Pinterest users are showing more passion than Facebook users do, as its content iss shared more often and has a longer shelf life.
Marketers should be adding content such as videos to their pinboards on a regular basis, and Pinterest is rolling out tools that make it easier for brands to showcase their products.
What about us little guys, huh?
One of the surprising results of brands adopting social media as a marketing channel is the creation of an unpredictable little corner of Twitter known as ‘that weird thing that happens when brands talk to each other’.
As a child of the 80s and therefore a survivor of the Cola Wars, it feels inexplicable that two corporations would even acknowledge each other’s existence, let alone engage in friendly banter with each other in a public setting.
Bitter rivals, divided by capitalism, hurling rocks at each other from behind the safety of multi-million dollar television ad campaigns is what we’re used to.
Not this…
One in every six occasions, viewers who watch primetime television are also using social media, whether its related to the show they’re watching or not.
This is according to the latest study from the Council for Research Excellence (CRE) based on a sample of 1,665 respondents between September and October 2013.
In an earlier study carried out by Deloitte in 2013, more than half of adults admitted to interacting with another form of media while they watch television, this is more than double the previous year’s figure of 24% who admit to second screening.
This is a huge increase and this figure will likely rise even more steeply in 2014. The Deloitte research however covers all activity on a mobile device, whether it’s interacting on social media, shopping, browsing the internet for unrelated information or sending emails.
Let’s take a look at some more results from the CRE study, which mainly concentrates on the use of social media while second-screening.
Nothing frustrates the mobile consumer more than forcing them to view your desktop site on mobile.
Today’s consumers are educated and nimble on mobile and their expectations are significantly heightened when engaging a brand on tablet.
With 43% of tablet users spending more time on tablet than on desktop, companies are increasingly optimizing tablet browsing and shopping to make it easier for consumers who want a seamless experience across all channels.
Promoting blog posts can be a very repetitive and mundane task, especially for bloggers in the early stages who don’t have a six or seven figure audience to send their content out to.
Below are some of the tactics and techniques that I’ve experimented with over the past few years to try and systemise aspects of blog promotion.
Some of them are very basic, such as using simple IFTTT recipes, and some are slightly more complex – involving combinations of autoresponders and ‘pay with a like buttons’.
Wherever you are in growing your blog, I hope you find at least one or two things that will save you some time, or help you reach a larger audience with your blogging.
In the UK, the share of clicks coming through mobile search ads almost doubled in 2013, from 24% in January to 43% in December.
According to the latest research from Marin Software, mobile devices will account for 50% of all paid-search clicks globally by December 2015.
The UK is ahead of the rest of Europe, where mobile and tablets only accounted for 20% of paid search clicks in 2013.
That being said, advertisers in Europe increased their investment in mobile paid search by 109% in 2013, while UK advertisers increased their mobile paid search spend from 22% to 35%.
Earlier this year, Matt Cutts announced the ‘death’ of guest blogging for SEO, declaring it finished as a link building tactic.
Now, following a tweet by Cutts announcing that action has been taken on a ‘large guest blog network’, it seems that, though Google hasn’t confirmed it, MyBlogGuest is the ‘victim’.
It no longer ranks for its own brand name, a classic sign of a Google penalty, while I can’t see it anywhere for terms like ‘guest blogging’.
Seemingly Google wants to send another message about guest blogging, so what does this mean?
Data collection is exploding across the internet, and for good reason. Whether you’re a Google, Facebook or small online advertising network, the more data you have the better.
You can slice it, dice it, repackage it, and – using predictive analysis – build accurate profiles to serve users with precise interest based adverts.
It drives down costs and the digital advertising industry, with their insatiable thirst for data, is booming. In just the first half of 2013, US revenue from online advertising in the US alone totalled approximately $20bn.
Game mechanics are the building blocks of a successful gamification strategy.
These elements make the experience engaging and fun for the consumer. Points, badges and leaderboards are the go-to mechanics marketers often use to make their programs more engaging, but the mechanics marketers can tap go beyond PBLs (as they’re called among game designers).
Candy Crush, the social game that is more popular than every other game on Facebook, uses a long list of mechanics to create motivating and addictive experience for the user.
And there are a number of lessons marketers can learn from the torrid success of Candy Crush.
The retargeting industry has seen a boom in recent years as consumers become increasingly immune to generic display campaigns, creating a need for highly targeted and personalised campaigns aimed at the individual rather than the masses.
For advertisers, site retargeting has become standard practice, and they are looking at new and innovative ways to retarget their customers.
It’s fair to say that Google+ has failed to capture the world’s imagination in the same way as Facebook and Twitter.
Many brands diligently update their pages on a daily basis yet see very few interactions in return, so maybe it’s time to try a different tack.
Hangouts is one of the few features that’s unique to Google+ and offers brands an excellent way to communicate with their followers on a personal level.
This can be done simply by hosting Q&As with employees and brand ambassadors, or through more creative Hangouts such as product demos or shoppable fashion shows.
To give some inspiration for your own events I’ve rounded up eight creative examples of Google Hangouts. Read on to find out more, or for additional information on this topic read our post on how to setup a Hangout.
Online video is increasing in importance and effectiveness when it comes to purchase decisions.
Nearly three quarters of consumers are more likely to purchase a product or service if they can watch a video explaining it beforehand.
This research comes from a new study by Animoto, designed to explore how online video impacts consumer decisions and drives brand engagement for small businesses.
I discussed the power of video embedded landing pages a few months ago in 10 excellent video-embedded landing pages.
Video is one of the best and most persuasive of all visual tools as it’s capable of delivering large amounts of information quickly and succinctly. Especially if it’s about a new service or product.
Videos also increase the length of a visitor’s stay. If you feature your own face, or the face of an employee in a video, a visitor is more likely to trust you. Videos can help strengthen your online presence, and videos can also help you rank higher in SERPs.