Can Twitter Help Your Business?

Sure, it can!

Twitter is actually an easy, fast, and affordable way to promote your business.

Come on…you know you’ve created a Twitter account at some point and never used it for the fact that you are too busy, but Twitter can actually provide a lot of benefits for your business:

- You can gain new customers

- Interact with “followers” (customers or people that like your products/services)

- Announce new products/services

- Announce specials and/or sales that are exclusive to your “followers”

- Increase customer loyalty

- Receive customer feedback

In 2008, 3.8% of adults were registered users on Twitter… and 11.1% in 2009. 2010 is projected to increase, and 26.6% of adults will be using Twitter by the end of the year (eMarketer.com). This growth can probably correlate to the increase in smartphone users who can now access Twitter via text message, mobile apps, and various desktop applications.

You can be a successful Twitterer by posting a variety of weekly specials, for example, only available to your Twitter followers. Since account creation and status updates are easy, it will only take you a few seconds.

Here are some steps to take that can help your Twitter success:

• Add a link to your Twitter account on your company’s homepage (somewhere prominent)
• Make sure all your employees are involved
• Designate one person that will be updating your Twitter account
• Actively promote your Twitter account
• Make it known on your website and Twitter profile that all followers receive exclusive coupons/discounts/breaking news/etc.

Web Marketing Association's IAC Awards

The Web Marketing Association's IAC Awards are the first and only industry-based advertising award competition dedicated exclusively to online advertising. It is easy to enter your best work at http://www.iacaward.org/, but the deadline for entry is January 29, 2010. Entries will be judged on creativity, innovation, impact, design, copywriting, and use of the medium.

Find out how you can submit an entry below...

Entering is easy. Entries are submitted online by logging in to your existing Nominator Account. If you are new to the IAC Awards, you can create a New Nominator Account here. Upload your creative onto an html page and you are ready to win.

Awards will be presented within each of the industry categories and advertising formats such as:

• online ad (including banner, pop-up or interstitial)

• rich media online ad

• email message

• online newsletter campaign

• Website page (including microsites and landing pages)

• integrated ad campaign

• Mobile Apps (NEW for 2010)

• Online video (NEW for 2010)

• ads the client did not choose

Best of Show awards for each format will be selected from among the industry winners. Ads eligible for entry in the competition must have run during the period from January 1, 2009 through January 29, 2010.

The Top Agency Award will be given to the agency who wins the most awards in the 2010 IAC Awards. Last year, Biggs Gilmore of Kalamazoo, MI was recognized with the 2009 Top Agency Award, winning 19 IAC Awards.

Winning an Internet Advertising Competition award is a great way to show clients and senior management the excellence of your work - and it won't hurt the moral in the office either!

Don't wait! Enter your best online advertising and win the recognition you deserve!

Enter today at http://www.iacaward.org/.

Increase in Online Coupons

Consumers love getting deals…in fact, most people will be more inclined to buy something from you if they feel that your coupons are worth using, even if they weren’t looking to spend any money.

Has your company thought about submitting coupons to coupon sites?

Online coupons started becoming extremely popular during the 2008 holiday season, and the economic downturn only increased their popularity since then.

In a study by comScore, coupon sites were the 3rd fasting growing category of sites in November 2009. Unique visits increased 33% month over month to 37.5 million. Predictions show that the total value of online coupons redeemed is going to triple over the next several years to $22 billion in 2014!

They also predict nearly $2.4 billion in mobile coupon transactions by 2013, up from just $5 million in 2009.

Can Social Media Help Your Business?

The top social media networks are Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube. Although maintaining your social network can be time-consuming, especially if you have multiple accounts, it has shown to provide benefits for your business.

A major benefit that social networking can provide is more leads. According to the “Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010,” lead generation is the biggest benefit of social networking for US small businesses. The more your business appears on the Internet, the larger you can extend your reach. Anyone stumbling upon your social network, from your Twitter account or even your Facebook page, can learn about your business; since it’s all intertwined.

It’s different than just having a website. A website can’t link and socialize with the networking community. A social media network, however, allows you to create a page specifically for your business and allows you to interact with customers, business partners, other vendors, etc. As we know, interaction with customers and/or prospects is key. It shows that they will be working with real humans, and not “robots”… this leaves a lasting impression and a good reputation for your business!

A simple post on your Twitter account about a new special you are offering can draw in lots curious consumers!

Ad Spending Predictions

Many companies are switching their traditional ad spending to online ad spending.

According to Forrester Research, 59% of US marketers are increasing their budgets for online marketing and decreasing their budgets for traditional advertising. Online ad spending is projected to increase about 5.5% next year… with banner ads growing 3.3% and online videos growing 40%!

In a study done by eMarketer in July 2009, the projection for the next 12 months of traditional advertising spending will decrease 7.9%. With online ad spending increasing 5.5% and traditional ad spending decreasing 7.9%, we can’t even imagine how much of an increase there will be in 5 or 10 years! This is why it is so important to become established now before the internet becomes flooded. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to establish your business on the internet.

According to Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer,

"While media dollars have imploded, media consumption will continue to explode. Due to increasingly empowered consumers and further advances in technology, look for media to become more:

• Distributed—the same content will pop up in multiple locations, formats and channels.

• Personalized—media will be tailored to reflect what consumers have watched, read, experienced and shared.

• Contextualized—when and where consumers get their information will dictate its content and format, and that, in turn, will shape how they interact with and share it.

Each of these trends will lead to more precise targeting."

Google Updates Personalized Search

Google has updated the way they display personalized search results. When you use Google search, you will see results that have a higher relevancy to you…instead of relevancy for the average person.

"For example, since I always search for [food] and often click on results from epicurious.com, Google might rank epicurious.com higher on the results page the next time I look for recipes," Google explains in a blog post on the subject. "Other times, when I'm looking for news about Cornell University's sports teams, I search for [big red]. Because I frequently click on www.cornellbigred.com, Google might show me this result first, instead of the Big Red soda company or others."

"This addition enables us to customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser," Google says. "It's completely separate from your Google Account and Web History (which are only available to signed-in users). You'll know when we customize results because a 'View customizations' link will appear on the top right of the search results page. Clicking the link will let you see how we've customized your results and also let you turn off this type of customization."

What does this mean to SEO? Google is always making changes to their search results and there are always ways to adapt. Search engine optimization will remain the same, but you’ll have to pay greater focus to your target audience.

"There is going to be the same number of searches and the same number of clicks to content," he says. "So basically, personalization in search will just be dividing up the traffic pie more" says CEO of Web Pro News. "This could make people think more about the long tail instead of just focusing on their top key words that they would like to rank for," he adds.

Google Update in Google Webmaster Tools

Google has updated their keyword tool with a new interface that promises to update once a day. This keyword tool, which is found when logged into your webmasters account, tracks keywords that your website is getting visits for. See below for a screenshot of the new interface that shows a significance bar:

Google says…

"The significance column compares the frequency of a keyword to the frequency of the most popular keyword on your site. When you click on a keyword to view more details, you will get a list of up to 10 URLs which contain that keyword. This will be really useful when you re-implement your site on a new technology framework, or need to identify which URLs may have been hacked."

You should log into your Webmaster Tools account daily or weekly and track your significance levels for certain keywords. If you are getting visits from keywords that have no relevance to your site, you can scan your site for these words and edit them. If you see keywords that have a high significance level you can also work to improve your search engine optimization with these words.

If you don’t have a Google Webmaster Tools account, you can sign up here.

Online Coupons Improve Email Open Rates

Everyone is looking for a deal these days. Shoppers will go buy something just because they “got a deal.”

Using coupons as leverage for customers to open and view your emails is what a lot companies are engaging in.

Making it known in your subject header that the recipient can receive 20% off their purchase will give them an incentive to open your email. Over two-thirds of American households use coupons and this has grown 46% in the past three years, according to Experian.

There is a big difference in open rates for emails that have coupons and emails that do not. According to Experian open rates of about 24% to 25% for coupon emails dropped to only 16% to 18% for non-coupon emails.

“Understanding the purchase drivers and triggers along with the channel preferences of unique customers is an essential element in building loyalty and engagement. Today’s consumers are multi-channel and marketers that acknowledge this will see greater return on their marketing spend,” said Matt Seeley, president of Experian Marketing Services’ Platforms division.

How Fast Does Your Website Load?

Google has been talking about the importance of load time on websites --- if your website loads fast you may soon have an advantage in search rankings.

Load time doesn’t have an impact yet…however, speed may soon become a ranking factor!

In an interview with a software engineer at Google, Matt Cutts, he stated:

"Historically, we haven't had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast… It should be a good experience, and so it's sort of fair to say that if you're a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don't want that as much."

"I think a lot of people in 2010 are going to be thinking more about 'how do I have my site be fast,' how do I have it be rich without writing a bunch of custom javascript?'"

If you have 10 different widgets on your site pulling data from all different sources, maybe it’s time you thought about “cleaning up” your site a little… it’s safe to assume load-time will become a factor in where you’re listed in the search engines. If your site loads slowly, your bounce rate will increase because as soon as someone enters your site and has to wait more than 5 seconds to load, they’ll hit the back button immediately --- and move onto your competitors!

Increase in US Interactive Marketing Spending

According to Forrester Research, US interactive marketing spending is projected to have a 17% compound annual growth rate for the next 5 years.

Search engine marketing is currently at $15,393 million which is 12% of total ad spending. In 2014 search engine marketing is projected to be at $31,588 million or 21% of total ad spending. Search engine marketing makes up more than one-half of all interactive marketing spending and will remain the largest sector in interactive marketing.

This trend isn’t only apparent in the US. In the UK, search engine marketing makes up a majority of the UK’s online advertising spending.

Email Marketing has also become very popular. Although email marketing sometimes has a bad name due to all the spammers out there, total spending is also projected to grow within the next 5 years.