Mobile and Facebook: Don’t Get Ready, BE Ready

Posted on July 4, 2012 by technostrategy in Social Media | 71 Comments

On February 29th, Facebook revealed big plans for the mobile platform, including that the new Timeline format for brands will also be available on the mobile platform. The game changing updates mean that for users of other social media marketing platforms, the message for 2012 will be: we need to get ready for mobile.

Let’s recap the announcements Facebook made and what they mean for your brand:
Timeline for brands will also be functional in the mobile platform (but will be made available at an unspecified date in 2012)

Implications for brands: Where brands can currently launch mobile-optimized marketing campaigns that users can access from their smart devices, soon users will be able to experience the same exact workflow on their desktop as on their smart phone. The new Timeline format for brands, once available on the mobile network, will enable page managers to curate an identical experience for all users, regardless of how they’re accessing branded content on Facebook. This means a big impact on your brand’s reach, especially as we consider that nearly half of the active Facebook user population interacts with the network from their mobile device.
Sponsored Stories now appear in the mobile feed as well

Implications for brands: To date, there has been no advertising reach to any Facebook users on mobile devices. In light of the fact that approximately 450 million Facebook users interact with the network using a mobile device, this was an enormous opportunity lost to marketers— until now. Sponsored Story ad units are the only ones being released to mobile Timelines— this means that promoting these “organic word of mouth” advertising units will become a major part of every marketers mission.

In a sense, it’s a bit silly to call 2012 the Year of Mobile because every year since the release of Apple’s ill-fated Newton has been the Year of Mobile. We have always been moving toward computing devices that are smaller, faster, and cheaper. According to research by Morgan Stanley, the number of people who access the Internet primarily from mobile devices will surpass desktop users sometime in 2013.

Make a Wish in Leap Second 2012!

Posted on June 28, 2012 by technostrategy in Marketing | 389 Comments

On June 30 2012 at 23:59:60 UTC a leap second will make the day one second longer. The leap second is inserted between 23:59:59 and 00:00:00 UTC to compensate for variations in the rotation of the Earth.

Most clocks will just ignore the leap second, but Time.is will count all the way up to 60 seconds!

The leap second does not occur on June 30 everywhere! The date and time depends on your time zone. In Trabzon the leap second will occur at 02:59:60 1 Temmuz 2012, Pazar. To check other locations, use the search box above.

Remember to set your clock one second back after the leap second! http://time.is/leapsecond2012

I believe this motto or I want to believe in this, this is a given extra second! So I ll make a wish for a better world, please share this !

Finally, Facebook is Declining!

Posted on April 23, 2012 by technostrategy in Marketing | 60 Comments

Facebook’ s huge growth is against to business books. We havent been told this at college. No company can gain profit over profit. Now, they announced that their first-quarter earnings and revenue declined from the fourth quarter, as a surge in spending on marketing and product research ahead of its initial public offering.

For the March ended quarter, Facebook posted total revenue of $1.06 billion up 45% from the same period last year but down 6% from the fourth quarter. The sequential decline in revenue came despite a steady increase in monthly active users to 901 million, from 845 million in December.

The social network, which makes the majority of its revenue from advertising, has attracted some potential investors for the rocketing growth of its advertising business, but encountered some seasonality in that business.

Facebook, in its regulatory filing, said average revenue per user, or ARPU, declined 12% from the fourth quarter. The company attributed the decline to “seasonal trends” and the fact that user growth was higher in markets where it generates less revenue per user.

Smartphones Will Generate 25% Of Paid-Search Ads Click By Dec 2012

Posted on March 29, 2012 by technostrategy in PR & Ads | 72 Comments

It’s easy to forget that, despite the massive growth of smartphones in recent years, mobile marketing is still relatively young and marketers are still trying to get to grips with the format. However, its importance for marketers continues to grow and while it’s far too early to say whether it’ll explode like some analysts are suggesting, it’s still a sector that will continue to expand over the coming years. The latest report relating to this, most specifically search advertising, comes from search marketers Marin Software and its report “The State of Mobile Search Advertising In the US”.

As part of their findings, Marin has estimated that by December 2012, mobile devices will account for roughly 25 per cent of all paid-search clicks on Google. Marin also estimate that of the total ad spent that Google will receive, 23 per cent of this will originate from mobile campaigns, 45 per cent of this figures will originate from tablet devices.

Another area that was analysed was the click through rate (CTR) and the cost per click (CPC) across the different devices. For 2011, smartphones had the highest average CTR with 4.12 per cent in comparison to desktops which only had 2.39 per cent, showing that smartphone users were more likely to click on ads. Also the average CPC was found to be cheaper for smartphones too ($0.53 per click), the average CPC for desktops was found to be $0.83 per click.

However the parts were smartphones begin to falter is in the conversion and the cost of conversion. Both tablets and desktop computers outperformed smartphones in average conversion rate, (smartphones have an average conversion rate of 2.0 per cent in comparisons to desktop’s 5.2 per cent), as well as having a higher average cost per conversion.

However, despite these findings, Marin say that more research and analysis is required before any conclusions can be brought forward:

“Being inherently mobile, smartphones are used differently and many of their conversions could happen in a physical store, making them harder to track. Additionally, the rise of shopping apps makes conversion tracking more complex. As such, the value of smartphone advertising is more dependent on the type of advertiser and product, and marketers should keep an open mind about their efficacy.”

Although it’s hard to say how exactly mobile advertising will pan out, a theory for the higher click through rates could be because that while desktop ads on Google are numerous and smaller, smartphone ads take up the entire screen as Google Ads are usually the first two results you see whenever you search for something.

Top 20 Sites of Turkey- February 2012

Posted on March 22, 2012 by technostrategy in Technology

Google, Facebook, Youtube and Windows Live still dominate Turkish web market in February 2012.

Continue reading : http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/TR

Why Twitter bought Tumblr's biggest rival, Posterous

Posted on March 14, 2012 by technostrategy in Strategy | 1 Comment

When Twitter buys a startup, it’s often after the company’s staff, not its product — which makes Twitter’s latest takeover one of its most intriguing. Twitter announced late Monday that it has acquired blogging platform Posterous.

Launched in 2008, Posterous — like its archrival Tumblr — pioneered the “microblogging” space. Its specialty is content that’s longer than a tweet but shorter than a traditional blog post. The services are especially good for sharing photos, videos, quotes and other multimedia snippets. Posterous’ staff of 21 previously worked out of a San Francisco headquarters just two miles from Twitter’s home base. They joined Twitter’s staff this week.

Is Twitter looking to venture beyond its famous 140-character limit, into the broader microblogging world?

The early signs are no. Twitter is keeping Posterous up and running, at least for the time being, but its staff is being redeployed on other projects. “We are welcoming a very talented group of engineers, product managers and others,” a Twitter spokeswoman said. “They will be working on several initiatives that will make Twitter even better.”

2011 Was the Year of the Mobile Consumer, What’s in Store for 2012? Value

Posted on March 11, 2012 by technostrategy in Strategy | 5 Comments

2011 saw a surge in mobile users, but 2012 is the year when smartphone owners become the majority of users, currently hovering just below 50% of U.S. mobile phone users. Tablets, too, take center stage with a near 24% CAGR in adoption.

Tablets comprise 7% of population of all mobile devices owners
Android users spend on average 1.24 hours daily engaging with the device
77% of smartphone users put their phone to work while shopping
58% of adults are somewhat or very likely to make a purchase on their smartphone (this will only become standard one day)

One of the biggest areas impacted by this constant change in market dynamics is of course retail. This past holiday season only proved the point. Consumers scanned barcodes or QR codes to check prices nearby and online. And, before they would consider finalizing the purchase, they would ask for a little help from their friends by taking to social networks or review sites to validate decisions.

Avoiding Mistakes and How to Win

1. Align mobile with other key teams

Winning mobile teams are tightly aligned with marketing loyalty programs (if applicable) and e-commerce teams. For example, Starbucks built its wildly successful application not around revenue or loyalty card adhesion, but instead around ease of purchase.

2. Focus on what the user needs

Mobile strategies should be holistic and remain focused on what users are seeking. Informational apps may seem simple in design, but a solid strategy seeks to solve the “information” problem, not just the “mobile” problem.

3. Allocate the resources necessary to make mobile successful

Allocation of the necessary resources at U.S. pharmacy and convenience retailer Walgreens is at the forefront of everything the company does in mobile. The Walgreens app used the mobile device’s camera to scan a prescription barcode to initiate a refill, is an example of “multichannel lite” activity.

4. Mobile means multiple platforms

One of the few retailers profiled that has built a tablet and smartphone version of its app along with a fully featured mobile website, Zappos, worked many processes in parallel to get its application off the ground.

Understanding Twitter Business Model Design

Posted on March 10, 2012 by technostrategy in Social Media | 1 Comment

Twitter is one of the most popular Social Networking Site (SNS) and Micro-blogging platform in the world. It enables its users to share text messages with a length constraint of 140 characters. These messages (aka tweets) are publically visible, by default. Any user can subscribe to tweets from other users by following them. Users can tweet through Twitter website or Twitter clients and apps for desktops, tablets, or smartphones.

Twitter started as a service in 2006. It gained immense popularity in 2009-10. As on 8 Sep 2011, as per Twitter official blog, Twitter had 100 Million active users. More than half of them logged in each day. As on 26 Jan 2012, as per Twitter official blog, 1 Billion tweets were send every four days, which means 250 Million tweets were shared every day.

With so many users connected to the platform and using it on a regular basis, it is becoming an attractive destination for the advertisers. Unlike other SNS websites, Twitter hasn’t yet started offering the option of ‘Display Ads’ to the advertisers. Instead, it has provided them with the following innovative ways to reach the users: Promoted Accounts – Businesses can scale up their follower-base through Promoted Accounts product. The promoted account appears in search results and within the ‘Who to Follow’ section (powered by Twitter’s account recommendation engine). Promoted Accounts are offered through Cost-Per-Follow (CPF) auction, where a business is charged when a user converts into a follower. Promoted Tweets – Businesses can promote key messages through Search Results to the non-followers of their account. Promoted Tweets can also be targeted at followers of a business or at the users having similar profile to that of a follower. Promoted Tweets are offered through Cost-Per-Engagement (CPE) auction, where engagement is defined as click, favorite, retweet, or reply of a promoted tweet. Promoted Trends – Businesses can leverage Promoted Trends product to scale conversations and build mass awareness. Trends reflect hottest topics of discussion during a moment. They appear next to a user’s timeline. Promoted Trends appear at the top in the Trends section.

Twitter is an example of a multi-sided platform. Twitter has built an App ecosystem. Twitter offers APIs that help developers build third party apps. Twitter for Websites (TfW) allows easy integration of twitter into websites with Tweet and Follow buttons. Search API allows a user to query Twitter content and find tweets meeting a search criterion. REST API allows access to core Twitter objects such as timelines, status updates, and user information. Streaming API provides real-time access to Twitter firehose. It helps developers with data-intensive needs.

Twitter business goal is simple: Increase the number of users using the service. This will help attract more advertisers. While third-party apps help increase website traffic and content usage, Twitter has entered into different kinds of partnerships to increase awareness and drive more users to the service. Here are 4 kinds of Partnerships that Twitter has entered into:

Search Vendors – Twitter licenses full feed of public tweets to search engine vendors such as Microsoft (Bing Social), Google (Google Realtime), and Yahoo. This helps in enabling real-time search and discovery. Device Vendors – Twitter partnered with Apple to enable deep integration of Twitter in iOS5 mobile operating system for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. This means users can tweet directly from Apple apps such as Camera, Photos, and Safari, along with third-party apps such as Flipboard, Livingsocial, and Instagram. Media – Twitter has entered into partnerships with companies such as Mass Relevance and Crimson Hexagon to help media companies and brands deliver compelling Twitter integration to their users more easily. This can help media companies capture real-time reactions to the important news. Though these partnerships are not major source of revenue, they help in expanding user base. Additional visibility drives further growth for Twitter. Mobile operators – Twitter has partnered with Telecom operators across the globe to enable users to send and receive tweets from mobile phones using SMS.

The State of the Twitterverse 2012

Posted on March 2, 2012 by technostrategy in Social Media

A Brief History of Twitter

July 2006 – Twttr’s hatched (Yes that’s how it was originally spelled), by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone

July 2007 – Raises $1 million, valued at $5 million

November 2008 – President-elect Barack Obama thanks his Twitter followers

2009 – 2 billion Tweets per day, Twitter raises $35 million

Dec 2010 – Raises $200 million, now valued at $3.7 billion

2011 – 100 million active users sending 33 billion Tweets per day

The Top 3 Countries for Twitter

1. United States – 107.7 million

2. Brasil – 33.3 million

3. Japan – 29.9 million

Top Factors You Didn’t Know About Twitter

1. Twitter’s projected ad revenue in 2012 is $259 million

2. Projected ad revenue by 2014 is $540 million

3. 11 Twitter accounts created every second

4. 1 million accounts opened every day

A blog by @Technostrategy

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