Design and Marketing News @ OPD Design Agency

"...never underestimate the power of good design!" A great place to keep up to date with the latest Design News. A very useful resource for the design professional or anyone who is passionate about design, technology, gadgets, and marketing.

Social media has the power to make people and brands feel powerful.

Direct marketing professionals have been told that social media can be used to make them feel big and powerful.

Ilana Fox, writing for nma.com, said that wanting to be popular is "practically Darwinian", adding that to attract people, brands and people need to be able to stand out from the crowd.

"Regardless of social standing in the real world, we all want to elevate ourselves on social media. Companies can play a key part in the psychology of this, while ensuring increased engagement and positive sentiment for their brands," she stated.

Ms Fox went on to say that when interacting with consumers, businesses need to make them feel special, like they are the person that they rate above everyone else.

The expert went on to say that consumers need to be appreciated and valued by brands who are using social media marketing.

Earlier this year, it was found that Twitter users are more engaged than ever before with the platform, which could boost those firms using it to market products.

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A third of small brands 'now using social media on a daily basis'

More brands are turning to creative marketing services, such as Twitter and Facebook, to promote their business, according to new research.

Daryl Wilcox Publishing surveyed 269 small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and found that 54 per cent are using these websites, with 35 per cent posting updates every day.

Furthermore, it was found that 25 per cent used the portals every few days, with 17 per cent logging on once a week.

LinkedIn was revealed as the most popular creative marketing website, with 73 per cent using this, followed by Facebook (64 per cent) and Twitter (63 per cent).

Daryl Wilcox, founder of Daryl Wilcox Publishing, said: "The fact that 60 per cent have reported a positive impact on their businesses shows SMEs are becoming increasingly receptive to the benefits."

It was recently found that more people are now using Twitter on their mobile phone, something which businesses turning to social media might want to explore.

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SEO v PPC marketing for small businesses

One expert has highlighted some of the different benefits offered to small businesses by search optimisation and pay per click (PPC) strategies.

Tom Chant of Search Engine Watch said the first step in any marketing effort is carrying out "in-depth research" into keywords to get a feel for the viability of a campaign.

Once this is complete, brands need to choose their approach carefully.

Boosting a small firm's online profile through search engine optimisation (SEO) will often require upfront investment – particularly if a site is completely new and unknown to search engine crawlers – and breaking into results pages can sometimes be a "fuzzy process".

However, SEO will potentially deliver higher levels of traffic than paid ads and its benefits will continue even if investment is stopped.

By comparison, PPC campaigns tend to deliver an immediate return and, unlike optimisation, they are "completely measurable" with results tied directly to particular actions.

The choice of PPC or SEO will depend on a particular brand's business and audience, so developing a knowledge base about their different features and timescales is crucial in picking the right option, Mr Chant noted.

Figures from Econsultancy show that 60 per cent of British companies plan to increase their spending on optimisation efforts this year, while 52 per cent will up their budgets for paid search.

 

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SEO and creating good blogs

You probably see a lot of blogs on the Internet and you may have tried creating a blog on your own for the website that you have, but if you are not using them correctly you probably are not going to see that they can really work. If you do want to create a successful blog that can help your website improve, the key is to learn how to start using SEO tools to make it better. Here are a few ideas that you can try out when you are going to be creating a good blog. Read more......

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Integrating Social Media for Marketing Purposes

Internet marketers and aficionados are flocking to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook for anything and everything. From meeting people to building a business, social media has become the preferred tool of many. Network Marketers are no exception. Read more....

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Making the most of Twitter

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The common factor? Twitter, the free (at present) service which lets you send a 140-character message, or "tweet", to a site where anyone can read it, though it will only be sent directly to those who have chosen to "follow" you (though if you want, you can pick and choose who you allow to follow you). Read more..... 

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How The Top 10 U.S. Airlines Use Facebook

We all know that social media, and Facebook in particular, are increasingly important marketing channels. The travel industry, which I take a

 close interest in, has been one of the early adopters for social media marketing. Travel tech websiteTnooz recently had a story about how the top 10 airlines worldwide used Facebook.

The Tnooz list was dominated by European and Asian airlines since it was based on IATA data on the scheduled international passengers in 2009 and U.S. airlines derive the bulk of their traffic from domestic flights. (In fact, American Airlines was the only U.S. entry on the list). This got me wondering about the massive U.S. market, so I did some research of my own.

My list is of the top 10 U.S. airlines, based on 2009 data from the Air Transport Association. They ranked the airlines by the industry-standard measure of “available seat mile” or ASMs - one seat transported one mile. (For example, an aircraft with 100 passenger seats, flown a distance of 100 miles, produces 10,000 ASMs).

There were certainly some interesting results. Delta Air, the biggest airline when including Northwest, is also the only one with ticketing functionality built into its Facebook page. (Some others would let you search on the page but the actual results would open in a new window on the corporate website).

Size of the airline doesn’t always translate into ‘likes’ - Southwest was ranked fourth in terms of ASMs but it was the biggest airline on Facebook by far, with over 900,000 ‘likes’ - 22 times more fans than Delta. The second biggest was JetBlue with just over 300,00 ‘likes’, even though the airline was only ranked seventh over all. (Facebook figures were correct at the time of publication).

Please let us know in the comments about your experiences with airlines on Facebook. Which airlines are getting it right? How important should Facebook be in airlines’ overall marketing strategy?

Delta
1. Delta Air + Northwest

ASMs: 196.5 million

Facebook likes: 40,869

Seemingly alone among all major U.S. airlines, Delta Airlines has integrated ticketing functions into its Facebook page. You can book on Delta flights without leaving the Facebook page, under the Book A Trip tab. The Wall tab defaults to ‘Just Delta; and is currently being used to promote the launch of the Delta iPhone app and destinations such as Hong Kong. Delta’s Info tab advises that it cannot deal with all complaints on Facebook and feedback requiring a response should be sent via the website, by tweeting@DeltaAssist or sending a letter. I couldn’t find a separate company-run page for Northwest.

Aacom
2. American Airlines

ASMs: 151.7 million

Facebook likes: 71,465

American Airlines’ Facebook page defaults to the Wall, with the ‘Just AA’ filter. It is used to convey information about the frequent flyer program and conduct promotions such as a ticket giveaway for the upcoming John Legend & the Roots concert in New York City. Separate tabs promote AA’s iPhone app, in-flight wifi service and Twitter and YouTube accounts. AA’s Info tab advises that it does not deal with complaints on Facebook and advises feedback to be sent via the website.

Unitedcom
3. United Airlines

ASMs: 122.5 million ASMs (to increase after merger with Continental)

Facebook likes: 149,526

The United Airlines Facebook page has not been around long, making its following of nearly 150,000 especially impressive. One of the main factors is likely to be the round-trip ticket giveaway sweepstakes for people who ‘like’ the page, which started on July 27 to celebrate the launch of the page. Currently the page defaults to a ‘Win A Flight’ tab with details of the promotion, which runs until September 22. The Wall has United Airlines + Others set as the default filter, and has a lot of travelers exchanging information and asking questions. The page’s Info tab says the airline welcomes honest feedback, though it reserves the right to correct factual errors. In the left-hand sidebar, visitors are told that if they need a response they should contact customer relations via the website or by mail.

Southwest
4. Southwest Airlines

ASMs: 98.0 million

Facebook likes: 913,816
Southwest Airlines has been using social media for a while and it shows - the airline is well on its way to reaching a million ‘likes’ on its Facebook page. Currently the page opens at a tab labeled More LUV, with an Orlando vacation package giveaway and streams pulled in from Twitter and YouTube. The Wall defaults to Southwest + Others and shows active engagement from fans; currently there is quite a bit of discussion about Hurricane Earl plus people asking Southwest to start serving their city. Playing off its selling point of no fees for checked bags, Southwest also has a ‘Bags Fly Free’ tab. This provides another forum for people to post short messages, which they can post on their own Facebook profiles via a tick box, and also has fun quizzes about what airlines might charge for next, with possible answers such as toilet paper or seat belts. A sidebar on the left advises customers are to direct complaints or specific issues to the customer service team.

Continental
5. Continental Airlines

ASMs: 94.3 million (to increase after merger with United)

Facebook likes: 28,187
I’m not sure who got there first but Continental Airlines has its Facebook page at facebook.com/continentalairlines, while facebook.com/continental leads to a German company that makes tires, brake systems and other automotive parts. The page opens to a Travel Advice tab where you can ask advice, give advice or read advice, with recent posts including questions about traveling on a soon-to-expire passport. The Wall defaults to the Just Continental Airlines filter and recent updates include information about rerouting for Hurricane Earl and announcements about competition winners. The ‘More…’ tab includes a Twitter stream and flight info search, with results opening in a new page on Continental.com. A notice in the left-hand sidebar advises customers to direct complaints to the customer service team via the website or mail, if they require a response.

Usairways1
6. US Airways

ASMs: 70.7 million

Facebook likes: 7,420
The US Airways page has a single post dated August 19, which says: “We plan to build out this Facebook page more in the near future. In the meantime, we encourage you to follow us on Twitter where you can get our latest news and updates.” I found the page only because they had the simple URL facebook.com/USAirways; a search for US Airways turned up mostly community pages with Wikipedia content.

Jetblue
7. JetBlue Airways

ASMs: 32.6 million

Facebook likes: 316,033
Unusually, the JetBlue Facebook page defaults to the Info tab, which includes selling points such as extra leg room and the availability of free DIRECTTV. Like its close competitor Southwest, the airline is very active on social media and this has resulted in an impressive 316,033 ‘likes’ on its page - the second highest of any major U.S. airline. The Wall defaults to Just JetBlue Airways, with posts updating

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Measuring social media marketing success

Social media has changed the marketing landscape almost beyond recognition. Businesses of every size can now connect with their customers, competitors and peers in a way that was unimaginable just a couple of years ago.

But social media marketing remains a pretty confused (and confusing) field. Many firms are entering the realm of social media simply because they feel like they should – without having formulated any coherent way of measuring its performance.

It can be difficult to put a sterling value on social media marketing efforts. But here are some ways that you can measure, improve and quantify the success your social media activities.

Identify your metrics

Fans, friends and favourites
This is perhaps the most obvious range of metrics to measure. Twitter followers, Facebook fans, Digg links and so on constitute the bedrock on which many social media campaigns are built.

Referrals
Many marketers measure the success of a social media campaign by looking at the number of page views generated. This is obviously a particularly useful metric for informational, rather than transactional websites.

Interaction
Social media marketing is useless if you are simply talking to yourself. So, you might also choose to measure levels of interaction. For example, how many times are you retweeted, and how frequently do users share your posts on Facebook? How many comments do your blog posts generate? This is also a useful way of determining the quality of your output on your chosen social media channels; users will generally only share content that is of particular interest or of particularly high quality – so the higher your levels of interaction, the more successful your efforts.

Influencers
Of course, not all followers are of equal importance. Consider retweets on Twitter. While every retweet is welcome, some are more valuable than others. A retweet from a user with 1,000 followers obviously seems more valuable than one from a user with 10 followers. The user with 1,000 followers is likely to be more of an influence within their own network.

But numbers aren’t necessarily everything. Those 1,000 followers might be in a field completely different to yours. In these cases, a retweet from a user with 100 followers, each with interests similar to yours, may actually be more valuable.

Influence is therefore very difficult to measure, but is an important concept that should be at the forefront of your social media efforts.

Conversions
If you are selling something tangible, you will also probably want to measure conversions. Can you see a sales increase concurrent with a social media campaign? Do certain products perform better than others? Do you see an increase in leads but no improvement in your conversion rate? All of these observations can help you improve your campaigns.

Customer attrition
Social media can also help you maintain existing customers. Building your brand through social media can encourage a sense of loyalty amongst your customer base – and, in turn, reduce customer churn. You may therefore want to measure your customer retention rates.

Benchmark and monitor

It is important to remember that ‘snapshots’ of these metrics are not useful on their own. You can only measure performance by continually monitoring these figures over an extended period of time. This will help you to identify trends, and determine the impact of your campaigns.

You should also consider benchmarking your social media performance against your other marketing channels. This will help you to determine which marketing channels yield the best results for your business.

Remember SEO

The impact of social media on SEO is often overlooked. Imagine the situation: you share a link to your site on Twitter, and it is retweeted a few dozen times. The link is seen by a blogger, who writes about it. The blog entry appears in the RSS feeds of other bloggers and social media users, who in turn share it or blog about it. In this way you have begun to generate links that are not just generating visits – they are also bolstering your PageRank.

Think about PR

‘Conventional’ media outlets are increasingly turning to social media in an effort to dig up stories. Generate a big enough buzz on social media, and you stand a pretty good chance of having your story picked up offline.

But social media has also changed the PR landscape rather more fundamentally. Through social media, businesses can connect with existing and potential customers in an increasingly direct way. At the same time, though, bad news spreads much faster; just think about the Paperchase Twitter fiasco earlier this year. Social media has the power to do great damage to your brand, so it is vital that you keep track of what is being said about you online.

Social media is gradually transforming the way businesses interact with their customers. Its potential is almost limitless. But, if you are to make the most of these tools, you must ensure that you are measuring your performance effectively.

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Business Benefits From Good SEO

For most new Internet business owners, the most difficult area of their operation is to direct traffic to their site. With millions of websites competing for readership, this becomes a huge challenge, and one that can only be dealt with successfully through good Search Engine Optimization (SEO). These are practices that can bring your site to the top pages of major search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and MSN. Once your website is optimized with proper keyword selection, content and website design, online readers can easily find your site, as it will be seen among the top search engine results whenever they type in the keywords that you have on your site.


SEO experts can assist you with your online goals, and offer services that will bring your site right in front of your target market. Good SEO professionals are well trained in the key concepts of SEO, which include web design, keyword optimization, content building, link building, article marketing, forum postings, etc. They often keep themselves updated with the latest trends in search engine practices, and are aware of what is being popularly searched at the moment. With various software and online tools, it is now possible to do these tasks and create an SEO plan that suits your Internet business requirements.


Doing an SEO campaign can be quite tedious, and not all Internet business owners would have the time nor the knowledge to optimize their sites and improve their online revenues. It is a lot easier to just outsource their SEO requirements to reputable SEO companies, that know how to strategize and aim for their target markets. Outsourcing provides many online entrepreneurs the extra time to improve their customer relations, develop new products, conduct research and improve their product lines.

Other useful business marketing blogs can be found at

http://www.opdmarketingdesign.co.uk

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OPD Design Agency's News: Join the conversation on our new Facebook 'Like' page

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"...never underestimate the power of good design!" 

A great place to keep up to date with the latest Design and Marketing News.

A very useful resource for the design professional or anyone who is passionate about design, technology, gadgets, and marketing. Click on the link below

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