'Net Features : internet

Web Highlights from Week 16 for 'Net Pros

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

It's been quite a week - one that many likely will want to quickly forget (and it's not even over yet). But there were many developments to remember from the World Wide Web this week that may prove important to your enterprises' future 'Net success.

In this week's Weekly Web Roundup, Website Magazine has assembled some the top stories (from here at WebsiteMagazine.com and elsewhere) on digital advertising, software, social media, e-commerce and a whole lot more. Did we miss something you think is important? Let us know by sharing a comment.

Google Brings Google+ Comments to Blogger: - Users of Google's popular Blogger platform will now see direct comments from direct visitors alongside comments from people talking about that content on Google+.

Bing Integrates Pinterest into Image Search: Amid reports that Google Image Search changes in early January are driving less traffic, Bing announced that users of its image search product will featuer the Pinterest "pinit' button on every photo detail page.

IAB Updates "Quality" Guidelines: The Interactive Advertising Bureau released a new version of its Quality Assurance Guidelines or QAG (only for public comment). The self-policing framework aimed at insuring transparentcy the the quality of digital advertising between buyers and sellers.

Twitter Keyword-Based Advertising: Advertisers on the social network are now able to reach consumers based on keywords in recent tweets and the tweets that they have recently engaged with.

The Value of a Facebook Fan 2013: Syncapse released research into the average value of brand fans on Facebook and found that of the top 20 global consumer brands, the "fan value" was $174.17 U.S.

Wordpress Under Attack: Popular blogging and CMS solution Wordpress has been the subject of a recent attack, compromising thousands of site with low-level administrative credentials. Here are a few security tips to consider to protect your Wordpress deployment. Check out some Wordpress security tips here.

Intel Acquires Mashery: API management solution Mashery has reportedly been acquired by Intel. Mashery will service as a buildin gblock for an Intel suite of services - cloud services, digital storefronts, location services, network services and security - according to the announcement.

Google Affiliate Network (GAN) Retired: Google announced that it will be retiring the Google Affiliate Network and focusing on other products in the future. Note that GAN is seperate from both Adsense and DoubleClick for Publishers.

E-Commerce in China: The e-commerce market in China generated 1.3 trillion RMB ($190 billion USD) worth of transactions in 2012, according to a report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), an increase of 66.5 percent over 2011's total.

Abandonment in Online Retail: Almost three-quarters (72.5%) of shoppers have left an online store or marketplace because they couldn't easily find what they were looking for. Two-thirds (66%) terminated an online purchase because the process took too long, or was overly complicated (60.8%).

Rackspace's Openstack Expanding for Hosts, Telcos: Rackspace announced plans to build OpenStack deployments for other hosting providers and telecommunications companies in a move which many believe will position it to take on rival Amazon.

Amazon S3 Storing 2 Trillion Objects: Amazon announced that it's S3 storage service now holds more than 2 trillion objects, up from 1 trillion in June and 1.3 trillion in November.

LinkedIn Updates Apps: Professional socnet LinkedIn updated versions of its iPhone, Android and web paps to focus on content and personalization. The company also recently gave a make over to its Recruiter product.

Facebook Launches CPA for Advertisers: Facebook will soon offer advertisers the ability to promote listings on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis. The functionality measures conversions within 24 hours of FB users clicking on ads.

Online Content Provides Value to the Internet: 92 percent of 1,000 Americans surveyed agreed that free news, weather, email, blogs and video content was either somewhat or extremely important to the overall value of the Internet according to a poll commissioned by the Digital Advertising Alliance.

Email's Top Performers and Benchmarks: Silverpop relased its 2013 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark study and found that consumer product emails scored highest for open rates with a media 25.4 percent success rate.

Mzinga, ISM Deliver a Joint Customer Relations Solution

Michael Garrity — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:30:00 GMT

Customers can be hard to please. This is, of course, true in any industry, but it can be especially difficult on the Web, where face-to-face communication between companies and their patrons is virtually non-existent.

Various customer experience and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions have popped up in recent years, but even these technologies can come with their fair share of problems. Often, companies that use a variety of these solutions find that they have trouble providing a consistent customer experience across different channels.

Mzinga, a provider of social intelligence solutions, services and analytics for businesses, and ISM, a company that helps organizations plan and implement CRM and Social CRM initiatives, have joined forces to deliver a suite of social customer experience solutions intended to correct this problem. Mzinga will be combining its OmniSocial platform with ISM’s Social CRM solutions to offer a platform for users looking to implement customer-centric business strategies.

These joint solutions are designed to give organizations the ability to deploy cost-effective, user-friendly online communities to listen to market and client feedback, engage in the mutual sharing and communication of information and analyze customer satisfaction. Moreover, ISM clients will be able to utilize the OmniSocial platform to gather customer feedback and fuel customer relationships, real-time support and loyalty.

“Our mission is to help clients capture and sustain lifetime customers through proven, time-tested business strategies,” says ISM President Barton Goldenberg. “We are focused on providing our clients with customer intelligence, including experiences gathered from expressing views, preferences and recommendations in social media environments.”

Watch Out: Millennials in the Workforce

Allison Howen — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:30:00 GMT

The Internet is just as important as air, water, food and shelter, according to one in every three college students and young professionals that participated in a recent study from networking leader Cisco.

The global report focuses on the next generation of the world’s workforce – of which I am a member – and it has arrived at some interesting conclusions about millennials and our technological needs, as well as our career expectations.

The most important takeaways from the study are simple. 1) Technology is an integral part of people's lives today and also to the success of modern businesses. 2) As younger people like myself continue to enter the workforce, companies should expect and foster more Internet- and social media-savvy work environments.

Below are some of the main findings from the study:

Technological Needs

The influence of technology is seen everywhere – from millennials claiming that the Internet is as important as air, to the recent baby-turned-YouTube-phenomenon that thought a magazine was a broken iPad. With that being said, the rest of the statistics in this report emphasize just how important technology is, especially in the future.

According to the report, 64 percent of college students would choose an Internet connection over a car, while 40 percent claim that the Internet is more important than dating, going out with friends and listening to music. Furthermore, 66 percent of students and 58 percent of young workers claim that a mobile device (laptop, smartphone, tablet) is the most important technology in their lives – with 19 percent claiming that smartphones are the most important devices that are used on a daily basis.

Career Expectations

So what does this type of information mean for the future? One might conclude that the future workforce will more diligently include technology into their careers, and may not care as much about salary as prior generations have.

The study revealed that 33 percent of college students and young employees would prioritize social media freedom, device flexibility and work mobility over salary when accepting a job offer. Additionally, 40 percent of college students and 45 percent of young employees would accept a lower-paying job that has more flexibility with regard to device choice, social-media access and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility.

“These findings among college students and young employees indicate the freedom to access social media and use devices is increasingly important to the next generation of the world’s workforce – in some cases, more important than salary,” says Sheila Jordan, VP Communication and Collaboration IT, Cisco. “The results in the Cisco Connected World Technology Report demonstrate how companies need to acknowledge this fact in greater numbers, and respond accordingly – for many industries, the status quo of previous work environments is becoming a thing of the past.”

Findings also showed that 56 percent of millennials would not accept a job from a company that bans social media, or they would circumvent the policy.

And, in perhaps one of the most surprising statistics from the study, 29 percent of students believe it will be their right – more than a privilege – to be able to work remotely with a flexible schedule.

Personal Analysis

While the findings of this study can further emphasize my generation’s stereotype of being entitled to anything we want, I personally don’t know any millennial who thinks it is their “right” to be able to work remotely with a flexible schedule. Additionally, the college students and “young professionals” that I know are simply happy to have jobs in the current economy, and would not decline a job based on a social-media policy.

Hot Reads for Web Marketers

Michael Garrity — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:30:00 GMT

Labor Day is right around the corner, which means that we're about to enter the busiest time of year for Internet marketers. Summer break will be over and people will begin to flock to the Web for a variety of reasons, making this the perfect time for marketers to brush up on their mad marketing skills.

The best way to do that is to spend the upcoming long weekend curled up with a nice book, preferably outside by the grill. That is why our crack investigative team has scoured the Web to find some of the most recent books on Internet marketing. These books cover a variety of techniques, from social media to SEO to analytics and much, much more.

Regardless of your experience as an online marketer, there is always new innovation and information to be gleaned, and these books will help you improve upon what you already know. Please keep in mind that there are only two weeks left to secure a free copy of WM's own book, Web 360: The Fundamentals of Web Success, which can be obtained by ordering a professional-level subscription to Website Magazine.

Until then, here are some of the hottest reads about Internet marketing:

Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen
This book is by Dave Kerpen, who is the founder and CEO of the award-winning social media marketing firm Likeable Media. So, needless to say, he has some experience in the field. This book covers an array of topics concerning social media marketing, such as the importance of responding to comments, defining your target audience and creating a presence for your company on the social network. This is one of the most highly rated books on the subject on all of Amazon, and it was just released earlier this year. This is a great start, then, for anyone looking to quickly improve their brand's social media profile(s).

The Internet Marketing Bible by Zeke Camusio
This was a book specifically written for business owners and marketers, meaning it doesn't contain much (if any) technical jargon that could confuse unfamiliar readers. Camusio designed the book to be to-the-point, removing all of the unnecessary elements that will often clutter other books on Internet marketing and getting right into the action, providing a step-by-step tutorial on how to become successful online. It covers a range of topics, everything from SEO to Pay-Per-Click to website design, and provides the necessary tools and strategies that will help you get a better grasp on the basics of the Internet marketing world. This is a great book for marketers who are just starting out, but also an excellent resource for seasoned marketers as well.

SEO Made Simple (Second Edition): Strategies for Dominating the World's Largest Search Engine by Michael H. Fleischner
The second edition of the highly praised and very popular SEO Made Simple is an excellent revision of an already great book. The focus of this book, as the subtitle tells us, is not just how to improve your SEO, but how to conquer Google. Fleischner has been working in online marketing for over fourteen years and is considered an expert in the fields of SEO and Internet marketing. Included in this title are tips and tricks for social media SEO, using Google Places, meta tags and even a step-by-step link building guide. This new edition adds over 20 new pages of various techniques to optimize your brand or website's search results. This may be the most comprehensive book on the subject of SEO, and with the additions included in the second edition, the best keeps getting better.

Content is Cash: Leveraging Great Content and the Web for Increased Traffic, Sales, Leads and Buzz by Wendy Montes de Oca
Content may be the most overlooked aspect of Internet marketing, and this book aims to fix that. This books shows you how you can integrate and syncronize some of the best Web marketing techniques available today to, as the title states, drive traffic, sales, leads and buzz for your brand based on your preexisting content. Among the subjects covered in the book are how to use undiscovered content that is both helpful and actionable, make your content easier to find and use content to create more visibility and awareness for your brand or site. Montes de Oca has over twenty years of professional experience and is currently a marketing blogger and writer, as well as owner of the Precision Marketing and Media consulting firm.

Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day by Evgenii Prussakov
This is the affiliate marketing release by the hugely popular An Hour a Day series of Internet marketing books. This guide is meant to provide a detailed, real-world, task-based approach to developing and managing an affiliate marketing program. It covers various aspects of the affiliate business, such as market research, payment models, recruiting and more. This book is full of helpful hints, tips and techniques that can help any aspiring affiliate really get off the ground and should be considered essential reading for anyone looking to launch their own network. Plus, it's co-authored by Evgenii Prussakov, aka Geno, the founder of AM Navigator and one of the most successful and famous affiliate marketers in the world. If you're going to trust anybody, he's not a bad choice.

Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in the Digital Era by Antony Young
Unlike Likeable Social Media, this book, by Optimedia International U.S. CEO Antony Young, is about promoting your brand all over the Web, instead of just on social media sites. Of course, social media is heavily featured in Brand Media Strategy, but so are YouTube, the iPhone and other areas of the Web where your brand needs to make itself known. Young covers the future of advertising in traditional media and how it will interact and compete with digital media, as well as how to get maximum impact out of digital media portals like search, social and mobile. This book offers a look at the Internet from a media-based perspective and will help you stretch the Web to raise awareness for your brand as far as you can.

Display Ad Dictionary (Starter Guide)

Allison Howen — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:30:00 GMT

Keeping track of jargon can be overwhelming in any industry, but this is especially true in the case of Internet advertising. Understanding the current definition of important terminology can arguably make a big difference in ad-campaign performance. The following is an introduction, a starter guide to understanding traditional advertising formats and sizes and the terms you'll encounter related to display advertising, which are important to have as a foundation for future success.

Traditional Advertising

Traditional online advertising can be seen on almost all informational websites today, and the “must know” terms have become commonplace in our industry language. Terms related to performance and format are commonly discussed. While learning these terms is important and helpful to those just starting out in the Internet business world, a regular refresher for the Internet’s old pros is also recommended.

Online ads come in many different sizes — from skyscraper and leaderboard ads to button and tile ads. Knowing which ad formats achieve the best performance (e.g. highest impressions) is fundamental to the success of ad campaigns. Three top-performing ads that every savvy website owner should be familiar with are the leaderboard (728x90), skyscraper (120x600) and boombox ads (336x280). Historically, larger ad formats have led to more clicks, and although smaller ads can also be beneficial as a means to drive awareness, these three typically achieve the best results.

Aside from different sizes, ads also come in different formats, such as a text ads and standard graphic display ads, or display ads. A text ad, popularized by contextual advertising programs such as Google's Adsense, is pretty self-explanatory. However, a standard display ad (see example below) is the stepping stone between text ads and modern ads. These ads usually contain text and a graphic or logo that is created (designed) in formats such as .jpg, .gif, or .swf. Additionally, many display ads currently feautre flash animation/interaction. The deployment and optimization of display advertising has created a much more exciting landscape for onlookers with the introduction of both behavioral and geographic targeting.

Lastly, understanding performance metrics such as click through rate (CTR) is important for anybody involved with traditional online advertising. CTR is defined as the ratio of clicks to the number of ad impressions that are displayed. Simply put, higher click through rates can result in more visits to product website landing pages.

Traditional display advertising has served us well, but the online advertising industry is evolving rapidly.

The Old Standyby: The 468x60

Advertising Today

The online display ads consumers encounter today, commonly referred to as rich media ads, are far more interactive, visually appealing and some would even argue more user-friendly than their traditional counterparts. The result, thanks to the much-improved technologies that support the development, deployment and optimization of these ads, is an experience that resonates with consumers and which is profitable for publishers.

Some of the most notable new ad formats originated from the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Rising Star competition. A few formats that advertisers should get to know, and that will likely become mainstream in publishers' inventory over the next few years, include the billboard, pushdown and slider ad.

The billboard ad (IMAGE A - below) was created by Google. It is very large and an example is visable at the top of YouTube. Often this type of ad shows movie trailers, but another important feature is the ability for consumers to dismiss the ad by closing it in the upper right-hand corner.

The pushdown ad (IMAGE B - below), created by Pictela, is interactive and contains video. It is also social-media friendly, by giving the option to share the ad directly onto Facebook and Twitter.

Genex created the slider ad (IMAGE C - below). This ad is initially smaller than the rest. It pops up in a small strip from the bottom; however, when it is clicked on— a full size interactive ad appears.

So Much More to Learn!

The rise of rich media is introducing new terminology into our Internet business lexicon. Below are some "must know" terms for monitoring performance when advertising today.

Interactions – The number of times a user interacts with a rich media ad. Interactions include when a user mouses over an ad for one continuous second, clicks an exit link, makes the ad display into full-screen mode or expands the ad.

Interaction Rate – The ratio of rich media ad interactions to the number of rich media ad impressions that are displayed.

Average Interaction Time – A self explanatory definition, the average amount of time (seconds) that a user interacts with a rich media ad, with multiple interaction times being combined together.

Expansion Rate – The ratio of rich media ad expansion to the number of rich media expanding ad impressions displayed. Expansions are counted when a user expands an ad by mousing over or clicking it.

Average Expanding Time – The average amount of time (seconds) that an expanding ad is viewed in its expanded state. Expansion time is capped at four minutes in order to prevent imprecise results.

Average Display Time – The average amount of time (seconds) that a rich media ad is displayed to users

Video Plays – The number of times a video is started to play.

Video Complete Rate – The number of times a video is completely watched divided by the number of times the video is played.

IMAGE A

IMAGE B

IMAGE C

Firms at Risk; Web Professionals Take Note

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:46:00 GMT

A new Fasthosts Internet Ltd survey released earlier this month found that many firms do not have arrangements in place to retain basic control or in some cases even legal ownership of their website and domains because of over-reliance on the IT or web consultants who look after their website.

Ever broadening consumer expectations for the web has led more firms than ever (43%) to opt for using the services of skilled web professionals to help create and maintain their website. 92% of these companies rate their external web consultants positively, with 38% reporting a 'good' return on investment. However, the Fasthosts 'SME & the Web' study found that many UK companies may be risking revenue and reputation as a result of weaknesses in their workflows with such third parties.

Additional insights from the study include:

- During the past 2 years, 1 in 4 firms paying for an external web professional have had their website off-line as a result of a problem related to the other party.

- 1 in 5 businesses incurred delays to projects caused by their external partner, and 17% reported losses of both staff time and sales revenue over £1000 as a result. For 14% of respondents, an external advisor or agency had gone out of business.

- In the event of an issue with their external partner, 56% of firms have no way of making any changes or additions to their website themselves and 80% have no facility for switching their website on/off independently. For these businesses, the link to their external web professional is a single point of failure in their online presence.

- Whilst UK firms invest millions in professional web design each year, 70% of those using a web designer do not retain a back-up copy of their website themselves.

"For many firms, using external web professionals is a very sensible and rewarding option. However, as external parties can come and go, it is vital that businesses protect themselves from the potential disruption, losses and reputation damage that an off-line or out-of-date website can cause,” said Steve Holford, Marketing Director, Fasthosts Internet Ltd.

Wordpress in the PeoplePond

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:15:00 GMT

PeoplePond, a service which specializes in providing search engine optimized (SEO) profiles and online identity verification services for individuals, announced a PeoplePond WordPress plugin is now available. If you think it a pain to manage the personal or team profile information you feature on your Wordpress blog - this one's for you.

The plugin delivers an 'About Me' biography, image and links to the individual's social media websites directly from their PeoplePond account and uses the information to build an continually updated 'About' page. Post-install, the plugin will reflect the latest information from the assigned PeoplePond profile, allowing users to keep several websites current, while only making the change on one PeoplePond profile. Sounds simple enough.

The PeoplePond WordPress Plugin can be downloaded for free. Test it out and let us know what you think by commenting below!

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