Before delving into forecasts on the future of email marketing, it will be useful to have a look at where email "stands" amongst other digital channels. In recent years, email marketing has sometimes been overshadowed by mobile and social media's rising popularity, often categorized as an "old school" (aka boring!) marketing channel. Email marketing is anything but tired or dated - for example, a Pew survey in 2011 found that email has been consistently ranked as one of most popular online activities, alongside search:



Again, anything but tired, as new platforms and devices have significantly changed the web landscape over time, the power of email as a key marketing channel has remained constant. An email address, sometimes seen as the social security number of the digital age, is a highly sought-after commodity by advertisers and marketers. Check out this infographic from SmarterTools, which captures how email accounts and sends far surpass other posts and tweets from social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+:



Of course, email marketing should never be a standalone effort. What this infographic really suggests is how the intersection of web, email, mobile and social provides a very exciting opportunity for marketers in 2012. Research has shown, for example, that incorporating emails that have social sharing links have a significantly higher clickthrough rate (115% higher than emails that didn't incorporate social sharing), as uncovered in a study by GetResponse Email. Yet, the study found that only about 20% of email marketers actually include social sharing links in their emails, which could be for a variety of reasons, but if your target customers are active on social media, email can be a fantastic way to engage with your brand and encourage sharing.

If the future of email marketing is multi-channel (web-mobile-social-email), what exactly does it mean for marketers? Some experts in the email marketing community have provided their own advice on what to watch out for in 2012. Here's a snapshot of some of those insights:

•  "The efforts to continue to integrate email with social signals (and search as well) need to escalate. Online marketing has become so “un-siloed” in the recent past and it is important to make sure that there are KPI’s in place to at least monitor the impact or influence e-mail efforts has on social / search and vice versa." - Frank Reed, Managing Editor at Marketing Pilgrim.

•  "Expect further focus by webmail and ISPs to sift and sort inboxes and spam folders based on user engagement metrics. [...] The tools and compute power to do this in realtime are out there and growing in sophistication every day." - Tom Kulzer, CEO of AWeber.

•  "I see integration as the issue [...], now we can segment, but the smart marketers will figure out the interplay between email and social. They have to…these things are not siloed anymore." - Will Reynolds, Founder of SEER Interactive.

•  "The biggest challenge for all marketers, email marketers included, will be truly developing valuable, relevant and compelling content so those emails keep getting opened and, ultimately, driving sales."  - Joe Pulizzi, Founder of Content Marketing Institute.

Value, relevancy, context and social seem to be four priorities woven through many of the predictions on the future of email marketing. What are your top email marketing priorities for 2012?

Thanks to everyone who attended this morning's webinar, "The Marketer's Guide to Taking Your Website Mobile". We had some great questions, and a very passionate presenter in Sagar Jani from Station X.

Here are some highlights from the webinar:

• The growth of mobile adoption (devices and web consumption) continues to exceed the predictions made by industry analysts.
• North Americans spend 2.7 hours a day socializing on their phones (Microsoft Tag, 2011), and that doesn't even include other daily activities that users combine with mobile, including watching TV, waiting in line, etc.
• Users are demanding, and expect mobile web experiences to match that of the desktop, particularly with quick loading times.
• The "debate" between apps and mobile websites isn't really a debate at all: apps have their own unique advantages, but they should in no way replace a mobile website, which is an absolute essential for both B2B and B2C companies.
• Some best practices for your mobile web presence include:
  • Loading speed - should be quick
  • Simple navigation
  • Forms should be easy to complete
  • Accessibility is key

If you'd like to know more, check out the full webinar here.

Thanks again to everyone for attending, and stay tuned for details on the next webinar on February 21!

Although many people today associate digital "community" with a customer-facing space, B2B communities are also an integral part of social media. After all, businesses are comprised of (you guessed it), people.

Maria Ogneva, the Head of Community at Yammer, has pulled together the following 10 best practices for managing a B2B community. Has your organization followed all of these tips?

    1.  Know When to Create Your Own

Before jumping on the wagon, so to speak, you need to ask yourself what your objectives are. If you want to take a prominent role in certain industry discussions, for example, it might be best to join an existing group rather than start a brand new one.

     2.  Have a Vision

What's your purpose of starting a B2B community? Will it facilitate dialogue between customers, or will it serve as an industry best practices forum? Once you have settled on your objectives, it will be much easier to determine how best to achieve them.

    3.  Guide Them

Again, depending on your objectives (back to #2), you need to set guidelines for membership in your community. You may opt to have an open community, or a closed, invite-only one. 

    4.  Understand Your Members

Again, it cannot be stressed enough that B2B communities are made up of people, each with their own goals, needs and pain points. People don't buy just products, they buy solutions to problems, so if you can appeal to the basic need for success, belonging and gratification, your community will be that much more engaging.

    5.  Designate Roles

With the case of a very large community, it can be very productive to empower certain contributors to take on the role of moderators. Not only will it add to the sense of collectivity, it will also make your role less complicated!

    6.  Publish the "Rules of the Road"

Make it very clear from the get-go what the purpose of the community is, and further, what behaviours are encouraged and discouraged. 

    7.  How to Measure Success? Decide.

Here we go, back to #2. Depending on your goals, there can be different metrics for tracking the success of your community. Growth and the amount of active users are two metrics, but there are more. The better aligned the metrics are to your business, the better. For example, if your business offers a software solution, and the purpose of your community is to better educate your customers via best practices, you would ideally see fewer support tickets and higher renewal rates as a result of the community.  

    8.  Assign a Community Manager

Although you want to be transparent in the "rules of the road", and encourage people to participate, it's always good to have a community manager, even just for the purposes of accountability.

    9.  Build Internal Process to Support the Community

A thriving community can provide some incredible insight to your business, so be sure to establish a process, among the right departments, to harness that dialogue.

    10.  Success - Share It!

One of the easiest ways to overcome a business problem is to see how others in similar situations have achieved success. Think of this as a "case study" mentality - not only do people love sharing their wins, they can be very inspiring for others facing similar problems.

In the following video, Michael Stelzner from SocialMediaExaminer.com interviews C.C Chapman, the co-author of the acclaimed book, Content Rules. In this interview, C.C explains how businesses can use content marketing can help to build trust and relationships with customers.


sme_cc_chapman_v1 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

Highlights:

• Content marketing is actually not new, but marketers have recently discovered how valuable it can be.
• When you're creating content, forget about those that fall outside of your target market, and keep focused on the ones that do.
• Content marketing is all about good storytelling - look to "experts" and customers to act as contributors. 
• With the rise of mobile and interactive, content will become more and more focused on "real time".

On Tuesday, Facebook annnounced that their Timeline profile would now be available to users worldwide. Although it's currently available only for personal profile pages, many have predicted that brand pages will soon follow.

Some have argued that the move will inevitably "revolutionize" brand pages. Christine Campbell, program manager for SEO and Social Media at Resolute Digital explains: "The brand pages as they are now on Facebook are boring, [are] mostly text, and make successful user interaction difficult. Timeline's focus on images and telling a true story will really help most brands get a better page out of the service."

Some businesses and brands might benefit directly from the potential change than others, namely those that offer tangible products that lend themselves to "scrapbooking" or gallery-style visual representation. Those without tangible products won't be left in the dust, though - brands can get more attention by creating apps that users would be able to feature quite prominently on their profile pages. Ultimately, Timeline puts an emphasis on photos and visuals, so those brands that can leverage this would see the most success. Larger, established fashion/lifestyle brands are a prime example, as they would be able to provide a visual narrative of their company history, from its launch all the way to milestone events over the years. These options are more difficult to represent in traditional brand pages.

The projected change hasn't received a uniform welcome, though, and drawbacks to timeline for brands have also been identified. On a basic level, users who have become accustomed to traditional brand pages may not take as warmly to the transition to Timeline. In addition, analyst Alison Kimszal from DefinedLogic sees the interference that Timeline might have with current Facebook apps as problematic.

If Timeline is eventually opened up to businesses, it will become necessary to evaluate whether or not the new layout will provide real value to your customers. Relevant content will still reign, so the opportunity lies in deciding how best to present that content in meaningful, engaging ways, working with (not against) the channel's evolution.

Move over, essential home utilities. A recent study conducted by iYogi Insights (a research initiative that explores the integration of technology into consumers' daily lives) has shown that spending on technology, which includes devices, online services, Internet connectivity and multimedia entertainment, has now surpassed utility costs for a majority of consumers. 63% of the study's respondents spend almost 35% more on technology than gas and electricity bills.

What the research reveals is that staying connected is quickly climbing up the ladder of "basic" needs for today's consumers. Case in point? Of the study's participants, it was discovered that an average family of 3 or more owns 10-11 Internet-enabled devices. Unsurprisingly, researchers have predicted that consumers' dependency on technology, as demonstrated through studies such as these, will only continue to skyrocket in years to come.

The infographic below captures the key findings from the study:

This is a guest post from Sagar Jani, Digital Strategist at Station X Communications. If you find this post useful, be sure to register for Marqui's free live webinar, The Marketer's Guide to Taking Your Website Mobile, on Tuesday January 31 @ 10:30-11:30AM PST.  Click here to check out the details and reserve your spot.

If you can take away one key message from this blog post, let it be this: 

It's not that mobile web "will" be hugely important. It already is.

This is the point I try to drive home to those marketers who think they have time to wait and "see how it goes" before trying to build a proper mobile web presence. The time for delay has long passed.

ComScore, for one, has indicated in 2011 that of the roughly 5 billion mobile phones in the world, 25% are already smartphones. In North America, that number is already approaching 50%.

This one's my favourite: North Americans currently spend almost 3 hours per day on their mobile device, according to Microsoft Tag. That's approximately 1/3 of the time we spend sleeping each day!

There is a huge disconnect, however, between these numbers and the majority of average companies' web marketing activities. A whopping 70% of companies have not optimized their website for the growing number of mobile consumers. Research has also shown that 84% fail to design emails for viewing on a mobile device.

These numbers are usually surprising for many of the marketers I work with. If you realize the potential of mobile, but haven't quite articulated a proper strategy yet, you still can. Studies have shown that 80% of users would visit websites more frequently on their mobile devices if those websites were quick-to-load and reliable.

If you're eager to get your mobile web strategy off the ground, join me in Marqui's live webinar, The Marketer's Guide to Taking Your Website Mobile, which is taking place on Tuesday, January 31 @ 10:30-11:30AM PST. Click here for more info, and to register. We hope to see you all there!

For journalists, bloggers and techies 
alike, this week has passed in a
whirlwind of headlines covering
the controversy surrounding SOPA, the
proposed anti-piracy legislation in the U.S. Some of the powerful language used to characterize the dispute? Protest, blackout, fear and censorship, to name but a few. Some of the bill's opponents, namely Mashable's editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff, have declared that the passing of SOPA, if it were to occur, would be a regression into the "Dark Ages".

A bold statement indeed, but his sentiment is shared by many who see this bill, along with PIPA, (Protect Intellectual Property Act) as an attempt to drastically alter the internet, reverting back to the days of one-way content distribution (remember that good 'ol Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROM?). Others have taken a less apocalyptic stance, but most agree that if passed, this legislation would radically change the face of the internet and content sharing.

What is SOPA?

SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, is designed to target and penalize online copyright infringement. The part of the legislation that is deemed to be most threatening is not just the penalty against individual offenders, but the shutting down of those sites that provide "tools" for copyright infringement to take place, as well as the removal of such sites in search engine results.

What does that mean? If the bill is passed, any website "directed" towards U.S users that is seen to violate copyright laws will be targeted and shut down. What's more, any site that relies heavily on user-generated content will be at some form of risk, which includes Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter... the list goes on.

Protests

Wednesday's blackout protest intended to raise awareness of the issue beyond the technology community, and tens of thousands of websites took part, including Wikipedia, Twitter, Cheezburger and WordPress. Check out some of the other participating websites here.

Although Facebook and Google couldn't risk full-scale blackouts, they found their own ways to announce their opposition. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took to Facebook to comment, "We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet's development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet." Google took action by changing its homepage in the U.S, encouraging visitors to sign a petition against SOPA and PIPA, and they have already received 7 million signatures.

Meanwhile, a backlash campaign has also been launched in the U.S by Creative America, an organization representing leading entertainment unions and media companies in support of the bills. The campaign included a banner ad in New York's Time Square that offered suggestions on what to do during an internet blackout, including reading, listening to music or watching a movie.

What's Next?

It's difficult to know what will happen leading up to the Senate vote on PIPA on January 24th. However, a wave of further blackouts has been predicted and Wikipedia, for one, has announced that "We're not done yet."

What are your thoughts on SOPA? Is this really a death to content sharing as we know it in the U.S? If you're curious to get a sense of some of the other perspectives on the matter, check out this "Viewpoints" piece from BBC News and let us know what you think!

Privacy in the digital age...an oxymoron for
some, a heated debate for most. The following
webinar from eMarketer is incredibly effective in outlining different perspectives around the digital privacy issue, while also the exploring the ways in which marketers and advertisers can address these concerns.

Here are some highlights, but be sure to check out the full slidecast on Slideshare:

Factors Driving the Privacy Debate

Trust. Control. Transparency. These are just a few of the buzzwords that have surrounded the privacy debate over the past few years, with control of consumer data remaining central to that debate. As eMarketer research in 2011 has uncovered, 79% of female consumers in the U.S agree that online companies have access and control over too much of their personal information, with male consumers following at 74%. Of concern to many is the inability to determine who can collect and share your data, along with the inability to dictate how or how long that data can be used.

Adding to this dispute are the differing ideas around how transparent companies should be in their data collection. Some have even made the argument that the problem of privacy is now outdated, as our very concept of privacy has evolved with the pervasiveness of digital technologies.

Consumer Concerns

eMarketer research has found that privacy concerns vary according to age, with non-millennial respondents (those 30+) having stronger concerns around hackers, Facebook privacy, targeted web ads, search engine tracking, etc. Consumers are also found to have contradictory viewpoints in their attitude towards privacy, which adds a layer of complexity to the issue. For example, an August 2011 eMarketer survey found that 37% of respondents are very suspicious of targeted ads, while 41% are also frustrated when shown ads that don't apply to them. In addition, there seems to be a disconnect between consumers' apprehension over privacy and a general unwillingness to actively manage their own privacy settings.

The Role of Mobile and Social Media

Also inherent in the debate is the role that mobile plays in amplifying consumers' fears around privacy. For example, in a February 2011 eMarketer study, 38% (the biggest segment) of respondents indicated that privacy was their primary concern when accessing mobile apps. Often thought of as a personal device, many mobile users are uncomfortable with location tracking, along with ad-supported apps that have built-in data collection. For many mobile users, it's the fear of unsolicited use of data (on a device that follows you just about everywhere!) that is most disconcerting. Marketers too find the deployment of mobile ads to be a challenge, with privacy issues being at the top of the list.

Social media adds another layer to the debate. Most survey respondents have expressed some level of concern about privacy on Facebook, for instance, as regular changes in Facebook's privacy settings are difficult to manage and keep track of.

Government Regulations

The contention over who should be regulating user privacy is a whole other debate, but interestingly, eMarketer's research has found that most users feel that individuals should be wholly responsible for protecting their own privacy, as opposed to government legislation or independent privacy certification organizations. Research ultimately discovered that few users (only 9%) actually trust government regulation enough to protect their privacy in this area.

Solutions for Advertisers and Marketers

Some ways in which the ad industry is addressing these challenges? Transparency and trade-offs, providing something of value in exchange for data, are two prime examples. Other methods, including those which place more onus on the user, include privacy policy pages, the Digital Advertising Alliance's "Advertising Option" icon, opt-outs, and "do-not-track" headers.

However, about 1/3 of users indicated that data collection is justified when receiving something of value for free, and are more likely to interact with companies that employ this kind of value exchange. Marketers are starting to catch onto this wave, and rewards have proven to be an effective incentive for sharing personal data.

To close off, we'd like to share a couple of concluding quotes from the slidecast:

•  Danah Boyd, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research: "The battle that is underway is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It's a battle over choice and informed consent."
•  Chris Babel, CEO of TRUSTe: "How do you make the jump from seeing self-regulation as a threat to ad targeting to viewing consumer choice as a brand enhancer?"

Click here to check out the full slidecast. We highly recommend it as a complement to your 2012 marketing thought leadership resources.

This is a guest post from Sagar Jani, Digital Strategist at Station X Communications.

Google's recent algorithm updates, which fully integrate and prioritize Google + into its search results, have spurred a wave of debate and criticism, and it’s quite clear that the search engine giant is losing out in the arena of public opinion. No stranger to controversy, however, Google has made other questionable moves in the past, including Google Wave or the Buzz for example. They have also been involved in suspect deals, including one where they profited from online Canadian pharmacies running illegal ads, a deal which proved to be a $500 million mistake.
 
Despite this, Google’s core business, the search engine responsible for the majority of its revenue and traffic, has remained largely secure. However, Bing has been plugging away over time, becoming the number 2 search engine, and this recent move has inadvertently helped Bing gain popularity.

The reception to this change has been all but warm: Gizmodo has labeled Bing as the better of the 2 search engines, and Dave Winer at Scripting News stated that "Google's search is getting cluttered with pointless crap", concluding that he’ll stay with Bing as long as it continues to outperform Google.

Google has indicated that this change will deliver more personalized results, but some have seen these results skewed more towards Google services than anything else (Google+, Picasa, YouTube, for instance). Take the following scenario: when you search for a restaurant, you're now presented with Google Plus results before Yelp results, where there are generally a large number of useful restaurant reviews. As you can imagine, this doesn't strike a positive chord with many users. Adding to this discontent, SearchEngineland has compiled several damaging examples of the ways in which Google's new interface promotes Plus over relevancy. 

Of course, Google has an incredibly strong global brand presence, with millions of loyal followers, and it remains to be seen what kind of effect these changes will have on the mass of searchers. With two more influential Web sites moving over to Bing's side this week, others may follow. Microsoft might be pulling its "build a competitor, then wait for the rivals to crumble" strategy as it did with Netscape, AOL,  and Sony. We will keep a close eye on the ComScore search reports over next few months, when we can fully assess the impact of Google’s recent move. In the meantime, Microsoft adCenter may see an upswing in popularity, as it already displays ads to 30% of the market.

Can we call 2012 the year of digital? eMarketer
has predicted a 14.4% increase in U.S. online ad
spending over the next year, and there are
undoubtedly a wave of changes in store for
marketers. As the year progresses, though, it's always worthwhile to remain grounded in those best practices that have seen us through 2011, as captured in a recent Mashable article. Here are the highlights, or the resolutions we find to be most essential for 2012:

1. Relevancy

Today's consumers are more time-constrained, demanding and in control than ever, and this continues to pose a challenge to marketers. The upside is that the days of marketing to the so-called "cherry picker" are fading - customers are placing higher priority on value versus price alone, which provides a great opportunity for both B2B and B2C businesses to redefine their brand USP.

2. Context and Content - Two Sides of the Same Coin

You can have all the technological flash you want - a shiny, beautiful ad, for example, goes nowhere without solid, resonant content in it. Similarly, you can develop engaging content, but if you aren't engaging your target market in the channels they're participating in, you've wasted your effort.

3. Data Quality over Quantity

Sophisticated measurement tools are making data collection more fruitful than ever, making it easier for marketers to test their marketing efforts and make the most out of their digital footprint in the future.

4. Channels Have Adapted, and So Can You

It's no longer enough just to be present on social media channels. Brands and businesses have developed new ways to take their social media initiatives to a whole new level, delivering content to their customers in hyper-relevant contexts. Consider, for example, Best Buy's “Twelpforce,” a Twitter-based help desk, which stands as a perfect example of using social media for multiple functions, including customer support, streamlining call centre costs, PR and marketing.

Some have lauded it as the
hottest" new social network, and
although it hasn't yet received widespread popularity as Facebook, Twitter or Google+, Pinterest has seen an immense amount of growth  in followers over the past year, and was found to be one of the top 10 social networks by Mashable.

For those who may not know too much about it: Pinterest is a place to share images of interest. Once you upload an image, it becomes known as a Pin, which you can then place on themed boards of your creation. From polka-dot balloons to breakfast pancakes to bridal dresses, the sky's the limit when it comes to board topics, and you can follow others based on similar interests. One thing to note about Pinterest is that you have to be invited to the network.

It's more than just a repository for "cool" images, though. As Mashable research has found, some businesses have discovered intriguing ways to engage with their customers via Pinterest. Check out some of them below:

1. Contests

For B2C companies, something as simple as a photo contest can really boost engagement with your customers. One idea: for a clothing store, the contest can consist of submitting photos of your best outfits from a particular retailer.

2. New Product Approval

Since Pinterest's popularity is still rising, it's an ideal platform to gather customer intelligence around new products (think of it as an incredibly cost-effective, and highly social, focus group).

3.  Showcase Brand Identity

For those organizations that may not have products, Pinterest can allow you to weave your brand story through images. A brilliant example: a mayoral candidate can illustrate their philanthropic, socially-responsible initiatives through a specific Pinterest Board.

To read more, check out the full article. Are there any other Pinterest tips and tricks that you've found useful? Post them here!

Knowing the psychological motivations behind purchase decisions can bring B2B and B2C marketers one step closer to reaching their target audience, and psychologists have identified six traits that are becoming more prominent in social commerce.

The following infographic from Digital Buzz Blog captures the enormous power of social influence in purchase decisions. Some highlights? When making purchase decisions, buyers rely on:

1. Social Proof
          •  Refers to the advice offered by friends and family members on social media. 81% of buyers rely on this.

2.  Authority
        • 77% consult reviews.

3. Scarcity
          •  Exclusive offers garner more interest and appeal from 77% of potential buyers.



Have a great weekend!

Thanks to everyone who attended our latest webinar, "Top Website Design Trends for 2012". We had a phenomenal turnout and lots of fantastic questions!

Our hosts, Shaun Scholtz, Interactive Art Director at Station X Communications and Richard Sharp, VP of Marketing at Marqui, provided their insights into the 2012 web design landscape, exploring 11 popular trends that can keep your web design visually compelling, and in support of your business objectives:

1. HTML5, CSS3 and JQUERY
2. Mobile Compatibility and Responsive Layouts
3. Typographic Layouts
4. The Grid
5. Large Background Images
6. Perceived Affordance and Metaphoric Design
7. Social Media Integration
8. Illustration
9. Single Page Websites
10. Parallax
11. Elegant Modal Boxes

If you'd like to know more, check out the full webinar here.

Thanks again to everyone for attending, and stay tuned for our upcoming e-book, "The Definitive Guide to a Website Redesign". Coming soon!

Email marketing plays a fundamental role in today’s
marketing efforts.  Whether it’s attracting new customers,
nurturing leads, developing loyalty or transactional messaging, there are standard best practices for email content.  Marqui’s email content best practices can be applied to all emails including promotions, e-newsletters, triggered campaigns, drip campaigns, win-back or client education programs.

The following lists the tactical approach Marqui recommends to all email marketers with regard to email content best practices:

Trust Elements  

•    Is the privacy policy clearly accessible?
•    Can recipients easily control their email subscription?
•    Does the “From" line contain a recognizable company name?
•    Does the email let the recipient know why they are getting it?

Engagement

•    Does the subject line communicate value?
•    Is the subject line too long (< 50 characters)?
•    Is the message self-explanatory without graphics?
•    Is the relevant content above the preview pane fold?
•    Will the content properly display on mobile devices?
•    Are there quick ways to read the email?
•    Does the look and feel integrate with your brand?

Action

•    Is there a clear call-to-action?
•    Can the user complete the promised action?
•    Are you tracking for conversion optimization?

Word-of-Mouth

•    Are members motivated to forward the email?
•    How easy is it to subscribe?

Metrics

•    Does the deployment ensure short and long-term measurable results?
•    Do you have a plan to continually optimize your content to improve results?

Following these best practices for email content will help you ensure that your campaigns are engaging and effective.  A Marqui email audit can help you determine how best to implement these practices and invigorate your marketing efforts. Talk to a Marqui Email Strategist today.

Many of us can make some pretty solid hypotheses about which areas of a web page attract instant attention from your visitors. However, when you throw something like eye-tracking into the mix and look specifically at social media profile pages, as EyeTrackShop has in a recent study with Mashable, you can end up with some really interesting conclusions.

For companies with pages on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, the results of studies like this one can help to reinforce what you already knew about social media profile pages, and may help to also uncover some new, useful tips. Read on!

1. Be Strategic in Your Profile Picture Selection

This one's especially important with Facebook, Klout and StumbleUpon. Ask yourself: is my company's profile picture representative of my brand? Is it eye-catching, unique and memorable? You can add to this by gathering feedback from your customers and/or asking your business contacts. What's their first impression?
   


2. Who You Know Matters

The study shows that people do look at those thumbnails of connections on your profile - make sure your company is making the right impression! This is especially the case with Facebook, Twitter and Google +.


3. Keep Your Content at the Top of the Page

This one you may have guessed: the top portion of your page is prime real-estate. The further down you go, the less likely people are to engage with the content, although the study found this effect to be less pronounced on Twitter and YouTube. 

Check out the full EyeTrackShop/Mashable study results here.

It’s that time of year again!  As 2011 draws to a close and you prepare for your 2012 web marketing strategy, there’s no better time to evaluate your organization’s most powerful marketing tool: your website.
 
Join us on Thursday, December 8 at 10:30am PST for a sneak peak into the 2012 web design landscape. If you're looking for insight into which website design trends can engage your visitors and help you meet your business goals in 2012, this webinar is a must-see!

Register now to reserve your spot - we hope to see you all there!

Many of you have heard of Google's recent
update to its search algorithm.
The search algorithm change has caused
quite a stir in the SEO space, and many marketers (some of which are undoubtedly
daunted by the mere mention of the word 'algorithm') are still trying to figure out
what exactly the update means for their business.

We're joined today by Dan Biggs, Digital Strategist at Station X Communications. Dan, the ever-talented (but always humble!) SEO expert will take us through the ins and outs of Google's search algorithm updates.

M: There has been a lot of buzz lately around Google’s change to its search algorithm – Dan, can you explain what is involved in the update?

D: The first recent change was called "Panda" and was rolled out around the world in April 2011. The main target of the Panda update was to try to reduce what they consider "webspam" - an entire team at Google is focused on this, because relevancy of their search results is of utmost importance. It's true, in my opinion, that their results were becoming bogged down with less-than valuable results. The algorithm change tries to get rid of sites that are considered "content farms", sites that use various methods to post tons of content and flood the results -using scrapers, distributed editorial teams and all sorts of other strategies. Huffington Post, Demand Media and sites like that are well known ones. Here's a video that illustrates their technique: http://youtu.be/s6q7np6cya0.

The most recent update in the Panda saga took place on November 18, and it could be argued that while it's not as fundamental a change as the one back in April, it has more significant impact as it affects about 35% of searches. Google has indicated that they've given more value to pages covering hot topics and very recent events. Basically, sites that provide the most up-to-date information about any topic will get more prominence. Of course this only applies to sites that pay the cost of entry by being considered "high-quality" by the Google algorithm which means that content farms would theoretically be disqualified from manipulating this. This isn't that new, because Google's had what they call QDF or Query Deserved Freshness for a few years now, so this update is working to refine that and place more importance on freshness.

M: How might this update have an impact on marketers?

D: It's a pretty exciting time right now in the SEO world, and things are changing very fast with social search, Bing's growing market share, Google's algorithm updates and lots of other developments. If a marketer is serious about SEO, they're going to already be well aware that fresher is better when it comes to anything on the web. Googlebot loves shiny objects. It's been the case for years that if you update your site more often, Googlebot will visit you more often. Nothing has changed there, except maybe now Googlebot will be visiting a bit more often. I think this is definitely going to have a negative impact on marketers that aren't working to develop fresh and interesting content. Their SEO may have suffered before, but it's going to be much worse now.

M: Could you provide some quick tips and tactics that marketers can use to update their SEO/content strategies to leverage the update for their benefit?

D: I'd start by getting a solid content strategy and some sort of owned media platform if you don't already have one, whether it's a news section or a blog on your site. Nobody with a static site that doesn't get updated at least once a day is going to benefit from this update.

M: If there’s one piece of advice you could leave with our readers, what would it be?

D: Google built their vast market share because of one thing - relevancy. If your site is frequently pushing out high value content that's relevant to your business, Google will reward you by sending Googlebot to your site to spider it. They'll continue to punish sites for being lazy, scraping and churning content from other sources on the web. My advice is to build a content strategy, and get fresh and relevant content flowing. There's a great little book by Erin Kissane that I recommend reading - it's called The Elements of Content Strategy.

M: Thanks for the insight, Dan! Any closing thoughts?

D: If you want to learn about SEO and stay current with Google's search tools and algorithms, you should also subscribe to the Google Search Team blog.

Thanks to everyone who attended our latest webinar, "7 Tips to Get More Leads from Your Website". We had a great group in attendance!

Our hosts, Dan Biggs, Digital Strategist at Station X Communications and Adam Koebel, Client Success Specialist at Marqui, provided their insights into the world of online lead generation, exploring 7 simple tactics to help you get more leads from your website.

Here are the 7 tips:

1. Know What Your Current Situation Is
2. Know What Your Visitors Want
3. Make a Good First Impression
4. Build Strong Content and Update it Frequently
5. Control the Conversion Path
6. Cast Your Net Over Multiple Channels
7. Experiment and Test

If you'd like to know more, check out the full webinar here.

We also had a few outstanding questions:

Jeff, you had a question about suggestions for a good resource on industry benchmark data. It's a great question - as it stands currently, eMarketer is one of the most valuable resources for industry trends and benchmarks, although you do have to pay for a subscription. It's definitely a great investment though, check them out here.  

Edward, you had a question about LinkedIn, and whether or not it's the best online network for B2B. The answer is both yes and no, depending on your business and your offering. As an example, our blog is arguably one of our strongest social platforms, as we deliver easily consumable and sharable pieces of proprietary content. However, a business that specializes in more knowledge-aggregating functions might find Twitter to be the most valuable social platform for their business, as it allows you to easily share links and headlines from other sources. Essentially, the best way to determine if a social network will be effective for your business is to experiment and test its level of success. Those who attended the webinar were undoubtedly ignited by Adam's passion on this topic - testing and experimentation are two of the most valuable tools any marketer can have!

We hope this helps answer your questions, and we look forward to seeing you all again at the next webinar, which will be held on Thursday, December 8, 2011 from 10:30-11:30 AM PST. The topic is "Top Website Design Trends for 2012", and if there's one webinar to attend before you begin your holiday festivities, this is the one! Stay tuned as we reveal more details closer to the date.

Since its rising popularity,
Facebook has often been the
target of concerns around online privacy. In the spirit of transparency, and undoubtedly in hopes of placating its critics, Facebook engineering director Arturo Bejar has recently shared what personal information the company retains with its tracking cookies, as reported by USA Today.
 
When logged in:
Facebook will keep a time-stamped list of the URLs visited and pair it with the user's name, e-mail address, list of friends, user preferences, IP address, screen resolution, operating system, and browser.
 
When logged out:
Everything except a user's name, list of friends, and preferences. Instead, it uses a unique alphanumeric number to track users like a cookie. Even though Facebook isn't tracking users' entire browsing history, there are a lot of sites out there with "Like" and "Share" buttons. Bejar mentioned that Facebook has the ability to link users' names to their logged-out browsing data, but they make a specific point not to do this.
 
Naturally, these facts stirred up some concern and debate, but Facebook has revealed its strategic rationale for tracking data. Security is one, as tracking logs helps Facebook pinpoint fake accounts. Enhanced user experience is another, along with increasingly targeted ads. Facebook revealed that it does not use tracking logs, but instead uses the profile information and "likes", as voluntarily disclosed by Facebook users, to display targeted ads.

Although this information sparked controversy for some, others see Bejar's revelation as a necessary move towards increased transparency around Facebook's data tracking practices. Even more broadly, it alludes to the conflicting pressures that Facebook continues to face as it navigates its way through the need for profitability amid industry controversy around online privacy.