Four Marketers Getting It Right (And Wrong) On Facebook

By: Cathy Halligan Published: December 20, 2011, AdAge.

At this year’s Web 2.0, Mary Meeker shared a staggering statistic: the number of people on social networks today exceeds the number of Internet users in 2006. Seventy percent of those individuals use Facebook. Never before has a brand had such rapid adoption, frequent engagement and deep trust. The Facebook phenomenon has executives scrambling to respond to questions from their CEOs and boards, namely “What’s our social strategy? What are we doing with Facebook?”

And this scrambling has ignited a rush of activity. Facebook has seen a massive influx of advertising dollars ($3.8bn projected this year). Ad agencies have seen a major uptick in demand for Facebook campaigns, brand pages and apps. Companies have created community manager positions just to monitor and respond to Facebook activity. Consumers have been presented with a panoply of promotions, deals and special offers just for liking a brand on…. READ MORE.

The Biggest Marketing Challenge of 2012: How Can You Keep Your Job?

By: Jonathan Salem Baskin Published: December 05, 2011, AdAge.

The New Year promises to be full of events of monumental importance, ranging from a U.S. presidential election to the possible end of the world. But nothing will be more important to every self-respecting marketer than staying employed for another 12 months. It won’t be easy, as the successes of this holiday selling season come with hefty costs to brand integrity (see my last essay) and profit margins. On top of that, most of you are going to be asked to do better, and differently, in a worse economic environment, with less money. And those pesky holidays will come back again at the end of it, assuming that Mayan calendar catastrophe doesn’t happen.

 

My not-so audacious prediction is that it’s going to be tough to keep your job, which means you’ve got carte blanche to put in place some New Year’s resolutions that can help you stay employed.

I’m talking about making big changes, though not the obvious ones — like going for that kooky social campaign that you rejected this year because it didn’t connect to anything tangible in our physical universe. Your agency can’t give you a bigger creative idea that’ll change the game, since using big ideas isn’t a game-changer anymore but standard…. READ MORE.

Death of the Website as a Marketing Tool?

By Gregg Stewart  |  December 15, 2011  , ClickZ.

Small and large brands today often ask about the company website’s relevance and importance. At one time, the website served as the foundation of all online marketing efforts. With the rise in importance of social platforms like Facebook, some now wonder: how important is the company website? Since Google Place Pages now dominate the top search positions, many also question whether they should abandon their SEO efforts aimed at elevating search positions for the website.

The website’s role has changed – and it hinges on what stage of the purchase process, where and when, a consumer enters a site. Today, directional navigation and conversion optimization have become important. Customers and prospects take many differing paths to purchase, so a diversified, distributed, and integrated approach must be developed to maximize lead and sales volume.   READ MORE.

77 5 inShare 0 Reddit 0 Digg 1 Submit 0 Email 3 Things You’ll Hate About Facebook’s Timeline

By Kristin Burnham, Posted December 15, 2011, CIO.

I’ve been using Facebook’s Timeline for a little more than two months, since the social network first announced it at the F8 developer conference. Two months to feel my way around the new design, two months to get used to it.

I’ve supported Facebook in a number of things in the past—even during The Great Privacy Kerfuffle of 2010. But after two months with Timeline, I want my old profile back.

Today, Facebook announced that Timeline is finally available to everyone. You can switch to the new profile on your own now by visiting Facebook’s “Introducing Timeline” page and clicking “Get It Now.” Otherwise, you can wait until you see an announcement with instructions at the top of your profile….. READ MORE.

Digital Works to Lift Brand Awareness and Sales — Without Direct Response

By: Catherine Spurway-Hepler Published: December 13, 2011 AdAge.

What better time than the holiday season to burst some popular digital retail-advertising myths? The beauty of digital is that you still have time to make last-minute changes to your campaign, if you need to.

Myth 1:It’s impossible for marketers and advertisers to measure the effect of consumers’ online activity on offline sales.

Reality: Not true. Advanced in-store tracking can measure everything — from increases in basket size and sales of items by household segments — and connect it to the performance of online video, rich media, display and other formats.

For example, grocery retailer Supervalu recently partnered with Nielsen and my company, PointRoll, to measure Internet users who shop in stores. The campaign featured banner ads within digital circulars in two formats -– standard display ads and expandable ads -– with localized pricing and product information. In-store sales increases were three times higher with the more-engaging expandable ads than with static standard display ads….. READ MORE.