WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MOBILE?
According to Google, “47% of election-related searches took place either during or immediately after the live debate”. These findings indicate that TV and mobile go hand in hand, with TV no longer demanding a user’s full attention.
Many top retail brands are looking to incorporate QR codes in their mobile holiday campaigns. QR codes will be used in many ways this holiday season including mobile rebates, scan to purchase, scan for product information or reviews, etc. NeoMedia states that since this time last year QR codes have grown by 120%.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SEARCH?
According to the comScore September 2012 Search Engine Rankings release, Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market with 66.7 percent market share (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by Microsoft Sites with 15.9 percent and Yahoo! Sites with 12.2 percent (28.1% combined). Ask Network accounted for 3.5 percent of explicit core searches (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.8 percent (up 0.1 percentage points). All Engines experienced growth other than Yahoo!
Many times we have conversations with our clients that discuss whether or not it is worthwhile to advertise through paid search ads when they already rank high organically. Even though we have run many tests with our clients’ campaigns, Google really did a great job of summing up that 89% of ad clicks are incremental. They followed up that original study to look at it based on position as well to really show validity. Click here to view the infographic and here for the full statistical analysis.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN LOCAL?
New Gmail Search Field Trial
Since Google has had a successful run with its integration of Gmail within Google search results they’ve decided to add more features. This includes results from your Gmail appearing as you type in your query, enhanced flight tracking with a clickable link to the confirmation email, and the ability to now see results from Google Drive.
Foursquare Moving Into Local Search
In order to compete with engines like Google and Yelp, Foursquare is moving into the local search sphere. Users, whether a member or not, can search business listings with scores for each business based on an algorithm Foursquare has created that uses factors such as check-ins and tips. Though Foursquare started as a “game” with user rewards, it’s continuing to develop.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN ANALYTICS?
Don’t forget! Yahoo! Web Analytics dies on Halloween. Make sure that you plan to remove your Yahoo! Web Analytics code from your website soon.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN DISPLAY?
Research by Forrester, released early in October indicated that display advertising spend will grow 17% annually from 2012 to 2017. Interactive display media is expected to grow to $28 billion by 2017 (currently at $12.7 billion).
Nearly 57% of internet radio listeners purchase products while listening and 56% research products to purchase in the future, according to an article from MediaPost News.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN VIDEO?
Nearly 20% of US online consumers consider online video a replacement for pay TV channels, according to a recent research study from ABI Research.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SEO?
Last week (10/16), Google finally launched their backlink disavow tool in Google Webmaster Tools. What this tool does is allow you/us to tell Google directly which backlinks we would want them to disregard, so links that could be harmful to the over-all health and authority of the website. Google still recommends first going through the traditional process of reaching out to the sites directly and requesting the links be removed, and then using the disavow tool for those that do not concede. Here’s a good article about some initial observations of the tool.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SOCIAL?
Facebook Custom Audience Targeting
A new Facebook advertising opportunity allows you to reach your customers through the use of email addresses or phone numbers. We upload these lists into Facebook’s Marketplace platform through Power Editor, Facebook hashes the data against its users to create matches, and we then layer Facebook’s demo and interest targeting on top of it, creating a highly relevant audience for your advertising campaigns. Speak with your Location3 rep to get started.
Facebook EdgeRank Changes & Interest Lists
Facebook has been making some changes to EdgeRank, their algorithm for newsfeed placement. Edge Rank checker recorded a 25% drop in organic reach and it has long been known that only 16% or so of fans see posts. This has led to several brands posting canned messages asking fans to add them to a new feature, Interest Lists.
Interest Lists display in the left sidebar and are similar to Twitter lists—users can add brand or personal pages to a specific list, then view all posts from those pages in one continuous stream. While it doesn’t hurt to ask your fans to add you to Interest Lists, we do not feel it is necessary to post the canned message that is going around. We recommend posting a message in a more personal and informal way, and making it relevant to your brand or product/service.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN DESIGN?
What is this “Responsive Design” I keep hearing so much about? Find out.
An interesting point/counter-point on why you should design in a “mobile first” mindset.
Begin with the end in mind. Here is a link to a helpful article for kicking off a new project.
