Marketing Pilgrim Published: “WhatsApp(ened)? Facebook Paid $19B for an Instant Messaging Company? Seriously?” plus 3 more

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WhatsApp(ened)? Facebook Paid $19B for an Instant Messaging Company? Seriously?
In Q4, 55 Percent of All Email Opens Happened on a Mobile Device
LinkedIn Opens Site to Long-Form Publishing: a.k.a Blogging
Top 12 Steps to a Better Online Reputation [infographic]

WhatsApp(ened)? Facebook Paid $19B for an Instant Messaging Company? Seriously?

Posted: 20 Feb 2014 07:05 AM PST

That typical exchange? Worth, wait for it, $19 BILLION!

That’s how much Facebook just paid for messaging service WhatsApp. Who app? Exactly!

WhatsApp is the YouTube of 2014, in that it’s the largest venture back acquisition of our time–earning Sequoia approximately $3B on its $60M investment.

Crazy stuff huh?

While I’m not personally a user of WhatsApp, apparently 400M+ are using the service. That apparently caught the eye of both Google and Facebook, despite Facebook previously turning one of the co-founders down in a job interview. As Pretty Woman once said, “big mistake, huge!”

Steve Jobs once criticized Dropbox as being a feature, not a product. And, that’s kinda how I see WhatsApp. I certainly can’t see why it would be worth $19B, especially when you consider the company has vowed to never sell ads!

I suspect we’ll see that change pretty soon.

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In Q4, 55 Percent of All Email Opens Happened on a Mobile Device

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 03:37 PM PST

In Q4, 55% of all email opens happened on a mobile device. I’m repeating this title phrase because I know that many of you have never viewed your own customer email blasts on a mobile device – let alone multiple devices. I know this, because if you did, you wouldn’t be sending out the wonky emails that I see every time I try to read my email on my iPad.

It’s better – for sure and I’m bolstered by that fact. But the reality is that the number of mobile email readers is increasing and with that, the number of mobile initiated sales.

The data comes from Yesmail’s new Email Marketing Compass report. Look at all the dollar bills! Mobile sales that came in via an email click increased 52% from Q3 to Q4. That’s right, not year-over-year, but quarter-over-quarter. Clearly, mobile was a big part of holiday 2013. Just imagine how important it’s going to be to holiday 2014!

Here’s an interesting note, desktop email viewership also increased but only by a tiny amount. So were did all the extra people come from? The hybrid pool. Less people are bouncing between their desktop and their mobile device for email. We’re choosing sides and mobile is winning.

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Before you can send an email message, a person has to become a subscriber. Since we’re talking about Q4 2013, there was an expected increase in active subscribers. Now here’s a very interesting chart:

According to Yesmail, companies that send out six emails per week have the highest percentage of active subscribers. I guess this fits the “out of sight, out of mind” rule. When you only send one email, customers forget about you the very next day. Six emails and they get a constant reminder to come over and shop.

But that seventh email might be the one that breaks the email camel’s back. Time for the handy unsubscribe button!

When you set up your mobile email tests this week, also include a Gmail test. 43% of new subscribers in Q4 were Gmail users. They’re also the most engaged users with 19% active within the last year compared to 10% on AOL and 14% for Yahoo.

After all that good news, there’s one bummer. Open and click rates overall declined slightly in Q4 but that might not mean what it appears to mean. Yesmail says that the default “image off” setting many email clients use can cause an email to read as “unopened” even though the consumer actually saw the text.

How’s email going for you these days?

LinkedIn Opens Site to Long-Form Publishing: a.k.a Blogging

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 02:55 PM PST

LinkedIn would like you to know that starting today, 25,000 members now have the ability to post long-form content. In other words, you can now blog on LinkedIn.

Honestly, I didn’t know you couldn’t blog on the site, but then again, I never gave it much thought. Though people have been known to leave extensive “status updates” on both LinkedIn and Facebook, they weren’t really built to handle a lot of text. And definitely not text with photos and charts – a.k.a. a typical blog post.

This new content system is designed to go along with LinkedIn’s Influencer program which already includes long-form content from Richard Branson, Martha Stewart and Bill Gates. They’re also adding new Influencers to the list including Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, CEO of AOL Brand Group Susan Lyne, and Financial Expert and CNBC host Suze Orman.

LinkedIn says, “the average Influencer post drives more than 31,000 views and receives more than 250 likes and 80 comments.”

How does this help you? In theory, people who come to the site to read an Influencer’s post might just stick around and read your post if you put out helpful, well-written content.

Which brings us to the Publishing Platform Rights and Responsibilities.

LinkedIn is, with good reason, concerned that people will turn the publishing platform into a collection of advertorials.

LinkedIn discourages and may disable posts that self-servingly advertise a service, business, political cause or other organization or cause that does not benefit the broader LinkedIn community. Learn more if you'd like to advertise your business or service with LinkedIn.

They also warn you not to steal anyone’s work and they get pretty specific about it:

This includes other people's posts, things that you have copied from the internet, or something that belongs to your employer and not you. Most content on the internet belong to someone, and unless you have clear permission from the owner to share it, you shouldn't include it in your posts.

On the other hand, once you publish on LinkedIn:

LinkedIn may distribute your content, annotate your content (e.g., to highlight that your views may not be the views of LinkedIn), and sell advertising on pages where your content appears.

That last part is especially important because LinkedIn long-form content will be public. Your network will see it on their homepage feeds and people who aren’t in your network will be able to follow your blog if they choose.

And that last part is especially important because it widens the scope. As in normal blogging, people can follow and read your work without becoming a “friend.” I know I’m more likely to follow someone’s content if I don’t have to go through the whole request process. Plus, it keeps my newsfeed from filling up with small notations that don’t matter to me.

If your account has been enabled, you’ll find a small pencil in your status update box. Click this to go to the full posting form. I’m told you’ll find options for uploading images, etc. I don’t have the option yet. So what else is new.

Bottom line, this could be an excellent tool for anyone in the business to business game. Just remember to keep those posts informative if you want your follower list to grow.

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Top 12 Steps to a Better Online Reputation [infographic]

Posted: 19 Feb 2014 09:15 AM PST

In my new book, Repped: 30 Days to a Better Online Reputation, I provide a practical guide to building, managing, and repairing your online reputation. To get you started, here are the top 12 steps you should take in online reputation management.