Rabu, 09 Maret 2011

Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Foursquare Thrives Despite Facebook Places ‘Threat’” plus 5 more

Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Foursquare Thrives Despite Facebook Places ‘Threat’” plus 5 more

Link to Marketing Pilgrim - Internet News & Opinion

Foursquare Thrives Despite Facebook Places ‘Threat’

Posted: 09 Mar 2011 07:00 AM PST

Last year when Facebook introduced its Places service the Internet marketing media engaged in some serious debate as to whether Foursquare could survive this new competition. As with most of these 'issues' there were reports ranging from 'imminent demise' to 'foursquare will win and all stops in between. Well, if you use new users as any barometer it looks like Foursquare is weathering the storm.

The chart below comes from the Business Insider’s Silicon Alley Insider

Not bad all things considered. Maybe the Facebook Places media coverage simply served to make more people in general aware of these location based options and, as a result, Foursquare got an indirect "Facebook bump". Of course, in the shadow of Facebook’s 600 or so million accounts, 7 million looks pretty tiny but Foursquare is what Foursquare is, a check-in service that is looking to evolve past the check-in.

Any thoughts on why Foursquare has survived and thrived in the wake of what some called their end? How are you using location-based services either personally or in your marketing efforts? Is the larger market ready for these offerings or wil they remain a niche play for the time being?

So many questions. Any answers?


European e-Privacy Directive Could Make Sites Toss Their Cookies

Posted: 09 Mar 2011 05:07 AM PST

The European governing bodies continue to put severe pressure on web sites to protect the privacy of web users. In a move that will seem harsh to many, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is putting together laws that will require sites to let users opt in so that the site can use cookies to track them.

The BBC reports

From 25 May, European laws dictate that “explicit consent” must be gathered from web users who are being tracked via text files called “cookies”.

The section of the directive dealing with cookies was drawn up in an attempt to protect privacy and, in particular, limit how much use could be made of behavioural advertising.

How are businesses responding? This tweet from Tweetmeme's CEO Nick Halstead says it all.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) (not to be confused with the other IAB, the Interactive Advertising Bureau) has set up a site to help understand the world of behavioral advertising but that seems to be geared toward consumers as the URL might indicate, www.youronlinechoices.com.

As for the European businesses to be impacted by this there is a bit of an uproar because US based businesses are not in need of compliance once this comes into play. As TechCrunch Europe reports

From 25 May, new European laws will dictate that "explicit consent" must be gathered from web users who are being tracked via cookies. That translates into warnings which will put off consumers from EU sites, while US-based startups will be free to continue as they are. How convenient huh.

So, imagine a world where, after 25 May when the law kicks in, your startup has to explicitly make pop-up windows and dialogue boxes appear asking for a user's permission to gather their data. If enforced his law will kill off the European startup industry stone dead, handing the entire sector to other markets and companies, and largely those in the US.

It's no surprise that the European Union is leading the charge to actually make laws to monitor and control these activities. Many of the legal issues facing large online players like Google have their origins in the European Union and European Commission's activities. No matter how you slice it though this activity is going to make it hard for European sites to compete. Here's a final word from Tweetmeme's Halstead

"It clearly makes UK companies less competitive because sites we build will need to be plastered with warnings – and our competitors will not. It is a well known fact that at each stage of a signup process you lose customers – if you have to have a big warning sign just for a cookie that will remember you for purely convenience so that it keeps you logged in. The user wont read that detail – they will just think your a privacy nightmare and wont sign up."

Of course much can change between now and May 25 but as the deadline approaches expect that there will be some serious confusion and concern in the European Internet community.

Hate to think about it but could the US be too far behind?

PubCon Austin Keynote with Jeffrey Eisenberg

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 04:23 PM PST

PubCon Austin kicked off today with a keynote by best selling author and social media specialist Jeffrey Eisenberg. Eisenberg’s keynote entitled Social Media and Conversion: The Yellow Brick Road, covered the goals and approaches one should take with social media marketing.

Eisenberg’s main theme was using social media marketing efforts to start a meaningful conversation with your audience. His thoughts were focused on the fact that a meaningful interaction with your audience will result in conversions and a positive relationship with the customer.

Eisenberg noted that 70% of people check social media websites several times per week, which he felt indicated that this whole social media thing is a “big deal” and worth your attention. While that’s not overly surprising to hear, a good stat is a good stat.

One interesting thought in the keynote was the idea that “transparency is not your choice only authenticity is”. With social media giving customers the ability to share experiences about your product or service, you no longer have the luxury of promising things in your advertising that your product or service cannot exactly deliver (not that you ever did that anyways). The whole “we’ll figure it out later” approach will be undermined very quickly through social media interactions.

I’m a big fan of great one-liners and my favorite from Eisenberg’s keynote was “advertising only accelerates the inevitable”. In other words, if you provide a good service advertising will help you grow faster, and if you provide a bad service advertising will help you fail more quickly. Anyone who has run a PPC test can attest to the power of advertising to help you decide if an offering will work or not.

Eisenberg also touched on the factors that drive word-of-mouth by explaining “Word-of-mouth is triggered when your customer experiences something far beyond what was expected, for better or for worse. Slightly exceeding their expectations just won’t do it”. He mentioned that there are several main ways to exceed a customer’s expectations including:

Architectural – How your product is presented (design)
Kinetic – How your product performs / how it works
Generous – How much the customer gets / value
Identity – How well the customer identifies with your brand

Additionally, Eisenberg encouraged the audience to think about relevancy with social media content. He used the example of Delta Airline’s Facebook page using a “Book Trip” button. He felt this was button was not consistent with the contextual mindset of the visitor. Is your social media content too focused on conversions and not enough on generating a meaningful interaction with your customers?

Eisenberg also showed several slides which showed the reasons why people “unlike” Facebook pages, stop following twitter accounts and unsubscribe from email lists. Can you guess the common theme? Yep, that’s right too much posting / repetitive posting. He tied this back into his primary theme of creating a meaningful conversation with your customers. When you post you need to try to think about how your audience will see personal value in what you say. The audience thinks “It always has to be about me”. Is your content contributing to that mindset?

Finally, Eisenberg discussed something that made me cringe a little bit (at first). He said he doesn’t like the use of the word funnel as an analogy for conversion optimization. His point was that a funnel indicates a force (gravity) dragging visitors toward an inevitable goal, but visitors don’t make purchase decisions based on an inevitable goal but rather through non-linear paths. He recommended the use of persuasive momentum to direct visitors through your conversion process.

The keynote was a great start to Pubcon Austin 2011. Stay tuned for my daily digest covering sessions for day 1!


HubSpot Gets Cash Injection from Google, Salesforce.com and Sequoia

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 01:30 PM PST

As the SMB Internet marketing space continues to heat up (at least for those willing to dive in) the need for services continues to grow. One of the leaders in the space is HubSpot which was founded in 2006. As part of that continued growth they are announcing a Series D round of funding of $32 million that includes participants like Google Ventures, Salesforce.com and Sequoia Capital.

The HubSpot platform was initially designed for the SMB website that is basically starting from scratch in the online space. Over time it has gone through several iterations with pricing and delivery so offerings are now being provided on small, medium and large scale sites. Of course, with over 40% of small businesses not having a website even today, there is plenty of room for growth for a software as a service (SaaS) delivery like HubSpot’s to help the SMB market with a variety of online marketing needs. The press release tells us a bit more.

“The fundamental way that people shop, learn, and buy has changed radically in the last few years. HubSpot helps transform the way businesses market from outbound marketing (cold calls, email blasts, and direct mail) to inbound marketing (Google, blogs, social media, mobile, etc.),” said Brian Halligan, co-founder and CEO of HubSpot.

A move like this makes good sense for Google and Salesforce because in many cases HubSpot is getting the SMB involved in the Internet marketing game at the earliest stages. HubSpot's technique of blogging about the trends in Internet marketing and the information provided by their staff of Inbound marketing specialists are perfect channels for promoting Google services and then moving leads into a sales relationship management tool like Salesforce.

The SMB market is looking for answers in the online space and there are plenty of tool sets out there for them to choose from but they are never as easy to implement as advertised. HubSpot's 'soup-to-nuts' guide through the Internet marketing process can be used by DIY Internet marketers and interactive agencies alike. Combine that with an aggressive sales effort and there is opportunity for significant growth. Is it foolproof? No but then nothing is in the online space despite the hype. HubSpot attempts to cover as many of these Internet marketing bases for the SMB as possible and looks to be the one-stop-shop that many SMb’s desire. To this point 4,000 businesses have adopted the platform which gives the company a reported 50% market share.

In the end, the widespread adoption of any of these services will depend on just how much interaction the SMB has with the customer. From personal experience I know that HubSpot strives to work with the customer to help them have success with the system. As noted earlier, it’s not without its shortcomings but the idea to be there every step of the way for the SMB is something that the market segment requires.

As a side note, let's hope that Google's investment is not just motivated by money but also as a way to see up close and personal what it takes to actually work with a customer rather than expecting everyone to have Internet marketing success through algorithmic osmosis.

Let’s hear about your experience with HubSpot or another SMB Internet marketing service. Have you seen the impact on the bottom line you hoped for? What are the plusses and minuses?


Facebook Releases Real-Time Analytics For Social Plugins

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 01:20 PM PST

Facebook has announced the release of a new set of real-time metrics for folks using their social media plugins on their website. The new version of Facebook Insights provides in-depth performance data on “like” buttons including impressions, referrals and demographics.

Last week, Facebook made a move to push all third-party sites to use the “like” button instead of the “share” button and it looks like it was all leading to this new update.

The new version of Insights shows you how many people saw your “like” button on your website, how many clicked and and conversely, how many people went from your Facebook page to your website. They also provide the same data for the “comment box” option.

Popular Pages has been expanded to show the top 100 pages based on “likes,” “comments,” or “shares.” There is also a new demographics chart that shows the breakdown of users on both your website and Facebook page by age range, sex, location and language.

And to make sure that everyone will come over to the dark side, Facebook has added an option for those who aren’t using an official Facebook plugin. By “claiming” your website with a line of code, you can get real-time reports on the people who are sharing your website links on their status updates and wall posts.

As we’ve said many times before, Facebook isn’t going away so you might as well make it work for you. This new version of Facebook Insights will allow you to fine tune your efforts and that beats the often used method of throwing social media spaghetti at a Facebook wall.

For more details, visit the Facebook Developer’s Blog,


Google Adds Instant Previews to Mobile

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 12:10 PM PST

Google now has instant previews when you search using your mobile phone and this time, it’s a good thing.

Unlike the online version of Instant Preview, the mobile version doesn’t begin showing results until you’ve finished typing in the search box. Then, like its online big brother, Google shows a list of options, each with a magnifying glass beside it.

Online, when you click the magnifier, you get a pop-up of the preview. On mobile, when you click on the magnifier, previews of the first few pages load on your phone and you can flip through them to find the one you want. No more clicking back and forth.

What this means for marketers is that now mobile searchers will be judging the books by their covers. When customers see a preview of your front page will it pull them in or will they keep on scrolling until they reach your competitor?

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