Internet Marketing Blog

I Collect Fans. Therefore, I Invest.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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As social media websites like Facebook gain over hundreds of thousands of users, business principles must be assessed. Corporate entrants onto Facebook have created fan pages to inform members of their brand, its qualities, and promotional opportunities. Some brands have entered social media with widgets on the home site, with ambitions to gain a new generation of followers.  The value is in the volume.  Unfortunately, those fans remain static due to the misconception that Facebook users do not seek engagement from brands.  Therefore, product development loses a golden opportunity to leverage new customers, due to anxiety and false predications.

Some corporations move with the opposite mindset.  As genuine investors, they cultivate fans that are secured into an digital source for assets.  Chris Perry of Advertising Age comes up with ten fundamental principles for brands to leverage their social media fans and become an online investor.  I’ll draw out a few key statements.

1) What “Like” Means – Understand what an individual “liking” your brand says about them today, and set goals for what it should say about them tomorrow.  Your core base will come easily.  They were already fans of the brand and this is why they have “liked” your page – the brand has not added these fans, it’s simply assembled them.  It’s expanding and winning new audiences that pays dividends.

2) Put your fans to work – The sheer numbers of fans have clout only when put to use.  Powerful investor brands activate their audience as advocates.  Put those who like you to work by giving them reasons to interact with the brand and provide a platform where their enthusiastic support is amplified to their networks.  Facebook is a great place for activities.  Give your audience things to “like”, to use, to share, to post, to comment on.  Reward them as appropriate for your industry, segment, restrictions, budget and product – with applications, activities, social currency, exposure, affirmation, discounts, access, entertainment, responsiveness and respect.

3) Listen to your fans and respond to what you hear – Your Facebook community is a great source of research, product innovation ideas, consumer advocacy, customer service, and validation.  Monitor consistently and seriously, and be willing to stop and listen at every point and to change and respond and reset expectations when you identify new challenges and opportunities.  Understand that outside forces can impact your standing online so keep an eye out to mitigate risk and to anticipate if activities have impact on your perceived value.  Pay close attention to audience responses and be nimble in your response.  Be mindful of privacy and transparent with marketing.

Click the “Like” button for more insight.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Social Media Marketing, blog | 1 Comment »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, facebook, facebook fans, Facebook marketing, online marketing agency, Social Media Marketing, web marketing in nyc

Women Dig The Plug-In

(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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In a world where everyone is always online through social media, e-mail, and smartphones, some run for the lakes and oceans to escape.  Others simply pick up a good novel and read on the sofa.  Despite their best intentions, some are too obsessively attached to get away from the grind of constant interaction, especially if your office demands the pace.  It’s too facile to call it an addiction, but women, according to a recent study, are not letting go easily.  

The Oxygen Media Insights Group conducted a study showing that young women between the ages of 18 and 34 stay close to their family and friends around the clock.  A June survey from Burst Media showed that women between the ages of 35 and 54 feel disconnected when they are not online.

Women tend to use their mobile phones as a centerpiece of their family’s livelihood. Calendar applications help the suburbanite keep track of their son’s basketball practices and daughter’s softball tournaments.  They also keep them alert about monthly teacher conferences.  We could carry on with the access to weather reports and traffic updates.

Marketers have a golden opportunity to target this demographic with quality advertising that proves beneficial on several ends.  If women don’t feel that a product or service will benefit their family on a holistic level, then it will prove a lost cause.  Grocers, discount retailers, and oil companies are just a few industries who should listen to women. They will learn a thing or three.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Content Marketing, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, blog, online advertising | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, burst media, marilyn monroe on phone, mobile marketing agency, online advertising, smartphone studies, web marketing agency, women's internet research

Chic. Interactive. Modern. Calvin Klein.

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This week, seminal fashion label Calvin Klein has posted two pixellated advertisements, known as QR codes, in New York and Los Angeles, with the title “Get It Uncensored.”  Those citizens with smartphone capability can take a picture of the ad, which is followed with a 40-second clip and links to share through social media streams.  Normally, you’ll see these codes on a much smaller scale, like your monthly GQ or Vogue issue.  Calvin Klein, despite the struggles of apparel sales, continues with their traditional risks in advertising strategy. As a result, they offer a peak into the future.

The advent of location-based software, the Old Spice guy’s personal video responses, and Lego’s augmented reality boxes demonstrate a shifting, lawless era of interactive marketing.  They are being redefined by the quarter and demonstrate viewer participation at unprecedented levels.  The dimensions of this participation are so unclear that one could be within a universe where tangible senses are stimulated but stulted at the same time.  Before too long, you will see location-based augmented reality QR codes at your local transportation stop. You may also just get exhausted and fall asleep on the train.

In New York,  one ad is located on Lafayette and Houston by the BP gas station, while the other is on 20th street and 10th avenue in Chelsea, near the High Line. For my cohorts in LA, it’s on Sunset and Havenhurst in West Hollywood. They will be pulled on July 15th, so go snap. Quick. For the uninitiated, here’s an image of the billboard.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Interactive Marketing, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, blog | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, calvin klein advertising, calvin klein qr billboards, new york interactive marketing agency

The Sweet Smell of MocoSpace

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MocoSpace is a unique player in the social media landscape.  Since they started in 2005, the founders, Justin Siegel and Jamie Hall, fell into a segment base of multicultural users who do not have the capital to purchase broadband service and smartphones.  This base primarily uses feature phones, which possess games along with video and social-networking applications.  

The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog conducted an interview with the two discussing many subtopics within the mobile communication industry. They brought up several interesting points in the segment.  One of them involved MocoSpace’s flexibility of user interaction, such as creating your account, profile customization, and privacy maintenance from your phone.  The home website has also been upgraded for seamless integration with your device, offering music from premiere artists in all genres.  Heavyweights like Bebo, Facebook, and MySpace started from a web platform and depend on internet traffic for their online advertising revenue.

Another key point illustrated in the interview centers around the user concept of building personal relationships.  This is partly due to the small number of users (13 million, opposed to Facebook’s 400), and also the base. MocoSpace users are not only seeking business partnerships, viral romance, or reacquainting with old flames from middle school.  They also seek those who seek one another.  At the moment, MocoSpace is the little engine that has done it amongst the titans, making the adjustments in a sector with exquisite gadgetry.  Here is the full transcript.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing, Social Media Marketing, blog | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, jamie hall mocospace, justin siegel mocospace, mocospace, multicultural marketing, new york mobile marketing agency, new york social media agency, social media

Save Online. Save Offline.

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I discovered an article this morning on MediaPost discussing a new category of consumer dubbed “the Xtreme Shopper.  According to the piece, a full 31% of the population falls into this category.  One could argue that some of this activity results from the global economy’s overall decline, which led a Financial Times columnist to speak of the white elephant in the room.

For our purposes as a marketing source, we’ll scale back to analyzing industry development.  I recently wrote about public forum sites such as Yelp fueling local merchant revenues along with e-commerce campaigns.  Those merchants with a strong website can offer a campaign with longer reach, tailored to different sectors.  Commenters with a deep viral presence tend to possess insider information on promotions and share them with preferred members.  If they have a mobile application that tracks your point in space, then everything can escalate for marketers to seek these knowledegable buyers.

A study conducted for the piece had some striking variances.  The aforementioned 31% of the population did not have wide income or age discretions.  They simply use all the interactive media available to seek the best bargains.  Then marketers can assess their shopping habits through data analysis and deliver premium value, knowing that the xtreme shopper demands premium service.  All in all, the golden rule must be kept in mind.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, blog, eCommerce | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner Marketing, eCommerce, financial times, mediapost, new york e-commerce agency, xtreme shopper

Bebo Gets Off The Mat

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I’ll admit that when Bebo was passed off by AOL, I hardly batted an eyelash.  I couldn’t remember when or who gave me an account.  I just never felt that the site offered much for my daily travails, on a viral or tangible level.  The invites in my mailbox surfaced with obvious fake photos of scantily clad women and account details.  I checked the box, clicked once, and thought forever deleted. Bebo, along with Friendster, represented the Betamax to other social media scions with better interactive vision and capital.

Entrepreneur Adam Levin, however, purchased the site for a fraction of AOL’s fee.  Nevertheless, he has an optimistic strategy for returning the brand to a respected position.  The website still has nearly 120 million registered users, with 13 million using the site at least once a month.  The potential for growth exists, as Levin plans to segment Bebo into the tween market, as Facebook gains an older demographic base. It could work, if he is able to gain traction within the mobile marketplace.  But it must be fast.

Understandably, once your parents start parroting your actions, the edge is gone.  It’s a parable that stays true despite the era.  Coupled with this transition into a new market base, Levin switched advertising from AOL’s advertising scale, meaning that it can gain more revenue through setting its own fees.  It can also extract strong PPC rates through mobile technology.  According to the Wall Street Journal, 14% of users access the site through a mobile device. The article also mentions that Bebo is working on a mobile site that will not eat into tween’s limited data service plans.

I think one way to combat that barrier is to align the site with family carrier plans.  Once the site gains more credibility with tweens, they can persuade the parents to purchase a plan with free access, where everyone benefits in a transaction.  If they can strike a partnership with someone like Verizon, it could do a lot towards reinvigorating the brand.  McDonald’s was able to market children’s toys from recognizable programming that continued persistent chattering from the child to the parent, and foot traffic generates forever with this small strategy.  Let’s see what Levin has up his sleeve.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Content Marketing, Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, adam levin, aol.com, bebo, Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing, social media site

Kissovation Freshens Up Colgate Wisp

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Colgate-Palmolive has been a marketing titan for a long time.  They have turned around products in their porfolio into profit vacuums.  Recently, they had a mission for a mini toothbrush, called the Wisp.  This demographic, young and urban between 18-25, was atypical for Colgate’s strategic pursuit.  In tandem with Big Fuel, a social media agency, both parties conducted research to gage the consumer’s response to this new product.  They used some thorough viral strategy centered on tangential themes such as self-confidence.  ”Kissovation” was the concept, signifying that feeling kissable correlates with strong emotional confidence and tested with online video content syndicated through YouTube, Vimeo, and other hubs.  Topics covered a vast range of niche interests such as comedy, dating, relationships, and kooky instructional videos.  They also ran a wildly popular photo contest to find the most kissable person in America, or “The Face of Wisp“.  The winner was Yomaris Maldonado, who will be in future advertising campaigns for Wisp.  Hordes of users uploaded their submissions, and the contest was spread through relationship magazines such as Elle and Cosmopolitan. To drive up brand engagement, Big Fuel created an social media application on Facebook called “Spin The Wisp.”  The application collected the names of its Facebook friends.  Then, the wisp landed on various flavors and locations.  Then a woman can send virtual kisses to 16 people.  According to eMarketer, the click-through rate was ten percent based on the number of engagements via notifications, which is quite solid.  Colgate has continued this strategy for other products in their portfolio.  They have another demographic to solicit for the future, and this one can pay strong dividends.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Content Marketing, Mobile Marketing, blog, online advertising | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, best of the wisp, Blueliner Marketing, colgate wisp, eMarketer, online campaigns, Social Media Marketing

Microsoft Can’t Make Next Of Kin

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Microsoft does certain things well.  Microsoft does certain things poorly.  Microsoft makes a strong effort at times, but lacks timing too.  Less than two months after a heavy advertising campaign for the adolescent market,  Microsoft will end sales of the Kin mobile.  Members of the marketing and development push will be folded into a campaign push for the Windows 7 mobile phone, due in October.  The company never issued an official statement, but many feel that the price points for Kin One and Two were just not fitting the public demand.  According to Ad Age,  the Kin One was priced at $49.99 while the Kin Two was $99.99 after rebates of $100.  A mandatory $30 monthly service fee didn’t help matters.

One could look at the quick abortion as a cautionary tale of investing too heavily into niche markets with social media as the backbone of your initiative.  Microsoft Kin used a woman in her twenties to connect through viral heavyweights from My Space to Windows Live.  But the phones were also lacking in traditional smartphone features, such as application use, calendar scheduling, and so forth.  Everyone loves to share wayward thoughts and images in real time, conscious and unconscious, without fear of persecution, which is an illusion anyway.  These actions are an innate human right, and social media lets us pursue it to the fullest.

Those who contribute professionally to society need software to structure themselves, such as e-mail and calendars.  These tools allow for the opportunity to interface personally with one another, maintaining some semblance of human interaction and exchange of creative spirit.  Then, and only then, will our pursuit of perfect communication reach a zenith.

Social media has taken our world by storm, spreading information with lightning speed, but it does not have the wherewithal to stand alone as a representative of our human persona, and it probably never will do this. Microsoft’s Kin was a testament to this reality check.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Interactive Marketing, microsoft kin, new york interactive marketing agency, Social Media Marketing, Top News.us, wall street journal

More Hulu Hoops For Viewers

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According to the Wall Street Journal,  Hulu LLC has announced a new paid subscription service for invited customers at $9.99 a month.  The service offers a wider range of content and platforms, including older programs that are no longer on the air and more episodes of current shows.  They will also expand platforms into the iPhone, iPad, video game consoles (PlayStation, XBox), and Blu-Ray players.

The opportunities for interactive marketers are excellent to target and tailor advertising campaigns. Hulu will continue to offer the same ad time slots for its programming.  New shows are available in the same timeframe, which is the morning after they air.  I believe that the wider availability of content is well worth the price.  Initially, you will have some backlash, which is to be expected when making an adjustment to your business model.  Some can’t imagine that consumers will pay for advertisements on their mobile devices. Hulu, though, has established brand equity with the public as a provider of quality television content. Those who appreciate its unique services will support the model.

The company does not compete with cable’s content level, but is more manageable at a price point for millennials that have a nomadic lifestyle.  You can watch last night’s episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia at the park during lunch on your iPhone rather than wait for your DVR box at home.

You also won’t have to cancel your Netflix subscription. Yet.  The red envelope media giant still offers a massive library of film content and streaming video services.  Supposedly, only 15% of their rented library is television programming.  But for the first time, since eliminating Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, Netflix has to keep their eye open for digital streaming challengers.  Marketers will look to partner with these credible challengers based on future trends.  Follow the stream here.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Interactive Marketing, Marketing, Mobile Marketing | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, hulu plus, Interactive Media, Mobile Marketing, mobile marketing agency, netflix, new york interactive media agency, wall street journal

IPhrantics!

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Today will be a hot one in the city.  Temperatures are predicted to reach 95 degrees with a forecast of thunderstorms.  It will not deter the Apple lovers from purchasing the iPhone 4 at the various locales around town.  Bloggers have speculated that this version is the interactive media gem that Apple has wanted to deliver.  The pixelations and camera phone claim to be vastly improved along with the overall hardware design.  I still believe that iPhone needs to expand their carrier reach to deliver a better communications experience rather than interactive one.  Analysts have pushed along rumors of an alliance with Verizon and T-Mobile, but it’s all been much ado about nothing so far.  AT&T has just not cut it as a service provider.  Peter Ha and other writers go into much more depth on their reviews at Techland.  Follow them here.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Interactive Marketing, Marketing, Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, apple, Blueliner Marketing, iphone 4, Mobile Marketing, new york interactive marketing agency, steve jobs