Union Street MediaReal Estate and Ecommerce Web Design

eMarketer recently released a report on marketing to social networks that have a mobile component (like that little m.myspace.com or what-have-you). This appears to be in line with other reports on mobile usage and where the audience goes there go the marketers. Here’s a pullquote from Debra Aho Williamson, one of the report’s authors:

It goes beyond simply linking people with digital content by adding the immediacy of sharing with friends—a very powerful marketing proposition.

So here we have the mashup of two pretty exciting opportunites: social network marketing and mobile technology. Since people like to be “social” spontaneously, combining a pervasive technology like mobile phones/internet devices is like combining peanut butter and chocolate, or whatever you like to combine.

Action? John du Pre Gauntt, another of the report’s authors has this to say:

Marketers are trying to determine which digital marketing techniques and ad units are relevant for the mobile social networking environment.

What tools and techniques are you using or researching?

Scott Nellé, one of our developers, just shot this over to me via Adium. It just goes to show that the best laid plans…

Enjoy.

Google Street View: 0

Plastic Bag: 1

Some of you may know that my Mother, Peggy Smith, is one of our clients. She recently redesigned her site and purchased the software upgrade with email notification. Over dinner one evening she mentioned she was sending her buyers new listings through the MLS web site rather than her own. It occurred to me that she could use her site’s own email notification software and benefit from the built-in branding it provides.

I then realized she’s probably not alone; the user registration is, after all, geared towards the site visitor. However, it could just as easily be used to the agent’s advantage for new leads that come from other sources.

My Advice:

When you get a new lead, ask for the appropriate search criteria and an email address. That is all you need to create a new account!
(more…)

A lot of useful demographic info on the use of mobile phones by Americans. Including insight along ethnicity, age and socio-economic factors.

Here’s the chart on what sort of data services people are using:

One of the insightful bits of sleuthing our friends at the Pew Research Center did was to examine “internet usage away from home or work.” They asked both two questions: the first was a “how often do you” style question and then the remaining was a more specific “in the past 12 months, have you” style question. Combining these results they discovered “that nearly two-thirds (64%) of internet users have gone online away from home or work, which could include wired access at libraries or in hotel rooms.”

They also asked about specific technologies used away from home: PDAs, wireless laptops, cell phones to tease out how many used wireless technology (as opposed to logging into a public terminal at a library, for example). Here’s what they come up with (emphasis mine): “41% of all Americans who have logged on wirelessly away from home” have done so with a PDA, wireless laptop or cell phone.

What sort of actions could you take to improve your business based on this information?

[Please note, as this conversation has the tendency to get emotional and very technical at the same time, I would like to state up front that I do not take any specific or direct side in the discussion.

The other is more of a thinking and strategic issue surrounding online marketing, interlocking ecosystems of information and reputation management. This is where a lot of the heated discussions take place. While you read them here, however, please try to look beyond the specific companies and personalities and consider the systems (personal, technological and economic) involved and how they rely on each other.]

As I recently let loose in Twitter, there’s an entire education to be had in the comment thread on Galen Ward’s post about Trulia and their linking policy over at the Bloodhound Blog. This post was created to back up that statement. Consider this a pivot-table applied to qualitative data.

I’ve prepared a syllabus for you. Please note that not all of the answers to the exam questions will be found directly in the comment threads, but enough clues for you to determine the majority of the answers are present. Some questions (particularly in the second semester) will require creative thinking and problem solving extending beyond the comment thread on the Ward’s post. Outside resources are encouraged in all semesters.

• The first semester is a practical one, with hands-on worthwhile info on which you may be able to act. There are a few though-pieces in there, but it is primarily a “lab” class.
• The second semester is more of a seminar where you examine a controversial issue not for it’s controversy but for its structure.
• A laid back summer session has been assigned as well.

Enjoy. And if you post your answers to the exams publicly, let me know so I can send you a certificate of some sort.

(more…)

Just some small admin stuff, but I moved the Site Optimization Series table of contents to a page. You’ll now be able to access those posts directly from the sidebar.