Ethofy’s Eye On: Free Content Curation Products (Part II) February 7, 2012
Posted by Graham Sumioka in Content, General, Marketing, Technology.Tags: Bookmarking, Content Curation, Product Review, social media
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My early efforts in building a marketing Pearltree.
As discussed in part I of my free content curation product series, the vast number of content hosting sites is rivaled only by the number of curation products created. They have cropped up to help you discover, organize, and share all those choice pieces of content found in different corners of the web. I’ve been using Pearltrees for a couple weeks at this point and will provide a brief overview of the product and how it might be of use to you as a curator of content. (more…)
Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2012 January 3, 2012
Posted by Graham Sumioka in Content, Marketing, Technology.add a comment
In an interesting exercise started by the Content Marketing Institute back in 2009, predictions from content marketing thought leaders are compiled then shared in an online publication. I wrote a quick summary of the predictions last year, and I have done so again this year. The latest version with predictions from over 75 contributors can be found here.
I will get to the 2012 predictions in a bit, but it would be a waste to not do a quick look back to see how the top 2011 predictions fared.
2011 Review:
- Meaningful content will be king. True – Spoiler alert! This is still one of the top predictions for 2012, but that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Unless you are competing in a holiday light decorating contest, quantity is rarely valued above quality. For example, Facebook made several updates (not without controversy) over the past year that changed the type and frequency of content that appeared in user’s newsfeeds.
- Brands that direct resources to mobile marketing will win. True – A Comscore report from October of 2011 stated that 6.8% of all web traffic occurred via a mobile device. Smartphone user demographics make this seemingly small number a very sought after target market. Emarketer also reports that mobile usage is up over 30% from 2010 numbers.
- The focus on metrics and Return On Social Investment (ROSI) will be big in 2011. True (Sorta) - I agree that the focus was high in 2011, but it seems that little movement has been made towards a measurable standard. Various dollar amounts for the value of a Twitter follower, or Facebook like have been floated around, but the scrutiny around influence measurement tells me that marketers and their management are still on the hunt for the ROSI holy grail.
The popular marketing predictions for 2012 haven’t changed dramatically, but there are there are a few things to keep in mind as 2012 kicks off.
Marketers should rejoice as financial metrics are decreasingly used to justify value of social marketing September 29, 2011
Posted by Graham Sumioka in Marketing, Technology.Tags: Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Social Media Metrics
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I’m not down on financial metrics by any means, but if social marketers can get more funding without them then I am just that much more bullish on the future of social marketing. Earlier this month the Duke Fuqua School of Business posted the results of their semiannual CMO survey. As usual, there were a number of questions posed to senior marketing executives about their current and future social marketing plans, and a few of the results were particularly interesting when analyzed together. Here are two conclusions that raised my interest:
- Budgets for social marketing are still on the rise
- Social media metrics used by firms have shifted importance away from financial metrics and increased focus on engagement metrics (hits, followers, buzz, etc).
Google Plus Will Be a Major Plus for Businesses September 1, 2011
Posted by Graham Sumioka in Branding, Content, Marketing, Technology.Tags: Google Plus, Product Preview, social media
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If your sales and marketing teams aren’t chomping at the bit to get a business profile up on Google+ you may want to give them a nudge (or better yet, a shove).
According to a Bloomberg and YouGov report Google+ should claim the #2 US social network spot (surprise, Facebook is #1) sometime within the next year as it is estimated that 9% of online adults plan on joining. This would put G+ ahead of the remaining trendy social platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. To be clear though, I’m not suggesting that you axe Facebook or any of the other platforms from your marketing mix. I just want to make sure that the “I don’t have time/interest argument for another social network” feeling is put to rest simply on the basis of available bodies to support, market and sell to.
The early adopters of Google+ are also older than the college crowd that populated Facebook in the beginning. This means that marketers have a pool of people to engage with that have a much higher level of disposable income. It isn’t a new concept, but the brands with the best established connections to the people that have the most dollars will have the best chance of converting fans and followers into customers.
The Google+ US user base is not the only thing that makes this social network newcomer so intriguing for businesses though. (more…)
Graham Sumioka
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