There is no doubt that digital social media and digital social networking have exploded in popularity over the last decade. Both have come a long way since their early conception with webpages such as Friendster back in 2002. Friendster an amalgamation of the name ‘Napster‘ and ‘Friend’ was the most popular online social networking service until 2004 when it was overtaken by MySpace.
MySpace was eventually overtaken by Facebook as the most popular social networking site in 2008. Since online social networking and online social media’s early beginnings there have been a number of off shoots that have their own unique niche markets. The most popular of these has been compiled into a list by socialmedianews.com.au.
Google Plus is a social networking site, LinkedIn is a business related social networking site, Flickr is a photo sharing application, Reddit and Digg are social news websites where users can view and upload content, StumbleUpon is a discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its users based on the users interests, Delicious allows you to bookmark your favourite webpages and content into a ’stack’ which can be shared and viewed by your social network.
Finally, WordPress, Blogspot and Tumblr are all blog hosting platforms.
The list below is sourced form socialmedianews.com.au and indicates Australia’s most popular social media and networking sites from December 2011.
1. Facebook – 10,721,020 users 13,000,000 UAV
2. YouTube – 11,000,000
3. Blogspot – 3,500,000
4. LinkedIn – 2,000,000
5. Twitter – 1,800,000
6. WordPress – 1,600,000
7. Flickr – 1,000,000
8. Tumblr – 1,000,000
9. Google Plus – 570,000
10. MySpace – 560,000
11. Reddit – 160,000
12. StumbleUpon – 150,000
13. Digg – 83,000
14. Delicious – 48,000
*UAV=Unique Australian Visitors
Socialmedianews’ graph below makes a comparison of Australian traffic between these popular websites throughout the year of 2011. It is easy to see that Facebook remains popular with a steady increase. Youtube enjoyed a huge rise in numbers during the month of March and continues to rise in popularity. Australian Twitter and LinkedIn users have grown nearly two fold over the year.
Reddit, Flickr and Tumblr also increased their user base significantly whilst MySpace and Digg dropped in numbers. Facebook is predicting to reach one billion members in August 2012, for a breakdown of memberships and Facebook activity visit http://checkfacebook.com.
Graph 1
As Social Media becomes ever more prevalent, a number of new marketing strategies become open for businesses to expand into. According to the above data it would be appear feasible for businesses to open up and invest some time in creating a business profile on some or all of the social networking sites.
A recent survey of 500 US businesses by Webmarketing123 indicated that 47% of participating companies generated leads from Facebook, 34.8% from LinkedIn, and 33.8% from Twitter. Social media however, is not the be all and end all of creating Lead Generation for businesses. According to the same study only 21.4% of Lead Generation was from social media marketing. Search Engine Optimisation ranked higher with (SEO) generated 49.2% of Lead Generation (See Graph 2)
A few good rules of thumb for companies that haven’t signed up to any of the social networking sites are to:
1. Share your content
2. Listen to your audience and tailor your webpage accordingly.
3. Post good content only. Good content will bring regular visitors and your content is more likely to be shared and interacted with.
4. Build relationships with other people, companies and professionals.
Graph 2
Source: Webmarketing123
* Business to Business (B2B)
* Business to Consumer (B2C)
Learn more about Search Engine Optimisation click Here.
Whether you are a blogger or a business with a website, everybody wants to reach their target audience. As the internet grows in popularity and more and more bloggers upload their work and a greater portion of businesses are creating websites, it is easy to be drowned out by the competition. Couple this with the swathe of internet spam and phony advertising sites and you can understand why some websites are gasping for air. This is where Google Panda comes in.
Panda is the latest search algorithm rolled out by Google to ensure valid and relevant webpages are generated by its users when they enter a search term. Google Panda is designed to reduce spam, fight content farming sites, improve scraper detection and filter low quality content. In fact Panda was originally labelled “Farmer” because one of its main objectives was to tackle content farming sites, the name changed to “Panda” in honour of a key developer of the algorithm.
How can you ensure that your website is not penalised by Google Panda and climbs higher up in the search results? The problem is two fold and requires a basic understanding of what Google Panda has been designed to do, and an understanding of basic search engine optimisation (SEO).
The basic rules of thumb for SEO
Good Content
First and foremost is writing good content for your webpage. Good content means relevant, well written, grammatically and factually correct information that connects with your target audience. Why is this important? Good content will be ReTweeted and linked to by other websites. This is fantastic news for your search engine ranking, especially if those links and ReTweets are from sites with a high ranking and have a large audience.
Another aspect of good content is good spelling. Some extra thought may need to go into spelling depending on your target audience. If you are targeting US audiences key words such as ‘optimisation’ need to be spelt ‘optimization’ and vice-versa for Australian and UK audiences.
Fresh content
By regularly adding fresh content you are encouraging readers to revisit your site and create fresh links and hopefully retweet your most recent articles. Search engine robots (spiders) will also check your site more often meaning that any new content you add will be indexed faster.
Headings and descriptive page titles
Employing descriptive and relevant title pages not only makes the navigation of your site easier for visitors, it also makes it easier for search engines to determine what each page is about. In addition the title page is used to link to your site in search result listings. It is also important to use the h1-h6 elements for headings within your content. This not only breaks up large chunks of text and gives your article structure but it also makes it simpler for spiders to construe and categorise the main points of your article.
Lean and clean markup
High quality, clean markup will aid in SEO as will a high content to markup ratio. Search engine robots can sometimes find it difficult to read through complicated and unclear markup thus reducing your chance of a higher search rating.
Simpler URLs
Simplifying URLs makes it easier for search engine robots and users to find and access your site, this in turn naturally optimises your webpage to move up the list of search results.
Be patient and don’t try and cheat the system
If you have been doing all of the above correctly you should see your webpage moving up in the search results page. Keep in mind that employing all of the above will not automatically sky rocket your webpage to the top of the list overnight. It takes time for people and search engine robots to find and engage with your website.
Resist the temptation of link farming, keyword spamming and other methods to try and cheat search results. Much like card counting in a casino it may work initially, bringing in large numbers. Eventually your subterfuge will be exposed, you may not have both knee caps broken like in some mob casinos but your site will be removed from the search results listings.
SEO with the Panda
All of the above basics of SEO still remain important with the new Panda algorithm but even more importance has been placed on good content.
Keeping in mind that Panda has been designed to reduce the amount of low quality sites from Google searches, chiefly it is important that your webpage has good content. Panda is achieving this by measuring ReTweets and the amount of social sharing of your content. The bounce rate of your site has been given greater importance therefore encouraging websites to use engaging and quality content. Finally, the amount of adds in your webpage, especially in relation to content affects SEO.
Finding a voice or a platform to be heard used to be a lot simpler on the internet. Although the potential audience has grown significantly over the years, finding a platform to be heard is becoming more competitive. Following the above guidelines is a great place to start for most. If you are not achieving the desired SEO success you were intending consider hiring an SEO consult to help. No doubt that Google Panda’s new changes are necessary and will make relevant websites more accessible to all. As I am sure is Google Panda’s intention, happy hunting!
The gloves are off in the Apple vs Samsung battle. The first punch was pulled in April earlier this year by Apple suing Samsung for ’slavishly copying’ the user interfaces and product designs of its iPhone and iPad. Samsung hit back with its own lawsuits against Apple alleging violations of their intellectual property. The battle so far between these two giants has spread to more than 10 countries including South Korea, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia with a number of lawsuits and media releases by both companies.
In Australia the tit for tat feud saw the Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned from sale due to a temporary injunction won by Apple in September. This decision was overturned in late November allowing Samsung to resume Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in Australia. Samsung countersued Apple by seeking a ban on theiPhone 4S sales, in Australia. This lawsuit will not be heard until March next year.
Getting the claws out
Apple and Samsung haven’t just been at each others throats in the courts. A recent advertisement by Samsung takes a snipe at iPhone customers forming lines around the block to buy the latest iPhone that ‘looks the same as the old ones’.
Samsung hit below the belt with another stunt occurring outside the official Sydney Apple Store on the release of the iPhone 4S. Samsung stole Apples thunder by offering $2 Samsung Galaxy SII normally valued at $79 in a temporary pop up shop metres away from the entrance to the Apple store.
In the last quarter of 2011 Apple creeped ahead of Nokia in the Smart phone market share behind Samsung. Predictions from IDC research are that with the release of the Iphone 4s and the re-pricing of older models across the globe Apple may surpass Samsung’s in market share.
It appears that the emergence of the tablet and smartphone market has been a ‘powder keg’ waiting to explode between Samsung and Apple as they both battle it out for the top spot. It will be interesting to see whether these two will continue to duke it out in the courts and media press release rooms throughout the world or whether they will eventually kiss and make up. At present both parties have a lot invested in the smart phone and tablet market and do not appear to be giving any ground. Perhaps it will allow other platforms a chance to catch up in the market? Whatever happens, let’s hope that it doesn’t end in tears.
Each year the Christmas rush appears to become ever more hectic and fast paced as mums and dads across the country fight it out with other customers for the newest toys and games to buy for their children. To find a parking spot at Chadstone Shopping Centre during the holiday season is like trying to find a fart in a sandstorm. As queues grow longer at stores and shopping complexes, an astute and ever increasing amount of people are using their Smart Phones for their holiday shopping.
According to Google Australia, a quarter of all Google searches related to Christmas shopping in 2011 came from the use of mobile phones and handheld devices. This equates to a 220 per cent rise in retail queries via mobiles since 2010 making evident the increasing importance of businesses being able to cater for shoppers using these new mediums.
The upward trend towards mobile purchases and enquiries does not appear to be slowing down, Google announced that by the closing of 2011, over 50% of Australian adults will own a Smart phone. Despite this figure more than 80% of our retailers are yet to produce mobile-friendly websites.
With 25% of Christmas shopping related queries coming in from mobiles the missed opportunity for these businesses is quite significant. With the development of mobile friendly websites retailers’ sales could be significantly improved.
It is not only on mobile phones that there is a rise in consumer searches and purchases, the use of tablets such as the iPad are also becoming ever more popular for shopping. Google’s Sameer Samat described using the tablet for shopping as “..the ultimate leanback experience” whilst PayPal dubs shopping with tablets as ‘couch commerce’. PayPal believes that tablet commerce will record its highest income this year.
With online shopping and the use of Smart phones set to smash records this Christmas, there is certainly plenty of money to be made for retailers and businesses that are willing to embrace these new technologies and advertising mediums. As more and more turn to their mobiles for their Christmas shopping, business savvy retailers are busy manufacturing Smart phone friendly sites to grab their slice of online shopping income.
To find out how your business could profit from Smart phone friendly websites why not give Conduct call?
Smart Phones are becoming more and more popular across the world, and Australia is no exception. New research jointly conducted by Google and Ipsos has shown that by the end of 2011 more than 50% of the Australian adult population will own a Smart Phone. The research is based on a study of 30, 000 people from 30 different countries focusing on how people are using their Smart phones.
The study demonstrates that Australia enjoyed a rise of 13% in Smart Phone sales throughout the year bringing it in as the second highest Smart phone saturated populace in the world. This is just behind Singapore and ahead of the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. According to the Official Google Australia Blog “Australia went from lagging to leading the worldwide Smartphone revolution in just one year”.
So what are we using our Smart Phones for?
Australians are using Smart phones for a variety of activities, the most common being social networking, shopping and internet searching.
The most popular activity conducted on Australian Smart phones is searching for information. According to the study 40% of us use the Smartphone everyday for this activity.
In an average week 71% of Australian Smart phone owners use it to browse the internet, 75% use a search engine and 31% use them to watch videos.
Australians possess on average approximately 25 apps on their Smart phones, 8 of which are paid for.
Smart phone use for mobile transactions is on the increase with PayPal Australia reporting a 25 % increase for every month of 2010.
49 % of Australians use their smartphone to research and then call businesses and 20% of those surveyed had looked for real estate with their Smart phone.
Source: Google Blog
The rise of the Smart phones popularity across the world is clear, particularly in Australia. Retailers and businesses are beginning to take notice of the opportunities presented within this new marketing genre and we can expect to see in the coming months a large push from these industries to cash in this the new market. If you or your business is interested in developing a Smart phone friendly website or application, drop us a line or pop in for a coffee here at Conduct?
Starbucks is launching a very nice looking augmented reality (AR) app for the holidays. The Starbucks Cup Magic app will let customers animate their coffee cups using their iPhone and Android based smartphones.
People simply point their phone’s camera at specially marked cups and additional objects at retail locations, such as coffee bags, to produce the holiday inspired animations and characters, which they can interact with.
The app has been nicely integrated with social media for sharing and is built around rewarding customers with prizes and promotions. This is another great example of how large companies are adopting AR technology and successfully using it to interact with their customers.
Do you follow any brands or companies on Twitter? According to Twitter’s head of Global Revenue Adam Bain 20 to 40 percent of users do follow one or more brands on Twitter.
If you are one of these people, you may start seeing “Promoted Tweets” appearing on or near the top of your Twitter timeline. What is a Promoted Tweet you may ask? A Promoted Tweet is essentially a paid advertisement from companies or brands to appear at the top of their follower’s timelines, thus eliminating the possibility of their messages getting lost in the constant refresh of Twitter’s real-time feed.
A Promoted Tweet will be clearly labelled as promoted and as stated above will appear at the top of a users timeline. Other than this, Promoted Tweets are the same as any other Tweet. Users can choose to mark as a favourite, reply to or retweet. Once viewed the Promoted Tweets will scroll down the timeline just like any other Tweet and they will appear in your timeline only once. Additionally a user can simply delete the advertisement from their timeline altogether by pressing “X” icon.
If reading this you are considering giving up your Twitter account, hold on. Twitter has voiced that it wants to be able to profit from advertisement without annoying its users. To minimise this Twitter encourages the exclusivity of the advertised content “When we decide to follow a favourite brand, business or charitable organisation, we expect to be among the first to get a special announcement, access to exclusive content or a great offer,” Twitter said. Advertisements will also only be directed to those who subscribe to that particular company or brands updates.
In addition companies that choose to advertise through Twitter will only pay if users engage with the Promoted Tweet via clicking, retweeting, replying or marking as a favourite. Therefore Twitter only makes a profit if there is engagement with the ad, if not then Twitter reserves the right to remove it.
Will Promoted Tweets work for users and advertisers?
Only time will tell. If it does then Twitter will become ever more popular as an advertising medium and can only increase in its popularity and profitability. Companies and brands that endeavour to use Promoted Tweets will have to ensure that their Tweets are interesting, enticing and relevant enough to their users, otherwise they will quickly see users start to ‘unfollow’ their brands as a result.
Melbourne based electronic creatives ENESS treated Tron Legacy fans to a truly amazing projection mapping installation at the recent premiere opening show at the Melbourne IMAX theater. From a technological perspective, this installation pushed the boundaries of 3D mapping technology to deliver a pretty cool tron-style skateboard session. Using IR lights, camera tracking and by giving each skater their own personal software loaded iPod touch, each rider’s speed, individual trick and air time could be followed in real-time and projected with special effects. Awesome to see such innovation like this right in our own backyard!
As smart phones continued to become ever more popular and powerful, so has mobile marketing also become increasingly used as an effective channel for reaching mass markets directly through mobile devices. Improved mobile capability means that businesses have been particularly using SMS (Short Message Service) marketing to immediately reach customers, wherever they are, in real-time, at low cost and with personally targeted messages that may include text, video and MMS (picture) messaging. There’s a high chance that you have personally been the recipient of a SMS marketing campaign at some point of time.
As a result, SMS marketing has been an attractive and reliable tool for marketers to employ over the years but it has also slowly become more expensive as well. In fact, it is now apparent to more and more businesses that SMS marketing is not as cheap as it once used to be leaving them wondering how they might mitigate this growing expense in the future.
Push notifications to the rescue!
Well there is hope on the horizon for marketers looking to ease the wallet. Apple’s Push Notification Service is a mobile service that was released with iOS 3.0 on June 17, 2009. It uses push technology through a constantly-open IP connection to forward notifications from the servers of third party applications to the iPhone,iPod Touch and iPad. Since then other platforms have implemented their equivalent protocols for handling push notifications as well, seeing the benefits of offering such functionality. Technically, push notification services have all the elements of existing SMS capabilities but with some additional advantages. From an end user’s perspective, the two services often appear no different. For a mobile marketer, however, the differences between using SMS or push for mobile messaging are significant.
OK, so what makes push notifications better?
It’s far cheaper to execute push notification campaigns compared to SMS. More often than not, SMS campaigns require the purchase of shortcodes and involve other variable costs that can reach into the thousands.
Push notifications have richer media capabilities for messages that are sent to recipients, without the size and character limitations of SMS.
Push notifications can easily drive users into actionable content compared with the SMS approach of sending one-way messages and forgetting about them. A user may view an SMS message, but it’s nearly impossible to measure open rates and any ROI for the business. Mobile campaigns can now push call-to-actions to recipients that can be precisely tracked as part of a two-way communication. You see this within applications, especially Apple applications, all the time. It could be buying the latest edition of a magazine, new game levels and so on.
According to a Mobclix survey, customer retention is 2.7x better with push-notification; Apps are opened up to 228% more and weekly session times have increased by 103%.
Where does this leave SMS marketing then?
SMS is still by far the most popular method used by mobile marketers but, with push notifications having exploded from nothing to billions of messages being served over the last year and a half, it seems it will run past SMS at 100 miles/hr. People are recognizing the real advantages that push notifications offer that SMS just cannot. In a mobile environment developing around IP Network Transformation, it is surely a matter of “when” not “if”!
Whether you are a blogger or a business with a website, everybody wants to reach their target audience. As the internet grows in popularity and more and more bloggers upload their work and a greater portion of businesses are creating websites, it is easy to be drowned out by the competition. Couple this with the swathe of internet spam and phony advertising sites and you can understand why some websites are gasping for air. This is where Google Panda comes in.
the 
Shopping Centre during the holiday season is like trying to find a fart in a sandstorm. As queues grow longer at stores and shopping complexes, an astute and ever increasing amount of people are using their Smart Phones for their holiday shopping.
more and more popular across the world, and Australia is no exception. New research jointly conducted by Google and 
