Marketing Pilgrim

We have watched the B2B space lag behind in the Internet and social media marketing space for most of the existence of the industry. That’s not a knock on the B2B space really because the nature of Internet marketing lends itself much more readily to B2C plays.

Of course that doesn’t mean that social media doesn’t work for the B2B space. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth and as B2B marketers continue to see just how these options can fit into their business and marketing plans this area of the Internet is just starting to truly see the light. This epiphany of sorts could make 2012 a very interesting year in the B2B space for social media marketing.

As shown by some statistics from a study conducted by eMarketer, social media is being used. It’s the continual evolution of exactly HOW it is being used that will mark the arrival of the marketing tool to the space.

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Hey Santa! Is it too late to drop in a quick wish list for this year for Christmas? You see, I write about a variety of things in the Internet and social media marketing space and there are more than a few things I would love to get as a gift (or maybe see as a trend) so I figured why not, right? You’re in the “dream coming true business” so I just thought I would fire this off to you.

My 2011 Christmas Wish List

• Could you make sure that the words guru, maven and ninja and any others like them would be stricken from the social media lexicon and no one can use them again unless they are OK with being mocked and ridiculed? Thanks!

Our obsession with Facebook drove the word to be the most searched term in 2011. Take that Justin Bieber! The mini-crooner came in 92, but he did top the list of “most searched celebs.”

All these fun facts are coming to us from Experian Hitwise and we’ve got even more! Memorize a few and use them to astound your friends and family at the holiday dinner table.

Online Rules!

It’s probably no coincidence that the top 10 most-searched terms are all internet destinations. YouTube, Craigslist (one of my personal favorites), Ebay and the like. I was initially perplexed by why people would search “Facebook.com” when they could just put it in the address bar. Then I remembered watching my husband navigate to Facebook and that’s what he does – he types the term in the Google search then uses the link to access the site. I’ve tried to tell him that’s the long way around but you know. . . dogs and tricks.

This is part 3 of a series of posts from Chris Lorence, the CMO of the Independent Community Bankers of America. Chris is working to get a very traditional group to “buy in” to social media and we are letting you in on the process he is going through. His first post introduced us to the battle he faced just getting his members’ attention. His second post, was about helping his members simply see the social media light. Today, we see how Chris helps the uninitiated see what can be done to take the pain out of social media criticism.

This series is part of our ongoing effort here at Marketing Pilgrim to show the real world of social media rather than just the industry hype and drivel. Let us know what you think and give us an idea of what you might like to see in the future.

Call ‘em Flash Sales or Daily Deals, there’s been a lot of debate about the continued viability of these deep discount sites. Much of the debate has been between me, myself and I, but I’ll bet if I put up a poll I’d find that many of you have been thinking about it, too. (You know who you are.)

But how many of you think beyond sites such as Groupon or LivingSocial? How many of you have thought about running your own flash sales inside your own retail site?

I know the folks at Monetate have been thinking about it, because they created a nifty infographic all about it and they told me I could share it with you.

Take a moment to review it and I’ll meet you on the other end.

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As we approach the time of year where folks tend to back off just a little we decided to give you some eye candy to consider courtesy of the SAI Insider and Horace Dediu of Asymco. At an activation rate of around 700,000 devices a day Android is doing well but it’s not outpacing iOS activations that are estimated to hit 260 million in 2013 (by one analyst’s guess prediction).

This is not about whether Android is better than iOS devices. Clearly in the tablet market that has not panned out has it? It does say that the Android devices are likely hitting a more budget conscious market with low end phones. No harm in that because that gives more people a chance to use the mobile Internet. An article from Reuters talks about that very phenomenon in Europe.