by
2 Comments

Here Comes the Social Networking Bride

posted on February 8, 2013

davids bridal appA woman’s wedding is a very special event that, with a little luck, only happens once in a lifetime. So, it’s not surprising that she’d want to share every second of that special day with her extended family and friends. What is surprising is that one-third of all the brides in a recent survey planned to log on to social media while they were on their honeymoon as well. The possibilities for oversharing are enormous and frightening.

David’s Bridal asked 1,262 Canadian brides about their social media plans leading up to and after their wedding and the answers were enlightening.

Almost half of the couples surveyed have dedicated online wedding sites or online registries. A whopping 62% of newly-engaged ladies looked to social media for wedding ideas, 43% used Facebook to source vendors, 35% downloaded wedding planner apps and 24% planned to use an online program to monitors RSVPs.

by
5 Comments

Google+ Hangouts Get New Features

posted on February 8, 2013

bandwidth usage screenshot_0Google+ Hangouts are gaining traction.

Are they taking the world by storm? Probably not but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t or that Google is simply letting them go ‘as is’.

Yesterday, Google engineer Tim Blasi posted this on Google+ regarding updates to the service.

Today we’re excited to launch two new features that improve the Hangouts experience in areas with low and/or unreliable connectivity:

1) Bandwidth slider. At the top right of every hangout is a new slider that lets you adjust your bandwidth preferences in real-time. This makes it easier to keep hangouts going, even in areas with poor connectivity.

2) Audio-only mode. Choose this mode to send and receive audio only, and thus, significantly reduce your bandwidth requirements. Other participants will only see your profile picture, but they’ll hear you loud and clear.

by
0 Comments

Building AdWords Accounts With No History, Part 2: Transitioning To A New Account

posted on February 8, 2013

Ok, so thanks to Part 1, you’re up on AdWords with a basic keyword set that is highly relevant to your business and some performance data. We’re ready to begin the optimization process!

It’s important to get as granular as possible when looking at the data. You can take a look at keyword performance and adjust the bids up or down depending on what is working for you, but a main point to keep in mind with paid search is that it is all about the actual search queries, not the keywords (which are really just sets of queries).

If you take a look in the Dimensions tab, you’ll have the option to see performance data for searches users entered under View: Search terms, as seen below:

ericpost.1

Here you’ll find a list of all actual search queries that you’ve been serving ads for. There are two major action items:

by
2 Comments

New ExactTarget Report Reminds Marketers, You Are Not Average

posted on February 7, 2013

SFF20-coverI often forget that I know things the average person doesn’t. I don’t mean that to sound snobby. What I mean is that when you spend your whole day navigating the internet, posting to blogs and social media, and responding to email, you forget that some people don’t go on the internet at all. (Horrors!)

ExactTarget just released a fascinating new chapter in their Subscribers, Fans and Followers series. It’s called “Marketers From Mars.” And before they got me with the research, they hooked me with the wonderful, 1950′s space race graphics that they used throughout the pages.

The report contends that the modern marketer is like the space explorers of the past. We’re left our connected world behind in favor of technologically advanced devices and web tools. We’re Tweeting and Instagramming photos while much of the world is still talking on the phone and sifting through old snapshots they had processed at the Fotomat ten years ago.

by
3 Comments

Have You Been Scroogled? Microsoft Launches Aggressive Anti-Gmail Campaign

posted on February 7, 2013

Have you been Scroogled? If you use Gmail or if you’ve ever sent an email message to someone on Gmail or if you’ve ever even said the word or thought about possibly using Gmail, you’ve been Scroogled. Doesn’t feel so good, does it?

scroogled

Wow.

Microsoft just launched an aggressive anti-campaign designed to get people to switch from Gmail to Outlook.com. The basis for the mud slinging is the fact that Google scans all Gmail messages in order to serve up targeted advertising. Outlook.com doesn’t.

And as if that wasn’t enough, they hang Google with its own words, like this quote from Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt:

“There is what I call the creepy line. The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”

by
2 Comments

The Complete Guide to Online Reputation Monitoring [infographic]

posted on February 7, 2013

If you’re not already monitoring your online reputation, then this infographic from Trackur leaves you no excuses.

They–or should that be we, seeing as I’m the CEO, couldn’t find an infographic that took you through the various steps of setting up your social media monitoring, so they had one built. BTW, if you need an infographic designed, the guys at Avalaunch Media do a fantastic job–as you’ll see below.

So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and get started by following the steps in The Ultimate Guide to Monitoring Your Online Reputation!

Online Reputation Monitoring from Trackur

by
2 Comments

Ever Wonder Why CEO’s Don’t Get Social? Check Out This Chart

posted on February 7, 2013

I had to share this with our readers only because I had to study it several times to make sure what I was seeing was real.

eMarketer did a piece on the Social CEO and pointed to research done by Weber Shandwick. Granted, the questions themselves may have skewed the answers to help CEO’s identify ‘social channels’ use in a comparison between 2010 and 2012 but even the most forgiving sort has to double-take on 3 of the first 4 areas listed as ‘social’ plays.

CEOs and Social Media

The CEO’s biography on a website is social? The company’s homepage or ‘About Us’ page is social? The company’s ‘Career page’ is social?