Brands on Twitter have generally constrained themselves to using the service for benign PR type content, or, if they are particularly proactive, interacting with consumers and customer service. The concept of actually buying products across the micro-blogging service has been suggested, but no one has managed to figure out how – until now. Possibly?</p> <p>Users can tweet to buy</p> <p>American Express and Twitter have now announced they are joining forces to allow Twitter users to connect their Amex cards with their Twitters accounts, and then actually buy goods over the social network by tweeting specific hashtags.</p> <p>Amex expanding deals programme</p> <p>Amex has actually been using Twitter for promotional deals for a while; American Amex holders can already connect their cards to their Twitter identities, and if they tweeted a specific hashtag, a coupon would be loaded to their card. However, this is the first time users have been able to actually complete purchases across the network. </p> <p>For example, this week, members will be able to buy a $25 Amex gift card for $15, a Kindle Fire HD and a Microsoft Xbox 360. It remains to be seen whether this new venture is anything more than a gimmicky PR move for both the card operator and Twitter – we’re not about to see this on any mainstream retail site anytime soon, and the offers are short term “flash” type sales – but it is innovative, and it will be interesting to see how many Amex users take up the offers.<br />

If you have a business Facebook page, then you’ll realise how much work maintaining an efficient presence entails and how reactive you need to be to keep up the relationships. Responding to user comments and queries has to be a priority, but for many, this seems to be an impossible burden.</p> <p>Users waiting more than a working day for social responses</p> <p>A new study from social researchers SocialBakers.com suggests that while some industries have fully integrated social interaction, others seem to be struggling. For example, according to the research, the average brand response time to a question on Facebook is now 13.7 hours, down from almost 21 hours - pretty much an entire day - in Q2 2012. Of course this still means that consumers are, on average, waiting until the next working day for an answer.</p> <p>Airlines most “social devoted” industry</p> <p>SocialBakers.com compile a “social devotion” score using a combination of social interaction measures such as the speed of response, how the Facebook page is set up and whether the brand actually responds to posted questions at least two-thirds of the time. The most “socially devoted” industries are Airlines, Financial Services and Telecoms, with the least devoted being Alcohol and Automotive, with all industries being more devoted by the end of 2012 than they were at the start. For example, brands now respond to just over half (55%) of questions asked over Facebook, up from less than a third in Q2 2012. </p> <p>How do you think your “social devotedness” would rank?<br />

If you run a small or medium sized online retail business sourcing reliable statistics on how people research and buy your products can be a costly enterprise. Now, however, a website using research from TNS, the IAB and Google will give you some in-depth insight - at no charge. </p> <p>Worldwide data on consumer behaviour</p> <p>The site, at www.consumerbarometer.com, covers data by country from around the world, looking at how online consumers research and purchase products in a variety of business sectors. The interface is neat and intuitive, and - at least for now - the data is all free. </p> <p>The data is gathered into four key categories:</p> <p>• How consumers research and purchase - how long do they take, which channels do they use?<br /> • The part that search engines play in the purchase process - how many individuals use search engines?<br /> • How consumers access the internet - mobile, broadband or dial-up?<br /> • Comparison of purchase behaviour between countries.</p> <p>Filterable by multiple categories</p> <p>Data is filterable by gender, education levels, country, etc., and you can compare two countries side by side. The data comes from early 2012 so bear in mind that markets can change quickly, but the richness of the information should mean that the insights will be of value for some time to come. </p> <p>Next time you are looking to revamp your marketing content, SEO or PPC strategies, why not take advantage of this data to ensure you are reaching the right people at the right time, and are using the most effective channels to do so.<br />

Ever wished you could target your AdWords campaigns more effectively? Say by time of day, location and type of display device? Well now you can, according to a new blog post from Google, outlining their latest enhancements to their popular advertising tool.</p> <p>Campaigns to be targeted by time, location and device</p> <p>Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google, announced in the blog post that AdWords are rolling out “enhanced campaigns” to allow users to “smartly manage your ad campaigns in today’s multi-device world.” The point being that consumers are now more continually connected than ever before, moving seamlessly from laptop to tablet to smartphone for various steps in the same task – say, for example, searching for a good price for a laptop, making a joint decision with a partner across a tablet, then looking for store directions on their smartphones. More simply, marketers might want to show different ads to the same person at different times – say a link to an online order form for pizza at 1pm when they are sitting at their desk, and directions to an outlet if they make the same search at 8pm on the high street. </p> <p>Increased tracking incorporated too</p> <p>These enhanced campaigns will allow advertisers the scope to achieve this. Being able to tailor an ad and content by time, location and device is a big step forward in ad flexibility. Marketers could, for example, show different ads to those browsing on desktops or tablets, from within the same campaign, and will be able to track click-to-call ad conversions and app downloads as conversions. For some, converting to this new way of working will take some time, but for small advertisers the switch should be relatively simple.<br />

Until now, finding a specific app on the Apple Appstore was a case of searching, unless it happened to be one of the top apps on the first pages, or you happened across a direct content link to the app when browsing on your mobile device. Now, this might be changing, with the subtle introduction of what appears to be branded, or “vanity” URLs.</p> <p>Super Bowl sees first branded appstore URL</p> <p>These don’t seem to have been launched officially yet, but eagled-eyed viewers of Sunday’s 2013 Super Bowl will have spotted one. Advertisers such as Samsung and Best Buy spend millions of dollars on reaching the millions of watchers – a 30 second spot can cost almost $4 million.<br /> This year, viewers were treated to an ad for Paramount Pictures’ new multi-million dollar blockbuster movie, “Star Trek: Into Darkness”. At the end of the ad, a teaser saying “See The Movie First” appeared, with a link to download a special app – at Appstore.com/StarTrekApp. </p> <p>URLs a “convenience” at present</p> <p>It also appears that documentation for app developers has now been updated to include details on how to “create easy-to-read short links to the App Store for my apps and company?” At present these are being billed as a “convenience” and are not guaranteed (so if you decide to go for it, check and double check!), and not promoted as an explicit marketing tool (nor a direct revenue generator for Apple) but we can see both of this things happening pretty quickly.<br />

When Google began, it was revolutionary, but essentially was little more than a variation on the Yellow Pages for the internet. The hard work of figuring out what terms you really wanted and how to find what you were looking for was left to the user.</p> <p>Product listing ads take over Google Shopping</p> <p>Of course, over the years, Google has refined this concept immeasurably, but this functionality doesn’t come cheap. Google’s business model has moved more and more towards charging for the prime spots on a results page, and the recent evolution of Google Shopping is another indication of how Google is trying to monetise its billions of searches.</p> <p>As Google have migrated to a paid shopping model (moving over from Google Product Search to a paid for model based on product listing ads (PLAs)), advertisers seem to be responding positively. According to a new report from Marin Software, click through rates on PLAs are already exceeding those on normal text search ads.</p> <p>Clicks and spend increases rapidly</p> <p>According to the research, search clicks on PLAs rose from 2.1% to 6.6%, and budgets increased some 600% during the fourth quarter of 2012; from just 0.36% in October to 2.5% in December. Conversion rates aren’t in the report, though it’s intimated that they are healthy. PLAs are the established norm for Google now, so if you haven’t investigated them yet, now might be a good time.<br />

The explosion in the demand for great online content for blogs, newsletters and social media is very exciting both for brands and consumers, but it can place great demands on online marketers and website owners in terms of keeping up the production of good material.</p> <p>Copied content creates liabilities</p> <p>Of course, it’s important that shortcuts are not taken in the content creation process and that all content is original, or if not, legitimately sourced with full agreement from the owners. Plagiarised content not only reduces the value of information to readers, but also damages SEO and PPC efforts, and could ultimately involve you in legal action. </p> <p>A salutary lesson in what can happen even if content is borrowed inadvertently is the case this week of the EduBlogs site, which was completely pulled offline for an hour or so due to a copyright problem. The EduBlogs site hosts over 1.5 million educational blogs, and over five years ago one of them posted a copy of a questionnaire. It turns out that Pearson owns this questionnaire, and in September this year they asked EduBlogs to remove it. Unfortunately, an internal error meant that the content was still visible to the blog site’s server host, who requested it be removed completely, and when EduBlog did not respond within 24-hours sent the entire blog site offline.</p> <p>Double and triple check originality</p> <p>A harsh response, you might think, but it highlights how seriously that reputable server operators take copyright infringement. Therefore, whenever you source content, whether you create it yourself or outsource, invest the time to double check that’s its truly original, or it could come back to bite you!<br />

For the last few years the search engine Google has been so dominant that the idea of a world without it has seemed alien and unconceivable. However, in a couple of days last week, the possibility that the online giant might be at least stumbling in its onward march became a reality.</p> <p>Stock suspended after results error</p> <p>So what happened? Google was due to release its third quarter results after markets closed in the US on Thursday, but an error at a printing firm resulted in the numbers being posted some three and half hours early. This wouldn’t have been such an issue if the results were impressive, but they weren’t – quarterly profits were down 20% on the previous year – and Google were of course unable to manage expectations or issue reassurances. As a result the stock was down 9% pretty quickly, and trade in the shares was suspended for a couple of hours.</p> <p>News searches cause controversy too</p> <p>Adding to Google’s pain last week was the news that newspapers accounting for 90% of paper circulation in Brazil have decided to abandon Google News, saying the site was not boosting traffic and not paying for their content either. Combined with threats from the French to make search engine sites pay for content for searches for news, last week was an uncomfortable week to be a Google board member.</p> <p>Of course, we don’t really think Google is in any immediate danger, but it does go to show that even the biggest web incumbents aren’t untouchable.<br />

Given the business value and the online SEO and PPC advantages that can arise out of having great online content from consumers raving about how fabulous your product or your company is, it’s unsurprising that many brands are very active in encouraging and growing online consumer reviews.</p> <p>Yelp uncovers paid for review trade</p> <p>Encouraging consumers to leave reviews can take a number of forms - sending emails to remind them to leave feedback, for example, or encouraging users to leave comments on a Facebook page. However, there are lines that cannot be crossed, and Yelp in the US seems to have found a number of businesses doing so.</p> <p>Yelp has now published ‘Consumer Alert’ messages about the profile pages of eight companies it claims it caught trying to buy positive consumer reviews through a sting operation. An employee posed as an “Elite” Yelp reviewer and answered ads on Craigslist seeking some positive reviews. In one case, they were offered $200 for a positive review of a jewellery store. The warning will remain for three months. Yelp has also linked to the evidence trail of emails that prove their allegations.</p> <p>Are reviews reliable?</p> <p>If Yelp has quickly found eight culprits just though checking Craigslist, it’s a good bet that this is really just the tip of the iceberg. Both consumers and reputable businesses alike can only hope that the likes of Yelp, Amazon and TripAdvisor manage to keep a lid on the practice, or online consumer reviews will cease to be worth the (non-existent) paper they are written on.<br />

As print publishing costs rise, traditional print revenues fall and the readership of online newspapers and magazines increases, it has proved more and more difficult for traditional offline print media to survive. The latest casualty of this economic and social combination is the US current affairs magazine Newsweek.</p> <p>Merger in 2010 has failed to boost the brand</p> <p>Founded 80 years ago, the title had already merged with an online news group, Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast (the name comes from the fictional newspaper in Evelyn Waugh’s novel Scoop) in 2010. The aim was to bolster both titles, providing the Beast with established journalism experience and Newsweek with some online savvy. </p> <p>The www.newsweek.com web address was redirected towards the Daily Beast homepage, though the pages remain Newsweek branded. However, this doesn’t appear to have worked; the titles were aimed at different demographics, for a start, and the merged online channel failed to bolster the offline version. Subscribers to the print edition have dropped from three million to less than 1.5 million.</p> <p>Printed Newsweek to cease at end of 2012</p> <p>The last print run of Newsweek will be on 31st December, and from then on it will only be available by subscription, in an attempt to appeal to some of the 70 million consumers in the US who have tablet PCs. The Daily Beast apparently has some 15 million unique users per month, but none of those are currently paying, and of course therein lies the rub; what are the chances of an appreciable number of users paying for an online version of something that can essentially be obtained free from dozens of other sources?<br />