record and post their own versions of the Big Mac chant using tools created by MySpace.
com; and 2) the creation of social media assets that a marketer will own, like a proprietary blog,
community site, or downloadable widget. We include online ads on social networks in our
display ad category and do not size internal social media staffing costs.
· Breaks out mobile. Limited available mobile marketing data in 2007 led us to wrap mobile
into a larger “emerging media” bucket for our 2007 forecast. For this forecast, however, better
data is on hand. We looked at a variety of inputs — mobile handset sales, usage rates, available
inventory, and pricing — and projected expected mobile marketing adoption rates based on
current trends and adoption of analogous media in order to create a unique mobile marketing
model.
INTERACTIVE MARKETING SPEND WILL NEAR $55 BY 2014
Marketers are getting better at balancing channel investments with consumer media time.
Newspaper, magazine, and television share is down while Internet spend stands at 12% of overall
advertising — a percentage that will continue to grow as marketers shuffle dollars away from low- performing traditional media into more relevant interactive channels (see Figure 3). Our forecast examines the pace of the shift toward interactive marketing as a more substantial part
of the marketing mix. We expect search marketing, online display advertising, email marketing,
social media, and mobile marketing collectively to grow to nearly $55 billion by 2014 (see Figure 4).
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Week 5: Glossary
This week's Glossary on CRM & Engagement:
•CRM:
•CAN SPAM: Federal legislation that doesn’t allow the use of false or misleading header information. Doesn’t use deceptive subject lines. Tells recipients where business is located. Tells recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from company. Honors opt-out requests promptly. Monitors what others are doing on your behalf.
•Brand Engagement: Engagement is where SEO, social media, usability, CRM and brand communications all come together. Engagement with a brand becomes an open conversation with that brand’s consumers
•Unsubscribe Rate: The percentage of email recipients that request they be removed from mailing list.
•Bounce rate: The percentage of email addresses on an email list that are returned as invalid
•Opt-in List: A list of consumers that have chosen to receive your company’s information and news
•CRM:
–A philosophy: A current business philosophy on creating value on relationships, not solely by advertising and public relations•Open Rate: The percentage of email recipients who open an email
–An email strategy: An email program that furthers customer awareness
–A software vendor: A software package
•CAN SPAM: Federal legislation that doesn’t allow the use of false or misleading header information. Doesn’t use deceptive subject lines. Tells recipients where business is located. Tells recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from company. Honors opt-out requests promptly. Monitors what others are doing on your behalf.
•Brand Engagement: Engagement is where SEO, social media, usability, CRM and brand communications all come together. Engagement with a brand becomes an open conversation with that brand’s consumers
•Unsubscribe Rate: The percentage of email recipients that request they be removed from mailing list.
•Bounce rate: The percentage of email addresses on an email list that are returned as invalid
•Opt-in List: A list of consumers that have chosen to receive your company’s information and news
Headlines Week of December 12, 2009
(Learning about engagement and CRM at week 5 of Digital Marketing Bootcamp Plus)- Cyber Monday' Sales Appear Strong: In a display of strength by the e-commerce sector, online shopping sites reported a surge in sales and traffic on Monday, bucking the mixed-bag results experienced by traditional retailers so far this holiday season. By 6:30 p.m. Eastern time on so-called Cyber Monday, Web shoppers had spent, in total, 11% more than they did a year ago at that time, according to Coremetrics Inc., a Web analytics company that tracks shopper behavior on the sites of more than 500 U.S. brands.
- BrightRoll: Video ad revenues are soaring, despite downturn: Ad revenues for online video are growing, because more ads are getting placed even though ad prices are falling. At least according to video ad network BrightRoll, which says it is seeing rapid revenue growth, citing third quarter financial numbers.
- Facebook’s New Privacy Settings: An Open Letter from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg
- MOG Launches All Access, Sets New Standard For Online Music: MOG’s much anticipated All Access music service
launches today for anyone to come and give it a try. I’ve been using the service for the last few weeks and, despite my initial skepticism over the fact that users must pay for the service, I’ve been impressed. MOG makes millions of songs available users on demand over the Internet. The user experience and social aspects of the service put it far ahead of any online music service available today, and it’s well worth the $5/month.
- 100 Ways To Measure Social Media (via Media Post): At most of the events I've been to lately, measurement continues to be a hot topic. The first question that comes up is, "What can I measure?" That's where this cheat sheet can come in handy: a list of 100 thought-starters.If there's anyone out there left who says you can't measure social media, here are a hundred answers. Some entries here can be interpreted several ways. Depending on how you define them, some of these metrics may seem redundant, while others may seem so broad that they can be broken out further. Many of these can be combined with each other to create new metrics that can then be tracked over time. It's a start, though, so dive in and consider which ones may apply to programs you're working on.
1. Volume of consumer-created buzz for a brand based on number of posts
2. Amount of buzz based on number of impressions
3. Shift in buzz over time
4. Buzz by time of day / daypart
5. Seasonality of buzz
6. Competitive buzz
7. Buzz by category / topic
8. Buzz by social channel (forums, social networks, blogs, Twitter, etc)
9. Buzz by stage in purchase funnel (e.g., researching vs. completing transaction vs. post-purchase)
10. Asset popularity (e.g., if several videos are available to embed, which is used more)
11. Mainstream media mentions
12. Fans
13. Followers
14. Friends
15. Growth rate of fans, followers, and friends
16. Rate of virality / pass-along
17. Change in virality rates over time
18. Second-degree reach (connections to fans, followers, and friends exposed - by people or impressions)
19. Embeds / Installs
20. Downloads
21. Uploads
22. User-initiated views (e.g., for videos)
23. Ratio of embeds or favoriting to views
24. Likes / favorites
25. Comments
26. Ratings
27. Social bookmarks
28. Subscriptions (RSS, podcasts, video series)
29. Pageviews (for blogs, microsites, etc)
30. Effective CPM based on spend per impressions received
31. Change in search engine rankings for the site linked to through social media
32. Change in search engine share of voice for all social sites promoting the brand
33. Increase in searches due to social activity
34. Percentage of buzz containing links
35. Links ranked by influence of publishers
36. Percentage of buzz containing multimedia (images, video, audio)
37. Share of voice on social sites when running earned and paid media in same environment
38. Influence of consumers reached
39. Influence of publishers reached (e.g., blogs)
40. Influence of brands participating in social channels
41. Demographics of target audience engaged with social channels
42. Demographics of audience reached through social media
43. Social media habits/interests of target audience
44. Geography of participating consumers
45. Sentiment by volume of posts
46. Sentiment by volume of impressions
47. Shift in sentiment before, during, and after social marketing programs
48. Languages spoken by participating consumers
49. Time spent with distributed content
50. Time spent on site through social media referrals
51. Method of content discovery (search, pass-along, discovery engines, etc)
52. Clicks
53. Percentage of traffic generated from earned media
54. View-throughs
55. Number of interactions
56. Interaction/engagement rate
57. Frequency of social interactions per consumer
58. Percentage of videos viewed
59. Polls taken / votes received
60. Brand association
61. Purchase consideration
62. Number of user-generated submissions received
63. Exposures of virtual gifts
64. Number of virtual gifts given
65. Relative popularity of content
66. Tags added
67. Attributes of tags (e.g., how well they match the brand's perception of itself)
68. Registrations from third-party social logins (e.g., Facebook Connect, Twitter OAuth)
69. Registrations by channel (e.g., Web, desktop application, mobile application, SMS, etc)
70. Contest entries
71. Number of chat room participants
72. Wiki contributors
73. Impact of offline marketing/events on social marketing programs or buzz
74. User-generated content created that can be used by the marketer in other channels
75. Customers assisted
76. Savings per customer assisted through direct social media interactions compared to other channels (e.g., call centers, in-store)
77. Savings generated by enabling customers to connect with each other
78. Impact on first contact resolution (FCR) (hat tip to Forrester Research for that one)
79. Customer satisfaction
80. Volume of customer feedback generated
81. Research & development time saved based on feedback from social media
82. Suggestions implemented from social feedback
83. Costs saved from not spending on traditional research
84. Impact on online sales
85. Impact on offline sales
86. Discount redemption rate
87. Impact on other offline behavior (e.g., TV tune-in)
88. Leads generated
89. Products sampled
90. Visits to store locator pages
91. Conversion change due to user ratings, reviews
92. Rate of customer/visitor retention
93. Impact on customer lifetime value
94. Customer acquisition / retention costs through social media
95. Change in market share
96. Earned media's impact on results from paid media
97. Responses to socially posted events
98. Attendance generated at in-person events
99. Employees reached (for internal programs)
100. Job applications received
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Linking Winston-Salem Inaugural Mixer
Got this event listing from a classmate and thought it was worth passing along. Although it conflicts with the final class night, so unfortunately we can’t go, but might be worth joining the linkedin group and facebook fan and going to future events!
| When: | Wednesday December 09, 2009, 05:30-7PM |
|---|---|
| Event Type: | Networking/Meetup |
| Location: | Finnigan's Wake 620 N Trade St Winston Salem, NC 27101 US |
| Website: | http://www.facebook.com/pages/Linking-Winston-Salem/175628635677?ref=ts |
| Intended For: | Business owners, president, vice president, CEO, CIO, Marketing, IT, Manager, COO, board of directors |
| Organization: | Linking Winston-Salem |
Bringing professionals in the Winston-Salem area together to grow professionally and personally while giving back to the city. As a result of the ever growing need for professionals to connect with each other, Linking Winston-Salem provides this opportunity.
Borrowing from the successful examples of similar groups in the state, Linking Winston-Salem hopes to replicate the popularity and success. The idea is to bring together a community of professionals so that they can share ideas in a mutually beneficial environment. The goal is to compliment other means of professional networking. The group will plan “mixers” once a quarter – usually after business hours and then once a month with a “lunch and learn”. While providing the stage for professionals to meet and grow, it’s also an opportunity to give back to the local restaurants and merchants.
Linking Winston-Salem will host the inaugural mixer on Wednesday, December 9th 2009 from 5:30 – 7:00 PM at Finnigan’s Wake located at 620 North Trade Street in downtown Winston-Salem. The event is open to anyone with an interest in growing professionally as well as supporting our local businesses.
We hope you will attend and invite your colleagues! Make sure you bring plenty of business cards!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Should you or Should You Not - Using Twitter's new ReTweet Functionality
During last night's session we went over Twitter and it's evolving technology. ReTweeting has been done manually in the past, which enabled you to add commentary as you saw fit. Twitter has now created a new feature to allow for "effortless" ReTweeting but should you always use this function?
Ray at Ray's 2.0 had this to say:
My advice to new Twitter users is that you should not use what Twitter calls a "retweet".
Just pass it on by.
The true retweet is something Twitter's customers invented, and which Twitter stupidly never formalized. The true "retweet" is the life blood of Twitter, and what has set it apart from other similar "microblogging" services.
Here's how to do a traditional retweet it if you're accessing Twitter on the internet:
1. Copy and paste the message and name of person sending it to you.
2. Precede it by "RT @" [i.e. you type "RT", then a space, then a @. It's important that the @ and the name NOT have a space between them].
How true retweets work in Twitter "clients" -- i.e. applications.
If you're using Tweetdeck, Seesmic, or any of the myriad "clients" and applications which support Twitter and other microblogging platforms, they almost all provide "retweet" buttons which simply automate the above 2 steps.
If the makers of these programs are smart -- and they certainly appear to be -- they will preserve the true retweet function, even as they are forced to add Twitter's bastardized version. Also they will quickly start adding on other sites, in addition to Twitter.
What's wrong with the thing Twitter mislabels a "retweet"
I don't have time to list all of the many things wrong with it; every day there are new, excellent articles coming out describing the stupidity of the product, and every day I learn of some new moronic aspect of it. My chief objections are: (1) you can't insert a comment; (2) you can't edit; (3) instead of showing your avatar, it shows the avatar of the original tweeter, which might be someone the recipient doesn't know or have any relationship with; (4) it prevents you from seeing multiple versions with different comments from different people; (5) if someone retweets you, you will never know that they did; (6) if you retweet someone, they will never learn that you did.
I.e., it takes the "social" out of "social media". It eliminates conversation and interaction, insists on blind rubber stamping, prevents you from letting your friend know you've honored them, and prevents you from knowing your friends have honored you. And it removes any clear indication of your identity to your own friends. Idiocy.
What about other microblogging sites?
Since Twitter has basically given up its competitive edge by ruining the retweet, I recommend exploring the many other microblogging services, such as identi.ca, friendfeed, etc. I personally am looking closely at identi.ca at the moment.
Right now we can do what I mentioned for the internet interfaces in those microblogging services as well. I.e. just copy and paste, precede by "RT @".
Most likely some of those services will be smart enough to recognize Twitter's huge misstep, and will quickly implement formal "retweets" of their own, retweets which will embody the attributes of the true retweet rather than Twitter's joke version. [Note: Twitter, like all companies which are poorly managed and then try to make up for their business mistakes by resort to litigation, will no doubt try to force their competitors to use terms other than "retweet", probably claiming some trademark although Twitter itself has never even used the term until now. So just be on the lookout for the other microblogging services to use some alternative terminology for it.]
Also the desktop applications makers will no doubt be supporting more of the other microblogging services as well, and will be adding retweet buttons for all of them.
Conclusion
This is my advice:
1. Don't use Twitter's so called retweet function.... ever. (Unless you want to disappear into a black hole, in which case it would be easier to just stop "microblogging" altogether).
2. Use genuine retweets only.
3. Explore other microblogging services, and do traditional retweeting in them. If those sites or applications develop traditional retweet capabilities, then use them.
4. Use the hashtag #saveretweets when tweeting about this subject, and let Twitter management know that they should have spoken to their customers before ruining something.... just so they'll have a better understanding of how things work in the business world when they report for their next jobs, after Twitter has gone out of business.
[Note: I've been advised that Tweets posted using the new RT function don't show up on Twitter lists or on Tweetdeck, and that you can't see people's retweets of your tweets. -R.B.]
How have you ReTweeted and do you see this as an improvement or poor execution. I personlly think it has pros and cons depending on what I am trying to share? I will doing a mix of using the new button and the manual process.
Ray at Ray's 2.0 had this to say:
My advice to new Twitter users is that you should not use what Twitter calls a "retweet".
Just pass it on by.
The true retweet is something Twitter's customers invented, and which Twitter stupidly never formalized. The true "retweet" is the life blood of Twitter, and what has set it apart from other similar "microblogging" services.
Here's how to do a traditional retweet it if you're accessing Twitter on the internet:
1. Copy and paste the message and name of person sending it to you.
2. Precede it by "RT @" [i.e. you type "RT", then a space, then a @. It's important that the @ and the name NOT have a space between them].
How true retweets work in Twitter "clients" -- i.e. applications.
If you're using Tweetdeck, Seesmic, or any of the myriad "clients" and applications which support Twitter and other microblogging platforms, they almost all provide "retweet" buttons which simply automate the above 2 steps.
If the makers of these programs are smart -- and they certainly appear to be -- they will preserve the true retweet function, even as they are forced to add Twitter's bastardized version. Also they will quickly start adding on other sites, in addition to Twitter.
What's wrong with the thing Twitter mislabels a "retweet"
I don't have time to list all of the many things wrong with it; every day there are new, excellent articles coming out describing the stupidity of the product, and every day I learn of some new moronic aspect of it. My chief objections are: (1) you can't insert a comment; (2) you can't edit; (3) instead of showing your avatar, it shows the avatar of the original tweeter, which might be someone the recipient doesn't know or have any relationship with; (4) it prevents you from seeing multiple versions with different comments from different people; (5) if someone retweets you, you will never know that they did; (6) if you retweet someone, they will never learn that you did.
I.e., it takes the "social" out of "social media". It eliminates conversation and interaction, insists on blind rubber stamping, prevents you from letting your friend know you've honored them, and prevents you from knowing your friends have honored you. And it removes any clear indication of your identity to your own friends. Idiocy.
What about other microblogging sites?
Since Twitter has basically given up its competitive edge by ruining the retweet, I recommend exploring the many other microblogging services, such as identi.ca, friendfeed, etc. I personally am looking closely at identi.ca at the moment.
Right now we can do what I mentioned for the internet interfaces in those microblogging services as well. I.e. just copy and paste, precede by "RT @".
Most likely some of those services will be smart enough to recognize Twitter's huge misstep, and will quickly implement formal "retweets" of their own, retweets which will embody the attributes of the true retweet rather than Twitter's joke version. [Note: Twitter, like all companies which are poorly managed and then try to make up for their business mistakes by resort to litigation, will no doubt try to force their competitors to use terms other than "retweet", probably claiming some trademark although Twitter itself has never even used the term until now. So just be on the lookout for the other microblogging services to use some alternative terminology for it.]
Also the desktop applications makers will no doubt be supporting more of the other microblogging services as well, and will be adding retweet buttons for all of them.
Conclusion
This is my advice:
1. Don't use Twitter's so called retweet function.... ever. (Unless you want to disappear into a black hole, in which case it would be easier to just stop "microblogging" altogether).
2. Use genuine retweets only.
3. Explore other microblogging services, and do traditional retweeting in them. If those sites or applications develop traditional retweet capabilities, then use them.
4. Use the hashtag #saveretweets when tweeting about this subject, and let Twitter management know that they should have spoken to their customers before ruining something.... just so they'll have a better understanding of how things work in the business world when they report for their next jobs, after Twitter has gone out of business.
[Note: I've been advised that Tweets posted using the new RT function don't show up on Twitter lists or on Tweetdeck, and that you can't see people's retweets of your tweets. -R.B.]
How have you ReTweeted and do you see this as an improvement or poor execution. I personlly think it has pros and cons depending on what I am trying to share? I will doing a mix of using the new button and the manual process.
Facebook Glossary of Terms
Stream: The Stream is the new real-time version of the News Feed, which (as far as I can tell as of this writing) will be automatically refreshed to show the latest stories. The Stream will include not just a user's Friends' activities, but also the user's Fan Pages.
Story: Stories are the items that appear in the Stream or News Feed -- each individual item in the list is called a Story.
Comment: Comment is one of the options for users to give feedback about a Story in the Stream. Clicking "Comment" opens up a text box underneath the Story -- the user can add a note and the note will then appear on context with the Story on the Stream.
Like: The other option for giving feedback on a Story is to click the "Like" button -- if you don't have any actual commentary to add but you want to acknowledge the Story in some way, you can just choose to say that you "Like" it.
Friend Lists: Since the Stream will now be updated in real time and will display stories from all of a users Friends and Pages, users can use Friend Lists to filter the Stream and choose to only see stories from certain groups of people. (I'll post more info about Friend Lists when the home page changes go live.)
Profile: Facebook profiles are the pages that display a user's personal information, as well as all their interactions with friends.
Profile Tabs: Profile information is divided into sections of different content.
- The Info tab displays basic information like Birthday and Hometown, as well as interests and activities. The Info tab also lists all Groups the user is a member of, and all the Pages the user is a Fan of.
- The Wall tab dispays all the user's interactions with friends (comments and messages) as well as status messages.
- The Photos tab is pretty self-explanatory.
- The Boxes tab is not at all self-explanatory! It's where all other Application information lives. (For example, mine shows the "Growing Gifts" I've received from friends, and the i'll go! events I'm attending.)
- Other tabs: users can choose to turn their Application boxes into separate tabs. I display my "Extended Info" application as a separate tab because I want to make it easy for people to find.
Status messages / Publisher interface: There's a text field at the top of the home page and the Profile page that asks, "What's on your mind?" (formerly "What are you doing right now?"). If you type text in the box and click "Share" (or "Post), the text will become your new status message (e.g., "Michelle is writing blog posts about Facebook.").
That same field can now be used to share links, photos, etc: if you add a link or photo by clicking the links directly below the field, the text in the field will instead be attached as a comment from you on the link or photo (instead of updating your Status).
Mini-feed: The mini-feed was the section on a Facebook Page that displayed the recent activity of the Page (e.g. "Carnegie Hall posted a new note;" "Playwrights Horizons added a new event"). On the new layout of Pages, the Stream serves the same function.
Updates: Until now, the only direct way for a Page to communicate with its Fans was to send out an Update. With this week's changes, that's no longer the case, but Updates may still provide to be an important communication channel. More on Updates to come in a later post.
How to Speak Twitter
A TWITTER GLOSSARY
At Reply, or "@reply": A direct tweet sent to another Twitter user.
Dweet: Tweet sent while drunk
Hash Tag: The "#" sign. Allows Twitter users to group tweets by topic, making it easier to search particular conversations using Twitter Search.
Link: Including a URL in your tweet.
MisTweet: A tweet one later regrets.
ReTweet: To repost something that's already in the Twitter stream. Usually preceeded by "RT" and "@[username]," to give credit to the original poster.
SnapTweet: A tweet that includes a photo taken with a cell phone, uploaded to Flickr and posted to Twitter via snaptweet.com.
Twittcrastination: Procrastination brought on by Twitter use.
Twadd: To add someone as a friend or follower.
Twaigslist/Twebay: To sell something on Twitter.
Tweeter/Twitterer: Someone who uses Twitter.
TwinkedIn: Inviting friends made on Twitter to connect on LinkedIn.
Twittectomy: To remove someone from the list of people you follow.
Twitterati: The A-list twitterers everyone follows.
Twitterfly: Twitter's version of a social butterfly, marked by the extreme use of @ signs.
Twitterlooing: Twittering from the bathroom.
Twitterpated: Overwhelmed with Twitter messages.
Twittfeinated, Twigged Out, Twired: To be so hyped up on twittering that you cannot sleep.
Week 4: Social Media & Marketing
Below is a list of links to social media topics discussed in last night's class on social media and marketing:
- RSS Search Engines: Many people mistakenly refer to RSS search as "blog search." While it's true that many blogs offer RSS feeds (automatic feed creation is a feature of most blogging software), not all blogs have feeds. Furthermore, RSS can literally be used with just about any kind of web-based content. RSS fundamentally is a relatively simple specification that uses XML to organize and format web-based content in a standard way.
- Breaking Through: Do not adjust that dial! During this excellently executed advertisement, your YouTube browser window may start to tremble and shake and seemingly implode, but it's all just a part of the very clever campaign for Acciona, a sustainable development firm based in Spain. View Video Here. Set to the song “Pure Imagination” (made famous by Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory), the 80-second clip was the result of two months of labor by director Marcel Burgos for McCann Erickson Italia (we’re still not sure if we understand how he did it). Of course, it’s not just the novelty of the advert that makes it so fun and effective: Breaking through the old to make room for the new, it could not have done a better job of illustrating better solutions. Plus, the company chose not to use traditional media but to air Re exclusively online to fund its production costs—proving that every medium can stand for a little “re”-thinking.
- Ad Age: Brands on Twitter, 76% of Accounts Are Infrequent Users: Most companies fail to realize Twitter's full potential as a market engagement platform. While 73% of Fortune 100 companies registered a total of 540 Twitter accounts, effectiveness based on level of activity, interaction and engagement were off the mark. Brand-squatted accounts, as reported last week in Ad Age, remains an issue for many companies. For those that are on board, many more are largely tepid accounts with limited activity and interactivity (76% of accounts tweet infrequently). Even more telling is how companies apply currently traditional marketing practices to this new media channel.
- LinkedIn and Twitter Partnership: Do's and Dont's for Users:
Social Media Lessons from Bill Cosby: has taught us about a lot of things over the years, like parenting skills, how to pick out snazzy sweaters -- and now, how to succeed at social media. Cosby held a "virtual town hall" on Oct. 19 to discuss issues that face the African-American community and support his latest album, "Bill Cosby Presents the Cosnarati: State of Emergency." It features rappers Jace the Great, Brother Hahz and Super Nova Slom.- 5 Tips For Creating Compelling PPC Ads: Search engine marketers are always looking to capture a valuable and relevant click throughout their pay-per-click campaign. Here are five ways to help target those all-important searchers through compelling and effective ad copy.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Current Event Articles: Week of November 18, 2009
Come prepared to discuss current events in the new for tomorrow night's class. Particularly ones related to Social Media. Here's a few links to get you thinking about this week.
- Engage Teens: Think Global. Act Local. Go Social.
- CSR as Branded Content
- Social Media Users Talk Brands
Also following up on our SEO classes:
- Why did Google penalize my site
See you in class!
- Engage Teens: Think Global. Act Local. Go Social.
- CSR as Branded Content
- Social Media Users Talk Brands
Also following up on our SEO classes:
- Why did Google penalize my site
See you in class!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Module 3: This Week's Headlines
Below are the articles shared in the Module 3 class:
- Google Acquires AdMob for $750
- 10 things Google has taught us
- Holiday Shoppers Turning To Social Media And Internet
- Twitter-LinkedIn Deal Signals Deeper Corporate Social Media Integration
- Nielsen finds strong TV-Internet usage overlap
- Google’s Schmidt Says AdMob Will Expand IPhone Ads
- Google Acquires AdMob for $750
- 10 things Google has taught us
- Holiday Shoppers Turning To Social Media And Internet
- Twitter-LinkedIn Deal Signals Deeper Corporate Social Media Integration
- Nielsen finds strong TV-Internet usage overlap
- Google’s Schmidt Says AdMob Will Expand IPhone Ads
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Current Event Articles: Week of November 11, 2009
Come prepared to discuss current events in the new for tomorrow night's class. Particularly ones related to search and/or google. Here's a few links to get you thinking about this week.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Your No. 1 Upgrade For 2010: Lifecycle Marketing
by Loren McDonald , Thursday, November 5, 2009
If you're already thinking about how to take your email-marketing program to the next level in the coming year, you should start by switching out your batch-and-blast program for one that uses lifecycle marketing to send highly targeted and relevant messages.
Although it might be a challenge to persuade your upper management to invest time and money to upgrade your email program, this story of a company that boosted its conversion rate 40% using segmentation and targeted messaging might help loosen up the budget.
First Challenge: Move Beyond 'One Size' Email
Fabric.com (a client), a provider of customer-measured fabrics, operates a custom-tailored business but at one time offered customers only a basic "one size fits all" email service.
The company, founded in 1999 and acquired by Amazon in 2008, had no way to customize its messages or segment its database; thus, its messages didn't reflect what it had learned about how its customers bought its products.
Its homegrown email service also didn't provide detailed reporting or analysis on email delivery to subscribers' inboxes. Without the infrastructure to capture this kind of information, you have no way of knowing how well your program is performing and can't justify seeking more budget or company support.
Strategic Mix: Segmentation, Triggers, Preferences, Analytics -- Even Broadcast
Fabric.com began by segmenting its database according to customer behavior, from most active to least active. It began sending out offers customized to each segment, intending to keep loyal customers engaged and entice back inactives.
The company also created a preference center that asked subscribers for birthdates, email and frequency preferences, and details about their sewing habits (experience level, preferred kind of sewing, whether for business or personal use).
One important aspect of this email program makeover is that Fabric.com uses the data it collected, both in its preference center and through integration of a Coremetrics LIVEmail analytics program.
Too many marketers still fail to leverage the data they collect, such as gender and birthdate.
The birthdate it collects at opt-in generates the Happy Birthday email. The analytics program generates a "Happy Anniversary" email on the anniversary of the customer's first purchase from the company.
It also sends shopping-cart reminders for those who leave the site with items still in their carts or who buy fabrics swatches but don't return within two weeks to buy the full fabric.
These are three key approaches that help get Fabric.com email messages noticed in the inbox, where yet another 20%-discount or free-shipping offer might fade into the background.
Even with the highly targeted and personalized messages that Fabric.com's email marketing team produces, broadcast messages still have a place, promoting sales, new products and "Deals of the Day" for subscribers who opt in to those lists.
Results: Higher Conversions, and Benefits Beyond Email
First, the automated lifecycle emails helped Fabric.com double its open and click-through rates and led to a 40% increase in conversions.
Next, the cart-abandonment program helped generate a 20% increase in order size on conversions from cart-abandonment reminders.
Finally, the improvements in the email program had a ripple effect in other departments at the company.
In an earlier ( http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=109114) Email Insider column, I suggested that one way to get greater buy-in for your email program is to go outside your department and help other departments of your company find ways to meet their goals.
Besides bringing in additional revenue, Fabric.com's triggered email campaigns also generated orders during normally slower periods. This helped the company to plan better, thanks to a steady stream of revenue, and also helped with workflow at the company's warehouse.
Until next time, take it up a notch!
If you're already thinking about how to take your email-marketing program to the next level in the coming year, you should start by switching out your batch-and-blast program for one that uses lifecycle marketing to send highly targeted and relevant messages.
Although it might be a challenge to persuade your upper management to invest time and money to upgrade your email program, this story of a company that boosted its conversion rate 40% using segmentation and targeted messaging might help loosen up the budget.
First Challenge: Move Beyond 'One Size' Email
Fabric.com (a client), a provider of customer-measured fabrics, operates a custom-tailored business but at one time offered customers only a basic "one size fits all" email service.
The company, founded in 1999 and acquired by Amazon in 2008, had no way to customize its messages or segment its database; thus, its messages didn't reflect what it had learned about how its customers bought its products.
Its homegrown email service also didn't provide detailed reporting or analysis on email delivery to subscribers' inboxes. Without the infrastructure to capture this kind of information, you have no way of knowing how well your program is performing and can't justify seeking more budget or company support.
Strategic Mix: Segmentation, Triggers, Preferences, Analytics -- Even Broadcast
Fabric.com began by segmenting its database according to customer behavior, from most active to least active. It began sending out offers customized to each segment, intending to keep loyal customers engaged and entice back inactives.
The company also created a preference center that asked subscribers for birthdates, email and frequency preferences, and details about their sewing habits (experience level, preferred kind of sewing, whether for business or personal use).
One important aspect of this email program makeover is that Fabric.com uses the data it collected, both in its preference center and through integration of a Coremetrics LIVEmail analytics program.
Too many marketers still fail to leverage the data they collect, such as gender and birthdate.
The birthdate it collects at opt-in generates the Happy Birthday email. The analytics program generates a "Happy Anniversary" email on the anniversary of the customer's first purchase from the company.
It also sends shopping-cart reminders for those who leave the site with items still in their carts or who buy fabrics swatches but don't return within two weeks to buy the full fabric.
These are three key approaches that help get Fabric.com email messages noticed in the inbox, where yet another 20%-discount or free-shipping offer might fade into the background.
Even with the highly targeted and personalized messages that Fabric.com's email marketing team produces, broadcast messages still have a place, promoting sales, new products and "Deals of the Day" for subscribers who opt in to those lists.
Results: Higher Conversions, and Benefits Beyond Email
First, the automated lifecycle emails helped Fabric.com double its open and click-through rates and led to a 40% increase in conversions.
Next, the cart-abandonment program helped generate a 20% increase in order size on conversions from cart-abandonment reminders.
Finally, the improvements in the email program had a ripple effect in other departments at the company.
In an earlier ( http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=109114) Email Insider column, I suggested that one way to get greater buy-in for your email program is to go outside your department and help other departments of your company find ways to meet their goals.
Besides bringing in additional revenue, Fabric.com's triggered email campaigns also generated orders during normally slower periods. This helped the company to plan better, thanks to a steady stream of revenue, and also helped with workflow at the company's warehouse.
Until next time, take it up a notch!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A helpful list of Ad Networks
Adsense from Google
- Google Adsense : Grand-daddy of contextual advertising. (CPC)
Adsense Alternatives
- Chitika : Shopping mall banner advertising. (CPC)
- AdBrite : Ad marketplace for publishers and advertisers. (CPC); 75% payout.
- Advertising.com : Large network. (CPA)
- 24/7 RealMedia : Large network. (CPM)
- Burst Media : Large network. (CPM)
- Commission Junction : Large network. (CPA)
- Kanoodle : Large network. (CPC); 50% payout.
- LinkShare : Large network. (CPA)
- ValueClick : Large network. (CPM)
Two Big Ones Coming Soon
- Yahoo Publisher Network : Closed Beta (CPC)
- MSN adCenter : Closed Beta (CPC)
A few more Advertising Networks
- Accelerator Media :
- AdAgency 1 : (CPM) ; 60% payout.
- AdDynamix : (CPM)
- AdEngage :
- Adgenta :
- Adhearus :
- AdKnowledge : (CPC)
- AdPepper : (CPM)
- ADServing Network : (CPM)
- Adsmart : (CPM)
- Adtegrity : (CPM)
- AdZuba : (CPM)
- AffiliateFuture : (CPA)
- AffiliateSensor :
- AllFeeds : (CPC); 60% payout.
- AVNads :
- AzoogleAds : (CPA)
- Banner Boxes : (CPC)
- BannerConnect : (CPM)
- BardzoMedia : (CPM)
- BidClix : (CPC)
- BidVertiser : (CPC)
- BlinkAds : (CPA)
- BlueFN : (CPA)
- BlueLithium : (CPM)
- Casale Media : (CPM); 70% payout.
- ClickAdsDirect :
- ClickBooth : (CPA)
- ClickShare :
- Clicksor : (CPC); upto 85% payout.
- ClickXchange : (CPA)
- ContexWeb : (CPC); 50% payout.
- CoverClicks :
- CPX Interactive/Budsinc : (CPM)
- DirectNetworks : (CPA)
- Enhance Interactive :
- Esource Media : (CPM)
- Etype-Europe : (CPM)
- EtypeUSA :
- ExpoActive :
- FastClick=ValueClick : (CPM); upto 65% payout.
- FluxAds : (CPA)
- HurricaneDigitalMedia : (CPM); 60/75% payout.
- Hyperbidder : (CPC)
- IncentaClick : (CPA)
- Industry Brains :
- Interclick :
- JoeTec : (CPM)
- Kontera : (CPC)
- Mamma Media Solutions : (CPC); 50% payout.
- MaxBounty : (CPA)
- Mirago :
- MIVA AdRevenue Xpress :
- Nixxie :
- Oridian : (CPA)
- Oxado : (CPC)
- Paypopup : (CPM)
- PeakClick :
- PogAds : (CPC)
- Popup Traffic : (CPM)
- Quigo : (CPC)
- RealCastMedia : (CPM)
- RealTech Network : (CPM)
- Revenue Pilot : (CPC); 60% payout.
- RightMedia : (CPM)
- Searchfeed : (CPC)
- ShareAShare : (CPA)
- TargetPoint : (CPC); at least 50% payout.
- TextLinkAds : (CPC)
- TMP Express : (CPA)
- Tremor Network :
- Tribal Fusion : (CPM)
- Veoda : (CPC) ; 60-90% payout.
- Vibrant Media IntelliTXT : (CPM)
Current Event Articles: Week of November 4, 2009
- Amazon Releases "Pay Phrase": PayPhrase is an easy-to-remember shortcut to shipping and payment information in your Amazon.com account. Use it for Express Checkout at Amazon.com and across the web.
- Yahoo announces it is closing Geocities: We always imagined how this might end: GeoCities would finally take down all of the animated "under construction" signs, and we'd hear one last Midi file to the tune of horns playing taps.
- Apple's App Store reaches well over 2 billion: When it launched on July 10, 2008, Apple’s iTunes App Store held just 552 apps. Today, it boasts more than 100,000 in 21 categories (click on image below) that have been downloaded a total of “well over” two billion times.
- Google is to launch an application store for Google Wave, its real-time, browser-based collaboration tool.
Rich Media Creative Guidelines
Tonight we discussed web ads. Ever wondered what the dimensions, file type, size, etc should be for web ads? List of Rich Media Creative Guidelines from the Internet Advertising Bureau.
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, interviewed at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009
Tonight we watched an excerpt from Eric Schmidt's interview. Here is the full 45 minute video
Monday, November 2, 2009
Keynote: Glossary
As promised, here is a list of glossary terms from the Jumpstart Keynote and links to them respectively:
©Bruce Carlisle and Digital Axle, 2009, Use by Digital Marketing Boot Camp authorized under licensing agreement
- Netscape: 1. The first commercially available version of the Mosaic web browser which once owned more than a 90% share of the browser market 2. Netscape Communications, The company which had a record setting IPO in 1995 widely credited with srtting the stage for the dot com boom
- Dot Com Bubble : The period of rapidly rising stock prices, indiscriminate VC investment in Internet related companies
- Web 2.0 : The set of technical tools that followed the initial internet bubble that provided for vastly greater information sharing, social networking, enhanced user experience and increased collaboration.
- Online banner advertising: The use of the WWW as an advertising medium is largely credited to HotWired the online version of Wired Magazine. Initial click through rates on banners often exceeded 50% but are now generally well below 1%
- Site Optimization: The practice of optimizing the content and layout of a web site or landing page such that the most users take a desired action
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing a website so that it is discoverable by major search engines for a wide variety of search terms. The practice involves a constant cat and mouse game between SEO practitioners and Search Engine algorithms
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM): The practice of buying visibility on search engines like Google most frequently by bidding for keyword terms on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis
- Social Media: A Web 2.0 phenomenon in which individual users share web content with each other as well as details of their personal and professional lives. FaceBook, My Space, LinkedIn and Twitter are examples of social mediums.
- Social Media Marketing: The practice of promoting website content, products ideas or people through strategic and tactical use of social media.
- Web Analytics: The practice of tracking user activity on the Web. Google Analytics and Omniture are typically used to analyze web traffic which Atlas and Dart For Advertisers tend to be used to track advertising performance.
- Widget: A small program or graphical user interface that allows web users to manipulate certain information streaming from the web.
©Bruce Carlisle and Digital Axle, 2009, Use by Digital Marketing Boot Camp authorized under licensing agreement
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Web Design and Psychology - The Design of Everyday Things
What is one of the most informative and inspirational books I've ever read and one that helped me when thinking about website design, usability and architecture? It's not what you would think. No, it wasn't an XML for Dummies or a Wordpress 101 book.
It was The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman.
This is the book that I recommend to anyone involved in design, especially interactive design and programming. The reason for this is because the online space is, or should be, all about the user experience.
As we discussed in Session 2 on 10.28, before you go down the path of developing your site you need to think carefully about what the site will be about, how will consumers interact with it, and what is the story it will tell. It's easy to forget that the consumer is alone without guidance and trying to figure out how to accomplish what they need to do at your site. It's important to make it easy for them to do so, especially when there could be multiple reasons to be there.
What I love about this book is that it opened my eyes to the psychology of design - which is what the user experience is all about. Here is an example: Think about walking up to a door. If the handle is horizontal, what do you do? Push, right? And if the handle is vertical? You know (or have been trained) to pull it towards you.
But have you ever walked up to a door and the door doesn't act the way you expected? People generally blame themselves for the mistake but in reality it's the door's designer or installer who is wrong, not you. They didn't think about the way we've been trained to interact with the door.
There are cues for websites too. An icon in the upper left (typically a logo) is usually clickable to go back to the home page. When it isn't you get frustrated. And you typically don't equate that with wanting to come back.
This book will resensitize you to the parameters you live with in. To quote: It could forever change how you experience and interact with your physical surroundings, open your eyes to the perversity of bad design and the desirability of good design, and raise your expectations about how things should be designed
It was The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman.
This is the book that I recommend to anyone involved in design, especially interactive design and programming. The reason for this is because the online space is, or should be, all about the user experience.
As we discussed in Session 2 on 10.28, before you go down the path of developing your site you need to think carefully about what the site will be about, how will consumers interact with it, and what is the story it will tell. It's easy to forget that the consumer is alone without guidance and trying to figure out how to accomplish what they need to do at your site. It's important to make it easy for them to do so, especially when there could be multiple reasons to be there.
What I love about this book is that it opened my eyes to the psychology of design - which is what the user experience is all about. Here is an example: Think about walking up to a door. If the handle is horizontal, what do you do? Push, right? And if the handle is vertical? You know (or have been trained) to pull it towards you.
But have you ever walked up to a door and the door doesn't act the way you expected? People generally blame themselves for the mistake but in reality it's the door's designer or installer who is wrong, not you. They didn't think about the way we've been trained to interact with the door.
There are cues for websites too. An icon in the upper left (typically a logo) is usually clickable to go back to the home page. When it isn't you get frustrated. And you typically don't equate that with wanting to come back.
This book will resensitize you to the parameters you live with in. To quote: It could forever change how you experience and interact with your physical surroundings, open your eyes to the perversity of bad design and the desirability of good design, and raise your expectations about how things should be designed
Listening and Learning from your Customers - Twittovation
As reported by Reveries - Cool News of the Day:
There was a time when Twitter's founders objected to users referring to their posts as "Tweets," reports @claireCM in the New York Times (10/26/09). Those days ended just a few months ago, when Twitter "applied for a trademark on the term." That's just one of the many ways in which Twitter has followed its followers. "Twitter's smart enough, or lucky enough, to say, 'Gee, let's not try to compete with our users ... let's outsource design to them," says Eric von Hippel, author of Democratizing Innovation.
Twitter ceo Evan Williams agrees: "Most companies or services on the web start with wrong assumptions about what they are and what they're for," he says. "Twitter struck an interesting balance of flexibility and malleability that allowed users to invent uses for it that weren't anticipated." Among other things, Twitter users invented the idea of putting the @ symbol before their user names (e.g., @cool_news). They also picked up the idea of using the # symbol to categorize topics -- another innovation Twitter initially resisted.
The # idea came from open-source advocate @chrismessina, who says Twitter thought the # concept was too nerdy for mass appeal. Well, now Twitter "hyperlinks the hash tags so readers can click and see all the other posts on a topic." Twitter is now also about to formalize the RT, or "retweet," feature, which users have long used to "send a post by another Twitter user to their own set of followers." Evan Williams says Twitter's plan is to keep following its followers. "You get a bunch of users interacting and it's hard to predict what they're going to do," he says. "We say, 'Why are people using this and how could we make that better?'"
There was a time when Twitter's founders objected to users referring to their posts as "Tweets," reports @claireCM in the New York Times (10/26/09). Those days ended just a few months ago, when Twitter "applied for a trademark on the term." That's just one of the many ways in which Twitter has followed its followers. "Twitter's smart enough, or lucky enough, to say, 'Gee, let's not try to compete with our users ... let's outsource design to them," says Eric von Hippel, author of Democratizing Innovation.
Twitter ceo Evan Williams agrees: "Most companies or services on the web start with wrong assumptions about what they are and what they're for," he says. "Twitter struck an interesting balance of flexibility and malleability that allowed users to invent uses for it that weren't anticipated." Among other things, Twitter users invented the idea of putting the @ symbol before their user names (e.g., @cool_news). They also picked up the idea of using the # symbol to categorize topics -- another innovation Twitter initially resisted.
The # idea came from open-source advocate @chrismessina, who says Twitter thought the # concept was too nerdy for mass appeal. Well, now Twitter "hyperlinks the hash tags so readers can click and see all the other posts on a topic." Twitter is now also about to formalize the RT, or "retweet," feature, which users have long used to "send a post by another Twitter user to their own set of followers." Evan Williams says Twitter's plan is to keep following its followers. "You get a bunch of users interacting and it's hard to predict what they're going to do," he says. "We say, 'Why are people using this and how could we make that better?'"
Always Something New
As Brad mentioned in our first class, what you learn today will be changed or new or even obsolete very soon in the future.
We will be learning more about Twitter in our Social Media session, but I wanted to share a "so-new-it's not-even-fully-available" feature called Twitter Lists.
Twitter lists is a new feature currently being rolled out over the Twitter-verse which will let people "curate" the real time web. People will be able to make lists of Twitter users into the categories they choose.
There is even a site created for sharing these lists already created called Listorious.
Listorious aims to make finding these lists easier. The lists will be an interesting look at what a person you follow finds relevant too.
We will be learning more about Twitter in our Social Media session, but I wanted to share a "so-new-it's not-even-fully-available" feature called Twitter Lists.
Twitter lists is a new feature currently being rolled out over the Twitter-verse which will let people "curate" the real time web. People will be able to make lists of Twitter users into the categories they choose.
There is even a site created for sharing these lists already created called Listorious.
Listorious aims to make finding these lists easier. The lists will be an interesting look at what a person you follow finds relevant too.
I'm sure Google and Bing will also be very excited to see how users index Twitter users and their content.
Make sure to follow DMBootcamp on Twitter and connect with our speakers via Twitter as well.
Current Events Week of October 28, 2009
- ALL THINGS DIGITAL: On the heels of its deal to incorporate Twitter data into its search results, Google on Monday announced an experimental Labs feature that searches the social Web. Called Google Social Search, the new offering is intended to make search results more relevant by enhancing them with personalized social data. Continue Reading.
- MEDIA POST: Paris-based Publicis Groupe, which currently boasts that 25% of its revenues are derived from digital advertising and media services, ultimately plans to become an "all-digital agency," its Chairman-CEO Maurice Levy said in an interview following the release of its third quarter earnings this morning. Continue Reading.
- NPR: Where Does Your Phone Say You Are? Cell phones location used to be vague, based only on the location of the nearest cell tower. But the advent of GPS in mobile phones has changed that. To test just how precise the new phones are, we took two phones — one with GPS and one without — on a tour of Los Angeles landmarks and compared their accuracy with Google Latitude, an application that allows you to share your phone location with friends via the Web or smart phone. Listen to the full story.
- NEWS & RECORD: (Courtesy of a class member) Raleigh-area 8th grader leads Facebook revolt. He is a leader to more than 1.4 million people angry about recent changes to the Facebook Web site. But when he wants to turn on the computer, Jonathan Woodlief has to ask his mother. Jonathan, an eighth-grader at Lufkin Road Middle School, took over the "CHANGE FACEBOOK BACK TO NORMAL!!" group Saturday after someone else created it but quit the administrative duties. Jonathan noticed the admin spot was open, clicked a button and was instantly in charge of those worldwide who hate the site's latest reconfiguration. Continue Reading.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Reasons to have a Website
Reasons to have a website shared from attendees at today's Jumpstart:
Here's our website! What do you think it does? Leave your comments below.
- Communications
- Visibility
- Information
- Selling products
- Selling services
- Discover-ability
- Credibility
- Gather RFPs
- Sharing files
- Avoid Meetings
- Research
- Sharing capabilities
- Fame & Fortune
- No reason or need at all
- Public Service
- Education
- Product Differentiation
- Virtual Business Card
- "I'm alive"
- Branding
- Get people to come to brick & mortar
- Avoid being "used car"
- Economies of scale
- Tell a story
- Building community
Here's our website! What do you think it does? Leave your comments below.
A Better Way to Discover Twitter Apps
In today's Jumpstart session of the Digital Marketing Bootcamp, someone asked for a list of twitter resources. We asked via twitter for recommendations and someone suggested we check out oneforty.com and we now suggest it to you! oneforty.com (the name comes from the # of characters allowed in twitter, 140) claims to have "tons of resources for all things Twitter" and Currently tracking 1890 apps that make Twitter even better. Happy Tweeting!
Live From the Digital Marketing Bootcamp Jumpstart
With Bruce Carlisle, CEO of Digital Axe, in the middle of a great discussion with the group at the Digital Marketing Bootcamp Jumpstart.
You can still register for the rest of the Bootcamp sessions!
Digital Markeing JumpStart: Website Newsletters to Review
In our session today, Saturday, October 24, Bruce recommended a few websites with newsletters that can be helpful.
They are:
www.MediaPost.com
www.Adotas.com
www.SearchEngineStrategies.com
Check them out!
They are:
www.MediaPost.com
www.Adotas.com
www.SearchEngineStrategies.com
Check them out!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Boot Camp Jumpstart This Saturday
Join us Saturday, October 24 from 9am-12pm at the Campus of North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro for our Boot Camp Jumpstart session.
It's an overview of course topics of interest to CEO’s, managers and those involved with marketing processes, covering the digital marketing basics in one half-day session.
Cost: $99
Space is limited, so enroll today.
It's an overview of course topics of interest to CEO’s, managers and those involved with marketing processes, covering the digital marketing basics in one half-day session.
Cost: $99
Space is limited, so enroll today.
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