Word Marketing Blog

It's a community, not a commune

More and more people over the age of 30 are discovering Social Media. Just last week a bunch of my high school friends all flocked to a post started by someone on their Facebook page about how they missed high school and all the things that went with it. Almost 50 of my old buddies posted memories, comments and jabs about the school, teachers and times. All of these people are over 40.

If you are over 40 and you mention "online community", be careful not to let your mind think of "communes" as they were in the 60's and 70's. Communes of these decades were typically counter-culture and hippie oriented.

An online community is a bunch of people interacting together. They interact via communication media such as newsletters, e-mail, IM and Social Media. Even though some of my friends had not seen me and maybe not even each other in over a decade or more, through our previous association, we were magically brought back together as an online community through the technology of Social Media.

Your Facebook friend roster is an online community, and if you are a user, you are part of all of their online communities. As Mr. Spock says, "Fascinating".

In online communities, some people stay low, preferring to be an observer, some are just beginning to engage and others are constantly adding value, while others are just adding while working out frustration of not being able to share before, they share too much, I guess we could call this ITMI (internet too much info).

Some people leave. Can you believe it? Some people will actually stop following you on Twitter or de-friend you on Facebook? Yes, they will. They are either annoyed or just disinterested. Hey, some people's interests change.Maybe the new wore off or they just don't want to make time for you anymore. They don't see the same value or participation in the community as you do.

As I told a client a while back, this is the way the world is going, will you go with it?

Communities are about connection.

A conversation leads to a connection and that connection is community.

Website Content

When it comes to your website, what kind of content should be there?

While it's true that your website acts as your personal marketing vehicle, without limitations of size, timeframe or other parameters when delivering your message, it is not the case that anything you decide to put there will be effective.

Good website content must, first and foremost, satisfy one particular objective: it must have all the informaiton your potential customer is seeking. Above all else, if your visitor cannot find what they are looking for, they bounce. But there is some savvy required - you cannot just dump all your information out there.

The content should be well written - easily understandable and with a good flow.

The content should be well-organized - with much thought put into how people's minds will lead them through the site, and multiple ways to get them where they want to go.

The content should be valuable - made up of the information your customer wants and seeks, and not just blathering about you and your business.

Good websites can account for a tremendous deal of revenue for a business, and not just through e-commerce. Give your site a good look with fresh eyes, or better yet, ask some honest friends and family do so for you. And if you'd like some help getting it just right, let us know.

Hulu and web video

Video on the web continues to grow.

Requests from clients for You Tube channels continue to grow. Have you experienced Hulu yet? Hulu was launched as a joint venture from NBC Universal and Fox Entertainment Group and offers commercial-supported video content of shows from networks like Fox, NBA and other networks and studios.

ABC/Disney recently announced they would buy 27% of Hulu. Hulu had it's one year anniversary in March and has begun it's second year of operation. Hulu not only provides content on it's own site but also syndicates content to other providers such as AOL, Facebook, Yahoo and others.

Hulu's slogan: An evil plot to destroy the world. Wow...that will get some groups going!

Nielsen recently released some interesting data concerning Hulu:

Though YouTube continues to rank as the #1 video web brand in the US, with 5.5 billion total streams in April, Hulu ranks #2 as it continues on a steep growth trajectory, increasing 490% in total streams year-over-year (YoY), from 63.2 million in April 2008 to 373.3 million in April 2009, according to data from Nielsen Online.

This explosive growth makes Hulu the fastest growing brand among the top 10:

“Historically short form, clip-length video has ruled streaming on the web - as demonstrated by YouTube’s top spot month after month,” said Jon Gibs, VP, media & analytics, Nielsen Online. “Hulu, along with pure-play providers like Veoh and the TV
networks, has spent the past two years trying to convince consumers that the internet can be a good place to watch full length programming as well. April’s strong showings of Hulu, Fox, and ABC suggest that consumers are beginning to listen.”

Middle-Agers’ Viewing More Video

The Nielsen analysis also found that the time spent viewing per viewer in April 2009 has grown 29% in the past six months among people ages 35-49, making it the fastest growing group in terms of time spent viewing per viewer. This growth is 13 percentage points higher than the growth of time spent viewing per viewer for the overall market, which increased 16% over the same 6-month period, Nielsen said.

“Despite what many believe, it is not the young, tech-savvy, early-adopters who are attracted to long-form video,” said Gibs. “In fact, we see that it is the older crowd, viewers 35+, who gravitate toward long-form video, with sites like Hulu acting as a perfect example of this.”

In April 2009, three of the top five sites - Hulu, ABC.com and NBC.com - ranked by time spent viewing among people ages 35 to 49 were sites with long-form video. Compared with six months ago, only one of the top five was a long-form video viewing destination.

People age 35+ Drive 119% Hulu Increase

In their quest to view more long-form video, the middle-aged demographic is also helping to fuel a significant increase in time spent watching Hulu. Since its inception as a joint-venture between NBC and News Corp, Hulu has experienced meteoric growth in all aspects of video viewing, especially in time spent, Nielsen said.  Total time spent viewing increased 119% between November 2008 and April 2009.

As more people frequent Hulu and stream more videos, more time is also spent watching these videos, the research found. Time spent viewing per viewer increased 120%, from 147 minutes in November 2008 to 325 minutes in April 2009.

Unique viewers between ages 35 and 49 represented 30% of total Hulu viewers in April. They also spent at least 10% more time on the site than any other age group, with an average of 416 minutes spent viewing per viewer during the month.

During the past six months, overall time spent per viewer for those ages 35-49 has increased 154%.

About the metrics: Nielsen Online’s VideoCensus combines patented panel and census research methodologies to provide a count of viewing activity and engagement along with in-depth demographic reporting. Online video viewing is tracked according to video player, which can be used on site or embedded elsewhere on the Web. A unique viewer is defined by Nielsen as anyone who viewed a full episode, part of an episode or a program clip during the month. A stream is a program segment. VideoCensus measurement does not include video advertising.

Video Web Convergence

Two years ago, we began telling clients and prospects to start merging video and the web.

Like others, we saw a trend emerging. That emerging trend is now converging. Your iPhone comes with You Tube pre-loaded on the icon screen. Recent studies show a 45% increase in online video viewing over last year. Of course advertisers are looking for a way to capitalize on this by finding unique ways to interject advertisements into all this online viewing.

Recent studies also show online ad spending continuing to grow in 2009, but probably not as high as the 40% previously expected. Expected online ad sales are around $580 million, and any growth to that number will be a challenge for advertisers.

Here are some terms you may or may not be familiar with, but should get educated on:

• Re-roll
• In-Stream
• Overlay ad playback

Are you seeking ways to integrate and monetize video content on your web site? Do you have the idea for the next You Tube or Hulu?

Here's Lookin' at You!

Facebook- friend or foe?

To continue from my previous post about Facebook (see June 12th post for more details)... Some say Facebook is a waste of their time, some say it's addicting and I think it's fabulous. I'm not going to say it is the most productive use of your time but I can tell you how to make your Facebook profile more effective.

As previously mentioned most of us on Facebook are between 15 and 25- all ages are welcome but we are the target demographic. What most of us don't understand is that potential friends, employers and even lending institutions will look at your Facebook before they even meet you. This means your first impression is completely dependent upon what you choose to list in your profile.

Do you want that impression to be tagged pictures from your college days and your favorite quotes from Anchorman? Most likely the answer to that is no. If you think your friends are the only ones who will see your profile then you need to keep reading. If you are going to have a profile anyway then why not take it seriously and use it to SELL YOURSELF?

Put your best foot forward and market yourself by networking through Facebook- make it professional and presentable. At some bigger companies there are actually people who are hired to do nothing but research potential employees and interns online profiles and if they don't measure up they are out the door before they even walk in for an interview.

(To Facebook users: I know what you are thinking, "Good thing I put my profile on private." Wrong- there are hacking programs for every blog and profile site on the internet. If people want to see the information they will.)

 

Help yourself in the long run and think aboutanything you are putting online because you never really know who will be browsing your profile next.

You Can Find Me on Facebook

As a twenty-something I must "come clean" with the fact that I have a Facebook account. For those of you who are unaware of the online phenomenon which is Facebook- where have you been?

Facebook is a popular online site which in their own words "is a social utility that connects you with the people around you." Many high school and college students use this as a way to chat with their friends and many recent graduates use it as an avenue to keep in touch with classmates from all over the world. As a member of Facebook you are given space to add pictures, quotes and other interesting facts.

I must also admit that when I get online I always do three things.

    1. Check my e-mail

    2. Check local and/or national news

    3. Check my Facebook page

While I am confessing- I don't always do them in that order. Usually Facebook is at least second on that list- and I know I am not the only person who feels this way. Last night I logged into my account and went to my homepage. A large vertical banner add immediately caught my attention which said "VISIT BRANSON TODAY!" This caught my attention for two reasons- the first is my love for Branson, Missouri but a close second was me thinking, "Wow- even Branson, Missouri is advertising on Facebook."

What does this mean? When I first joined the Facebook community in late 2005 the adds were minimal and were for typically vein things of interest to people my age such as "pet paid for doing surveys" and "lose 10 lbs fast."

Now when clicking on any Facebook page you can see advertisements for the newest electronics, vacation desitinations and even food products. In a few short years Generation Y (the largest population on Facebook) has made Facebook an attractive advertising option.

This is just another way in which Generation Y is challenging, changing and in essence creating the newest market trends.

PPC

Perhaps you've heard of the phenomenon called Pay-Per-Click advertising on the internet?

Here is essentially how it works:

Advertisers bid on keywords that they believe their prospects will type into search bars when they are looking for their product or service. If you sell yellow shoes, then you would bid on the keywords "yellow shoes" hoping a user would type in those words in the search, then see their ad, click on it and buy.

These ads are called sponsored links and usually appear above or next to the regular search results. You pay only when the prospect clicks on the ad.

Pay-Per-Click is growing fast.

The Silent Shopper and The Missed Customer

Not one person likes to think that they missed a potential customer.

But, it happens.

Today's customers are savvy, real-experience seekers who are becoming more and more discriminating about where they spend their dollars.

The internet has made it possible for consumers do more research on products and services than any time in history. It's also made it possible for shoppers to exchange money for goods more easily as the internet educated the general public on it's reliability and safety. New terms such as "secure socket layer (SSL)" and "identity theft" have wedged into our language.

Black Friday has been around for years. Now, there's Cyber Monday, which occurred this past Monday. Cyber Monday was never in much use prior to the 2005 holiday shopping season. Cyber Monday supposes to be the biggest online shopping day of the season, assuming most workers shop at their computers during the workday on Monday after the big shopping weekend.

Cyber Monday is actually a media creation, rather than fact. It's sort of a mis-nomer like Black Friday, in that, actually the largest online purchase dates actually occur between December 5-15th according to many e-commerce sites. In any event, the fact remains that more and more folks are shopping on the net.

But what I think is most important is that a lot of people are investigating products and services on the net. Most personality profile services will tell you that about 49% of the population is introverted. They think a great deal prior to interacting. They can be very analytical. Which means they like ALOT of options. The internet gives them the ability to find out all about you, your product, your service, your hours, your warranties, your prices and so on. They make their short list of options and evaluate.

They are completely equipped to buy when they come in. They are informed, budgeted and ready to buy.

Do you have a website? If so, what's your conversion rate? When was it last refreshed? How does your website flow with your brick-and-mortar location?

Now is a great time to evaluate your website. At Word Marketing, we offer a free complete evaluation of your site using our WORDSCAN™ process.

Start the ball rolling here.

Online Advertising is movin on up

Marketing is all about lead generation and when you are business to business, rather than retail, you search for as many opportunities as possible.

New statistics from The Center for Media Research show these rankings for B2B marketing trends in 2004/2005:

1. In-person events 60.2%
2. Direct mail 56.2%
3. Online Advertising 48.7%
4. Newspapers 46.9%
5. Custom Publications 45.8%

But....they expect Online Advertising to be second only to In-person events by 2008 and the margin isn't that wide.

Read the complete briefing with statistics here.