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Friday, February 24th, 2012
Twitter has reached a landmark of 500 million accounts registered on the service, according to an article published by PC Advisor.
Twopcharts – a stat site for the micro-blogging service – reported that as of 11am yesterday morning (February 23) Twitter has nearly 5,000,700,000 registered users.
Originally launched in July 2006, the micro-blogging site has gone from strength to strength. Just last year it was estimated that the site had just 300 million active users; it is now been mooted that the service could hit 600 million users in just three and a half months from now.
Although there is some controversy surrounding the figure – relating to the fact that many accounts lie dormant or have never tweeted – it is fair to assume that Twitter has a massive user base – with an estimated 140 million tweets posted everyday.
Twitter – which is also popular with advertisers looking to conduct social media marketing campaigns – are yet to comment on the story.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Tags: micro-blogging, Social Media, twitter, Twopcharts
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Friday, February 24th, 2012
A recent study has found that just under half of consumers dislike the idea of advertising featured on social networking sites that uses information from their profiles, according to an article published by Marketing Week.
Conducted by YouGov, the study saw the participation of 1,275 online consumers from the United Kingdom.
The findings displayed that 47 per cent objected to seeing adverts aimed at them based on the activities listed on their profiles – on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Around 44 per cent also stated that they wouldn’t be any more likely to make a purchase from a brand based on the social media recommendations of their friends.
This has led YouGov to claim that social media marketing might not be as beneficial as brands would assume and more specifically “social is not always the advertiser’s friend.”
Commenting on the results, Dan Brilot, YouGov’s media consulting director stated: “It appears that whilst social media can be a key tool in the brand marketer’s armoury, in particular to maximise commitment amongst those already highly engaged with the brand, it has not quite reached the effectiveness necessary to be considered a truly mass media marketing tool.
“With the ability to share, tweet and interact on any kind of site, is almost a given, social media services increasingly need to have an extra raison d’etre beyond merely ‘social’ to make an impact in today’s crowded market.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: facebook, Google, Marketing Week, research, Social Media, twitter, yougov
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Widely known as the business professional’s social network of choice, LinkedIn is a site that offers a number of great advertising opportunities.
According to Joseph Kerschbaum, writing for Search Engine Watch, LinkedIn Ads, with the right strategy behind them, can provide a fantastic ROI (return on interest).
Kerschbaum has highlighted a number of tactics to implement when using LinkedIn Ads, in order to gain a good ROI.
Here are just two of those aforementioned tactics in a summarised form:
Tactic 1 – As with any PPC marketing campaign you must ensure that you’re targeting an appropriate audience. Creating brilliant ads that are then not seen by your target audience is simply a waste of time, effort and resources.
Tactic 2 – LinkedIn Ads allow images to be featured. Though only small – 50×50 pixels to be precise – the images can be beneficial to your ads.
In order for them to have any benefit, the images need to be cropped and zoomed appropriately – so that your audience can see clearly and quickly what the image represents.
In an example Kerschbaum explains: “If you use an image of a person standing in the rain, the image won’t make any sense because it’s too small, but if you crop and zoom in on that person’s face, this will make the image easier to interpret.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, PPC, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Tags: Joseph Kerschbaum, LinkedIn, PPC marketing, roi, Search Engine Watch, Social Media
Posted in Pay Per Click Marketing
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Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Many large brands have closed their Facebook stores following a poor ROI (return on investment), according to an article published by Mashable.
F-Commerce – the sale of products via Facebook pages – gained a significant level of popularity last year, leading commentators to forecast that the social networking site would become “a major revenue driver for retailers over the next decade.”
Whilst popular as a host for social media marketing campaigns, a recent Bloomberg report has displayed that Facebook might not yet have what’s needed to provide a shopping experience; Gap, Nordstrom, J.C. Penney and GameStop have all shut down their stores on Facebook within a year of opening them.
American video game and entertainment software retailer, GameStop, opened their store April last year (2011) but closed it just six months later.
Vice president of marketing and strategy at GameStop, Ashley Sheetz, explained the reasoning behind the closure.
Speaking to Bloomberg, she revealed: “We just didn’t get the return on investment we needed from the Facebook market, so we shut it down pretty quickly.
“For us, it’s been a way we communicate with customers on deals, not a place to sell,” she added.
Although there are many brands still utilising Facebook stores, Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research, has damningly compared F-Commerce to “trying to sell stuff to people while they’re hanging out with their friends at the bar.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Tags: Bloomberg, facebook, Facebook stores, Forrester Research, GameSpot, Gap, J.C. Penney, Mashable, Nordstrom, Social Media
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Micro-blogging site, Twitter, has agreed a partnership deal with Yandex that will see tweets featured in search results provided by the Russian search engine, according to an article published by Reuters.
As part of the deal Yandex will be able to access and feature public tweets in their SERPs (search engine results pages) based on their relevance to the query. A site frequently used in social media marketing campaigns, Twitter already has a similar partnership in place with Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
Yandex currently holds the majority share of the Russian search engine market – 60 per cent – compared to Google, which holds just a quarter.
In a statement, Yandex’s blog search manager, Anton Pavlov, commented on the partnership.
He said: “People share news, exchange opinions and discuss all sorts of matters in real-time all the time. This kind of information will help us enhance our search results.”
April Underwood, Twitter’s director of business development, stated: “We wanted to make sure that Twitter content can be where Twitter users are already going. Discovery through search is so important.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: April Underwood, Google, Russia, search engine, Social Media, twitter, Yandex
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Facebook is a fantastic tool for small businesses looking to increase sales and awareness of their brand via social media marketing campaigns conducted on the site.
Global Facebook marketing agency, Majestic Media, has highlighted a number of great tips that could help to improve the results yielded by Facebook marketing campaigns, in an article published by Mashable.
Here are just a few of the highlighted tips:
- Look for your vanity URL – Before launching your page you should ideally ensure that your business’ vanity URL is still available – i.e. a URL that features your business’ name.
A quick check can be made simply by using Name Vine; this handy tool checks the available domain name extensions on both Twitter and Facebook.
- Distribute content via third-part platforms – Publishing the same content across the various social platforms has become much easier with the creation of tools such as HootSuite – rather than logging-in to each network and publishing individually.
Using these tools would ensure that a huge amount of time and effort is saved.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Tags: facebook, Majestic Media, Mashable, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Domino’s Pizza has revealed that is looking to increase its social media marketing activity on Twitter during 2012, according to an article published by New Media Age.
Sales and marketing director at the pizza chain, Simon Wallis, stated that Facebook had proven to be a successful platform for the company’s marketing initiatives so far – highlighting the promotion of their new boneless ribs.
He said: “Facebook has worked well for us so far and we’ll continue to have offers exclusively for our fans there.”
Due to the responsiveness of its fan base on Twitter, Wallis added that the company would now be looking into how to take advantage; stating: “Our social focus has been on Facebook, which is reflected by us having over 400,000 fans, and around 20,000 on Twitter.
“But we see a higher response rate from Twitter than from Facebook for our campaigns, so we’ll see how we can engage with fans via Twitter.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: Domino's Pizza, facebook, New Media Age, Simon Wallis, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Monday, February 20th, 2012
Car manufacturer Alfa Romeo has revealed that its latest social media marketing campaign – a social game on Facebook – has yielded a significant amount of success, according to an article published by New Media Age.
Designed to promote the MiTo model, the campaign has attracted around 50,000 people to create their own custom version of the car to then subsequently use in the football-themed, I Am Playr, Facebook game.
Alfa Romeo is also continuing to provide new content for the game in the form of videos.
Head of digital for Fiat Group, Claudio Annichiarico, commented on the campaign’s aim.
He said: “One of the challenges for a car brand is driving people to the website and then replicating the dealer experience online This was what prompted the idea of the car configurator, which lets users personalise their own MiTo model and ties in with how we position our brand offline.
“It replicates how we sponsor football teams and promote the car models in real life.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: Alfa Romeo, facebook, I Am Playr, Social Media
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Monday, February 20th, 2012
Facebook has announced that it will soon be integrating an authenticated account system, designed to verify the official accounts of celebrities and popular public figures, according to an article published by Search Engine Watch.
The system is currently in its testing phase and is said to be targeting existing accounts with a large number of subscribers; verified accounts will also be given a number of special profile, name and display options.
Verification of accounts will simply require the submission of a Government-issued ID.
A spokesperson for the social networking site – popular with social media marketing professionals – revealed more about the features, stating: “Once verified, they’ll also have the option to more prominently display an alternate name (nickname, maiden name, byline, etc.) on their timelines in addition to their real name.
“This update makes it even easier for subscribers to find and keep up with journalists, celebrities and other public figures they want to connect to,” the spokesperson added.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: facebook, Social Media, verified accounts
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Friday, February 17th, 2012
Micro-blogging site Twitter, in partnership with American Express, has launched a new self-service advertising platform, aimed at small businesses, according to an article published by New Media Age.
Operating in a similar way to Google AdWords, Twitter’s self-service ad platform will allow users to control various aspects of the ad – location, spend and text – and automate their ads.
The service will initially follow a CPC (cost per click) model – meaning that businesses will only pay for their ads – which also include Promoted Accounts and Promoted Tweets – if they are responded to on Twitter, retweeted or clicked on.
Offering another arm of social media marketing, the service is currently only available in America, according to a spokeswoman for Twitter.
The spokeswoman also added that a timescale for launch of the service in the UK had not been disclosed.
In a bid to entice firms to use the service, partner American Express is offering $100 to a select number to spend on their adverts.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: American Express, cost per click, CPC, Google AdWords, self-service ad platform, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
