US online video ad spending to grow 43.1% in 2012

Whether they think of it as magnetic content or advertising, marketers are increasingly focused on creating video assets. This type of media reproduces the richness consumers associate with TV, often at a lower cost. And if online venues tend to fall short of TV when it comes to reach, they make up the difference by engaging viewers in an active, lean-forward mode.

The virtuous circle of content and technology adoption that consumers are experiencing is also fueling this trend. eMarketer estimates that US online video ad spending will grow by a compound annual rate of 38% in a five-year span ending in 2015, making this by far the fastest-rising category of online spending.

By 2015, video ad spending will reach $7.11 billion, up from $2.16 billion in 2011. In the past year alone, growth was 52.1%.

Similarly, in the UK video advertising will lead the pack, growing by a compound annual rate of 65% over five years. By 2015, UK video online ad spending will reach $850 million, compared with $150 million in 2011. As a percentage of total online advertising, video will grow to 8.2% in 2015 from 2.1% in 2011.

Still, challenges remain, including the high price of online video ads and the need for better reach and measurement. Several factors will mitigate these problems, making the upward course for video ad spending strong in 2012 and beyond. These factors include better filtering technologies for user-generated content, so publishers can better monetize it with ads; the emergence of cost per view and cost per engagement pricing structures; the increased use of interactive ad units and magnetic content; and personalization and targeting of video ads.

For more information on marketing developments expected next year, stay tuned for the forthcoming eMarketer report “Top Trends for 2012,” available to eMarketer corporate subscribers only.

Happy Thanksgiving from your friends at Actimedia!

We are grateful for the ongoing opportunity to provide our clients with the most creative and cutting-edge technology through our services. May the holiday bring you and your family much to be grateful for this year and always!

Google and Social can be together!

Social websites, especially Facebook and Twitter, are now serious competitors for Google’s audience and subsequent advertising revenue.

So Google has tried (but failed) to ‘do’ social eg, with Lively, Google Buzz, Orkut, Dodgeball, Google Wave and Google Me.

Google+ is its latest effort and this time it might succeed. We’ll see.

With +1 buttons, Google is trying to integrate social with search. If you visit a page or see a search result you like, Google wants you to click a +1 button (similar to Facebook’s ‘like’).

And Google explicitly states:

“+1s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query.”

That means that if a searcher’s friend +1s a page it will move up the results when you search.

Exactly how and when +1s, Facebook likes and tweets will affect others’ results is not yet clear and will evolve. Whatever the answer ...

Social is now part of search and therefore part of SEO.

Social 

All forms of engagement including comments, likes, tweets, +1s and mentions, either:

• Might be found by search engines and directly used in their algorithms; or

• Share your content with a person or website (it may be automated) that then might mention or link to your website in a way that is used directly in search engine algorithms.

Also, such engagement might also lead to repeat and new direct visits and response.

That social might work and work for SEO is clear. The question then becomes: is it significant? And the answer is: yes.

A simple piece of evidence to support that answer is that Facebook is now the most visited site in the US and therefore more popular in the US than Google.

It’s not hard to see why Google would like a piece of that social action.

Google Discusses 10 Recent Algorithm Changes

Google is trying to become more open about their search algorithm changes. Beyond the much-discussed "fresh" update, Google discussed recent changes in SERP titles and descriptions, date-specified searches, image search signals, and more.

While Matt Cutts called this "An experiment in radical transparency", the information remains fairly veiled and covers only a small portion of the algorithm changes that have been made.

Nine Recent Changes to Google's Algorithm

Several of the changes discussed were applicable either globally or specifically for the English-speaking market, while three changes are specifically for foreign markets (the last three on this list). The announced changes are:

1. Snippets pulling more from page content.The snippet displayed on the SERP, sometimes en lieu of the meta description for a page, will now pull more often from page content as opposed to menu or header text.
2. Displayed page titles pulling less from duplicate boilerplate anchors. The text of navigation links that's identical from page to page will no longer gain additional weight due to the high volume at which the text is repeated.
3. Application rich snippets are extended. Apps will now display cost and user review details in the SERP when marked up correctly. (We previously discussed the details of rich app snippets.)
4. An image search signal has been retired. While Google wasn't completely clear on what exact signal was retired, something "related to images that had references from multiple documents on the web" is being removed as a ranking factor.
5. The detection of official pages has been improved. Official pages are now located and promoted more effectively.
6. Results for date range–specific queries will be better organized for that range.Whenever users specify the dates for results, Google will organize the order of results to best meet the specified time period.
7. Cross-language information retrieval has been improved. In foreign languages, English web pages will now have an additional translated title on the SERP that will link to a translated version of the page.
8. Length issues in autocomplete predictions for Russian have been resolved. Excessively long queries are now being handled appropriately (in much the same way they were already being handled for English).
9. Issues with IME autocomplete predictions have been resolved. Autocomplete was inappropriately counting the intermediate keystrokes for IME (non-Latin characters) queries, leading to gibberish predictions for searches in certain languages (i.e., Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian). This has now been resolved.

The One Big Change

The recent fresh search results change places greater weight on how recently content was posted and/or updated. While not all results will be impacted, any queries that are for recent events (e.g., a news story, a current event, details on upcoming events, etc.), recurring events (e.g., events that happen every few years, TV seasons that renew each year, data on sports that will become less relevant very quickly, etc.), or "high decay" terms (e.g., technology items that change regularly, details on politicians who hold different stances now than they did two years ago, etc.).

While more than a third of searches are impacted, "only" 6 to 10 percent of searches (based on language and Google domain) will see a significantly different SERP.

We discussed further details of the fresh search results change to Google's algorithm previously, delving into the winners and losers, the specific types of "fresh" content affected, and methods for using news, blogs, and events to make the most of the change.

What's significant is that Google is now providing additional details on both large and small algorithm alterations. Do you think this is a sign of things to come? Insufficient "hush money" for webmasters and SEOs who want to know details? Or a way to show the various government institutions that are investigating Google that the company is willing to play nice? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: Rob D. Young,

Google Finally Wins One Against Facebook (Infographic)

Nielsen: Discounts Drive Brand Love on Social Media

Nielsen recently conducted a survey to understand what drives users to Like a Facebook Page or follow a brand on Twitter, and it came out with pretty much expected results. Deals and discounts are single biggest factor for Liking/Following a brand followed by the love and the support towards a brand/celebrity. Different regions of the world echoed similar results. Users from North America showed the greatest interest in deals and discounts followed by asia-pacific.

Last year, Exact Target found similar patterns on social media where it saw about 43% of Facebook users liking a Page to receive discounts and promotions.

And in the backdrop of debate about daily deals sites and their questionable business models, Nielsen found out that more people visited sites like Coupon.com, Living social and Groupon in September than previous months thereby thrashing all the negativity surrounding these companies.

W3C Adds Time Element Back to HTML5

If HTML5 editor Ian Hickson’s recent decision to remove the  element from the HTML5 specification left you scratching your head, you’re not alone. The W3C, the group that oversees HTML5, feels the same way and have stepped in to override Hickson’s earlier decision to remove the widely used element from the HTML5 spec. That means is once again part of HTML5.

There’s a hint of friction in W3C member Paul Cotton’s post to the HTML Working Group, suggesting that the W3C feels Hickson overstepped his bounds in removing . “Therefore we direct the HTML5 Editor to NOT process this bug further,” writes Cotton, who goes on to say that the  element will be reinstated to the spec by Nov. 8.

The HTML WG wants, ahem, more time to hash out. It’s unclear exactly what this means for the WHATWG version of the HTML5 spec (see our article onthe Difference Between the WHATWG and the HTML WG), but the W3C’s new love for time should be welcome news for web developers who’ve already deployed  on their sites.

While Hickson’s move to toss time out was probably premature, there are nevertheless some problems with . The  element offers the ability to add semantic meaning to pages by marking up dates and other time data, but not all use cases have been covered and some gray areas still exist. For example, the code 2:30 could refer to a time of day or perhaps the length of a movie. Both are theoretically valid uses and figuring out the details and the various potential use cases, is exactly what the HTML WG wants more time to do.

In the minutes from the last HTML WG meeting developer Tantek Çelik, makes the case for re-instating  just as it was, but also adding several new capabilities. Çelik suggests accounting for use cases like a  tag with only a year (commonly used on sites like Wikipedia or for copyright), and also for using  with only a day and month, commonly used when specifying dates like Christmas — 12/25 or 25/12, depending on where you live. Still to be decided are use cases like duration and some details around time zones.

Like the rest of HTML5,  remains a work in progress. Now that it’s once again a part of the HTML5 spec that work can resume and those who are already using  in some of its well-established roles can breathe easier.

Source: Scott Gilbertson

Anatomy of Conversion

When asked what we do I typically don’t answer advertising, marketing or websites. Our business is all about customer acquisition. Our role is to affect that conversion from an anonymous person visiting the site to a contact, sale or lead. Its all about conversion. Websites, Facebook pages, blogs and other measures are tactics employed to affect that result.In digital marketing conversions and ecommerce transactions are credited to the last campaign, search, or ad that referred the visitor when he or she converted. But what role did prior website referrals, searches and ads play in that conversion? How much time passed between the visitor’s initial interest and his or her purchase?

The Multi-Channel Funnel

The Multi-Channel Funnel is the data related to how your marketing channels (i.e. sources of traffic to your website) work together to create sales and conversions.

For example, many people may purchase on your site after searching for your brand on Google. However, they may have been introduced to your brand via a blog or while searching for specific products and services. The Multi-Channel Funnels reports show how previous referrals, searches, and exposure to other channels contributed to your sales.

Conversion Paths

Conversion paths are the sequences of interactions (i.e. clicks/referrals from channels) during the 30 days that led up to each conversion and transaction. Conversion path data include interactions with virtually all digital channels. These channels include, but are not limited to:

• paid and organic search (on all search engines along with the specific keywords searched)
• referral sites
• affiliates
• social networks
• email newsletters
• display ads
• custom campaigns that you’ve created, including offline campaigns that send traffic to vanity URLs

Multi-Channel Funnel Reports

For your digital campaign you should maintain regular multi-channel funnels to observe how your traffic sources work together to create sales and conversions. A conversion happens when a visitor completes an online purchase or an activity that you’ve defined as a goal.

• See how search phrases progress towards conversions.
• Know each traffic source’s role in driving conversions.
• See each interaction in your sales cycle.

In the reports, channels are credited according to the roles they play in conversions– how often they assisted and/or completed sales and conversions. The report also shows how many sales and conversions each channel initiated, assisted and completed, and the value of those conversions and sales.

You will be able to identify the top conversion paths that your customers took on their way to purchase. You can also begin identify how long (in days and in interactions) it took for visitors to ultimately become customers.

Conclusion

To make the best decisions its important to have good data. Analytics data when understood can help us make better investments in our customer acquisition efforts. The best way to steadily improve the growth of your business is to make lots of good decisions and the more insight the better our chances for success.

Source: Dean Whitney

The All Consuming Social Web

We are surrounded by content. We consume masses of information on a daily basis. We truly live in a consumption age. Now there is nothing wrong in consuming data in fact it is a wonderful way of learning. It is a wonderful way of exploring the world through the eyes of others, it is a wonderful way of expanding your knowledge.

But consumption in itself does not make you a wiser person. It may make you more knowledgable about the world...but it won't develop your thinking.

You need to combine reflection with consumption. Reflecting on what you are reading, reflecting on what you are learning allows you to turn that consumption into development.

It was Socrates who said "The unexamined life is not worth living"

I would update Socrates for the social media age by saying

"The unexamined consumption of information is information not worth having"

The question we should ask ourselves is 

'Do we consume or do we consume reflectively?'

The Anatomy of an Effective Homepage

How Social Media is a Lot Like Dating

Social media, like many things in life, is about relationships. If you don’t build a great relationship (online or offline), you won’t accomplish much. That said, how is social media like dating? You can apply “proper dating etiquette” to just about every aspect of social media.

Don’t Just Talk About Yourself

Ever been on a first date and realize you couldn’t get one word in? I think most of us have. Even if you started the conversation, some people can always make it about them. It’s not fun on a date, and it certainly isn’t fun to listen to someone on Twitter only talk about themselves.

This is where many social media newbies can miss the boat. Using Twitter and Facebook to promote a blog post is great, but make sure to mix it up with other news and topics as well. Using social media as a tool to position yourself or company as an expert is how you are going to gain your followers’ trust.

Tweet industry news as well as your company’s current events. It’s okay to not talk about yourself — your followers will thank you. You might even get a re-tweet or share for doing so.

Relationships Take Time

When you start dating someone, it’s fun and exciting. Once the honeymoon phase is over, this is when you really see how you two deal with each other. Sometimes it works, and other times it becomes a complete disaster.

Have you ever followed someone who you thought was a great marketer, PR pro, or other industry “expert,” only to find out they may not be the person you thought? Relationships take time and need nurturing. Sometimes someone who seems really awesome turns out to be a jerk — in dating and in social media.

Remember to take your time and really build up your online community. It takes awhile to get followers who engage with you. It’s not a numbers game, it’s a matter of finding people who want to talk to you and find you interesting as you find them. That is when the real engagement happens.

Don’t Overdo It

Have you ever gone on a date and then as soon as you get home, your date calls you? Then in the morning, you get another call or text, and so on and so on. If you don’t have anything important to say, don’t say it. You don’t want to annoy the people in your Twitter stream or Facebook news feed.

If you talk nonsense most of the day, how do you expect anyone to filter out the important updates? Make sure whatever you are sharing is compelling. It doesn’t have to be the great American novel you’re sharing, but make sure your followers will find value in it.

Don’t Under Do It

On that same note, make sure you aren’t waiting a week before calling your date back. Humans are creatures of habit, so make sure you update on a constant basis. This doesn’t mean tweet every ten minutes, but make sure you’re online around the same time everyday. Eventually, your followers will know when to expect your updates and even start looking forward to them. Don’t disappoint them by only updating here and there.

Be Yourself

I know on a first date, I’m going to make sure I look my best (who doesn’t?), but as time goes by, you start to let the “real you” shine through. I’m not saying I look like a bag lady everyday, but I also don’t dress to the nines either. When I first start dating someone, I try and be myself. If not, who is this person think they are dating? I don’t
want to give them the wrong impression.

This is the same in social media. You don’t want to be giving updates on one subject when you are really an expert in another area. Trying to be someone you aren’t is exhausting and misleading to your followers. Be up front with who you are and what you do. If you tweet for your company or any public figure, let your followers know there is more than one person running the account.

President Obama is a great example of this. Obviously, the President of the United States doesn’t have time to update his Twitter account on a regular basis, but when he does, he signs his tweets “BO”. This lets all of us who follow him know when he is actually tweeting.

It’s OK to be Funny

When you are new to social media, you sometimes don’t know what to say. Or better yet, what not to say. You can still be funny and be professional at the same time. The same is in dating. There is a difference between being funny and being annoying. There is a fine line, but you’re smart and can figure it out.

Don’t Diss Anyone

Who wants to be on a date with someone who only talks negatively about someone or multiple people? I know I sure don’t. Negativity is a downer wherever you are— in a bar or on Twitter. So just don’t do it.

It’s okay to like another person’s blog or article. Going back to my point of not just talking about yourself, it’s okay to retweet an industry colleague’s blog post. This can
actually help your relationship with that person, and you probably will get a retweet of your own when you share a blog post.

Dating is difficult. It’s a lot of give and take, and until you are comfortable with someone, it’s usually awkward. The same can be said for social media. When you first start a Twitter account, you probably are going to feel like you are talking to no one. Give it some time, remember these tips and you should end up creating a great community of followers.

Do you think dating is a lot like social media? If so, let us know what we missed in the comments below.

This is a guest post by: Shannon Evans Suetos

Actimedia Digital Corp (Miami Branch) 4 Years Old

The Three Types of Companies: Biggest, Better, and Different

I want to share with you, I’ve found there are only three types of companies. Once you understand the three variations, you’ll be a better consumer, marketer, or leader.

I take a lot of briefings from companies, in fact, hundreds every year. I also meet with many different corporations who are our clients for longer term engagements and have found a clear pattern in just about every industry. In fact this doesn’t just apply to the brand, but also the specific products within a market. And deep down, when you look carefully, you’ll find this applies to siblings too.

The Three Types of Companies:

1) Biggest.
This company or product, will always make the claim they are the biggest, largest, have the most customers. You’ve heard of how McDonalds’ has served billions of Hamburgers, or how Microsoft has sold the most software licenses, or how Ford was the first auto manufacture, or Coke is the top beverage brand on the planet.. You’ll also know these companies as they’ll tout their rankings on Fortune 100, or financial growth. Often, these companies are the standard, and all others measure up to them, “We are the largest, the first, the wealthiest”. We often find these products fit the masses, but may lack in other areas such as specialization or variety.

2) Better.
This company or product, is locked in a second place position against Biggest. For example, you’ve heard of how Burger King offers variety of their menu, or how Dell offered the customized on the web products over 10 years ago, or how Toyota challenge big cards during the gas crises decades ago, or how Pepsi wants you to take their taste challenge. They will differentiate by making their products better than the competitors, by changing variety, pricing, or customization, “We’re better than the other guys, who can’t serve everyone’s needs”. We often find these companies to offer premium alternatives, suiting for more than mainstream appetite.

3) Different.
This company or product will distinctly position themselves as an alternative to the the first two by offering a complete different option. Perhaps you’ve tried In-N-Out Burger, or seen how Apple wants you to think different with their products, or how Mini wants you to drive their unique cars, or how 7up positioned themselves as the UnCola. They will attack the primary model of the first two, and suggest they are only for a certain type of buyer. “be different, stand out, and we’re only for distinguished tastes”. These companies have specific offerings, that buck the trend, and will go out of their way to stand apart.

A few rules of the road: It goes without saving that multiple companies and products can all fit in one category, we often see multiple companies claiming to be the top dog. And also we should expect to see companies traverse these three different categories, and all of that is normal.

Now that you know the three types of companies, you can start to be a better buyer, marketer, and leader. Know where they fit in the your selection process, and know where you fit between Biggest, Better, and Different. Source: Jeremiah Owyang / SF, Silicon Valley

SEO vs PPC

If you want to attract visitors to your site then there are a couple of ways of doing this. Among the most popular and effective ones are SEO and PPC. Which one is better?

I have been thinking about this issue for a while and have come up with a few points to try and help me reach a final decision. Let’s take a look.

The Cost

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. As the name suggests, you pay for every time someone clicks on your ad and gets directed to your site. In theory this means that the more visitors you receive the more you pay. Anyone who is completely confident of converting the majority of their visitors into paying customers should get big benefits out of this. SEO is all about search engine optimization and the price you pay is generally not related to the results you get. You will be paying for a package which involves carrying out the tasks necessary to get you up the search engine rankings. However, you are not paying for the results as such but rather for the process.

The Results

In SEO the results you see will really depend upon how competitive a market you are operating in. For instance, if you are up against some big hitting sites then you are going to have to plug away for a while before getting into a good position on the rankings. On the other hand, if the competition is pretty puny then you should sweep them aside more easily. PPC is a different kettle of fish, as you aren’t really battling it out to get more visibility; you are paying for it. You would think that this means that the results are more guaranteed but I have a spanner to throw in the works. With SEO the people who find you are those who are looking for you. With PPC you might get a lot of idle clickers reaching your site. If your page is SEO optimized for your keywords and it has been done professionally then you know exactly what your visitors have typed in as their searches. With PPC you are attracting visitors who were maybe looking at something completely different but saw your advert and decided to have a look at it. Therefore, they probably have less intention of buying something when they enter your site.

The Long Term Sustainability

The final point I want to consider is which of these two methods is better in the long run. This is another close call and again comes down to the website’s own position in the overall market. For example, if I have a site which doesn’t have particularly strong competition then I can run some SEO work for a few months and blitz my way to the top of the rankings. If the rival sites don’t wake up then I can carry on in my lofty position with little or no maintenance work or costs. With the PPC approach you only get what you pay for. If you stop doing it you stop getting visitors from it, as simple as that.

Takeaway

This means that I have to go with SEO here, as it is something which is designed specifically to give your site visibility on an ongoing basis. Getting business from organic searches seems to me like the most natural and long term solution to finding your next generation of customers.

5 Great Content Strategy Resources

Content strategy is a topic that I find myself talking about with people more and more lately through my job as Manager of Communications, Web Content and Community at Connecting Up. Through these conversations, I get asked questions like: “So, what is it?”, “What should be part of a content strategy?”, and “How do we get one for our organisation?”

So, I keep saying that I’d blog about everything I know about content strategy (Mind you, I don’t know everything about it! I’m still learning a lot. And mostly, learning on the job.). But, like many things on my “To Blog” list, it keeps getting pushed down the list.

But, today, during one of my regular content meetings*, I was reminded that I haven’t really shared much of what I know about something that I’ve been doing for years. You see, my basic training on content strategy has officially started in 2000, when I joined About.com as a Guide for Language Arts for Kids. And again, when I rejoined them in 2004 as the first Guide to Web Logs. In-between 2000 and now, I’ve planned and created dozens of sites, including a whole network of blogs.

So, after over a decade of working on content strategy, and having the word ‘content’ in my official job title nowadays, I figured it may be time to start sharing. And, I’d like to start off my content strategy sharing by pointing you to five of my favourite resources (there’s more, but let’s stick to 5 for now):

1. The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane – I really liked the simplicity and brevity of this book. It’s a great little “starter” book for anyone thinking of understanding content strategy better. It doesn’t have a lot of how tos/templates on getting a content strategy up and running, but it’s a good way to get an overview of the topic without feeling overwhelmed.

2. Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson – This book is both an overview and an in-depth look on content strategy. It has some really great insights on why there is a need to have one, and what may be the necessary steps to create one. It’s more comprehensive than “Elements…” so it may be overwhelming for people who are still trying to get their heads around content strategy. But, if information overload doesn’t put you off, then this book is definitely a good resource to work with.

3. The Web Content Strategist’s Bible: The Complete Guide To A New And Lucrative Career For Writers Of All Kinds by Richard Sheffield – Another great, comprehensive resource on content strategy. Some useful insights on different aspects of content development, such as design, matrix, and even translation.

4. Chief Content Officer – This is a print and/or digital for content specialists. While it’s not primarily on content strategy, the articles in this quarterly publication are very useful for anyone interested in the topic. There’s an Australian version and a U.S. version, I believe. The one linked here is the Australian version. Oh, and as a bonus, I just found out that Contents Magazine is also coming out soon, which is a publication on content strategy and related topics.

5. Content Strategy Group on LinkedIn – Moving on from reading material, I thought I’d also share a network/community resource. On this front, I highly recommend the Content Strategy Group on LinkedIn. There isn’t a lot of activity, but I always find something useful in the discussions and resource sharing within the group. So, it’s definitely an online community of content strategists that’s worth connecting with.