Digital Marketing, Social Media, Web 2.0, Web Analytics, Web Design

Organizations today are being challenged to quickly catch up with ever changing “interactive media”, inventions and new trends are moving faster than organization can ever cope with. The only choice they have is to run faster and find solutions that can push them to catch up.

We all know that change is not easy but we also know that “Change is good”, at the time we live in change is inevitable, therefore, organizations need to approach interactive marketing with an open mind and optimism. They must seriously consider integrating interactive marketing efforts with the overall marketing process, ensuring cross-organization decisions are facilitated through creating coherent planning programs; allowing the interactive marketing to be injected in the main stream of marketing activities.

One important point I must make clear here, that “interactive marketing” is different from “Online marketing”, both may face very similar challenges the latter is less difficult to implement into organization than the first one.

“Online Marketing” is marketing online using the channels to advertise for your business, such as display ads, ad google, social media, email marketing, content marketing, affiliate marketing etc…this type is controlled by the business, the consumer can respond, by clicking on the ad or establishing social media dialogue. With Interactive Marketing customers are more involved in the building of a brand, using methods such as crowd-sourcing, experiential marketing, community marketing, customized interactive tools.

The key issues causing organizations to lag on the interactive marketing fast lane:

1. Organizations heads are “interactive marketing” resistant.
2. Lack of specialized staff in the interactive marketing domain.
3. Fear of uncontrolled exposure
4. No efforts to revamp and re-engineering the existing processes  to embrace interactive marketing methods
5. No Interactive Labs available within the organization and no efforts to establish those.

In a paper I read about the “Future of Interactive Marketing” prepared by “Forrester, it indicated that 30% of large firms still have fewer than 15 interactive staff members, and big brand advertisers like consumer goods or media firms dedicate just 2% of media spend to interactive channels, eventhough consumers log 34% of their media hours online.

Interesting figures from the paper:

Solutions are clear:

1. Hire specialized Staff
2. Embrace “interactive marketing”
3. Customize the process of marketing to incorporate interactive marketing
4. Educate and transfer knowledge between those with interactive marketing skills and those with traditional marketing skills.
5. Empower interactive marketing staff
6. Establish specialized labs for experimenting

Point number (6) is important, the whole nature of interactive marketing is experimental, since this technology is growing and new things are coming up quickly demanding from us to be fast, creative and courageous we need an experimental field to allow us to proof the new concepts.

Organizations must join the future, it maybe burdening them with expenses now but it will turn to be cost effective for the future, as it will help them to know more about their client and tailor their marketing efforts on/off line for their needs.

The major misunderstanding about media and blogger will be resolved once you read this article carefully:

Brands Treating Bloggers as Media

Brands think that blogs are media too! Well, the time has come to slap you with the reality! Bloggers are not media people they are not authorized to publish content and they own no publishing license! They are free spirits and true personal voices using their own vision and perception to speak their minds about you!

Media agencies on the other hand, are established entities responsible for content publishing in a systematic and legalizes approach; content may be delivered via any medium such as the internet, television, print, and audio CDs… Publishing in definition is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information — the activity of making information available to the general public. Blogs however, is a form of publishing but is defined as a personal journal published on the World Wide Web. Blogs are usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often are themed on a single subject, the web self-empowered publishing tools such as “wordpress” has enabled individuals to get into publishing their journals. As a blogger you are not required to be a writer or a certified journalist, you are just someone with good writing skills writing in your own daily diary! (Definition by Wikipedia)

Now the first major misunderstanding is that brands think bloggers are Media! First and foremost if the media sends press release to blogger and the blogger published them this means end of “Blogging”! It’s no longer the personal voice reader is thriving to hear, it’s the media influence! This unfortunately leads to the dilution of “Blogging” as a concept! And not only that it also endangers media content to be misused, putting your content in the hands of an individual who may misuse it in any sense is your responsibility, the blogger in that case is not liable!

Bloggers are confused

Second misunderstanding is the blogger themselves acting as media, I personally do not blame them as they are young enthusiasts who got the attention of the brands and extremely thrilled about it! Brands themselves have confused blogger, brands must be responsible in directing bloggers and empowering them with tools and inspirations to blog naturally about them.

I personally am a blogger as you can see, and I appreciate everyone who voices out his thoughts and opinions in a blog format! However, the concept here is not being deployed properly. Brands must understand how to employ bloggers to their benefit, and differentiate between mediums as mentioned in my previous article.

Blogger Evaluation Criteria

The most important thing is that brands must know the criteria of evaluating a serious blogger who can be of benefit to their brands, there are too many of them and differentiating the influential bloggers is a task on its own. Remember that the number of “site hits” doesn’t say much about the blog performance, simply because in Web Analytics a“hit” is not a measurement value a “Hit” on your website is the retrieval of any file, like a page or graphic and other resources such as scripts like .js and .css files etc…from the web server (“Read my article about “hits definitions – HIT OF MISS”). The real measurement is to understand about the visitor page views; meaning the single impression made by a site visitor, which is something usually not announced by the blogger, also you need to look at the bounce back rate (the rate of site visitors dropouts).

Evaluation can be through looking at the quality of blog’s content, number of engagement, number followers, comments, and what type of comments is important, ask them for analysis of their blog visitors look further into the bounce back rate and page views, and most important google their names and see what is their reputation in the blogshpere. I would add to that interview the blogger getting closer to him/her before you decide to hand him/her your brand reputation.

Conclusion

Media must understand that bloggers are supportive channels to other major medias, there are smart ways to use them. Blogs influence the mass in the sense that its people talking to people, so communities can relate to their content in a much personal level than official media. Simple ways of using them is to call on them to speak about your brands in their own voice give them the freedom, don’t expect them to write about you leave it to them! All you need to do is to make them like you. Remember very well if the blogger starts writing about you only to show off then it’s no longer valid it’s fake and no one like that! This message is for bloggers too, if you are true to your blog then embrace the freedom of your opinion and be courageous!

I am sleepy! And I over ate for dinner so you must forgive me if I blabber! I will stay awake to write this article and I am sure I will sleep better if I share it with you!

These days we have many media channels, TV, Radio, Print and Web, telecommunication! Yes yes; broadcasting short message, mobile TV and even bbm are a media channels; I will leave TV & Radio out of this!

I will talk about Print & Web, Traditional VS Non-Traditional or (New Media also called Digital Media)! The current relationship is 80/20! 80% for Traditional Media and 20% New Media! The relationship encompasses using both mediums as content publishing and advertisement! By the way 20% for new media is an over-statement; but let’s be optimistic. This all is of course in reference to the new media usage status in Middle East region!

Traditional Media plays the prominent role in media buying and content publishing, the new media plays a support role more of a back seat when it comes to advertisement and content publishing; and sometimes it’s ruled out completely!

Reasons for that:

1. Extensive Lack of Knowledge
2. Technology Phobia
3. Resistance to Change
4. More Score Cards (YUCKH)
5. Habitual thinking!

The last point, habitual thinking relates to the mindset of people owning the strategic thinking of the companies, often these decision makers like to go by the old book and avoid changes, in fear of more cost or unforeseen risks! Guys!!! Listen carefully if you suffer from this condition:

New Media is measurable! Meaning you can track user behavior and understand his “likes” and “Dislikes”; this will help you in your marketing strategy! When it comes to cost, yes it may cost some money but it is money well spent! Nothing on New Media is disposable!  All your efforts will lead to success if you employ the medium right! You just have to learn how to drive the ship and the shore will be easily reached! Doesn’t this make it invaluable!

Web Actionable Analysis helps you understand the data behind the website and make smart business decisions. Ever since business started tools to measure the efforts flooded the market, from the pencil and paper manual data analysis to the most sophisticated CRMs! So what is it about the web that scares people please help me understand! It comes with full package, a fancy business presentation closer than ever to the consumer anytime any place and a data analysis tool measuring every breath of your consumer!

Why are you putting it in the back seat when it is the future tool for absolutely everything!  It is time to switch roles!  You have to face the reality it’s no longer the age of push marketing and interrupted ads! It’s TiVo age! Consumers are in control of the information they consumes!

Don’t wait too long the train is moving, and moving fast you gotta catch up!

Goodnight!

A good read is “Road Less Travelled“

There is a significant difference between a “Website” and a “Blog”; a website can be a page or more for presenting a company or offering a service or information and news etc… in that case known as a “Portal”.

There are 152,000,000 blogs on the Internet. (SOURCE: UM, OCTOBER 2010) these blogs are about different matters, it could be a personal journal, social issues, company blog or industry focused etc… The most important thing in a blog is that it is human influenced! It is a person speaking to the mass!

Human influence; in the sense that whatever you read there is expressing a personal point of view of the “blogger”, the blog post is either information the blogger is sharing with you, like what I am doing in this post, or sharing an experience of any sort!

In our region, which is Middle East, blogs have become very popular and important, many which speak in a strong political voices, others expressing social pains and sufferings, and many also offering great opinions about specific matters, we see it from fashion, beauty, politics, art, technology, social activists and more… People are talking to people.

I mark this as a revolution of content publishing; times has changed from the age we only used to get the information from official source or media or TV programs, print magazines and news paper or radio etc… It’s the time where anyone can create a blog and start blogging and reach the whole world!

You might think of the title of this article, well I am very keen to explain that the major difference that sets websites or “portals” and blogs apart; is that the first one is mostly managed by a company and the latter is by a person. A company, however, can have a blog, where a person or more in the company manages for them; company blog must follow overall marketing strategy of the company. As far as an individual blog it might not have any strategy to follow, but a blogger has a responsibility to keep his/her readers engaged and create valuable content.

Read further…

Read Blog definition

Read a very nice article about the importance of a “Company” blog

Did you really reach 1million visitors on your blog or website in less than a year! Look closer, are you reading the web traffic reports correctly?

Before rushing into a hasty announcement about your web traffic numbers and over promising advertisers, read further to understand what really counts when it comes to web traffic.

Unless you are selling everything for $1 or giving away free iPad 2 for all then it is impossible to reach 1 million sustained actual visitors to your blog or portal in less than a year.

I admit reading reports is not easy it’s a task of a trained web analyst with the right skills to extract the numbers and bring the intelligence behind them, but I will lay out few simple facts for you to help you extract the true performance numbers on your web analytics report.

You must understand first the two main key measurements you need to focus on, they are “Hits’ and “Page Views”; website “Hits” are not to be measured by when it comes to web traffic, simply because a “Hit” on your website is the retrieval of any file, like a page or graphic and other resources such as scripts like .js and .css files etc… from a Web server, so one visitor can generate 4 hits or more at the same instant.  Therefore the hits number showing on the web analytical report is an arbitrary number reflecting on the page content. Do not get caught up in the dramatic numbers the “hits” indicate; it’s always misleading!

The real deal is the “Page View” this is your bread and butter; a “Pages view” is the single page logged on your web analytics report. One “page view can generate” many hits. Simply a “page view” is the page you requested to view; the “hit” is the page and the things it carries.

So if you are selling advertisement, then you must reveal the “page views” this is what the advertisers are interested in, and they will choose the number of impressions they needs to buy; an “impression” is made upon the deliverability of the ad banner to the end user’s request, an impression is generated every time a users interacts with your page so one user can register one or much more impressions in one session.

Now! web analytics does not end at “page views” or “impressions”, if you are managing a blog or you are an advertiser you need to look beyond the “impression”. Get bigger glasses role up your sleeves and look closer, numbers that must not go unnoticed are:

If you are site manager look out for: Unique Visitors, Loyalty (Recency, latency, Length of visit, Depth of visit), Content (types of content views).

If you are an advertiser: first you care about number of “Page Views” then you must dig into the visitor behavior performance, to make sure the site has what you need. First you must look at “Page Views”, and then comes user behavior; which consists of content viewed, loyalty of viewers and over all usage of the site, this will give you as an advertiser insights on the overall health of the “Page views” and consequently the “impressions” you are purchasing. Usually the “publisher” does not reveal that much depth stats reports not because he is holding information from you but because providing intelligent reports requires more than just reading the numbers, so compiling reports and analyzing are a costly task. But you as an advertiser can ask the publisher for performance review in any form.

The truth is Web Analytics is a science helping you in every aspect of running your website or blog, when “actionable web analysis” is practiced to the fullest potential you are able to see how your website is performing and how you can optimize it for better performance. Ideally a full time Web Analyst must be on board to cater for this task. But now from this article you got the main and key information to help you manage your blog/website on your own.

Should you worry about “clicks” or “impressions”? Something online advertisers are always concerned about. Well, you must be concerned about both.

Both actions are challenging when it comes to online ad performance, optimizing your ad to generate the maximum and targeted impressions and clicks ending to achieving the campaign goals is a daunting task.

Your advertisement performance is measured by:

• Impression
• Click/Action
• Drop off
• Bounce back

In this article I will focus on “clicks” and “Impressions” without getting too technical.  Reasons users are likely to click on an ad are:

• Relevancy
• Targeting
• Visual Expression
• Enticing & clear message

“Click” is not the end of it; the process continues after the user lands on your website, there the “click” must generate a particular conversion that you have specified, could be purchasing a product or a service, subscribing to a magazine, completing a survey and so on… so you need to bear in mind that worrying about “clicks” means worrying about conversions. To achieve conversions certain measures needs to be taken care of before launching an advertisement anywhere. On top of those measures are:

• Relevant & Consistent message: the message on the display banner must be consistent with the one on the ad landing page, often display ads lead to the homepage of a website instead of a specific landing page; so the user gets lost in the message, and finds no clear meaning to link to the message on the advertisement, this will lead to a high dropout rate. Your message must be persuasive and clear; it also must set and meet user’s expectation.
• Clear conversion path: whatever your conversion path is, you must make it clear; it is like leaving bread crumbs “or mini carrot cupcakes if your user is me” to the place you want the user to go to. Your path must be easy and leading to a result.
• Incentives: it will encourage the user to engage with your website if you offer him something, could be a discount or winning any sort of reward or a carrot cupcake!
• Ad targeting: on top of taking all the measures to optimize your ad for higher clicks and conversions, the initial placement of the advertisement is key to the success, the more targeted an ad is the better and genuine the results are.

A study by Borrell Associates forecasts 60% growth of display ads in 2011, “They’re not buying mass anymore; they’re buying niche,” said Borrell.  So the display targeted ads are the popular choice, targeting can be from geographic locations to a more sophisticated targeting, time of the day, frequency capping, content relevancy, and even more personalized targeting.

An “Impression” is not less demanding than a “click”, to convert an impression into a click also takes similar efforts, from relevancy to consistency of messages, setting up the conversion path and so on.

It is important to mention that regardless of clicks; the impression will be made on the user the instant he downloads the page and sees your ad banner. Once the impression is registered on the server it will also register in user’s brain; even if the user is not with an eidetic memory, still the visuals will be retained in his subconscious and will be triggered later in the course of online actions and experiences. There is something called the mind’s eye, the ability of our brains to retrieve a visual they have seen. So the likeliness of this user to come back and click the ad is high, if that ad really made the impression, by using the earlier measures we spoke about.

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Definitions:

CPC: click per action which in “Clicking” on the banner, this  is pricing model
CPM: Click Per impression is the Cost per thousand impressions pricing model

Impression: An online advertisement impression is a single appearance of an advertisement on a web page
Click: is the interaction with an ad banner by clicking the ad.

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Yoda and Batman have big ears and superman has the ability to listen through walls – Learn from them

Why haven’t we thought about it before? All super heroes we know have the super power of true listening and as a result have the ability to save the world! So since we do have ears by default and hearts then combine both together and there you go; you have the secret weapon of “TRUE LISTENING”!

At this age and time customers gain control over brands; they are able to turn you into  a frog or prince whenever they wish. By all means you have no choice but to stand in front of this magical power of social media channels use the power of dialogue!

Establishing dialogue plays a vital role in marketing your brand, managing and maintaining brand reputation and expanding your reach.

Steps to join the Dialogue:

1. L —- I —-S—-T—–E—-N
2. Genuinely indulge in the process of creating dialogue based content
3. Be yourself!  Be Human
4. Close all the loops
5. Give personal attention to user regardless if he is a customer or not
6. Make it part of your daily routine

I have spoken about listening in the beginning and this is where the dialogue process begins. Indulging in the process allows you to be focused and able to captivate the user through cultivated content leading to a genuine experience. Real indulgence will result in a lasting relationships with your customers, and attracting prospects. This indulgence process is exactly what the customer expects these days, they are no longer satisfied with a greeting from your floor staff, and a “thank you come again note” from your cashier staff, the customer is expecting long and lasting relationship with the brand allowing him/her to connect to you farther than the sales transaction.

Be yourself, it’s very easy to spot a fake and you know that! So why embarrass yourself! The days of polished marketing messages are over, it’s now the time to reveal the mask and speak from heart to heart!

Closing the loops comes easy when you are both true to yourself and giving personal attention to the dialogue in action, so never leave a comment not responded to, or a question not answered or a good mention of your brand not thanked and of course do not leave a negative feedback unattended too and fixed!

Social web must become part of your daily routine just as emails are! Remember if you chose to be on social web that’s it! No chance to leave or disappear! You got to keep going and growing. To manage the multi channels and monitor your channels use the available tools on the web and be proactive about it, I’ll mention few but there are more of course: HootSuite, Social Mention,  Scoutlabs. You got to spot the sentiment of the dialogue and jump in when you need to.

Remember that Social Web is an emotional ecosystem show the human side of your brand and enjoy the process. So it’s all about being human, genuine and showing true emotions.

Regional players of the luxury industry convened to discuss strategies and share views on the market at the Luxury Forum 2010, organized by Leoron Events (www.leoron.net). Stylendubai.com took on a significant role as a partner to the event and a speaker where the co-founder Dawser Al Hadidi was invited to speak about the importance of the online channel in brand marketing.

Guests to the event included key players from various facets of the luxury industry such as fashion, jewelry, hotels, travel, and automobiles, to name a few. The primary goal of the Luxury Forum was to provide a market-oriented platform for attendees to meet and discuss business ideas and practices specific to the Middle Eastern markets. Guests were able to meet, network, and build relationships with other players of the luxury market in the region. In addition, the Luxury Forum provided guests a unique opportunity to learn more about the online channel and reach luxury consumers in an innovative way.

Co-founder Dawser Al Hadidi brought to the program Case Study: “The Web: Creating the Right Dialogue to get the Consumer to Connect with Your Brand”. A subject which has been hammering on business’ heads for a while now; her presentation focused on how businesses can build dialogue via the online channel to engage consumers with their brands.

“The web has given businesses the chance to connect with their consumers at any time and place,” says Dawser. “It’s no longer about polished brand messages that go one way, it’s a two way dialogue with conversational stream that is more human than ever.”

Dawser’s presentation featured case studies of two renowned luxury fashion brands that used social media in their marketing strategies and received remarkable results. By reaching out and involving consumers in a more interactive manner, Coach was able to enhance sales and expand its market with its “Design Your Own Tote” program. Burberry also benefited in the same manner with its interactive “Art of the Trench” idea.

Using the successes of these luxury fashion giants, Dawser aptly demonstrated the need for businesses to consider integrating social media within their overall marketing strategy. “Luxury brands have been reluctant to use social media marketing for fear of losing control over their image,” she explains. “It’s time to gather their courage before it’s too late. Their existence on the social web is key to maintaining their image, and the fact that people are discussing their brand online with or without them being there is inevitable.”

Stylendubai.com serves as another successful example where brands have used the online channel to reach today’s luxury consumers. It is a unique platform allowing brands to reach their target audience in an exclusive and focused manner. In being the ultimate source for luxury fashion and regional designers; Stylendubai.com supports luxury brands in building the essential distinctive and prestigious platform associated with the luxury concept to directly connect with their consumers.

As  I was expecting Google to be intrigued by all the data posted on “Twitter”, it was not difficult for them to think of searching Tweets archive or even live Tweets search!

Google is introducing a new feature named “Google Replay” a search facility to allow users to go back and search for tweets. It will take you back to March 2006 to the beginning of Twittersphere! The engine will archive tweets and make them available for search after 6 months of their published time. The feature also provides a diagram allowing search for Tweets by hour, really cool, check the demo

This comes just in time with launching Twitter Search, a full-fledge real-time Tweet search allowing users to search by language, and a more advanced search with very smart filtering! You can even search Tweets by Attitudes, VS !

Tweetup is another engine allowing paid for search created by the old time bid-based marketplace  inventor Bill Gross. The service allows advertiser to pay per impression and calculates rankings based on an algorithm that uses data from which measure tweets influence.

“TweetUp is to Twitter what Google is to the Web,” Said (Steve Case, the former chairman of AOL Time Warner. )

Happy tweeting….