A new estimate from eMarketer suggests Twitter is becoming a little more of a business. The company launched its first ad product -- "promoted tweets" -- in 2010 and netted $45 million in ad dollars, according to analyst Debra Aho Williamson. That was due in part to enthusiasmamong brands like Virgin America, Coke, Ford and Verizon to give the untried format a whirl.
Ms. Williamson forecasts nice growth for the company to $150 million in 2011 and $250 million in 2012, but issues that with the following caveat: "This forecast is dependent on Twitter growing its user base substantially." Twitter has 175 million registered users worldwide, but she quotes a Pew study saying only 8% of online Americans use it.
Even with that huge user base and volume, Twitter has remained admirably lean: just 300 employees as of last fall, according toits website.
Ms. Williamson's estimate comes with a couple notes of caution. First, if Twitter continues to scale, it will pass MySpace in ad revenue in 2012, a reminder of what happens when a once high-flying social network gets on the wrong side of the consumer. Second, she notes that while brands have become willing to experiment with new mediums and technologies, it's important to deliver so they keep coming back.
"However, the company has a lot to do to live up to its hype," Ms. Williamson said. "Twitter must work overtime to give its early advertisers a positive experience."By Michael Learmonth
In March, Starbucks will celebrate their 40th anniversary with the launch of a new logo and identity. Howard Schultz says that the new logo embraces and respects their identity plus evolves the company to a point that’s more suitable to the future. In this video, the CEO says that the logo is at the core the same – the love of the coffee – but by putting the Siren outside the original logo it allows the company to move beyond just being a purveyor of coffee.
The mobile phone market had its best year in 2010 since 2006, increasing shipments 18.5% to 1.39 billion worldwide. For the fourth quarter, shipments grew 17.9%, a new quarterly high driven by smartphones, according to new data from IDC.
The figures mark a rebound from 2009, when the market declined 1.6% in the wake of the global recession. A stronger economy and the proliferation of more affordable smartphones lifted the growth rate to its highest level since the 22.6% gain in 2006.
"The mobile phone market has the wind behind its sails," said Kevin Restivo, a senior research analyst at IDC, in a statement. "Mobile phone users are eager to swap out older devices for ones that handle data as well as voice, which is driving growth and replacement cycles."
Highlighting the trend has been the rise of Chinese manufacturer ZTE, which sells mainly lower-cost feature phones in emerging markets, but is expanding its range of devices to include smartphones. ZTE surged past Apple in the fourth quarter to claim the No. 4 slot among the world's top phone makers, with shipments up 76.8% from a year ago to 16.8 million units in the fourth quarter.
Apple slipped to No. 5 despite shipping a record 16.2 million iPhones in the quarter, or 4% share of the global phone market. IDC said Apple and BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion maintained a healthy lead in the U.S., where new entrants like Dell, Huawei and Sanyo launched their first phones in the market.
The firm also noted that 4G took a step forward with the commercial launch of Verizon's 4G LTE network, though there's still a long way to go before higher speed service becomes a reality for most mobile subscribers.
A separate report released by ABI Research Friday estimated the number of handsets and smartphones shipped in the fourth quarter increased 15.6% to 390 million, and 1.36 billion for the year. ABI recently forecast the growing number of smartphones combined with better network performance will push mobile content revenue worldwide to $6 billion.
The firm advises that digital game publishers, music companies and video producers should push ahead with mobile projects. "On the other hand, non-media companies--especially those without content at hand--should take a breath," according to ABI practice director Neil Strother.
Google has created a "specialist team" to focus on the U.S. Hispanic market. John Farrell, general manager, Google Mexico, told MediaPost Thursday that the Mountain View, Calif. company developed a "methodical approach" to developing best practices that will help advertisers across all industries do a better job connecting with this market segment across search, display and mobile platforms.
Farrell admits that Google determined 1.5 years ago that the U.S. Hispanic market had become too big to ignore. "There are 46 million U.S. Hispanics, 30 million of who are online," he says. "They have about a trillion dollars in purchasing power, making it a customer segment marketers can't ignore."
Farrell points to the U.S. Hispanic market as one of Google's fastest-growing segments. During a gathering of marketers in New York today, Google will share findings from a recent study done with OTX that suggests advertising -- from search to video to display -- influences Hispanics.
In fact, U.S. Hispanics are 58% more likely to click on search ads, compared with the general population. This market segment is significantly more likely to recall online ads, particularly video ads, when looking for retail-related information. And six out of 10 made a purchase in a store as a result of seeing online advertisements while researching products -- 22% more than the general population.
U.S. Hispanics connect online. About 86% have high-speed Internet connections at home; and 78% use the Internet as their primary source of information, above TV and friends and family. While email, product reviews, and shopping are their main online activities, search is the primary online source of infoormation. Seven out of 10 use search engines multiple times daily.
Mobile also has become important to U.S. Hispanics. Many are more likely to use their devices for other purposes than voice services. For example, U.S. Hispanics text at greater rates than the general public, 64% vs. 56%; download music, 22% vs. 15%; play games, 19% vs. 15%; and access social networks, 12% vs. 10%, according to Scarborough Research.
The U.S. Hispanic market segment is worth about $5 billion across TV, radio, print and online, Farrell says, pegging online at about 4%. "The U.S. Hispanic consumers are online, watching videos, sharing on Facebook and watching content on YouTube," he adds. "Online won't replace all other media, but budgets need to be adjusted."
Farrell says Google plans to expand into other ethnic groups, too, including Asian- and African-Americans.
Mark Lopez also joins Google to lead U.S. Hispanics efforts for search, mobile and display. He says Google will help marketers to understand the market and determine the best strategy to reach the U.S. Hispanic market segment. For example, when asked if ads should appear in Spanglish, Lopez says in some cases content remains more important than language. Marketers may tweak the message to make it culturally unique.
The change comes on the heels of Google announcing its intention to add 6,125 employees in 2011. The additional head count will help sales and marketing increase their focuses on small and medium-sized businesses and marketing support for ad platforms. It also will support research and development for search, mobile, display, media and ecommerce.
As the Web is humming with Facebook and Twitter comments, what are people saying about your company and products? We’ve already seen social results show in the search engine results pages, but many predict larger algorithmic changes around social. Matt Lawson of SearchEngineLand said, “This new, more social search algorithm will allow users to rate search results or even websites, and have user ‘likes’ factored into ranking algorithms.”
Google Trends indicates the growth of specific search queries online, including “what is social media,” “what is SEO,” “twitter management,” “social media management.” All four of these queries have seen a steady growth in the last couple of years.
Mobile usage has increased globally so quickly in the last few years that many marketers are still trying to catch up. Must SEO be customized for the 2×3-inch screen? At the rate mobile apps are growing, do mobile apps need their own form of optimization?
Search engines improve search results with a more sophisticated algorithm
Last year Google gave us Google Instant and Google Preview. The front end is nicer so what is to be expected with the back end? With the onslaught of spamming, black hat and nonsense article automation, the search engines must keep providing great results. Could the search engines have something new that will affect your rankings?
Better SEO tools, including rank monitoring
SEO used to be shoot from the hip, yet in recent years, to rank it takes a lot more. SEO requires a better analytics data analysis and a strategic plan. Rand Fishkin said, “In 2011, I see several SEO software companies growing to critical mass based on the market’s demand.” Will you need software to keep up?
HTML 5 makes viewing better over multiple platforms
Browser compatibility will continue to improve to allow more HTML5-driven websites. With the use of more specific tags HTML5 may improve relevancy and indexation.
Social media takes a new role
We have watched it grow and its going to continue. Social media is here to stay but will it’s influence grow or plateau among marketers? “Since SEO is now being affected by Twitter and Facebook, data is going to have to include concise social media metrics. In addition, the applications that collect this data will need to evolve,” said Dr. Host Joepen.
SEO will become more automated
Where there is a will there is a way, and often that way must cost less to meet the will. Matt Lawson said, ”Only three things are certain in a search marketer’s life: death, taxes, and rising CPC’s (cost-per-click). To combat this cost increase, marketers will have to double down on match type and negative keyword management, creative testing and campaign structure optimization to lower costs and increase conversion rates.” Can, and will, SEO become a manufactured product?
Finding your barber, grocer, and contractor online will be just one query away. This trend is already growing with the business card of your company mapped to your location. Will this pick up for the masses? “This changes the rule so that now the site that has the most attractive/relevant preview will generate the higher number of clicks, so adding in location-based keyword analysis is going to become even more important,” said Marina Greenwood of ActivaPR.
As social media has been growing, so has the term ‘SMO’ or social media optimization. Branding and marketing tactics will alter and become more focused on social marketing. Dr. Host Joepensays, “Companies and agencies that will come out ahead of the game are the ones that start leveraging social media for scalable link-building efforts.” Google Trends shows ‘Social Media Optimization’ with small beginnings starting early 2010. Will SMO be to FaceBook as SEO is to Google?
Trust will become more important for users — “Trustbait”
As SEO has become more sophisticated, “organizations will need to develop links from more ‘neutral’ sites such as news portals or by appearing in a search engine’s own news stream”(Marina Greenwood). As people have been looking to protect their online identities, they have also looked for the trusted news media sources. To get and keep search rankings, is it going to require even more quality ‘Link bait’ than previous years? Something PR firms have been doing for years.
Bing-Facebook partnership will change how we search
The annoyance of Facebook search was that when a company wasn’t listed, you had to leave the site to find the company. Now that Bing’s results are listed on Facebook, the social media and search integration begins. “This partnership has the potential of making Facebook an individual’s (and a corporation’s) go-to social network hub AND search engine,” said Marina Greenwood.Andrew Redfern of Hitsearchlimited “Facebook listings will start to appear in more “interesting” places, while impressions and “like” data will be put to good use in its keyword ranking mechanism.” Since the news came out, search for ‘bing facebook’ has been on a dramatic rise. Could this be the game changer for online search?
