Marketing Pilgrim

ShareThis, the social media sharing widget, just announced an upgrade that should help boost both your onsite time as well as your reach.

They call it FastShare and it really does make sharing any blog post or article faster than ever. The widget works along with OAuth to automatically authorize the accounts of repeat users.

The first time a person clicks through a ShareThis social media button, they’ll be asked to enter their email and password for the matching site (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) The next time they hit a ShareThis site, assuming they haven’t cleared their cookies, they’ll see a green checkmark on the pre-authorized site icon. If they have a green check, they can enter a comment and share without having to log in again.

First there was the traveling salesman, then the mail-order catalog. Then, TV shopping networks made it even easier to shop right from the comfort of your own home. When the internet came around, we thought that was the ultimate home shopping experience, but it’s about to go one better. Forrester’s new white paper says the tablet is going to be the next big thing in e-commerce, trumping even the much talked about mobile phone.

Though only 9% of web shoppers currently own tablets, Forrester expects to see a “hockey stick” develop for adoption stats over the next five years. A hockey stick. You know, a short, slight rise from the tip to the heel then a near vertical rise four times the size. (I assume that’s what they mean, someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.)

Since the invention of the calculator watch, it’s always been noted that men are more comfortable with tech than women. Well, not anymore. New research for Women at NBCU shows that 75% of women disagree with that statement and they have the online presence to prove it.

The survey shows that on social networking sites, women have more brand friends and social friends. “They check their profiles four or more times each day and spend 3.3 hours online daily for non-work related activities.”

Other results include:

• Proliferation of flash sales: 87% of women prefer a one-day deep discount to a moderate weeklong sale.
• Privacy: An overwhelming 91% of respondents would give their email for a discount, 50% are willing to give their phone number, and 25% would share their GPS location.

The news is a tad slow today. The summer in search can be that way unless of course you are the mood to whine about every little thing that did or did not happen with Google+.

So we don’t have to figure out what to do next on our own, Google is “premiering” their periodical Think Quarterly.Here’s Google’s description of the ‘periodical’ from their blog

We use research, analysis and insights—from inside and outside Google—to inform our decision-making and our products. We’ve spoken to a lot of our partners about how to help them access the same insights and conversations that inform our strategies, and today we’re announcing a thought experiment for our clients called Think Quarterly. It’s intended to be a snapshot of what Google and other industry leaders are thinking about and inspired by today.

One thing that many people forget is that, in many cases, your business ultimately is a local business in the online space. Unless you are a pure online play people expect something more than just the usual e-mail dance to have contact. Many times, I use the example of IBM. Sure it’s a corporate behemoth but if you search for IBM with a local qualifier in Google there is likely to be a place page for a location if it exists in that city. IBM a local company? C’mon! Well, in a way yes.

A leading local Internet authority, Mike Blumenthal, has put together a VERY comprehensive infographic about the local presence and how search and social play together to form it.

I studied political science in college and one of my professors used to always say, “As political scientists it’s our job to study the system from the outside. Like traditional scientists that study rats in a maze, we study politicians in elections.” I never really felt comfortable with that analysis, because it seems to me that when you study something from the outside you are missing all the details. Details that can make or break a campaign. During school and shortly after I worked in politics and quickly learned the difference between running and talking about campaigns. There’s a lot you can’t see by looking in from the outside.