SEO Blog

What is Social Media?  According to Wikipedia, social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.  Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).

Three out of every four Americans access the internet, and they love sharing their ideas, photos, videos, likes and dislikes with others.  Social media allows businesses to use the internet to reach a larger range of consumers easier than ever.  Social media has grown drastically over the past few years, and is a highly popular medium.  There are several forms of social media, including internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures, and videos.

Some Stats:

• There are 100 million videos on YouTube and people spend an average of 273.1 minutes each month watching them
• There are 4 million articles in Wikipedia
• There are 200 million blogs and 346 million people read them
• There are 1 billion tweets on twitter
• 200 million people are on FaceBook each month and add 700 million photos monthly
• 57% of internet users have joined social networks
• 93% of Americans expect companies to have a social media presence.

Some popular Social Media Sites:

Facebook                                     Snapfish

Linkedln                                       Digg   

You Tube                                     Metacafe

Twitter                                        Stumbleupon

My Space                                     Buzznet

Photobucket                                Propeller

Flickr                                          Scribd

Should I consider Social Media as part of my integrated marketing strategy?

A third more fortune 500 companies used social media last year than in 2008, and this percentage is even higher among smaller companies.  With the constant rise in social media users, companies are finding a huge advantage in using this marketing tool.  Social Media can allow you to connect to and stay in touch with your consumer, along with promoting your business.

This article was written by Carolyn Berger, Director of Marketing and Operations at lodestar marketing group.  If you have questions related to Social Media or how to improve your online marketing, please contact lodestar at digitalmarketing@lodestarmg.com.

What is Mobile Marketing?

According to Wikipedia:

Mobile Marketing is a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.

There are four common forms of Mobile Marketing:

1.      SMS and MMS

SMS is a standard for telephony messaging systems that allows sending messages between mobile devices that consist of text-only content in a short (up to 160 characters) message (SMS, TXT).

 MMS is a standard for messaging systems that enable sending messages that include multimedia objects (images, audio, video, rich text). May or may not include normal text.

2.      Mobile Web

Mobile Web is a channel for delivery of web content that offers and formats content according to the mobile context. Mobile context is characterized by the nature of user information needs (updating blog, searching for restaurant), basic mobile phone characteristics (screen size, keypad input), and special capabilities (connection type, location).

3.      Applications

Software or content that consumers download to or find pre-installed on their mobile phone and then resides on the phone. Examples include applications such as games, news readers and lifestyle tools. Downloads are accessible only to consumers with appropriate mobile phones and data plans.

4.      Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising is a form of advertising via mobile (wireless) phones or other mobile devices.  These can take the form of web banners  (top of screen ) or web posters (bottom of screen) and other content similar to online advertising.

A few Stats:

Did you know that mobile phones will overtake PCs as the dominant web access device worldwide by 2013?  As of 2009, there are as many as 4.6 billion mobile phones compared to 1.1 billion PCs.  In fact, 18 to 24 year olds prefer mobile phones over PCs.  Mobile phone users access a variety of content including music videos, TV shows, movie trailers, weather, and news.  There are 42% more text messages than actual phone calls today. Nielsen Telecom Practice Group, 2009

A FEW FACTS FROM THE MOBILE MARKETING ASSOCIATION:

• SMS text messaging is the most widely used data application on the planet, with 2.4 billion active users.
• SMS adoption has a higher penetration rate in Europe and Asia than in the U.S., though U.S. adoption continues to increase.
• SMS adoption has a higher penetration rate in Europe and Asia than in the U.S., though U.S. adoption continues to increase.
• According to the GSM Association, four mobile phones are sold for every PC that is sold.
• It’s not unusual to see a nomadic Maasai warrior in Kenya with a cell phone on his belt.

Will mobile users remember my marketing messages? 

Surveys show user awareness of mobile marketing tactics is as high as 70 percent, and continues to grow.  Nearly 80% of marketing executives feel that mobile marketing effectiveness will continue to grow over the next year compared to less than 20% that feel traditional marketing effectiveness will improve.

Should I consider Mobile Marketing as part of my integrated marketing strategy? 

That depends.  Many companies are rushing to this new media as mobile phones outnumber TV sets by over 3 to 1, PC based internet users by over 4 to 1, and the total laptop and desktop PC population by nearly 5 to 1.  Currently only 1% of the market is using mobile marketing but that is sure to change.

Want to learn more?

The Mobile Marketing Association has some great resources to learn more about mobile marketing including best practices and common terms.  You can access them at the links below:

Mobile Marketing Glossary: http://mmaglobal.com/uploads/glossary.pdf

Mobile Marketing Tips: http://mmaglobal.com/files/file/Mobile_Media_12-11aSP%20ONLINE%20VERSION.pdf

This article was written by Sarah Schwitters, CMO of lodestar marketing group.  If you have questions related to Mobile Marketing or how to improve your online marketing, please contact Sarah Schwitters at sarah@lodestarmg.com.