May 18 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Online Advertising

Women Click Facebook Ads More

AdParlor is a Facebook advertisement management firm and it just released new findings about click-through rates on Facebook. The data is for the last six quarters, all of 2011 and the first two of 2012. In 2011, Q1 men had a slightly higher clickthrough rate than women did. Since that quarter, however, the rate for men has declined by 13% to .06% whereas the rate for women has remained steady at around .073%

2012 Q2 shows a drop in rates for both men and women, but the drop was relatively the same so women are still more responsive to ads on Facebook. Women dropped to .063% and men to .048%. That result may just be an anomaly as Facebook fixes whatever change caused the drop or whatever external event adjusts.

The social media agency needs to account for these differences in determining its ROI on certain ads and campaigns. Targeting women will be more successful. However, Facebook does charge variable rates on clicks and those changes may affect the profitability of campaigns targeted to the different genders. The above numbers do change some when removing the rest of the world and focusing only on the US, but the trends still track.

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May 17 2012
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Social Media, Twitter

Twitter Adopts Do Not Track

On Thursday morning it was announced that Twitter is now embracing the Do Not Track function. This function allows users to opt out of tracking based on cookies, thus preserving some privacy. Do Not Track is a method endorsed by the Federal Trade Commission to preserve the privacy of users in the face of increasingly sophisticated data accumulation.

The social media agency should not be at all concerned about his announcement and should rather find it encouraging. In the end this will not hurt Twitter’s ability to help brands and it will not erode the quality of the ads it serves. The program is an opt-out so it requires the user to make an active effort, which rarely happens even when there is a user seriously concerned about his privacy. The other reason this has little effect on Twitter’s service is because it uses little cookie based data for its advertising. How to serve up which promoted tweets is decided by whom the user follows and what the user tweets. None of those data sets are effected by the absence or presence by cookies, which are solely a web browser technology.

There might be a slight hit to Twitter’s data set based upon being unable to record what a user that has opted-out is searching. The searches are conducted in the browser and so those might be effected. But that is a limited and often a time-limited dataset that does not improve Twitter’s advertising mechanisms. If anything, this announcement might encourage more use on Twitter, although that will at best be a slight jump.

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May 16 2012
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Uncategorized

GM Withdraws paid Ads on FaceBook

General Motors has been one of the first brands to partner with FaceBook when new options for paid advertisements are made available. Now, days before the IPO, GM is withdrawing its paid advertisements. The announcement is that only paid advertisements will be withdrawn, which amount to about $10 million per year. GM does spend $40 million each year on FaceBook, so there must be some for-pay options that GM does find worthwhile.

It is important for the social media agency to note that GM is still very happy with FaceBook as a content delivery platform, that this announcement is only a scale-back and not a cessation. It is also important to note that no other large brand is making a similar decision. Ford is also a large advertiser and is not scaling down its FaceBook partnerships. If this speaks to a difference between the two brands in either campaigns or the contract with FaceBook is unknown. The social media agency should evaluate the differences and see why Ford is so pleased and GM is not.

May 16 2012
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Digital Marketing, Google, SEO

Majestic SEO Offers New Metrics

Link and site ranker Majestic has unveiled two new metrics that will help the social media agency better evaluate their web presence and how other sites measure up. Designed as an alternative to Google’s PageRank and SEOmoz’s MozRank, Majestic’s new system, is receiving praise so far.

The two new metrics are about quality of content. The first is Citation Flow. This number uses the number of links back to a site to try and predict how influential a site will be. The other metric is Trust Flow. This predicts the trustworthiness of a site based on how many other trustworthy sites link back to it. The last one will need some experimentation for the social media agency to evaluate how useful it is (what qualifies as trustworthiness?).

IN the meantime, however, both metrics are being met with enthusiasm. Depending upon Majestic’s pricing options it might be useful for the social media agency as a supplement to the other ranking services.

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May 15 2012
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Digital Marketing, Online Advertising, Social Media

Rise of Mommy Bloggers

Mommy blogging seems like a niche market and hence probably does not make the radars of many brands or marketers. However, that might be a mistake. The niche market is fairly tightly integrated and many of the participants of this group have time on their hands, they are social media savvy, they have money and they are willing to spend it.

This group also reaches out and is consulted by many who may not belong to the group. Of all American women with at least one child living in her household 14% of them reach out to a mommy blog for advice about activities, products purchases and general life tips.

This is a powerful and large group that a social media agency could tap into as advocates. For some brands and some products this might be difficult, but creativity can bridge many of these gaps. An example might be spreading the word of how a video game their husband or son might enjoy spreads positive messages or might keep them out of their hair. It is also true that while many of these blogs that are most active are mainly about mother issues, they do cover other issues. Brands need not be immediately relevant to mother issues. Once some penetration has been achieved, then the network alone might support campaigns and a fair amount of conversions with no additional labor needed.

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May 14 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Online Advertising, Social Media

FaceBook Increases User Control

FaceBook, under increasing scrutiny by users, legislators and now future shareholders, is opening up its privacy policies to the larger public. The framework is still not completely open as there are hurdles that need to be jumped. For a change to put up to a vote, it needs to receive 7,000 comments advocating the change. FaceBook will then open up polling on an action item. If at least 30% of active users support the action item, then FaceBook will implement it.

This is not good news for the social media agency. The odds are good that nothing will ever qualify for a vote. Accumulating 7,000 comments on a single action item is difficult, but 30% of active users—what qualifies as ‘active’ is unclear—might be around 15 million users all agreeing. The reason this is bad news for the digital agency, though, is because there is no upside. Despite the difficulties if a vote does pass it will only make targeted ads more difficult. FaceBook’s growth has been astounding during what some consider draconian privacy policies. This change will not increase traffic or engagement. It will not bring any new users into the fold, so it represents no upside and only a possibility, ever slight as it seems, of a downside.

This is not to say, however, the social media agency ought to abandon or downplay FaceBook in their efforts. Maybe some people will feel better about the right hand column and look at it more thinking privacy is taking on a more serious quality. Odds are though that this is merely a PR victory for FaceBook on the eve of its IPO.

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May 14 2012
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Digital Marketing, How To, Social Media

Best Practices for Pinterest

Pinterest continues to grow and integrate with other social networks all making it an increasingly important tool for the social media agency and for brands. There is also some new data about the importance of Pinterest for retailers. Of Pinterest users 21% have made a purchase of an item they found on the social network. Another survey finds 37% of Pinterest users have found an item they want and plan on purchasing in the future.

Given Pinterest’s ability to drive sales it is important to know what the best practices are to help drive those sales. The easy acts are to place pins on products so people can easily pin them, pushing them onto the social network. It is also important that vendors completely fill out their profile. Pinterest allows searching and a complete profile helps that as well as helps people make a further purchase. Pins need to be optimized. They need to have complete descriptions and the images need to be high quality, but they also need to not be large files so they can be downloaded quickly. It is also important for the social media agency to make photos available on both Pinterest and FaceBook, because of the tight integration between the two networks image success on one site drives success on the other.

Not only can images spread a brand’s message across the social networks, but a well done campaign also increases the chances of discovery in SERPs.

 

 

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May 12 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Social Media

Best Practices for Maximum Exposure

Bit.ly, one of the leading link shortening and tracking services, has released its data about the best times to post to social networks for maximum exposure. This is important for the social media to increase the chances of conversions as well as for people to engage and hence spread the link to other users in their circles.

For links on Twitter the easy winner is between 1 PM and 3 PM (Eastern time zone). The earlier in the week those posts happens also drives up clicks, so Monday afternoon is the best time to post to Twitter. The important figure about Twitter is the length of a post’s half-life, which is 2.8 hours: every 2.8 hours the number of people seeing a tweet and possibly clicking on the link halves.

Facebook has results only slightly different than Twitter’s. The optimal window lasts an hour longer, 1PM to 4 PM. The explanation might be that Facebook is more acceptable to have open when at the office. Instead of Twitter’s Monday, Wednesday is the best day for Facebook posts. The 8 PM to 8 AM window on FaceBook is nearly a ghost town.

Tumblr, however, is a prime location only after work hours. Its traffic begins to pick up at 4 PM and dies down at 10 PM. Friday evenings are the ideal time for these posts to generate link-clicking traffic. The reason for this sea change in viewership is all about its newness as a network and its lack of acceptability as a mainstream service.

Knowing these optimal times is important for the social media agency. Fortunately the main services coincide with the workday and there are even software options for the timing of postings. Regardless how it is done, it is important for the social media agency to keep these in mind for its clients.

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May 11 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Online Advertising

Many Missed Opportunities Marketing on Facebook

A new report by Buddy media finds that 55% of brands using paid marketing on Facebook are not using supported ads. Most of the money is spent on call to action ads, but those are the least effective option. The report finds that many brands spend most of their budgets on increasing the size of their fan base and not on creating engagement among those fans. While the ads that focus on building the size of the community can be powerful, it would be better to make fans brand advocates by having them engage in ways that enter their timelines and bring in their friends.

The failure for adequate Facebook ads lies in the failure of brands and their agencies to embrace social marketing tools. The social media agency can easily create a thousand different ad units, but the temptation is to think they are all manageable without sophisticated tracking mechanisms. This myopia is what also leads agencies to target audience building, but it all comes at the cost of the most effective Facebook strategies. Instead the social media agency needs to focus on Facebook’s new ad units, which are focused on building engagement. The new metrics will also help this strategy.

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May 10 2012
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Digital Marketing, Google, Social Media

Google News Updates its Services

Google News announced a few new changes to its formatting and capabilities. It now features larger images and when a story is expanded the Google+ comments from the viewer’s friends will appear. There is also a new real time coverage page that will continually update with the latest comments instead of the normal page that updates trending stories.

These are all positive developments for the news service, but only the Google+ feature adds benefits to the social media agency. The News service is not ad supported, but with the Google+ feature it is now possible for brands to intervene into this service. Related stories can be commented on and then they will appear when a user goes to the news service.

If Google News does grow as Google is trying to do, then this ability will become even more important as a backdoor into digital marketing. The other benefit of Google+ comments is the ability to gather more data. Not only is Google now able to see what stories people are looking at (a service it emphasizes with its badges) but now it is able to measure what viewer’s friends are also commenting on, and based on clicks Google is able to see which friends are more important or which stories are shared within Google+ circles. As long as viewership is high, then there is a lot of data to be gleaned from this adjustment. All of that data better helps Google deliver quality advertising and data for the social media agency.

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