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Do the top 20 US retailers care about Google+?

Every so often a report pops up suggesting that Google+ is far more popular than we actually think and that it’s on course to dominate the world of social media.

Just recently stats emerged which showed that G+ was second only to Facebook in terms of social logins, and the popularity of the network among pre-teens and youngsters suggests that its long-term prospects appear healthy.

But from personal experience I’ve found that brands aren’t particularly fussed about G+, despite the potential SEO benefits.

A survey of the top 20 UK online retailers revealed that 19 of them had G+ pages but only 13 posted content on a regular basis. And even the active pages achieved very low levels of user interaction.

Christmas in July: six things marketers should do now to prepare for the holidays

With temperatures rising and summertime in full swing, it’s hard to think about the upcoming winter holidays. Christmas comes early for marketers, however, and identifying a strategy now for what is the most impactful shopping season of the year can be the difference between success and disappointment.

In January, the NRF reported that holiday 2012 retail sales increased 3%t to $579.8bn.

Clearly, the holidays are a huge opportunity for brands to increase sales, but if you don’t plan accordingly, the holiday quarter can make or break a successful year.

How to get started with Twitter analytics

Twitter rolled out its built-in analytics to all users fairly recently.

If you’re an advertiser with Twitter, you’ll have had access to Twitter analytics for a while, but for everyone just hopping on board, I thought it would be useful to take a spin through the various features and look at the insights you can (and can’t) glean from them. 

Businesses now spend 24% of total marketing budget on paid search

Paid search now accounts for around a quarter (24%) of the average business’ total marketing budget, according to a new report from Econsultancy and NetBooster.

The UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2013 asked respondents about the division of marketing budgets into the search, social media and display categories. 

Paid search is apportioned the largest average budget by companies (24%), followed by SEO (18%). Social media and display had equal average share of budget (both 11%).

This figure could potentially increase further by 2014, as more than half of respondents (55%) said they expect their PPC budgets to increase over the next 12 months.

Eight brands that have run video contests using Twitter’s Vine

Since launching back in January Vine has been downloaded more than 13 million times on iOS, so there’s potentially a sizeable audience out there even taking into account people who have used the app once then never gone back to it.

As with Instagram, brands were quick to begin experimenting with Vine and several launched competitions using the platform.

This generally achieves several goals – it shows that the brand is forward-thinking and innovative, gains exposure as people will be sharing branded content with their friends, and also help to attract lots of new followers.

So having previously showcased brands that have run competitions through Instagram and Pinterest, here are eight examples of businesses that have launched contests using Vine. Not all of them were particularly successful though…

55% of businesses now have a mobile optimised site: report

More than half of companies (55%) now have mobile optimised websites, according to our new Reducing Customer Struggle Report.

The data also shows that 44% of companies have iPhone apps while a third (33%) have Android apps and a quarter have one for iPad (26%).

The survey of 500 business professionals, published in partnership with IBM Tealeaf, found that just 22% of companies still don’t have any kind of mobile presence.

When asked how they optimise the mobile experience, just under half (46%) of companies surveyed indicated they use responsive design (client-side), while only a fifth (22%) use adaptive design (server-side).

How Pepsi uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

In the latest of our posts looking at how major brands use the four main social networks I’ve decided to turn the spotlight on Pepsi.

The drinks brand is forced to play second fiddle to Coca-Cola’s global dominance, and is unlikely to ever match its rival’s huge social following.

However it should still make an interesting case study, particularly with its long list of brand ambassadors. This post follows on from similar blogs looking at brands such as McDonald’s, Nike, Burberry and Walmart.

So without further ado, here is a quick overview of how Pepsi use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+…

Four brands which may be damaging their consumer image on Facebook

‘Social strategy’; how many times have you heard that cliché?

In many situations it is a confusing buzzword to help agencies generate new business. However, there are instances where a wider strategy for social media is needed.

I would like to share with you a few examples of brands that clearly lack it, to help you avoid similar pitfalls…

Seven useful social media case studies from 2013

We get sent a huge number of social case studies at Econsultancy so I thought it would be useful to collate a list of some of the most interesting ones I’ve seen in the past few months.

This is by no means a comprehensive list and not all of the brands have been kind enough to share the results just yet.

However they are all noteworthy uses of social media to promote an ad campaign or product launch. Most of them are from the first half of 2013, though a couple of the examples came in the last few months of 2012.

If you think there are any glaring omissions please flag them up in the comments…

Mobile search spend up 132% year-on-year: report

Mobile search is an increasingly important area for ecommerce businesses as Google has stated that mobile queries are likely to overtake desktop queries by next year.

And new data from Covario shows that the level of investment in mobile paid search is slowly catching up with consumer behaviour.

On a global basis mobile search advertising accounted for 16% of total spend in Q2, of which 10% was spent on tablet and 6% on smartphone.

This represents an increase of 39% compared to Q1 2013 and a massive 132% increase year-on-year.

CPC prices varied significantly depending on the mobile platform. CPCs on smartphones remained at a 40% discount to desktop CPCs, but have increased nearly every quarter for the last five quarters – with the exception of Q4 2012.

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