Internet Marketing Advice Blog » blogs

Social Networks and Blogs are Not a Fad with 80% Online Usage

ashleyh4 — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:06:45 +0000

It looks like social networks and blogs are not a fad, as many would have you believe. According to a recent study by Nielsen, 80% of online usage by active Internet consumers is spent on social networks and blogs, such as Facebook and Twitter. 48% of online consumers responded to a retailer’s offer through social networks and more than 60% of active Internet users did their research on a Social Network to learn more about a product and/or brand.

If you’re a Marketer that is not seriously considering a part of your marketing budget to Social Network marketing, you may want to re-think your strategy based on these latest social network findings.

Inbound Marketing Budgets Increase for 2010

ashleyh4 — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:06:38 +0000

According to the ‘State of Inbound Marketing Report’ reported by HubSpot, inbound marketing is increasing at the expense of outbound marketing for 2010. Social Media, PPC, Organic SEO, and blogs, all part of the online media mix, seem to be increasing in value for lead generation for marketers more so, due to the increased success of the inbound marketing programs. Unfortunately, offline outbound marketing programs, which constitute trade shows, telemarketing, and direct mail are decreasing in budgets, due to the successes of online marketing generating quantifiable leads.

For 2010, outbound marketing budget expectations will be decreasing from 29% to 24%, but inbound marketing will be increasing from 38% to 34%. This is an important shift for lead generation channels, since the change marks a strong shift to online from offline. To see what works best for your marketing strategies, make sure that before you run out and spend a lot of money on social media and the other outbound marketing programs, make sure that your target audience is there and test each channel, before making a large investment.

New FTC rules for Marketers & Advertisers

ashleyh4 — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:48:16 +0000

Starting today, new FTC policies can effect your marketing strategy to use celebrity endorsements or social media, such as blogs, for promoting branded items. New policies require that marketers and advertisers can no longer use the provisional statement, ‘results are not typical’ in celebrity endorsements or social media, which used to allow marketers a blanket protection from consumers that tried to complain or sue for misleading advertisements from products. Advertisers must now state what consumers can ‘generally expect’ in product results.

Regarding social media, bloggers will be affected, since they must openly disclose in their postings for ‘any material connection’ they have to an advertiser they are blogging about, which pays them a fee for the blog or given a free item for endorsing the product.

There will be an $11,000 charge for each time an organization does not comply with the new FTC policy, whether it’s the advertiser, blog, or marketer.

To stay in FTC compliance, check out this link from BzzAgent http://about.bzzagent.com/word-of-mouth/socialcompliance

Grade your website for performance

ashleyh4 — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:49:37 +0000

No site should be a link island. It’s important to know how well your website performs in relation to your online competitors. Websitegrader.com is a great free tool that helps you see how well your site stacks up in keywords, blogs, and tags.