30+ Twitter Lists and 5000+ Twitter accounts worth following
Twitter Lists are now officially available to all of Twitter's users. And there are plenty of them. While it remains to be seen whether Twitter Lists will help Twitter boost user engagement, Lists offer a no-hassle means to discovering and following people who you might find interesting.
Here are 30+ Twitter Lists that collectively follow more than 5,000 interesting Twitter accounts.
Which etailers make it too hard to phone them?
Providing contact options for customers is a pretty basic requirement for online retailers, yet often users are forced to hunt around on websites for contact details.
While email can be a useful contact method, responses are rarely instant, so a contact number should be provided for customer support. yet so many retailers don't seem to want customers to call them.
Case study: e.l.f. is changing the cosmetics industry, $1 at a time
Through a mix of social media, word of mouth and user generated
content, women around the country have slowly been learning the secret
to buying cheap cosmetics online. It comes in the name e.l.f. The brand
(which stands for Eyes Lips Face) has been selling cosmetics online for
five years at absurdly low price points. For a long time all their
products could be found for $1 each.
Designed by Scott Borba, the man behind Hard Candy and Neutrogena Men, e.l.f. cuts out the marketing budget — and markup — that most cosmetics companies attach to their products. And the results have been astounding. This week, e.l.f. is making a large push into Target stores and online. The company is on track to reach over $20 million in sales this year.
With price points at $1, $3 and $5 an item, that's a lot of lip gloss. How did they do it?
38% of visitors to e-commerce sites in research phase: survey
Of all visitors to e-commerce sites, 38.6% are there to research products and prices, and to gather information, though just 85% are able to complete this task successfully.
This is one if the findings of an iPerceptions e-commerce survey, suggesting that improvements in navigation and usability can have a significant impact on sales.
Pizza Hut iPhone app generates an extra $1m sales
Another example of the potential of mobile commerce comes from Pizza Hut, with its iPhone app generating $1m in sales in the three months since launch.
The app, which allows customers to order food on the move, is approaching the figure of 1m downloads. It is only available in the US at the moment.
Web retail goes for the win this holiday season
Rumours about the economy being poised on the brink of a rebound have been inching back and forth for the past few months, but it's looking increasingly as though one sector is ready to reap in new sales: online retail.
That's good news for online, but somewhat surprising considering the state of the general retail market. Just today many retail stocks fell sharply after news of sales declines in September. What's standing between online and offline retailers? A small dose of innovation.
35 social media KPIs to help measure engagement
Social media measurement is something that I think should be undertaken with a sense of perspective, by standing back and looking at the big picture.
A widescreen approach to social media measurement ultimately looks at the things that really matter: sales, profits, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Besides, honing in on the detail might not be the best use of your time, given the obvious difficulties that arise, particularly with attribution.
But standing back and looking at the bigger picture is not going to be enough for your data-mad boss, is it? It’s a bit too soft focus, right? He or she is going to want to see proof that all this social optimisation is actually working.
If that’s the case, then don’t worry: there are lots of things you can measure...
The ‘Vince’ update unravelled – does Google recognise brand equity? (pt 2)
Yesterday we took a retrospective look at the 'Vince' update, exampling the 'Poker' and 'Life Insurance' SERPs, and how Google has cleverly managed to identify and apply corrective adjustments to a small number of rankings for big brands.
Today we're looking at the 'Holidays' and 'Betting' SERPs and the possible methods behind these adjustments, as well as introducing data from the Stickyeyes data set, enabling us to dig deeper into the back-link profiles of these movers and shakers.
What should be above the fold on an e-commerce site?
As a number of usability studies have shown recently, the fold on a webpage doesn't have to be a barrier to users, and people are willing to scroll down to see more.
However, the area above the fold is the first thing visitors to your website will see, so what should be above the fold? Here are a few suggestions, with e-commerce sites in mind...
GSI Commerce goes upscale with RueLaLa.com acquisition
The good life isn't so good for luxury brands these days. Thanks to the Great Recession, many consumers aren't as eager to spend big bucks on high-end fashion and accessories. Spending less is in vogue and that has been good news for companies that are ready with bargains.
And that explains why GSI Commerce, an e-commerce and multichannel solutions provider, is paying up to $350m for Retail Convergence, the company that operates private sale website RueLaLa.com and off-price e-commerce website SmartBargains.com.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
