All of us at E-Marketing Associates would like to wish our friends, fans and followers a very safe and fun Halloween.
Eat, drink and be scary…
Happy Halloween!
The winner of the 2011 Costume Contest is Dustin Schmidt…
A Sleazy ’70s Faux-tographer
E-Marketing Associates’ Costume Contest Winner [Images]
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by Jacquelynn Mendez on October 31st, 2011 |
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Categories: Blog,Photo & Video — Tags: Costume Contest Winner, E-Marketing Associates, Halloween;
Steve Jobs: Was He Truly that Brilliant or Just Overrated
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by David Sotelo on October 26th, 2011 |
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The death of Steve Jobs has affected people all over the world. Some people disliked him, many more people admired him but it’s hard to deny he changed the world we live in a major way. It got me thinking after hearing many people talk about him after his death, was he really that great? My short answer is yes. I have heard people put him in the same class as Walt Disney and Thomas Edison and I have to agree in the sense that in he has made the same type of impact and changed our lives in a very dramatic way.
Perspective is important and I will be the first to admit Steve Jobs was far from perfect. He was at times egocentric, inconsiderate, and meticulous and by many accounts a very difficult boss. I don’t know much about Walt Disney or Thomas Edison’s personality but I am sure they all had traits that were less than praiseworthy. However when you look past that he is a person who may be a perfectionist you can appreciate what he brought into our lives. I think the fact that that when he came back to apple in late 1996 they were a struggling computer company months away from bankruptcy to August’2011 where they were the most valuable company in the world is enough. What’s more important is what came out of that journey from the bottom to the top.
His creativity, vision and uncanny ability to bring the best and brightest minds to apple and to aspire the best from everyone created a company with the culture and innovation to keep pushing the boundaries of what we use and how we use it in our daily lives. There is much more to write about Steve Jobs contributions but yes I think he made the same positive impact in the lives of millions of people much like Walt Disney and Thomas Edison.
Categories: Blog,Uncategorized — Tags: apple, Apple iPhone, steve jobs, Steve jobs overated, steve jobs perfectionist;
Social Media Marketing: Stop Counting and Start Measuring Your Influence
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by Jacquelynn Mendez on October 24th, 2011 |
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Although social media marketing is now an essential element of today’s digital media mix, many businesses still can’t figure out how to measure their program’s overall impact. If this sounds like you, it’s time to look beyond the tantalizing numbers of fans, followers and subscribers, and to start digging deeper into the conversation taking place about your brand.
As social media continues to grow, it’s important to enter this deeply integrated space with the right set of goals in mind. This means looking at more than just the numbers. Although fans and followers are important, social media is a unique platform that offers businesses a chance to listen to their audience and create a conversation. With that in mind, measurement plans should center on this differentiating aspect so that it can be used to your business’ advantage. When looking at today’s most popular social media management systems, the key areas to evaluate fall into three major categories, including social media exposure, engagement and influence, with influence still being one of the most difficult to measure. So let’s look deeper into how you can strengthen your strategy and further your success through the analysis of the vital, yet often overlooked, “influence” metric.
Measuring Your Influence
As of today, influence is still one of the most difficult metrics to measure. It requires businesses to take a look at whether the comments, posts and mentions of their brand are positive, neutral or negative in sentiment. Although the old adage says, “All press is good press,” this doesn’t necessarily hold true in social media where news moves faster than ever before and a negative presence can be detrimental to a brand’s bottom line. Fortunately, there are quite a few tools, both paid and free, that can be used to help measure reputation/influence through the analysis of keywords used within the conversations about the brand name. A few free fan favorites include Social Mention, Twendz and Wordle.
On the other hand, even though these websites exist and continue to improve with time, it’s important to still read through mentions yourself because these measurement tools oftentimes can’t distinguish between the denotative and connotative definition of words. For example, the word “bad” can easily be dumped into the wrong side of the scale when used as slang in context. Additionally, these mentions should also be read to help steer the direction of your strategy and business. There can be valuable information and insight extracted from the messages that mention about your product, service or industry. Organic conversations found in social media, give businesses a glimpse into how people really feel about their brand.
Quality over Quantity
As with any other form of marketing, quality usually always out beats quantity. The goal shouldn’t be to have the most fans, followers or subscribers, but rather to have a substantial group of online advocates that actually care about your brand and its messages. Similarly, your business should take the time to listen to its social media community, and use these genuine connections and conversations to help steer the direction of your future strategic plans. So stop counting and start listening!
Categories: Blog,Facebook,Internet Marketing,Social Media,Social Media Marketing,Twitter — Tags: Reputation Management, Sentiment, Social Media Management Systems, Social Media Marketing;
Mobile App or Mobile Website; Which One Is Right For You?
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by David Sotelo on October 19th, 2011 |
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Now that we are in a mobile world a valid and common question is what’s better for my company – a mobile application or a mobile website? Well, that is not a simple question to answer because each one can serve a different purpose and there are factors to consider, such as your company budget and what your goals are. Each business has their own unique product and service that needs to be promoted in different ways. Some may benefit from an application however some businesses would be better suited to a mobile website only. If money was not an issue then having both would be nice.
Mobile apps often times offer a better user experience because they are built from the ground up and are optimized for mobile devices. Native applications for each mobile operating system are important however it can be costly to create a quality one especially for each platform. It can add up quickly, especially if you want a quality application that will make people want to keep it or need it more than the mobile website. Currently Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are the dominant operating systems. As nice as applications are the reach is limited. There are far more people who will view a mobile site than an application.
Mobile websites really are a necessity in this day and age. The number of mobile users is staggering with Nielsen reporting that 40% of U.S cell phone users own smartphones and that number will continue to grow significantly. You will reach a much bigger audience then an app with your website changing to a mobile version once it detects the user is on a mobile device. Search engines work with mobile sites and can drive much more traffic to your site.
There are pros and cons to each but you want to look at your business and ask what type of product or service you’re selling, who you want to reach, do you want to bring in sales or do you want focus more on branding, and what type of user experience do you want to provide. Mobile websites are less expensive and do have a greater reach but a mobile application could be worth it and the pricing has become more competitive whether you do it yourself or outsource it. Whether it is a mobile app or website being proactive with your mobile marketing is a must.
Categories: Blog,Internet Marketing,Uncategorized,Website Applications — Tags: android app, Mobile Apps, Mobile Website;
Video Marketing Tips that Look Beyond the Creative
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by Jacquelynn Mendez on October 17th, 2011 |
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Earlier this month, America’s most creative minds ventured into Madison Avenue for the 8th annual Advertising Week, and with digital at the forefront of marketing, viral videos quickly became a hot topic at this year’s event. Ever since Wieden+Kenndy’s successful “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” Old Spice campaign, brands everywhere have been fighting for the coveted spot of today’s latest viral sensation, but AdWeek panelists made it clear that this is not an easy feat. After all, you don’t choose what goes viral, your audience does. So before delving into your next major video campaign, it may be wise to listen to the advice of today’s most successful advertisers, who believe that creating share-worthy content takes more than just clever creative. To them, success requires patience, risk-taking and a diverse media plan.
Be Patient and Take Risks
Unlike the instant reach of many traditional media outlets, a successful video virus takes time to pass-along and build up so it’s important to be patient with your efforts. This lesson was made clear by George Smith during the panel discussion entitled, “The Viral Business: How Brands Can Create Online Video Machines.” Smith, senior manager for PepsiCo.’s social media team, shared his experience working on a recent Pepsi Max video series made for Australia and the UK. The first video of the series generated less than 100,000 views, and although this is a relatively modest number for the brand, it didn’t stop the team in their tracks. Instead, each member took the time needed to learn about their audience and train their viewers with each launch. Eventually, due to their patience and diligence, they nearly doubled their audience by the tenth video of the series.
To further build on the conversation, VP of digital strategy of Taylor, Jackson Jeyanayagam, went on to explain the importance of risk-taking. He argued that a fear of failing is holding many brands back, and it’s frustrating as an agency to see managers give up on video marketing after one or two modest attempts. Like any other form of marketing, a great campaign takes time to research, execute and build, so it’s important to learn and improve upon each attempt. Virality is not guaranteed, but with the right strategy, businesses could still reach a considerable amount of their target audience.
Your Videos Should Be in All the Right Places
Nearly every AdWeek panelist speaking on the subject of video marketing stressed the necessary need for widespread distribution in order to achieve successful numbers. In other words, to reach the eyes of your desired audience, it is incredibly important to invest in the media needed to have a prevailing presence. The internet is a big place, so without the right coverage in all the right place, even the most brilliant video can easily be missed.
What kind of experiences have you had with video marketing? Please share any stories and tips in the comments section below.
Categories: Blog,Internet Marketing,Social Media,Social Media Marketing — Tags: Advertising Week, Digital Marketing, Online Videos, Video Marketing, Viral Videos;
Hootsuite is Stepping Up Its Geo Location Marketing Services
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by David Sotelo on October 13th, 2011 |
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Hootsuite just recently passed the 2 million user mark and it is still growing at an impressive rate, making it the most popular program for managing multiple social media accounts. And now, the popular social media dashboard and analytics tool is expanding its services to include location based marketing that will help it gain some traction in the growing field of geo location. This will all be done through its acquisition of Geotoko, which is a location-based marketing and analytics platform that aims to help businesses and brands to run real time location based promotions.
Hootsuite will run Geotoko separately for right now but in time, they will integrate it into their main dashboard. They have done a good job in creating one single platform to manage multiple social media accounts so you can bet that they will transition this new feature nicely into their interface. Geo location is a very important component for the future of digital marketing and sales especially when you consider the negative effects of irrelevant and intrusive advertisements. Real time data combined with more effective and efficient use of location based marketing will be a nice addition for users of Hootsuite.
Categories: Blog,Social Media,Social Media Marketing,Twitter — Tags: social advertising, Social Media Management, social network advertising, social network marketing;
A Quick Overview of Facebook’s New Business Page Insights
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by Jacquelynn Mendez on October 11th, 2011 |
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As part of its latest makeover, Facebook has launched a new set of metrics that gives page administrators a detailed look into the reach, engagement and overall performance of their social media marketing efforts. These new insights are separated by individual posts, so now marketers can better identify which subjects, themes and formats are most effective with users. Additionally, with a new focus on engagement as the main measure of brand activity, marketers can now gauge the overall success of a post through the amount of action taken by users. So to help you understand and use these numbers to your advantage, I will highlight three metrics that now hold a prevailing position on the new Facebook insights.
Talking About This
The new “Talking About This” metric is a raw number that allows page administrators to take a glimpse into how many people are talking about their brand by measuring the engagement of each post. This is an all encompassing score that includes various types of user actions, including:
- Liking your Page
- Liking, commenting on, or sharing your Page post
- Answering a Question you’ve asked
- Responding to your event
- Mentioning your Page
- Tagging your Page in a photo
- Checking in or recommending your Place
With a large variety of engagement actions now available through Facebook, this is an easy way to gauge the overall popularity of specific themes and subjects. Additionally, if you click on the number itself, you can see a pie chart that provides a breakdown of how users chose to share information about your brand. As a whole, this metric will provide administrators with a new way to measure overall performance, giving them the data needed to develop realistic goals and a more narrowly focused strategy.
Virality
Now that virality is a major goal for brands engaging in today’s social web, Facebook added a new “viral” metric to give administrators an overview of how many unique users are talking about their posts after seeing it. This figure is a percentage that is calculated by dividing the number of people “Talking About This” by the actual number of people who viewed the post. So it takes into account the same user engagement actions that are found on the “Talking About This” metric, making it the first insight of its type for the social network. With this data, community managers can now determine the organic conversation taking place about their content, giving them a chance to measure and compare numbers beyond the post itself.
Engaged Users
Engaged Users is a number that represents the quantity of unique users, both fans and non-fans, who have clicked anywhere on a post. This metric differs from “Talking About This” because it represents every type of action taken by Facebook’s audience, from photo views to stories generated. In other words, this is the one measurement that also includes the number of clicks that are not accounted for anywhere else on the insights report, such as clicks on people’s names in comments, on the like count and on the time stamp. Additionally, by clicking on the engaged user metric for any post, administrators can see a breakdown of the types of engagement the post generated. This can help community mangers identify how users prefer to engage with their content and the type of information their audience is interested in seeing.
Categories: Blog,Facebook,Internet Marketing,Social Media,Social Media Marketing — Tags: Analytics, Engaged Users, Facebook Insights, Internet marketing, Social Media, Virality;
Kick Start Your Display Advertising with Banner Ads
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by David Sotelo on October 5th, 2011 |
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Businesses have used display advertising for a long time but as the web has experienced tremendous growth the field of display advertising and specifically digital banner advertising has as well. If you are unfamiliar with banner advertising they are small rectangular advertisements that usually take a small space on a webpage and if you click them they will take you to the advertiser’s website. The advertisement itself is a simple piece of html code that is easy to setup and adding graphics or even animation to make your ad stand is not too difficult. It is similar to print advertising but there are several benefits including the ability to present multiple images and you can change the appearance in different ways to enhance the effectiveness.
Banner ads typically are based off a pay per click or fixed rate model. Pay per click is where you are only charged when a user actually clicks on your advertisement and a fixed rate is where you are charged a predetermined amount. As with most advertising the ad must be relevant to your target audience and you want to try and be consistent with your ads because maintaining your brand presence is very important. It’s importance transcends to a large demographic, more than three quarters of users ages 25 to 54 had taken actions such as performing a search or visiting a company website after viewing an ad. The more brand recognition you have the more credible and trustworthy you become and that makes a big difference.
Display advertising doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all, to the contrary it is projected to overtake search in 2015. There has been quite a bit of favorable statistics in support of display advertising. According to ad technology firm Collective’s latest survey of marketers and ad agencies 90% of marketers and agencies now say online displays are good for advertising and 57% said their online ad spend will be focused on brand advertising. Whether you have a small or large business, display advertising and banner ads will have a positive impact on your marketing efforts.
Categories: Blog — Tags: banner ads, display advertising, online advertising, web banner advertising, website banner advertising;
Google Analytics is Rolling Out with Real-Time Data
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by Jacquelynn Mendez on October 4th, 2011 |
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The web is moving faster than ever before and now so is Google Analytics. Last week, the widely used tracking tool received a major upgrade with the launch of its first real-time web traffic tracker. According to the Google blog, this new feature is only available in the new version of Analytics and has already been turned on for a number of users. For everyone else, it will be activated over the next few weeks. With the obvious instantaneity of today’s digital media, this new minute by minute data is exactly what was needed to keep Google Analytics relevant and competitive. But more importantly, access to real-time analytics will now give users the ability to effectively test, manage and track campaign performances without any uncertainty or lag.
The Benefits of Google Real-Time Data
Knowing that time is money, a real-time tracker is the upgrade that most avid Google Analytics users have been waiting to see. It provides a great number of benefits for those who push out data daily and run short-term campaigns. For example, within social media these new instant data reports can be used to measure the immediate traffic impact of blogs, tweets and posts, giving content providers a better idea of what to push out next. Additionally, for anyone trying to test a campaign before its launch, real-time tracking will allow you to try out your tracking tags and measurement plans in seconds. This is a major change considering that in the past there was a lag of at least an hour for any data and 24-hours for full data reporting.
There’s more. For Google fanatics that have been looking for an even more sophisticated system than the current platform, the search giant is also rolling out with Google Analytics Premium, its first paid web tracking product. For $150,000/year, this new service will include extra processing power, advanced analysis and 24/7 support. So although Google may not be the first to offer real-time results or a premium tracking service, it is certainly keeping up with the times by not staying too far behind.
If you still haven’t been upgraded and you’re itching for real-time data, you can sign up for early access at https://services.google.com/fb/forms/realtimeanalytics/.
Categories: Blog,Google,Internet Marketing — Tags: google, Google Analytics, New Google Feature, Real-Time Data, Social Media Marketing, Website Traffic;