With smartphone usage on the rise, it’s no surprise that mobile shopping is too. According to a survey conducted by eDigitalResearch and PortalTech, out of the UK, 25% of the 1,205 consumers polled had used their mobile device to browse a shopping website or app in the week preceding the survey. 20% of those consumers went on to complete a purchase. This indicates a fundamental shift in the way consumers are shopping.
20% of consumers will make more mobile purchases in the future
Ask a regular person about Apple products and they’ll usually say something about how they create drool worthy designs with excellent user experiences. Ask a regular person about social media they’ll say likely the exact opposite: problematic interfaces and occasionally clunky user experiences. As far as I can tell, Flipboard has bridged the two worlds together – in a way that is great for users and trouble for old world media.
I have not been fortunate enough to own an iPad but if there were ever a use case that made me want one, it would be this:
With so much competition for the same affiliates and customers, how do you set yourself apart? A top-quality product, high-ranking website, online advertising and social media are just the beginning. All of these tools are the platform on which your affiliate program and online marketing are built – everything on top of this is how you attract and gain new customers and provide return on the time investment of your top affiliates.
So how can your company outdo the competition and stand out? Read the rest of this entry »
Dr. Pepper and the elusive social media idol
If you ever spend any time inside the weight room in a gym, more likely than not, you’ve seen an older guy (usually a dad) try to impress a younger guy (usually a son) with their strength and fail in possibly the most dramatic way that failure could possibly occur. This analogy translates perfectly to social media. Big companies see the cool, hip company’s social media strategy and try to emulate them with catastrophic proportions. This is not one of those cases. Because this time, someone else’s has to deal with the catastrophic mess.
What would it mean for your business if an audience that was twice the population of Canada viewed your advertisement? From a tradition distribution stand point; this is more science fiction than reality. From a social media stand point, not only is this completely possible but better yet, you can do it in 5 months.
As you have probably seen, the Old Spice Man commercials produced by Wieden + Kennedy has been one of the first and best examples of a viral commercial that integrates a social media component. But this campaign is much more than the sum of its parts. Viral commercials have existed for quite some time – some exemplary ones include the “Wassup” ads by Budweiser and the Apple Mac and PC guy commercials. Targeting social media was more ground breaking but there’s nothing that says adding a social media component makes a campaign better. The secret to their success lies in what is called the Purple Cow.
Vaseline India's Marketing Campaign Advert from Vaseline
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone that hasn’t edited photos that they posts of themselves on line. It’s quite normal for people to alter their profile photos by changing the lighting or adding effects and so on. It becomes a little more off putting when people are changing culturally “undesirable” characteristics like weight or race. But when a company promotes a skin care product by whitening your skin in pictures, that’s a cause for alarm.
Line up from GoodRob13 on Flickr
Anyone that is a fan of flash sale websites online has likely noticed the maniacal laughter of their credit card company as they deliver the monthly bill. A relatively new Internet trend, flash sales has turned the natural tendency to look for deals into a full-blown obsession. A flash sale is essentially comprised of a product or service that is on sale for a limited time (usually a 24 hour period) and when time is up, the deal is over, never to be repeated ever again.
The main selling point of flash sales is to serve as marketing tools for companies by offering absurdly low prices for their goods and services. However, flash sales aren’t so much concerned with creating long lasting customers as they’re looking to shove as many people through the door as possible. Companies that are participating in flash sales are inviting a profit pariah into their customer base. Why are companies attracting these money-losing customers? Adverse selection.
Trophys by Cole24_ on Flickr
I have faith that most of the readers, when faced with an email from a banished prince from some country looking to deposit millions of dollars into your bank account would delete it without any thought. However, the people in charge of social media at Fast Company magazine clearly do not share that faith with the start of their “Influence Project”.
It's social media day! Have a cupcake on the house! Image via bakerella.com
Celebrating social media day is a lot like celebrating “Nice Person Day” – it should really be happening every day. However, a little recognition never hurts since Victoria (British Columbia) mayor Dean Fortin has joined Mashable in graciously declaring June 30th as Social Media Day. For most of us, social media engagement is a daily activity already because it’s a growingly important way to communicate to our closest friends and to the world.
Here are the top 3 reasons why social media day should be every day:
Virgin America has recently partnered with Klout.com to offer free round trip flights to Torontarians in order to promote their airline. While they explicitly state (possibly due to FCC regulations) that “You are welcome to tell the world you love the product, you hate the product or say nothing at all”, it seems quite clear that they are banking on your social media network to promote themselves.
If the goal of this marketing campaign was to get attention across social media networks, then this was a highly effective campaign – masterfully executed. On the other hand, if Virgin America wanted to create a marketing campaign that monetized frequent air travelers, this was a flop – or worse, a complete 5-alarm disaster.