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Just as Google is currently dominating desktop computers, Apple’s iAd will work to dominate the mobile world. Weeks before its scheduled launch on July 1^st, Apple has already taken more than $60m in bookings for its new iAd mobile Web marketing platform.

The service – which will offer advertising inside mobile apps, initially on the iPhone and iPod Touch – promises to combine the emotion of TV advertising with the interactivity of internet advertising. Apple says the deals it has already secured represent almost half of the total forecasted mobile ad spend in the US for the second half of 2010.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said: “iAd offers advertisers the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web, and offers users a new way to explore ads without being hijacked out of their favorite apps. iAds will reach millions of iPhone and iPod Touch users, a highly desirable demographic for advertisers, and provide developers [with] a new way to earn money so they can continue developing free and low-cost applications.”

Apple, which launched the fourth generation of the iPhone yesterday, has attracted brands including Unilever, AT&T, Best Buy, Campbell Soup, Chanel, Citi, Nissan, Walt Disney and Turner Broadcasting.

The new mobile advertising platform is designed to allow web developers to create in-app advertising. Currently anyone who clicks on an advert in a downloadable app is bounced out of it and on to the advertiser’s webpage. A Web development can keep 60% of all the revenue that is made through the use of iAd and Apple will get the rest.

The mobile advertising market represents a massive revenue stream, and the $60 million stat only reinforces the potential takeway that Apple could pocket from their move into the arena.

Do you think these big name advertisers are making the right move? 

How do you grade your social media? Is it by the number of fans or followers you have? A common mistake that many internet marketers are guilty of is believing that a successful social media campaign is based on the quantity of followers you have. Just like your website, driving traffic and increasing visitors to your website is important, but keeping the users there and  improving conversion is key to a successful social media campaign. Within your social media practices you must find a way to keep your fans engaged.

Below are tips to keeping your fans engaged:

1.    Be Transparent
Transparency is how the community feeling is formed. Being transparent in social media is letting others inside of your organization and showing the side of you that makes everyone feel a little more comfortable in their own skin.

2.    Treat your Fans like a Customer
If you are participating in social media, you have taken on the responsibility of putting your business in social media. While you think that facebook and twitter are all fun and games, your customers are using this as a personal medium to discuss real things with you. Treat each and every fan as if they were a customer in the store, on the phone, etc.
3.    Treat your fans every once in awhile
Your fans are your best marketing tool. Make sure you are paying them accordingly. Offer them free stuff or exclusive invitations. Sure, some people enjoy talking because they like the sound of their own voice. But if you want something well thought out that will attract others, offer your fans a prize and they will take off from there.

4.    Be an expert in your industry
If you are only posting coupon codes and sales promotions, fans will become bored and annoyed quickly. Show them that you know everything there is to know about your industry, which includes posting interesting articles and promoting events. Soon your followers will turn to you for your expert opinion and know that you are who they can trust when it comes to what you do.

As 2009 comes to a close, the team here at St. Louis Web Marketing would like to thank you for being apart of the Internet Marketing Industry. This is challenging business with new things to learn and capture every single day. It is stressful at times, but always rewarding and we are all so lucky to be apart of it. We appreciate your continued support and would like to wish you Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year.

May 2010 bring you advanced SEO tools, analytics packages, and plenty of Facebook Fans!

A clever Holiday Rhyme from The Net Impact that all of us in the industry can truly appreciate.

Its official! The Holiday season has begun. Get ready for battling for a parking space, never ending coupon codes and e-mail blasts galore. But, will new trends like smart phones and social media affect the way people shop? Sure, online holiday shopping is nothing new and either is Facebook, Twitter or cell phones, but as these digital forces continue to get stronger, there are sure to be some changes in retail trends.

Facebook and Twitter users are growing at a rapid pace and so are the features that they offer. This year it seems like doing holiday shopping via social media sites is extremely convenient and beneficial to the consumer. Facebook allows you to fan your favorite brands and see what kind of deals they have going on without ever leaving Facebook. Twitter’s trending topics helps you stay in the know, as well as be on top of the hot gift ideas. As published by Emarkter, 27% of online shoppers will turn to social networks for gift ideas and 45% will use social networks to research items, compare prices, and look for offers.

Smart phones really benefit the bargain shopper. With a browser on your cell phone you can be browsing the ads to your favorite store or be holding a product in your hand in one store, but be checking the price of it at another. iPhone has an unbelievable $1.99 application that allows you to scan a product barcode and it will look to find a better price somewhere else.  During the holidays people are always out to get the best deal and smart phones make price research easy on the go.

Whether you do your Holiday shopping online or in-store, digital media provides you with the tools you need to get the best gift ideas and deals.

If you’re a retailer, take this information and run with it. This is not the end of the social media trend. Get your facebook page up to date with custom pages and post deals on a daily basis. Participate in Twitter and blogs, this is how you get your name into those trending topics.  And, make sure your website is capable for all browsers (even cell phones).

Keep an eye out for more posts about social media and search engine marketing during the holidays. If you need any assistance in these areas, contact The Net Impact.

Talking yourself into participating in social media wasn’t too bad, now you’re trying to talk everyone else into it. You should be prepared with some good responses for objections…there will be objections. I already touched on a few protests, so we will continue in Part 2 to discuss how to respond when someone anti-social media raises doubts.
How do you quantify exposure?
Facebook provides its fans pages with insights that allow you to track page views, fan growth, and quality of posts. It also shows demographics of your fans that help you target your facebook campaign. It really is a neat tool to look at when you are developing your social media campaign. For example, you can look back and see that on a certain date you had a huge increase in fan views. I would recommend looking at what you posted that day or what special you were announcing, etc. This was obviously something that your fans liked and you should continue to execute meaningful posts like that one. The same goes for reversed responses. When you see that your page views fall dramatically or your unsubscribed fan numbers are growing, take a look and see what was happening that day and see to it that does not happen again.
There are also sites that provide Twitter statistics, providing insight into tweet impressions. You can see exactly how many people saw a specific tweet as well as your growth of followers.
Your website’s analytics can track exactly where your viewers are coming from. This means you will know when visitors are being sent from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or your blog. This can provide you with trending and performance information on customers referred by your social sites.
The same analytics that you have set for your website can be set for your blog. This means that you can see how many views it is getting, how often it is referring visitors to your site, as well as how they are finding your blog. Using blog and website analytics in conjunction can provide you with insight into user interaction with your blog posts, as well as the information they are most interested in.

We want people to come to our store, not our site.
Social media sites do drive a ton of traffic to your site, but that does not mean it isn’t doing what any other form of advertising does. With facebook posts and blogs you are still letting your customers know why they should get off the computer and get into your store. There are different ways of executing this. Its a great idea to give employees the opportunity to become administrators of your social media efforts. Let your individual stores or managers post and tweet about the specials they have going on. Let a passionate salesman tell his story in a blog about why he loves the industry he is in. Encourage employees to be in the YouTube videos that show why your products are the best. Provide your fans with exclusive benefits like coupons to be used in your store. As you can see, advertising done through social media allows for a more casual environment and lets customers feel comfortable and part of your community. Done properly, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogging, and web pages can be very beneficial to store traffic as well as online sales.

Remember these objections and answers when you are discussing social media with decision makers. Please feel free to post any concerns or questions in our comments section. We would love to hear your feedback about social media.

You’ve done your research and you know that it’s time for you to integrate social media into your marketing campaign. You’ve got your whole team on board and excited for the new changes, except for that one person. That person is probably a little old fashioned, probably one of those that claimed the internet is just a fad. That person is probably very passionate about their job and doesn’t feel comfortable taking a risk like social media without some proof that it will benefit the company. That person may have some questions that you don’t have the answers to. Here are the answers to some common questions and concerns that an anti-social media employee may have.
How are we even going to get followers?
Adding links from your webpage and to your email template, asking your viewers to “Follow us on Twitter”, “Become a Fan on Facebook”, and “Subscribe to our Blog” is an easy way to let the people that you are already in contact with know they can keep in touch on a more casual level by adding you to their social network.  This will not only increase your number of fans, but it will increase the quality of fans. Also, Facebook’s news feed feature allows friends of followers to see that your company has a  fan page. The more friends your followers have, the more people that are being exposed to your fan page.

Being a part social networking communities increases your brand’s exposure through each outlet. Someone may first come across your blog, which directs them to your site, where they can become a friend on Facebook, and they can then receive a coupon to use in store.

What if someone posts something negative about our company?
Negativity can be out there whether or not you take part in social media. However, by supplying the outlet for negative comments, you are providing a secure and manageable space. You are able to respond to a negative remark and turn it to a positive. It has been proven that negative publicity that has not been addressed tends to remain negative and spread like wildfire. Negative comments that are addressed and mended quickly are appreciated and make for great publicity. Here is a great example of a negative comment turned into a positive.

Without social media, this great publicity would have never been seen and maybe the Zappos would have never been able to address this person complaint in the first place.
There are more questions and concerns that “that person” may have. Check back for Part 2 as I discuss how to quantify exposure and how to create your campaign if you have a brick and mortar store rather than online purchases.

Flickr has become one of the most popular image sharing sites and currently hosts more than 4 billion images. Flickr is such an easy way to store photos, share them with family and friends, and even enhance traffic to your website.

How does Flickr drive traffic to my site?

Just like any other form of social media, Flickr is a great tool that sends traffic exactly where you direct it. Placing images on Flickr can be just as beneficial as uploading videos to YouTube. However, just like your YouTube videos, blogs, and tags, uploading images to Flickr is only beneficial if you optimize your images.

How do you optimize images for Flickr?

• Give your image a descriptive title.
• After you upload your photos, be sure to add tags. Tags are the keywords that describe your image. Be sure to use tags that you think people are searching for.
• Give a quality description with searched keywords. Be sure to always begin the description with your sites URL. This is an easy way to remind viewers where to go next.
• Create thematic sets. Try to organize your photos in to the proper set so there are even more contextual clues provided to the search engine crawlers.

Seems simple right? That’s because it is. Flickr provides you with the space you need to upload your photos and provide the tools for optimization. Be sure to check your Google Analytics Account and see just how many visitors you start getting from Flickr.

Will the growing popularity of social media sites end the need for a website?

Absolutely not. The real time attribute of social media is something that your website can not contribute to the online community. However, your website still offers so much more than any social site can match. The Net Impact, a web marketing company in St. Louis, agrees that social media is an important enhancement to online presence, but not the sole contributor.

“Think of social networks as a friendly gateway to your company website or microsite. Seeding your site with social networks spreads content far and wide through search engines, as well as through contacts who are already a part of your social networking communities – places where rapport has already been established. People tend to share their experiences, good or bad, with their social networking communities – people they have built a connection with. So find out where your audience’s conversations are taking place and establish a strong presence. When social media sites are operated effectively they have the power to steer your audience to your website, resonate with your visitors, humanize your brand and deliver content to the masses in the click of a mouse.”

Social media is what brings the online community full circle. Linking your facebook posts to Twitter, your YouTube videos to Facebook, your RSS Feed to microsites, and so on. The key is that all of these should ultimately link back to your website and drive desirable traffic. Social Media is important, very important, but without a website your brand would be running around in circles. Social media is growing rapidly, but your website shouldn’t be going anywhere.

Plan- There is much more to Search Engine Optimization than just stuffing keywords on to a website. A good SEO Company will plan out a strategy specific to your site. They know that there isn’t a cookie cutter SEO plan for everyone and will do the research needed to devise the perfect strategy for you.
Educate- Search Engines and their algorithm methods are constantly changing. SEO companies must stay educated of these changes, because these small alterations can make all the difference in results.  The SEO Company must stay educated and also be able to inform their clients of the changes that may affect them.
Remembering Sales- Many SEO companies are only concerned with rankings. A good SEO company is concerned with the overall growth of sales for your company. They will analyze things other than rankings, such as traffic, conversion, and revenue.
Focus- A great site is more than just good keywords. The navigation path, following compliance codes, and architecture of your site are just as important when trying to provide a great site. It is crucial for an SEO company to remember to focus on all of these things when developing a strategy for you.
Exchange- The SEO Company and the client should be exchanging words and thoughts on a regular basis. Without communication, neither the client nor the company is getting the full benefits of working together.
Compromise- An SEO Company may often get frustrated when a client chooses not to or is unable to implement their recommendations. However, a good SEO Company will understand that compromise is essential and will be satisfied with the decision or work with the client to find a better solution.
Test- SEO is an ongoing process that requires a lot of attention, even after the recommendations have been implemented. Testing is necessary to see if things are taking the right path and helps provide information of what should be done in the future. A good SEO Company is always testing, reviewing, and re-strategizing.
If your SEO Company is not PERFECT or your looking for one who is check out The Net Impact.

Businesses are shifting their budgets and strategies from traditional advertising and jumping on the Social Media bandwagon. Can you blame them? This is where the industry is headed and where money is being made. However, just because it is the trend, it doesn’t mean that you are prepared to jump on quite yet. Here is a checklist to help you decide if you are ready to be participating in social media:

• Do you know what you want from social media? Are you looking for more leads, traffic, conversions, or brand awareness?  Are you trying to build a better relationship with current customers or reach a new market? The sooner you understand what you want to achieve from using social media, the sooner you will be able to build a better social media strategy.  Just like your mother said “if everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you jump too”?  You should know your reasons and goals for social media before you “jump off the bridge”.
• What kind of social media do you have in mind? People just assume that social media is Facebook and Twitter. Those are two great social media sites that can help out your business, but don’t forget about blog rolls, media sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr, and directory sites. Social media is a large pond, so you must be prepared to jump all in and not just wet your toes.
• How will you encourage participation? Talking to a wall isn’t exactly entertaining or useful whatsoever. If you are using social media, but do not have a strategy for encouraging participation, that is basically what you are doing. The wonderful thing about social media is that it allows interactions and a casual interface for conversation about your brand. You must embrace this gift or social media is pretty pointless for your business.
• Do you have the resources to maintain your accounts? Social media can be very time consuming and will absorb many of your resources. You should have a person, team, or company designated to maintain your social media accounts.  They should be there to post real time updates and interact with your followers.  With out the proper resources you may find yourself overwhelmed or dragging behind in your campaign.

So you are ready to jump on the band wagon as well and begin your social media campaign. Check out The Net Impact for assistance in your social media efforts.