Is mobile social media opening up a new horizon before us?

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Dada Web Sheriff

Is mobile social media opening up a new horizon before us? Mobile social media is one of the biggest wonders of the 21st century. Now, people are using a host of handheld gadgets like smartphones (android and iPhone), tablet PCs, iPad, and iTab for browsing various social networking sites. The launch of mobile social media has turned the world even smaller and brought us closer to each other. People with similar interests are using mobile social networks for communicating and linking. Why mobile social media is so popular? The concept on which mobile social media networking has developed is virtual community. A virtual community is a special social network comprising people who communicate with each other via particular social media platforms, which cut across geopolitical boundaries for sharing their interests or common objectives. There are different online communities that comprise the virtual community and these communities are involved in a range of social networking services. At present, most of the social networking sites have come up with their mobile apps that are easily accessible by the users on their gadgets, be it an iPhone or an android phone. There has been a significant development in the way we have been using the Internet. It all began with proprietary mobile networks and know-how and has reached a level where complete mobile access to the Internet is being enjoyed by the users. How mobile social media is opening up a new horizon for us Mobile functionality is king now and the demarcation between mobile and web is gradually becoming vague. Mobile apps are currently making use of the various contemporary social networking sites for generation of indigenous communities and promotion of new products and services of businesses. At the same time, web-oriented social networking sites are also making the most of the accessibility and other features of mobile. Smartphone apps and mobile browsers are facilitating the accessibility of web-based social networks on various gadgets. At the same time, indigenous mobile social networks that are concentrating on mobile usage are using features like augmented reality, location based services and mobile communication. As a result, mobile social media and web-based social networks are functioning hand in hand for enhancing access, sharing content and building links between users no matter where they live. Interesting trends seen in mobile social media Mobile social media is helping users in different ways such as social profile creation, message sending and receiving or allowing access to online mobile sites. Various models are being followed by various sites and the following trends are now predominantly seen:

1) Group texting – Now, microblogging or SMS facilitates transmitting text messages to a big community of people at the same time. The promptness here is what attracts users.

2) Geotagging and location specific posts – Users can now tag specific locations with pictures and other details in their posts. Other people can access these tags who are mapped on a global map. Notifications will come to you when the user travels by the area where someone was tagged in.

3) Increase of mobile social networking site use – Popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter now have their mobile versions. They are offering a host of attractive features like photo sharing, instant messaging and texting, multimedia posts, and international calling.

4) Dating service is available – Mobile social sites are now offering facilities to active daters for profile creation and matching. Radar is used for precision of matching and the safety features adopted are authentic.

5) Sharing of multimedia – Sharing photos, audios and videos has become simpler with mobile social networking sites. The access and storage of these data is also hassle free. 6) Social gaming is fast gaining popularity – People who love to play games on various social networks are finding that social gaming on their mobile devices is even more enjoyable. Both single player and multiplayer games are now being played with higher enthusiasm and the top names in these categories are Zynga and Angry Birds.

Author bio: Ashley Jones is a tech blogger who loves to write on different types of topics related to social media and mobile apps. Steve Heyer, the ex CEO of Harry & David is one of her idols.

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Crossing The Chasm | Geoffrey A. Moore

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Dada Web Sheriff

Crossing The Chasm, originally written in 1991 (Was revised in 1999) by Geoffrey A. Moore is telling the story of a new product life-cycle from a marketer point of view. Though the book is focusing on high-tech products, and even it was written in an era the internet was merely a rumor, majority of it is still more than relevant, exciting to read for the marketer or entrepreneur.

Crossing The Chasm: The Technology Adoption Lifecycle

Moore is saying that the appeal of the book Crossing The Chasm is that it provides vocabulary to discuss market penetration of high-tech products. Moore opened the book by referring to the Technology adoption Lifecycle. The Technology Adoption Lifecycle, a model developed by Joe M. Bohlen, George M. Beal and Everett M. Rogers at Iowa State University defines 5 groups of potential customers:

Early adopters, who are visionaries themselves, and see the value in your product right away.
Early majority, who are pragmatist and interested to solve a certain problem. They will be using your product only once their surroundings confirmed that your product served it’s purpose.
Late majority – Might be your mother (interpretation).
Laggers – Probably your grandmother (interpretation).

Between early adopters and early majority, there’s a chasm. Moore describes the chasm by comparing it to a party in which the early adopters dance while the rest just stand and watch. If the early adopters will be persistent enough, a magic might occur.

Crossing The Chasm: Beachheads

How can a pragmatist use a product no one he knows used before? Moore’s model is the D-day invasion of Normandy. According the Moore’s, when crossing the chasm it’s imperative to laser bin all your limited resources on a one strategic goal which will serve future objectives. Once you picked your beachhead, make a total commitment to your market and then do your utmost to meet everyone else’s needs with whatever resources you have left over.

But what is a market? Market is a “set of actual or potential customers, for a given set of products or services who have a common set of needs or wants and who reference each other when making a buying decision”. When projecting this theoretical definition on the real world, it narrows the beachhead into some sort of community, sharing means of communication including language, interests and needs.

How to pick the right market? When picking a beachhead, pick on somebody your size – if you find the target segment is too big, sub-segment it. The goal is to become a big fish in a small pond, hence to achieve domination in your predefined market.

You don’t have to choose the optimal beachhead in order to be successful. What you must do is win the beachhead you picked. If it’s a hard problem, and the segment is small you probably will not have competition to distract you. It means you can focus your attention on the whole product.

Crossing The Chasm: Whole Product

The selected market must get the “whole product”. The whole product refers to the minimum product that actually caters for the customer’s need. Grasping the Whole Product definition is important because that’s what separates between early markets and mainstream markets. the single most important difference between early markets and mainstream markets is that the former are willing to take responsibility for piecing together the whole product.

Crossing The Chasm: Positioning

According to Moore, you choose your competition to help you define the niche market you dominate. As long as they are well behaved and stay out of your niche, you go out of your way to honor their achievements elsewhere. If they should stray into your niche you must defeat them totally. The beachhead segment must be yours alone separated, from all other by tall barriers to entry. The goal of positioning is to create a space inside the target customer’s head called best buy for this type of situation and to attain sole undisputed occupancy in that space. “For a given target customer and a given application, create a marketplace in which your product is the only reasonable buying proposition.”

Crossing The Chasm: The Elevator Pitch

Moore recognizes the importance of having a great elevator pitch for your product. Moore provide the following formula that ensure a focused pitch:

For the <target customer>,

Who is dissatisfied with <current alternative in the market>,

Our product is a <new product category>

That provides a <capability to solve target customer’s important problem>.

Unlike <the product alternative>,

we have assembled <key features that demonstrate you have the whole product, not just a piece of a puzzle>.

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On-page SEO checklist For First Page Ranks

Posted on December 22, 2012 by admin

While impressive short-term wins can be gained by a thick backlinks profile, creating a sustainable SEO strategy requires a great on-page SEO. But what a great on-page SEO actually means? Whether you are creating a new website, or fixing an old one, this on-page SEO checklist is for you. Continue reading →

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Google Adwords Conversion Tracking

Posted on December 7, 2012 by admin

Why to use Google Adwords Conversion Tracking

Google Adwords conversion tracking brings conversion data into your Google Adwords account. The benefits coming with this transparency are twofold:

A. Having both cost and conversion data in one place is a must. This consolidation may happen manually using excel, but conversion tracking allows simple campaign analysis and optimization, and save time that enables more efficient campaign management. Continue reading →

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6 Things I learned About Dynamic Search Campaigns

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Dada Web Sheriff

#1: What Is a Dynamic Search Campaign?

Dynamic Search campaign is a Google AdWords search campaign in which the targeted keywords are chosen by an automated Google algorithm. The algorithm scans your website, and based on it’s content it decides on which keywords to bid.

To enable Dynamic Search campaign, go to Ad Extension tab in the AdWords interface. Simply choose Dynamic Search Ad Extension and click “New Extension”.

Continue reading →

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All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin: Book Review

Posted on October 26, 2012 by admin

As an online marketer, I often I found myself occupied with moral concerns, questioning the social responsibility of the internet marketer. With that in mind, a book called “All Marketers Are Liars”, could not be ignored by me.

All Marketers Are Liars: Summery

In his book, Seth Godin describes the core of the marketing work as storytelling. The marketer must find a story that fits a worldview of the prospects. It’s important to avoid trying and create a worldview. People don’t want to change their worldview. They want it to be reinforced. What it means for the marketer is that he or she has to tell a story that supports an existing worldview. Continue reading →

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Facebook Ads Attribution Problem – The Untold Story Behind The Stock Price

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Dada Web Sheriff

Up until recently, Facebook Ads attribution to a business impact, was mainly a concern for online advertisers and online advertising agencies.

Since Facebook’s IPO, seems like it’s everybody’s business.
Facebook share prices reflects investors expectation for a steep revenues growth, all that while more and more advertisers are shifting budget away from Facebook to other acquisition channels. As serving ads is the biggest revenue stream for Facebook, it’s important to understand what’s going on. Continue reading →

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Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind – Book Review

Posted on October 5, 2012 by admin

After my boss made me, I sat down and read “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” Written by Al Ries and Jack Trout. The book “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” which from now on will be called simply “Positioning”, in many ways is a branding strategy manual , and it is probably still one of the most important books that were written about branding strategies ever.

According to the authors, in our “over communicative society”, simple messages should be used. The purpose of this message is to peg your brand onto a ladder. As a brand, you are sharing this ladder with your competitors. Your entire messaging and go-to-market, must claim a position on this ladder. The position you are curving for your brand on the ladder, must not be picked in an isolation. Your positioning must correlate to what “the prospect”, your target audience, already have in their minds. The reasoning behind stem from the fact that in our over communicative society, coming with a simple message correlates to the prospect’s perception, will be the most efficient way to convey a message. These eternal concepts, are making Positioning to be a “must read” even 32 years after it was first published. The examples in the book however are not as eternal.

“Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” was written by Al Ries and Jack Trout in the 1970s. The book was first published in 1980. It’s 2nd edition was published almost 20 years ago in 1993. Some of you, were barely babies, if at all. There was no Facebook. As a matter of fact Mark Zuckerberg was 9 years old when the second edition was published. There was no SEM and no SEO. The truth is that there was no Google 20 years ago. It has been a while since Positioning was written in the first place. Very long time.

Positioning, is full with interesting case-studies telling the stories of american corporate from the previous century. Trying to project these case studies on a modern branding strategy, is not always easy. Besides that “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind ” is a must read book for any marketer and is giving the basic understanding of what brand positioning is, in an easy and constructed manner.

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10 Internet Marketing Tools You MUST Use

Posted on September 28, 2012 by admin

The online marketing world is a world of big-data, that changes all the time. It’s not only that more and more data is added to the internet, the relationships within this big-data are changing ALL THE TIME. Into this growing complexity, growing amount of internet marketing tools is introduced. In fact, there are TOO MANY online marketing tools available. As an online marketer, keeping yourself focused on your objectives and avoiding spending time and money on some unnecessary magical tools has never been more difficult.

That’s the purpose of this post. Stop wasting time on finding more nifty tools. The list below is the absolutely minimum you must know. If you have any other concrete need, find ways to cater for it. Otherwise, stick to this list. It will save you a lot of time and money.

Internet Marketing Tool #1: Google Analytics

WHAT?! “Come on, tell us something we don’t know” you probably mumble to yourself but hold on. Stop for a second and ask yourself are you really gaining all the possible benefits from Google Analytics. I know the answer by the way. The answer is NO. Google Analytics is the most important web analytics tool for any website owner, period. Beyond the trivial traffic sources, more advanced functions like conversion tracking, site search, eCommerce tab and more, made Google Analytics to become an amazing vehicle for your online business. Moreover, it’s just getting better. With latest features such as “Real Time” or the social section under the sources tab, I dare to say it’s the best web analytics tool out-there. Oh, and I forgot to add – it’s free. I hate putting in a position praising Google, but Google Analytics is amazing.

Internet Marketing Tool #2: Alexa

Alexa strength is that it provides a quick and simple overview on all the interesting information about a website we do not own. Traffic volume, traffic sources, geographical spread, click stream and more are served nicely for any large (Top 100,000) website. Alexa biggest strength is that it was there even before the internet (1996). It made the Alexa ranking to become an industry benchmark.

The only problem with Alexa ranking, is that it’s not accurate. Not accurate? Sometimes, it has nothing to do with reality. Whenever looking at Alexa numbers, bear in mind that it is based on a distorted internet user sample of Alexa toolbar installers. Alexa best alternatives are probably Quantcast, or compete.com

Internet Marketing Tool #3: Google Suggest

Once upon a time, the main keywords tool was Google Adwords Keyword Tool or Microsoft Adcentre. All that changed once Google introduced Google Suggest. Google Suggest is a quick and easy reference for what people are interested at. Checkout this exciting example for humanity mind boggling questions, sorted by importance

So why is Google Suggest is so powerful? Follow these instructions and you will find out. Take a core keyword and place it into Google Suggest. Type ‘space’ than “a”. Wait, and let Google Suggest to do its magic. Do the same for the entire ABC. Write down all the expressions you received and drill down to the relevant once as described above. At this stage, you should have a pretty good list of long tail keywords, and much better understanding of your core expressions. I wish there was a tool doing all that by itself. Oh, wait.

Internet Marketing Tool #4: Ubersuggest

There is one. Ubersuggest is doing all that. If you haven’t yet, check it out without further due. It is truly awesome.

Internet Marketing Tool #5: Google Trends

Maybe I should have place this one first. Google Trends is a tool that changed our world. Access to this type of information before, was in reality impossible. After Google Adplanner changed, Google Trends for Websites became the most accurate alternative for traffic estimations. It’s simple and powerful.

Internet Marketing Tool #6: Adwords Keyword Tool

It’s not the first time we are talking about Google product and unfortunately not the last one in this list. Adwords Keyword tool is giving us a simple and quite elaborated understanding of what people are searching for. While the implications are clear when it comes to SEO or SEM, the implications are vast also beyond search engine marketing. Where a brand is more popular? What are the common typos for a brand name? Which other brands are operating in the same market? All these are merely a fraction of questions can be answered using Adwords Keyword Tool.

Internet Marketing Tool #7: Blogs

I agree, referring a blog as a tool in strange, but in this case it is also very relevant. In this business, reading blogs is a part of your day-to-day. It’s a task that need to be done, like brushing your teeth, answering emails or performing a keyword research. Checkout my post about online marketing blogs. I think it covers all essential online marketing blogs. Follow these and you are covered.

Internet Marketing Tool #8: BingAds Intelligence

Like many other Microsoft application, the adcentre keyword tool, also known for it’s renewed name BingAds Inteligence is not sexy. Moreover, it will slowdown your excel. Nevertheless, it does provide an elaborated alternative to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Another advantage it has is that you don’t need to download your list to excel. It’s already there. You should definitely try it.

Internet Marketing Tool #9: Open site explorer

You know, I really love SEOMOZ. It’s a great company, with great people, a great blog and community. On top of all that, they also making great products. One of them is the Open Site Explorer, a tool that crawls the entire internet more or less, and provides advanced SEO analysis. The only downside is that it’s not free.

Internet Marketing Tool #10: Crazy Eggs

Crazy Eggs visualize your data and provides simple graphic illustration telling things numbers can’t. Heatmaps, sliced by traffic source, time of day and more can often give you insight you cannot get in any other way, and are critically important for your website optimization.

Are there any other “must-use” internet marketing tools you think I missed?

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Internet Marketing Thoughts

Smarter Marketing

Crossing The Chasm | Geoffrey A. Moore

Crossing The Chasm: The Technology Adoption Lifecycle

Crossing The Chasm: Beachheads

Crossing The Chasm: Whole Product

Crossing The Chasm: Positioning

Crossing The Chasm: The Elevator Pitch

On-page SEO checklist For First Page Ranks

Google Adwords Conversion Tracking

Why to use Google Adwords Conversion Tracking

6 Things I learned About Dynamic Search Campaigns

All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin: Book Review

All Marketers Are Liars: Summery

Facebook Ads Attribution Problem – The Untold Story Behind The Stock Price

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind – Book Review

10 Internet Marketing Tools You MUST Use

Internet Marketing Tool #1: Google Analytics

Internet Marketing Tool #2: Alexa

Internet Marketing Tool #3: Google Suggest

Internet Marketing Tool #4: Ubersuggest

Internet Marketing Tool #5: Google Trends

Internet Marketing Tool #6: Adwords Keyword Tool

Internet Marketing Tool #7: Blogs

Internet Marketing Tool #8: BingAds Intelligence

Internet Marketing Tool #9: Open site explorer

Internet Marketing Tool #10: Crazy Eggs