Is Facebook ‘Subscribe’ for real? Booming new traffic explained
As their Facebook “subscriber” lists have spiraled upward — into the thousands and tens of thousands in recent weeks — many journalists have looked on in awe and wonder.
Executives at the social media behemoth say the “Subscribe” function, introduced in September, has instantly become a hugely popular feature. It allows the public to follow journalists, artists and political figures without taking the more personal, and potentially intrusive, step of “friending.”
The manager of the Journalist Program for Facebook said in a posting Wednesday that subscriptions have jumped more than threefold since November for a sample of 25 journalists around the country. Vadim Lavrusik, the program manager, suggested that the exponential growth — CNN weather reporter Bonnie Schneider somewhat suddenly has 72,000 subscribers — is a reflection of the “organic discovery mechanisms” built into the social network.
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Facebook on January 25th, 2012
Consumer outlook improving
The consumer’s outlook is improving, according to the January Consumer Reports Index, a measure of overall consumer financial health. The study reports that stress levels have diminished, financial difficulties have moderated compared to past months, and the strong retail performance of the holiday season is an important marker that Americans may be willing to engage and spend once again.
The Consumer Reports Index captures respondents’ attitudes, asking if they are feeling better or worse off than a year ago. When the index is greater than 50, more consumers are feeling positive about their situation. When it is below 50, more consumers are feeling worse. The Sentiment Index can vary from a high of 100 to a low of 0.
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Trend Tracker on January 23rd, 2012
Want to learn about Santorum? You might not want to search the Web at work
Americans taking their first look at Rick Santorum are in for a surprise if they try to Google him for more information.
The first link you’ll find won’t be a discussion of Santorum’s conservative political views, or a campaign brochure, or even criticism of the former Pennsylvania senator’s Congressional record.
The first link offers a faux definition of the word “santorum” as the byproduct of a sex act – a very graphic definition, at that. Because the definition appears right on the search results page, it’s convincing enough that someone might be convinced the suddenly prominent Republican presidential candidate has suffered from an unfortunate coincidence involving his last name for his entire life.
In fact, the “coincidence” is only about eight years old.
In 2003, Santorum angered many in the gay and lesbian community when he appeared to tell an Associated Press reporter – in very twisted language — that gay sex was not entitled to privacy protections, and could therefore be banned by the government.
Publication of the interview caused outrage among gays, and it eventually found voice in Seattle-based sex columnist Dan Savage, who took up a suggestion from a reader and decided to play a Google trick on Santorum. He held a contest to decide precisely how to define “santorum,” then created a Web page that did so called SpreadingSantorum.com, and finally he helped create a network of other Web pages that pointed to the page. Soon enough, SpreadingSantorum became the top search result for Google (and Bing, and Yahoo) searches of “santorum.”
“Real” links about the former senator appear farther down in the search results.
(A transcript of his interview is here. There are other interpretations of his remarks.)
Tricking Google results is a common practice by those using search engine optimization tricks. It’s a constant cat-and-mouse game between Google’s algorythm writers and anyone who has a desire to manipulate what happens when Internet users scratch a search engine itch. Companies worried about random customer complaints can employ tactics to push down the negative remarks so casual searchers don’t find them. Others find ways to make links to their Web pages more prominent than competitors’ pages.
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Politics & Business on January 4th, 2012
eBrand Interactive produces happy holiday returns for new clients
Gemvara, Rent the Runway and Bonobos retained eBrand Interactive to deliver people genuinely interested in their unique value propositions for the holiday season.
Los Angeles, CA–(eBizine)–1/03/2012-8:45 AM – eBrand Media, Inc. (EBM), a leading provider of digital advertising and marketing solutions to emerging and established businesses announced today that its agency division, eBrand Interactive, directed thousands of visitors to the Gemvara, Bonobos, and Rent the Runway websites during the holiday season through CAN-SPAM compliant email on a CPC (cost-per-click), CPM (cost-per-thousand), and CPL (cost-per-lead) basis. The agency met all established benchmarks while doing so.
“We manage lists for a number of well known brands and as a result we have permission to market to over 150,000,000 people through our CAN-Spam compliant email channel. We take private labeled offers from leading companies and send them to people who have opted to receive offers from 3rd parties. In short we email 3rd party offers to 3rd party email lists that we’ve been licensed to manage”, said Tom Polanski, EVP of Business Development at the eBrand Media Group.
Mr. Polanski went on to say; “Gemvara, Bonobos, and Rent the Runway retained eBrand to email their offers for the critical holiday season to the lists we manage. My email team started mailing slowly so that we could analyze performance with minimal risk to these companies. The goal as always is to ensure that our traffic is meeting or beating advertiser mandates. In this case hitting the established CPA (cost-per-acquisition) or lowering it. Once our analysis was done on the initial test, we were had the clarity and statistical confidence to scale while adhering to mandates. As a result we now have an ongoing relationship with each of these companies”. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by eBrand Media Public Relations Department in eBrand Interactive, eBrand Media on January 3rd, 2012
Retailers Tagging Social and Mobile as 2012 Targets
According to the report, “Surviving the Current Market Mania with a Solid 2012 Plan,” by Bronto Software, while traditional digital channels such as search and email continue to dominate retailer marketing spending, social and mobile channels are growing in importance.
| Use of Mobile and Social Marketing Tools (% of Respondents; November 2011) | ||
| Tool | In Use Now | Plan to Use in Next 6 Months |
| Facebook fan page and/or shopping | 87% | 8 |
| Twitter publishing | 82 | 8 |
| M-commerce site | 29 | 42 |
| Bar, codes, QR codes in traditional advertising | 38 | 31 |
| Mobile application | 19 | 27 |
| Collecting SMS opt-in (all channels) | 14 | 29 |
| Texting marketing messages | 7 | 29 |
| Texting transactional support messages | 6 | 26 |
| Source: The E-tailing Group, November 2011 | ||
Marketers are also seeking to improve data analytics capabilities to identify the most profitable channels and design the optimal marketing mix for driving engagement and sales. Important tactics include:
| Planned Improved Tactics | ||
| % of Respondents | ||
| Tactic | Critical | Very Important |
| Capturing phone numbers during call center transaction | 13% | 15% |
| Capturing phone numbers during online transaction | 10 | 16 |
| Capturing phone numbers during retail transaction | 3 | 12 |
| Executing email campaigns with SMS opt-in objectives | 5 | 9 |
| Executing traditional marketing or advertising campaigns with SMS opt-in objectives | 1 | 9 |
| Source: The E-tailing Group, November 2011 | ||
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Trend Tracker on December 8th, 2011