Online ad boosts Twitter followers 69%: 4 Steps
SUMMARY: Twitter is fast rising in public awareness — but is the public aware of your Twitter feed?
Find out how Intuit’s TurboTax lifted their number of Twitter followers 69% with an ad that incorporated their “tweets.” Includes tips on audience targeting and creative samples of the ads.
CHALLENGE
Toward the end of 2008, Seth Greenberg, Director, Online Advertising and Internet Media, Inuit, and his team established Twitter feeds for several of Intuit’s brands. Intuit provides business and financial management software that include the brands Quicken, QuickBooks, TurboTax, and others.
Since Twitter attracts a range of consumers, the team saw the channel as a good fit for their consumer-focused tax preparation product, TurboTax. They wanted TurboTax to capture some attention during Twitter’s recent surge in traffic. Twitter’s unique visitor counts went from less than 5 million in January to more than 15 million in April, according to comScore. Although its meteoric growth has slowed (see links below), the site’s traffic is still growing.
“We’re working so hard on Twitter as a channel that we want as many people as possible to know that we’re here for them,” says Greenberg.
Greenberg and his team needed to lift their number of followers to make sure they were reaching consumers who were visiting the social network.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Twitter on June 29th, 2009
eBrand Media Research Brief: Marketers like social media for direct marketing
StrongMail Systems, Inc., released new survey data that points to the emergence of social media as a direct marketing channel and a significant planned investment in email marketing and social media programs in the second half of 2009.
500 marketers, responding to an online survey from May 21 to June 1, 2009, report a wide-spread reach for ownership of social media within the various facets of marketing:
* 29% of respondents state that social media responsibility is owned by multiple departments
* 36% of survey respondents state that the direct marketing department owns social media
* 9% of the respondents report that social media is owned by public relations departments
* 5% have a dedicated social media department
Posted by Tom Polanski in Social Media on June 25th, 2009
How to optimize press releases & get higher search ranking and 75% clickthrough rate
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
I came across the case study below in our library while researching a project and thought it might be of interest. We’ve tested the guidelines given and have found them to be most effective.
CHALLENGE
Trevor Schoerie faced a major marketing hurdle: His two-year-old company needed to establish his brand in a niche market segment with a limited number of prospects.
Schoerie’s firm, PharmOut, specializes in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliance and validation for pharmaceutical companies in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The market has fewer than 100 potential customers, and the nature of regulatory-compliance consulting makes brand reputation and credibility especially important.
“Picking up the phone to call them is not effective,” Schoerie says. “If we can build up our brand, our reputation and our credibility, then when companies want services they can go out and find a provider. We needed to proactively present our brand.”
Schoerie and his marketing team needed a campaign to accomplish two goals: raise awareness for their brand and establish their expertise in the field; and generate leads and prospects for their in-house marketing list.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Marketing on June 24th, 2009
eBrand Media Research Brief: Hispanic consumers more positive, receptive to marketing
According to custom week-by-week data from Experian Simmons, reported by Univision Communications, 34% of Hispanics are optimistic about their finances in the coming year vs. 25% of non-Hispanics, and 29% of Hispanics are more positive about the U.S. economy in the coming 12 months vs. 21% of non-Hispanics. The report reveals consumers’ reaction to today’s economic climate from a total market and Hispanic consumer perspective.
Ceril Shagrin, executive vice president, Corporate Research, Univision Communications, observes that “The volatility of the current recessionary economy has created a need for more current week-by-week data… (to) capture changes in consumer behavior and purchasing patterns… “ allowing marketers to take an in-depth look at real-time information… for a better understanding of the impact on consumers.
The results from the past 65 weeks, says the report, indicate that while the overall consumer mindset is increasingly negative, Hispanics are more optimistic in the period following the “meltdown,” versus prior to September 29th, 2008:
* 29% of Hispanics are more positive about the U.S. economy in the coming 12 months vs. 21% of non-Hispanics
* Hispanics average consumer confidence rating is 11% higher than non-Hispanics, and has remained constant since 2005, while non-Hispanics confidence rating has declined
Posted by Tom Polanski in Marketing to Hispanics on June 23rd, 2009
Twitter 1, Iranian censors 0: Why it’s still working
By Bob Sullivan, The Red Tape Chronicles
Why does Twitter work inside Iran even after other Internet services have been disrupted? The key feature enabling it to evade government censorship, some observers say, is something that might otherwise be considered Twitter’s Achilles’ heel.
Unlike Facebook, and most other social networking sites, Twitter users don’t need to visit Twitter.com to use the service. In the business world, that’s a terrible idea. Twitter has no way to promise potential advertisers that its enormous audience will ever see ads placed on the site.
Instead, Twitter has a completely open architecture that allows users to both send and receive messages on a variety of platforms — cell phones, Blackberries and, of course, other Web sites. This openness is proving to be particularly effective at avoiding government interference.
“You can connect to Twitter without going through Twitter’s front door,” said Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard law school professor who runs Herdict.org, which tracks censorship efforts worldwide. “These services run interference between you and Twitter.”
Posted by Tom Polanski in Twitter on June 18th, 2009