Advertising your Buisness on Facebook’s Places

Today Facebook announced its PLACES product.  This will bring great exposure for businesses who take advantage of it.  Learn how to claim your business and get started.  Link your companies Facebook page for maximum exposure.

This from the Facebook Guide for Business: “Facebook Places provides a presence for your business’s physical store locations encouraging your customers to share that they’ve visited your business by “checking in” to your Place. When your customer checks into your Place, these check-in stories can generate powerful, organic impressions in friends’ News Feeds, extending your brand’s reach to new customers. Best of all, it’s free.”

Download the Guide For Business from Facebook here.

 

Social Media for Business

Have you heard the buzz about social media? Yes, social media has fully permeated popular culture across the planet over the last year. But this is not some flash in the plan phenomenon.

Just consider these interesting factoids:

— Social media use on the rise: More than 71% of businesses plan on increasing their use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs in 2010, according to the 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

—Mass consumer adoption of social media: With more than 400 million people on Facebook and more than 1.2 billion Twitter updates in January 2010 alone, these are numbers you just cannot ignore.

—Small businesses are dominant players: Small businesses are cashing in quickly on social media. Surprisingly, half of small businesses using social media say lead generation is its top benefit –Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010.

—Social media drives search engine optimization: The top three benefits of social media marketing are (1) generating more exposure for the business, (2) increasing traffic to websites and (3) improving search engine rankings.  –According to 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

 

Google: Mobile has more targetability than TV, radio or Internet

By Mobile Marketer’s Dan Butcher

March 5, 2010

NEW YORK – A Google executive revealed the company’s mobile strategy, detailed case studies and discussed the market potential during the keynote address at Mobile Marketing Day, hosted by Mobile Marketer and the Direct Marketing Association, according to Mobile Marketer. Google has made tremendous strides in mobile, including mobile search and the development of the Android operating system powering phones such as the Motorola Droid and its own Nexus One. Google’s increasing presence in mobile is reshaping not just the mobile business but also marketing in general. “We look at mobile as a big part of our overall strategy—that’s an understatement,” said Alex Barza, New York-based mobile ad sales lead at Google. “We’re looking at mobile across the entire world as a global play.”

Google Exec Alex Barza

Two-thirds of the world’s population has a mobile phone subscription—4 billion people—and there will be 5 billion wireless subscribers worldwide by the end of this year, according to some estimates. Mobile will create the ability to individually target more people than any other channel, according to Google. Google exec reveals mobile strategy, case studies, Alex Barza is mobile ads sales lead at Google “Mobile will soon have more reach than TV, radio or the Internet,” Mr. Barza said. “Mobile is the access point to the Internet in the developing world. “Search has been our core business for many years now, and we actually receive many more searches on mobile than we do on desktops in developing markets,” he said.

Morgan Stanley recently predicted that more users will access the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years. Google connects consumers with businesses via clic Click-to-call an advertiser Market researcher IDC is even more bullish, predicting that this is going to happen sooner than that—by 2013. “What’s driving this mobile adoption? Computing, connectivity and the cloud,” Mr. Barza said. “What’s different about mobile today than even a couple of years ago is the computing power of these phones. “Here in the U.S. LTE will potentially be rolled out by the end of the year, and 4G is the equivalent of putting a broadband cable modem in the palm of your hand,” he said. “The cloud is basically the Internet, with more than 700 million servers around the globe, and with smartphones all of that information is in the palm of your hand. “That’s where we feel the future of mobile is going and where we’ve focused our energies—high-end Web-enabled mobile devices are the future of mobile.”

When Apple rolled out the first iPhone in 2007, it cost $600 and only ran on the Edge network, and was only sold via Apple and AT&T. Now iPhones are 20 times faster, the operating system is much better and you can buy 16GB iPhones at one-third of the price at Walmart or Best Buy Mobile. Consumers can now get an iPhone or Motorola Droid for $199 or so. “If you think about how far we’ve come as far as access to these Web-enabled devices, it’s pretty incredible,” Mr. Barza said.”Bigger screens, more connectivity and faster processors are enabling us to do a lot more.” As an example of convergence in action, Mr. Barza cited Google goggles. “Google goggles leverages the unique attributes of the mobile phone, which is much more personal than a desktop, much more interactive than the desktop Web experience,” Mr. Barza said. “It leverages sight through the camera, GPS makes it location aware, the cloud gives it access to vast amounts of data and you have connectivity within seconds. “I point my Nexus One out my hotel window in Chicago and within milliseconds there’s an augmented reality interaction telling me ‘You’re looking at the Chicago Watertower,’” he said. “There’s also optical character recognition, so when you’re reading a menu or document in a different language, it can translate that into 100-plus languages.”

One of the audience members commented that the mobile technology Google sees on the horizon is like something out of Star Trek. “If you’re texting in English, Google will translate it in real time, so you can have a dialogue with someone who doesn’t speak English, and we’ve applied that to a conversation, so if I’m speaking in English, the phone will pick that up and translate my voice and spit it back out in over 100 languages,” Mr. Barza said. “We’re not quite there yet, but we will be soon.”

New devices = new usage Google tracks mobile searches on Google.com within the shopping category. The three-year graph, from May 2007 when the original iPhone launched to January 2010 when Google’s HTC Nexus One debuted, showed tremendous growth in the shopping category. IDC forecasted that by 2013, there will be more than 1 billion mobile devices that can connect to the Internet. That does not just include phones, but also gaming consoles, netbooks, eBook readers, GPS systems and car navigation systems, iPads and tablets. Mobile commerce has arrived People are showing their willingness to buy goods and services via their handsets, and not just ringtones and wallpapers, but everything from books, movies and music to tickets, flatscreen TVs, fashion apparel and even cars. “I was blown away that someone bought an actual Corvette on eBay mobile for $75,000,” Mr. Barza said. “A lot of clients across the board are starting to experience sales from mobile devices and are seeing incremental growth of users accessing their Web site from mobile devices, which is leading to sales. “Consumers want this—they want the stuff that they want when they want it, and mobile enables them to buy it now,” he said. “Having a mobile-optimized site aids that process, because it provides better customer service, but there are some sales happening via mobile on non-optimized sites. “There will be Flash on all Android devices later this year, with pinch and zoom and fast connectivity.” Retailers are seeing more conversions at a lower cost using mobile channels.

To read the entire article check out Dan Butcher’s article at the Mobile Marketer: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/search/5568.html

Staff Reporter Dan Butcher covers ad networks, banking and payments, carrier networks, manufacturers, and software and technology. Reach him at dan@mobilemarketer.com.

 

Text Donations Here to Stay – Haiti

“During National Football League games on Jan. 16-17, the Red Cross said text-message donations reached $500,000 an hour.”

Original Blog Post By Alan Pascoe

The charitable response to Haiti earthquake relief efforts has shown the best of people’s generosity and their urgency to meet survivors’ needs.

This outpouring has also revealed the best of telecommunications companies, which have expedited donations to organizations, eliminated surcharges to subscribers and charities, and revealed the power of SMS donations.

The numbers are staggering.

The American Red Cross alone had collected more than $25 million through $10 text donations.

During National Football League games on Jan. 16-17, the Red Cross said text-message donations reached $500,000 an hour.

Also, the Mobile Giving Foundation processed up to 10,000 text messages per second at peak giving times in the earthquake’s aftermath.

So far, more than $35 million have been collected through SMS donations.

Text donations here to stay
The technology story behind the humanitarian and financial stories is that SMS-based donations have unequivocally arrived. Nonprofit campaigns will now make mobile giving as routine as phone and online donations for several reasons.

First, text-based donations are the perfect way to engage many contributors. This method eliminates the need to disclose financial or personal data, providing an inherent trust in the system about identity theft or being placed on yet another marketing list.

SMS also is the fastest course of action. A donor spends less than 30 seconds to contribute, without enduring telephone hold times or having to complete an online form.

Moreover, billing is accurate, with the amount pre-determined and the process using wireless carriers’ infrastructure.

In addition, organizations can see immediate results from their campaigns.

Many donors respond immediately to aid requests.

For example, public service announcements aired on Fox, CBS and national radio broadcasts before and during NFL playoff games, and on the NFL Network and ESPN pregame shows, driving the $500,000 hourly results.

Marketers dream of that level of correlation between their message and the results.

Fine-tuning needed
As with most new systems, some improvements are needed. Carriers are already addressing the first: shrinking the pass-through window to more quickly deliver money to charities.

Though this typically is a 90-day gap, many carriers have sent money immediately to the Red Cross and other relief agencies due to the urgent need. Long term, however, this window needs to shrink to no more than a 45-day processing timeframe.

Another hiccup that arose was the difficulty that some prepaid users experienced in making a donation, even if they carried a sufficient balance.

Because premium text messages fall under a separate billing category, some subscribers have been blocked from contributing.

Next steps
The Haiti texting relief efforts have set a precedent for future giving.

The impressive collections, rapid distribution and ease of use will benefit the Red Cross and all organizations relying on donations for years to come.

Furthermore, this will also jump-start other groups to unite around specific causes.

Political parties will raise funds for candidates, sports teams can solicit donations for their sponsored charities with in-stadium ads, and universities can include texting as part of their next fundraising activities.

As Haiti donations have shown, a timely need combined with an easy way to donate equals dramatic results.

—Alan Pascoe is senior manager of product marketing at Tekelec, Morrisville, NC. Reach him at alan.pascoe@tekelec.com.

 

Anheuser-Busch distributor lands 1,800 opt-ins via mobile sweepstakes

By Dan Butcher

January 11, 2010

Frothy results

Pepin Distributing Co., a distributor of Anheuser-Busch Inc. beer products, ran an SMS promotion with the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning that drove 1,800 opt-ins to its database, according to the Mobile Marketer.

This opt-in list is gold, since the churn rate with mobile phone numbers is minimal compared with email or postal addresses. Plus, the ability to interact with consumers in real-time will aid in re-marketing efforts.

“The puck promotion was our initial kick-off for our mobile marketing campaign and we wanted something impactful and relevant,” said Bill Gieseking, marketing director at Pepin, Tampa, FL. “Partnering with the Tampa Bay Lightning was a win-win because of the in-market point-of-sale and the radio exposure for both brands.”

Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, is the largest brewer nationwide. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 overseas.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, FL. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the NHL.

Another version of the poster

Lightning strikes twice
The beer distributor tapped mobile marketing company Adz2Mobile for the multichannel campaign featuring out-of-home posters and radio advertising. The call-to-action urged hockey fans to text the keyword PUCK to the short code 333222 for a chance to win a suite at a Lightning game.

Pepin reached out to Adz2Mobile to help build a mobile database that it can use to reach out to consumers in the Tampa metro area.

The company used radio spots with the SMS call-to-action as a primary driver to build the database, along with posters of the promotion in on-premise and off-premise venues with the SMS call-to-action.

Bud Light has run SMS sweepstakes in the past

The radio buys targeted all kinds of demographics on various stations, from rock and hip-hop to country and adult contemporary.

The posters were placed in bars, convenience stores and liquor stores, as well as grocery stores and large chain stores.

The posters carried branding from the NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light brand.

This was a double-opt-in program.

After receiving the initial reply text, consumers had to text in their date of birth to confirm that they wanted to receive more text messages from the Anheuser-Busch wholesaler.

Once their age was verified, consumers were given more details about the event.

The winner of the sweepstakes will get to attend the Lightning game on Jan. 14 against the Florida Panthers along with 10 of his or her friends.

The Lightning will provide the suite free of charge, while Anheuser-Busch will provide free pizza and beverages.

The campaign reached 1,800 SMS opt-ins in 45 days.

Tampa beer area
Pepin will use the SMS database to engage consumers, build product awareness, offer specials, publicize events, run promotions and get out the message of drinking responsibly.

“The Anheuser-Busch wholesaler wanted to build their database right out of the gate, and they created a strong database in a short amount of time, and they will use it to engage back with their clients,” said Bruce Hershey II, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Adz2Mobile, Naples, FL.

“This is the first time this has ever taken place with a beer wholesaler, running a multichannel campaign to engage with consumers on a local level via mobile,” he said. “They added the mobile tie-in to increase sales in the Tampa metro area.

“These consumers opted in twice—they want to receive messages.”

In fact, Pepin has already begun using the SMS database.

During Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the company had Adz2Mobile push out messages with a click-to-call link to get a ride if they had too much to drink.

“They never had the ability to engage consumers anytime and anywhere in real time, now they have the ability to hit consumers on their handset,” Mr. Hershey said. “It’s important to engage consumers beyond the initial call-to-action.

“That’s what mobile’s all about—re-engaging with consumers,” he said. “Each and every text message doesn’t have to be about a product.”

Staff Reporter Dan Butcher covers ad networks, banking and payments, carrier networks, manufacturers, and software and technology. Reach him at dan@mobilemarketer.com.

 

Users Thumbing Out Over 4 Billion Texts per Day

by Warren Riddle (RSS feed) — Oct 8th 2009 at 6:58PM

CTIA released the results of its semi-annual wireless survey yesterday (pdf), and the findings revealed that the mobile industry continues to grow at a ridiculous, exponential rate, particularly in the area of data services. According to the survey, 276 million consumers now use wireless devices, up from 262 million in 2008, and use a total of over 1 trillion minutes.

Revenue from text messages and other data services hit $19.4 billion for the first half of 2009, a 31-percent increase from the same period last year. Just two years ago, people seemed shocked when the survey concluded that almost 1 billion text messages were being sent per day, but that number now pales in comparison to those of the current texting frenzy.

The 2009 numbers indicate that mobile users sent 740 billion texts over the first half of the year, which equates to a staggering 4.1 billion text messages per day. (Then again, that number may be skewed a bit by all those crazy teens who tap out seven texts per minute.) With the text-ravaganza contributing to an astounding $76 billion in total wireless revenue so far this year. [From: CTIA (pdf), via Mashable and Business Wire]

 

Hooters Ups Sales 32-Percent with Text Message Marketing

By Giselle Tsirulnik

October 12, 2009

Restaurant chain Hooters of America’s use of text-message marketing within its video-on-demand commercial spots resulted in a 32 percent increase in sales during the program according to the Mobile Marketer.

Television commercials ran with graphics at the bottom of the screen inviting viewers to learn more about the Hooters Mobile Club. By clicking a button on the remote control, viewers were taken to a longer video where a Hooters girl demonstrates how to text the keywod WINGS to short code 36832 and receive Free Boneless Wings by joining the Mobile Club.

“Initially, Hooters simply wanted to reach people in a new way that caught [people's] attention,” said Cindy Setlock, director of national accounts at State of Text, Denver. “They wanted customer interaction, an offer that would bring people in, and a campaign with repeat potential.

“State of Text and Cox Media came together with the idea of combining mobile with video-on-demand,” she said. “The video-on-demand allowed the customers to watch the video and learn about the Hooters offer on their terms, rewinding or pausing at will.

“Mobile made the offer instant, completely trackable and transportable. The combination of the two mediums gave Hooters a powerful and successful campaign.”

The mobile call to action

The aim of the promotion was to make it more convenient for viewers to learn how to join the Hooters Mobile Text Club.

Additionally, Hooters wanted a way to track the number of responses to the VOD and the number of people choosing to opt-in to the program.

Lastly, the overall strategy was to increase Hooters’ store traffic.

Cox Communications tracked the number of customers clicking the remote to see the longer Hooters VOD, as well as the time spent watching it.

State of Text tracked the increase in the number of people added to the mobile database. State of Text provided tracking consistent with TV day-parts.

State of Text compared the data with the TV schedule to determine the effectiveness of individual programs. Hooters tracked redemption rates at the store.

The mobile coupon redemption rates reached 25 percent and the Hooters mobile database achieved hundreds of entrants in minutes.

Throughout the course of the four-week campaign, almost 600 new people were added to the Hooters mobile database.

“One of the interesting things that we’ve seen with Hooters is how well its mobile club does, and how much real-time feedback and results benefited Hooters,” said Sean McKesson, CEO of State of Text.

“We’ve done cross-media promotion before, from billboards to print ads, but merging video-on-demand with mobile really brought Hooters results that work for them,” he said.

“Mixing mobile with video-on-demand is a natural continuation of the on-demand structure of both mediums. State of Text and Cox Media will continue developing new VOD programs with the successful results we’ve seen.”

Senior Editor Giselle Tsirulnik covers ad networks, advertising, content, email, media, messaging, legal/privacy, search, social networks, television and video. Reach her at giselle@mobilemarketer.com.