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IAB Launches Digital Media Sales Certification Program

posted on May 16, 2012

Ever have a bad experience with a sales person in the interactive space? That question is kind of like asking if you have ever felt the urge to breath first thing in the morning.

I come from the sales side of the ISP and SEO industry as part of my interactive background. In my time, I did OK. In that time I also saw MANY who did not do OK and wondered what they said in an interview to get hired. That’s the way it is with most sales positions which is why turnover is so high and ‘opportunities’ are more than most other job segments.

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Study Says Social Media Ad Spend (US) Will Hit Almost $10B by 2016

posted on May 16, 2012

In a shocking development, a research company has chosen this particular week, of all weeks, to post their forecast for what is in store for social media ad spending in the US over the next several years. Do you think it was just dumb luck that it coincides with Facebook’s IPO ;-) ?

Hey, who can blame BIA/Kelsey for jumping on the train that is the Facebook IPO Express? Here is the picture version of this predicted US social media spend through 2016.

Let’s consider the whole Facebook IPO thingy in light of these numbers. In 2011, Facebook did somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 billion in revenue. That revenue is in total, not just in the US. What percentage of revenue is international I don’t know. Right now US users number somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 million which would be about 17% of Facebook’s total user base.

Channel Sponsors

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OK, So GM Pulls $10M in Facebook Ads, So What?

posted on May 16, 2012

Could this Facebook IPO be over with already so we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming? Please?!

Every Tom, Dick and pundit is putting in their heavily discounted two cents (it’s like there was a Groupon for pre-IPO Facebook hype and speculation and everyone appears to have bought it) and it is getting pretty silly.

The latest chicken little concern is the pulling of Facebook ads, to the tune of $10 million, by General Motors. Here is the tweet from the Wall Street Journal’s Dennis Berman that set all of this in motion.

In the world of “no good tweet goes unpublished” we head out to the article in the venerable Wall Street Journal that cries

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New Study Shows Google+ Engagement is on the Rocks

posted on May 15, 2012

It’s like a story from a Hollywood gossip magazine. The son of a rich and powerful man comes to town, he chats up everyone girl he meets. They’re not sure about him but he comes from a good family, so why not? First date, second date, he’s ready to ask her to go steady and bam – he never hears from her again.

Poor Google+, he tries and tries but in the end, they always leave him.

RJMetrics has detailed Google+’s relationship troubles and it’s bleaker than bleak. Check out this over the rainbow scenario.

Each line represents the average person posting over and over on Google+ until they stopped. The blue line is the oldest, red next, then green, then pink. As you can see, every couple of months, the average user posted less and less over time. Those who do post regularly have an average of 12 days between them.

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42% of Consumers Pay for Products or Services After Trying Them

posted on May 15, 2012

The free sample has been used to tempt grocery shoppers since the invention of the toothpick, yet many of today’s marketers are reluctant to give anything away. Apps, ebooks, access — you gotta give a little and if you do, you’ll get a lot.

iYogi just released a new study and infographic all about the power of the Freemium model. Their results show that 100% of the people they surveyed have tried a Freemium product and 42% have gone on to pay for it.

Certain categories fared better than others as you can see from this slice of the full infographic:

Online security and movie services such as Netflix and Hulu were voted most likely to succeed. Music services, not so much. Only 26% said they were willing to fork out money for games after trying them. I think those people are kidding themselves.

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So Email Marketing’s Dead? Don’t Tell HubSpot That

posted on May 15, 2012

Everyone seems to be real quick to throw dirt on email marketing’s grave these days. Why? Because it’s not social media.

Well, not to sound blunt (although it will), that’s stupid.

If you need more evidence that email is indeed alive and well you should consider what HubSpot (a Marketing Pilgrim sponsor of our inbound marketing channel) has added to their suite of, you guessed it, e-mail. OK, so if a company that has managed to get over $65 million in VC backing (included in that is Google Ventures) and currently boasts just shy of 7,000 users of their inbound marketing tools decides to incorporate email into its offerings can it be that dead?

The Boston Globe reports

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SEO’s Need A Laugh Too

posted on May 15, 2012

This video which was put together by UK SEO Sam Applegate is making the rounds (hat tip to Gareth Hoyle and Barry Schwartz for spreading the word as well).

We’re running it because A) it’s pretty funny B) we trust that Matt Cutts has a good sense of humor and C) it’s pretty funny.

Enjoy and don’t take a single “Um” seriously.