Older Latinos: An Underestimated Marketing Opportunity

I have been thinking that for the last 20 years the marketing industry keeps talking about Hispanic youth as the promised land of opportunity. No question that Latinos are fundamentally characterized by their youth because their median age is 10 years younger than that of the overall US population. Still, there are older Latinos, and surprisingly they are a fast growing subpopulation of people 50 and over in the United States. That is not hard to understand since everyone ages and Hispanics are the fastest growing cultural group in the United States.

The cult of youth among marketers is understandable, but looking at some data from the Florida State University DMS Insights Multicultural Marketing Research Project of 2011 suggests that there is ample opportunity to capitalize on 50+ Latinos because their aspirations are high.

For example, among those who are online who do not currently have a blog, one can see that those who prefer to communicate in Spanish are more likely than anyone else to say they are planning to have a blog within the next year, and those 50+ are the most ambitious in this respect than anyone else in their age group.

% Plan to have a blog within the next year

Another example is the aspiration to have a smart phone. 50+ Latinos who prefer to communicate in Spanish are more likely than anyone else to say they are planning to have a smart phone within the next year.

% Plan to have a Smart-Phone within next year

Marketers should listen to these aspirations. While they may be overly optimistic, they are worthy of closer examination. These older Hispanics are likely to be very interested in furthering their communication with others and marketers should facilitate this aspiration. Now, the reason why Hispanics who prefer English are less aspirational according to these charts is because they already have these technologies (see prior blog postings). Now it is the turn of their Spanish speaking counterparts.

It seems to me that the idea of concentrating only on Latino youth may be obscuring the important opportunity of listening to the needs and aspirations of more mature Hispanics. They can be a gold mine for those who understand their views, opinions, and product interests.
The interesting thing about the explosion of Latino growth in the US is that youth always results in older age. This is something worth remembering.

The data for this study was collected during March 2011. This online sample was comprised of 500 respondents per segment, for a total of 2,500, based on quotas by gender, age, and geographic location. DMS Insights managed the sample and data collection and they graciously contributed their effort to the academic program of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University. This study was conducted by the faculty and students of the graduate Multicultural Marketing Communication course offered by FSU.

Two Twitter Tips to Share on this "Twitter Tuesday"

Today's "Twitter Tuesday" Tip is one you can easily execute in a manner of minutes! Let's talk about the "Who to Follow" and Similar to You" follow suggestions on Twitter. Both are great tools that are available to you via Twitter that will help you grow your network.

First, the "Similar to You" feature on Twitter:

Have you noticed the "similar to you" feature on twitter? If you visit your profile (and are logged in), it's just below your following/followers numbers (example below). By default you should see 3 people below the "Similar to You" header. Click on the "view all" just next to "similar to you" and you'll find a full page of suggestions for you. Some you may already follow, but others could make great new follows!

Next, the "Who to Follow" feature on Twitter:

From your "home" screen (not your "profile" screen), you should see a "Who to Follow" feature just below your following/followers. Click on "view all" for the full page of suggestions.

Both of these tools are great ways to connect with new tweeps who share similiar interests with you!

Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Live AdWords webinars every Tuesday and Wednesday at 3pm BST

Calling all AdWords Advertisers!

Starting today and running throughout the next 3 months, the AdWords team will be holding live webinars every Tuesday and Wednesday at 3pm BST (7am PDT).

These live webinars are delivered by Google Search, Display, YouTube and Mobile Specialists and are a fantastic way for you to learn more about AdWords and greatly improve the performance of your campaigns. Specialists are on hand to answer all your questions during these webinars.

A full listing of all upcoming webinars can be found here, and you can download a Calendar listing all upcoming webinars here.

We look forward to seeing you at our live webinars over the coming weeks!

Posted by Eoin, AdWords Online Classroom & Learn With Google Team

Making local online advertising easy with Google AdWords Express

(Cross posted on the Official Google Blog, Small Business Blog, and Lat Long Blog)

Today, we're officially introducing AdWords Express, a faster and simpler way to start advertising online in under five minutes. We first launched this product as Google Boost last October for a small number of local businesses. Since then, we've continued to improve the product and enabled all U.S. businesses new to online advertising to reach customers with ease. AdWords Express is designed to help local businesses that aren't already AdWords advertisers create effective campaigns—watch the video below to see how you can create and run an online campaign from start to finish in just a few clicks:

AdWords Express helps potential customers find your website or Place page, and gives you a quick and straightforward way to connect with them and grow your business. You simply provide some basic business information, create your ad, and your campaign is ready to go.

After you sign up, the campaign will be automatically managed for you. AdWords Express will figure out which searches should trigger your ad to appear and displays it when these searches happen. Your ad will be shown in the Ads section of search results pages—on the top or right hand side—and in Google Maps with a distinctive blue pin. Customers can see your ad whether they’re searching on laptops or mobile phones.

As with all our ad products, you pay only when a customer clicks on your ad. To make things even easier, AdWords Express optimizes your ads to get the most out of your advertising campaign and budget.

Many businesses are already finding success through AdWords, but we know many of you are looking for an easier way to begin advertising online. Visit www.google.com/awexpress to sign up or learn more about how it works.

Posted by Kiley McEvoy, Product Manager, AdWords Express

Upcoming Webinar: Display targeting strategies for direct response

Contextual. Audience. Remarketing. Demographic. Marketers have many options when it comes to targeting their display campaigns. The emergence of these technologies has transformed display into a powerful direct response medium, delivering measurable performance at scale for marketers. But with the plethora of options to choose from, where do advertisers and agencies begin?

Please join Google for an upcoming webinar to learn more about how to approach targeting strategies for your campaigns on the Google Display Network. Specifically we’ll cover:

• The "targeting toolbox" for direct response campaigns
• Strategies for prioritizing and applying the available targeting options to maximize campaign performance and efficiency
• Tools, tips and best practices for maximizing ROI for your campaigns

Register here for the webinar to be held on August 4, 2011 at 11:00am PST / 1:00pm CST / 2:00pm EST.

Posted by Lauren Barbato, Inside AdWords crew

Did Google+ Click the Over-Saturation Social Media Button?

By now, everyone has heard the buzz about Google's entry into social media. Known as Google+ or Google Plus, this new social media platform has been available by invitation only (or in tech-speak, to those who have access to go behind the "digital velvet rope") but has attracted widespread attention from the mainstream media as well as by technophiles. As one reporter wrote, Google+ is like arriving at a party hours before it is scheduled to start but no one else has arrived. Thanks to Google, have we reached the over-saturation point in social media, or do Facebook and Twitter need to be worried?

Here are the features of Google+:

• Groups named as "circles" can be created consisting of specific people so that you can share content only with family or only with school pals or only with co-workers because in the words of Google CEO Larry Page, "in real life, we share different things with different people"
• On the main page named the "stream," posts can be viewed by everyone or only by members of the circles that have been created
• Places where groups of ten or less people meet to chat are called "hangouts"
• News can be found based on any number of topics – in what Google+ refers to as "sparks"
• Video and voice chats can be held with specific people in circles – some have said that this capability is even better than Skype
• The sites that you indicate you like (+1) can also be included as part of the Google+ profile – these are the sites that, according to Google, "you like, agree with, or want to recommend to others"
• Privacy settings are more user-friendly than other sites, for instance, anything on the profile can be set for public viewing or private viewing (e.g., who appears in circles, posts, about, photos, videos, +1’s)

There may be some very unique uses for Google+ that are not appropriate for Twitter or Facebook. For instance, tech super stores (Best Buy, Apple, Dell, etc.) could use hangouts or circles to address customer service issues. Businesses with a large number of telecommuters or international teams could use circles for brainstorming in more than 140 characters. While there are some things that can be stated easily in less than 140 characters, it’s sometimes necessary for making a long story even longer, and Twitter is not the place. College courses may use circles or hangouts for course discussion or exam preparation.

But, the big question yet to be answered is, how will Facebook and Google+ co-exist? Since Google+ has not yet launched to the public or been opened to brands, there is no easy answer. Google+ may be intriguing for the points stated above, but there will always be a loyal Facebook following. And while many Facebook users may dislike lists, the constantly-changing interface, and lack of attention when it comes to privacy, there is still much that appeals to over 500 million active users.

One thing to note, if you already had a Google Profile in the pre-Google+ days, that page automatically appears as part of your Google+ page. Again, in the pre-Google+ environment, the key reason for having a Google Profile was to make sure that you appeared in Google searches for your name and also to create a page where you could control content about you – that Google found.

So, if you have not joined the Google+ party and are on the fence, answer these five questions. Your answers will make the decision for you. But, if you decide to join Google+, visit my page at www.gplus.to/dlmba: 

• Do you have time to allocate to another social media site?
• What are your objectives as you build your presence on Google+?
• How does Google+ fit into your annual marketing plan and overall social media strategy?
• Are your customers and competitors already on Google+?
• How will you measure your success on Google+?

Now all US and Canada advertisers can get more phone calls and detailed call reporting

Call Metrics, a simple way to get more phone calls and detailed call reports with AdWords, is now available to all advertisers in the US and Canada. Availability was limited since the introduction in November 2010, so thanks for holding.

Call Metrics works by assigning and placing a toll-free forwarding number next to your ad text on Google search pages. When a user sees your ad and calls the number, AdWords registers the call and forwards it to your business. So far, we’ve connected over 5 million calls for thousands of businesses. And calls generated from ads using Call Metrics last six minutes, on average.

(click for full-size image)

Vijay Malavia, Associate Search Director at interactive agency Razorfish, manages search campaign strategy and results on behalf of his client ADT, the largest US electronic security service provider. With its broad mix of services and customer profiles, ADT considers both the web and phone to be important customer acquisition channels. Vijay describes the benefits of Call Metrics he’s seen for ADT:

"Since we’ve started using Call Metrics, we've seen average daily call volume in the ADT call center increase. Quality of inbound calls has been solid -- duration and conversion metrics are consistent with other sources. In addition to providing convenience and getting more calls, having integrated reporting has made it much easier to project the total value ADT is getting from both calls and clicks from AdWords. And that's helped us make better optimization and budget decisions."

We’re also announcing a few other changes with this launch:

1. More detailed reporting. In March we enhanced Call Metrics reporting to show the time, duration, and caller area code for each call. Based on advertiser feedback, we’re now making reporting available at the ad group and campaign level for manually-dialed calls (subject to minimum volume). And you’ll still be able to segment reports to compare how many calls were received from mobile clicks-to-call and how many were manually dialed after the ad was shown on a desktop, notebook, or tablet computer.

2. New pricing for certain calls. A $1 USD (or equivalent in CAD) charge applies to manually dialed calls completed to your Google forwarding numbers. These calls occur when a potential customer on a desktop, notebook or tablet computer sees your ad and dials the number shown.

Pricing for mobile clicks-to-call remains unchanged, whether you use Call Metrics or not. They continue to be charged as regular mobile search ad clicks.

3. Call Extensions replace Phone Extensions. To reduce possible ambiguity, we’ve renamed Phone Extensions to Call Extensions.

In a future release, we plan to incorporate calls into Ad Rank calculations, which determine an ad’s position and cost per click. At that time, you’ll be able to influence your ad position by specifying a bid per call greater than $1.00 USD. This will parallel the way that clickthrough rate (CTR) and max CPC bids can influence Ad Rank today.

To get started with Call Metrics, sign into AdWords and click on the Ad Extensions tab. Select Call Extensions in the shaded View drop down box. Select your country, then enter the business phone number where you’d like to receive calls for this campaign. Finally, select the check box for Call metrics.

(click for full-size image)

You’ll find many more details and answers to frequently asked questions in the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Surojit Chatterjee, AdWords Product Manager

Non-ASCII characters now supported in display and destination URLs

If you write your ads in any language other than English, you may have wished that you could make your display URL consistent with the rest of your ad by showing your internationalized domain name. Today, we’re announcing that we now support non-ASCII characters, including non-Latin characters and Latin characters with accents and diacritics, in display and destination URLs.

When you create an ad in AdWords, you can now enter Unicode characters in the display and destination URL fields. To ensure that users will be able to reach your site, we’ll verify that the URL works properly in both Unicode and Punycode.

We also want to make sure that users are not shown URLs in any language other than their own, so we’ll render the display URL in Unicode characters only if its language matches the user’s Google interface language. In all other cases, it’ll be shown in Punycode.

Remember that all of our AdWords policies regarding display and destination URLs still apply. In particular, the domain of the display and destination URLs must match, so if you use non-ASCII characters in the display URL, make sure to do the same in the destination URL.

Additionally, if you include multi-byte characters, please note that the character limits may vary. For more information, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew

Introducing phone support for AdWords advertisers in Europe

Back in April we announced that we were introducing telephone support for all of US and Canadian AdWords customers. We said then that we would roll out this support to advertisers in other countries. Today, I am happy to announce that we have added Europe to our list.



Our European-based AdWords customers will now be able to speak to a local-language AdWords specialist on one of the following numbers. Please note that local telephone charges may apply unless otherwise stated:

• UK - 0845 358 0038
• Ireland - 1890 907 106
• Austria - 0810 1025 1509
• Poland - (00)8004411830 (toll free)
• Germany - 0180 111 1134
• Spain - 901 010 016
• Italy - 840 320 106
• France - 0811 650 221
• Switzerland - 0848 560 155
• Netherlands - 0900 0400 898
• Belgium - 0703 59 959

These numbers are for current AdWords advertisers only, so please make sure you have your customer ID ready.



We look forward to speaking to you and learning more about your business.



Posted by John Herlihy, Vice President - Advertising Operations



*Update: UK and Ireland numbers updated 8/17

New Ecommerce Tracking and Validation in the Analytics SDK for iOS

Back in May, we announced Version 1.2 of the Google Analytics SDK for Android.

Today we’re happy to announce that Google Analytics SDK for iOS version 1.2 has been released.  This new version supports Ecommerce tracking as well as the new debug and dry run modes, just like its Android counterpart.

Ecommerce Tracking
With Ecommerce mobile tracking, you can capture transaction and product information, send the data to Google Analytics, and then analyze which products performed best. Of course, because this is all within Google Analytics, you can also tie transaction data back to app usage behavior. See the Google Analytics SDK for iOS developer docs to learn how to implement this feature.

Debug and Validation
In addition to Ecommerce, we’ve added new debug and dry run modes to make it easier to validate your Google Analytics implementation.

Debug Mode:

[[GANTracker sharedTracker] setDebug:YES];

With debug mode, all data requests to Google Analytics are sent to the debug console.

Dry Run:

[[GANTracker sharedTracker] setDryRun:YES];

The dry run mode sends all tracking data locally so that you don’t corrupt your production data.  Just be sure to turn it off before releasing your app, otherwise you won’t collect any usage data.


Posted by Jim Cotugno, Google Analytics Mobile Tracking Team

‘Top vs. Side’ Ad Performance Segmentation

A few months ago, our Chief Economist, Hal Varian, wrote a post about understanding the average position metric. As Hal explained, there is a big difference between when your ad appears in position #1 above the search results and when your ad appears in position #1 on the side. Quoting Hal, “This distinction is important, since, on average, ads that appear above the search results tend to get substantially more clicks than ads that appear on the right-hand side.”

Given this “important distinction,” we are excited to announce the new “Top vs. side” AdWords report segment.

Starting this week, you can use the “Top vs. side” report segment to see how your ads perform above and to the side of Google search results. Armed with this new information, you can better optimize your search campaigns by more deeply examining the relationship between your ads’ locations and their clicks and conversions. And brand advertisers can now get better visibility into when and where their critical brand terms are triggering ads above search results.

(click for full-size image)

How to view your “Top vs. side” data

To segment your performance data by where your ads appeared on Google and Search Partner search results pages, you simply need to add the “Top vs. Side” segment to your data table. Here’s how:

1. Select the Campaign, Ad groups, Ads or Keywords tab of your AdWords account.
2. Click the Segment button in the toolbar above your data table.
3. Select Top vs. side from the drop-down. Results will appear in rows beneath each of your ads.

Visit the AdWords Help Center to learn more about top ad position reporting and increasing your top ad impressions.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords crew

Social Networking Sites is Where the Action is for Hispanics and Emerging Minorities

The new town center and “plaza” is online and it is very relevant to today’s marketers in the new global village. In March 2011 we asked consumers to “please tell us how important to you the following reasons are for using social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter?” Respondents answered on a 5 point scale from “not at all important” to “extremely important.”

The two reasons for using social networking sites that stood up most significantly were: “Keeping up with new trends,” and “asking friends and relatives about their opinions on products to buy.” The graphs below summarize the aggregated percentages for the top two points of the 5 point scale.

Keeping up with New Trends

NHW stands for non-Hispanic White, AA for African American, A for Asian, HE for Hispanics who responded in English, and HS for Hispanics who responded in Spanish to the survey.

Asking Friends and Relatives about Their Opinions on Products to Buy

NHW stands for non-Hispanic White, AA for African American, A for Asian, HE for Hispanics who responded in English, and HS for Hispanics who responded in Spanish to the survey.

Minorities in general are more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to say they use social networking sites for keeping up with new trends and for interacting with friends and relatives about their opinions on products to buy. Latinos who answered in Spanish to the survey are more likely than anyone else to endorse these reasons.

There are several important implications of these findings. First, as we have seen in other results from similar surveys, emerging minorities are more engaged with the new media and are likely to use it as a source of information for their lifestyle and consumer behavior. This speaks strongly to the importance that marketers need to place in being where these consumers are, i.e., social media. Brands that facilitate interaction seem likely to have an advantage as that plays directly to what is important to these consumers.

Further, Latinos who prefer Spanish are even more engaged with social networking sites for obtaining guidance and knowing about things like fashion. While Spanish dominant Hispanics have lagged in the adoption of online technologies, they are now fast adopting them and once they adopt these technologies they seem to strongly depend on them. The synergies of social media and traditional electronic and print media are likely to be important and should be capitalized upon to create conversations and discussions. The virtual social world is opening enormous possibilities to people, and it is creating a new system of influence. Growing minorities appear to be eager to break traditional barriers.

Opinion leaders among these emergent minority groups are very likely to have an impact on their followers who share their background, but also on others who frequent social media sites. Thus, these minorities are not only finding a town center or “plaza” online but are likely to also be affecting a larger social milieu because of the very public nature of social media.
Figuring out the role of social media is still an ongoing challenge for marketers. They should start paying close attention to what is happening in the virtual marketplace. Understanding flows of influence in online networks can be crucial for the marketing of the future.

The data for this study was collected during March 2011. This online sample was comprised of 500 respondents per segment, for a total of 2,500, based on quotas by gender, age, and geographic location. DMS Insights managed the sample and data collection and they graciously contributed their effort to the academic program of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University. This study was conducted by the faculty and students of the graduate Multicultural Marketing Communication course offered by FSU.

Google Display Network: Announcing changes to campaign settings

This week we're making a minor change to the way Google Display Network campaign settings work. This change will affect campaigns that meet these criteria:

• Are opted in to the Google Display Network
• Are targeting only keywords in at least one ad group
• Have the campaign setting "Relevant pages only on placements, audiences, and topics I manage"

Background

When you set up a Google Display Network campaign, you have two options to choose from:

• (1) Relevant pages across the entire network
• (2) Relevant pages only on placements, audiences, and topics I manage

With option (1), Google automatically places your ad on relevant webpages based on the keywords in your campaign. With option (2), you have greater control over where your ad appears: your ads show on relevant webpages only within specified placements, audiences, or topics.

Currently, if you choose option (2) and only add keywords, your ads aren't eligible to appear. As a result, you receive zero impressions in those ad groups on the Google Display Network.

For example, say that you're selling tennis shoes and using the keywords "sports shoes," "tennis shoes," and "sneakers”. If you're only opted into the Display Network and you've selected "Relevant pages only on placements, audiences, and topics I manage" as your setting, your ads will only appear on specified placements, audiences, or topics. Because you aren’t using any topics, placements, or audiences, your ads won't appear on the Google Display Network.

What's changing?

With the upcoming change, ads with this type of setting conflict will start appearing on relevant pages across the entire Google Network based on your keywords. In the previous example, ads would show on pages about "sports shoes," "tennis shoes," and "sneakers" on the Google Display Network.

If you add a placement, audience, or topic, your ad will continue to appear only on relevant pages within that placement, audience, or topic.

Important: No changes are needed to existing ad groups, as those that meet these criteria will be prevented from appearing on relevant pages across the entire network.

To make these campaign settings clearer, we are also renaming the settings.

We're changing these two options to:

• (1) Show ads on pages that match the broadest targeting method
• (2) Show ads only on pages that match all selected targeting methods

Before	After
“Relevant pages across the entire network”	“Show ads on pages that match the broadest targeting method”
“Relevant pages only on placements, audiences, and topics I manage”	“Show ads only on pages that match all selected targeting methods”

For more information on how to use our campaign settings and targeting methods to control where your ads appear, visit the help center.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords crew

New: Tablet targeting options now available

In May, we let you know that tablet targeting options would be coming soon. We're excited to announce that tablet targeting is now available to all advertisers. Tablet targeting is a new AdWords campaign targeting option that gives you more precise control to effectively reach the growing number of tablet users.

You can find the new Tablets with full browsers targeting option under the Networks and devices section of the Settings tab within your AdWords account. While in the past you were able to specifically target Apple iPad devices under Mobile devices, the new tablet targeting option elevates the tablet to its own device category and enables you to target your ads to all tablet devices. In addition, the new tablet targeting option allows you to select specific tablet operating systems to target. For example, to display your ads on only the Apple iPad, you would choose Tablets with full browsers as your device targeting setting and iOS as your operating system setting.

(click for full-size image)

With this launch, your ads will automatically start running on tablet devices, and no further action will be necessary on your part. If your campaigns were specifically targeting Apple iPad devices, you may notice an increase in impressions and costs as we include more tablets in our ad serving options. If you don’t want your ads to appear on tablets, you can change your tablet targeting settings by following these step-by-step instructions.

With more than 165 million tablets expected to ship over the next two years, we believe that the strong growth of tablet usage will provide significant opportunity for marketers to connect with consumers in more powerful and relevant ways. We hope this new tablet targeting option helps you better capture this opportunity.

Posted by Surojit Chatterjee, Product Manager, Mobile Ads

Want to be nicknamed Strategy Guru?

 

Do you know how strategy and tactics differ? How many times have you heard someone talk about strategy without providing any substance? According to business expert Erika Andersen, “When people say apple or sunlight, there’s generally a shared definition. But people have no common definition for strategy.” In her book, Being Strategic: Plan for Success, Out-Think Your Competitors, Stay Ahead of Change, Andersen explains the differences between discussing strategy, defining strategy, and actually being strategic – so your business benefits.

The core of strategy, according to Andersen, is a journey with four parts.

[1] What Is? – an exploration of the current situation and how it came to be

[2] What’s the Hope? – The hoped-for future: clearly defined, realistic, and aspirational

[3] What’s in the Way? – an understanding of what’s blocking movement from “what is” to “hoped-for future”

[4] What’s the Path? – the plan to overcome obstacles and achieve hoped-for future

Perhaps the reason that so many people don’t like discussing or working on strategies is because they don’t like to focus on what isn’t working. But isn’t success better than lack of success? By focusing on the four-part journey described by Andersen, the process for creating strategies and tactics is easy. At the end of every chapter, Andersen provides worksheets to analyze your individual business situations and put her theories into practice. But let’s never forget the importance of collaboration with other employees, alignment with other business units, and adherence to project budgets and timing.

Here’s a refresher for key business success terms:

* Mission: why we exist, our unique purpose as an organization

* Vision: what we would look like if we were more fully achieving that purpose: our hoped-for future as a company, fulfilling our mission

* Obstacles: what might make it difficult for us to be the company we envision, achieving our purpose

* Strategy: core directional choices toward becoming the company we envision

* Tactics: specific actions that will best implement those strategies

If you want to be nicknamed the “Strategy Guru” in your office, then learn these easy-to-follow steps for strategic planning and action:

[1] Be clear about the problem you’re trying to solve

[2] Figure out where you’re starting from

[3] Imagine your “castle on the hill” – your ultimate goal

[4] Identify the “trolls under the bridge” – the obstacles in your path

[5] Outline the path to the “castle” – your core strategies and the tactics for implementing the strategies

[6] Re-evaluate your strategy and tactics as conditions change

Visit Erika’s website: http://erikaandersen.com

Follow Erika on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/erikaandersen

Become a fan on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Erika-Andersen/148974045125729

Subscribe to Erika’s Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/erika1952

 

Visit Erika’s company, Proteus-International: http://www.proteus-international.com

 

Out the door first with personalized debit

I love early morning trail runs! The best part? Serenity ... peace ... solitude. The worst part? Spiderwebs!

The point? There are great benefits to getting out the door first.

We have a client who offers instant issue debit cards. When we shopped their branches, the staff talked about the benefit of receiving the cards instantly ... which, to us bankers, is really cool. What they were missing was the true, differentiating benefit to the consumer. With the instant issue debit, they also offered card customization. Their members can have a debit card with a picture of their wedding day, a close up of their brat's mug or a shot of their refurbished hot rod ... whatever they want! Sure custom cards aren't "instant," but they are darn fast (a few days wait). The unique benefit is emotional.

Now, I don't know about your specific market (yet!), but in this market, while other banks have "free checking," no other competitor is marketing personalized debit cards. It's a unique product, it's tied to the almighty checking account and it has emotional appeal. It's the perfect storm! We rolled the print campaign out last week and will be focusing there for some time.

By getting out the door first with custom debit, I expect that this client will enjoy the serenity, peace and solitude of a less crowded competitive marketplace. And I'm sure it'll be better than running back in the crowded pack of "Free Checking."

Take care,

Eric

How to Publish Your Own Paper.li Online Newspaper

Have you visited http://Paper.liyet? According to their website,

“Paper.li is a content curation service.  It enables people to publish newspapers based on topics they like and treat their readers to fresh news, daily.” 

I came across Paper.li many months ago but have developed an increased interest in the content sharing after being featured in a Twitter friend’s own paper.li online newspaper.  @SHUEDA (Greg Shue) publishes a “#CHS #Design Daily” using paper.li, and I have been thrilled to find myself as a contributor on several occasions (example here: http://paper.li/SHUEDA/charleston-design). The best part? It’s allowed me to meet new people and has helped grow my relationship with @SHUEDA and others featured in his daily paper.  A few weeks ago another Twitter friend, @ashleytcaldwell, released her own paper.li daily newspaper, The Modern Connection Daily.

Today I’m walking you through the process of creating your own Paper.li online newspaper.

I created three of my own daily papers:
The Charleston Marketers Daily,
The Dream Big #ArtDaily, and
the Charleston Local Business Daily.

These were so much fun to make, I imagine I’ll make a few more! The best part? Your daily paper is automated, and you can set up the daily tweet to run by itself as well.  I’d encourage you to create your own daily paper, especially if you’ve created lists on your twitter account.


How to Create Your Own Paper.li Daily Online Newspaper (It’s Free!)

1.       Visit http://Paper.li.

2.       Click on “Create a Paper”.

3.       Sign in with your Twitter (or Facebook) account.  I signed in with Twitter because that’s where I’m pulling my content from.

4.       Authorize Paper.li to use your Twitter (or Facebook) account.

5.       Provide your email address and click "continue". 

6.       Important! Instead of clicking on "Create Paper", we are going to customize your paper.  This will give you more control over the content and will allow you to customize the name of your paper.   To do this, click on "show me" under "Want to create a paper based on a specific topic or list of people?"
7.      Now, Create your newspaper by entering a Title.  Try to think of something short and sweet that will come across well on Twitter.


8.       If you have Twitter lists, add the Twitter List that is in line with the desired content of your paper.  For example, I have a Charleston Marketers list on my Twitter account with 450+ people in Charleston who are in marketing/pr/design/advertising.  When I created my “Charleston Marketers Daily” paper, I added my “Charleston-Marketers” list from Twitter as the content stream that would power the content of my paper. If you don't have Twitter lists related to the content you'd like to publish, consider pulling in twitter users another way (by keyword, hashtags, etc.)

9.       Select your language and click “Publish”

10.       Now it’s time to set automatic publishing to your Twitter profile and/or Facebook wall.  To do this, go to your paper from the “my favorites” at the top right-hand side of paper.li when you’re logged in.

11.       Then, click on “paper settings” below your profile at the far top right.
12.   Select the time of day (and time zone) when you’d like your paper to be published and click “save settings”.
13.   Click over to the “promote” tab and make sure “automatically tweet to all your followers” to publish your paper to your Twitter followers (max once per day).

Congratulations! You’ve just created your very own customized online newspaper.

Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Social Plugin Analytics in Google Analytics

With our recent Social Plugin Analytics launch you now have the ability to analyse how users engage with any social plugin such as Google’s +1 button and Twitter’s Tweet button. Now it’s time for the lowdown on how to set this feature up to work for you. If you are a developer, you should pay particularly close attention.

If you’ve added +1 buttons to your site and your Analytics implementation is up to date, integration is automatic and you should already see data in your account. You can ensure the +1 integration is working by taking some simple steps.

If you want to integrate with other social plugins, like Twitter, we’ve also made it really easy. The latest version of the tracking code has a new _trackSocial method to capture various aspects of a social plugin interaction. Using the async javascript snippet, the easiest way to call this method is to use:

_gaq.push([‘_trackSocial’, socialNetwork, socialAction]);

And if you’re using the traditional snippet you’ll need to use this syntax:

var pageTracker = _gat._createTracker(‘UA-xxxxx-y’);
pageTracker._trackSocial(socialNetwork, socialAction);

You then want to call this method somewhere where you know the social plugin has been clicked on. We’ve included some example on how this work with Twitter’s plugin API as well as Facebook’s plugin API and you can see a working demo here. Sweet!

If you are building an integration for use by several Analytics users we encourage you to use the code for the async snippet for now. Also, to enable the development of integrations such as these we would like to share with our customers that we are working toward better compatibility between the sync and async tags with the goal of enabling calls such as _trackSocial to work for both version with the same syntax.

Finally, if you are a developer of a content management plugin which adds social plugins to websites, or if you build social plugins, we want to work with you! Ideally we’d love for all users of your plugin and Google Analytics to have seamless social analytics. In the developer community spirit we’re giving out free t-shirts to the first 100 developers who integrate a social plugin, or a Content Management plugin that adds social widgets to sites with Google Analytics. Let us know what you’ve done by submitting your plugin here.

UPDATE: 7/8/11 5:30pm PST, corrected references to the social plugin analytics feature.

Posted by John Jersin, Google Analytics Team

The Zero Moment of Truth: A New Marketing Strategy

Once upon a time, marketers believed that shoppers made up their mind about a product in about the time it takes to read this sentence.

The three to seven seconds a shopper considered a product on a store shelf was believed to be a critical moment—what P&G termed the “First Moment of Truth” or FMOT ("eff-mot"). This was the moment when all the advertising a consumer had seen for a brand would either pay off with a purchase or not.

Since then, FMOT has become one of those terms, like “tipping point” and “purple cow,” that changes the way marketers think. FMOT is one of three widely accepted “moments of truth” for a product—the other two being when the consumer sees an ad for the product (the stimulus) and when she uses it for the first time (the experience).

These concepts still hold true today and may be even more relevant given the continued emergence of strong store brands. But thanks to the web, we’re seeing the rise of an additional class of critical brand interactions: the Zero Moment of Truth or ZMOT ("zee-mot"), which occurs after the consumer sees an ad for a product, but before a purchase is made in store. More precisely, it's the moment when a shopper goes online to research a product and decides whether to make a purchase.

We're seeing growth in everything from queries for reviews and coupon redemption to mobile usage, strongly indicating that this phenomenon is real. But what we wondered is, what does this phenomenon mean for marketers? To find out, we spent a lot of time talking to industry experts and leading marketers and conducting primary market research to learn as much as we could about ZMOT.

Now, we’re excited to drive industry discussions and pass our findings on to marketers in a new free ebook, Winning the Zero Moment of Truth.

In it, we explore:

- Typical ZMOT moments that happen every day

- Why marketers should consider ZMOT as important as “the ad” and “the shelf”

- Seven steps to winning at ZMOT, including exercises to identify relevant moments for your brand

If you’re interested in learning more about the consumer behavior that’s changing the way marketers think about branding and online commerce, I invite you to download Google’s free marketing strategy ebook Winning the Zero Moment of Truth. And I encourage you to join the conversation (and check out the enhanced video version of the book) at www.zeromomentoftruth.com (#zmot). I hope that you enjoy our work and that it helps you navigate your own moments of truth.

Posted by Jim Lecinski, Author and Chief ZMOT Evangelist, Google

New Twitter Background Designs to Share

Welcome back from the 4th of July holiday! I have a few lovely Twitter backgrounds to share with you on this "Twitter Tuesday".  It's a bit late, but here are few designs I've recently completed.  Tomorrow I'll be sharing an inspirational post about my brother.  Until then, please enjoy these backgrounds. 

Today's Etiquette with Darlene Das
Darlene is new to Twitter and will be taking the Twitterverse by storm before you know it! I created a custom background to match her website.  Diane had lovely photos for me to work with, so she made my job super easy!

Today's Etiquette with Darlene Das at @TodaysEtiquette



I feel a bit silly sharing the next background, but it's one that was in need of an update. Designers often work on their own websites and profiles last, and the same can be said about me sometimes. I updated my Twitter background recently and wanted to share it with you.

Are we connected on Twitter? Follow me @LauraCatherineO


If you're interested in updating your own Twitter background, I posted a tutorial over here.  Not graphically-inclined? I can help!

Hope you have a lovely rest of your evening.  We'll talk tomorrow.  It's going to be a post close to my heart.
xo,

Laura

Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn.