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More than Half of All Showroomers End Up Buying at Amazon

posted on June 4, 2013

Unless you’re buying a puppy or a car, it’s kind of hard to beat Amazon, isn’t it? If you want it, you can find it there and usually it’s cheaper than buying it anywhere else. You can even buy used media items and save even more money! So it’s no surprise that 57% of showroomers ended up shopping at Amazon.

Let’s dig into this chart from a recent Harris Poll.

They asked showroomers: “which online retailer do you most frequently purchase from after visiting a brick and mortar store?”

showrooming table

Looking at the left side of this chart, there’s no competition. Literally.  The right side of the chart intrigues me but I’m not sure I’m reading it right.

  • 66% of Best Buy showroomers ended up buying from Amazon. Yes?

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Yahoo to Email Subscribers: Upgrade or Get Out

posted on June 4, 2013

yahoo mailYahoo is in the news once again (is that a good thing or a bad thing) thanks to a mouthy mandate for all Yahoo Mail users: upgrade to the new version with personalized advertising or get out.

To be fair, everything Yahoo posts sounds more urgent and stringent because of all those exclamation points, but it’s hard to misinterpret this paragraph:

Other Options

If you don’t want to use the new Yahoo! Mail, you may consider these other options:

Download your Yahoo! Mail using IMAP: (instructions omitted)
Close your account: Learn how to close your account.

What? No “we’re sorry to see you go” or plea to give them another chance? Maybe they’re just not all that worried because of this:

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The WSJ Increases Subscriber Stickiness with New Social Network

posted on June 3, 2013

contentLate last week, News Corp addressed investors with a slide presentation that outlines the future of their massive content network. Their overall plan for success is to create great content, make it available across a dozen different platforms, then sell it for a reasonable price. Sounds simple when you put it that way.

Since 52% of the company’s revenue comes from advertising, the real secret is making properties such as The Wall Street Journal sticky. And how much do you love that term?

The plan, is to turn The Wall Street Journal into a destination for business men and women. Not just a place to read the news, but a place to network, exchange ideas and even store personal information.

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Twitter Leads to Double the Leads and Other Social Media Facts [Infographic]

posted on June 3, 2013

Even though it’s hard to prove, most marketers are sure that social media is worth the time, so it’s nice to see some statistical data saying that it is so. Today, that comes from an infographic by Cox Business. They gathered the data from a variety of sources, so this is kind of third hand, but there are a few points I’d like to discuss, beginning with. . .

twitter double leads

I’m a Twitter fan and I think it’s good for business. I admit that the speed of the feed and the noise level can be a problem but good things manage to get through all the time. Of all of the social media channels, Twitter is the one I use most for discovery. I’ve found new bloggers to follow and I’ve hooked up with app developers and other marketers — it’s a good channel for me.

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Data Requests Without a Warrant? Google, Says No to the Justice Department

posted on May 31, 2013

Stock Photo of the Consitution of the United States and Feather QuillHow much of your privacy are you willing to give up in the name of national security? It’s a question that we’ve been pondering in some form since those boys in Philadelphia penned the Constitution. But doesn’t it feel like it’s become a stickier point in the 21st Century?

Look at the recent bombing in Boston. As soon as the suspects were named, people started asking questions. Why didn’t the FBI see this coming? Were there signs on social media accounts? Were there mobile phone calls that could have and should have been intercepted? After the fact, we’re quick to blame law enforcement for not digging deep enough. But think about it. If a month earlier, the FBI has asked for data from Facebook and Twitter, cell phone records and email records from a University, eyebrows would raise.

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The Pros and Cons of Drive-by Couponing

posted on May 31, 2013

geolocation adsYou’re driving through town and stop for a red light. Ping! That’s the sound of a mobile phone notification. Excited, you pick up your phone (which is always within reaching distance) and check, hoping it’s a cool Tweet or a text message from a friend. Nope. It’s an advertisement for the gas station on the next corner. Come in now and save 10 cents per gallon.

You check your gas gauge. You are a little low, so why not? The light turns green, you drive on and make an unscheduled stop at the gas station.

You’ve been snared by the drive-by coupon.

AdAge says that “filling stations” (must be an East coast thing, no one calls them that out here in the West) in three states are currently testing this new concept from iSign Media.

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Tumblr Fans Draw a Line in the Sand. Yahoo! This is War!

posted on May 30, 2013

A funny thing happened on my way around Tumblr today. For the first time ever, I was able to reblog a post within seconds of deciding to do it. It was a moment of pure joy. It was as if I’d learned the secret language of the young, creatives who hang out on Tumblr. I was no longer an outsider.

Then I found this:

tumblr war

Hmm. . .so the reason I was able to find the reblog button was because it’s now backwards from the way it was before. I’m not sure what to make of that. I investigated further and was thoroughly amused by the long list of angry Tumblr posts many of which were too filthy to reproduce here.

The upside-down orientation arrived just before Tumblr’s advertising announcement post.