 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 18, 2016 10:47 AM
|
A lot of these lists just cram everything and anything into the lineup. So, we decided to pick our designers’ brains to bring you the best resources that we are using on a daily basis.
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 18, 2016 10:24 AM
|
Riddle me this: Why do people buy quarter-inch drill bits? While there are a million possible answers to this question, Leo McGinneva offers perhaps the most interesting explanation. "They don’t want quarter-inch bits. They want quarter-inch holes," he explains. This notion suggests that as consumers, we aren't after all the bells and whistles as much as the solutions they provide. In other words, we don't want to know what brands are selling, we want to know what's in it for us....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 18, 2016 9:52 AM
|
U.S. retail and food services sales were down 0.3 percent in August, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday, which was an unexpected drop. It’s also a metric that might make retailers nervous ahead of the critical holiday sales season (and no matter how retailers try to stretch it forward, we’re still not there yet), though one month’s data can, in the long run, be noise. Compared with the same month last year, retail sales are still up, turning in a gain of 1.9 percent. Only a few kinds of retailers gained any ground at all in August. Clothing store sales were up by 0.7 percent for the month, and electronics retailers eked out a gain of 0.1 percent. Grocery store sales were up 0.4 percent in August, and food services and drinking places enjoyed a 0.9 percent gain for the month. Remarkably, non-store (Internet) retail sales, which rarely see any kind of downtick in sales, were off 0.3 percent for the month. The two categories that did the worst in August—each down 1.4 percent for the month—were building material and garden equipment and supplies, along with sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 15, 2016 10:14 AM
|
Just when you think Donald Trump can’t out-Trump Trump, he goes and does this. The Republican presidential nominee has definitely made some hefty promises this election, but somehow, the one he made yesterday might just take the cake. Doubling down on the self-aggrandizing claims he’s made during the campaign, he went and announced at a press conference that he is far and away the only candidate who can stop the vines that constantly strangle him in his own reflection. Looks like this self-proclaimed “government outsider” thinks he can take on the endless landscape of darkness that shrouds his body in mirrors all by himself. Typical Trump.While unleashing a series of attacks against democrats yesterday, Donald Trump boldly stated that he was the only person who could defeat the thick, dark vines that slowly wrap around his reflection’s neck anytime he looks at a mirror, rain puddle, or any polished surface. In classic Trump fashion, the candidate took broad swipes at everyone from the Clintons to President Obama, and went so far as to say that no one else in the world was prepared to step up and rid his mirror of vines when they routinely slither up his reflection’s legs toward his head until they engulf his entire, paralyzed body, slowly constricting around it until he is fully unable to breathe....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 14, 2016 2:18 PM
|
In 2015, mobile traffic exceeded desktop traffic at 90 percent of major media outlets, including 88 percent of the largest U.S. newspapers, according to Pew’s 2016 State of the News Media report. Just a year earlier, only 65 percent of respondents had reported mobile traffic that exceeded desktop views.
The biggest year-over-year change came in the newspaper sector. In 2014, only 28 of 50 newspapers included in the survey brought in more traffic via mobile than desktop. In 2015, that number jumped to 44 of 50.
41.6 million – That’s how many U.S. consumers are expected be mobile-only internet users by 2020, according to a recent eMarketer report. Currently, about 31.1 million U.S. internet users (or 11.7 percent) access the internet strictly via mobile devices, while another 215 million people use both mobile devices and desktops/laptops to surf the web.
The number of people who access the internet exclusively via desktops/laptops is expected to drop from 18.8 million this year to 10.0 million in 2020. Meanwhile, the total number of Americans connected to the internet is projected to keep rising over the next five years, reaching an estimated 279.3 million by the end of the decade....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 14, 2016 2:35 AM
|
Some headline types get more traction than others for social shares, traffic, and search engine ranking. The headline analyzer helps you understand your headline types to capitalize on this research. List, “how to”, and question headlines typically see the strongest results for click-throughs. The headline analyzer shows you this and lets you know when you can improve a generic headline....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 14, 2016 2:00 AM
|
“Start content marketing. It works.” Sure, that’s good advice. And if your advisor is generous or in content marketing nirvana (either will do) she continues with telling you why you should start content marketing now. More sales (= more money), more traffic to your website, more email subscribers, more leads. And the“more” is endless. Or so it seems. So you start content marketing. The benefits you’ve been told and keep reading about are “nice-to-haves.”But could that mean you’re missing out on other benefits of content marketing? Is it always all about more money, more subscribers, more traffic, and more leads? No. That’s the short answer. The following benefits of content marketing tell you more. ...
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 14, 2016 12:58 AM
|
Are you including images in your social media content? Looking for easy-to-use tools to help you create images for your content strategy? If the idea of using Photoshop makes your head spin or hiring a graphic designer isn’t an option, there are many easy-to-use, low-cost alternatives available to you to create social media graphics. In this article, I’ll show you 6 easy tools that will help you create compelling graphics for social media.
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 13, 2016 2:52 PM
|
Businesses seem obsessed these days with getting you to “like” them on Facebook. It’s difficult to browse the internet without being inundated with requests to like a company’s Facebook page or with contests and offers dependent on doing so. Have you ever stopped to wonder why?
From the company’s perspective, a like on Facebook offers a chance to stay “top of mind,” a marketing concept that means a consumer thinks of a specific brand first for a certain product or service by having its promotional messages show up in that user’s Facebook newsfeed. Being liked can also be used as a metric to determine the performance of social media campaigns and other promotional activities. The more a company is liked, the more successful the promotion is thought to be.
But is this really the case? To find out, we surveyed hundreds of Facebook users to dig into the meaning and value of the Facebook like. We wanted to understand the motivations behind liking certain types of brands and discover how that affects interactions between the user and the business. We also sought to understand how this varies depending on brand type (i.e., product makers versus service providers).
Findings from two studies we undertook reveal that what likes say about consumers and what they think about the brands they like is surprisingly varied....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 13, 2016 10:36 AM
|
Twitter is about to make a big change to the way that tweets work, The Verge can independently confirm. Beginning September 19th, the company will cut down on exactly which types of content count toward the platform's 140-character limit. Media attachments (images, GIFs, videos, polls, etc.) and quoted tweets will no longer reduce the count. The extra room for text will give users more flexibility in composing their messages. Twitter first announced plans to stop counting extras like photos, videos, and user polls toward the limit back in May, but gave no firm date on when the shift would occur. A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by The Verge. The date comes from two sources familiar with the company's business, but plans for the rollout could change. Another new adjustment to the character limit is that usernames will no longer count when they're at the beginning of replies, giving users additional room for discussion. It's unclear whether all of these changes will occur simultaneously; certain content types may gradually stop counting against the character limit in stages. But the company will at least kick off the move next Monday....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 13, 2016 2:38 AM
|
To celebrate our 10000th follower we asked 30 journalism experts and digital wizards to choose 3 tools in their field of expertise. The most useful, most innovative and one hidden gem.
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 12, 2016 11:05 PM
|
The Interactive Advertising Bureau and Edison Research today are releasing new stats on how consumers listen to podcasts and respond to audio-based advertisements. The new report gives marketers a peek at sentiment about podcast advertising from a poll of roughly 1,000 listeners. More brands and media companies than ever are investing in podcasts, but they're not getting the same types of metrics about audio advertising that other types of digital ads provide—like clickthrough or view rates. While advertisers can see how many people download a podcast, they don't know how long people spend listening or whether they skip over the ads. Per the report, 65 percent of listeners said podcast ads increase purchase intent while another 45 percent said that they're likely to visit an advertiser's website after hearing an audio promo. Another 42 percent of listeners said they would consider a new product or service after hearing a plug for a brand, while 37 percent use podcast ads to help research brands. When it comes to how consumers listen to audio programs, 70 percent said that being able to listen to them on-demand is "very important," and 58 percent said they like being able to listen to exclusive content they can't get elsewhere....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 12, 2016 10:47 PM
|
Ever since the line between celebrity and social media celebrity was erased, bloggers have become legitimate influencers across almost all industries, affecting consumer decisions beyond purchasing by acting as both tastemaker and trusted friend. And a large fan base is no longer a requirement for influencers. More recently, brands have been turning to micro-influencers, bloggers with less than 100,000 followers, to better target consumers. Bloglovin', a media platform that connects these microbloggers with brands through proprietary marketing platform Activate, looked at its users' followers and influence across social platforms to see how they use these channels to drive engagement.
"In a rapidly growing world of micro-influencers and proliferation of social channels, brands and advertisers are looking for best practices to engage the right micro-influencers to reach their target audience," said Activate president Rohit Vashisht. "This research shows that brands can and should look at adjacent verticals to tap into multiple channels for wider audience reach."...
|
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 18, 2016 10:35 AM
|
One truth is self-evident to content marketers: Traditional ads aren’t enough these days. With more than half of digital ads going unseen and more than 200 million people employing ad-blocking software, standard display units face an increasingly uphill battle when it comes to reaching and influencing consumers. With these statistics in mind, it’s no wonder that a look at Google Trends data over the past five years shows rising interest in both content marketing (blue) and native ads (red) as topics. That said, therein lies the problem. Marketers continue to create more and more content, but the audience looking to consume such content isn’t growing. It’s a basic issue of supply and demand. The 2016 Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs content marketing trends report found that 77% of B2C marketers planned to produce more content in 2016 than in 2015. But that added content is fighting for a limited chunk of consumer media attention. The content landscape is cluttered and the situation is only being exacerbated. As marketers turn to content marketing to help overcome some of the challenges associated with traditional ad buys, they’re finding that even a solid content creation strategy isn’t enough....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 18, 2016 10:02 AM
|
Like most, you probably have a general idea of your primary keywords. For example, if you provide web design services in Denver, obvious keyword choices include: Denver website design, Denver website design companies and the like. But, you don’t want to stop there. There are two other things that you need to do: - Make a list of long-tail keywords to target, when creating blog posts and other content. - Learn more about your competition, including their target keywords. With that in mind, let’s review seven tools that you can use to find the best keywords for your business....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 15, 2016 10:57 AM
|
Facebook has tweaked its New Feed algorithm many, many times in its attempt to keep the posts you see relevant, but the change it’s rolling out today may be the most important one yet: Facebook is vowing to kill clickbait. Facebook has tweaked its New Feed algorithm many, many times in its attempt to keep the posts you see relevant, but the change it’s rolling out today may be the most important one yet: Facebook is vowing to kill clickbait. It’s a potentially huge move, and one that makes journalism better for almost everyone involved. How it works Now Facebook is filtering out clickbait much like Gmail hides spam. It’s detecting specific words, structures, and styles in titles which “intentionally leave out crucial information, forcing people to click to find the answer.” Here are some Facebook-provided samples of titles you will be seeing a lot less of: “When She Looked Under Her Couch Cushions And Saw THIS… I Was SHOCKED!” “He Put Garlic In His Shoes Before Going To Bed And What Happens Next Is Hard To Believe” “The Dog Barked At The Deliveryman And His Reaction Was Priceless.”...
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 15, 2016 10:04 AM
|
Here we go again. Donald Trump’s campaign has undergone some major reshuffling in the past few weeks, and his latest staff shake-up proves that his troubles are far from over. Early this morning, the Trump campaign announced that it’s fired the man in charge of explaining what Donald Trump is to gorillas, with no official word yet on who his replacement will be. Yikes. Things are not looking good for Donald. Trump’s gorilla outreach has been a part of his campaign since day one, but the program’s fledgling results have left many wondering about the fate of its leader, longtime Trump family ally Jeff Hawkins. Hawkins’ role in the campaign was to build awareness of Donald Trump among gorillas by positioning him as a good, strong alpha male who is skilled at crushing things. But like so much of Trump’s campaign, this expensive initiative couldn’t get out of its own way....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 14, 2016 2:12 PM
|
For commerce, mobile is at center stage. For example, 70% of smartphone owners who bought something in a store first turned to their device for information related to that purchase.
The tricky part here is that a retailer may never see the actual mobile activity that could be heavily influencing sales in their stores.
Some of this activity happens well before a store visit. The majority (68%) of consumers search on their smartphones for things they want to address at some point in the future.
Interestingly, at the actual moment consumers want to make a purchase, most (65%) used a mobile phone during that moment.
The number one way that those in-the-moment purchase considerations are addressed by 71% of consumers is by visiting a retailer’s website or app....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 14, 2016 2:21 AM
|
IIn reality, though, video is becoming much easier and cheaper to create. This means there’s a huge opportunity for your business on YouTube. If you’ve been debating getting started on YouTube or have maybe experimented a little and not yet found your feet, this post is for you. Throughout this post we’ll dive into: - The basics of getting your account set up - How to create a YouTube channel - How to create the perfect channel art - Top tips for optimizing your channel....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 14, 2016 1:29 AM
|
Amazon has been experimenting with the pop-up store concept for a number of years. They have opened up dozens of locations in malls all over the United States. It looks like Amazon intends on opening 30 new locations all over the United States so people can easily buy Kindle e-Readers, Fire Tablets and Echo Speakers for the holidays. Amazon is on a hiring spree to find temporary and permanent employees, which suggests that the stores could be semi-permanent installations. They are looking for staff in Texas, Washington, New York, Florida and dozens of other States. Additionally, it looks like Amazon is also looking to hire a major executive to oversee all of the pop-up stores and implement a unified strategy, design and stock each location with more products. Having a dedicated person in charge is a good move if Amazon plans on expanding this program in the coming years....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 14, 2016 12:53 AM
|
Are you active on LinkedIn? Want to make the most of the time you spend there?Installing third-party browser extensions can help you get more out of LinkedIn’s powerful marketing and lead-generation features. In this article, you’ll discover six browser extensions to improve your LinkedIn marketing experience....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 13, 2016 11:20 AM
|
The psychology of color as it relates to persuasion is one of the most interesting — and most controversial — aspects of marketing. At Help Scout we believe the problem has always been depth of analysis. Color theory is a topic of complexity and nuance, but splashy infographics rarely go beyond See ‘n Say levels of coverage. Green Lantern can’t turn lemons into lemonade and I’m left equally unequipped to make smart decisions about the spectrum which shades our world. But why is such a potentially colorful conversation so unwaveringly shallow?...
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 12, 2016 12:46 PM
|
Say buddy, can you spare some time? Excuse me Miss, can you spare a minute?
We live in the age of distraction and, as Wayne Friedman writes in MediaPost, a recent CRE/Nielsen study highlights the issue for advertisers, marketers, PR pros and social marketers:
“Beyond noticing TV ads, the CRE says viewing, defined as total time in “fixation” using eye-tracking, is a more stringent measure. Results here are that solo viewers spent 58% of time in “fixation,” which dropped to 43% when including co-viewers.
Access to second screens dipped these results even lower for solo viewers: 34% in fixation time. Adding co-viewers with a second screen drops the number to 25%.”
Attention to TV ads dropped 75% with a second screen the study reported....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 13, 2016 12:53 AM
|
TransparentMetric is a free Google Chrome browser extension which allows you to track all of the updates and changes to major news online articles. The extension notifies you when news articles on BBC- AlJazeera- NYTimes- Reuters- The Guardian-The Telegraph (more to be supported) you are reading have been modified by way of a small colored icon. In any article that has been modified after publication you can see exactly what was added or removed. 100% free. My comment: Useful tool to track changes and revisions to published news articles....
|
|
Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 12, 2016 10:54 PM
|
The major digital media platforms—full of big gains, big hype and often a lack of transparency—have made the advertising universe a complicated, fragmented place. And with eMarketer predicting digital ad spending to swell to $77.4 billion in 2017, up 16 percent versus this year, it's a domain that's poised to evolve even more rapidly. We asked seven ad buyers—from three consumer brands and three agencies, plus one independent—to talk about what's right and what's wrong with a dozen platforms with which they do business.
"The definitions are different for YouTube, for Facebook, for Twitter, and that is really not user-friendly for any agency or for any brand to work across all of them for proper reporting," says Liya Sharif, Qualcomm's senior director, marketing. Adds Bruce Kiernan, practice lead for performance marketing at MEC North America: "I would say from an agency perspective, we are frustrated. Facebook and Google are not going to give up their data and open up the gates to their walled gardens anytime soon."
Meanwhile, others are more positive about the process. "[Facebook] allows you to basically upload any type of custom audience and not just create a look-alike audience, but you can scale that according to your needs and play with different sizes of audiences," notes Tim Villanueva, head of media partnerships at Fetch....
|
Scoop.it!
