New Targeting Options for Facebook Posts

For those Facebook Page admins out there, you will be happy to know that you can now target your posts to specific audiences based on gender, relationships status, education, interests and more. This is a fairly new option for page posts, which has also been referred to as “hypertargeting.”

Hypertargeting can help you get more engagement on your posts because they can be tailored to a defined audience and will only be seen by that audience in their News Feed. The post will still be able to be seen by everyone in your Timeline, but you won’t annoy your fans – and risk negative feedback – by posting information in their News Feed that is not relevant to them.

To segment your audience, before you publish your post, click the compass icon on the left. Then, click on “Add Targeting” to reveal a drop down menu with the following options:

• Gender
• Relationship Status
• Educational Status
• Interested In
• Age
• Location
• Language

For each option you choose, another drop down menu will appear on the right where you can select your criteria. You can even choose a custom age range.  You will also see “Targeted to” on the right with the number of fans that have the possibility of seeing your post. As you select your targets, the number will change based on the number of fans who fit the target.

Have you tried targeting your Facebook posts and tailoring the message to a specific audience segment? Let us know your results in the comments below.

10 Eye-Opening Mobile Usage Statistics of Consumers

Throughout the typical day, how often do you have your cell phone within arm’s reach? I’m guessing if the phone isn’t in your pocket then it is sitting right next to you. Keeping your own phone usage behavior in mind, more often consumers are using multiple screens to get what they need. A consumer’s search is no longer limited to the desktop.

The smartphone has become an extension of many of us above all else. As a result, when you need to find something, you are more than likely going to grab your smartphone and initiate the search.

In a recent Google study, they provided insights into just how impactful a mobile-friendly site is when turning visitors into customers. Let’s check out 10 eye-opening statistics:

1. 61% of people said that they’d quickly visit another site if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site

2. 67% of people are more likely to buy from a mobile-friendly site, so if that site is not yours, it’s your competitors

3. 96% of people say they’ve encountered sites that were clearly not designed for mobile devices even though nearly 75% of people prefer a mobile-friendly site

4. 74% of people say they’re more likely to return to a mobile-friendly site in the future

5. 67% of people say that they’re more likely to buy a site’s product or service when they visit a mobile-friendly site

6. 50% of people said that even if they like a business, they will use them less often if the website isn't mobile-friendly

7. 48% of people say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that’s not mobile-friendly

8. 36% of people said they felt like they’ve wasted their time by visiting sites that are not mobile-friendly

9. 52% of people said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company

10. 48% of people said that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business

These statistics clearly illustrate the opportunity for your business to give consumers what your competitors perhaps aren't. How do you see your business evolving with mobile?

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Image credit: melbow

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents: Social Media and Your Brand

We've explored countless ways to infuse a social campaign for brands and businesses, but what about the individual? This webinar explores the involvement of social media and what it means in your personal world. If you're on the job search or simply need help adjusting your own efforts, this webinar is perfect for you.

Click here to register:
http://bit.ly/yourbrandregister


About Heather Briggs:


I am a brand strategist who loves to explore the human aspects of business development and marketing. I work with people-focused initiatives and organizations to develop brands that are heart-centered, people-driven and socially innovative. My goal is to achieve clarity around vision, values and brand positioning so that marketing and design objectives are in alignment with these driving principles. I work directly with a my clients on a variety of projects and am currently in the process of developing online courses and training in the field of brand strategy and social media.

Click here to register:http://bit.ly/yourbrandregister

Twitter Announces Changes to Header, No More 3rd Party Image Apps

Twitter made some changes this week that were met with less-than-enthusiastic fanfare from its estimated 140 million active users. The big news is the new profile, which allows you to update your header photo above your tweets with a Facebook Timeline-like image. A recent post by Marketing Land gives a step- by-step tutorial on updating your Twitter header. In addition, a photo stream will now appear below a user’s most recent tweets on iPhone, Android and iPad.

The changes seem to be mostly aimed at mobile users, and as one twitter user pointed out, “who uses the web interface anyway?” According to Twitter’s blog, your background image on Twitter.com will still be present, but the new header is supposed to enhance the user experience, and supports simplicity and consistency on iPhone, Android and iPad, which seems to be a goal of Twitter and leads us to the next big change.

At the same time the new header announcement was made, Twitter dropped its thrid party image hosts from its official apps and launched new versions of its own iOS and Android apps. This has left a bad taste for many users who feel that Twitter is turning its back on those companies that helped make the platform bigger and better, as evidenced by the comments below this Mashable article.

Have you updated your Twitter header? Send us a link to your profile and tell us what you think of the changes. 

@TodayShow updated its header in time for Twitter's big announcement, which was made on their show Tuesday morning

New Google AdWords Feature Allows Shared Budgets

If you ever hoped that AdWords would allow you to share your daily budgets across all of your campaigns within one account, that time is now. Google released a new feature that may make administering budgets across an account effortless.

You can find this feature in the “Shared Library” section under Budgets. Here you can also review reporting for aggregate performance metrics for multiple campaigns with a shared budget.

Although shared budgets is portrayed as a way to make your life easier when monitoring your campaigns, I am concerned about how the budget will be distributed across the campaigns. Since Google is automatically adjusting the budgets, how will you ensure one campaign doesn’t eat into the budget of another? Will it give the other campaigns a fair test?

Depending on your AdWords objectives, this feature may make sense. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Image credit: 401(K) 2012

The Top 5 Trends for Optimization to Increase ROI

Adobe recently released results of the 2012 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey in which they compiled global responses from over 1,700 digital marketers. The survey reports that digital marketers need to excel in four key areas to achieve success: social, mobile, personalization and the customer experience. The survey also uncovered areas of opportunity for improving conversion through optimization and, in turn, improving your ROI.

The five biggest trends for achieving optimum conversion are:

1.       Make optimization a strategic process – with just a few small adjustments, double-digits lifts in conversion can be achieved, resulting in deeper customer loyalties and a greater competitive advantage. 

2.       Utilize a data-driven approach to optimization – balance acquisition and optimization efforts to drive higher returns and include tactics like optimized site search, personalization, automated recommendations and testing.

3.       Implement a video marketing plan – video can educate, entertain and engage customers; 61% of survey respondents named video as one of the top rich media features to focus conversion efforts on this year.

4.       Optimize mobile channels – customer experiences that are device-appropriate will generate a higher ROI, especially for tablet users. Adobe’s survey found that consumers who access retail websites via tablets spend more than customers on other devices or computers and are 3 times more likely than smartphone visitors to make a purchase.

5.       Capitalize on social engagement - encourage social sharing within your social media networks and implement tools for moderating and measuring your social media channels.

You can download the survey results here. Strategic optimization can boost conversion rates through the entire sales funnel. Is there any room for improvement in your customers’ experience?

How Consumers Use Multiple Screens to Get What They Need

In our “always on the go” lifestyles, consumers have evolved their digital consumption behaviors to reflect our current multi-screen worlds.

As a result, it’s imperative that you understand consumers’ behaviors across the multiple platforms. In Google’s new report, The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-Platform Consumer Behavior, they provide the statistic that 90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that’s on smartphones, PCs, tablets or TV.

What does the multi-screen approach mean exactly? Say for example that you need to book a dinner reservation for a big meeting. You start searching on your smartphone for the best hot spots in town to get a better idea of where to host the meeting. Later on in the morning, you continue the search on your laptop now that you are in the office. And finally, once you have the perfect restaurant in mind, you book the reservation on your PC later on that night. The multi-screen approach proved to be more convenient in your search for the ideal restaurant.

The importance of structuring your online presence for mobile, tablets and multiple screens becomes more of a necessity every day. It’s crucial that you understand how consumers want to interact with your brand and adapt to those needs.

Google’s full research report explains further useful statistics and findings on the topic.

How is your business accommodating this behavior?

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Image Credit: lorisflickr

New Google+ Business Features

Do you have a Google+ account yet for your business? Although some debate on whether or it's a useful social media platform, it's always a good idea to get control of your branding across as many major social media sites as possible - especially because someone else may snap up your desired brand name if you don't. Here are some of the features that Google is introcducing:

• Control the privacy of your organization's posts - individual posts can be shared internally or with specified outside parties.
• Google+ Hangouts now allows you to video conference up to 10 people at once - how's that for simplifying meetings?
• Meetings can be made more private with custom default settings for company posts within the admin controls.
• More features are on their way over the next few months!

Does your business have a Google+ account? Do you find it a useful marketing tool?

InternetMarketingClub.org presents: How to Create an Instagram Marketing Campaign

We are pleased to present another installment of the Wednesday Webinar series with Justin and Roxanne of TPG. These two will be discussing the advantages of creating an Instagram marketing campaign, a further extension of our past two weeks of presentations. Not quite sure how the social image application can help your current marketing campaigns? Tune in this Wednesday at 12:30pm and find out how!

Click here to register (9/12/12 at 12:30pm)
http://bit.ly/TPGreg 

About Justin Freid:

Justin leads TPG’s media department and is a thought leader in all areas of online and offline customer acquisition media planning and buying, including DRTV, SEM and Display and the social media marketing space. Justin recently published his first book, “Blogging Made Simple” and is a frequent contributor to top media-industry publications. Justin plays a pivotal role in crafting digital and media buying strategies for all of TPG’s clients. Justin’s experience crosses many industries having worked with clients in the entertainment, education, insurance and financial industries.

About Roxanne Pogue:

One of the newest members to the TPG team, Roxanne plays a strong role in the content creation and social media departments, developing social media strategies tailored to clients’ needs as well as producing content for our clients’ blogs, websites and social media sites. Roxanne plays a vital role in increasing TPG’s clients’ social presence, driving traffic to the appropriate landing pages and staying up-to-date on the latest social media
trends and emerging platforms. Roxanne has experience in the healthcare and auto insurance industries. 


Click here to register (9/12/12 at 12:30pm)
http://bit.ly/TPGreg 

Content Marketing for Your Business

Not sure how to combine approaches when getting your linkbait online? While you may want to consider getting Hootsuite to jumpstart your social media campaigns on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more, you may also realize that you need some sort of plan to get you social media and company blog to all work together. Never fear - SEOmoz has come out with a handy guide that offers you ideas on the perfect way to plan content.

The only hint that's missing? Don't forget to disseminate your content across all of your social media. Your blog post can become a few tweets or Facebook posts without you struggling to come up with original content across all of your social media.

What are some strategies that you already use when planning your content?