Is Cyber Monday Dead?

According to eMarketer Cyber Monday is dead. Various sources are reporting an uptick across the board in both on and off-line spending for the Thanksgiving holiday. That alone is something to be thankful for. Digging into the numbers from Coremetrics there’s real evidence that a segment of the population is also using their mobile devices. Whether they are making a purchase or just browsing the site for the latest deals is irrelevant. That fact is they are online and looking for something – right; coupons, discounts, promotions, directions, etc.

Whether your business is retailing online or just driving traffic to your site to spur offline sales, your online presence, image and ability to just be found is increasingly important. Last week we interviewed several businesses who maintained they must go it alone due to costs – they can’t afford to outsource or hire someone to manage or run their interactive marketing; or even worse – they “know how to do it, (we) just need to commit some time.” Sleeping on the job never got me a pay raise. Neither did being stubborn.

Trying to shoot a moving target is a difficult task. So too is Interactive Marketing. Reason being, you’ve got to be up-to-speed on where the target is now, or where it’s going. Unless you’re entrenched in the in’s and outs of the marketing industry, you’re more than likely going to miss the target, or at best, get there after it has moved.

Don’t get bogged down in the details of learning how to do interactive. Educate yourself on what you think you need and get with (hire) a firm that can help you meet your needs & goals. Small and Medium size businesses that opt to go-it-alone are missing opportunities 24/7. And at what cost?

How can you cost-justify outsourcing? How much does your average sales agent generate each year?

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Social Media Is Top Priority for Search Marketers

Social will be at the center of SEO and PPC campaigns

Is 2011 set to be the “year of Facebook,” even among search marketers? Based on what US advertisers told search marketing agency Covario, it’s definitely the year of social.

Search marketers have discovered how social media marketing can help build their search engine optimization efforts, and respondents to the Covario survey said their No. 1 priority for SEO next year was integration with social media programs. According to the report, “leveraging social media for scalable link-building efforts is a major initiative for advertisers.”

Social media will also play an important part in paid search efforts next year. Search ad campaigns on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn were top of mind for nearly half of advertisers surveyed—far ahead of priorities like local search or dealing with recent changes to major search engines (for example, Google Instant and Yahoo!-Bing integration).

Social Media Is Top Priority for Search Marketers

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Leveraging Best Practices for Social Media!

Achieving social media marketing goals, whatever your level of participation Brands and marketers have different levels of participation in the social media space, but many have similar goals and strategies. The “2010 Social Media Benchmarking Study” from Ketchum and FedEx found when looking at 62 study participants from a variety of industries that 100% had some degree of social media presence.But they demonstrated different engagement levels, including observers who are determining how to best use social media and leaders who push boundaries and innovate.

Leveraging Best Practices for Social Media

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