Marketing

The MMA just released a 124 page study on the economic impact that mobile marketing is having on the United States. To save you the effort of reading a 124 page research paper, we gathered important... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more. ]]

One of the great truths of social media is that moms like to share and they’re powerful influencers when they get behind (or are annoyed by) a brand. We know it’s true but we keep studying it to make sure the world hasn’t slipped sideways. The latest fact checkers are ShareThis and Digitas. They surveyed 200,000 moms (that’s a nice sampling, don’t you think?) to find out how they interact with social. The packed their results into a slide show called “Wired for Sharing” and now I’d like to share a couple of key slides. Think moms are all about Facebook? Have a look at this: 56% of the general population shares on Facebook but for moms, that same percentage is split between Facebook and Pinterest. I knew Pinterest was hot but I was surprised to see it closing in on Facebook. Moms also like StumbleUpon more than the average bear. Twitter, email, Reddit, and Tumblr just don’t get no respect. Tumblr is traditionally a playground for the young – is that because moms aren’t there or is it that moms aren’t there because it skews young? What’s missing from this list is Instagram. That also traditionally skews young, so perhaps it came in lower than 1% and thus didn’t make the chart. Next, it’s all about the when. After seeing this, I’m going to shift my posting times for sure. We often see studies about how often people check social media first thing in the morning. Well, the might be checking but mom isn’t sharing until later in the afternoon. Peak time is 3:00 pm. For the average Joe, 8:00 in the evening is prime time. Finally, here’s one I’ve never seen before. What kinds of content is mom most likely to share? A third of the content that moms share is either parenting-related (18 percent) or focused on TV and movies (15 percent). I’m not so big on the parenting side, but I’m a win when it comes to TV. Technology comes in at only 10% then we see a huge drop for topics such as sports, music, travel, even pets. Beauty is on the bottom tier with only 2%. I’m surprised by that. After looking at these charts, do you need to make a change? If you’re doing all your social media posting in the morning, you’re probably missing out. And no matter what your brand is, find a way to work a TV or movie Tweet into your feed. That might be all it takes to get noticed.

In order to guarantee the success of your online business, there are certain things that you need to invest some time and effort in doing. One of these is link building. This is the process of improving the link popularity of your site and it can be achieved through a number of ways such as through article promotion, blog reviews, directory submissions, social bookmarking, and link exchange programs just to mention a few. No matter what technique you use to achieve link building, there are numerous benefits that it can accrue for your business. Some of the most important benefits that online businesses can achieve through link building include: 1. Search engine results enhancement – one of the most important ways to achieve online success is by ensuring that your site is well optimized for the search engines, which are the number one source of organic Internet traffic. Of all the techniques that can be used for SEO, link building has been found to be one of the most effective. In fact, sites that implement good link building practices usually achieve SEO results such as higher SERP rankings within a very short time. This in turn results to better exposure in search engines, which could lead to more traffic. 2. Better publicity for your website – it is said that the act of website linking can be compared to producing an industry specific press release. By placing your links in sites that are niche related you get the chance to showcase your goods or services and thus increase the chance of people doing business with you. 3. Better brand awareness – for your business to be successful, your name must be known by a large number of people. This is due to the fact that the more people become aware of your brand name and your products and services, the easier it is for them to trust you and this eventually improves the click through ratio of your links. 4. More traffic – link building can be thought of as opening up a remote area by building multiple roads leading to it. The better the road network to a city or a town, the more the likelihood of a larger population of people moving into the town. Web site linking therefore, allows you to attract more traffic to your business site. When done properly and niche links are generated, most of these traffic will be targeted traffic, which is essential in improving your website’s conversion rate and the overall ROI of your business.

It doesn’t look like Yahoo is putting the breaks on its recent appetite for big acquisitions. In fact, published reports Friday indicate that Yahoo – which just acquired Tumblr for a cool $1.1 billion – is planning to make an offer for Hulu, the hugely popular online video service. The offer, in fact, may have already been made. If so, Yahoo is joining the likes of Directv, William Morris Endeavor, Time Warner Cable, and The Chernin Group in an effort to acquire Hulu, which is owned by Walt Disney, News Corp., and Comcast. Yahoo’s interest in Hulu was reportedly intensified after Marissa Mayer’s company fell short of acquiring a majority stake in video site Dailymotion. Hulu hasn’t had a formal M&A process, but had asked prospective bidders to make an offer by Wednesday. That deadline apparently isn’t a firm one, so it’s worth wondering if the field will grow more crowded before this over. According to AllThingsD, it isn’t known how much Hulu is asking for, but two years ago, “Hulu’s owners put the company up for sale and were looking for a bid of at least $2 billion.”

Job-hopping might ruffle a corporation's feathers, but employers need to accept it's a way of life.Millennials have disrupted the labor market, making it acceptable to job hop and complete "tours of duty" until a better offer comes along. In the process, company loyalty has become a thing of the past, and everyone needs to accept it, say Chris Yeh and Ben Casnocha in the Harvard Business Review. We can no longer believe in "this idea that people would go to college, study hard, get a degree, land an entry-level job at a big, stable company." Nor can we believe in the old 20th century compact of employees slowly working their way up the ladder. The modern compact is based on alliance. "The employer is saying, 'Hey, make my company more valuable, and I'll make you more valuable,'" say the authors. "Even if this is not a relationship that's going to last for an entire lifetime, this is a relationship that is going to be beneficial to both of us during the time it exists and even afterwards."With loyalty no longer a part of the equation, the modern workplace isn't all that different from an entrepreneur. Uncertainty and volatility is part of the game. There's no guarantee of a promotion or pay raise. In a way, that's a good thing. "If someone can't be entrepreneurial in their own career, if someone's unwilling to take risks in their career, if someone's not keen on remaining agile and adaptive in their own career, how could you possibly expect them to bring to bear those strengths, those traits at your company?" say the authors. To attract and retain the best employees, companies should be more proactive and willing to invest in their workers' future. What's more, they should take a chance on someone who's willing to hustle to get ahead.Ask not what you can do for your bottom line, say the authors, but what you can do for your employee.

Inc. Magazine's June issue launches a new, more visual design and a new, more logical navigation. Plus, there's a new way to experience Inc. beyond the page.

Judge Denise Cote hinted Thursday that the U.S Department of Justice may have the evidence it needs to prove that Apple was involved in an elaborate eBook price fixing scheme. In an unusual move before a trial, a federal judge expressed a tentative view that the U.S. Justice Department will be able to show evidence that Apple Inc engaged in a conspiracy with publishers to increase e-book prices. According to Reuters, Judge Cote thinks Apple will be exposed as a party to this lingering saga, which has already claimed millions in settlement fees and penalties from many of publishing’s biggest names and alleged co-conspirators. “I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that,” Cote said. Orin Snyder, a lawyer for Apple, responded to the claim by saying: “We strongly disagree with the court’s preliminary statements about the case today.” The trial is scheduled to begin June 3rd.

Blogger and career coach Penelope Trunk gives her spin on Eleanor Roosevelt's classic advice to do one thing every day that scares you.Do one thing every day that scares you; that was Eleanor Roosevelt's advice. The idea being that the more you venture outside your comfort zone, the more you will learn and grow from the unexpected.In a recent post, blogger and career coach Penelope Trunk outlines the merits of putting yourself in uncomfortable situations when it comes to your career. Her best advice for stretching the confines of your professional safety net? Work with people you don't like.Here are three great reasons to make your collaborators people who scare you (at least a little bit).Great minds don't think alike.You hear this all the time, right? Partner with people who supplement your skills and perspective. Hiring or collaborating with people who think like you will only guarentee that you have more of the ideas and thoughts that you were naturally inclined to generate. Instead of hiring more people who are good at what you are good at, Trunk writes, consider hiring those with a completely new skill set and perspective."This means that if you’re good with people, you need to work with someone who is terrible with people. If you’re good with numbers, you should work with someone who is terrible with numbers," she writes.Homogeneity is the opposite of innovation.In addition to surrounding yourself with employees and collaborators who compliment your skills, writes Trunk, you have to give them the freedom and tools to do what they're meant to: Rock the boat."One of my most successful attempts at being an employee was when I worked for a CEO who was a frat boy. He was still wearing his fraternity sweatshirts 10 years out of college," writes Trunk. But he gave her the freedom and tools to fill the role of "intellect in the company" she explains--and that kind of embrace of alternative viewpoints is exactly what good bosses do."They needed me a lot because my way of thinking was so different from theirs. Most of the great ideas we came up with were a combination of my ability to see the big picture and their ability to make my ideas fun and saleable," Trunk writes.People fear what they don't understand.Don't shy away from risky hires, Trunk advises. This doesn't mean hiring someone totally unqualified for the position, just giving stereotypically scary groups--like Millennials--the benefit of the doubt. Or hiring talented people from surprising backgrounds."I was coaching this woman who is a court reporter, but the court reporter business is going to India and she doesn’t know what to do. Of course, I hired her to write while I dictate blog posts," writes Trunk. She explains that this hiring risk led to some personal risks in the way she blogs--and ultimately a better product."I would never have dreamed of hiring a court reporter, but when you pair yourself with someone you never dreamed of pairing yourself with, you do things that you never dreamed you were able to do," she writes. "She can write so fast that we can actually get five posts done in one hour, but only if I’m focused. So what ends up happening is I get really nervous before our scheduled call. I have to prepare, and it means I have to commit to posts that I think I’m going to write, but maybe I don’t want to write."

A new study from Applifier shows that the number one way mobile game players find the games they like is through good old fashioned word of mouth. As you might expect, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean in-person discussion about mobile games. Social media chatter, for example, counts as a form of digital world of mouth… and it’s very, very effective. All told, 36% of users reported that hearing from a friend or family member was a major source of games. Additionally, 25% of users said actually seeing a friend or family member play a game was one way they found out about their favorites. Reading user reviews was the primary way in which gamers discovered new must-have games. Not surprisingly, video is having a huge impact on game discovery. 70% of users polled by Applifier say that they watched online video about mobile games in the last week and 45% of users said that watching the video inspired them to download a game shortly thereafter. To read the interesting new report in full, click here.

Mobile marketing will continue to engender new and expanded employment opportunities for professionals in the future. A recent study released by the Mobile Marketing Association found that mobile marketing accounted for $139 billion in output in 2012. Over the next five years, this figure is set to “skyrocket,” the MMA says, to $400 billion representing an annual growth rate of 52 per cent. Perhaps just as importantly, mobile-based advertising/marketing will add an estimated 1.4 million jobs in the United States by 2015. The data was reported in the MMA Mobile Marketing Economic Impact Study, commissioned by the MMA. “Mobile technology has had an incredible impact, not only on the way that we communicate with one another, but on how businesses market themselves to customers,” Harrison Barnes, CEO of Hound.com, said in response to the recent survey results. “As more and more people use their phones to do what they used to do on their desktop computers, it’s fundamentally changing the marketing industry and the type of experience and technical skills that advertising agencies look for in employers.” The MMA says its “MMA Mobile Marketing Economic Impact Study” is the first objective and comprehensive overview of U.S. economic performance across the mobile marketing industry. Research was conducted by Peter A. Johnson, Ph.D., and Joseph Plummer, Ph.D., of mLightenment.