LinkedIn recently released it's own Share button much like the frequently used Facebook Like button and Twitter share buttons. They are clearly very late to the game, but in this case, it's certainly better late than never.
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NPR is fairly good at staying on top of emerging tech and web trends. Yesterday's story that caught my attention was regarding users concern with Facebook privacy...and what may happen to the social world in the future as a result. As stated in the program, and I think we can all agree, Facebook is not the end-all to social networks. Bigger and better are bound to come at some point. While there are many startups out there that hope they can be the next big thing in social, the one discussed on NPR caught my attention.
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With Google nipping at the heels of Groupon, a socially-aware "deal of the day" website that provides its users with 1 amazing deal in their city everyday, and with Amazon having just invested in Groupon's top competitor LivingSocial, it would seem that location-based deals are the next big thing when it comes to online retail opportunities. You might be interested in taking advantage of the deals either website is offering, but more importantly if you're a small business owner this is an excellent opportunity to gain new customers.
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As we have been telling our small business clients for some time, it has been made very clear that social media will soon have an effect on search engine ranks. Well, it looks like the time has already come. In a blog post released today, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land revealed some insights into how Google and Bing are currently using social involvement in their algorithms.
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Coremetrics has released some initial data for Black Friday sales and the outcome for online retailers is looking great. Overall there was a 15.9% increase in sales between Black Friday 2009 and Black Friday 2010, and the average price per order is also up by 12.1% (from around $170 per order to $190.80).
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I think that we can all agree that referrals are probably the best lead generation tools out there. This post is not about the power of referrals though...for more on that check out The Referral Engine by John Janstch. This post is about online reviews, the digital referral, from complete strangers or sometimes acquaintances. These days the more online 'referrals' you have, the more likely the reader will pay attention to your business. Not all online or real life referrals are good, there are bad as well. As we have seen, the online community is not afraid to to talk about bad experiences. So what do you do when you get a bad review online?
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Happy Thanksgiving! I would be remiss if I didn't say how thankful I am every day to work in such a great industry with amazing co-workers, clients and vendors. I am certainly appreciative that you are reading this post today as well!
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Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp, is planning on partnering with Apple to deliver a tablet-only subscription-based newspaper later this year called "The Daily." Rumor has it that the magazine will cost 99 cents per issue, and will be the first of many publications to embrace Apple's new subscription platform in iOS. With the pains that traditional print publications are currently struggling through there is no doubt that more media outlets will move towards offering digital versions of their paper publications (in some cases they may offer only digital content, as with The Daily), and this means that businesses will have the opportunity to deliver more dynamic and interactive advertisements to their potential customers.
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By now most of you have already planned out your Black Friday shopping. You will likely stay up the night before and hit the stores at midnight or wake up extremely early to make sure the items you are looking for aren't sold out. One benefit nowadays that wasn't available in the past: if you can't get what you were looking for on Black Friday or can't make it to the store, there's always Cyber Monday!
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An exec from AKQA that helped Volkswagen with the launch of their new GTI spoke at the Mobile Marketing Forum recently where he shared some very solid results. The center of their mobile strategy was an iPhone game that allowed the user to pick one of six custom designed cars by VW, including the new GTI.
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If you are executing digital marketing, congratulations! You are most likely already one step ahead of your competition, and making strides to meaningfully connect with prospects online. But, how do you know if you’re seeing continual success year over year, and improving your metrics?
Without the tools in place to analyze and benchmark your efforts, it is impossible to scale your online marketing and ensure continuous success.
