GOOGLE I/O CONFERENCE: SUMMARY

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The news from Google’s annual I/O conference has become more valuable every year to traditional marketers as they continue to develop products that create communication and connection opportunities. Smart marketers know that they need to keep up with technology developments or risk being left behind; and at this point, Google is driving. Here is a summary of the major updates for you, thanks to Deb Griffith at SproutLoud.

1. Google Maps – Maps has lots of new features:

• going 3-D
• showing indoor images now that users can send content for inclusion via photospheres
• integration with offers
• integration with zagat ratings, so there will be more data accessible through Maps
• Explore — a local search listing interface — but this might just be for tablets

Why This is Important: The local data at user’s fingertips from search now will be much more compelling, so you’ll want to be sure to have as much of your business information listed there as you can. And how cool is it to know ahead of time that cookies are on aisle 7 next time you go into a supermarket that you’re not already familiar with?

2. Three New Google Location APIs for app developers

Fused location provider, which uses all available sources to pinpoint location and has a low-power mode; Geo-fencing, to spot users entering geographic zones; and Activity Recognition to see what users are up to. Keeping it local is going to become easier. These APIs provide more information to marketers that can be used to enrich applications that use location based information- read local marketing.

Why This is Important: Time will tell what 3rd party developers will be able to do with these APIs, but think about the scene in Minority Report when Tom Cruise walked into the Gap and it asked him about his recent purchase. Stuff like that.

3. Mobile/ Chrome Update

New image and video format reduces the amount of data needed for each image, lessening the data footprint of images, currently comprising 60% of all data.

Why This is Important: Better, stronger, faster. This is most likely in preparation for Google Glass.

4. Android Mobile Devices

Buying from mobile devices is cumbersome, typically requiring many steps with lots of information, and difficulty inputting it all on a small screen. The abandon rate from shopping carts on mobile devices is an astonishing 97%. Android users can now take this down to three steps with stored sign-on data, lowering the barrier to purchase for many users.

Why This is Important: If you conduct commerce online, now it will be easier for mobile device users.

5. Google+

Google announced that there are 41 new features today, but don’t panic, we won’t list them all here. The big news is the new design which is quite a change from the old and looks much more streamlined, with multiple columns. You may need to visit your Google+ Local page to make sure that your images still render properly and look good.

Why This is Important: All these changes makes for a better user experience and (as Google hopes) more time on site. It also means your content may be compromised, so double check that you don’t have to upload or resize images.

6. Search

Voice Search has improved, with the ability to activate the mic hands-free and search returns are text and images. Also, search is becoming more anticipatory about what types of follow up searches or queries you might have. This segues into Google Now, the personalized and predicative content recommendation feature.

Why This is Important: If you don’t already think Google is the center of the universe, its about time you started. At least when it comes to distributing information. So for any business interested in Local Search, its time to go all in and give Google all your information so they can deliver it to your potential new customers.


Side Note: 

What is Google I/O ??

Google I/O is an annual developer-focused conference held by Google in San Francisco, California. Google I/O features highly technical, in-depth sessions focused on building web, mobile, and enterprise applications with Google and open web technologies such as Android, Chrome, Chrome OS, Google APIs, Google Web Toolkit, App Engine, and more.

Google I/O was started in 2008. The "I" and "O" stand for input/output, and "Innovation in the Open". The format of the event is similar to that of the Google Developer Day.



PS. If you haven't yet seen what is in store with Google Glass - check this out - it will blow your mind!!

http://www.google.com/glass/start/how-it-feels/


Love Shan
x

Email Marketing *Tools*

If you are using Email Marketing as part of your strategy - AWESOME! Keep going! 

Email Marketing can be highly effective, in fact, permission-based email marketing can give the highest return on investment of any marketing activities. 

One of the most important rules of successful Email Marketing is to "Create Great Content":

Email content that is relevant and valuable to readers is vital to ensuring the success of an email marketing campaign. Valuable content is informative and should address the problems and needs of readers. It is important to realise that the reader determines the value of the content, not the publisher.
Successful email campaigns provide value to their readers. This value can vary from campaign to campaign. 

Newsletters can offer:
• humour
• research
• information
• promotions
• exclusive content

General design guidelines

HTML and CSS design principles differ for web and email. Here are a few things to keep in mind when designing your email:
• Don’t make use of external or embedded style sheets and avoid unnecessary embedded rows and columns.
• Make use of table nesting as far as possible, as this is generally considered to render the best results with difficult email clients. Email designers tend to make use of tables to design their email layout, using inline styles within these tables. Keep your nesting as simple as possible, for the sake of recipients viewing it within Outlook 2007 or 2010.
• Set a fixed width for your email by specifying the width and spacing of each cell rather than the entire table. When these specifics are not declared, email clients tend to render the email according to their own defaults and can break the design.
• If you are using a block background colour, be sure to include a 100% width table to cover the entire email.
• Keep fonts in your email design larger than 9px. Anything below that becomes difficult to view in some email clients. Also bear in mind that, whilst coloured text (or light-on-dark text) might look visually impressive, it can be difficult to read an entire email and strain your subscribers’ eyes. Rather limit such visual tricks to smaller sections of your email, or to emails that contain less written content.
• Make use of inline CSS - some email clients strip the CSS from the head and body of the email.
• Test your emails in a variety of email clients before you send.

BENEFITS OF EMAIL MARKETING: 

Highly targeted and customisable: Technology allows mass customisation, allowing personalisation across a large list of subscribers - you can customise and segment your databases according to the segments within your target market, ie; Male and Female. 

Cost effective.

When used to foster relationships with a customer base, email marketing can go a long way to increasing the lifetime value of that customer. 

However, with the increasing numbers of companies and individuals using email marketing, many consumers are email fatigued. It requires ingenuity, focus and dedication to maintain an email database and consistently deliver useful quality emails that will be read.

Beware too, it does not take much for email to be marked as spam, and it can be difficult to recover from being branded as a spammer by the ISPs.

Make sure your emails are 'friendly' to servers, operating systems and email applications by utilising the following tools: 

All emails need to be tested for email client compatibility as well as for any potential spam problems.
Email client compatibility can be reviewed at:
www.sitevista.com/email.asp

For email client compatibility, as well as mobile rendering, you can test your
email at:
www.pivotalveracity.com/email-marketing-solution/email-rendering.html

An email’s spam score can be checked at: http://spamassassin.apache.org

An email’s reputation score can be checked at www.senderscore.org

Once an email has been sent, results need to be analysed to pinpoint areas for growth for the next campaign. Use Google Analytics to track your Emailers through link tracking (appending tracking parameters to a URL in your newsletter).

There is loads more that goes into the tracking and measurement of Email Marketing, I will post on this topic again soon.

Hope you found this helpful! 

Love Shan 

PS. A handy email tool is www.mailchimp.com

2013 SMM Industry Report - Condensed

So.. the Social Media Marketing Industry Report for 2013 has officially been released, and WOW is it interesting!! But as interesting as it is, it is also LONG... and I know how busy you are so I have helped you by summarising some of the key findings and things you should know:



MAJOR FINDINGS

Here's a quick summary of primary findings:

• Marketers place very high value on social media: A significant 86% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business, up from 83% in 2012.

• Tactics and engagement are top areas marketers want to master: At least 88% of marketers want to know the most effective social tactics and the best ways to engage their audience with social media.

• YouTube holds the top spot for future plans: A significant 69% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2013.

• Marketers want to learn most about blogging: While 58% of marketers are blogging, 62% want to learn more about it and 66% plan on increasing blogging activities in 2013.

• Podcasting set to explode in 2013: Only 5% of marketers are involved with podcasting, yet 24% plan on increasing their podcasting activities in 2013— almost a five-fold increase—and 32% of marketers want to learn more about it.

• Facebook and LinkedIn are the two most important social networks for marketers. When forced to only select one platform, 49% of marketers selected Facebook, followed by LinkedIn at 16%.

• Most marketers aren't sure their Facebook marketing is effective: Only 37% of marketers (slightly more than one in three) think that their Facebook efforts are effective. (Side Note: Should you need guidance feel free to contact OSS)

• Increased exposure is the top benefit of social media marketing: A significant 89% of marketers stated that increased exposure was the number-one benefit of social media marketing.

The above summary is merely a taste of what's in this report.


MEASUREMENT OF SMM

When marketers were asked to rate their agreement with the following statement, "I am able to measure the return on investment for my social media activities", only about one in four (26%) agreed they are able to measure their social activities.

(Side Note: For insights into tracking your Social Media Campaigns view here)

HOURS SPENT ON SMM PER WEEK

A significant 62% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more and 36% for 11 or more hours weekly. This is an INCREASE over 2012, when 59% reported 6 or more hours a week and 33% reported 11 or more hours weekly. It's interesting to note that nearly 17% of marketers spend more than 20 hours each week on social media .

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: 

INCREASED EXPOSURE

With as little as 6 or more hours per week, the vast majority of marketers (92%+) indicated their social media efforts increased exposure for their businesses.

REDUCED MARKETING EXPENSES

Nearly half of those who spend at least 6 hours per week or more on social media efforts saw a benefit of reduced marketing expenses.

INCREASED LOYAL FAN BASE

Of those who have been using social media for at least 1 year, 63% found it useful for building a loyal fan base.

COMMONLY USED SMM PLATFORMS: 

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging and YouTube were the top five platforms used by marketers, with Facebook leading the pack.

THE MOST IMPORTANT SOCIAL PLATFORM FOR A MARKETER IS:

HOW WILL MARKETERS CHANGE THEIR FUTURE SMM

 Marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube (69%), Facebook (66%), blogging (66%), LinkedIn (65%) and Twitter (64%), in that order.

YOUTUBE:

FACEBOOK: 

BLOGS: 

LINKEDIN:

TWITTER: 

So interesting!! 

If you would like to read more on this report please download it HERE

Love Shan 

OSS

What is SEO?

What is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization. And the phrase improve your SEO strategy encompasses the actions taken to ensure your website can be found in a search engine’s results page (SERP) when searching for words or phrases relevant to the content on your website.

What does social SEO mean? Social SEO refers to the idea that social media links and interaction play a considerable part in a website’s search rankings. It sounds complicated (and, in reality it is) but basically SEO is all about optimizing content – whether it’s on your website or on a social media platform – in order to appear higher in search rankings.