Blog: Is LinkedIn Finally Ready for Social Media Marketers?

With more than 80 million users, LinkedIn has long been the top social network for the business crowd, and has grown quickly as a tool for recruiters and sales teams looking for new leads and connections. But what about brand marketing? Yes, LinkedIn has “Groups,” but they have always driven far less traffic, engagement and brand awareness than Facebook pages or Twitter—and as a result, LinkedIn has always been a something of a second-tier destination for tactical social marketing.

With the recent launch of Company Pages, LinkedIn is trying to change that.

The unique attraction of the new feature, said LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner in a press release, is to take “product and service recommendations to another level, allowing professionals to benefit from the considered perspectives of those whom they trust and relate to the most—the people they know.”

In addition to allowing written recommendations from customers and clients, Company Pages lets marketers post product listings, informative videos and online promotions, and offers targeted advertising capabilities based on users’ geographic locations and titles.

This recommendation aspect, expanding on LinkedIn’s core mission of allowing users to recommend other members, goes a step beyond the concept of “liking” or following a brand and becomes more of an endorsement. A written recommendation for a company’s products requires a significantly greater commitment, can carry more weight, and be a stronger reflection of a brand’s online popularity.

More than 3,700 companies have set up their Company Pages in the week since the program’s launch, including JetBlue, HP, AT&T and Kodak, and B2B companies seem especially excited. We recently chatted with Anna Griffin, VP of global brands and campaigns at Juniper Networks:

This is a brilliant move by LinkedIn to take a job networking opportunity and turn it into a valuable b-to-b recommendation and endorsement. When I think about what this could become…it’s going to make for a really strong recommendation platform, not just an “I Like it” or “I Digg it.”

Social marketers in both the B2B and B2C arenas will certainly test Company Page product recommendations vigorously in hopes of seeing the same viral impact offered by Facebook and Twitter. Whether marketers will see any impact at all, however, is a big question: LinkedIn is not exactly known for overwhelming engagement. And while B2B marketers might see the occasional product recommendation with Company Pages, it’s difficult to imagine seeing any significant impact on the B2C space. (Will anyone be up for recommending 3M Scotch Tape, McDonald’s Happy Meal, or Tide Original with Bleach Alternative on LinkedIn? Doubtful — especially considering they can already “Like” those on Facebook with relative ease and minimum involvement.)

Which leaves us with B2B. Is it possible that the social network’s mostly-business audience will start recommending company products like the Dickens? Sure, it’s possible. The big question is whether these recommendations will actually influence other peoples’ purchase behavior — and if it does, brand marketers may have finally found their “in” with LinkedIn.

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Blog: Online Ad Spending Buoyant in France and Spain

France and Spain saw robust growth in online ad spending during the first half of 2010, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and national Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) organizations in the two countries.

In Spain, online spending reached an estimated €377.4 million ($525.7 million) in H1 2010. This was 20.3% higher than online ad spending in the first six months of 2009, and represented 13% of ad spending in all media. The IAB/PwC figure is almost exactly half the full-year estimate for 2010 produced by eMarketer, suggesting that our view of the market’s potential this year will be borne out.

 

In France, digital channels are expected to claim 16% of all ad spending in 2010, but that will rise to 21% of total spending in 2014, IAB and PwC predicted. Online ad spending in the first half of 2010 passed €1 billion ($1.4 billion), according to several sources.

Display is enjoying a new lease of life in both France and Spain, according to IAB and PwC.

In Spain, for example, search commanded 52% of online spending in H1 2010, and total outlay on search rose 13.8% compared with H1 2009. But display was found to be growing more rapidly than search, for the first time ever, with spending up more than 28% year-on-year.

Cash-strapped Spanish advertisers typically opted for less expensive display options in early 2010. Embedded formats, including banners and skyscrapers, accounted for 51.3% of online display spending, while just 5.6% of expenditure went to expanding and floating formats.

Video advertising is crucial to rising display budgets throughout Europe, though spending levels and growth rates vary from one country to another. IAB and PwC forecast that rich media and video ads will double their share of French online revenues by 2014. In Spain, spending on video ads was up 100% in a single year. But the video ad market is inevitably much smaller than its counterpart in France, and constituted just 2.7% of online display ad spending in Spain during H1 2010.

New formats such as video encourage new measures of viewer engagement; these, in turn, are prompting marketers to rethink ad payment models. This revision is long overdue, according to PwC analysts. They found that 62.3% of display campaigns in Spain were booked on a CPM basis, while 15.3% used cost-per-acquisition or cost-per-action. Just under 13% ran for a fixed period of time and 7.3% were paid for cost-per-click. These approaches no longer reflect the reality of consumer interaction with digital media, said PwC.

For more information on recent trends in European online ad spending, read the eMarketer report, Western Europe Online Ad Spending: Leading the Recovery (October 2010).

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Advertising Project Manager Job Description

pOverview/ppThe job of an b advertising/b project manager is very demanding. He should have excellent communication skills to meet his clients and has abilities to convince the clients about the capabilities of his firm. It is his responsibility to present the product effectively before the public to increase its sales. He also makes the tactics for b advertising/b of a specific product. He is required to plan and arrange programs and b strategies/b to form efficient b advertising/b campaigns for client’s products or services./ppThe role of b advertising/b project manager/ppNowadays, the organizations and companies are getting more involved with b advertising/b agencies to commence, sponsor and sustain the existence of their products in the public. The b advertising/b agencies hire a person to administer all the above tasks to be performed by him and other employees under him. It is the duty of an b advertising/b project manager to present the product creatively before the public to increase its sale. He finds out and assesses the demand for services and products of the company to put up the needed steps and lift the demand and delivery. To accomplish his aspire he makes the b advertising/b b strategies/b for promoting the desired products accordingly./ppQualification for the job of b advertising/b project manager/ppA desired candidate must be a graduate in business management, communications, b advertising/b, journalism, liberal arts or other associated fields. In addition to this, it is preferred to have 2 to 5 years of experience in field. Some big companies prefer candidates having a degree in Post Graduation. Some b advertising/b account managers get promotion to become b advertising/b managers after several years of successful working experience./ppSkills of an b advertising/b project manager/ppAn b advertising/b manager requires some special qualities to be successful which include excellent verbal and written communication abilities, inventiveness and design creation, outstanding interpersonal abilities, sophisticated investigation and computer knowledge, acquaintance in fine arts practices, design ethics and construction procedures. His work is not restricted to managing sales with companies to discover the most efficient mode of b advertising/b products, but he is also responsible for consulting contracts with sales representatives, administering the construction of sales equipment, executing managerial and publicity division responsibilities such as media purchasing, generating copy or manufacturing media art, examining the success of ad movements and shaping steps to take if a campaign does not succeed./ppTasks of b Advertising/b project manager/ppThe major responsibility of an b advertising/b project manager is to convene with concerned customers to estimate their marketing and b advertising/b objectives. He should have sound acquaintance about the potential and proficiency of the agency he is representing. After commencing a relationship between a client and the agency, it is his task to hurl project thoughts to clients. He must be attentive to the contentment of the clients and should pay firm interest to the accomplishment of campaigns. Therefore the position of the manager requires immense intangible qualities such as patience, sociability and association./p p a href=http://htmlnewsletter.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Html NewsletterHtml Newsletter/a /p

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 11th, 2010 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Article: Search Marketers Tap Social to Boost SEO

The majority of search marketers have recognized the importance of social media to their search engine optimization efforts, according to a November 2010 study from search marketing software provider SEOmoz.

Nearly 71% of respondents said they use social media as part of their SEO strategy. Social media marketing can be an excellent driver of content visibility, by helping to keep content fresh and abundant, and also by increasing the number of inbound links a site receives.

Improving visibility was the primary reason nearly a fifth of respondents gave for doing social media marketing at all, and link building was behind the efforts of another 13.5% of them.

While search marketers also use plenty of nonsocial techniques to gain stature on engines like Google and Bing, several popular tactics have a social basis. Nearly 53% of respondents had started or grown a blog with SEO goals.

In addition, almost three in 10 search marketers had used badges, widgets or embeddable content to build links, all of which are typically used to help socialize content and make it easier for users to share with their networks. About the same number had attempted to create viral content, which relies heavily on the social web for distribution.

Keep your business ahead of the digital curve. Learn more about becoming an eMarketer Total Access client today.

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Article: Does Social Media Marketing Make Sense for the Smallest Businesses?

eMarketer estimates that 127 million people in the US, or 57.5% of internet users, will use social networks at least monthly this year. Facebook alone has over half a billion active users worldwide. Still, many of the smallest businesses don’t believe their customers can be marketed to on such sites, according to an August 2010 survey from customer review platform RatePoint.

Respondents, the majority of whom were business owners with just one to five employees, were split on whether social media was a quick way to connect with current or future customers, but sentiment was largely negative. When asked if they thought customers wanted to hear from them on social sites, only a quarter of businesses thought they did.

In addition, 20% of small businesses did not think their customers spent time on social networking sites; another 27% were undecided. And nearly a quarter did not believe their customers did research online before doing business with their company.

With a majority of US internet users on social networks, chances are the customers of even small local businesses are there. According to BIA/Kelsey and ConStat, 97% of US internet users used online media to look for local products and services in Q1 2010, and 90% used search engines. Research from comScore and TMP Directional Marketing shows that, looking for local businesses, searchers are much more likely to use a search engine than a social networking site as their primary resource, but both are used, especially among young people.

“Social media use is no longer limited to one demographic; everyone is adopting,” said Neal Creighton, CEO and co-founder of RatePoint, in a statement. “While many small-business owners are uncertain, big brands are investing heavily in social media. Social media can be a great equalizer for small businesses to compete alongside larger brands and SMBs are missing out if they are not involved.”

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New Product Launch Strategy Secrets

pA well planned new product launch b strategy/b can result in abrvery successful business. However, often people do not planbrthe product launch well enough to get enough publicity andbrgenerate enough interest in the new product. The morebrinitial buzz and interest you generate in your product thebrgreater your initial success will be and the more money youbrwill have to market your products and create an even biggerbrimpact./ppThe very first part of your new product launch b strategy/bbrshould contain a well written press release. It is verybrimportant to make your press release newsworthy. You canbrorganize a product launch at a trade show which will createbradditional buzz and interest. If you do this right you canbrgenerate substantial interest and free media coverage whichbrcould be worth tens of thousands of dollars in b advertising/b./ppThe next step of your new product launch b strategy/b is tobrannounce the product launch to your list. Your list alreadybrknows and trusts you. If it is something that interestsbrthem they will buy your product. You can create a videobrwhich advertises the benefits and this will increase thebrinterest level in the product./ppThe following step is to find suitable joint venturebrpartners. They will announce your product to their list.brYou have to offer them something in return. You can offerbraffiliate commissions or offer to send your list an emailbrannouncing their product./ppA well executed new product launch will result in anbrinitial rush of new business helping you to maintain abrstable business with a lot of cash flow. The importance ofbrthis cannot be underestimated./p p a href=http://advertisingandpromotion.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Advertising And PromotionAdvertising And Promotion/a a href=http://marketing-automation.onblogme.com/ rel=dofollow title=Marketing AutomationMarketing Automation/a /p

This entry was posted on Monday, September 27th, 2010 at 8:06 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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How to Grow Your Business Fast !

pEvery business owner naturally wants to grow his/her business fast!/ppSome businesses achieve this goal through effective marketing campaigns. But, for many others it is not so easy to take their businesses to the next level in a relatively short period of time; sometimes it takes years to acknowledge a real growth, mostly due to insufficient knowledge, resources, time and money./ppTo grow a business fast, you must utilize some of the general marketing b strategies/b listed below:/pp* You should specialize in the communications disciplines ranging from branding, design and b advertising/b to technology, financial, and corporate public relations. You have to be able to implement totally integrated marketing solutions./pp* You have to have expertise in more efficient approach to integrated marketing than your competition has./pp* You should specialize in launching strategic and creative promotional campaigns. You have to search for the big idea, which is translatable into relevant and effective communication./pp* You should compete with interactive b advertising/b specialists. You have to know how to convert your TV amp; Radio commercials into powerful interactive tools./pp* In order to dramatically increase your ability to attract the attention of the widest target audience, you should do a valuable market research while running your daily campaigns./pp* Such a market research takes tremendous amount of time, energy, and money which you might need to use in operating your everyday business./ppBeing aware of all these difficulties, you need a helping hand in such a way that you would launch interactive b advertising/b and marketing campaigns promoting your Web site. An experienced marketing manager, or an established marketing and b advertising/b company can provide you with the assistance you might need./ppYou will also need to submit your website to high traffic search engines, directories, b advertising/b and marketing portals you can find all over the Internet./ppYou can also take advantage of the new blessings on the Internet which have been used by online marketers like crazy in the recent times. RSS amp; weblogs (blogs); powerful marketing tools loved by search engines, many of which are currently provided at no cost. If you utilize them properly and daily, or at least once a week, they would send thousands of visitors and potential customers to your website every month./ppMore visitors generate more sales and more profits. Everybody knows this simple fact. To attract more visitors to your website and business, you should use as many marketing methods as you can./ppIn addition to RSS feeds and blogs, articles and press releases are still used actively by online marketers as powerful marketing tools to get fr.ee publicity./ppStart to write articles amp; press releases today without wasting your precious time. Time is money, you know! Write twenty-five articles and publish them on one page at your website. Because, after you send out an article, many newsletter, magazine, e-zine, website publishers would want to visit your website in order to get some more articles for their publications./ppWhen they cannot find another informative article written by you, they would get disappointed about your professionalism, and go to another editor’s website./ppBecause word of mouth spread around very fast, you might lose your potential, and even existing customers in a very short period of time./ppIf you don’t have time to write so many articles and press releases, you can hire a copywriter, a ghostwriter inexpensively, as many other businesses do, or an b advertising/b company would do all the b advertising/b for your business./ppThere are many b advertising/b and marketing companies offering perfect services at affordable prices./ppFortune 500 Companies and higher, frequently issue press releases despite they have great reputation and huge number of customers. They know, depending on their own business experiences that they should continue to market and advertise their businesses constantly, in order to keep their existing customers and attract more and more clients to grow their ventures; otherwise they would lose their chances to live in the business world./ppIssuing articles and press releases are extremely powerful, at the same time most inexpensive ways of marketing businesses to reach tremendous number of target audience./ppCompanies, and small businesses alike, frequently use press releases and articles to keep their relations with media alive, since media is the most attractive and prestigious bridge between them and their existing and potential customers./ppYou must definitely use these four marketing b strategies/b to grow your business real fast: Blog Marketing, RSS Feeds, Article Marketing, and Press Releases. This is a proven fact!/p p a href=http://htmlnewsletter.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Html NewsletterHtml Newsletter/a a href=http://marketing-automation.onblogme.com/ rel=dofollow title=Marketing AutomationMarketing Automation/a a href=http://advertisingandpromotion.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Advertising And PromotionAdvertising And Promotion/a /p

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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