Home Blog Page 365

Global Smartphone Shipments Q3 2013: Samsung Labeled Every 3rd Device Of 250 Million [REPORT]

By
Neeraj M
-
0
Global Smartphone Shipments Q3 2013

Global Smartphone shipments in Q3 2013 exceeded 250 million units, while Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KRX:005935) widen the gap with Apple by controlling 34% of the market. The Korean electronics giant shipped an estimated 85 million Smartphones in Q3, 2013 compared to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) that managed to sell 33.3 million Smartphones (iPhone) during the same quarter. But, it was Nokia that surprised everyone by shipping 15 million –including 8.8 million Lumia series smartphone – and regained a spot in the list of top 3 smartphone makers.

In Q3, 2013 Smartphone industry represented 10% Q-O-Q growth and nearly doubled its growth compare to year ago quarter. Interestingly, the growth is estimated to increase further in Q4, 2013 due to holiday seasons and recent launch of Samsung Note III, iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.

Smartphone-Market-Q3-2013

Samsung, Apple and Nokia largely drove the Smartphone growth in Q3 and the trend is expected to continue in Q4 2013 as well; Samsung shipped nearly 85 million smartphones – every 3rd smartphone. However, Nokia leapfrogged LG second time in this year; compare to Nokia’s 15 million Smartphones (including Asha) LG managed to reach to the shipment count of 12 million in Q3, 2013.

Samsung is widening its gap with rest all mobile vendors by leveraging upon highly popular Android OS and aggressive marketing strategy. In spite of the fact, Samsung is clearly foreseen tough competition from emerging local vendors in developing countries likes of India and Indonesia.

Smartphone contribution in the global mobile handset market is yet to reach to a sizable number. In world’s third-largest country by mobile subscriptions India, smartphone penetration is mere 2% and a majority of new users are first-time Smartphone owners whose selection of device is primarily influenced by price point – something where local players such as Micromax and Karbonn have got an edge over global brands.

The challenge is not limited only to India; In APAC – world’s largest mobile market as a region – homegrown smartphone vendors such as Micromax, Lenovo, and Huawei are leading the market by beating Samsung, Apple and Nokia.

Source: Juniper Research Q3, 2013

Advertisement

Facebook Inc. (FB) Q3,2013 Performance: Revenue Crossed $2 Billion Mark! User-Base Increased By Mere 2.9% [REPORT]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), in its latest quarter report revealed on Wednesday posted a revenue growth up till $2.016 Billion, an increment by 60% from $1.26 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Its user-base story wasn’t satisfactory in developed nations, whereas in developing countries Facebook seemed to be more attractive resulting in overall user-base tally of 1.189 Billion. Nearly 73.5% of Monthly active user (MAUs) accessed Facebook on mobile platform, giving an indication to social media giants that Mobile space is the area to be focused on. Revenue generated through mobile advertising accounted for nearly half of total advertising revenue. Few other interesting figures derived are enumerated below.

Mobile Advertising Accounts For 49% Of Total Advertising Revenue

According to the financial report, Facebook’s Q3 revenue rose up to $2.016 Billion, an increase of 11.1% compared to Q2,2013. Revenue from Advertising accounted to $1.8 Billion, out of which 49% is through mobile advertising. If we compare Q3,2013 with a year early quarter (Q3,2012), revenue rose up by stupendous 66%.

Revenue Facebook Q3

Facebook’s revenue is undoubtedly increasing on Q-O-Q basis due to introduction of many advertiser friendly features in last 1 year, but the growth is shifting more towards mobile platform. In future, revenue growth will be largely decided on its success in mobile space. It is important for social media titan to focus more on mobile section and introduce features suiting best on small/medium-sized screens.

If we compare Facebook’s revenue across different geographical regions, majority of monetary inflow is from developed states like Canada and the United States. This could be attributed to the fact that awareness and marketing potential of Facebook is well-known to advertisers and marketers in developed countries compared to developing nations. Advertising Revenue from the U.S and Canada rose up by whooping $111 Million and rested at $832 Million combined. Revenue from Europe ($482 Million from $451 Million) and Asia pacific ($255 Million from $225 Million) nations too increased significantly.

3Q2013AdRevenueGeography

The above trend is likely to change in future, Facebook’s major share of revenue is bound to arise from advertisers of developing countries. The user-base growth from developed nations is very low and awareness of Facebook’s marketing reach is increasing amongst advertisers in Asia pacific and rest of the developing world. Both these factors can boost Facebook’s revenue growth in future. Facebook has already played a smart move by introduction of Internet.org to target developing markets. Internet.org is likely to help the social media front-runners in increasing their user-base as people won’t mind creating a Facebook account to get access to free wi-fi in shopping malls. User-base growth will indirectly promote advertising revenue to the company. Initiatives to venture into local businesses is on full-force by Social media titan.

Monthly Active Users (MAUs) Increased By 2.9%

The social media giant reported 1.189 billion monthly active users as of Sept. 30, up by 2.9% compared to Q2,2013. Its daily active user-base crossed 728 Million mark, up by 29 Million compared to previous Q2,2013.

Emphatic increment took place in user-base of developing countries of Asia-Pacific (up by 12 million) whereas in developed states like the U.S, Canada, stunt growth (increased by 1 Million) was observed. This clearly signifies that Facebook needs to come up with some brain storming features to retract lost active user-base (teenage group) from developed countries.

Monthly active users Facebook Q3

Significant growth took place in user-base of Europe (up by 6 Million) and rest of the world (13 Million). Due to tough competition from micro-blogging specialist Twitter , Tumblr; Facebook is struggling to make its mark amongst teens in developed countries. Privacy concern is yet another major issue for Facebook users (due to graph search).

Mobile Monthly Active Users Is On Rise And Accounts For 73% (874 Million) Of Total User-Base!

Facebook has considerably done well in translating its desktop success on to mobile platform. With advent of Go-mobile era, Facebook has revised its technology and is adjusting well to mobile space. Mobile Monthly active user-base increased up to 874 Million from 819 Million, which means 73.5% of MAUs of Facebook prefer mobile platform. Daily active users (DAUs) on mobile platform increased to 507 Million, an increment by whooping 38 Million compared to Q2,2013.

mobile monthly active users Facebook Q3

With increasing usage of Tablets and Smartphones, Facebook’s active user base on mobile platform is likely to shoot up in future. It is important for Facebook to focus on innovation in mobile space and try attracting both users and advertisers. If we analyze Mobile-Only MAUs of Facebook, progressive increment was observed on Q-O-Q basis. Staggering 35 Million increment took place in Q3 and figure rested at 254 Million; in Q2 mobile-only MAUs count was 219 Million.

Co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a press release announcing the company’s earnings – ”For nearly 10 years, Facebook has been on a mission to connect the world. The strong results we achieved this quarter show that we’re prepared for the next phase of our company, as we work to bring the next 5 billion people online and into the knowledge economy”.

If Facebook has to keep up its winning momentum and be strong in the race, focus on mobile platform is must. Both user-base and advertisers are all diverting towards mobile space. Facebook should work more on improving its features to keep the users(especially from developed nations) interesting. They should fasten their belts and capture more of developing markets in Asia pacific and other developing nations.

Source: Facebook

Images Credit: AllFacebook

Advertisement

Rapidly Fluctuating Digital Marketing Arena Yet to Embrace Most Of The Marketers: 85% Of Marketing Professionals Claim To Have Learned Through On-Job Experience [STUDY]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

Digital transformation of marketing technology doesn’t seem to be fitting well for majority of marketers of various firms across the globe. Marketing technology has changed much in last 2 years than it did in last 50 years; because of which most of the marketers across the world still prefer adopting marketing technologies on trial and error basis. According to a survey by Adobe, hardly 40% of marketers have expressed confidence in their company’s marketing ability. This indicates that rapidly fluctuating marketing world is creating concerns for marketers so as to ‘which strategy to adopt’ and pressure to deliver ROI is creating major concerns for them.

What High Performance Companies Do! Low Performing Companies Yet To Embrace With Latest Trends!

The study between marketing staff, marketing decision makers, digital marketers and marketing generalist of various firms revealed following statistics and information:

  • Nearly 71% of high performing companies believe in investing in digital channels/programs when compared 52% in case of low performing companies.
  • About 53% of high performing companies stress on hiring staff with digital expertise compared to 40% in low performing companies.
  • If we look at budget allotment on digital marketing technology, 73% of high performing companies voted up, compared to 53% of low performing companies.

high performing companies

Above statistics clearly signify why high performing companies are performing well and are confident about their marketing strategies. It is important for marketers to embrace with latest trends and update their marketing strategies accordingly. Companies should hire employees who are expert in digital marketing arena. Marketers are aware of importance of digital marketing but very few know how to go about it.

Marketers are facing issues with high level fluctuation in digital marketing trend; almost every single day 1-2 new marketing techniques evolve and marketers are unable to analyze its effects if adopted. Sometimes predicted results might not match with the obtained one; Smarter option would be to invest marginally equal budget for various latest marketing options in digital arena and check for progress. Depending on periodic results, modification of future plans is possible.

Majority Of Professionals Handling Digital Marketing Learn By On-Job Experience!

One of the main reason why marketers are concerned about digital marketing technology is that, it is new and is changing rapidly; there are very few experts around the world who might be able to match the predicted results with derived one of any particular digital marketing technique. When majority of marketers who participated in the survey were questioned about their expertise in digital marketing area, following interesting facts were derived.

Nearly 85% of them agreed to have gained knowledge by On-Job experience, 36% of them had an eye out on other brands and companies and they followed similar methods. About 25% of them preferred to attend trade conference and seminars related to digital marketing trends and just 18% of them had in-person training in the area.

digital marketing knowledge

From above statistics, it is quite evident that ‘Digital Marketing’ is like a new subject of study for marketers and most of them have gained experience after working in the area. There are plenty of resources available online but most of them narrate a different story which might not suit well for every business. Marketers should try studying various sources and results obtained by different firms and try to generalize them by predictive analysis methods. Results might sometime be varying from predictions in such cases change of strategy seems best option. Digital marketing will continue to be an experimental platform for next couple of years until a whole generation of marketers get embraced with the technology; couple of failure missions are likely to occur but the results will be much more rewarding (if strategy is successful) than any other traditional marketing methods.

via Adobe report 

Advertisement

‘Custom Audience’ Feature By Facebook Inc. (FB) Likely To Benefit Small Businesses !

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

Advertising section of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is continuously pacing with remarkable changes almost every single day. The social media titan is trying hard to remain at top position by continuous innovations or adopting features from other social networking sites. Facebook recently announced its new feature in advertising section, by which targeting via Custom Audiences will be availed to all advertisers by end of November. At first Facebook had launched customer targeting based on location, age, gender and now they have further optimized it to ad-campaigns based on phone number, email ids or Facebook ids. This feature will largely benefit local players as their audience group is specific and limited to few miles. Marketers publicizing more specific products are bound to get advantages of this new feature.

Features Of Custom Audience Tool

Custom audience is unique tool by which marketers can use their contact list (email list or a list of phone numbers or Facebook User ID’s) and reach their customers with personalized target Ads. Earlier this feature was available only through Facebook’s API and power editor tool, but now marketers can use custom audiences in any Facebook ad interface. Businesses can also use mail-chimp list to connect to their customers on Facebook. If an advertiser/marketer has contact list of customers who had earlier used their product; and are likely to purchase new product to be launched; such customers can be easily re-targeted through custom audience feature.

Custom audience feature has few useful additions as well; now marketers have a customer database who had used their product earlier, and next upcoming launch is more specific for people of certain region or age group, then there is provision by which amongst the list of customer base, marketer can target only the ones who belong certain age group or region (based on requirement). This feature is quite vital for marketers in optimizing their advertising budgets and gain higher revenues.

mail chimp custom audience

Higher Conversion Rate And Sales By Re-Targeting

With the Custom Audiences tool, marketers can turn 1st time customers into repeat customers by re-targeting them with personalized advertisements. This feature will help small business firms/publicity team of reality shows who are into the areas, which attracts niche group of audience. For an example, if marketers need to publicize some classical music festival or a ”Jazz show”, which might attract selective audience, this feature can aid best, to place personalized Ads only to those customers who had earlier participated in the program and are likely to attend it again. By this advertisers can save the expense of randomly placing Ads for non-interested group and ROI would be higher.

Local players can re-target their customers base and introduce them to their upcoming new products by launching a personalized ad campaign. They can also get them signed up for their periodic updates of products by such specialized Ad campaigns. If marketer is dealing with products of higher cost and which people do not buy frequently, custom audience can be best tool to persuade users to replace the old product with new one. For example – A 2 wheeler-dealer is about to launch a new brand and wants to address the same to his existing customer base who had done business to him in past, he can launch an Ad-campaign offering ”Free servicing for two wheeler” to his Ex-customers and at same time he can also pass on word about latest brand which could be more effective than previous versions.

A Progressive Step Towards Cost-Effective Ad-Campaigns.

Custom audience is no doubt a very progressive step in ad targeting options. Online brands are likely to increase their conversion rates and decrease their ad-investment per user. This feature is bound to make Ad-campaigns cost-effective and help in generating useful traffic for online brands. Majority of users who browse through website don’t end up purchasing, by this feature, useless traffic can be avoided. With introduction of such progressive and beneficial features, Facebook is bound to be most preferred source by marketers.

 via Facebook

Advertisement

Customer Satisfaction Should Be The Prime Motto Of Online Brands! Reflects Growth Of A Brand! [INFOGRAPHIC]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

The most valuable asset for any online brand which decide its success rate are its customer. It is important for all brands to keep their customers satisfied and make sure their queries are entertained on time. Whenever a consumer is satisfied with a product/service, they are likely to be loyal to the brand and recommend the same to other people by  sharing his/her experience. Most firms do not respond to customer queries on time which eventually results in loss of faith towards the brand.

The below Infographic by Socialbakers, signifies a few important aspects of customer satisfaction for brands across the world.

  • A few major aspects of customer satisfaction are – promoting 2 way communication by maintaining a dialogue with your followers by collecting feedback. Responding to at least 65% of customer queries and more importantly replying without much delay.
  • Leading industries on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) for social customer service demand by questions was the telecom sector (36%), retail (16%) and electronics (15%).
  • The telecom sector was the highest to receive queries in the form of questions on micro-blogging site as well, with 36% share, retail section (15%) and electronics (13%) came 2nd and 3rd respectively.
  • About 10% of brands on Facebook handle 85% of Q&A queries, whereas the rest 90% of firms handle hardly 15%. A similar observation was made in case of Twitter, where 10% of brands handled about 89% of queries.
  • The finance industry was leading (80.4%) in response rate to customer queries followed by airline industry (79.1%) and telecom (76.9%).
  • Customer satisfaction should be the prime motto for a majority of online brands and that involves answering the queries without delays. Personal Argentina was the topmost brand in terms of satisfactory customer service for the Facebook platform, followed by KLM, Claro, Movistar.

Most brands have established a wide recognition among the masses mainly because of customer satisfaction. A majority of upcoming brands have successfully reinvented themselves in terms of technology and in providing unique products to consumers, but when it comes to customer satisfaction in terms of answering their queries, during the post-purchase period, very few bother about it.

Today’s customers are more demanding and less patient. They are easily enraged if their demands aren’t met. It is very important for online brands to make sure that every single customer is satisfied, before and after the purchase of a product. These days, options available for consumers are way too many, and people don’t hesitate to switch their brand if their past experience wasn’t satisfactory. Customer satisfaction has become a growth indicator for firms across the globe.

customer service queries on social media sites

Advertisement

With An Average Of 5700 Tweets/Sec, This Is Twitter’s Journey So Far [INFOGRAPHIC]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

Micro-blogging website Twitter has completed a fruitful 7.5 year journey and is finally moving ahead to launch its epic IPO in the upcoming weeks. The 140 char display service has successfully challenged other social media giants with its unique viral nature and its small screen success. An Infographic by a leading advertising firm Brickish, depicts some interesting facts and figures about Twitter, its journey, right from its inception to the most awaited historic IPO. Few fascinating numbers are listed below –

  • Twitter was first launched on March 21, 2006. The basic idea behind the micro-blogging site was just to send an SMS about what was happening around the world in real time on the web so that others could follow it.
  • Twitter has over 231.7 million active users across the globe, of which 100 million are daily active users. Its video sharing app ‘Vine‘ has over 40 Million registered users.
  • Till date, Over 300 billion Tweets were composed with an average of 5700 Tweets/second. About 75% of users (173 Million) are on mobile.
  • The micro-blogging site will be launching its historic IPO in a couple of weeks under the ticker name TWTR at the New York Stock Exchange.
  • 70% of Twitter’s revenue is from mobile Tablets and Smartphones. About 87% of total revenue comes from ads while 13% from data licensing.
  • About 3 million websites have integrated with Twitter and there are 6 million registered apps on the micro-blogging platform.
  • Twitter has continuously proved its dominance in mainstay television discussions. A number of viewers of Tweets related to television discussions are about 50 times more than the number of authors of Tweets.

The world’s favourite micro-blogging site is growing rapidly, year over year in terms of ad revenue when compared to other social media sites. Its mobile friendly nature has attracted a lot of new users across the globe and with a growing usage on smart phone device, Twitter is likely to see an upward trend in terms of its user base.

Twitter will be launching its epic IPO in the coming weeks with modest ambitions while playing safe and clean to avoid the trouble like social media titans Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Twitter has come up with a well planned strategy and is trying to gain the trust of public investors rather than faking around with false statistics, unlike Facebook.

Due to its mobile first strategy, Twitter is likely to progress much faster compared to other social media sites in future, provided they are able to convey to the common man about the advantages they hold over Facebook and other networking sites.

All about Twitter-history-stats-ipo

Advertisement

Usage Of Infographics, Videos And Social Media Is On The Rise For Content Marketing [STUDY]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

Majority of advertisers are aware of the importance of Rich media content and its effects on brand visibility. Marketers of B2C firms, across the globe are emphasizing more on designing Rich media content to attract consumers and drive engagement through various mediums like Blogs, Videos, Infographics, Mobile Apps, digital magazines, microsites. According to data from a survey of marketing professionals in North America’s B2C firms, gathered by Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs,  nearly 90% of respondents had used content marketing in 2013. Usage Of Social Media, Blogs, Public Events, Mobile Content, Infographics Were On-Rise For Conveying Rich Content To Consumers.

According to the survey, nearly 88% of B2C marketers preferred using Social media compared to 84% in 2012 for conveying rich content to users. Social media has emerged as one of the fastest growing modes of providing engaging content to brand followers.

There was increment of about 2-6%  in Blogging, Videos, Public events, mobile content, Infographics and annual reports. Website articles, E-newsletter, print magazines, print newsletter, E-books saw a decrease of 3-7%.

content marketing tactics by B2C marketers

Above figures can be well attributed to the fact that the World is Going Mobile and advertisers are focusing on content which could be best viewed on small screens. Video content is gaining more importance as it is much more informative and entertaining to watch. People are more interested to read blogs which are enriched with a writer’s creative thought process rather than lengthy website articles.

Public events held at crowded places like shopping centers, during festive season gained wide attention, as any person roaming around could participate and return home with a gift/freebies. E-books, print newsletters, print magazines lost their importance due to the emergence of other forms of rich and attractive modes of conveying content like Infographics, video, images. Podcasts and video conferences nearly joined the stream of outdated methods. B2C marketers saw significantly less value in games and gamification efforts.

Usage Share Of Social Media Websites Is Lead By Facebook Inc(FB)! Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube Gaining Importance.

If we analyze only the social media sphere, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) was used by about 89% of marketers (in 2013) compared to 90% in 2012. Micro-blogging site Twitter’s usage zoomed up to 80% in 2013, from 69% in the penultimate year. About 10-20% increment took place in the usage of LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), YouTube, Google Plus, Pinterest, Instagram. Marketers are trying to showcase their presence across a number of different channels, with an average of six social media platforms/marketer.

usage of social media sites for content marketin

Facebook is no doubt a vital area for marketers to target. Due to its massive user base, the recent popularity of Twitter’s viral nature and valuable engagement of brand followers on the micro-blogging site has driven attention of marketers to use the platform for showcasing their content. LinkedIn usage increased by a stunning 20% (currently 71%). This is mainly due to like-minded users who prefer reading informative information about companies and their growth prospects. A majority of E-commerce firms preferred Pinterest as its was more effective and drives a significant amount of referral rate to website traffic. Instagram’s unique photo sharing and video editing feature attracted quite a lot of marketers, boosting its usage from 12% to 32%.

Usage of StumbleUpon, Flickr, Tumblr, FourSquare, Slideshare also increased significantly due to their popularity in certain parts of the world.

 

23% Of Marketers Are Clueless About Their Content Marketing Budget!

If we compare the budget allotment by marketers towards content marketing, about 23% of B2C marketers were unsure about their share of allotment towards content marketing out of the total budget. About 20% of respondents claimed to have spent 10-24% of the total budget for content marketing. Nearly 14% of marketers reported to have spent budgets in the range of 5-9% towards content marketing.

marketing budget alloted for content marketing

Despite the growing importance of content marketing, there are a few marketers who are yet to adopt the prevailing trend. It is important for marketers to set their strategy right and choose an effective mode of conveying the rich media content to its users.

Courtesy : eMarketer

Advertisement

Twitter Plays Safe With Share Price Range Of $17-$20,Raising $1.4 Billion! Learns Lesson After Mishaps Of Facebook Inc.(FB) [NEWS].

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

IPO Mishaps by social media titan Facebook Inc.(NASDAQ:FB) have taught a lesson or two to other social media sites. The micro-blogging website Twitter ahead of its IPO launch, has revealed its future plans. The company is proceeding with  modest ambitions, and has fixed share prices of TWTR (Twitter’s ticker symbol at NYSE) in the range of $17-$20 per share and will be offering about 70 Million shares. It would be looking forward to raise approximately $1.4 Billion (13% of overall stake) with additional options for underwriters to sell 10,500,000 extra shares if demand for share increases (within 30 days of the IPO launch).

Twitter Plays Safe! Reveals All Future Growth Aspects Unlike Facebook

The above numbers indicate that the overall valuation of the company is around $11 Billion which is much less than what was predicted by analysts. Twitter has come up with well-planned measures to avoid a tragic drop in stock like that of Facebook. It is clearly revealing all possible forecasts about the company’s growth and its future plans well before the IPO launch. Twitter’s share price is much less than that of Facebook ($34-$38) and LinkedIn’s (NYSE:LNKD)(around $45) IPO share price. Due to technical glitches at NASDAQ during Facebook’s IPO, Twitter preferred trading at NYSE (New York Stock Exchange).

Twitter was the first social media platform to adopt Mobile First strategy, it is most suited to the mobile platform than other social media sites. Its growing user-base  (232 Million) and its dominance in mainstay television will definitely help the micro-blogging site progress. It is best known for breaking news across diverse verticles, be it news channels, celebrities or politicians across the world. In the advertising arena, Twitter ads are more effective than Facebook ads due to the valuable engagement created by Twitter users in the form of Tweets, and Retweets. Twitter is dominant in the mobile advertising field compared to Facebook. Advertisers prefer the micro-blogging site as it is compatible to the mobile platform. It seems to have much more potential than Facebook in terms of growth.

Twitter-IPO

Image source

Public Investors during Facebook’s IPO launch failed to analyze growth prospects of the company and were all carried away by the hype surrounding the historic silicon valley IPO. The major part of the blame lies with Mark Zuckerburg and his team who failed to reveal all the details about the company’s growing challenges and did not bring them to the pubic domain. Only a few sophisticated investors had the inside news. Facebook’s Q2, 2012 revenue predicted during the IPO launch was below the earlier estimated one and the updated Q2 reports were kept away from the S-1 Filing.

With an ever growing mobile phone user base, Facebook was facing tough challenges, as its renown desktop features couldn’t compliment the small screen devices. Its revenue growth was low and hadn’t fared well in the advertisement section for mobile platforms. According to the company’s forecast, the growth aspect was totally dependent on how fast the developers make their mark on the mobile platform as mobile users were bound to grow in future.

Mobile advertising hardly had a significant contributing factor to the overall revenue. The competition from other social media sites had hindered the growth to a certain extent. None of these details were revealed in the S-1 Filing. The post IPO growth of Facebook was disastrous for the first couple of months.

Facebook IPO, Nasdaq news

Image source

Courtesy : Twitter’s S-1 report (updated)

Advertisement

Facebook Inc. (FB) Introduces Reviews Feature To Take On City Expert Of Google Inc.(GOOG) And Yelp! [STUDY]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

There are several ways to earn money, some people prefer innovation and some simply copy from others. It began with Hashtags, video editing feature of Vine, graph search and few others, and now we have a Review option for Facebook pages. Social media titan Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is on a serial copying spree, and is continuously rolling out features already available on different online websites and social media platforms. Recently it launched the Review option for Facebook pages for Places.

Reviews allow customers to express their opinion whether good or bad, to the rest of the world. Reviews also provide brands and firms with the inside information about how consumers feel about them and which are the areas for improvement.

Facebook Is Taking On Google City Expert And Yelp!

Google Inc. (GOOG) had earlier launched City Experts program to assist local businesses, by encouraging users to provide reviews about the local brands on the Google Plus platform and offered certain perks to users in return. Google is no doubt the leader when it comes to advertising for big brands. It provides them with user reviews from across the globe, but when it comes local businesses, these giant web companies haven’t been very successful. Keeping this mind, Google had launched the City Experts program earlier this year in 5 states across the globe to compete with Yelp (NYSE:YELP), (a leading firm which provides reviews to local businesses and helps them in connecting with people).

To attract more participants, perks like discounts, admission to exclusive events, and various freebies were also provided to Google+ users, who regularly submit reviews about various brands across cities. This move was initiated to help local businesses because the reviews provided by people could be viewed by other users on the web and it delivers insights on how brands can improve their business.

But it doesn’t seem to have succeeded so far because of restrictions on users like – a minimum of 50 reviews to be posted online to become a city expert, a minimum of 5 reviews/month from users to remain as city experts, reviews should be high quality and must be at least 3-4 lines. Moreover, there hasn’t been any announcement regarding the Google city expert’s reviews affecting the ranking of brands on search engines, a majority of users look for top online brands based on reviews from customers and which affects brand visibility. Also, there is not much provision to see whether or not the city experts have actually engaged with brands.

google city expert program

Facebook’s latest introduction Reviews feature for places, gives an option to Facebook users and enables them to provide reviews about a particular place, perhaps a sight-seeing destination, they might have visited in past. This feature might turn out well for the social media giant as they have a massive user base of 1.15 billion and moreover people who are on Facebook use it for fun purposes and they love boasting about the places they have visited.

The Reviews feature will provide ratings for places, top brands and other outlets that compliment the Facebook platform. This metric will definitely drive a good amount of business (if ratings are higher) for top brands as people generally prefer visiting top rated places. A group of Facebook users might prefer knowing about the top rated places by using the graph search feature, which would display results from Facebook’s own inventory.

review for places Facebook page

If the Facebook team is making an effort to encourage users to place reviews, its revenue is likely to see an upward trend, as places and brands wouldn’t mind paying to get their pages promoted in order to receive customer reviews. Generally users on Facebook, on an average, ‘Like’ about 80 brand pages, placing the review in addition to ‘Like’ would be feature users are likely to appreciate.

Although Facebook hasn’t made announcements regarding perks and giveaways to users who place reviews like Google’s City expert program, chances of success are loaded in Facebook’s favour when compared to the search giant’s initiative. Facebook’s reviews will go viral through the News Feeds of user’s friends and this would ensure promotion for brands and might drive them more business. Facebook is likely to test the feature for places and roll out the same for brands in future. Also, perks are likely to be announced to users placing reviews.

Courtesy: DigitalTrends

Advertisement

LinkedIn Intro And Redesigned iPad Feature For An Enhanced User Experience! LinkedIn Corp (LNKD) Finally Opts For ‘Mobile First’ Strategy [NEWS]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

Micro-blogging website Twitter’s Mobile First strategy was soon followed by social media giant Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) and now, the world’s largest professional network LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) seems to be treading the same path. With a growing demand for small and medium screen mobile devices, a majority of  website especially social media sites are trying their best to fit into the miniature devices and provide their users a similar experience that they are used to, on a Desktop. With over 200 million users and growing, LinkedIn is experimenting with its technology for its the Tablet and Mobile user base. LinkedIn Intro and Improvised iPad features are two of the latest inclusions to the world’s largest professional website.

LinkedIn Intro Redefines The Mailing Experience For Users

In response to the fast growing LinkedIn mobile user base, the company has responded pretty well by launching LinkedIn Intro.  It enhances the user experience with regards to the mailing system on LinkedIn. The technology from Rapportive, an email company acquired by LinkedIn, about a year ago, has been combined with other LinkedIn’s features to improvise user experience on the iPhone via Apple Mail. The difference between the former system and the newly introduced LinkedIn Intro are depicted below.

linkedIn intro vs old system

A flood of mails from people on the LinkedIn network often confuses users and they don’t know what is spam mail and which is genuine mail! LinkedIn Intro provides users with details about the sender and establishes a strong mutual connection with the mailing system itself. The picture below with depicting this feature, shows a separate bar/Intro panel which displays profile picture of senders along with a dropdown arrow mark which upon tapping, displays a summary about the sender like – Education, Job title and other related details.

Intro feature for LinkedIn

This adds to the rich interactive experience for users and helps them in easily identifying spam mails from the rest, thereby expanding their network. Currently Intro is available to a worldwide user base in English and can be downloaded here. This feature will definitely enrich the user-experience to a large extent and contribute to the mutual trust factor, amongst users.

Power Breaking Features Added To LinkedIn For iPad

With more than 170 Million iPad users across the world, LinkedIn felt the need to enhance the user experience on the iPad, as a result of which they have brought in a couple of new attractive features. The LinkedIn iPad App contains a brand new sparkling visual design in addition to new features like job search, channels and influencers, which appear highlighted on the tablet.

If we look at the image below, the entire main feed section is redesigned to provide a better experience. To promote easy development of network for  a LinkedIn user, a person has to now simply tap on an icon next to a particular user’s profile or just swipe to the right and get connected. ‘Like’,’Share’,’Follow’,’Join’ options are available right on the top interface, making the experience smoother for its users. To view rich media content like images and videos, a user has to simply tap on an image to expand it. Also, the video can be played without having to leave the feed.

new iPad-App-Homepage LinkedIn

Keeping in mind, the diverse needs of users, LinkedIn developers have introduced new features to enhance the navigation experience too. LinkedIn is well-known as a convergence medium as a knowledge-rich platform with its Influencer’s Program and channel content, both of which are included in latest iPad app. The jobs section has also been added to assist job seekers by providing information regarding various vacancies across different profiles in corporate firms and start-ups.

With a growing demand for smartphone and tablets, LinkedIn and many other social media sites are working hard to carve out a niche for themselves for the small and medium screen devices. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have all fared well up to a certain extent when it comes to the mobile experience and are still striving hard to improvise themselves further.

Courtesy : LinkedIn Blog

Advertisement

Worldwide Marketing Emails Recorded Highest Click Rates Of 4.9% On Fridays! Tips For Marketers [STUDY]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

Email marketing is on the rise, especially in terms of  brand building, purchase and more such closely related factors. Brands use Email marketing to keep their followers updated with news about the latest products, services and special festival offers and deals. According to a study (Oct’13) by E-mail marketing solution firm GetResponse, the click rate for world-wide marketing E-mails was highest in Q4,2013 attributed to the fact that people are busy planning their upcoming holiday shopping regime.

Email-Marketing During Q4 Records 4.7% Click-Rates, Highest Compared To Other Quarters

With the shopping season approaching, a majority of people are eager to plan their shopping schedule well in advance. The open rate for worldwide marketing E-mails was highest during Q1 (19.1%), but the click rate during Q4 (4.7%) was more than the rest of the quarters, which is clearly indicative of the excitement among shopaholics who are busy checking out various offers and deals before the holidays approach us. During festive seasons marketers should try sending more emails as users are more active during the shopping season.

open vs click rates

Marketers should concentrate on sending informative and attractive marketing emails with rich media content and a catchy subject line to persuade the user to open the mail and go through it. The click rate for first 3 Quarters are marginally closer, depicting lack of rich attractive content or an increase in number of spam mails.

Marketers should plan their e-mail strategy by following the rules set in motion by the ISP (Internet service providers) and SPAM filtering companies, otherwise, the email will be filtered out even before they reach the user inbox. Proper subject lines and maintaining single consistent From Address are a few steps which can help marketers from preventing their emails landing in the spam folder. More than 70% of worldwide E-mails sent, are Spam.

Open Rate Of Marketing Mails Was Highest On Tuesday (19.9%) Whereas Click Rate Was Highest During Friday(4.9%)!

If we analyze the number of marketing emails sent by marketers according to days of the week, majority of marketers preferred sending marketing emails on Tuesday. About 17.9% of marketing Emails were sent on a Tuesday, compared to 17.3% on Thursdays and 16.6% on Monday.

marketing mails sent during days of the week

Surprisingly, the percentage of marketing emails sent on Friday was comparatively lower (14.9%). Bulk of marketing Emails were sent on Tuesday, this could be well supported by the fact that the open rate of marketing emails was highest on Tuesdays (19.9%). (In Graph below)

Although emails sent on Fridays accounted for just 14.9%, the open rate went as high as 19.6% which means that a majority of users prefer checking their marketing emails on a Friday. As weekends approach closer, people prefer spending time on checking marketing emails. Probably to plan out a weekend shopping spree or look for other offers and opportunities to make a little extra money. A majority of users get  frustrated with large number of marketing emails flooding their inbox and they don’t bother to open them during weekdays until Friday. Marketers looking to promote any shopping or weekend holiday plans should concentrate on sending emails on Thursdays or Fridays.

open rate vs click rate days of the week

Although, a marketer’s initial success lies on the open rate and also on not being filtered out as spam mail, but the actual growth indicator which signifies that implied strategy is working is the Click rate. As expected the click rate was recorded highest on Fridays (4.9%) and Thursdays (4.7%); click rate recorded on the rest of the days was marginally lower.

 Tips For Marketers and Advertisers.

Although marketing through social media is on the rise and gaining more importance, there are many countries in the west where users respond more to marketing Emails. Marketing Email will act as a subsidiary to social media marketing and would drive a significant share of returns to marketers.

Marketers should analyze the above facts and plan their strategy accordingly. A majority of marketers, especially the ones looking who are shopaholics, should start their email campaign preferably on Thursdays or Fridays.  The subject line must be very clear and catchy. Also rich media content like images, videos must be used well to grab the user’s attention. Analyze the feedback on consumers at regular intervals and modify your plan accordingly. An option to Unsubscribe emails must be made available to consumers. Marketers should begin their email marketing campaigns well in advance before the shopping season begins.

via eMarketer

Advertisement

Facebook Inc (FB) Introduces Video For Its Mobile App Ads And Becomes Advertiser Friendly [NEWS]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

The demand for video content by information seekers is always on the rise. A majority of advertisers and online brands are revising their rich media content in the form of video for their websites. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is responding well to evolving trends in the advertising field and in incorporating suitable changes to attract advertisers. Their latest move being, the introduction of Video for its mobile app Ad products.

Facebook Video

Video content has slowly entered various sections of advertisement products on the social media platforms. Facebook, a month ago, had launched a test version of the non-monetizable auto-play videos of famous celebrities in its Newsfeed section.

Now it has introduced the same for its mobile app ads, using which developers can allow users to tap the ad and play a video that depicts the usage of that app. This move is vital considering the fact that a majority of Facebook users are going mobile and also virality in demand for video information is on the rise consistently.

John Clelland, Vice President, Interactive Marketing for DoubleDown Casino, one of Facebook’s early partners to test video creative in mobile app ads said –

In our early tests, we found that using video in our mobile app ads resulted in increased install rates and decreased costs per install. We’ve seen tremendous success with mobile app ads and are looking forward to using video to make them even more engaging with rich media like video.

Ad performance Likely To Improve With The Introduction Of ‘Bid On Cost-per-action’ (CPA)!

Video Ads in Apps can help a great deal in driving installation base, provided the videos are enriched with constructive information about the app including the use of lifestyle or product shots along with in-app screenplays. In order to provide better returns to the advertisers, Facebook has introduced an option to bid on CPA basis, instead of the CPC (Cost per click) or oCPM (Optimized Cost per impression).

Although bidding through CPA drives 20% lower monetary inflow per install than CPC, still CPA basis was rolled out to provide the best possible returns and keep advertisers engaged with its platform on a long-term basis. Advertisers are charged only if users download and install their app which essentially means that the advertisers can manage their budget accordingly and achieve favourable returns. Facebook has also rolled out features to measure the number of installations and keep the consumers engaged for longer periods.

Facebook

The Facebook App industry is growing at a rapid pace with a large number of app developers relying on the Facebook platform. The consumers can simply login to their Facebook accounts and download an app to avoid filling long forms which require personal details. With the fast growing smartphone sector and a mobile user base which is growing concurrently, the social media giant is poised to boost its revenue through apps in the near future.

Advertisement

ROI Acts As Better KPI Than CTR,CPC! DOs And DONTs For Advertisers [REPORT]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

With the advent of the fast emerging digital advertising technology, a majority of advertisers and marketers around the world are aware of various marketing techniques via social media sites and are well versed with key performance indicators for their Ad-campaigns. Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) strategic Preferred Marketing Developer Nanigans, recently released an extensive report about ad performance so far this year, on the social network.

Lifetime ROI Dominates Proxy Metrics

Advertisers generally look for higher CTR for an Ad compared to total number of impressions, but graph below depicts an entirely different story. Higher CTR does not guarantee higher profit margins. When we compare gender specific Ad-campaigns on Facebook during first 3 quarters of 2013, male users registered 15% higher CTR rate compared to female users whereas male user specific Ad-campaign derived 26% lower ROI when compared to the female group.

Activities, discussions and engagement by female users are generally centered around various shopping brands and their diversified products. Usually, men like to get into the store, get what they need and get out fast. Whereas the women groups generally browse online looking for a single item and end up buying more items than required thanks to lucrative offers and schemes. Advertisers should focus on gender based Ad-campaigns depending on its products type. In general, it is always better to opt for female users as target audience for promoting particular product backed by heavy kickbacks and offers.male vs female users CTR ROI graph

Similarly, the CPC for the male audience averaged 9% lower than the female audience while the male audiences averaged 28% lower on RPC (Revenue per click) than the female audience in first 3 quarters of 2013.

RPC vs CPC, Female vs Male

Above stats clearly signify that women totally outplay men when it comes to conversion of a potential Ad viewer into a customer. It is advisable to put a large chunk of your investment on a female audience compared to men. Introducing exciting offers and services can help grab the attention of female users.

Higher Age Group Audience Record Double The ROI Than Lower Age Group

Generally lower age group people are more conscious about the price tag and various other additional offers along with the product. Whenever  teenagers look for a particular product, they end up browsing numerous websites in search of the best the deal in terms of offers, discount, service and add-ons. On the other hand, for people in the higher age group the loyalty factor comes into play. Adults prefer to use the same brand which has served them well in the past.

ROI vs CTR based on age group

In the above graph, the lower age group users have recorded more CTR than higher age group as they end up clicking majority of Ads looking for best options. Whereas the higher age group hardly ever bothers to check out the latest Ads and sticks to the concept of Old is Gold.

RPC vs CPC based on age groupA similar trend was observed when CPC and RPC were compared between different age groups. While the lower age group users recorded lower CPC , the ROI was also significantly lower than higher age group audience. It is important for marketers to provide the best offers and services to their users thereby establishing a loyalty factor for their brand amongst its consumers. Very few online shops and brands care about users after they buy the item, as a result users prefer to switch the brand during next purchase. Final verdict in this regard would be to provide the best options and offers along with long-term service for the product.

KPIs By Days Of Week Too Shifted Marginally From Their Usual Proxy Metrics

While examining KPIs by day of week, ROI wasn’t so predictive when compared to the usual Ad performance metrics. Although, retailers averaged the lowest CTRs on Mondays and Tuesdays, ROI was marginally higher on those 2 days. revenue vs CTR days of week

The above graph could be also be indicative that the that majority of Online dwellers are a working group and they prefer utilizing weekends for shortlisting their favorites from the online stores and push the shopping or payment part, during the beginning of the week. As the weekend comes closer a majority of people start looking at various Ads thereby recording a higher CTR during the week closure and they prefer payment transactions to happen on weekdays as it is easy to track in case they have any issues with online payment made.

DOs And DONTs For Advertisers And Marketers

It is important for advertisers to assimilate the trending KPIs for their Ad-campaigns and judge its success based on revenue generated rather than CTR or CPC. Depending on the group of people who would find their product useful, (gender wise and age group wise) Ad-campaigns must be launched. Even if investment is more for a particularly specialized Ad-campaign advertisers should go ahead with it if the predictive ROI is remarkably higher.For example the Ad-campaigns for female groups might need higher investment but it will definitely generate more ROI. Similarly advertisers should take care of the timing of the release of their offers along with new product launches, as most online users prefer checking Ad-updates during closure of the week.

Advertisement

Facebook Inc (FB) Lifts Ban Over Decapitation Videos! Instagram Likely To Be Promoted As A Social Awareness Tool [STUDY]

By
Varun Nayak
-
0

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) lifted the ban on posting video content depicting decapitation, killings and other forms of violence. This move is an initiative to encourage users to create social awareness by condemning such acts. Earlier this year, in May, Facebook had banned the posting of such videos after the Family Online Safety Institute, which is a member of its Safety Advisory Board, had complained to them about the same.

The social media giant initiated this move with the intention of generating awareness among people. Facebook is also trying to monitor graphic content containing beheading, killings, and other form of violence separately and make sure such content is condemned by users and not celebrated. The company also plans to provide users more information about the content at display, by providing an initial warning about the type of content before they view it. This announcement would only prove beneficial if Facebook is able to filter out posts which would condemn such acts and not encourage them.

Promotion Of Instagram As A Social Awareness Tool?

Facebook is probably trying to be the mainstay in discussions related to social awareness issues. The Egyptian Arab Springs, the public outrage over safety of women in India and similar incidents are demonstrative of the power that social media can exhibit. Social media can also act as an effective media tool to spread awareness about the same. Facebook is trying to become a platform which promotes discussions regarding such serious issues by lifting bans on decapitation and other violent videos. It will, in all likelihood, roll out the same rules for Instagram in future.

A company spokesperson from Facebook earlier told – ‘’Facebook has long been a place where people turn to share their experiences, particularly when they’re connected to controversial events on the ground, such as human rights abuses, acts of terrorism and other violent events. People share videos of these events on Facebook to condemn them. If they were being celebrated, or the actions in them encouraged, our approach would be different’

We know that Image and Video content is a more powerful source of communication and Facebook’s focus will be on Instagram’s video feature as a social awareness tool whereas images could be more effective in conveying messages. Because of Instagram’s lengthier footage (15 seconds) and editing capabilities, it’s suited for more in-depth social awareness campaigns that feature a series of images or videos.

Organizations can develop a series of videos to enlighten the public about prevalent issues such as violence and corruption and even try inspiring them to take part in a protest march. Nearly 98% of NGOs are on Facebook, and are effectively utilizing its rich media content to organize camps and rallies to address societal problems. Instagram can play a key role in encouraging people to participate in campaigns, raising donations and creating awareness about prevailing problems in the society.

Jamie Henn, communications director for the environmental activist group 350.org said ”Social media provides a place where people can share the work they are doing in the real world and gain a sense of momentum and community by seeing similar stories from around the planet. At Nearly, 7,347 places, people planted trees, installed solar panels and wind turbines, weatherized buildings, and planted urban gardens as a part of campaign initiated to work on climate change in their own communities.

NGOs will continue to use social media with effective, rich,informative content to publicize their campaigns. Facebook is likely to roll out more advertising to such websites at a lower price to give a better measure of its role as a socially responsible entity.instagram in social awareness campaigns

Image Source :  CNET

Advertisement
1...364365366...580Page 365 of 580

Category

Links

Stay connected

Newsletter Signup

Subscribe to our newsletter

To be updated with all the latest news, offers and special announcements.

© Dazeinfo Media & Research Pvt Ltd | All rights reserved.