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Two-Thirds of iPhone Users Now Use Location-Based Services at Least Once a Week

cgseo — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:20:49 +0000

While services like Gowalla and Foursquare still haven't become household names outside of the early adopter market yet, the technology behind these apps is now solidly mainstream. According to a new survey by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), about two thirds of iPhone owners now user location services at least once a week. Taking all cell phone users into account, 22% of adults between 25 and 34 use location services at least once a week, mostly to locate nearby points of interests, shops and services. Sponsor Focus: Location-Based Apps and Advertising The survey also asked users how likely they are to take action on location-based advertising on their mobile devices. According to the MMA, about half of those users who noticed ads in location-based apps took some action. On the other hand, only about 37% of respondents who noticed ads while sending or receiving text messages took any action based on these commercial messages. For those we noticed ads while browsing the web, this number was only 28% (which still seems rather high to us). Given that most people use location-based apps when they are already looking for a certain store or product, it makes sense that these users are more likely to respond to ads than people who are just browsing the web. Are Users Really Willing to Let Apps Track Them Passively in Return for Discounts? "Consumers are interested in allowing their phone to automatically share their location in exchange for perks, such as free use of mobile applications and mobile coupons." Interestingly, the MMA survey also notes that "consumers are interested in allowing their phone to automatically share their location in exchange for perks, such as free use of mobile applications and mobile coupons." While mobile coupons and other perks are definitely interesting to consumers, passive location services that track consumers in return for discounts have never really been tested in the wild. These services may sound good on paper, but the privacy implications of using these apps are hard to neglect and it remains to be seen if users are actually willing to give up their privacy in return for a 10% discount at Crate and Barrel. Chances are that we will see more of these passive tracking services once the iPhone 4 operating system arrives later this year. The current generation of the iPhone's operating system doesn't allow apps to run in the background and track your location, but this will be possible in the next version of the iPhone OS. Discuss

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Two-Thirds of iPhone Users Now Use Location-Based Services at Least Once a Week

To Be (a Brand) or Not To Be (a Brand)

cgseo — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Although securing and promoting your company's brand is an important step when starting a business, and although protecting that brand can be an ongoing concern, the question of what it means to associate a person with a company brand is a lot more complicated - a fact made obvious in light of Tiger Wood's sex scandals. The companies that featured Woods in their advertising had sought to latch onto Tiger-Woods-as-a-brand - an image crafted to suggest his tenacity, reliability, skill, and success. Sponsor The gulf we now see between Tiger-Woods-as-a-brand - "the perfect role model" - and Tiger Woods as a flawed human being points to some of the potential dangers in associating your company's brand with a person. Of course, few startups are in the position to build a brand based on a celebrity's image or reputation. Instead, if there is a person associated with the startup's brand, it is likely someone from within the company. Tiger Woods serves as a cautionary tale, obviously for the businesses who endorsed him but also for individuals who seek to promote themselves as a brand. Despite concerns about people as brands (branding is, after all, what we do to cattle ), the power of brands continues to be a way to quickly identify a product or service or idea with your business. For many entrepreneurs, developing a brand isn't merely a matter of creating a company brand, but of also crafting a personal brand. The idea of a personal brand is hardly new, often traced back to a 1997 article by Tom Peters, "The Brand Called You" : "To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You." It may be that some of the fallout from the Tiger Woods scandal has made the idea of personal branding seem trickier - people are people, after all, not objects and not cattle. As Doc Searls has argued in two recent blog posts, brands are " boring " at best and " bull " at worst. Technological innovation has made personal branding easier, in some regards. Registering a domain name under your own name has become an incredibly straightforward and inexpensive process . Having a domain name is a simple step in helping make sure that content you produce is readily associated with your name. And services like Google Alerts can be useful to monitor the Internet for mention of your name. The rise of social media has made creating an online presence quite simple, but signing up for social media networks or having a LinkedIn profile for example, is not necessarily sufficient or suitable for crafting your personal brand. As the information available online about all of us increases, it is likely that our ability to create and maintain personal branding will become more difficult. Undoubtedly, building trust is fundamental to business success. Maintaining reputation is crucial, whether or not you want your name to be synonymous with a product, a service or a company. What are your thoughts on personal branding? Has it become impossible? Or has it become ubiquitous? Discuss

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To Be (a Brand) or Not To Be (a Brand)

Quicktake Analysis: What Twitter’s “Promoted Tweets” Means To The Ecosystem

cgseo — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:54:16 +0000

The Altimeter Group was pre-briefed by Twitter COO Dick Costolo last week about this upcoming launch, we’ve had some time to think over what it means to the industry. Help your boss fight through the clutter, send them this post. Summary: Twitter has launched Promoted Tweets, combining paid and organic media. Brands can now advertise promoted tweets on search pages, however the community has power over which tweets will appear measured by Twitter’s new metric called “resonance” which factors in behaviors like the retweet, at, hash, avatar clicks. Brands can now purchase CPM based ads to promote these popular tweets at the top of a Twitter search term –even in categories they aren’t well known in, influencing awareness. Marketers beware: unlike traditional advertising or social marketing this is both a combination of earned media and paid media. For Twitter this experimental move makes sense as it taps into deep pockets of online advertisers without jeapordizing sanctity of the community as users will self select which tweets will resonate and thereby become promoted ads. How it will work, a likely use case scenario: Twitter users will continue to interact with each other, and popular tweets will receive a high ‘resonance’ score from Twitter. Some of these Tweets will be created by brands, and some by the users themselves. Tweets with heavy resonance can be purchased by advertisers in a CPM basis to appear as the first ’sponsored’ Tweet on a search term. The sponsored tweets will be clearly labeled and have a different background color. These promoted tweets will only stay if users continue to resonate with them, those that don’t will disappear and a different tweet with resonation will appear. Matrix: What Twitter’s Promoted Tweets Business Model Means to the Ecosystem This has several implications to the ecosystem as a whole, we’ve broken down the impacts to the various players in this matrix: Player Direct Impacts What They Will Do What No One Tells You Twitter Finally gets a business model beyond search deal partnerships with potential to scale. Taps into deep pockets of online advertisers. Experiment. Expect black and gray hat marketers to try to game this system, in order to obtain resonance. Twitter will constantly tune algorhythm like Google does. Expect this to cascade to their partners and grow into the ecosystem as Twitter aggregates resonation on other 3rd party sites Twitter Users Have power over which promoted ads will stay visible Initially be shocked by changes, then learn they can help self select tweets that will be promoted.. In the real time resonace world users have a lot more power Power tweeters like celebs and digerati will be targeted by marketers to engage and resonate tweets. Twitter users that retweet tweets may be surprised to see their promoted tweets in search engine results ads. Social Marketers The conversation is now being monetized, with changes to the outcomes of whats expected of the online conversation and engagement. Educate traditional marketers. These folks will try to increase resonance of tweets by interacting with community. Will build an inventory of top promotable tweets Don’t go overboard, make sure you think of this in the larger context of integrated marketing. Avoid shiny tool syndrome. Must pay close attention to what terms are resonating with community to build inventory Direct Marketers and Advertisers Finally traditional advertisers and direct marketers have skin in the social game in a way they know. Flail. Many will try to buy their way in and obtain resonation without asking why a tweet resonates. Will fight over top searched terms in Twitter, expect a lot of contests to promote tweet engagement. Expect tension between this marketer and the social marketer if education is not completed. Developers and Agencies A clear goal (resonation) has been put forth, with opportunity to get a cut of the incoming advertising dollars. Developers are waiting with baited breathe for Chirp developers conference this week to see how this will be tied in. Twitter has indicated that promoted tweets will spread to clients, expect revenue sharing to be offered Don’t buy the first ‘resonation solution’ that comes around, expect half a dozen vendors and agencies to approach brands in the next quarter offering the ability to increase ‘resonance’ and case studies will show increase in resonance. Competitors and Search Engines A new player being in town a new form of advertising is afoot changing the game. Expect nervous deals to come to the table on how search engine results can factor in Twitter’s resonance. Expect players like MSFT and Yahoo to quickly launch their version of defining how the social web should be categorized. They will have the advantage of built in ad base of advertisers and millions more users. Expect existing Twitter partners Google Search and Microsoft Bing will fold this in and reward resonance and combine with page rank, or will create their own metric to reward social engagement For Resonation, Brands Must Pay Closer Attention To Users –This Isn’t Traditional Spray And Pray. Power continues to be in the hands of the users, however brands that pay attention to why tweets resonate will have a leg up. here’s how you should approach this new space: Change your mindset, as organic and paid merge: This is a combination of organic and paid ads, you’ll need skills from both worlds to be successful. Direct marketers should educate social marketers, and social marketers should explain how resonation occurs in the conversational web. Remember, this gives top tweets staying power beyond the constant stream of chatter. In the end, remember that users have power over which advertising inventory will be created, chosen, and allowed to stay as a promoted tweet. Remember Twitter users have power over which promoted Tweets will work: Remember that users they get to choose which tweets can be put into the advertising inventory as their interaction will self select which tweets can become promoted. Secondly, promoted tweets that don’t yield community engagement will also fall off the stream. is that in the real time resonance world users have a lot more power. Brands must analyze what works for users first before promoting tweets. Then, carefully pick tweets to be promoted by analyzing the conversation: First, monitor which tweets are already resonating with your brand, take note of what is causing it to resonate and in what context. Secondly, recognize that these tweets should have long term impact, not a daily special as the tweet is promoted, users will interact with it, forcing it into a viral loop. For best results, experiment with promoting tweets from your customers –not just those that you create. Recognize that ‘Resonance’ is the page rank of microblogging: Advertising agencies and social marketing agencies will come out of woodwork with “resonance solutions”, yet most will do it wrong. Instead, look for a sophisticated partner that knows the value of social conversational marketing to create an inventory and the long term experience of an advertising agency. Expect resonation to also cascade to other social networks like Facebook and even community platforms and content management systems to derive what content should surface. Twitter has made nods to new dashboards to appear, expect your agency partners to align around resonation as the new ROI. This post is the result of the collaborative efforts of the Altimeter team including Charlene Li (Leadership), Alan Webber (Web User Experience/Government), Michael Gartenberg (Mobile and Devices) and Christine Tran (Customer Strategy Research), learn more about the Altimeter Group . For more news, see Twitter blog , AdAge , and NYT for details . > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Why iAds Could be Bigger Than iPads

cgseo — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:11:21 +0000

Apple unveiled the 4.0 version of the iPhone operating system yesterday and a big part of the announcement was about a new advertising platform called iAd . Apple will soon provide an easy way for app developers to put advertisements in their mobile apps and keep 60% of the revenue. Tech financial analysts are going bonkers over the news , with one headline-grabbing prediction putting the opportunity at $4.67 billion per year for Apple. Why? Because the platform has the potential to change online advertising like nothing else has in a long time. Sponsor Cullen Wilson offers this explanation on the Austin Startup Blog : The reason iAd has a chance to change how users interact with ads is simple: The fear and unknown of clicking on an ad is gone. Apple is throwing its brand behind an entire ad network to create the perception that if you trust Apple, you can trust these ads too! Worried about installing malware from clicking on that ad? Hate that ads open up a new window? No problem, Apple has solved this by keeping these ads within the app itself and vetting all of the ads on their network. iAd reminds me of two ad networks I'm already a fan of, The Deck and Fusion Ads . Their ads are well designed, they advertise in applications I use and love, and they vet everyone on the network before accepting them. If you've ever used the free Twitter clients Tweetie or Twitterrific, you've seen these ads. If Apple can convince its users that it's safe to click anything with the iAd logo they will have single handedly changed the perception users have of ads, resulting in more clicks and more money made by both Apple and developers. They will have done this by taking advantage of a closed system, their own brand, and a platform that their users already love (the app store). The iPad is clearly changing peoples' experience with computing - take one out around non-geeks and you'll see strangers clamor to get their hands on it. But if Apple can transform mobile advertising from an annoyance to a trusted, appealing experience - that would be huge. The iAd platform could impact advertising more than the iPad impacts computing. It may very well generate more revenue, too. Wilson points out that though many people complain about the closed nature of the App Store, this is the other side of the coin and is worth considering. One question I have about this is how scalable vetting such a huge ad platform could be. Where there's money to be printed, there must be money to pay ad examiners, though. If the platform can prove effective and make app building all the more financially viable, then we as users can cheer for a new world of apps that will be built in the future. If Apple can deliver a high-quality experience on the iAd platform, then we as users can cheer for a less grating experience than a wild west of mobile advertising would likely deliver. There is something a little frightening about Apple's end-to-end control over the platform though, isn't there? What do you think about iAd? Do you think it will be effective? Revolutionary? Do you think it's fair? Discuss

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Why iAds Could be Bigger Than iPads

Google Introduces Search Funnel, Ad Innovations

cgseo — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:00:00 +0000

Today Google introduced two new elements to its popular advertising system, a Search Funnel and something it is calling Ad Innovations . The company's VP of product management, Susan Wojcicki, described the Search Funnel as a "set of reports describing the Google.com search ad click and impression behavior leading up to a conversion." Sponsor The idea is that users of the Sales Funnel will, over time, tighten and focus their use of Google Ads to such a degree that they will be able to sell a grommet to an Albanian from outer space. "The data you see in Search Funnels can help you understand how users search for your products before converting so that you can optimize these conversion paths." Ad Innovations is a specialist website Google has set up to "work closely with advertisers on what comes next." They intend to use the space to debut ad-tech ideas and solicit user feedback. Photo by Danny Sullivan. Discuss

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Google Introduces Search Funnel, Ad Innovations

People on the Move in the Social Media Industry: March 27, 2010

cgseo — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:50:50 +0000

It’s only been one month since my last “on the move” and the submissions are increasing in quantity. There appears to be either a trend of a lot of job movement right now, or the notoriety of the on the move series is increasing. I’m going to guess it’s a lot of the former and a little of the latter. In an effort to recognize the changes in the social media space, I’ve started this post series ( see archives ) to both track and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks: Also, my submission form has changed to a new URL, the former Google form was giving me problems, so please use this one going forward . First of all, big shout out to BazaarVoice for their focus on human , here’s how they describe their onboarding process. Booong. Long time friend Karl Long joins Netbase as director of Social Strategy and Design. He hails from Nokia, and is fanatical about cool tshirts. Ryan Kruder is now VP of Marketing for Biz360 , a social media monitoring and analytics company. Biz360 helps companies track who is saying what about their brand online and provides rich reporting to help make sense of the data. Laura Ramos, former colleague and analyst on the Groundswell team at Forrester now joins Xerox as VP of Industry Marketing , congrats Laura, best wishes. Andy Shaindlin hangs out his own shingle and will be consulting on Ideas, Trends and New Directions in Higher Education, he leaves Cal-Tech. Dana Oshiro joins NetShelter as the Senior Social Media and Publishing Strategist , where she’ll continue to lead conversations, publish great content. She’ll continue to work with Read Write Start, and is one of the famed RWW journalists. James Poulter leaves Ogilvy PR London to join as Digital Director at Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster . Thomas Knoll joins Zappos as a community manage r, great way to continue to build community spirit. Jenny DeVaughn joins Bernard HODES Group as Director , Social Strategy Jenny joined the vast HODES digital team and provides clients with first-hand knowledge of best practices in social recruiting, sourcing and communications. Steve Goldner joins Hachette Filipacchi Media as Director, Social Media. With a focus on Increasing traffic and advocates for HFM brand sites via strong relationships with users. Dawn Foster join s Intel as Community Manager for MeeGo. She’ll be Intel’s community manager for the new MeeGo open source community. Lynne d Johnson joins Advertising Research Foundation , SVP Social Media guide members on how they can best utilize social media to gain insights and achieve their business objectives. Cosmin Ghiurau joins Samsung Mobile Strategic Manager Social Media & Emerging Technology. Cosmin will be setting strategy and overseeing Social Media initiatives from a Digital Marketing standpoint for all Samsung Mobile USA. Katy Beale joins Poke as a Strategis focused on social media and digital insights & strategies for global mobile technology brand David Nour founds The Nour Group , Inc. as a Managing Partner focused on Social Networking Strategist Gerardo Dada joins Bazaarvoic e as Sr. Director, Product Marketing, focused on Marketing Strategy, thought leadership, messaging Scott Levine joins myYearbook asSenior Vice President of Business Development. Levine will partner with virtual currency sites, application providers, and media companies to advance myYearbook’s vision of creating the best place to meet new people. Alyssa Gardina joins Razor as Social Media Strategist, she’ll be developing social media strategies for a variety of national clients. Scott Gulbransen joins Sony Online Entertainment as Sr. Director of Global Public Relations & Coprorate Communications, and will lead all aspects of global communications including social media duties for the communications group at SOE Calvin Wong has been promoted at appssavvy as Chief Operating Officer, he’ll be leader of operations at direct sales team for the social media space. Matt Ceniceros joins Applied Materials asDirector, Global Media Relations. He’ll develop and execute traditional and social media strategy across the company’s diversified line of businesses and product categories. Jason Abrahams joins FFWD Brands PR/Social Media Manager. Abrahams will play a role in strategy, message development and tactical execution of both traditional PR and social media for the agency’s key small business accounts. Jessica Paponetti joins FFWD Brands asBrand Manager. Paponetti will play a role in strategy, message development and tactical execution of both traditional PR and social media for the agency’s key small business accounts. Ed Lee join s Tribal DDB asDirector, Social Media. He will run the Radar DDB Toronto practice for Tribal DDB Stefano Maggi joins We Are Social , Italy as Managing Partner. He will manage the Italian We Are Social, with Gabriele Cucinella and Ottavio Nava. How to connect with others (or get a job): Several people have been hired because of this blog post series, here’s how you can too: Submit an announcement If you know folks that are moving up in the social media industry, submit to this form Seeking Social Media Professionals? If you’re seeking to connect with community advocates and community managers there are few resources This list, which started with just 8 names continues to grow as folks submit to it. List of Social Computing Strategists and Community Managers for Enterprise Corporations 2008 –Social Media Professionals . Job Resources in the Social Media and Web Industry Web Strategy Jobs powered by Job o Matic (Post a job there and be seen by these blog readers, these affiliate fees pay for my hosting) Read Write Web keeps announcements flowing at Jobwire , although is broader than just social media jobs Facebook group for community manager group in Facebook Jake McKee’s community portal for jobs Chris Heuer’s Social Media Jobs SimplyHired aggregates job listings, as does Indeed ForumOne Jobs for Social Media and Community Teresa has a few jobs, some around community New Media hire has an extensive job database Social Media Headhunter Social media jobs Jobs in social media Altimeter Group’s list of social media consultants and agencies Social Media Strategists and Community Managers for 2010 Hiring? Leave a comment If you’re seeking candidates in the social media industry, many of them are within arms reach, feel free to leave a link to a job description (but not the whole job description, please)

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People on the Move in the Social Media Industry: March 27, 2010

Targeted Website Advertising – Guide Visitors to Your Products

BlogPostman — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:52:52 +0000

Have you ever wondered how those internet business success stories happened? People that seemed like they were ill-suited to the lives of an entrepreneur suddenly found the correct combination of determination, product development and internet savvy to attract thousands of visitors to their site and make a comfortable living for their families.

There are many different reasons why these people are successful, but one of the most important is their intelligent use of targeted website advertising. Many people think that all internet marketing consists of annoying popup ads or email spam that will just fill up your inbox with links and offers that you never wanted, but this just isn’t true.

Just like highly sophisticated marketing campaigns that are used by large corporations, targeted website advertising requires that you do research on your audiences, and learn how they like to be communicated with.

If you’re interested in using targeted website advertising to get the most out of your marketing dollars, you should know that there are many different tactics that have been found to be effective in increasing traffic to web pages. You’ll have to decide which will work best with your company mission and the types of people that you’re hoping to attract.

One of the most important things to know about targeted website advertising is that it’s important to make wise decisions about where you place your brand name and logo. Don’t just sign up for an advertising service that pushes your banner ads to just any site.

Dumping an advertising campaign off on any group of websites might confuse your viewers, and convince them that you are just eager for anyone to click on your links. Targeted website advertising will only display your banner ads on sites that have content that is relevant to your business.

If you’d like to develop a targeted advertising campaign, but aren’t really sure how to get started with the services that you’ll need to make it successful, you might want to consider working with an internet marketing service that has experience promoting companies like yours. These services are going to cost

No one likes to feel like they are spinning their wheels and spending money on advertising that just doesn’t work. Click here to learn about time-tested techniques that can propel your business to the top.

Hulu on the iPad? Not as Easy as it Sounds

cgseo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:04:54 +0000

In a recent interview, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar told technology reporter Om Malik that his company was "very bullish" on mobile, even going so far as to say "we will embrace every device." That's a funny statement, considering that the company has been touting that same sentiment for years but has yet to launch anything for mobile, be it an app or simply a mobile-ready streaming site. Now, with the launch of the iPad just around the corner, the rumors of an iPhone/iPad Hulu app are rising up again. But there's a bigger mobile web than just the one accessible via Apple products, and that may be what Hulu has its eye on now. "We don't think about one device only," Kilar said. However, going mobile is going to be a challenge for Hulu. And it's not as simple as re-encoding a few videos, no matter what you may have heard. Sponsor Problem A: Hulu's Business Model Needs Work The fact that Hulu exists at all is somewhat of an amazement. Through tenuous connections with major studios, the collaborative, experimental effort to bring streaming TV to web (and make it profitable) has managed to attract a number of users in the U.S. Although the audience size varies widely depending on who's counting, the company has managed to become a household name thanks to eye-catching commercials on NBC featuring actors from the network's top shows. But there's a problem facing Hulu: in-video advertising is, apparently, not as profitable as once hoped. In fact, it's just too expensive , says Marc Ruxin, the Chief Innovation Officer for ad agency network McCann Worldgroup. Hulu has been aware of this problem, though, and has been hinting towards the launch of a subscription service , with News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch telling an investor conference last fall that the company, was looking at "adding subscription services and pay per view" options. Through the subscription model, Hulu could potentially generate enough revenue to keep the studios happy and maybe even encourage them to offer up more programming. Unfortunately, the subscription model has yet to launch and the profits from video ads have been far too lean for some Hulu participants. Recently, for example, Viacom pulled two of the top shows - The Daily Show and the Colbert Report - from the site, claiming that they simply weren't earning enough money via the advertising model currently in place. Viacom Inc. Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman said that "on the current economic model for Hulu, there's just not much in it for us to continue at this time." And so the situation degrades. So what is Hulu doing now? It's trying to attract more viewers to its site with the launch of " If I Can Dream ," an original series that premiered earlier this month. The fact that they're now making the foray into this sort of online programming is somewhat worrying. After all, if hit video webisodes alone made for a profitable service, then YouTube would have achieved profitability ages ago, instead of (maybe) getting there this year , five years post-launch. Let's face it, original programming is a bonus for Hulu users, but it's not going to take the place of hot shows like the now-departed Comedy Central fare. Problem B: Will Apple Allow a Hulu App on the iPhone/iPad? Another problem? Hulu has been planning to delay its iPhone app launch until a subscription model was in place, according to earlier reports . But with the biggest names pulling out, subscriptions could be a harder sell. Still, even if Hulu was able to make subscriptions happen, there are no guarantees that Apple would ever allow them into the iTunes store, especially considering they're offering a competing product. (See: Google Voice banishment from the iPhone , for example). Meanwhile, Hulu's online site doesn't work in the iPhone's web browser because it was built in Flash. If Apple rejects the Hulu app from iTunes, the company's other option is encoding all their site's content in H.264 and make that available via HTML5, the new web language that offers streaming video sans plugin. Since this has already been done, a Hulu app could launch a player on the iPhone or iPad, if, of course, Apple allowed them to do so. If not, then a mobile site would have to be built in HTML5 - video controls, overall UI, advertisements and all. That's no simple process. What's Hulu Doing Now? So is this the plan Hulu has decided on now? It's hard to know for sure. Like Apple, the company is incredibly secretive about their plans and product roadmap, often refusing to respond to calls and emails entirely, even to say "no comment." And yet, the Hulu iPhone app exists. We've spoken to someone who's seen it...but that was ages ago. For all we know, iPhone/iPad app plans have since been scrapped to work on a new solution that works around any potential Apple restrictions. But sources inside Hulu have clammed up lately, meaning they're either building something top, top secret...or perhaps nothing at all. We hope it's the former, because frankly, an iPad without Hulu is a sad, sad affair. But will we ever see a real app? At this point, we're not holding our breath. Discuss

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Hulu on the iPad? Not as Easy as it Sounds

Email Advertising – Reach Your Audience

BlogPostman — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:42:43 +0000

Businesses are only as strong as their customer base, and the same is true for web based businesses and their audience of only visitors and clients. Many people don’t understand that maintaining and online audience is constant work, and if you can’t figure out a creative way to stay in touch with your online customers and prospective customers, you’re going to lose their business.

Many people are searching for the right marketing techniques that will keep the interest of their audience members without annoying them or making them feel like they are constantly being sent promotional materials that just end up in the recycling bin.

One of the most successful marketing tools that online business owners have turned to is email advertising. This is a tactic that will reach your online audience right where they are: surfing the internet. It also eliminates waste and doesn’t take more than a click to delete if they’re not interested.

There are many reasons why choosing email advertising is a smart decision for online business owners that want to make the most of their advertising dollars. First of all, this type of advertising makes determining your ROI very easy, through link tracking and reception rates.

If you think that email advertising might be the method for communication that you’ve been searching for, you have to find a marketing service that will allow you to create the dynamic email advertisements that you need without charging you an arm and a leg to send them.

The best email advertising companies will offer you several levels of participation, so that you can try out the service without committing to a large investment in emails that might not work out. Start with a number of emails that represent just a fraction of your customer base, and after a week or so, compare the number of sales in that group to the sales in the rest of your base. If you notice an increase amongst the email recipients, you might want to try a larger round.

No matter which email advertising company you choose, be sure that they offer targeted distribution, meaning that they will help you to tailor your email announcements and product sales to people who are likely to respond favorably to them.

Snail mail is a thing of the past, so why are you still sending flyers about your business through the mail? Increase your sales and brand awareness with email advertising. Click here to learn more.

BidModo Takes the Pain Out of B2B Classifieds

cgseo — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:55:44 +0000

If you've ever used Craigslist before (and who hasn't?) then you know it can be amazingly useful for some things and a terrible waste of time for others. If you're a small business looking for an accountant or the best and cheapest way to outsource your HR, for example, then Craigslist might be asking for trouble. Austin-based startup BidModo is launching a public beta today that hopes to simplify this process for small businesses and provide them with better information to make better decisions, instead of simply relying on word of mouth referrals. Sponsor BidModo is a bit like the offspring of Yelp, the Better Business Bureau and Craigslist, but much shinier. In reality, comparing it to Craigslist is a bit of a disservice, as it offers so much more than text classified ads and email responses. Instead of just putting an ad out there and getting back simple replies, the responses come from registered companies and are organized on a dashboard. Each company has an on-site profile, containing contact information, a company history, provided services, previous clients, certificates and licenses, and a list of references. Each company also has a rating card, which shows how that business rates with its clients on ten different characteristics, from bid timeliness to industry knowledge. If you've ever used something like Craigslist, then you realize how hard, or even impossible, getting all of this information would be. You would practically need to hire a private investigator. For end users - those posting the job - the service is entirely free and provides the user with information about bidders, vendor ratings and a dashboard comparing bids. Vendors only pay for selected leads. A vendor dashboard provides information on ROI, monthly sales data, ratings feedback and industry stats. And part of BidModo's focus is on local business, so service requests only come from the region, which is something we think people, wherever they are, will stand behind. "Prior to BidModo, I ran a video production company," said founder Toby Schwartz in a press release. "I would regularly hear of companies in town turning to New York or San Francisco to hire for their video needs. And I can't tell you how many times I'd meet people in Austin who would comment that they wished they knew I was here." Currently, BidiModo is live nationally, with over 80 cities and connections in more than 100 different categories. Discuss

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BidModo Takes the Pain Out of B2B Classifieds