Popular Articles on Business 2 Community |
- USA Twitter Trends of the Week (Week Ending 1/17/2014)
- Top Emerging SEO Tools To Use In 2014
- 12 Ways Social Media Could Leave You Needing A Lawyer
- The 10 Best Marketing Infographics of 2013
- 22 Social Media Facts and Statistics You Should Know in 2014
- 9 Myths About Social Media
- What You Could Expect from Pinterest in 2014
- Top 8 Reasons Why Companies Outsource [Infographic]
| USA Twitter Trends of the Week (Week Ending 1/17/2014) Posted: 17 Jan 2014 08:13 PM PST With hundreds of millions of daily tweets and search inquiries in the United States alone, Twitter is rich with conversations and news updates. Our USA Twitter Trends of the Week captures the top trending discussions and breaks them down for you. Top Overall Trend of the Week: Golden GlobesThe Golden Globes were everywhere this week, from your TV screen to your computer and mobile devices. Twitter was lit up with talk of the fashion (who's hot and who is most definitely not), the drama (you didn't hear about Gabourey Sidibe's Tweet?) and of course the winners. 12 Years a Slave took it home, winning Best Motion Picture (Drama), while Leonardo DiCaprio and Amy Adams took home trophies for Wolf of Wallstreet and American Hustle. Spike Jonze had the Best Screenplay for Her, and Alfonso Cuaron took home Best Director for Gravity. To see the rest of the winners, take a look here. David O. Russell, Megan Ellison & Matthew Budman after #AmericanHustle's Best Picture win at the @GoldenGlobes! pic.twitter.com/zIrPBpD5kO — American Hustle (@AmericanHustle) January 13, 2014 It was tough, but somehow we narrowed it down! Here are the top 8 fashion trends from the #GoldenGlobes: http://t.co/ZzPaFwTong — InStyle (@InStyle) January 14, 2014 Top Sports: NFL PlayoffsSundays in January just would not be the same without Football Playoffs. As another week wound down we saw another four teams bite the dust: the Seahawks took the Chiefs 23-15, Patriots took the Colts 43-22, Broncos over the Chargers 24-17 and finally the 49ers over the Panthers 23-10. Twitter saw all kinds of playoff talk. What have we learned? That cheerleaders are some people's favorite players, the NFL is talking about extending the playoffs and football fans across the country have a great time talking shop. #NFL cheerleaders are an important part of the game! Check out our best of divisional playoffs http://t.co/JmhIFYxpIN pic.twitter.com/hEJTWmq2JA — Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) January 12, 2014 It's not a "lazy Sunday" if your plan is to watch the NFL playoffs all day. It's an "intense Sunday." — ESPN (@espn) January 12, 2014 Top Tech: NestGoogle's $3.2-billion acquisition of Nest (a company which sells smart thermostats and smart smoke detectors) had Twitter buzzing, especially after a penny stock with a similar name made significant gains after confusion by investors. Nestor, who sells traffic enforcement systems to governments, saw its stock price make a bizarre 1900% jump this week, after investors confused it with Nest. What can we say, if you are looking to invest and can't tell the difference between Nest and Nestor- maybe you should save your money. Google buying Nest is just more evidence that the physical world is the future of the internet http://t.co/nrZhNJFmo7 — Harvard Biz Review (@HarvardBiz) January 14, 2014 If your house is burning down you'll now get gmail ads for fire extinguishers Top Video: Devil Baby AttackIf you were on social media at all this week, you likely caught the Devil Baby Attack video that was circulated on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. This promotional stunt for the movie Devil's Due that is coming out this week got more attention then expected: it received 30-million views in just 3 days. I'm sorry, but I think the Devil Baby thing is one of the funniest things I've seen in months. Makes me crack up every time I see the video. — Kristina (@krislintz) January 17, 2014 Want to check in on Twitterers around the globe were talking about this week? Take a look at our Top Global Twitter Trends.  |
| Top Emerging SEO Tools To Use In 2014 Posted: 17 Jan 2014 07:11 AM PST Whether you're just getting started with SEO or have been at it a while, online SEO tools are always going to be helpful. Unfortunately, keeping up with all of the new SEO tools and new upgrades can be overwhelming. You can continue to use your old tools, but as more time passes more of your competitors will be upgrading to tools with more advanced features, and in 2014 we actually see new tools emerging that can give marketers access to data that wasn't even available in the past. To learn about some of these new tools I talked with Scott Langdon, Managing Partner of the nationally recognized SEO firm HigherVisibility. He started by explaining that an easy way to get started is to put all of the tools into categories. The list below comes straight from Langdon and features not just any old SEO tools, but those that are considered up and coming (not well known and/or created over the last few years) this New Year: Link Building and Analytics
Content Management
Social Media
A Few Extra Tips Regarding SEO Tools in 2014 There is such a thing as using tool many SEO tools, so I usually say aim to use ten or less. In the past I have tried tools that seem to "do it all" specifically so I wasn't working with a lot of tools, but I found this to be much more trouble than it's worth. Try not to use two tools that do the same thing, but don't be afraid to use what might seem like a lot (marketer Eric Covino explained on SEOBook that at one point he was using 40 different tools). Use a few daily and a few monthly and remember to always look for upgrades and new tools emerging. Do you know of any SEO tools that are going to be popular and important in 2014? Anything you have used in the past that you think isn't getting the recognition it deserves? Photo Credit: thinkstockphotos.com; Photographer and Copyright: loiren  |
| 12 Ways Social Media Could Leave You Needing A Lawyer Posted: 17 Jan 2014 06:30 AM PST  These days, social media updates can come from anywhere anytime. The uses of social media are practically endless. New platforms are popping up all over the place, and every platform has features that allow organisations to engage with customers in different ways. From the visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram to the more informative platforms like Twitter and Facebook, social media is a powerful tool that every business should incorporate into its online marketing mix. With that power comes a high level of responsibility. Plenty of organisations have failed to pin, post, and tweet responsibly, and they have paid for it in more ways than one. Learn from the mistakes of others, and avoid these 13 social media blunders. 1) Being Vulgar, Obnoxious, Or ConfrontationalVulgar language and obnoxiousness might get you a little attention in the short run, but in the long run, it will probably do some brand damage. When it comes to exemplifying the importance of avoiding confrontation, there is no better example than Amy's Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro. They have been given the distinct honor of having The Most Epic Brand Meltdown on Facebook Ever. After being featured on a national American television show, the bakery's customers took to Facebook to express their dissatisfaction with the way the owners treated the host of the show. Of course, the owners didn't hold back on their criticism of their own customers. Here's a little taste of what was said. You can read more about the story here. It's a perfect (and pretty entertaining) example of what not to do. Action Steps: - Confronting conflict typically creates more conflict. 2) Failing To Keep Corporate ConfidentialityWith the introduction of so many social media apps, posting has become easy—too easy. Not everything should be public news. Just ask Gene Morphis, CFO for Francesca's, a women's clothing retailer. Last year at a private board meeting, she tweeted, "Board meeting. Good numbers=Happy Board." This might seem like an innocent little comment, but it was considered selective information, which is illegal. Their stock spiked 15%, and Morphis lost her job after an investigation lead to the discovery of other similar social media activity. Action Step: - Assess where you are on the corporate ladder. 3) Putting The Wrong Person In ChargeBuilding a strong social media presence takes time and creativity. On top of all the other challenges small business owners face, social media marketing can easily be pushed to the side. It's easy to hand over the social media marketing duties to an intern or to a lower-level employee, but that could be a big mistake. Every post, tweet, and pin reflects your brand. Leaving that responsibility to an amateur is asking for trouble because you (and your brand) are liable for those comments. Chrysler once dropped the F-bomb in a tweet and attracted a whole bunch of bad publicity because of a lower-level employee mishap. Don't let that be you. Action Steps: - Control your own destiny; take the social media responsibilities upon yourself. 4) Confusing A Reply With A Direct Message On TwitterWe've all had that scare. You know, the one where you can't remember whether you hit "reply all" or just "reply" when sending that sarcastic email about your supervisor's new haircut. Sending a reply instead of a direct message on Twitter is a similar situation. The only difference is that a reply doesn't just go to your entire company . . . it goes to the entire world. American Congressman Anthony Weiner once tweeted a picture of his–well–lower half that was intended as a direct message. It ended up being a career-killer. Talk about airing your dirty laundry. Replies begin with the @ symbol, and everyone can see them. Always remember that. Action Step: - Double check—no, triple check—that you're sending the right kind of message, even if the message is just a simple response to a customer inquiry. 5) Insensitivity To Natural DisastersWhen a disaster hits and a term is trending, the last thing you should do is try to profit from it. In the United States, when a hurricane struck the East Coast and prevented millions of Americans from leaving their homes, a number of businesses tweeted promotions like this one. Making light of a serious situation is a terrible way to attract new customers, and it makes your brand look a little shady. Action Step: - When a natural disaster hits, either post something genuine or don't post anything at all. 6) Insensitivity To Personal StrugglesSimilar to the point made above, it seems more businesses need to keep things in perspective. Just because you can profit from a situation doesn't always mean you should. Take this post for example, which uses a little boy battling cancer as a means to collect likes and shares. There are plenty of other ways this company could have showed its support. Their effort is pretty transparent. Action Step: - Remember that sometimes it's not about the bottom line. 7) Getting PoliticalEvery country has its issues. Whether you have a strong opinion, a moderate opinion, or no opinion at all, it shouldn't matter. You shouldn't be posting that kind of information on a corporate social media account. Even if a politically related post seems harmless, or even if it's true, there will always be a demographic that disagrees with you. Few things get people more fired up than politics, and the last thing you want to do is annoy a large segment of your customers. Chick-fil-A once brought both religion and politics into the conversation when an employe posted about their biblically-based principles. It took some time for that conversation to quiet down. Action Steps: - Stay neutral when it comes to politics. 8) Failing To Understand Social Media BasicsWe already talked about the difference between Twitter replies and direct messages. With that said, make sure you have understand how to use each social media platform. This includes knowing how to switch between a personal social media account and a corporate account. Don't go liking and pinning everything in sight on your break without making sure you're pinning and liking under the right account. Privacy settings tend change, so stay up-to-date. CVS Pharmacy once created the twitter handle @CVS_Cares and encouraged customers to provide feedback. Unfortunately, the account was locked so no one could even see the tweets without requesting permission. Action Steps: - Take your time when posting. 9) Neglecting Social Media SecurityIf you fire the social media guy, change the passwords. Even if you don't plan on ever firing him or if you're the only person who ever uses your accounts, change the passwords at least once every six months anyway. All it takes to kill a reputation is one tweet from a disgruntled worker or one post from a hacker who happened guess your password. As soon as the post is out there, the damage is done. Just ask HMV. When the company needed to lay off a handful of workers, their 21-year-old social media planner started tweeting about the "mass execution." "We're tweeting live from HR where we're all being fired! Exciting!! #hmvXFactorFiring" This was one of many tweets that reached their 70,000 followers. Action Step: - Increase security and protect your passwords. 10) Posting Lies Or Misleading InformationThe makers of the Ab Circle Pro, a workout machine meant to quickly strengthen your core, paid out $25 million in refunds because advertisements claimed that using the machine for just 3 minutes was equivalent to doing 100 sit ups. That claim was proved false pretty quickly. Social media makes lying even easier and even more tempting. Sometimes it's hard to sit back and watch other businesses expand their presence while you've been stuck at the same follower count for three months. Don't give in to the temptation to post misleading information. It will cost you in the long run. Action Steps: - Be careful with what you're claiming—can you deliver? 11) Automated Tweets And ResponsesBesides being annoying, setting your Twitter account up to re-tweet every tweet that mentions your brand could spell disaster. Not every mention of your businesses is going to be a positive one. By automating re-tweets, you are spreading negative messages and making yourself look unprofessional. American Air is a perfect example of why this is a bad idea. Automating is easy, but it's not engagement. It's impossible to predict customer opinions, so it's best to respond to them as they come. Action Steps: - Get rid of automated responses. 12) Failing To Understand The Context Of A SituationHashtags are everywhere these days, and they can help your brand's message take off. They can also cause some serious embarrassment. Don't blindly hashtag random terms without first researching them to see what people are talking about in relation to those terms. In one instance, a business tweeted, "Who's #notguilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?!" This would have been fine had there not been a controversial trial going on at the same time where the defendant was found not guilty. Luckily for this company, they were talking about tasty treats and not something that could have thrown them into some serious trouble. Action Steps: - Know who your message is reaching. Final ThoughtsSocial media works because it makes real-time information available to everyone, and it's relatively un-censored compared to other marketing channels. Customers like getting a glimpse into their favorite organisations through this un-censored material. Just because you can say anything you want doesn't mean you should. Always take a long-term approach to social media and ask yourself before every post, what could be the consequences of this? What social media mishaps have you experienced? Share them with us in the comments! Image 1: Flickr  |
| The 10 Best Marketing Infographics of 2013 Posted: 17 Jan 2014 04:55 AM PST The world of digital marketing underwent many changes in 2013. These top ten marketing infographics highlight the biggest changes and how you should respond to them. In September 2013, Google rolled out a new algorithm release called Hummingbird. The bottom line was to make search more human and provide more relevant results. It's estimated that it has impacted on 90% of searches. How these changes affect digital marketing is laid out in this handy infographic. 2. Is Mobile Internet Taking Over Desktop Usage? It's been predicted that 2014 will be the year that mobile internet usage finally overtakes desktop usage. As this marketing infographic shows, the implications for digital marketing are huge – content now needs to be created so it can be easily read on smaller screens while on the go. 3. The year of responsive web design A responsive website is one that's built to respond to a user's environment, including screen size and operating system. With more people owning more devices – 90% of people use multi-screens frequently – it's an important development, allowing customers a seamless experience of your brand online. 4. Photographidemic: It’s a visual takeover! The rise of visual social networks such as Pinterest and Instagram show that a picture really is worth a thousand words. With over 35 million registered Instagram users and an average of 5 million pins a day on Pinterest, visual content is going nowhere fast as this infographic reveals. 5. The power of brand advocacy In this age of social media, advocates have never been more important or, as this infographic shows, more powerful. Advocates have been shown to drive ten times more action than that of paid-for impressions, proving that not only are social sharers a powerful marketing force to be reckoned with, but that they are also extremely cost effective. 6. Ingredients for perfect real-time marketing People consume digital media in a very different way now – tablets and smartphones mean they can access the web anywhere, anytime – and they expect to be kept up-to-date with everything in real time. As this marketing infographic shows, get the ingredients right and real-time marketing can lead to greater engagement with your target audience. Native advertising is a new way of getting the attention of younger consumers. Instead of using traditional pop-ups and banners, native advertising is content designed to sit seamlessly in whatever platform it appears on. And it works – one in four 18-34 olds said branded content like this was more likely to make an impression on them. 8. The irresistible rise of Google Plus Google Authorship soared in popularity in 2013. Successful implementation has been shown to help click through rates in organic search. If that's not enough, seeing a friendly face next to content has the power to humanise your brand – something that hasn't always been easy in the faceless world of digital. Content marketing went from strength to strength – 93% of B2B marketers took to content marketing in 2013. With the change in Google's algorithm, creating good quality content will help not only help user engagement, but also your rankings. 10. The Business of Gamification Gamification is the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game arenas, such as online marketing, to make them more fun and engaging. It may seem a bit gimmicky, but by making marketing content enjoyable for the consumer, it increases stickiness. This infographic lays out the benefits and demonstrates some great business examples. Infographics are a great way to catch readers’ attention and create buzz around your brand. To find out more about the art of drawing your readers in with great content download the Eguide: How to successfully pull your customers in  |
| 22 Social Media Facts and Statistics You Should Know in 2014 Posted: 16 Jan 2014 08:13 PM PST There was a tipping point last year that has major implications for business and brands. It will impact publishing and marketing. One of the worlds biggest music stars ignored the traditional mass media product launching process. She bypassed the traditional mass media release of a radio campaign, multiple TV appearances and retail and consumer brand promotions. Instead she announced it on Instagram to her 8 million followers with the word "Surprise" and proceeded to launch the 14 songs and accompanying 17 videos on iTunes. It was a success and it exceeded the album downloads of the previous album which had used the traditional marketing model. Its a trend that is not going away anytime soon. Build your own networks now!Businesses who are relentless in building a following on social media are in fact creating their own publishing platforms, growing their marketing channels and content distribution networks. It is a digital asset that grows every year. Over time it can can provide huge leverage and marketing independence if done right. So with that in mind let's have a look at where the major social media networks are up to at the start of 2014. Social web demographicsSocial media is a blur of tweets, shares and content. No longer is it just used by the young and the restless. It is global and embedded in every corner of the web. So some questions. Which age groups are using social media, what countries are big Facebook users and what percentage are using mobile to access social media? This is the who and the where of social media users.
The paradigm of social media only being used by the younger generation should be put to rest now. Facebook is still the biggest kid on the block, but there are some pundits predicting that by 2016 Google+ will surpass Facebook on "social sharing". Here are some of the latest figures to mull over.
Google+Prying the numbers out of Google for Google+ has always been a challenge. A bit like getting a date with the prettiest girl in the class. Not impossible but it doesn't happen very often. So what are the latest numbers?
When you consider that it has only been around for not even 3 years yet then it is a success on many levels. So Google must be happy with with its investment which is north of $500 million that it initially invested in Google+ Twitter has to be taken seriously. Last year it took off its short pants and become a public company. So what is happening in the Twittersphere?
Twitter has also made some changes in the last few months that has made it more visual and engaging. Business should no longer be ignoring the 140 character pip squeak. The othersWe haven't mentioned some important social media channels these include. Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumblr, Vine, Slideshare and many others. This year expect the visual social media networks to hit more home runs. Keep an eye on these two:
Here is an Infographic from Search Engine Journal that provides a visual medium for the social media facts and statistics you should know in 2014. Source of Infographic: Search Engine Journal What about you?Any surprises? Are you growing your social networks fans and followers? Which social network works best for you. Look forward to your stories and insights in the comments below Want to learn how to make your blog, business and content a success with social media marketing?My book – "Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media" – will show you how.  |
| Posted: 16 Jan 2014 04:04 PM PST There are about as many myths about social media as there are social media platforms. Here are a few that I hear and read a lot. I wanted to clear them up for my students. I hope you find them helpful too. 1. Social media are a fad.Social media allow people to communicate and interact. They build community. That will never go out of style. The tools may change, but online communication isn't going anywhere. 2. Social media are just for young people.Social media have a diverse population. More than 70 percent of American adults use social networking sites, according to the Pew Research Center's most recent report. More than 40 percent of Americans 65 and older use social media, according to the same report.
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| What You Could Expect from Pinterest in 2014 Posted: 16 Jan 2014 07:39 AM PST 9 Pinterest Predictions for 2014
Back in early October 2013, Pinterest made the announcement that they were working on placing advertising in search results. This was known as “Promoted Pins.” It was considered a hot topic among the social media community. Yet, with all the buzz around promoted pins, it seems that no one I know has seen these elusive pins. With $338 million in funding, there’s no doubt that there’s pressure to start monetizing the site. I would imagine that Pinterest is currently working on partnerships with select retailers and businesses like Zappos and Whole Foods. This probably won’t kick in until they’ve fully tested out “Related Pins.” Related pins are pins suggested by Pinterest that you may like based on what you search for on Pinterest and what websites you visit. (You can turn off the option of Pinterest knowing what sites you visit, but they can still track your Pinterest search activity. That’s right…there’s no real privacy.) Pinterest also bought out VisualGraph, a visual recognition engine. Pinterest, for a long time, has relied less and less on text data for search results and more and more on visual data for search results. The Pinterest algorithm associates certain colours and pictures with specific words. At the moment there are several complaints about how related pins occupy too much of a Pinterest user’s home feed, while other Pinterest accounts have a more balanced approach. Here’s a screen shot of what related pins looks like. I wasn’t able to find related pins on my Android App. If anybody could let me know if they’ve seen them on the iPad or the iPhone that would be great! (Just let us know in the comments.) 2) Additional Rich Pin Content Rich pins are snippets of information that can be found accompanied by pins. At the moment rich pins are offered for articles, recipes, movies, and places. This additional information can be very useful in having Pinterest users click through on the actual pin.  Rich Pins can offer an extra advantage by bolding the title of a product, movie, place or article. Place pins is definitely a great add on for Pinterest, but there are so many different categories that will be able to use rich pin content. We’re only at the tip of the iceberg. There are still so many ways that Pinterest can take advantage of schemas and Open Graph tags to provide additional information. I strongly suggest that if you’re into Pinterest to start understanding more about schemas and Open Graph as rich pins are not going away. I would imagine that many non profits would like to get their hands on creating rich pin data for rich pins created for organizations. Since any rich pin must go through a validation process, it’s going to be checked by someone at Pinterest to make sure that the account isn’t trying to be a copycat. I would imagine people being reluctant to click on a pin that ask you to donate money, because it can lead to a scam site. But if a rich pin could validate that a pin did officially come from a charity, like the Red Cross organization, then you would feel much more relaxed to donate. We should be expecting more rich pin type of content for 2014. 3) Crack Down on Pinterest Contests and Sweepstakes Let’s be honest, if you’ve ever seen those “Pin it to Win it” contests that are out there, and you know the terms and agreements set out by Pinterest, you know that a lot of companies violate those rules. And many still use the “Pin it to Win it” slogan, which is against Pinterest’s guidelines. Pinterest has been pretty lenient in that they haven’t cracked down on companies for violating those rules. But as the company moves forward to monetizing their site, don’t be surprised if they start cracking down the whip hard on some companies. At the moment they view contests as hurting a user’s experience with Pinterest because it “forces” users to pin from a selection and gamifies the network. Here’s what I believe the big reason for contests being cracked down on. Contests will hurt their advertising model. If businesses are able to get their pins to spread on Pinterest through incentives such as $100 gift cards and have that reach over 200,000 people then that’s pretty damn good money spent. This gives less incentive for those same businesses to advertise with Pinterest. From what I’ve read and understand the rules about Pinterest contests, it really comes down to this – let people pin what they want. 4) Pinterest Becomes the 2nd Largest Social Sharing Site for News Don’t be suprised that Pinterest takes over Twitter as the place to share articles and news. Pinterest was able to dominate social sharing on iPads, consisting of 48.2% of the shares according to a study done by ShareThis, this was a huge lead over Facebook. It has already been shown that Pinterest drives more traffic to online publishers than Twitter, Linkedin and Reddit combined. But what’s fascinating to see is how Pinterest gained a 20% news share. This is something that online publishers, magazines, and news content providers need to pay attention to. Social sharing for Facebook book dropped in the third quarter of 2013 which made up of 41% of the sharing. Twitter was 30%. Here’s the interesting logic of it all, there are 232 million active users on Twitter, as of the time of this writing. But there are 70 million global users on Pinterest. Disproportionately, Pinterest is kicking some serious butt in Twitter’s face in terms of social sharing for news. I would strongly advise that digital “print” media prep up for this on Pinterest. I understand that copyright of pictures on their news sites may be a concern, but instead of fighting about it, it’s time for these news organizations to embrace it. (After all, you can’t stay still in the world of digital media, or else you’ll lose out to the next competitor who is taking advantage of Pinterest.) 5) Crack Down on Trademarks Pinterest hasn’t started monetizing yet, but there’s no doubt that it’s going to start cracking down on people who are infringing on their rrademark, with an exception being in Europe and Australia, where at the moment they don’t own the rights to the name Pinterest. If you happen to be a developer or using a service that has the word “Pin” in it, and it causes even some potential confusion, than you should be expecting to hear a notice from their lawyers. This is why they’ve asked companies that had the word Pin in them to change their name. Now with some of the major players out of the way, they’re going to going after the smaller guys. 6) The Rise of Pinterest in Japan It’s very easy to start thinking in a bubble and think that Pinterest is all about the West. In reality Pinterest has 50 million dollars in funding from Rakuten (The Amazon of Japan) and that’s a lot of money to be put into any tech startup. Japanese Pinterest already functions very differently from the other international social networks, as you can see from the picture below. Categories are designed to be more visual. Rakuten has a very big interest to ensure that Pinterest grows this year, and that both Pinterest and Rakuten find a way to make money from it. 7) Men Still Won’t Get Pinterest I know there are some people out there that are really encouraging men to be on Pinterest, but I’m going to say this as an actual fact – men will never come close to the number of users on Pinterst as women. Especially in the U.S.A. and Canada. There is a very simple fact on why this is. Go to your local bookstore (yes they still have those), and check out the magazine sections. How many of those magazines are dominated by themes that are popular on Pinterest, such as weddings, fashion, photography, architecture, and food. Now look carefully at how many of those are dominated by “masculine” topics like cars, women in bikinis, and video games. And now think about the circulation of those. Which types of magazines generally have more reach and more circulation? This is why, as much as we want Pinterest to have more men, it just won’t. Women’s magazines dominate visual media in terms of sheer numbers. 8) API is Finally Released to the Public I’m hoping that Pinterest releases an API for the public to use so that businesses and developers are able to create some amazing tools out of it. There’s no doubt that Pinterest is very cautious about what type of API it wants to release. It’s current API allows certain partner brands to show off their most recent popular pins. Other API’s that they are working on would allow for other data like most recent pins, or related pins. The one I feel that would be of interest to e-commerce sites is the ability to dig into related pins from a specific brand. This type of recommendation engine has been used to drive up sales for numerous e-commerce giants, like Amazon, “People who pinned this, also pinned this item.” 9) What’s it Called in Europe and Australia? Pinterest doesn’t own the trademark for Pinterest in Europe nor Australia. This could be great news for developers who live in those countries as it can be a safe haven to develop Pinterest like products and use their name if they are living in those countries. Hearn owns the right to that word, and that case Pinterest stand for Premium Interest. This will definitely put a big dent in their plans for growth and expansion as Europe is an essential market if they are to prove that they are worth $3.8 billion. Either way this is going to cost Pinterest valuable time and money. This type of act could force the social network to either pony up the money to pay Hearn a licensing fee, or to change names in Europe. But with a company that’s evaluated at $3.8 billion it’s unlikely that Hearn is just going to budge. Those are my top 9 hot predictions for 2014. What do you predict for Pinterest this year? Original article published on MCNG Marketing’s blog.  |
| Top 8 Reasons Why Companies Outsource [Infographic] Posted: 15 Jan 2014 06:03 PM PST Outsourcing has become an integral part of business world today. Businesses of almost every nature and size are outsourcing. The concept of outsourcing or off shoring started with data processing industry, but today it has spread to almost every industry type. Businesses are outsourcing IT services, finance, sales and marketing, back office and customer support, and administration task. Companies that do the maximum outsourcing are Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Honey Well, Levi Strauss, AOL, and Radio Flyer. Here are the top 8 benefits of outsourcing Cut Down Cost Enjoy Resources Not Available In The Company Free Up Internal Resources Focus On Customers Complete Projects On Time Gain Access To Global Expertise Higher Speed Of Delivery Achieve Company Growth  |
3. There's no return on social media marketing.
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