ITZ Publishing

Google’s consumer surveys are bringing in one publisher $5,000 a month

Read the original post at: http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/04/12/googles-consumer-surveys-are-bringing-in-one-publisher-5000-a-month/

12TH APRIL 2012 by NANCY MESSIEH

Back in March, we told you about one of Google’s latest products – self-serve consumer surveys. According to Journalism.co.uk, one small US publisher has added a neat $5,000 a month to its revenue, thanks to the product.

In case you missed it, this is how the the service works, available only to US publishers for the time being:

1. You create online surveys to gain consumer insight
2. People complete questions to access premium content
3. Publishers get paid as their visitors answer
4. You get nicely aggregated and analyzed data

Google gets $0.10 per question from market research companies, while online publishers walk away with half of that. Google does place a condition, that if readers don’t want to answer the question, the publisher has to provide an alternative such as signing up for an email alert.

The Texas Tribune is one of about twenty publishers who have signed on to use the service, along with Pandora, AdWeek, The New York Daily News, and others.

The Texas Tribune, however, has actually been using it for the past eight months, long before Google publicly announced it.

The surveys have been placed in the newspaper’s Data section which brings in 60% of the site’s 600,000 unique visitors per month, mostly through search engines. It’s that 60% of the Texas Tribune’s readers, coming in specifically via a search engine, who will see the Google-powered survey.

To gain access to the content they were looking for, readers can either answer one question, or if they choose not to, they can provide their email address, to receive a minimum of one email alert. They are of course left with the third choice of not doing anything at all – but that means no data for them.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, the Texas Tribune’s April Hinkle defends the choice saying that readers “have to give to get”, adding, ”All the information on our site is free, and we thought this would be a good test.”

Despite what may appear to be a somewhat controversial tactic on the surface, the Texas Tribune hasn’t received any complaints. Most readers don’t seem perturbed by the idea of handing over anonymous data of their own in exchange for data they’re looking for.

Publishers are not the only ones who stand to gain from Google’s product. It provides a cost-effective way for researchers to come by the data they need, and for the end-user – you – it seems like a far more appealing alternative to the increasingly common paywalls used by major publishers.

Unlike paywalls, however, according to PaidContent, it doesn’t take much more than using a Chrome extension like AdBlock to bypass the survey. So while the Texas Tribune’s figures certainly do speak of the potential the product has to bring in money, it certainly may need a tweak or two.

 

The Google Mobile Playbook

Launched April 26, the Google Mobile Playbook is a resource describing Google's vision of the mobile landscape, what any business can do to be part of it and the depth to which mobile tech is reaching into our everyday lives. Statistics and case studies fill the Playbook.

What the document really focuses on is how the on-the-street business should embrace digital to increase sales. It shows the need for someone to be available to help these businesses use mobile effectively. This isn't a toy. This is serious tech with the possibility of serious ROI.

As an aside, the design of the site was intended primarily for tablets and mobile devices. Works perfectly well on a laptop or desktop, but it's apparent that this is a mobile first presentation. Attaching downloadable pdf. Download Themobileplaybook

http://www.themobileplaybook.com/

 

Prescription for Patch: Become an All-in-One SMB Marketing Solution

See the original post at:

http://streetfightmag.com/2012/04/20/prescription-for-patch-become-an-all-in-one-smb-marketing-solution/

 

 20 APRIL 2012 BY KIRK CARAWAY

Kirk Caraway is a guest author.  

There has been a lot of criticism hurled in recent months at AOL’s hyperlocal news experiment Patch. It seems that some new “dramatic” tidbit is always showing up in the trades about how Patch is failing.

Some of this criticism is deserved. I don’t think the folks at Patch would claim there haven’t been mistakes made. But part of the reason it’s in focus is that the company makes an easy target for those in the news business who are shell-shocked by the changes transforming the industry.

I think there is a lot of value in the network approach to hyperlocal news. Many small startup publishers are challenged by the technical details of web publishing — and by the need to offer the kind of polished, powerful, digital product that online readers have come to expect. Tech and design can suck up huge amounts of time and resources. By centralizing the technical details, Patch achieves an economy of scale, and frees its local editors to concentrate on content.

Putting content aside, though, it seems the big problem for Patch is sales. With only $20 million in reported revenues for 2011 across the 850+ sites, it’s clear that something is missing. This report from Business Insider quoted a Patch sales team member who said that 70 percent of salespeople were not hitting their targets. Another report estimates that the average member of Patch’s 152-person outside sales team is only bringing in $52,022 a year in ad revenue.

Patch’s problem is the same one that affects many other local news operations: in pinning its focus so heavily on display ads, the company isn’t offering local businesses the kind of comprehensive marketing service they really need.

Let’s back up a minute. Before the web, newspapers were the kings of local. If a you had a local business and needed to get the word out, you just called up the newspaper to place an ad. It was that easy. But newspapers don’t have the monopoly they enjoyed in the past. Not only are there many other sources for local news, newspapers also have to battle for readers’ attention against Facebook, YouTube and the entire Internet, as well as 500+ channels of television, Netflix, video games, etc. The days when a local business could successfully market itself to new customers by simply buying an ad in one publication are gone. Yet online news organizations — including Patch — are still by and large using the same old newspaper advertising model.

The mission of any newspaper or other advertising-supported media operation is this: Help your clients communicate. That is what they pay for. In today’s media world, display advertising is just one method of communication. These days social media, public relations, search engines and other online marketing vehicles all play a role as well (in addition to advertising). Those in the local news business might despair at this fragmentation, but they are actually missing a huge opportunity.

If you talk to local business owners about all of these online promotional vehicles, you will find that most of them are confused and frustrated. They know they should be using Facebook and Twitter, or updating their websites, or doing more PR, or sending out email blasts. They are constantly hit up by salespeople promising to put them on the front page of Google, or selling them Yellow Pages listings online, or a hundred of other types of advertising. But they don’t have the time or the knowledge to handle all of these things. Too often they fall for scams, or rely too heavily on one vehicle, only to find that it doesn’t pay off.

Unlike other local start-ups, [Patch] has the resources to build this kind of integrated system, and can use the power of its network to create effective marketing and sales programs to push out to all their sites.

Businesses don’t need more online advertising options. They need a solution. The real opportunity is to offer businesses a service that bundles together as many of these promotional vehicles as possible into a simple, low-cost package that makes it easy for them to communicate with their customers.

The service I envision is one where a business manager can do something as simple as writing an email, and have that message pushed out through multiple channels. He or she can write, “Hey, we’re having a sale today!” and have that message automatically formatted into an advertisement on the news site. In addition, it could also be pushed out to his or her blog, as well as posted to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. In the process, that same message could be emailed out as a press release to all the local news media and/or blasted out to the business’ customer email list.

The next step would be to integrate this message into the news site. Press releases can be automatically imported in the site, and displayed as sponsored blog posts. Those messages that have dates tied to them can be included in the site’s event calendar. Messages could also be marked as coupons or specials, and given different display options, or included into the news site’s email newsletters and social media pages. The service could even create local advertising networks to place these ads on other sites, or allow clients to book and manage ads on Google, Facebook, Bing and others.

If business managers are too busy or not savvy enough to pump out the messages themselves, then a fully managed service could be offered to do it for them. Now, you have something that is worth a lot more than CPM-based banner ads.

There are other services available that try to make it easy for business to update different social networks in one step. But the advantage local news publishers would have with a system like this is the ability to combine their clients’ communications with advertising and content, and present them to a local audience. Just as advertising alone is not the answer, neither is social networking. This is where local news sites like Patch can offer a service that others can’t.

If Patch decided to go this route, the company would be well-positioned to make the service work. Unlike other local start-ups, it has the resources to build this kind of integrated system, and can use the power of its network to create effective marketing and sales programs to push out to all their sites.

But to get there, Patch will have to change its advertising-centric mindset and focus on providing a service with real value to local advertisers. No business can be successful unless what it offers to its target customers is something they need. Solving their clients’ communications needs would go a long way toward patching the hole in AOL’s ship.

Kirk Caraway is founder/publisher of CarsonNow.org, and mother site of the Nowtown Network that includes SouthTahoeNow.com. He grew up in the newspaper business, and is an award-winning writer and editor. He started building and managing local news websites in 1994, and has witnessed firsthand the evolution of local online news. He can be contacted atkc@carsonnow.org.

 

Study: 40% of SMB Sites Lack Phone Numbers

Read the original post at: http://www.screenwerk.com/2012/04/16/study-40-of-smb-sites-have-no-phone-number/

By Greg Sterling

Implied Intelligence is a company that generates and enhances local databases. I spoke to founder Marc Brombert several weeks ago about the company’s services and capabilities. As an illustration he offered to perform a number of tests. I suggested a comparison of the accuracy of local search sites.

Implied Intelligence completed that study and sent me the results a couple of weeks ago. I wrote up the methodology and results of that test at Search Engine Land. Here’s a brief recap . . .

Using a data set of 1,000 local businesses (with websites) in the US, Implied Intelligence compared a number of leading local search sites along several criteria:

• Coverage (was the listing present)
• Number of duplicates
• Accuracy of information
• Richness of information (presence of additional information beyond business name, address and phone)

The results were a surprise: Superpages and YP.com beat Google Maps for overall accuracy and completeness. However, reviews were not part of the content comparison. Here’s the final, overall ranking:

As a separate exercise, Implied Intelligence looked at more than 8 million local/SMB websites in March of this year and found that most had relatively little content. Indeed, 40% didn’t feature a phone number and half didn’t have an email address:

–One page websites: 22.4%

–Websites with email addresses: 49.6%

–Websites with e-mails from same domain: 30.5%

–Websites with e-mails on first page: 23.8%

–Websites with phone numbers: 60.4%

–Websites with local phone numbers: 49.3%

–Websites with phone number on first page: 32.4%

–Websites with local phone number on first page: 24.8%

More than 15 years after the mainstreaming of the Internet most SMB websites are still weak and thin. These businesses are under-utilizing their sites and undermining themselves by failing to give customers multiple obvious ways to contact them.

 

About Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is the founder of Sterling Market Intelligence, focused on the Internet’s impact on offline consumer behavior. He is senior analyst for Internet2Go, an advisory service from Opus Research tracking the evolution of the mobile Internet. Sterling is also a contributing editor for  Search Engine Land, the leading online publication about the search marketplace.

Until he left in 2006, Sterling ran BIA/Kelsey’s Interactive Local Media program. Before ILM he was a producer at TechTV. Prior to TechTV, Sterling was part of the pre-launch editorial team at AllBusiness.com. And way back in the 1990s, Sterling was a practicing attorney — before leaving law to join the manic world of online marketing.

He is frequently cited and quoted in leading US publications regarding the search, local and mobile markets.

Follow Greg     Connect with Greg on LinkedIn.

7 Hyperlocal Tools to Increase Business During Off-Peak Times

Read the origianl post at :

http://streetfightmag.com/2012/02/07/7-hyperlocal-tools-to-increase-business-during-off-peak-times/

 07 FEBRUARY 2012 BY STEPHANIE MILES

The employees are present, the tables are bussed, and the shelves are stocked. Now where are all the paying customers? Most businesses have slow periods or times of the day when they’d be willing to sell their products or services at a discount rather than let their inventory go to waste. The challenge, it seems, is finding the best way to do that.

New hyperlocal platforms aim to address this problem with real-time deals and offers targeted to potential customers in the immediate vicinity. By offering limited-time promotions during off-peak periods, small businesses get new customers through the door without displacing faithful regulars. Local merchants are often willing to accept the trade-off — which involves taking significant cuts off the prices of the goods and services they sell — if it means putting employees to work and unloading perishable products before they go bad.

Here are seven platforms that can help drive business during off-peak times.

1. ThinkNear
Developed as a way to help businesses attract the right customers at the right times, ThinkNear is a great solution for SMBs looking to increase foot traffic during certain hours of the day. Merchants tell ThinkNear what types of discounts they’re willing to offer and what hours are typically the slowest, and ThinkNear uses this information — combined with an algorithm that takes weather, holidays, and special events into account — to send targeted deals to people using smartphones nearby. In exchange for paying a $99 monthly fee, merchants are guaranteed that their ads will be seen by at least 5,000 mobile phone users. ThinkNear CEO Eli Portnoy says the service works best for restaurants, salons, spas, and other businesses in large-margin industries.

2. Chalkboard
Chalkboard is a hyperlocal network that uses mobile ads to help small and medium-size businesses increase foot traffic. Businesses experiencing a slump in sales can visit their Chalkboard account and type in the name of a new promotion, like half-off drinks or a 2-for-1 spa special. These promotions are instantly displayed on third-party mobile applications (like Friendly for the iPad) being used by people within a “few mile radius” of the merchant, as well as websites in the Chalkboard network. Merchants can run as many promotions as they want for a flat fee that ranges from $0.99 to $2.99 per day.

3. Closely
Small business owners interested in real-time marketing efforts are perfectly suited for Closely. The daily deal, social promotion, and mobile marketing platform gives SMBs the tools to publish offers and sell purchase-ready coupons on demand. Closely then delivers those deals to nearby consumers and promotes them on relevant social networks. A nail salon suffering from a rainy day sales slump can publish an instant deal to boost immediate traffic, while a restaurant that seems slow on Mondays can set up recurring deals that only run on that day each week. Closely doesn’t publish its exact pricing, but a rep for the company says it provides merchants services in the $50 to $200 per month range, with a 25% to 35% share of deal revenue.

4. Groupon Now!
Merchants who want to take advantage of the Groupon craze without getting in over their heads are using Groupon Now! to post limited-time deals for customers nearby. Local merchants can schedule their deals in advance to run during slow times of the day — like 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., for example. Once a deal closes, merchants get a check for the proceeds of the promotion, minus Groupon’s commission fee. Customers who fail to redeem their vouchers during these limited time slots can get full refunds, which means businesses don’t profit from unredeemed deal vouchers like they do with traditional Groupon deals.

5. LivingSocial Instant Deals
Remarkably similar to Groupon Now!, Instant Deals is LivingSocial’s take on real-time promotions. The service is best for merchants who’ve worked with LivingSocial before and enjoyed the experience. Deals are live for a short period of time, and they’re sent out to people using the LivingSocial mobile app within a half-mile radius. Merchants using Instant Deals don’t have to offer discounts as substantial as they would with a traditional deal, although LivingSocial still recommends that businesses offer deals that are at least 30%-off. Like Groupon Now!, LivingSocial Instant Deals requires no upfront costs and sends merchants their cut of the deals once the redemption period has closed.

6. Foursquare
Businesses that already use Foursquare as a loyalty rewards platform can leverage the service to attract customers during certain days or times by varying the check-in rewards and incentives they offer. Cafes wanting to boost their early morning sales can offer time-sensitive specials between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., while retailers looking to get more people through their doors on a holiday weekend can offer charity donations for each check-in on specific days. Foursquare’s tools are free, which means the only costs merchants incur are based on the specific discounts and rewards they give to customers.

7. Qwikon
Most text messages are read within four minutes of receipt, which is why Qwikon believes that SMS marketing is the single fastest way to get real-time promotions in the hands of loyal consumers. The company provides merchants with all the tools necessary to gather contact information from customers in their neighborhoods. Once this information has been collected, merchants can blast out SMS offers any time they’re slow. Qwikon says 95% of these offers are opened within minutes, and the response rate ranges from 10% to 20%. Pricing for Qwikon is based on the number of messages sent per month, and varies from $49 to $249.

 

News Sites Struggle with Ad Targeting | Digiday

Read the original post on Digiday.com here:  

http://www.digiday.com/publishing/news-sites-struggle-with-ad-targeting/#

By Josh Sternberg

News publishers are trailing behind the rest of the Web when it comes to ad-targeting technology.

Pew’s Research Center for Excellence in Journalism released a study of 22 news sites and found that just three employed “high levels” of targeting technology that delivers ads based on users’ previous online behavior. (Pew defines a high level of targeting as a site with at least 45 percent of the ads showing different ads from one user to the next.) Pew said 15 used “minimal” levels of targeting.

The research employed a curious methodology; Pew’s researchers would visit sites using their regular browser, then re-visit them using a different browser. The findings were based on the researchers’ perceptions of whether or not the ads were targeted. It did not deploy tech like Ghostery that sniffs out whether ad targeters fire pixels in order to target ads.

The study focused on premium digital ads that appear on the homepage or top of the article, where ad rates are the highest. Additionally, the study found that the tried-and-true banner ad philosophy that’s been driving online advertising for more than a decade is still the dominant form across these websites. The issue is that there are other tools the study points to—namely, behavioral targeting—these media outlets aren’t employing to its best use.

It’s no surprise then that Pew found the efficacy of the ads to be low. Perhaps just as important, the study found, “top news websites in the country have had little success getting advertisers from traditional platforms to move online.”

The larger issue for news sites goes beyond the use of off-the-shelf targeting tech. It’s that the data they’re using—people’s reading habits—isn’t all that valuable of a signal compared to others available online. Content consumption is unlikely to trump search and e-commerce behavior anytime soon as a signal for consumer intent.

 

 

Social And Email Top Growing Marketing Budgets For 2012

Read the original post on MediaPost here:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/164416/social-and-email-top-growing-marketing-budgets-for.html

by Jack Loechner, 

 A recent StrongMail survey, conducted by Zoomerang in November, reflects the attitudes of business leaders about their planned marketing budgets, priorities and challenges for 2012, revealing a healthy outlook for marketing budgets with 51% of companies increasing and 41% maintaining current levels.

For the third year in a row, email marketing and social media marketing remain the top targets for increased spend. For the 2011 holiday shopping season, email marketers plan to focus on cross/upsell offers and promotion of in-store events.

Survey Highlights

• 92% plan to increase or maintain marketing spend in 2012
• 60% plan to increase email marketing budget; 55% social media; 37% mobile/search (tied)
• 45% cite data integration as primary email marketing challenge in 2012; 43% lack of resources/staff; 40% content management
• 48% cite increasing subscriber engagement as top 2012 email marketing initiative; 44% improving segmentation/targeting; 32% growing opt-in email list
• 68% plan to integrate email marketing with social media; 44% with mobile; 17% with search

Email marketing and social media were cited as the top two areas for increased marketing spend. According to the survey, 51% of businesses plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2012, and another 41% plan to maintain current levels.  Only 8% of respondents plan to decrease marketing budgets. Other areas of increased spend included mobile and search. Direct mail and tradeshows are top targets for decreased spend.

Plans For Increased Spending in 2012
Program	% of Respondents
Email marketing	60%
Social Media	55
Mobile	37
Search	37
Advertising	28
Direct mail	18
Tradeshows/events	18
Public relations	16
Source: Strongmail, November 2011

The top email marketing initiatives for 2012 are increasing subscriber engagement, improving segmentation and targeting, and growing opt-in email lists.

Top Email Marketing Initiatives for 2012 (% of Respondents Selecting Top 3)
Email Marketing Initiative	% of Respondents
Increasing subscriber engagement	48%
Improve segmentation & targeting	44
Growing opt-in email list	32
Integrating social media & social marketing	24
Implementing lifecycle messaging	20
Re-engaging inactive subscribers	19
Source: Strongmail, November 2011

Data integration is key to achieving these top priorities, but it is also identified as the primary email marketing challenge in 2012, followed by lack of resources and content management. These opposing data points represent an opportunity for email service providers to fill the gap, says the report.

Top Email Marketing Challenges for 2012 (% of Respondents)
Challenge	% of Respondents
Integration with customer data	45%
Lack of resources/staff	43
Content management	40
Maintaining high deliverability	33
Managing send cadence & frequency	29
Source: Strongmail, November 2011

More than two-thirds of businesses plan to integrate social media and email in 2012, versus 44% integrating mobile and email. The strong ties between email marketing and social media are also emphasized by the businesses that plan to increase investment in using email to drive growth in their social media channels, such as corporate Facebook and Twitter pages. 

Channels Planned for Integration With Email in 2012
Channel	% of Respondents
Social media marketing	68%
Mobile	44
Search	17
Display	14
Source: Strongmail, November 2011

More than a third of businesses plan to increase their investment in mobile marketing programs such as mobile apps and SMS alerts, but there is a lack of consensus on the primary value of this emerging channel.  Building customer and loyalty was identified as the top benefit, followed by expanded reach and awareness building.

Primary Values of Marketing Channels  (% of Respondents)
	% of Respondents Considering Valuable
Marketing Channel	Email	Social	Mobile
Awareness building	51%	64%	29%
New customer acquisition	38	36	23
Customer loyalty and retention	67	48	35
Reach new audiences	26	44	29
Driving revenue	44	14	26
Lead generation (B2B)	29	19	12
Not sure	3	11	24
Source: Strongmail, November 2011

Christopher Marriott, vice president of agency services at StrongMail, concludes that, “... while email marketing leads... in terms of increased investment in 2012... marketers need to overcome key challenges around data integration and resource constraints..."

For more information from Strongmail, please visit here, or to access the report PDF file, go here.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/164416/social-and-email-top-growing-marketing-budgets-for.html#ixzz1mJcSvnjV

 

ROI, or the art of counting monsters -

Originally posted on BlockbyBlock. Read the original post here: 

 http://www.blockbyblock.us/2012/01/09/roi-or-the-art-of-counting-monsters/#

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Sally Duros

 

 

Next time you’re puzzling over the return on investment, ROI, of advertising for a neighborhood business, first consider the monsters.

“If you look at Facebook as the little monster in the corner you have to feed every day.  And Twitter is another one. And the business’ website is another one. And email is another one,” says Greg Swanson, CEO of Itz Publishing,  a strategic consulting partner for online media, “the neighborhood business  now has 15 monsters in the room.”

“The question is not what is the ROI on each one, it is how the heck do I feed 15 monsters?!”, he says.

A history lesson on small business marketing will clarify why this is relevant to advertising.

In 1990, if you were a small business looking to win customers in your local market, you spent 70% of your total marketing budget buying ads with legacy media — radio, TV and  newspapers. That means you spent the bulk of your money —  $7 out of $10 —  buying the audience from someone else who had one  – i.e. buying ads on radio, TV or in newspapers.

“You were basically renting an audience,“ Swanson says.

The small business spent the other 30% of its marketing budget reaching the audience it had built itself. It used marketing tools that included signage, posters, direct mail, discounts and a few other bells and whistles.

But now it’s 2012, and those numbers have reversed, Sawnson says. Today small businesses are spending only 30% of their total marketing dollars buying ads with a publisher, i.e. renting an audience —   including your website audience. And they are spending 70% of their dollars reaching the audience that they have built themselves.

“70-30. Which means that all media companies — whether you are talking about indy online media or legacy media — are fighting over an ever-shrinking part of the pie,” Swanson says.

The advertising/rental pie is very small.

This has been a 30-to-40 year movement on the part of small business owners, Swanson says.

That’s why Swanson thinks it’s time for local media to find a way to participate with small business owners and help them focus their 70% of self-built marketing dollars.

Today, the flavor-of-the-day for much of that self-built audience includes Facebook, websites, Yelp, Twitter, Groupon and other social sites that small businesses are compelled to participate in.

Using each of these tools poses a slew of questions. For instance, if  a small business works with Groupon, it has bought 1,500 new email addresses. It’s got a new audience to market to as well as a lot of questions. How often should I talk with my audience? What should I say?

In addition, every tool is measured by a different metric, Swanson says.  Social sites count likes, and clicks and views and opens and none of them compare well with each other. Social media marketing consultant Brian Solis has written extensively about this problem and has developed a rough system of measurement.

“The small business owner doesn’t have a clue how to manage this,” Swanson says. “A company like AT&T has highly sophisticated tools for managing social, but if you are the local advertiser, you are blindfolded in a dark room with a dart in your hand throwing it against the wall hoping the dart board is on the wall.”

In short, the small business owner faces more things to do with no greater budget, expertise or time.

That’s why to Swanson’s way of thinking, for the local indy publisher the sweet spot might be to ease the pain for the small business rather than trying to sell on a traditional ROI model.

The indy publisher could say “Let us provide you with a service where you can enter your information once and we will distribute it. And one of the distribution streams will be an ad on our news site.”

And so the ROI quickly morphs.

Though an unproven and controversial idea, Allen D. Mutter, who writes Newsasaur came out in support of the idea of publishers serving as social media managment boutiques in December, citing Forrester Rsearch.

 A recent survey by Forrester Research, the market research company, found that 77% of the mangers of small and medium businesses are concerned about building their social-marketing presence. But nearly all of them say they are so bewildered about what to do and so overwhelmed with the ordinary chores of running their businesses that they want someone to help.

Swanson says that online publishers have an added quandary in that they often choose to sell banner ads – which are outmoded as an advertising model — coupled with selling to a news organization’s demographics. In Swanson’s opinion, neither takes advantage of the true capacity of the Internet to match buyers and sellers, but that’s another tributary we won’t go down just yet.

So as to ROI, how does this add up?

If you are a local publisher trying to sell ads to small business, and this small business conundrum jibes with your experience, you might try to understand the small business marketing mix of “rental” vs. self-build and see how you can work with the business to help maximize its channels, with your news site serving as an included channel.

Some might find following the small business money and easing the pain a more fruitful route than the more traditional path.

Let us know what your experience has been.

26 Promising Social Media Stats for Small Businesses

Originally posted on www.socialmediaexaminer.com- click here to read the original posting.

 

By Phil Mershon
Published November 8, 2011 

Is your small business “all in” with social media? New research shows incredible opportunity for small businesses.

Keep reading to discover why social media is changing small business for the better.

Six months ago, I highlighted many benefits of social media for small business, but several new research articles add urgency to this message.

Swiftly Changing Landscape

Social media marketing is a rapidly changing environment, as we all know. But the good news is that your customers are embracing social media as a normal part of their lives. Even the over-50 population is adapting at staggering rates.

The following 26 stats should impress upon you the importance of developing a social media strategy for your business.

#1: There are now more than 800 million active Facebook users, with over 200 million added in 2011. Notice the growth trend traced by Ben Foster.

Facebook is growing rapidly. Which side of the wave are you on?

Nielsen found the following in their 3Q 2011 Social Media Report:

#2: Over 80% of all Americans use a social network.

#3: Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other U.S.website.

#4: Approximately 40% of social media users access their accounts through mobile devices.

#5: Nearly 23% of online time is spent on social networks.

#6: Facebook is the top destination among social networks and blogs:

Nielsen found U.S.users spend nearly 10x more time on Facebook than Twitter or LinkedIn.

#7: Social media users are more active and influential offline:

Social media users are more active offline and have greater influence than their peers (Nielsen).

Key Takeaways:

1. Be sure you empower your online fans to be offline advocates;
2. Given the growing number of mobile social media users, consider how to best engage your mobile customers when you craft your posts for Facebook and LinkedIn (e.g., requiring shorter responses will get higher engagement).

What Does Facebook Say About its Users?

At Facebook’s recent F8 Developer Conference, Facebook shared the following statistics:

#8: More than half of Facebook users log in every day – that’s more than 400 million people.

#9: The average user has 130 friends and is connected to 80 pages, events and groups.

#10: There are 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, etc…).

#11: Facebook hosts over 7 million apps, and over 20 million apps are downloaded each day.
 

#12: Around 75% of Facebook users are outside of North America with accounts available in 70 languages.

Key Takeaway:

The previous five statistics show the strong competition for eyeballs. A critical success factor for getting seen is consistency. There is a cumulative effect to your social efforts. The next stat highlights this.

#13: Comscore released a study earlier this year that showed how business brands that post at least once every day will reach 22% of their fans in a given week.

Comscore shows the impact of consistently posting to Facebook.

How Are People Using Social Media?

Experian recently released their 2011 Social Media Consumer Report. The following trends help paint a picture of how people are using social media.

#14: Experian estimates that 91% of online American adults (approx. 129 million) access some form of social media each month.

#15: And get this: 98% of 18- to 24-year-olds access social accounts monthly.

#16: This confirms their stat that college towns log on to Facebook the most.

#17: The average Facebook user spends 20 minutes on his or her account during each visit.

Note that Facebook users spend nearly twice as much time on the platform as Twitter users. The jury is still out on Google+, as data hasn't been accumulated to show the effect of the public release.

#18: A majority of Facebook users log in 3-4 times per week.

Notice that Twitter users are nearly as likely to login once per week as they are three to four times per week.

#19: One out of 5 social network users is likely to visit another social site after leaving one.

After visiting a social network, 45% of users will visit another social site, a multimedia site like YouTube or use a search engine.

Key Takeaways:

1. If college students are part of your target market, be sure to find them on Facebook;
2. Because many customers show a tendency to stay on social media sites, find ways to keep them engaged.

Small Businesses Moving Toward Social Media

So what are business leaders doing in light of the obvious shift toward social media in online behavior?

Zoomerang interviewed 1,180 small- to mid-sized business (SMB) decision-makers and 500 consumers in September to release this study in an attempt to answer that question.

#20: The 3 most important reasons small businesses leverage social media are:

• Connecting with customers
• Visibility
• Self-promotion

81% of small business leaders use social media to get in front of customers and find new customers.

#21: 44% of SMB decision-makers use social media.

This graphic highlights how important it is to integrate social media with your website, email and direct mail efforts.

#22: Of those SMB decision-makers who use social media, 86% use Facebook vs. 41% LinkedIn and 33% Twitter:

Small- and medium-sized businesses are investing the most effort in Facebook.

Takeaway:

Be sure to integrate your social media efforts with your website and mail efforts (online and offline).

Small Businesses Getting Results Without Spending Much

Social media is good for business, not just relationships. Mediabistro published an infographic produced by Crowdspring that reveals the following findings:

#23: 50% of small business owners reported gaining new customers through social media – most notably through Facebook and LinkedIn.

#24: 51% of Facebook users and 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from the brands they follow.

Twitter fans are more likely to buy from a brand they follow (Crowdspring).

#25: Small businesses don’t have to spend much to get results: Zoomerang found that nearly 60% of all small business decision-makers spend less than $100 on social media and 74% of businesses don’t employ anyone to manage their social media marketing.

Small business owners can get results without spending a lot of cash.

More Good News for Small Businesses

#26: Ning has found it only takes 20 people to create meaningful many-to-many interactions and bring an online community to a significant level of activity. That’s something almost any business can achieve.

Key Takeaway:

Don’t use the excuses of having a limited budget or a small fan base to prevent you from broadening and deepening your social efforts.

How to Bring It All Together

There are numerous conclusions to draw from these statistics. Clearly, small businesses are increasingly leaning on social media to grow their businesses. Many of your customers are using social media almost every day. The opportunities to connect directly with your customers are unprecedented, but so is the competition.

About the Author, Phil Mershon

Phil Mershon is director of events for Social Media Examiner. He is also strategic marketing consultant specializing in customized events, mission-driven campaigns and creative communication strategies

12 Google+ Marketing Tips From the Pros

Originally published  at www.socialmediaexaminer.com. Here is the link...

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/12-google-marketing-tips-from-the-pros/#

 

By Cindy King
Published December 26, 2011

Are you struggling to figure out how to market your business with Google+? Looking for some tips and ideas? You’ve come to the right place.

We asked 12 experienced social media professionals to share their best tips on Google+ for business with you.

Here are 12 ways you can use Google+ to promote and market your business.

#1: Personalize your page URL

Ben Pickering @bpicks

Carly Simon’s 70′s hit “You’re So Vain” gave vanity a bad name. But using a so-called “vanity URL” can be a smart move when it comes to your online presence.

While Facebook allows page owners to create vanity URLs of the structure facebook.com/YourName, Google does not currently do the same.

By default, Google+ page URLs look like this: https://plus.google.com/103145815507039304597/posts. It seems likely that at some point Google will allow for personalized page URLs, but until they do, there is a service that can help.

At http://www.gplus.to/, you can create a custom URL like http://www.gplus.to/strutta, which will redirect a user to your page. This link is more user-friendly and branded for your business or organization. When it comes to branding yourself on social channels, a little vanity is OK!

Create your vanity URL for your Google+ page.

Ben Pickering, CEO of Strutta.

#2: Craft an eye-catching mini-bio for your hovercard

Mari Smith @marismith

Get creative with your “Employer” field and use that to craft an eye-catching “mini-bio.” This then shows in your hovercard, which is often the only information someone on Google+ has in front of them to decide whether to circle (follow) you or not.

Make it really easy for more people to circle you by having a bio somewhat similar to what you may have on Twitter.

The field is not obvious at first, but it’s under the “Employment” section and has to be your current employer. You have plenty of characters to write what you wish there. I would caution against writing something like “self-employed,” as shown in the screenshot below—that doesn’t really tell anyone anything about you.

I’ve written a bio similar to the one I have on Twitter and included a link—though it’s not clickable.

Don't do this.

Do provide an interesting mini-bio to appear on your hovercard.

Mari Smith, a widely-recognized social media speaker and trainer, author of The New Relationship Marketing, and coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day.

#3: Create a great first impression

Kristi Hines @kikolani

I think one of the most important things that businesses need to do with both their personal profiles and Google+ pages is fill out all of the details. Don’t think of Google+ as just another social profile. Think about it as your first contact point with a new client.

With that in mind, make sure you have a great description in your introduction, all of your contact details, and links to your most important online properties including your website, top pages on your website (products or services), blog and main social profiles (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn). Also be sure to use the photostrip underneath your headline to display the photos that best represent you and your brand.

Add a compelling description and all useful contact information.

Kristi Hines, author of the popular blog, Kikolani.

#4: Promote your Google+ page

Debbie Hemley @dhemley

It’s important to remember to promote your Google+ page from your website and other online presences. A recent BrightEdge study  found that of the world’s top 100 brands that had scurried to create a Google+ business page, 61 of them had not displayed a link from their website to their new Google+ page.

Businesses should tap into features such as Google Badges. To do this, you need to sign up at the Google+ Platform Preview and then create and customize your badge at the Google+ configuration tool page. The page will generate a script that you’ll code into your website to enable and display the badge.

Check out Social Media Examiner's Google+ badge in the sidebar to the right.

I’d also suggest adding the +1 button to your company’s website or blog, which allows visitors to recommend it with a single click. HubSpot reported that websites that use Google’s +1 button generated 3.5 times more traffic from Google+ than websites that don’t have the button installed.

You can read more about my tips in my post, “The Marketer’s Field Guide to Google Plus Business Pages.”

Debbie Hemley, social media consultant and blogger.

#5: Create a suggested circles list

Jeff Korhan @jeffkorhan

My favorite Google+ marketing tip is to create a prioritized list of suggested circles you should be placed in at the top of the About tab of your profile page, both for your business and personal profiles.

Visitors can then quickly and easily determine your business focus, which will encourage further exploration of your descriptive bio or company introduction, and lead to more connections.

Jeff gives his audience suggestions on where to place him.

Jeff Korhan, professional speaker, consultant and columnist on new media and small business marketing.

#6: Leverage photos to connect with your audience

Jamie Turner @AskJamieTurner

If you’re like a lot of people, you’re using Google+ as a tool to build awareness for you or your business. If that’s the case, you may want to update your Google+ profile to include photos that provide helpful facts and figures about your industry.

In my case, I wanted to provide my Google+ followers information about social, mobile and digital media. I did this by creating graphics that were 720 x 720 pixels and uploading them to a scrapbook on my Google+ profile.

Check out how Jamie used the Google+ photo feature.

The result is that visitors to my profile are greeted by 5 short factoids about marketing. This is helpful to my followers and also positions me as a thought leader in the industry.

Jamie Turner, co-author of How to Make Money with Social Media and Founder of the 60 Second Marketer.

#7: Establish your presence and wait for your audience

Nichole Kelly @Nichole_Kelly

Depending on what business you’re in, it’s quite possible that your audience isn’t actively using Google+ yet. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity.

The challenge is to find time to be engaging and relevant on yet another social network. The opportunity is for you to establish yourself as a thought leader in a space where your competition may not be actively participating.

To balance resource constraints with opportunity, I recommend that businesses establish their presence and listen for openings to engage. When you start seeing your audience adopting Google+, take the time to recognize what they like about the platform that they aren’t getting on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Rather than trying to figure out how to do everything on Google+ that you’re doing on other social networks, look for how Google+ can help your business fill a unique need for your audience and build a strategy around that.

Nichole Kelly, publisher of FullFrontalROI.com.

#8: Get to know your audience on Google+

Stephanie Gehman @airport_girl

When considering your content for the Google+ platform, remember that although there may be some overlap with other social media, this is a new and different platform and potentially an entirely new and different audience.

Get to know them by asking questions, polling, sharing content and interacting. Do not presume that what works for your business on more established social channels such as Twitter and Facebook will have a cookie-cutter fit with your Google+ audience. Tailor your message and content to their needs.

Stephanie Gehman, marketing manager for Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania.

#9: Use brand micro-circles for repeat business

Carla Dewing @CarlaDewing

To get the most out of Google+, concentrate on creating circles on a micro level. Work on a business-by-business basis, adding names to client businesses and brands, each of which has their own circle. You can also add names to “influencer” circles, which will help you connect with people in your field whom you want to meet online.

Using Google+ as a business knowledge base improves communication with your clients and your project management ability as you chat, video-conference and connect with new people through these micro circles.

Segmentation and attention are often vital when you’re shooting for repeat business. Google+ has handed you a way to do this neatly and efficiently, without having to use multiple platforms or media!

Carla Dewing, content marketing expert and part-owner of Contrast Media.

#10: Capitalize on Google+ search to show you’re there

Jason Miller @JasonMillerCA

Search Google+ for mentions of your brand and industry-related keywords. Save your searches and they will appear on your left sidebar for quick reference. Monitor your saved searches daily and respond to mentions, comment on threads and reshare people’s posts.

Use the Google+ search feature and save your searches.

Even if you have nothing to say, a +1 lets them know that you’re paying attention, as a great social brand should be.

Jason Miller, Programs Manager, Social Media & Content at Marketo.

#11: Use Google+ hangouts to communicate with customers

Tom Martin @TomMartin

Brands should be looking forward to hanging out on Google+.That’s right. No key benefit required, just communication. The power of the hangout is truly (for me at least) THE big differentiator of Google+ over other social platforms.

Need some insight into how consumers are thinking? Ship a bunch of them a bag of M&M’s and a calendar appointment for your next focus group.

Want to make your consumers feel special? Call them with an invitation to hang out with someone interesting: your CEO, a famous spokesperson or maybe the head of product development. No script, no questions. Just a chance to talk with someone they’d really like to meet.

Invite your customers to hang out with you and make it interesting.

Or best of all, be the campfire that your customers want to visit and teach your customer (who probably doesn’t have a clue about Google+, much less a hangout) how they can get on Google+ and join a hangout to meet with other like-minded folks and make new friends who share a common interest. The list can go on and on, but suffice it to say, the ability to create real-time, multi-user video chats is ripe for innovative marketing.

Tom Martin, founder of Converse Digital.

#12: Join others’ hangouts

Marc Pitman @marcapitman

If you’re really going to learn how to effectively use hangouts, you’ll need to participate in some (as a person, not really as a marketer). Taking the time to learn the norms of hangouts will make your first hangout as a business far more successful. If you use the Chrome browser, there’s a plugin called “Hangout Canopy” that allows you to see what live hangouts are happening at any given moment. (Go here for more on how to hold a hangout.)

Mark Pitman, author and speaker dedicated to making it ridiculously easy for people to get nonprofit fundraising training.

 

About the Author, Cindy King

Cindy King is the Managing Editor of Social Media Examiner. She's tuned into business development through social media and cross-cultural marketing. Connect with Cindy on Twitter: @CindyKing.