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Archive for the ‘online trends’ Category



Maura DeBartoli

06/25/2010

Your Feat Defines Our Success
12:10 am by Maura DeBartoli

When developing an integrated online marketing strategy, we’re going to do it right and we’re going to do it differently.

Building a foundation means not only designing and building a website, but replicating the charisma in you, with content development.

Think you’ve got momentum? Our team has built communities of hundreds of thousands, and brought them together in joined efforts. We rev well.

One truth: Email marketing is still one of the most preferred outlets for candidacy, grassroots organizations, and nonprofits. IWS can check that box with confidence. Consistent donor success? Web applications? iPhone Apps? Check, check, and check.

Above all though, one of the most fun and attractive things IWS is fortunate enough to own is our 12 foot tall, 18 foot deep green screen. You can create whatever and be whoever you want with it!

Naturally, online video viewership has been growing exponentially year after year – just over 66 percent of users engage with video content online, and is projected to be just shy of 80 percent by 2014.

“This shift will be propelled by a combination of technology integration, demographics and a growing comfort level with the idea of watching video hosted on Websites,” says eMarketer’s senior analyst.

Our editorial and production team members are fantastically proficient at what they do, and will tailor it to you. Our gift is a backstage pass. Enjoy.

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Brian Michael

04/21/2010

Useful Links from the 2010 Politics Online Conference
03:40 pm by Brian Michael

The Politics Online Conference was held on Monday and Tuesday of this week here in DC at the Washington Marriott. Each year The George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet hosts this meeting of political technologists. Paul, Kelly and myself (and Heather from Virilion) attended several sessions and wanted to share with you a collection of useful links, tools and books mentioned throughout the day.

Tools

Twiangulate – Twitter tool for search, analytics and mapping of connections between Twitter friends and followers.

Townhall – Microsoft’s new out-of-the-box online toolkit for running political campaigns.  Email me for the login for the demo.

Goodmail – creator of CertifiedEmail,  helps get your emails delivered.

Varnish – a caching system to speed up your web site

Social Media Communities

Myspace Non Profit Page – a great resource for non-profits, and proof that MySpace is still relevant

Black Planet – “the largest Black community online” run by Interactive One

MiGente – “the largest Latino-American community online” run by Interactive One

Concepts

Augmented Reality – If you like your car’s GPS and your phone’s applications then you’re a fan of augmented reality.

Books

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

The PayPal Wars: Battles With Ebay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth

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Sarah Trees

02/25/2010

Get the word out with CoveritLive
07:01 pm by Sarah Trees


In today’s world, users want the breaking news at their fingertips, and CoveritLive (CiL) is the latest software application that makes this possible. Whether you’re a political candidate hosting a Q&A session or a news station covering the President’s State of the Union, CoveritLive can get the word out to your audience. CiL was built to handle multiple users at once – and by multiple I mean in the hundreds of thousands. But that is not the only amazing feature; here are a few of others:

  • Stream live video
  • On the fly translations
  • Reader Comment API – client’s can setup their own chat application and reader can comment from mobile phones or external chat rooms
  • RSS feeds – provide readers with writer and event feeds
  • Moderators or Writers can cover their event from their iPhone, Blackberry or smartphone
  • Publish up to 12 Twitter Accounts
  • Invite up to 25 panelists to provide commentary
  • Integrate 3rd party software like YouTube, WordPress, Twitter
  • Branded templates – Viewer window templates allow you to add your logo
  • News Flash and Scoreboards
  • Manage readers comments
  • Create a Media Library
  • Embed Large photos
  • Deploy Quick Polls for your readers
  • Advertise

What would be the cost for such a cool tool? You’d be surprised at how inexpensive this software is. There are three different pricing structures: Basic, Ad Supported and Subscription. The basic package is free of charge  and there aren’t any ads and up to 5,000 unique readers a month are allowed to view your live event. Ad Supported is also free, but serves ads, and after 45 days revenue sharing is possible. The last package is a one-year subscription, which contains no advertising and costs $400 per month.

Here are a couple of examples of companies that utilize CoveritLive:

PhilliesNation
General Motors
NBA – The Boston Celtics
CBC National Post

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Jason Lyons

01/05/2010

Who’s Winning the Browser War?
12:13 am by Jason Lyons

One trend that has continued through 2009 is that the browser wars have become increasingly competitive. According to this report of browser market share, Internet Explorer lost 7% of the market in the year ending in December. This probably isn’t a surprise as it’s been happening ever since Firefox – who celebrated it’s 5th anniversary in 2009 – hit the scene. What is surprising is that Google’s new brower, launched in 2008, now occupies third place, just recently surpassing the Mac-based Safari.

Nonetheless, Internet Explorer retains the lion’s share of the market with 63%, followed by Firefox with 25%. This has important implications when designing and developing a new Web site. However, the most telling sign of what browser your readers are using remains your analytics data.

Looking through the Google Analytics reports of several clients, the market share broke down a little differently. On average, our client Web site were view in Internet Explorer 74% of the time, Firefox 17% and Safari 6%. However, I noticed a wide disparity among browsers depending on target audiences. For instance, for a trade association client whose subscribers average between 40 and 55 years old, the breakdown is Internet Explorer 82%, Firefox 12% and Safari 5%; while a sports blog with a younger following had a breakdown of Internet Explorer 46%, Firefox 32%, Safari 17%.

One explanation for this discrepancy has to do with mobile phone usage and age. A poll by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion shows that more than one-fourth (26%) of those younger than age 45 own a PDA, compared with just 10% of those ages 45+. This means a lot of younger readers are using their mobile device to view Web sites. Generally these devices do not use Internet Explorer as their browser – with the ubiquitous iPhone using the Safari browser.

Therefore when it comes time to test your new Web site in various browsers and allocate resources to ensure compliance, it is crucial to understand your audience segments and recognize which browser they most likely use.

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Kelly Watson

12/07/2009

‘Tis the Email Season
06:29 pm by Kelly Watson

It is no secret that the holidays inspire a spike in email marketing efforts, and the 2009 holiday season is no exception. This year’s email volumes are predicted to increase and even earlier in the season than previous years. Even though most of the messaging comes from retail stores offering the “best deals around,” there is something to be learned from the behavior of email recipients during this time of year.

The Experian Marketing Services posted The 2009 holiday marketer: Benchmark and trend report that includes a review of the email marketing industry’s holiday performance. It also includes a plethora of tips to help us stay ahead of the emailing frenzy that occurs in our inboxes each year. So, what will prevent your company’s emails from getting lost in this year’s messaging madness? Let’s explore.

‘Tis the Holiday Hints:

Don’t hold back. “Don’t be afraid to increase email frequency and deliver relevant messages a few times a week. Customers expect to hear from you more during the holiday season.”

Keep messaging familiar. “Use your company name or email address in the “from” label and be consistent, so your customers know what to expect. Don’t repeat the “from” label in the subject line — space is too valuable.”

Keep subject lines short and sweet. “According to the Q2 2009 Experian CheetahMail Benchmark report, all industries with the exception of consumer products and services experienced the highest open rates when using subject lines of 25 characters or less last year. Longer subject lines of 75 characters or more had the second strongest performance for all businesses except those in the retail, travel and entertainment industries.”

Send a survey. “On average, surveys and polls produce a 30 percent lift in open, click and transaction rates. Link your emails to surveys this season —they are powerful tools for fostering better relationships with your customers and gaining deeper insight into their demographics, opinions, and service and product-satisfaction rates.”

In summary, your email recipients are comfortable with their inboxes looking like the mall on Black Friday. So, keep your messaging active and take advantage of the extra attention people pay to their emails during the holiday season. Merry email marketing!

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Maura DeBartoli

11/23/2009

Not Sure Where You Fit Best? Try On A Few Platforms, Find Your Creative Spot
07:24 pm by Maura DeBartoli

getmommed

Want to thrive in social media? Look different than everyone else at the party.

Being on Twitter and Facebook is still relatively new to marketers and brands alike, but more and more companies, businesses and entrepreneurs will have a full-blown social media strategy (or attempt at) sooner than later.  There are other online influential communities, not to be forgotten – maybe your audience’s most prevalent discussions are in forums, or scribd or whatever it may be.

Solution? Learn to create.

You should spend a little over ¼ of your time developing creativity. Your efforts in content creation are just as important (if not more) than connectivity and communication. Creativity can build blogs, viral videos, compelling email newsletters, and promote attractive media or applications. Need some assistance? Think crowdsourcing and co-creating. Two brains are better than one, so make a few friends!

Since we are human, and people get sick of repetitiveness, we seek out new material. A recent post by adAge touches on the “Big Idea” and how sometimes it can come from the exploration of a new technology or method that enhances consumer connection. It says,

Creative ingenuity lies within the idea, the technology, the concept, the innovation and, perhaps most important, the Holy Grail: consumer connection. Word of mouth is more prevalent than ever and interactive communities have an increasingly louder and more influential voice and are stronger (and sometimes the only) sources of breaking news stories.

These webs we now co-exist in weren’t made for Branded Co. XYZ (It had something to do with Al Gore and a big hole in the ozone layer… I forget now). But anyhow, find yourself a developer buddy and get creative.

Kleenex: getmommed

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Andrew Holmes

11/17/2009

How well do you know Mr. G?
01:26 pm by Andrew Holmes

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short, is the complex process of improving a website’s traffic via online search engines. Blah, blah, blah. By now, most of us are at least somewhat familiar with this rather confusing and intimidating acronym, but I am here to give you my take on it. As an architect of the pages we view, scroll, click, shop, sign-up, comment, peruse, and ultimately rely on for a myriad of daily use, I am here to help sort out the enigma that is SEO. g

Of course I have to say, search engines (plural) in most cases when I’m talking about SEO, but lets face it, for now there’s really only one that matters. Who is this king of the search engines you ask? This internet moderator who answers those tough questions in life, like “Who delivers Chinese at 2 am?” or “How many feet are in a mile??”  Well I could let you take a guess out of……hmmm, I’ll say three, but I’ll just give you a hint instead. His name begins with G and ends with duh.

For most of you who know him, Mr. G is a pretty neat guy. He’s very popular, hip, clean cut, savvy and for the most part, friendly. Friendly of course, only if you speak his language and dress in his style… and guess what, he can be very choosy. Mr. G is at times extremely judgmental, especially if you try to climb his LONG ladder of friends unfairly, by bending his rules. The fact is, his popularity has given him certain rights. There are certain standards he has set in place that allow him to govern how you or your company rank on his coveted list of friends. Oh and by the way, just because you dress Flash-y doesn’t mean you’re automatically buds with G either.

Ahh, the science of SEO… this is where I come in. Though this “science” is complicated, tedious, and dull with outside opinions; I am a firm believer that the basic underlying concepts of SEO will for the most part remain the same. By following a few key rules any site can attract G’s much needed attention. These rules are simple: Have interesting, up-to-date content on a well-designed and developed infrastructure and, bing! your website will skyrocket to the top of Mr. G’s friend list faster than you can say Balloon Boy.

Maybe you love him, with his quick responses on how to spell words like “unconstitutional” or his perfect timing to remind you that, yes, it is actually Sesame Street’s 40 birthday. Maybe you struggle with Mr. G and his fickle, ever changing taste in websites and where he decides to rank them in importance. One thing is for sure: like him or not, the next wave we get from G….. probably won’t be a wave goodbye.

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Maura DeBartoli

11/16/2009

They Know If You’ve Been Naughty or Nice
12:43 pm by Maura DeBartoli

picture-4

There was a recent post by eMarketer that discussed a growing number of web shoppers this holiday season, turning to social networks for advice, sales and information research.  A bit of news from the mobile sector:

Even more consumers – 19% – are planning on using the mobile channel for their holiday shopping… one-quarter plan to make a holiday purchase over mobile.

Does this information change your holiday marketing and sales plans?  It is an entirely new holiday shopping experience for consumers.  Since they’ll be seeking out brands they trust and interact with, it’s a good thing you’ve been ‘nice’ to them via social sites this past year, yes?

Image: miss karen

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Doug Pecht

10/27/2009

Web trends for 2009
11:50 am by Doug Pecht

Web trends for 2009 according to SmashingMagazine.com

Like many other things in life, web design is trendy – what’s in now isn’t always in for long.  For now though, there are several design trends making a splash.  SmashingMagazine.com had a great article and even they couldn’t stop at 10 – they collected 25!  Today we’re going to briefly explore 4 of the top 10 listed in the first part of their Design Trends of 2009 series.

1).  Rich User Interfaces – Websites are becoming more responsive, offering more interaction between the user and the web applications – and more immediate feedback.  The user now has more visual cues to let them know how they are interacting with the website – buttons change after being selected, having a “pressed” look; menus expand, collapse, and move from front to back – all the while giving the user yet another chance to click on something and make a selection.  In all these interactions, there is a sense of familiarity as many web applications remind users of traditional desktop applications.   Ajax and Flash are just two programs that allow designers to build rich user interfaces; and rich user interfaces are what allow users to have more personalized experiences.

2).  Huge Typography – Big typography is an example of a design trend that is here to stay.  What constitutes big typography?  Big pixels.  As the font size often goes beyond 36 pixels, the most important messages on a website are more easily communicated.  The “big typography” trend doesn’t stop at font size; designers are also paying more attention to leading, line height, and font choice.  Together, these elements help drive key information to the user.

3).  Magazine Look – The look and feel of traditional print media has been modified and adopted by blogs.  As you peruse some blogs, take note of how the posts are arranged on the page; the use of typography; and illustrations.  Even more noticeable is text alignment; the resemblance between traditional print text alignment and blogs is quite visible.

4).  Carousels (slideshows) – Carousels are a particular form of slideshows.  In the carousel format, the navigation is such that content rotates vertically or horizontally.  Instead of user clicking through the website, the user is able to scroll through using the available toggle element (often an arrow going up/down or right/left).  Carousel navigation eliminates extraneous movements (be it scrolling or clicking), saving time and helping the user focus on the slideshow content.   This is a great example of a design element that provides the user with an interactive experience and helps them get the most out of the content on the website.

These are four of the top 10 trends as identified by SmashingMagazine.com.  To see the rest or learn more about these in detail, visit:  http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/14/web-design-trends-for-2009/

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Donnie Riggs

10/13/2009

What Marketers are Missing…
03:35 pm by Donnie Riggs

Did you know that 46% of U.S. online retailers are missing out on the best, most time-tested way to spread their message? It’s true. Based on an August 2009 survey by Smith-Harmon, 46% of email marketers aren’t asking their audience to spread the word.

Sharing OptionsWord of mouth is still the most popular way to receive information about a product or campaign. With the rise of social networking, this has become even easier, yet only 6% of the marketing emails sampled  asked their audience to share with your social network. 41% had some type of ‘Forward to a Friend’ message or feature.

This alarming statistic is courtesy of eMarketer.com.  This great service has statistics for everything. Want to know what type of information U.S. Female Internet Users With and Without Children are Most Interested in Receiving via Email? They have it.  Want to know which free email platforms have the highest open rates? Now IWS can provide its clients this service thanks to our partnership with eMarketer.

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