Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 – #22 Stories this week: new apps for Facebook open graph, dead SOPA, Google includes social in SERP, paid search in B2B, and social ROI.

1. Facebook’s biggest change yet: Actions are here

[AllThingsD] Facebook announced 60 new apps will join Spotify and Runkeeper in accessing the Facebook open graph.

My Take: With these innovations Facebook extends its lead over other social network services. Although we’ve seen timeline integration used as a blunt instrument in the past, the newest edition of open graph allow apps like Fab and Ticketmaster to create a more nuanced integration.

2. SOPA Is Dead: Smith Pulls Bill

[Mashable] The Republican senator pulled SOPA on Friday responding to criticism. SOPA drew battle lines between old media and new media.

My Take: New media and silicon valley  won this round.

3. Search Rankings are Dead: Long Live Search Placements

[SearchEngineLand] The newest change to the search engine results pages (SERP) is Google’s inclusion of social in the results page. This is a technical, hand-to-hand breakdown of the impact of the changes.

My Take: These changes are not well received by people who get paid to game the system or competitors, but ultimately I believe search results are more relative the more personal context is included. It’s becoming harder for brands to game the system.

4. Using Paid Media to Achieve Remarkable B2B Conversion Rates

[CMI] With SEO starting to “break” CMI breaks down how to drive a successful paid search campaign – the elements: discipline, a niche-marketing strategy and lots of testing.

Wildfire Social Media ROI

5. Marketers Lack Standard Social Media ROI

[MarketingCharts] The top metrics used by social media marketers for ROI are increased fans, likes, comments, and interactions (38%), increased revenues (24%), and increased brand awareness (15%).

My Take: This is a hot button issue for me. If someone is asking you about the ROI for a social program that doesn’t yet exist, what they are telling you is they don’t understand how social supports the business. Respond with information about your customer’s social-graph. Show where are you customers and how can you benefit them using social media. If you’re not serving your customers on social media it’s an opportunity for your competitors to serve them.

However, if you have a social program you really need to be tracking metrics associated with your social and business goals.  The popular metric categories are: audience( size and engagement), cost (savings or revenue) and brand awareness.

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 – #16

Stories this week: klout topics, Facebook subscribe, top B2B tactics, gamification and killer content (is hard).

1.  Facebook to Launch Subscribe Button for Websites

[link] Facebook announced plans to extend “Subscribe” to websites allowing updates from websites to appear on Facebook.

My Take: Personally, I prefer to stick with RSS, but I think the “Facebook generation” will adopt this readily. If you’re selling to millinnials, look to implement this feature.

2. Klout Lets You Add Topics, and More Importantly Find Influencers

[link] Klout added sashes and the ability to add topics. But if you play with the interface a bit, you’ll also find you’re able to find the top influencers on any topic

My Take: Klout hasn’t provided free access to the top influencers. In fact, even now it takes a bit of doing to find topic influencers. If you’re a product manager and you haven’t figured this out, get started. Let me know if you need help.

3. B2B Marketers Struggle With Compelling Content

[link] Marketers are grappling with two challenges that go hand in hand: producing enough content, and having the budget to produce enough content.

My Take: Everyone says “Content is King” but it’s hard to be awesome.

Content Marketing Challenges

4. B2B Gamification: Bold strategy in conservative industry increased website visits 108.5%

[link] UK financial service company experienced dramatic results by updating it’s website and using a game to promote it.

My Take: I love this case study. Not only for the step by step process but also because it shows that gamification can be applied to most any business.

5. Marketing Research Chart: Tried-and-true tactics rank high in B2B marketing budgets

[link] Marketing Sherpa surveyed 1,700 B2B marketers to see how they invested their marketing budget.

My Take: Looking at the chart, larger organizations use more traditional marketing tactics (trade shows, print advertising) than their smaller competitors who rely on newer marketing tactics (email marketing, PPC, social media)

B2B budget allocation

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 – #14

Stories this week: Facebook phone, Winning with Animated GIFs, Cyber Monday, Comments 4x more valuable than Likes and Pintrest growth

1. The Facebook Phone: It’s Finally Real and Its Name Is Buffy

[link] After years of denying that Facebook was building a phone. Yeap, you guessed it, Facebook is partnering with HTC to build a phone.

My Take: It’s hard to see what a Facebook phone would do that other phones do not. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting move by Facebook.

2. Animated GIFs FTW!

[link] This was just too good not to share, Helzberg Diamonds boosted online sales 288% with an email that featured a personalized and animated image.

My Take: Interesting tactic…combining personalization with animation. Still I think that it will often be foiled by email clients that dont render pictures. Not to mention mobile email clients.

Reasons for participating in Cyber Monday

3. Cyber Monday Deals

[link] The top reasons for holiday shopping online: take advantage of sale prices and free shipping deals.

My Take: Watching  some of the CrAzY Black Friday mob scene videos of crowded stores with throngs of people fighting for the same few sales further entrenched me in the “Cyber Monday” camp. Cyber Monday has actually become Cyber Week as people start hitting the online stores earlier and earlier.

4. Comments 4x as valuable as likes

[link] From the data…

• Avg Clicks Per Like: 3.103
• Avg Clicks Per Comment: 14.678
• Avg Clicks Per Impression: 0.005

My Take: A major tenet of inbound marketing is: people are more likely to trust recommendations from a friend than a brand.  This study shows the importance of creating content that your audience will interact with – not just “Like” since these comments drive clicks.

pinterest vs etsy chart

5. Pinterest Is Now Pulling In More Pageviews Than Etsy

[link] Pinterest page views grew 2,000% since June.

My Take: The power of social at work again. I don’t use Pinterest, but it seems the power of social sharing of cool stuff is beating out having to weed through an online catalog where you have to find the cool stuff yourself.

photo credit renjith krishnan @ freedigitalphotos.net

I get it. 

I get it. 

Facebook has the growth.  Facebook has the eyeballs. 

Facebook has the data.

More and more apps are looking access a users Facebook account.  I have no problem with that.  An individual is responsible for deciding what level of privacy and sharing they are comfortable with. 

Applications need/want access to our data so they can provide the best and relevant experience for users of their (usually free) services .

Leave my friends out of this!

Applications are looking to access more and more personal information and activity.

See the circled areas in the associated diagram.  I have whited out the application in this example and to be sure, there are more than one such application.  I worry because I actually do read what these pop-ups say.  I want to know what I’m giving applications access to and based on the value of the app, I decide if I want to grant such access.  From time to time I even go back and prune the list of applications that I have been access to my Facebook and Twitter accounts if I’m no longer using the app.

What I worry about are my less techy Facebook friends who are less likely to understand the implications of granting access to their Facebook account.  This was not something I used to lose sleep over, but given examples such as the one provided, I realize that we all should be concerned.  Using the example provided, if one of my Facebook friends accepts the request for permission the application can access my check-ins and my information.  It’s one thing for me as an individual to release control of my information. It’s quite another for my friends to be tricked into granting access to information I have “protected”.

Nothing put into a web browser is secure

Of course we know that nothing is secure on the Internet, but sometimes we need a reminder.  Let this example be your reminder today.