Answer IT believe these 50 Mobile Marketing Facts Will Blow You Away!

Answer IT found this article posted on SocialMediaToday and thought it would be of interest, read on!

Do you have a mobile website or app?
Not sure if you should invest in developing a mobile site or app?
Don’t think you need a mobile marketing strategy?

MOBILE! It is what everyone is talking about, and for a good reason. Smartphones and tablets have changed the way that business can, and should be, connecting with consumers.

Check out these 50 facts on mobile marketing in the presentation below by HubSpot, and see if you still think you have time to wait to develop your mobile marketing strategy. Here are the 10 facts I found most surprising:

1. 9 out of 10 mobile searches lead to an action, and over 50% lead to a purchase
2. 70% of mobile online searches lead to an action within an hour, while 70% of desktop online searches lead to an action within a month
3. Mobile ads perform 4 to 5 times better than traditional online ads
4. 40% of tablet owners said they have looked up information on a show on their tablet while they were watching that same show
5. 74% of smartphones users use their phones for shopping, and of that 79% make a purchase as a result of using their phones
6. Mobile coupons have a redemption rate 10 times higher than that of print coupons
7. 50% of smartphones users have bought a product on their phone
8. 73% of smartphones users reported having used the mobile web to shop, instead of an app
9. 60% of web users say they expect a mobile site to load on their phone in 3 seconds or less
10. 95% smartphone users looked up local information, of that 61% called and 59% visited the business

Follow the link to click on the Slideshare for more facts... 

http://socialmediatoday.com/brianna5mith/1373106/50-mobile-marketing-facts-will-blow-you-away

Courtesy of Brianna Smith, Marketing Coordinator at Fpweb.net, a leading managed SharePoint hosting provider.

Answer IT Explores Why Social Media Marketing Is More Effective Than PR

Answer IT came across this article today, posted on SocialMediaToday.com and thought it would be of interest.  The post was written in the first person by John Beveridge, the President of Rapidan Strategies, who as Answer IT has discovered, provide inbound marketing and social media marketing services for growing businesses - very useful!  Read on...

"I'm probably not going to make friends in the public relations or journalism communities with this article, but here goes. I recently attended an event titled "Meet The Press" in which 5 local business journalists shared their thoughts on how businesses should approach them in order to get press coverage. I was struck by the journalists' imperious attitude.  They covered things like how to email them, how often you need to follow up with them and generally how you can kiss their rings to potentially get press coverage. At a certain point, I heard Charlie Brown's mother's voice, but instead of "whah, whah, whah" I was hearing "me, me, me, me." What these journalists don't seem to realize is that they are being disrupted. Let me explain.

Americans don't trust journalists.

A September 2011 poll conducted by Gallup found that 55% of Americans have little or no trust in journalists. I posed a question at the event to the journalists about how this fact would change the way they do their jobs. All five journalists had basically the same response: that lack of trust is towards the mainstream media, not them. The second part of my question had to do with how social media and the ability for thought leaders to self-publish would change their jobs. As an example, I said that I would rather read Rand Fishkin talk about SEO than a journalist. None of the 5 journalists knew who Rand Fishkin was. With all due respect, if you're a business journalist in 2013, you should know who Rand Fishkin is.

Business journalists rarely write about SMB companies.

When the journalists gave example of stories and work that they have done, they invariably pointed to Fortune 100 companies. I run a small business and the only way any of these journalists would ever write about me would be if I commited a heinous crime or was involved in a salacious scandal. If you're a small or mid-sized business trying to position yourself as a thought leader, why waste time trying to get traditional media coverage? You're far better off writing relevant, provocative articles targeted to your ideal customer and promoting them through social media. Even better, work on getting an industry thought leader or a satisfied customer to share your content through their social media channels.

It's difficult/impossible to measure the results of traditional media coverage.

One of the best things about inbound marketing and social media marketing is that you can measure everything. I use HubSpot's all-in-one internet marketing software and I know how many leads and customers I get from LinkedIn, how many from organic search results, etc. Can any PR people share with me how they connect real business results to media coverage? By promoting your own content through social media and inbound marketing, you can narrowcast your content to your ideal customer - those that are most likely to buy what you sell and become profitable customers.

You can control your message with social media marketing.

Earning a reputation as a thought leader in your industry isn't easy. Even if you have a wealth of experience and knowledge about your industry, you have to be able to communicate your thoughts in a way that resonates with your target audience. You also need to regularly produce content, most likely in the form of blog articles. Have you ever gone to a company blog to find that the last blog article was written 3 years ago? Would you think of that company as a thought leader? If you want to be perceived as a thought leader, you need to regularly produce blog articles that interest your target audience. We recommend that you blog no less frequently than weekly.

Social media can provide social proof.

Social proof is the concept that people are more likely to take action when they see others taking the same action. The classic example of social proof: There are 2 ice cream parlors on the same block. One has a line coming out the front door, the other is totally empty. Most people would choose the crowded ice cream parlor. The long line is social proof that they have better ice cream.

With respect to social media and traditional media, which of the following scenarios do you think carries more weight?:

1. A journalist (in whom 55% of Americans have little or no trust) writes about your company.
2. A satisfied customer shares his success story with your company on social media.

I would choose the second any day of the week.

Summary

Social media and the technology that drives it is disrupting traditional media. Yet traditional media haven't really changed the way they do business. For SMB companies, you're far better off investing time and resources in social media marketing than in traditional PR. So get started today - start writing about your experiences and how you help your ideal customers solve problems. Promote your content through social media. Seek out thought leaders, customers, partners and vendors to share your content. Most importantly, make sure to reciprocate the favors they do for you. The game is changing and the power is in our hands.

Courtesy of John Beveridge, President of Rapidan Strategies

Answer IT brings you Best Practices for Tweeting at Live Events and Industry Conferences

Industry events like trade shows, conferences and conventions have always been excellent opportunities for networking and lead generation, but the rise of Twitter has given marketers like Answer IT the ability to reach and interact with countless attendees without mobilizing their entire staff. Live-tweeting an event isn't without its pitfalls, however, and Answer IT advises it should be approached with as much care and consideration as the design of your booth, apparel and giveaways. Here are a few tips to ensure you don't commit any Twitter faux pas at your next industry event.

1. Split Up The Work

Prior to arriving at the event, decide who will be managing the brand’s Twitter account and who will be tweeting from their personal account(s). Consider having one representative tweet from the booth and another from the informational sessions. Having a game plan and roles in place will allow you to broadcast and interact from multiple vantage points; it can also help you and your team capitalize on unexpected moments as they occur.

2. Shut Up About Your Booth

While it's okay to tweet once or twice where your booth is and what kind of giveaways you have, it's important not to flood the event hashtag stream with frequent updates about your booth. Attendees know that companies are exhibiting at the event, and they’ve likely already perused the exhibitor list or even walked through the expo hall a couple of times.

Unless you have something unique and/or timely happening, avoid soliciting booth traffic directly. Instead, share photos and video of people who do visit your booth.

3. Engage With Session Attendees

If you follow any event hashtag, you'll notice that the bulk of conversation happens during the informational sessions. Keynote addresses, panel discussions and educational presentations are often live-tweeted by numerous event attendees, and represent interaction opportunities for brands (and brand representatives).

Be encouraged to jump right into discussions as they're happening—share your thoughts and questions about what's being shared with other attendees, and respond to their comments as well.

4. Let Others Do The Work For You

Rather than tirelessly live-tweeting every single word spoken in a session, consider retweeting others who are doing the same. This will get your Twitter account in front of them (by way of a retweet notification) and save you the hassle of all that typing. In addition to following the official event hashtag, set up saved searches for speaker names—especially if someone from your company is presenting. This will allow you to share positive comments that don't tag you directly.

5. Share Helpful Event News and Tips

If you really want to be a resource for event attendees, share helpful information on Twitter. For example, letting people know that lunch has been served, where the Wi-Fi is or isn't working, or where the hottest after-party is going to be are all great examples of helpful tweets that have a high probability of getting shared. You can even foster some goodwill by talking about other booths (yes, even your competitors).

6. Don't Forget About Your Other Followers

Remember: not all of your followers will be attending the event that you're live-tweeting from. Be respectful of these folks. Your tweets may not be useful at all to them, and in many cases will lack any context. Consider warning your followers at the beginning of the day that you will be live-tweeting from an event, or start off every tweet with an @account handle to cut down on what's seen by non-attendees. It goes without saying that you should always include the official event hashtag as well.

You don't want to be that one annoying brand or attendee who over-tweets or over-solicits, so stay cognizant of the volume, tone and content of conversation during the event. Follow the natural flow, and don't be afraid to let your personality shine through!

Courtesy of Steven Shattuck, Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO.

Small businesses like Answer IT should innovate the way they use social media...

With so much noise in the social media space, it can be hard for smaller businesses like Answer IT to get their message across. Therefore, Answer IT brings you a list of  some top tips to make your presence count

Social media platforms have huge potential to foster innovation in businesses of any size. They offer a space in which companies and individuals can benefit from having access to creative clusters of professionals who are willing to share their ideas.

However, this creative stock of ideas is very difficult to properly exploit, because there is also a huge level of fragmentation: the conversations are going on everywhere, all the time, and it can seem that you need significant resources to explore these virtual spaces properly.

However, small businesses can adopt some strategies learned from large corporations, in order to benefit from social media innovation.

Be in the right places

Big companies have the resources to invest in having a broad presence in the social media sphere. SMEs start from the opposite perspective, of working with fewer resources.

The best strategy in this case is to focus your attention on the social media spaces in which interesting content is more likely to appear, either from current and potential customers, or from other conversations. Instead of trying to be everywhere, an SME should start with cultivating a community in one or two social media channels at the most.

The company should investigate where its current and potential customers are, and design a strategy to reach them. A company which sell services to other companies, or small consultancies and professional firms, for instance, may find it is easier to connect using LinkedIn as the main social network.

The company should focus on matters that interest audiences. Big companies have realised social media is a space for marketing, but people become very tired of marketing-only interactions. Time is a scarce resource on social media: there are so many things to be seen and read, so people become selective about the conversations they wish to engage in. The only way of really engaging people is to start conversations which are in their interest. High quality, relevant content, from the perspective of a particular audience, is necessary to attract people to the virtual space, in order then to encourage their participation and for innovative ideas to emerge. People need to perceive a direct benefit of being connected to that particular space.

Cultivate customer communities

In addition to sharing interesting content, it is necessary to go a step further to benefit from the innovative ideas given by customers and potential customers.

Ideas come organically in any healthy community. In addition, companies may encourage the generation of ideas, for instance, by posting questions about the areas they believe it is possible to foster development. A simple question to the community may trigger an interesting discussion, bringing innovative ideas to the fore.

People give contributions when they believe their opinion matters, and when they believe their ideas will benefit themselves or others in some way. Translating these aspects into action, companies should keep up the dialogue with contributors. When a suggestion comes, the company always should give feedback, motivating the same people and others to participate.

Competitions and polls are also interesting ways of benefiting from the engagement with virtual communities. Polls are a more straightforward method for discovering particular opinions when the company already has an idea about the options to be tested with customers. In general, a poll offers a closed set of questions, thus it only works when the company wants to ask specific questions.

Competitions are more open, mostly starting from a problem to be solved, which allow contributors to bring a larger variety of ideas, from different perspectives. For instance, an SME may open a competition to choose a new logo or a new slogan for the company.

Additionally, companies should give a sort of reward to those customers who have given useful ideas. A straightforward gift (money, products or services) may be an easy solution, but is not always appropriate or possible. Especially in competitions, a gift reward may be the best option. In any case, the contributor should be praised publicly for the benefit the idea has brought to the company – and even better to the whole community – improving the quality of a product or a service. Some big companies even keep track of the best contributors, and regularly call them to networking gatherings. This is a good idea: invite the best contributors to an event, to share ideas and feedback with the company and other contributors.

Be prepared for the downside

Big companies know very well that social media can also damage their reputation. This may also happen with SMEs. Any space of interaction can bring great ideas for innovation, which may be utilised. It may also bring to light strong criticisms. Thus companies should be prepared to cope with both, with a high level of professionalism. In addition, companies need to be very diplomatic in coping in a sensible and sensitive way with those vocal contributors who have not much to say.

Magda David Hercheui is senior lecturer in project management at Westminster Business School, editor of New Media Knowledge

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional

Can The Future of Twitter Robots Tweeting at Each Other be real asks Answer IT?

Twitter is full of weird stuff none of us (including Answer IT) ever notice because it mostly just looks like spam or nonsense. But if you look closely, as Answer IT has, you'll find spies using Twitter to communicate with each other in code, environmental sensors broadcasting useful data, a toaster with 2,000 followers and an artificially intelligent chat-bot that debates deniers of climate change.

Twitter is seven years old today, but in some ways programmers have only begun to explore its utility. That’s because Twitter has, like email, become a medium unto itself.

As Jason Fried, co-founder of 37 Signals put it, email is a kind of API—that’s programmer-speak for a way to interface with a piece of software. But email is the ultimate API for humans, because everyone has an email address and even your grandmother knows how to use it.

Twitter has similar potential—it’s not an “open” standard like email, but it has other features that recommend it, mainly that instead of being person to person, it’s a truly broadcast medium. Anyone can follow any other (non-protected) stream of tweets, and programmers can build software that interacts with Twitter itself, directly—through its (machine-to-machine) API.

This means Twitter is useful as a kind of universal platform for getting machines to broadcast their status. For information that people want to make public, this is fantastic. And it’s possible for software to both post and read tweets, with no human intervention involved. That process isn't as easy as it once was, but it remains a capability of Twitter that most people don't notice because they're primarily using the service for news or socializing.

Here's what could change that: The coming of the Internet of Things. Right now toasters that tweet are useless, a novelty. But a tide gauge that tweets turns out to be very useful, and anyone can access its human-readable output via Twitter.

Despite the hype, there still aren't that many sensors in our world that are broadcasting anything of interest. But as hobbyists build and connect more to the Internet — from devices that broadcast air quality in pollution-choked Beijing to ones that keep tabs on our pets — the status of Twitter as a “universal API” alongside email will mean more traffic — and utility — for the service than ever.

Courtesy of Christopher Mims for Quartz

Answer IT wonders if Facebook's Changes will Drive Away the Teen Crowd?

This is the question being asked at Answer IT as to whether it is possible that Facebook is getting ready to abandon the teen market to concentrate on the 18-49 demographic that is so important to advertisers? Answer IT notes that this could be one conclusion from last week’s announcement that Facebook is making yet another change to the layout of the site, this time impacting the home page, or News Feed, as it is often called.

This follows suggestions that Facebook is already losing its allure for many teens, as they shift to Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and other social platforms.

Most people’s News Feeds are currently a jumble of the latest status updates, likes, photos and comments from those you're most interested in — or rather the people that Facebook thinks you're most interested in. That’s because Facebook constantly tracks the updates and comments that you actually look at, and reorders and reprioritizes content based on what they think you want to see.

Going forward, Facebook is going to give users access to additional streams, so you can see content based on topic rather than who it came from. For example, if you are interested in music, then you will be able to set up a dedicated stream for music content. Interested in cats? Then you can have a dedicated cat stream. You can even set up a stream for certain friends’ content, which will then appear unfiltered in strict chronological order.

SEE ALSO: Cellphones: A Teen's Lifeline to the Internet

The idea behind the dedicated streams is to present more of a magazine-style format, where users can drill down to the content they want. The more Facebook can organize its vast treasure trove of content, the more it can extend engagement. And the longer people spend on the site, the happier marketers will be.

But it also suggests the social media site is starting to reshape itself for the future; a future where it concentrates on the needs of adults and businesses, rather than non-wage-earning minors. And that may reflect an uncomfortable truth: with so many moms and dads clogging up its pages, Facebook is no longer the cool place to hang out for under-18s.

If my own teens are anything to go by, the latest information is being shared elsewhere, and Facebook chats are a thing of the past. There are dedicated streams from your friends onTwitter, and images galore on Instagram.

SEE ALSO: What Teens Get About the Internet That Parents Don't

It is possible that in a social media environment where being new is fifty percent of the battle, Facebook is starting to feel a little old? It feels like Facebook is at a crossroads, no longer the young, hip social network but instead a news portal, an entertainment channel, a photo gallery, and most importantly, an ad network.

Facebook is clearly searching for a new identity; it will be interesting to see how many of the younger users come along for the ride.

Courtesy of Monica Vila, Mashable

Google Maps App Update Turbo-charges Local Searches Gets A thumbs up from Answer IT

iPhone users who rely on the ultra-popular Google Maps app to get around are in for an upgrade treat.  Answer IT reports (courtesy of Samantha Murphy) that the company announced on Tuesday that it has added faster local search and new ways to find friends to the iOS platform.

The Google Maps 1.1 app — which is now available for download [iTunes link] in the Apple App Store — allows users to look for friends' addresses saved in Google Contacts, as well as tap new icons to find local establishments such as restaurants, coffee shops and bars nearby.

"Your Google Contacts are now integrated into Google Maps for iPhone — meaning that when you’re signed in and search for a friend’s name, their address will appear as a suggestion (if you have their address saved)," Google said in an official blog post.

To access those contacts, tap a name to see the address on the map. This is only visible to the user. Meanwhile, if you’re in need of a quick coffee, tap the search box and then the coffee cup icon to reveal the closest cafes to your location.

"This update is part of our goal to make Google Maps comprehensive, accurate and useful –- wherever you may be in the world," Google said in the blog post. "To that end, we’re rolling out the English version of the app in seven new countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE."

The app allows you to select kilometers or miles via the settings menu.