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Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
As smartphones, mobiles and tablets become more prevalent, and wi-fi hotspots mean that data transfer can cost next to zero (a cup of coffee and a bun in many places), so we are seeing an explosion in mobile marketing. Geo-location and location based marketing aim to attract and encourage customers within a locality with services such as Foursquare, location based SMS, and m-commerce to make branding and m-marketing easy for business, and purchases more simple for customers.
However, much of this type of marketing relies on a bricks and mortar presence – you are endeavouring to attract people to your store, restaurant, gym, B&B, hotel, etc so that you can make a sale in the real world rather than online through your e-commerce store and website. But, what happens if you are a market stall, a pop-up, a table top or car boot sale vendor, manning an exhibition stand, or selling hats and wellies on top of a mountain and need to process a card payment rather than dealing only with cash?
The founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, launched Square in May 2011 and whilst providing a mobile payment scheme, Square is more than a little disruptive for the payments industry and hence exciting for businesses, large and small. Sir Richard Branson invested in Square last November and although it is not yet available in the UK, Branson’s investment will undoubtedly bring it to these shores. What Square does, and what other companies are likely to try to emulate, is make any smartphone into a credit card processing terminal. We have recently seen businesses such as Barclays taking potshots at the likes of Paypal for consumer payments via mobile with the Barclays PingIt service, but for many businesses, the rapid approach of multiple payment options eg Square can only be a good thing, especially if it reduces bottom line costs and keeps products competitive.
One option is the card reader, which plugs into the headphone jack on your phone. The sheer simplicity of such a device indicates the likelihood that it will take off, even though there have to be some security concerns about how easy it *could* make kiting and card cloning once apps are undoubtedly produced to help scammers. However, today’s announcements that credit card fraud is down must offer some reassurance on that level.
When you begin to consider the uses to which business can put this form of “payment anywhere”, it makes you itch for it be released in the UK. Not only does it solve the problem of having credit card processing terminals at outdoor events, but it also will herald a new level of competition in the payment processing market which has for too long been monopolised by the banks. Credit card transaction fees can be prohibitive, especially on micro-payments and low profit margin items.
For instance, Paypal charge 5% +5p per transaction on micropayments and 3.4% + 20p for regular payments.
WorldPay charge £19.95 /month for 350 transactions (5p each) and then 10p each for further transactions.
Barclays charge 3% with a £10 management fee and a minimum bill of £10 (no micropayments option, it seems)
Square charges 2.75% per swipe and 3.5% for manually entered cards with a 15c charge (only available in the US, at present).
The ubiquity of mobile phones and their impact on pretty much everything in our daily lives, especially in the world of commerce, is likely to see many more optional extras to plug into your phones over the coming years. We are likely to see far more use made of the headphone jack, as well as mini USB connectors already in mobile phones to offer additional functionality, both for consumers and businesses. After all, it’s not that long since a phone with a camera was a novelty and the Square card reader is precisely the type of disruptive technology that will change the way we do business.
What re your thoughts? How would your company use a mobile card reader? What else would you like to be able to plug into your phone?
Tags: credit card, E-Commerce, geo targeting, geo-location, jack dorsey, location based SMS, m-commerce, m-marketing, sir richard branson, square, transaction processing, twitter, wifi
Posted in Blog, E-Commerce, Small Business Resources, Stats & Trends
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Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
Baker Krispy Kreme UK is set to launch a new social media marketing campaign aimed at encouraging consumers to purchase a box of a dozen doughnuts to share in the workplace, according to an article published by The Drum.
Operated by Addiction, the campaign will take the form of a competition that will run on both Facebook and Twitter.
To enter the competition, users must tweet or post their favourite examples of triumphs or disasters that have occurred in their workplace; twelve people who provide the best examples will be rewarded with a box containing a dozen doughnuts to share with their work colleagues.
Judith Denby, chief marketing officer at Krispy Kreme UK, spoke about the upcoming campaign.
She said: “We’re delighted with the success of Addiction’s campaigns to date, as they have enabled us to extend the brand communications regionally as well as across different channels, resulting in a healthy uplift in sales and brand saliency with customers.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Tags: competition, Contest, dozen box, facebook, Krispy Kreme UK, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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Thursday, March 1st, 2012
For 5 years, Twitter has somehow escaped the notice of the younger generation, with many quite happy to reside on Bebo, MySpace, and then Facebook. However, one has to wonder whether the decline of the latter of these three social networks may begin when the teens grow bored, and move on to pastures new, as they did with MySpace (now almost exclusively the haunt of bands) and Bebo (is it still the place to be for anyone?). If so, then the tipping point for Facebook may have been reached as there seems to be a growing realisation amongst the yoof that Twitter offers a cheap and simple way to communicate. Not only that, but it gives these youngsters a chance to be noticed and a remarkably quick way to share information.
A classic quote from this evening’s investigations as to why the younger generation are leaping aboard the Twitter ship was, “Be warned, Justin Bieber and Glee will be trending before you know it.” Whilst this may strike fear into the hearts of many, especially those who have enjoyed the relative obscurity of Twitter to date, for youngsters, the ability to use Twitter to be heard through something as simple as power in numbers causing global trends, (as was the case with the Arab Spring etc), may prove a bigger pull than even the simplicity. And for marketers targeting the pockets of an increasingly canny set of customers, ignoring Twitter for much longer may carry a costly penalty.
IF, and it is a big IF, the trend towards Twitter amongst teens continues at its seemingly increasing pace, it is likely that shortly the de facto place for youngsters will not be on Facebook, but in 140 character texts and twitpics. At that point, it is likely that Facebook will lose its appeal for many. Just as Pinterest appears to seemingly cater mainly for women of a certain age (but that demographic is rapidly skewing as Pinterest takes advantage of being the de rigueur site for now), Facebook may end up a wasteland without the youngsters to keep us all entertained. After all, how many people over 30 are on Facebook simply because those younger than them made it the site du jour?
Marketers and brands who have omitted to work a Twitter thread into their strategy may find themselves playing a fast catch up, and will also need to understand the fickle nature of this generation. “Everything is only a click away” means that unfollowing a particular brand or company really is incredibly simple, far more so than Unlike on Facebook where so few companies have actually mastered social engagement that your Feed is not constantly cluttered with marketing messages. If a brand ceases to be the flavour of the month, be prepared for your number of followers to decrease rapidly as peer pressure and possibly even a certain type of bullying could take place if your Tweetstream is seen to be full of RTs of the wrong company.
2012 may well be the Year of the Younger Tweet, and we are currently carrying out a survey of 13-18 year olds to determine what is the trigger for the mass move, aside from two which we have heard all too often recently, “Facebook is boring” and “All the good stuff happens first on Twitter”. Some of us oldies knew that a while ago, but it seems the realisation has dawned amongst our teenagers and the sooner internet marketers realise that the downward shift is occurring in Facebook, the sooner it may become obvious that the next budget and strategy meeting of the Marcomms team should probably include a long, hard look at Twitter. After all, Gen Y may not be your customers today, but is is highly likely that they will be in 5-10 years time. Alienate them now at your peril……
Tags: bebo, customers, facebook, gen y, marketing, myspace, Social network, teens, tweets, twitter, younger generation
Posted in Blog, Social Media, Stats & Trends, Uncategorised
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Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
Following the formation of Twitter’s partnership with Datasift, companies will be able to access archived tweets – dating back to January 2010 – for market research purposes, according to an article published by The Drum.
The tweets are being offered by the two as a tool for marketers to use when planning social media marketing campaigns.
Datasift’s marketing manager, Tim Barker, told BBC News: “No-one’s ever done this before. It’s a brand new service that we’re bringing online – it’s a massive technology challenge because of the amount of data that is pumped out every single day.”
Barker added that Datasift took in around 250 million tweets each day; the tweets are then analysed for their content – such as whether they mention a brand, company or service in a good or bad light.
Although the partnership might have been welcomed by marketers, it has already drawn criticism from some sections – with privacy campaigners arguing that back-dated tweets shouldn’t be sold on to third-parties for a profit.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Tags: BBC News, Datasift, Social Media, The Drum, twitter
Posted in Social Media Marketing
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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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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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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
