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If You Build It, They Will ComeAdvertisers, that is. The 'IT' in this case being social media. The popularity of social media has finally reached the point where marketers believe they can profit from it, and it seems that everybody wants in on the game. For businesses & advertisers, social media is quickly becoming more of a Need To Have than a Nice To Have. However, this is a path that must be traveled carefully. Social media has the power to connect people to their friends and the world around them. Many people have a very personal connection to their Facebook profiles and Twitter accounts. With this level of personal investment, marketers plastering these sites with ads could run the risk of alienating their customer base. For example, the recent changes to Facebook allow for ads to be more prevalent and expand their reach, much to the chagrin of users. Less than a week after these changes were implemented, a Facebook group called "Change Facebook To Normal" has garnered over 1.2 million members. Personally, I'm torn over the issue. As a person I tend to feel ads invading my online life somehow cheapens the experience and reduce my individuality - "Bill Holmes is brought to you by Jeep" just doesn't have that ring to it. As a marketer however, of course I want my ads to show up everywhere I can get them, with an unlimited budget and millions of impressions. The inevitability of this argument is that people will eventually accept ads prevailing in social media. Until that time comes though, marketers will have to walk the line between getting their message out while not interrupting user experience. Absolutely there are many ways to do this. Jeep in fact has a great game 'Boostin Nuts' along with forums for Jeep enthusiasts (myself included) to post pics and brag about their rigs. Other applications such as the Celtics 3-Point-Play are a great way to be involved with the team (brand) while still maintaining a good social media experience. I think overall advertising will always be part of just about everything we do, but the most successful marketers will be those who can promote their products while still maintaining the personal user experience that social media provides. Labels: Advertising, Brand Awareness, Facebook, Industry, POV, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Twitter Ads: New Revenue Stream?Wouldn’t it be great to have 50,000+ followers? Entertaining a large chunk of the Twitteratti following what you do and reading what you read? It’s a unique place to be in and can be quite an ego boost. This particular spot has also piqued the interest of advertisers. More and more, they are seeing that high follower counts can yield large numbers of eyeballs for what they have to market. There was a recent blog post about a Twitterer making $15,000 in a month, just for tweeting ads. Sure, he has over 70,000 followers due to his proficiency in affiliate marketing but it is a simple way for him to garner an additional revenue stream. The blogger was also quite pleased that his tweets, despite being paid for, were actually pertinent to his business and were also generating some conversation among his followers. Some examples of sites that are mediating these types of ads include Sponsored Tweets and Ad.ly. I wouldn’t be surprised if more celebrities started participating. Particularly examples like bands who hadn’t had a strong selling album in a number of years or former child actors who have difficulty getting substantial roles. Despite these troubles, artists are usually still able to cull together a strong following of dedicated fans. These followers would probably also be very interested in whichever product/service they might be touting, even though it is a paid ad. Twitter Corporate should also begin to participate. If they arbitrated between a popular Twitterer and the advertiser, they could negotiate a small percentage of the ad spend for themselves. This would be in exchange for prominent placement of this Twitterer (and, subsequently, the advertiser). Think about it, @ev and @biz. What We Can Learn from NBA Players and TV Stars... on Twitter. If you're on Twitter (and I hope you are), you might have noticed the influx of celebrities there - movie stars, professional athletes, TV hosts, chefs, etc. Usually, they're just on Twitter to tweet about random ideas (or their rumored dates; I'm looking at you, John Mayer), but every now and then you'll find a gem who really utilizes social media to improve their "brand" or strengthen their social image, and/or actually do something useful. They're basically pulling off these viral social media campaigns that agencies and marketers can learn a thing or two from. I put together a few tips for social media campaigns that were inspired by NBA stars and TV personalities - both groups are experts at gaining, performing for, and maintaining their respective audience loyalties. What We Can Learn from NBA Players and TV Stars on Twitter: 1) From Shaquille O'Neill: Be There First. And if you're not there first, be there BIG TIME Can anyone even discuss celebrities on Twitter without mentioning Shaquille O'Neil? Shaq jumped on the Twitter bandwagon when it was just a small toy sled. And he tweets a lot - he describes himself as "very quotatious, I perform random acts of Shaqness." Sometimes (okay, most of the time) what he says doesn't make a lot of sense but the point is he is there. And his fans know he is there. His opponents know he is there. He is there big time. As brand marketers and advertisers, we have to make sure that we're present in the right places. Even better, we have to hustle to be there before anyone else gets there. This is where beta campaigns, innovative ideas, and risk-taking come in. And once we're there, we have to make sure our voice is heard loud and clear. 2) From Dwight Howard: Synchronize Your Campaigns Dwight Howard is flying his one millionth Twitter follower to an all expense paid trip for two to the Orlando Magic home opening game. But aside from his Twitter "campaign", he also talks about that, and is interacting with his fans, on Facebook, SuperFan, and his blog. I never thought I'd quote Dwight Howard in an online marketing blog (or ever), but he said these "are just great avenues for me to connect with people." And he's right. And another thing he's doing right is that he is synchronizing everything, mirroring the content of one channel to another. When we launch social media, branding, promotional, or even lead generation campaigns, we have to remember that once we already have the content - all we need to do is create a cascading turn of events where we propagate all our media avenues or social channels with the same content. Remember: everything is interconnected. We can easily weave our content and synchronize our online and social placements so that our campaign message will be present throughout.  Paul Pierce would give away random clues on where he will be and post secret "passwords" on Twitter so his followers can find him and receive free Celtics tickets. And Ray Allen left random pairs of sneakers around Boston, tweeted clues about them, and whoever finds his shoes get to keep them! Everyone likes contests and give-aways, especially if the contest is actually fun and the give-away is actually something of value. What companies can learn from these two Celtics players is that Twitter can be an avenue to host interesting contests that encourage user action and engagement - contests that encourage socializing (say it with me: social media is about socializing). 4) From Rachel Zoe: Listen to Your Customers and Reply to their Questions Almost all of Rachel Zoe's tweets (for those of you not familiar, she is a stylist to the stars and has her own show on Bravo TV) are either re-tweets and @ replies where she answers various questions from her followers. She may not answer the minute the question is posted, but she still answers them. Most marketers and advertisers forget that the customer feedback is one of the greatest assets to any campaign. Don't just push-push-push your message. Take time to listen to your audience, take note of their complaints and compliments, and answer their questions. Sometimes the most basic things make the biggest impact.  5) From Martha Stewart: Tweet Useful Info Martha Stewart tweets quick and easy recipes and all sorts of food, home, and lifestyle tips. She also reminds her followers about important events, dates, and shows. She uses Twitter to communicate useful little nuggets to her socialsphere. She even thinks that Twitter is better than Facebook, but that's another topic all together (also, that's her opinion, not mine). The point is, she tweets useful info. Again, this is something very basic that we should not take for granted. If your brand offers something unique, tweet about it! If you have a good promo, tweet about it! If you want to share a relevant article, tweet about it! Make your tweets helpful, interesting, worth reading - and re-tweeting. Those are just 5 tips for successful Twitter and social media campaigns. Remember that gaining followers, fans, and friends in one thing, but growing that relationship is another. If you want to learn more about social media campaigns, please contact us! Labels: Industry, Online Media, POV, Social Media, Twitter Turning One Ad Impression Into TenNot long ago, I had a client say something really interesting. He said, "We need to make sure everything we can in our campaign to turn every one impression we buy into 10 actually being delivered -- that is my challenge to you." Of course, we're always doing that anyway. Added-value no cost or super low cost impressions generally improve the metrics of what we actually optimize against -- things like cost per action (define), cost per sale, etc. So, I decided to list some tactics we employ to beef up the impressions we were able to generate without having to actually buy them (or at least list them as having a cost, i.e., value-added placements.) Some are easy, some are hard, and some may require an awful lot of client side buy-in, implementation, or participation. But these days, clients are much more open to difficult ideas and logistics if they have a chance to improve the success of a campaign. Value-added placements: First and foremost, when doing a buy, ask for value-added placements. (I know this is obvious, but I still see plans from clients' past agencies that don't list any.) Go beyond just getting more run-of-site (ROS) banners. There are high-volume placements like text links, text-based e-mail newsletter ads, buttons, and advertorials that complement premium placements very nicely. They not only add impression volume, but boost click volume and the top-line performance of a property, often saving it from cancellation. Offline to online value-added placements: This is another often overlooked nugget. Make a list of the offline deals being cut in print, broadcast, and radio. Nine times out of 10, those buys come with a ton of online value-added placements that you would have never really considered paying for in your online plan. Many organizations offer bundled deals, but for the most part, there's a lot of online juice to be had here for zero cost -- and zero cost impressions and resulting clicks and actions help the top line metrics of any report quite nicely. Tweet this: Put a call to action based on a chiclet (define) in your banner that gets people to tweet the deal you're promoting. If even a tiny fraction of the people who see it, tweet it, that could equate into thousands or even millions of added impressions and clicks. You can track the tweets by monitoring Twitter search, and track clicks and actions from this by using a bit.ly tracking URL in your tweet that jumps through your ad server tracking URL. If you have Radian6, or write a quick little script, you can also add up the additional impressions/tweets you got by totaling the followers of the people who tweeted your message. Read more... Labels: Advertising, ClickZ, Online Media, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Uses Social Media to Spread Awareness of H1N1 VirusWith President Obama recently declaring the H1N1 pandemic a national emergency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is combining more traditional methods, such as e-mail blasts and websites, with social media strategies to circulate information about the virus, more popularly known as the swine flu. The CDC has taken advantage of numerous social media tools to spread awareness about the warning signs of the H1N1 virus and the latest developments about flu activity. Social media is part of a comprehensive strategy to reach the nation of H1N1 virus warning signs and precautions. The CDC has a Twitter account with links to press conference videos, statistics and vaccine information solely related to the H1N1 virus. Additionally, the H1N1 hashtag (#H1N1) enables multiple Twitter users to connect and discuss the H1N1 virus. Currently, the CDC's flu Twitter account has over 16,000 followers. Web enthusiasts and bloggers can also add CDC-created widgets to their personal web pages and blogs. The widgets allow users to share information about the spread of the virus and direct visitors to websites containing more information about H1N1. Widgets are updated automatically by the CDC, enabling users to easily receive the most up-to-date news on the H1N1 virus. CDC has also launched a YouTube channel containing health-related videos, including ones specifically related to the H1N1 virus. The channel has had over 200,000 page views and over 4,000 subscribers. Videos include informational videos from experts sharing information on H1N1 virus causes, symptoms and prevention. For example, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC, answers questions about the H1N1 flu vaccine and prevention in a video that has garnered almost 11,000 views to date. With the CDC using social media to get the word out about the H1N1 pandemic, the organization is actively embracing new methods of communication to reach out to the nation about the spread of the virus. Social media facilitates the process of communicating to a mass audience, as users can instantly and repeatedly share information with one another. With this continued effect, the CDC can continue to spread awareness of the H1N1 virus and quickly and efficiently reach maximum audiences. Click here for more information about CDC's H1N1 virus social media efforts. Labels: Social Media, Twitter, web 2.0, Widgets, YouTube Social Media Crisis Management 101Social media is still a fairly new type of marketing tactic; it requires thought, proper leadership, planning and typical branding practices that go along with setting up any type of marketing plan. However, it is still a form of media that can feel an extremely negative backlash when campaigns go bad, more so than any other type of marketing campaign in the current age. Let’s dive right in…do you recall when Dominos' employees posted a video to YouTube of them doing unsanitary things to customers’ orders on camera. This one video went on a viral roller-coaster, and almost destroyed the brand overnight. It took many apologies and a strong effort by the CEO to speak to fans directly, using social media channels as his outreach tool. Almost immediately, a company-sponsored video was posted to the Dominoes YouTube channel that showed the CEO apologizing to the public in a very informal, candid approach. It is moments like this that still add shock value to what social media encompasses. Triumphs and great successes in social media can be met with cheer and joyful praises when everything goes in a positive direction – where social media fans and followers triple overnight and bloggers pick-up your campaign like it was just mentioned on Oprah – these are the true victories of social media. However, one wrong move, one video, one comment, one posts that might send the wrong message, no matter the origin, can tear away your sanity and drive your campaign and brand through a wall overnight. All the blood, sweat and dollars used to guide your brand into social media bliss were just flushed away by that video someone posted, that comment that went up by mistake, that message that was taken the wrong way – social media can drain you the same way it might make you a star.  Because of the sensitivity surrounding social media, everything is not always ‘sunshine and lollipops’. Companies traditionally understand the value of crisis management, but as gossip and complaints can spread through social channels faster than the eye can blink, this new interconnectedness of consumers and complaints has brought about a renewed importance in crisis management – social media style. Let’s use another example in crisis management, on August 13, 2008, a video was posted of a Burger King employee taking a bath in a kitchen sink of a restaurant. Within a few days, the video was viewed more than 800,000 times on Break.com and YouTube, and was picked up by major news outlets, both on and offline. The number of negative impressions that was generated by this one video was equal to many months of traffic to BurgerKing.com. Burger King responded through traditional PR channels, talking to reporters and sent an email to news outlets that said: "Burger King Corp. was just notified of this incident and is cooperating fully with the health department. We have sanitized the sink and have disposed of all other kitchen tools and utensils that were used during the incident. We have also taken appropriate corrective action on the employees that were involved in the video. Additionally, the remaining staff at this restaurant is being retrained in health and sanitation procedures." Their response was sufficient, but could have been delivered with a more personal approach and to a wider audience had they explored the social media channels as a additional outreach tool. Instead of just informing consumers with a positive response in traditional media, they could have done a better job to inform consumers who are exposed to the information in social media by pushing across a message with their own video response. Despite the fact that they told the traditional world of their response, consumers are still going to see the disgusting videos online through YouTube and other video channels – wouldn’t a company-created video response help alleviate the stomachs of those who might just fall upon the original video on YouTube…I think so. Agreed, a positive, company-sponsored video won’t get as much play, nor be as viewed as often as the scandalous video would be, but by responding to the situation, it could have increased the possibility of reaching consumers where it truly mattered. So when someone goes to search for “Burger King sink”, your favorable and more informative video would be tagged with similar titles, descriptions and keywords as that unfavorable video – creating a quick reactionary tool that allows that video viewer to see the truth. In an age of social media, it is best to think about fighting fire with fire when it comes to managing a crisis within social media. Press releases and emails to TV and print outlets are good and necessary, but won’t drive as much authority and interest as a social media driven response. With the speed of how quickly the viral age is turning, it’s important to understand that the world is moving at a much different pace then it used to – it’s time to keep up with that. Labels: crisis management, Social Media Overdrive Wins Web Marketing Association Award for Redesign of Pearson Learning Solutions Website Overdrive Interactive, a Boston-based full service online marketing agency specializing in lead generation, brand building and customer acquisition, today announced that the company received a 2009 Web Award for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development from the Web Marketing Association, an organization made up of Internet marketing, online advertising, PR, and top web site design professionals who share an interest in improving the quality of online advertising, internet marketing, and website promotion. The award, for Education Standard of Excellence, was made for design and development of the Pearson Learning Solutions website (http://www.pearsoncustom.com). Pearson Learning Solutions, a division of the multinational Pearson Corporation, has more than thirty-five years of experience as a partner to educators and as a custom publishing industry leader. The new site presents information about the wide range of Pearson's learning solution capabilities in an easy-to-follow way. The intuitive site structure is based on feedback from customer and company-wide focus groups. The catalog of custom solutions can be searched in a variety of ways, including by medium (print, media, online); by discipline; and by course or key word. The site includes a Your Needs Our Solutions page, which helps web visitors find their way to the type of custom solutions they are seeking. A Students section acts as a resource for studying tips and job and volunteer opportunities, and all of the site's copy is optimized for search engines. "The new www.pearsoncustom.com provides our web visitors with clear paths to the learning solutions they are searching for," said Hester Tinti-Kane, online marketing manager, Pearson Learning Solutions. "Our fresh, search-optimized site is drawing over 50% more traffic than last summer. Winning a WebAward is an honor and I am happy to see the great folks at Overdrive Interactive recognized." “We are delighted to be recognized with the prestigious Web Award. To be recognized by a jury of your peers is definitely validating and an acknowledgement of the great work that Overdrive is doing on behalf of our clients.” commented Ty Velde, Director of Client Services. Now in its 13th year, the WebAwards is the premier annual website award competition that names the best Web sites in 96 industries while setting the standard of excellence for all website development. This is the fourth time Overdrive has won a Web Award. Previous awards include wins in 2006 and 2007 for our work with Symmetricom and a 2008 award for the design and development of the LoJack website. For more information on the Web Marketing Association Awards, visit: http://www.webaward.org About Overdrive Interactive: Boston-based Overdrive Interactive (http://www.overdriveinteractive.com/) is a full service online marketing firm that specializes in branding and lead generation services using search engine optimization, paid search management, online media planning and buying, social media marketing, email marketing, and web and application development. The agency serves a wide range of consumer and B2B Fortune 500 companies. About Pearson: Pearson (NYSE:PSO), the global leader in education and education technology, reaches and engages today's digital natives with effective and personalized learning, as well as dedicated professional development for their teachers. This commitment is demonstrated in the company's investment in innovative print and digital education materials for pre-K through college, student information systems and learning management systems, teacher professional development, career certification programs, and testing and assessment products that set the standard for the industry. The company's respected brands include eCollege, Prentice Hall, Addison Wesley, Benjamin Cummings, MyLabs, and many others. Pearson's comprehensive offerings help inform targeted instruction and intervention so that success is within reach of every student at every level of education. Pearson's commitment to education for all is supported by the global philanthropic initiatives of the Pearson Foundation. Pearson's other primary businesses include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group. For more information, go to www.pearson.com. Labels: Awards, Client News, Overdrive News, Website Development Clients: Tell Us What Your Budget Is!Why are some companies scared to disclose their budget to potential media buyers? What bad things could we do with that information? We will know eventually, right? Let me state here and now: It's okay to let media buyers know what your budget is! In fact, there are not many valuable things we can do without knowing that information. If it's a test, decide what you can risk on a test. Don't ask us what you should test if you cannot tell us what you can afford. Consider this: What if you went to an architect with no specific idea of what you wanted and said, "Design me a house." What would the architect say? Most likely the architect would ask, "How much do you want to spend on your house?" You wouldn't say, "Well, do some research, draw me up some plans, give me some ideas first, and then tell me what I should spend." A serious builder knows what his budget is, has an idea of what he wants, and shares that with architects he deems worthy of interviewing and requesting detailed information from. What inspired me to write about this issue? I recently participated in a pitch conference call with a prospect who wanted us to do media planning and buying but refused to reveal their budget. Of course we gave a presentation describing our full capabilities. The prospect said they were looking for a good partner and we seemed like a good fit but still didn't want to reveal their budget at this point in the process. Now that is fine, except when they wanted more details on what we would do and sought advice on what they should spend. Labels: ClickZ, Industry, Online Media, Strategy New Movie Releases Generate Big Buzz Using Social MediaTwo recent and upcoming movie releases have used the social media web in innovative ways to stir up interest and mystique surrounding the films. One in particular, “Paranormal Activity”, the horror film created on a reported $15,000 budget, has managed to become a run-away success this past weekend. Between October 9th and 11th, “Paranormal Activity” raked in an impressive $44,163 per screen average, totaling $7.9 million and is currently ranked #4 in the box office charts – and that’s with a limited release of only 160 theaters! The people behind “Paranormal Activity” generated buzz surrounding the movie by creating its own Eventful page in an effort to stir up one million user generated votes for a nationwide release of the film. According to Paramount Pictures, the strategy worked, “Over 1,000,000 people from around the country demanded the film play in their city by logging on to ParanormalMovie.com. In response, Paramount Pictures will release the film nationwide beginning Friday, October 16th.” “Paranormal Activity’s” initial release was limited to late-night showings in college towns, generating an intense buzz surrounding the movie on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. A second movie, “The Fourth Kind”, scheduled to be released in November, is just starting to generate a buzz online. The movie, centered on mysterious disappearances in the village of Nome, Alaska, portrays itself in trailers as using actual archived footage of real events as it follows Dr. Abigail Tyler’s inquiry to the strange events. “The Fourth Kind”, which derives its name from a “close encounter of the Fourth kind” with an Alien, aka an abduction experience, is using the internet and social networking sites in a unique way to stir up curiosity surrounding the release. One Local Alaskan Newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News, has done some investigative reporting into the film. The paper dug up a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and interestingly, discovered several websites, authentic in appearance, with news articles and biographies relating to the film. The websites, (both of which have domains that were registered in the last month according to a quick WHOIS check), highlight information about the main character of the film, Dr. Abigail Tyler. However, some of the articles appear to have been forged, the websites are extremely new and suspicious in appearance, and Ron Adler CEO of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute and Denise Dillard, President of the Alaska Psychological Association say “they’ve never heard of the Alaska Psychiatry Journal, or of Abigail Tyler.” And, suspiciously, although “The Fourth Kind” is purported to be filmed in the small coastal village of Nome, Alaska, the film was actually shot in the lush mountains of Bulgaria:  A screen grab from "The Fourth Kind" trailer shows the "Nome" Alaska used in the movie.Have you seen “Paranormal Activity?” Do you plan to see “The Fourth Kind?” Do you believe marketing films using social media will be a trend that continues well into the future? It’s hard to argue against the success of “Paranormal Activity”, but some have criticized “The Fourth Kind” for being too vague about the movie and blurring the line between fact and fiction. Let us know your thoughts in the comments! Labels: Campus Life, Facebook, online marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Online Marketing Expert Harry Gold to Share Social Media Marketing Case Studies and Best Practices at NEDMA Technology DayBOSTON, MA (October 9, 2009) -- On Friday, October 23, at the Microsoft Seminar Facility in Waltham, Mass., Harry Gold, CEO, Overdrive Interactive, will join a group of online marketing luminaries and experts at the NEDMA Technology Day to discuss the impact of social media marketing on businesses and how to best leverage online resources to drive ROI. During the three-hour seminar (1:00pm-4:00pm), Gold will use real social media marketing case studies to show how companies that weave content and messages into social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can make lasting connections with consumers. The presentation will also frame social media marketing within the following areas: blog outreach and monitoring; social network profile creation; application development; content channel creation; friends and fan outreach; content stream creation; hyper-targeted social media buying; social media measurement and ROI tracking. A frequent speaker at NEDMA events, Gold’s seminars have been described as offering “vital information on interconnecting” and a “fire-hose of information on vital topics.” His knowledge of how to capture not just an audience, but the right audience, has made him a leader in the industry, and his no-nonsense approach has made even the most conservative companies reevaluate their place in the social media landscape. With concrete content and easy to follow examples, Gold has become a popular participant in international media and marketing conferences. “Harry Gold is a well-known in the world of social media marketing,” said NEDMA Managing Director Beth Drysdale. “His company’s work in online marketing is representative of a new generation of marketing that is shaping the way businesses work today. We’re honored to have him as one of our industry experts.” A leader in social media marketing, Gold’s mission is to create innovative online marketing programs based on real-world success. His company, Overdrive Interactive, is at the forefront of this movement helping companies such as Harley-Davidson, Vista Print, Boston.com, EMC, Progress Software and Zipcar enter the world of social media with the strategies, tactics and tools necessary to create a tangible impact. For more information on the conference, please visit: http://www.OverdriveInteractive.com/Nedma-Event -Continued- Harry Gold: A Career of Defining Online and Social Media Marketing Success Harry brings to Overdrive a highly distinguished background in online development, search engine marketing, and online media that goes back over 10 years. He started his online career in 1995 when he founded Interactive Promotions. Since then he has been at the forefront in developing successful online programs for various agencies and Fortune 500 companies. His client experience includes search and online media management for top companies that include General Motors, Harley-Davidson, John Hancock, Dow Jones, EMC, Progress, LoJack, Cognos, Club Med, Bose and many other companies now enjoying a strong Internet presence. As the architect and conductor behind Overdrive's programs, Harry's primary mission is to create innovative marketing programs based on real-world success and to make sure that the best marketing and technology practices that drive those successes are continually institutionalized into the culture and methods of the agency. What excites Harry is the knowledge that Overdrive's collaborative environment has created a company of online experts, all of whom drive success for the clients and companies they serve. Harry is a frequent lecturer on search engine marketing and online media for The New England Direct Marketing Association, The Ad Club, and Boston University. He is also a recognized subject matter expert and columnist for ClickZ. ABOUT NEDMA (www.nedma.com) The New England Direct Marketing Association is a regional, professional association for all those interested in direct marketing. Membership is composed of leading area companies that use direct marketing, direct marketing agencies, independent professionals, educators, and students. NEDMA sponsors an extensive series of events, including business/dinner meetings with forums and networking immediately preceding the meetings. For more information please visit: http://www.nedma.com ABOUT OVERDRIVE INTERACTIVE Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online media, social media and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands, generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations that are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit www.ovrdrv.com. Labels: Events, Industry, Overdrive News, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy Expanding Your Reach on the Google Content NetworkThe Google Content Network is a great place to expand upon standard paid search campaigns, especially if your campaigns are utilizing low frequency terms or promoting a niche product or service. When search campaigns approach 100% impression share, the average cost per click can increase substantially as more aggressive bidding is required to capture the extra traffic on your relevant terms. However, simply flipping the switch on the content network for your existing campaigns is not typically a good way to get started with Content Network campaigns. Here are a few tips get you started with successful PPC campaign management and expansion on the Google Content Network. The first thing you should always do when setting up a content campaign is to separate the content campaign from search campaigns. Search campaigns often perform quite differently than content campaigns, so it is not enough to simply turn the Google Content Network on in an existing campaign; it is critical to make sure you create a separate campaign within the AdWords management interface . Keeping a separate campaign allows you to set unique budget caps for your search and content campaigns, ensuring your content buy won’t cannibalize the performance of an existing search campaign. Separate campaigns allow for easier PPC management and optimization as well. Content campaigns will always have a much higher level of impressions and lower click through rates, and will typically require a different bidding structure (usually lower bids on content). For keyword targeted content campaigns, you also might need to trim back to a core list of tightly grouped buckets of terms for each AdGroup. Content AdGroups should typically contain no more than 10-15 terms, and Google will ignore more than 50, so keep the list short. Google looks at the theme of grouped terms, not individual keywords in an AdGroup, so make sure your groups contain highly related terms. By keeping campaigns separate, you can also avoid taking a quality score hit to the search campaign as the CTR won’t take a sharp dive once the content program is launched. Optimizations are different for search and content as well so keeping things separate makes it easier to improve both campaigns. In terms of targeting by keyword vs. placement- there is no right or wrong here, and the goals and objectives of the campaign would need to be considered; one approach would be to utilize both forms of targeting. Start with the keywords. Again, use small lists of tightly themed terms with relevant ads and destinations. Set your caps and bids and begin collecting data. After you have some data built up, run a placement report to review performance by each URL where your ads are being displayed. Optimize the keyword campaign not only at the big and conversion level, but at the placement level as well. Pause any sites that spend money on clicks that don’t convert (assuming you are tracking actions and not just driving traffic). Also pause any sites that generate lots of impressions, but few clicks to improve quality score and lower overall cost per click. In addition to pausing non-performing placements, you can further improve overall PPC performance by placement targeting sites that have shown solid performance in the keyword targeted content campaign. Run the placement campaigns at the same time as the keyword campaigns, continuing to expand reach on the sites that perform well on keyword campaigns through direct placement targeting. Consider adding different creative formats to the top performing placements that emerge, including image or video ads. Additional placements that might perform well can be discovered through Google’s natural search results. Instead of searching through the categories and available content placements in AdWords, consider the inverse approach- starting with a search on the most valuable terms in your campaign. Considering the scale of the Google Content Network, you might find several placements that rank high in natural results for your most critical terms. A quick look at the sites with page one and two listings on your key terms should reveal whether or not they are part of the Google Content Network- just look for the familiar “Ads By Google” box. Then, placement target the sites that already rank highly for the most relevant terms in your campaign. Labels: Google, online marketing, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Twitter announces corporate account servicesTwitter-founder Biz Stone announced yesterday that the site plans to introduce premium features for corporate accounts, including tracking an analytics. This is the first time Twitter has offered concrete plans for a business model that includes revenue, rather than relying on the generosity of investors. In his interview with the Chicago Tribune, Stone avoided disclosing any details about plans for launching these new services, other than the timeline that set their debut for the end of the year. Even with the new features available, Twitter will still be free for all users, including businesses, but that the new pay-only features would help businesses keep track of followers and monitor traffic. While remaining vague, Stone said that the premium services would help businesses “become better Twitterers”. Twitter enthusiasts are cautiously optimistic of the announcement, which comes a few months after a bbspot.com article announcing similar (but outlandish) plans was revealed to be a hoax. From a marketing standpoint, Twitter’s upcoming features open up a range of possibilities for strengthening social media campaigns. Businesses will likely be better equipped to target and attract interested followers. They will receive constant feedback and thus be more able to maintain effective strategies for the content and schedule of their tweets. Overall, this is good news for companies aiming to maximize their social media presence. Labels: Twitter Is Mobile Payment the Next Big Consumer Marketing Tool?Mobile apps have become a staple of the marketing industry. Users are so connected to cell phones, PDAs and smartphones that advertisers have quickly learned that the way to get peoples' attention is inevitably to get into their mobile phone. The newest piece of technology to start gaining traction in the mobile application world is the payment function. Mobile payment allows a cell phone or PDA to essentially replace a credit card; however, unlike the impersonality of a credit card, using a mobile payment option allows marketers to really generate a conversation with their target audiences, by providing promotions, coupons, and a method of payment right within each person's most important and inseparable piece of personal property. Much like online marketing became extremely powerful as computers and laptops became more prominent, mobile marketing is now a fast-growing, effective medium for marketers to utilize to break through the clutter. The technology required to deploy mobile payments involves implanting a chip into phones that contains consumers' credit information. The difficulty and expense of implementing this technology is a major hurdle that needs to be overcome in order for mobile payments to really infiltrate the marketplace. However, according to AdAge, Juniper Research predicts that 123 million NFC-enabled handsets (46% of today's U.S. wireless subscribers), will come online in North America by 2013. Additionally, Dublin-based Research and Markets predicts that global mobile payment transactions are expected to reach $110.1 billion in 2013, at a 105% compound annual growth rate. Mobile payment has been in use in Japan for about 4 years, and is just beginning to enter the U.S. in a few test markets of companies such as McDonalds and Starbucks. The ultimate reason for the growth of this new function in the marketing world is the ability to track customer behavior. According to Drew Sievers, CEO and cofounder of mFoundry, which supplied the technology that powers Starbucks' mobile payment feature, explained to AdAge, "If you've got a real-time device in the users' hands at point of sale, this gives you the opportunity to provide promotions and incentives at the time it matters and influence buyers' behavior." You can check out the full AdAge article about mobile payments at http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139439 Labels: Application Development, Mobile Marketing No Bling for BingLooks like all the hype hasn't translated into market share for Microsoft's "decision engine" Bing. After an initial bump in usage, Bing's market share is now 3.39%, according to the latest figures from a NetApplications survey. Meanwhile, StatCounter says that 89.92% of all global searches were done on Google. Here's a link to the article: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7016574732?Microsoft%27s%20%27Bing%27%20Is%20Anything%20But%20Bling%20As%20Marketshare%20Keeps%20Slipping Wonder what Google has up their sleeve to grab the remaining market share away from competitors like Bing and Yahoo? How about date ranges, pages not yet visited, and translation? After several months of an almost continuous barrage of feature upgrades, Google dropped a few more goodies into their feature set yesterday: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353667,00.asp Social News bit: Facebook Expands "Connect" appOctober 2 Facebook announced expansions to its Facebook Connect application this week, introducing the Facebook Connect Wizard, which will make it simpler for non-developers to add the service to their sites. Additionally, it announced Translations for Facebook Connect, a language translation service capable of working in 65 different languages, and Playground for Facebook Connect, which provides code samples with which site owners can experiment with Connect's integration capabilities. Facebook continues its march towards total Web takeover (positioning its Translations as a competitor to the Google language tool), and making Facebook Connect more accessible to companies and websites that don't employ large developer teams will allow smaller businesses to increase their social media presence by building communities of Facebook users and helping them interact with the company and with one another. Labels: Facebook, Social Media |
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