Tag Archive for: User

UK: Internet users love browsing social media – less shopping

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A recent study by Hitwise reveales that UK Internet users are spending more time browsing online media than ‘going’ online shopping. In March 2009 9.8% of all UK Internet visits were directed to social networking websites and 8.6% to online retail websites. Compared to 2008, the figures turned around (online retailers 9.7% – social networks 8.2%).

In the passed year, online retailers sawe a downsize in traffic from paid search like sponsored or paid for links on search engines (i.e. like Google, Yahoo!, Live and Ask) – 2009: 8.9% and 2008: 10,1% of visits to online retailers came from a paid search listing.

“The growth of social networking, online video and the continuing popularity of news websites has meant that an increasing proportion of consumer’s online time in the UK has been devoted to online media,” commented Robin Goad, Hitwise’s Director of Research.

The traffic that Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and the likes generates for online retailers increased in one year from 5.2% to 7.1%. And social networks now generate 58.3% more traffic than webmail providers (Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and GoogleMail). The best performing categories in 2009 were Auctions, Fashion and Department Stores.

“Social networks are a relatively small but fast growing source of traffic for online retailers,” commented Goad. “At present, only a minority of retailers pick up a significant amount of traffic from social networks, but many of those that do have seen a positive impact on traffic. For example, fashion retailer ASOS has a strong presence on Facebook and in March received 13.3% of its traffic from the social network. Another example – in a very different market – is online bookseller Abebooks, which currently receives a quarter of all its UK Internet traffic from social networks, more than it gets from search engines.”

Spot On!
Is this showing a trend that people are willing to buy products in social networks? In the UK, it sounds possible. It could be the next step. We all know that the easy purchase process is a winner – for companies and customers. Thinking of the future of social networks, companies should consider engaging with customers much more on social networks while also integrating ‘light’ e-commerce opportunities in their Facebook Fan pages or in their company profiles at XING. Or at least indicate and lead the way for customers to some good offers or marketing activities. And re-thinking efforts on big spendings for paid search is definitely something that needs to be thought about…

News Update – Best of the Day

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If you have a vision for some trend or future business, it makes you happy to see that people pick up similar thoughts and spread them on the web. When I had the idea of creating the personal web manager, I thought this will be ‘utopia’. Now, Virgina Heffernan writes about the ‘necessity’ of Twitter and finalizes…

“I wish I was rich and had personal assistants.” Right on. And those assistants, presumably, could do our Twitterwork for us.

Thank you Virgina, this is just what I want to see. The New York Times blog supporting my vision… ace.

Internet Protocol TV (IP TV) is winning in recession times in the States. Sites like Hulu, iTunes, Amazon Video and TV.com are on the rise and changing the common world of the television industry. AdAge interviewed Verizon CMO John Stratton on the future of TV – and asking if IP TV is a threat for the old TV industry.

Will Internet users be paying for content in the future? Chris Poley throws in a thought that the web world will not touch – but definitely should focus on in the future.

“The economy has forced the Internet’s hand to act as a serious business, with all the responsibilities that go with success. For us as end users, it will take some getting used to, buying the milk when the cow was once free. But in these troubled times, we have little choice but to accept the inevitable. As President Obama’s chief of staff is credited with saying, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

PS: This reminds me of my ‘The Social Globe‘ idea…

Parody: Is Twitter out and nanoblogging the next trend?

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If you are on Twitter there are three things we don’t like: people that talk to much, the speed of the service and the interruption time. Now, there could be a new alternative to Twitter called Flutter.

This nanoblogging service will restrict users to blogging in 26 characters or less. A new blogging trend? At least if you believe in the theory of Matt Ibsen, founder of Flutter…

The cool idea about Flutter would be that you can update your updates from other social media sites and Flutter will automatically cut them down to the 26 character limit. A brevity which all our followers and friends will appreciate…

Sure, this is a fictitious parody on the latest innovation drive in the ‘social media industry’ by the Slate Magazine. The world needed someone to make some fun out of the latest madness around Twitter.

Spot On!
Some questions we do not need to ask for evaluating Flutter: Did we all get the benefit of the business? What is their business model? If it is really a great concept… why do we see such a ‘poor’ delivery on the concept by the execs? Why don’t the execs explain the essence of their business model in 26 characters? This could be an interesting approach for Twitter’s 140 as well…

In some way this parody reminds me of…

News Update – Best of the Day

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There is a lot of talk on the success of Twitter. Now, there is a psychological explanation by Kevin Maguire: From Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to ‘the hierarchy of tweets’. This is a must read…!

Although Twitter might be a web-based service, the offline-world does exist next to it… and the value in joining Tweet-ups, real face-to-face offline talks in your region, is big. Scot McKay connects the Twitter-world with the offline-world and finds some interesting strategies – some new, some old…

XING announces their new product development strategy on their blog. Jason Goldberg, the former socialmedian founder and new Chief Product Officer at XING, lays his cards open on the product development strategy 2.0 called ‘Ship It’.
1. We will launch new features on XING faster than ever before.
2. We will launch new features before they are finished. Our plan is to get new stuff out there on the site and learn from our users as to how to make them better. You tell us what you like, don’t like, and want to see improved – and then we’ll do our best to keep up with your input.
3. We will make XING more appealing and relevant to users around the world.
4. We will actively ask for your feedback and participate in a dialogue with you as to how we can improve and better meet your needs. Expect to see a whole new social-media approach to how we gather feedback. Expect to really get to know the people behind product development at XING. And, challenge us publicly to deliver what you need.

PS: Lee Byron created a map and network diagrams on the development of Facebook. Excellent work…

Will Facebook tackle Google? Doubt it…

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The investment bank RBC Capital Markets sees Facebook in three years leading the online market – and leaving Google behind. Their argument: traffic. When watching the Google traffic, it becomes obvious that almost 20% of the Google traffic comes from social networks, RBC thinks.

Facebook is growing and growing, in January Facebook had already 175 million users. In the last months the average increase was somewhere at 20 million users a month. Now, the investment bank’s outlook says that if the increase stays stable, Facebook could be facing more unique users than the online giant Google in 2012. At least Ross Sandler from RBC Capital Markets states that…

Isn’t this statement a bit overestimated?
So, is traffic the right argument? Which platforms really does drive traffic here? How does Facebook drive traffic to Google? Where are the Facebook links that push users to Google? The ‘back button’ cannot be so powerful, right?! Search? Ads? Back-links? What else? Sorry, I cannot find the point…

There is no Google search box on Facebook. Maybe it is the social graph that has it’s effect on targeting, personalization or the digital identity of users might influence the power of Facebook on Google in the future. But traffic sounds like an superficial invalid argument, don’t you think…

Twitter Ads: Thoughts on the test

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Now, there has been a lot, a lot, a lot of thoughts and talk lately on how Twitter will be making money. Finally, Twitter is experimenting with a new revenue model as Techcrunch tells us…

First, it seemed like a nice idea to promote their own service (i.e. widgets and search), which I thought is the case. This well-placed add-on feature makes it easier to work with Twitter, especially heading towards their search site, when you are not using any of the helpful Twitter apps. And there were also some good thoughts on Twitter becoming a search engine and as how this will be a driver monetizing their business. But Overture (now controlled by Yahoo), has patented placement of text ads on a search results page. So, this was probably a difficult pitch.

Now, back to what is happening, see the black box on the right hand side on ‘Widget’…

It is obviously really a ‘simple’ test for some solid revenue stream generating business, we all are familiar with via Google text ads. But can this be an appropriate test to recall on revenue models?

The two test objects, Twitter search and the above mentioned Twitter widget link, belong directly to the Twitter concept. It offers some immediate navigation benefit to the user. This is what users are after for a long time. Thus, ‘Twitterati’ will click on the links and appreciate the easy way accessing their search service. So, the results Twitter sees with the test don’t reflect in any way potential click rates on text ads as these are dependent on results.

Isn’t there a difference if you promote some internal service or feature, or if you run a promotion from some external party or company? In my experience, in terms of text ads, and those generating results, we can definitely say, there is a huge difference on the click rates. Hence, on the conversion rate clients will find the difference as well. Editorial focus is not comparable to advertising, reaching out for awareness, right? And as clicks is the interactive currency ‘No. 1’ for marketers and convergence their need, according to yesterdays CMO report, the test sounds like comparing apples and oranges.

Spot On!
Nevertheless, the test is worth some thought. And just imagine Amazon and Twitter are getting engaged, the business model becomes clear based on some semantic web thoughts: connecting Amazon’s product catalog by connecting tweets and related products. Someone talks about a film and gets an offer from Amazon in the text ad. Or maybe Yahoo could be the new ‘Who is buying Twitter at last’ as they could compete in the long-tail market. In general, Google could finally face a competitor here…

Nielsen: Facebook best in reach, MySpace in ads

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The recent Nielsen study ‘Global Faces and Networked Plazes‘ focuses on the increase of social networks in terms of worldwide reach and extension. The results emphazise the rise and importance of communities but also the dynamic of the intention to grap more market share.

Talking of reach, Facebook -the worldwide leader in the social network market- is showing the strongest user base and has replaced MySpace as the world’s most popular social network. Classmates comes in third, followed by Orkut and LinkedIn. The reasons for the facebook success are obvious. According to the study and Nielsen measurement, the win of the Facebook tactic is based on the ‘simple design, broad demographic appeal and a focus on connecting’.

Reports estimate that in 2008 Facebook earned around $US300 million in ad revenue compared to around $US1 billion for MySpace. If Facebook has made a conscious choice to go for the quantity vs. quality strategy it has yet to overtake MySpace in the all-important revenue metric.

So, monetization is still not Facebook best business activity. MySpace attracts more advertisers and gets twice as much campaigns than the ‘Zuckerberg team’.
The Nielsen view on the reasons is that “MySpace’s offering possibly makes its inventory – of which there is a lot more compared to Facebook – easier to monetize, particularly in terms of immersive advertising.”

Finally important, the use of social networks has outdated email as the first way of online communication: 67% of the users show a regular activity in communities.

News Update – Best of the Day

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One advice how to find brands and companies on Twitter. Lee Odden knows of 11 advanced and more productive ways that might be helpful when connecting with other brands and marketers on Twitter (via a managed list).

One question every blogger thinks about is ‘Submitting Blogs in Blog Directories’? Ted Demopoulos enlightens the background on this philosophy with some nice insights on how many directories should you enter and what is the benefit.

One post every ‘onliner’ should have in mind in recession times is Nicole Ferraro’s: How to Lose Your Job by Being an Internet Idiot. A lot of good examples that might kill your status of employment. We all do a lot to defining our digital dna but we should be aware that social networking is not everything in our lives…

Die Zukunft des mobilen Web: Experimentierzeit ist vorbei

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One-on-One Interview with Olav A. Waschkies
Director Strategic Marketing & Mobile Internet, Pixelpark

Olav A. Waschkies arbeitet seit über 15 Jahren in der Kommunikationsbranche und verantwortet seit Anfang 2008 als Director Strategic Marketing & Mobile Internet, die Mobile-Aktivitäten von Pixelpark Agentur. Der gelernte Betriebswirt mit Stationen an der Universität zu Köln und der Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona ist Marketer der ersten Stunde im digitalen Marketing und seit 2000 bei Pixelpark beschäftigt. Olav A. Waschkies ist stellvertretender Vorsitzender der Fachgruppe Mobile im Bundesverband Digitaler Wirtschaft (BVDW) e.V.

The Strategy Web hat Olav Waschkies über die Zukunft des mobilen Web befragt.

Q: Was sind die Eckpfeiler einer guten ‘mobilen Webstrategie’?
Olav Waschkies Eine gute mobile Webstrategie zeichnet sich durch Zielkongruenz der mobilen Aktivitäten zu den übergeordneten Gesamtzielen der E-Business-Strategie aus. Dies kann von der Erschließung neuer Umsatzfelder im Bereich Mobile Advertising über die Integration des Themas Mobile im Bereich Distanzhandel hin zur Kostenreduktion durch Prozessoptimierungen im Bereich Costumer Self Service sein. Entscheidend sind die Faktoren – Zielgruppe und Akzeptanz des Mobile Internet, Technische Architektur der eigenen E-Business-Aktivitäten und interne Entscheidungsstrukturen und Akzeptanz für neue marktrelevante Themen im digitalen Umfeld.

Q: Ist das Thema ‘Mobile Webstrategie’ in Unternehmen als ganzheitliches Thema angekommen oder eher ein Marketingphänomen? (mit Begründung)
Olav Waschkies Es ist sicherlich ein Problem in der Entwicklung des mobilen Internets, dass das Thema in weiten Bereichen noch als „Marketing-Spielwiese“ und nicht in der Gesamtheit seiner Bedeutung für die Unternehmen gesehen wird. Schlimmer noch, es wird oft nicht einmal Marketing-Thema, sondern enger gefasst als Marketing-Kommunikationsthema gesehen. Mobile Internet wird dabei sehr häufig auf den Kampagnen-Charakter verkürzt, im extremsten Fall noch auf das Thema Mobile Direct Response, d.h. auf SMS-Dienste. Das Potenzial des mobilen Webs für die Bereiche Internet, Extranet und Intranet werden leider in den wenigsten Fällen strategisch aufgenommen und als Gesamtheit in die E-Business-Strategie integriert. Der Grund ist sicherlich die Entwicklung des Themas, da Direct Response Kampagnen lange Zeit die bekannteste Nutzung des mobilen Webs waren und alle Ansätze aus dem Jahrtausendwechsel als Wap-Flop noch in der Wahrnehmung der Entscheider präsent sind. Die Möglichkeiten die sich eine Dekade später ergeben, sind diesen Entscheidern noch einmal nachhaltig näher zu bringen.

Q: Sehen Sie das Thema Social Media und Web 2.0 von großer Bedeutung für die Entwicklung des mobilen Webs?
Olav Waschkies Social Media und Web 2.0 sind bereits immanenter Bestandteil des mobilen Webs. Eigentlich muss man es noch konsequenter formulieren, das mobile Web ist Web 2.0 in seiner reinen Form und wer sich die mobilen Mandanten der etablierten Online-Angebote und die neuen „mobile born“ Angebote sowie deren Nutzung anschaut, wird sich dieses Eindrucks schwerlich verweigern können.

Q: Ist es überhaupt schon die richtige Zeit für Unternehmen mobilen Content zur Verfügung zu stellen?
Olav Waschkies Es ist für viele Unternehmen bereits fünf vor zwölf, da im Zweifel der Wettbewerb bereits mobil vertreten ist. Wir haben es im mobilen Web nicht mehr mit Prognosen oder Trends zu tun, wir stehen in den nächsten Monaten vor belastbaren Marktdaten, die Transparenz schaffen werden über Angebot und Nachfrage und zeigen werden, dass zum einen bereits ein Markt existiert und zum anderen welche Entwicklungsdynamik diese Markt hat.

Q: Was sind die drei größten Herausforderungen für Unternehmen, die auf mobilen Content setzen wollen?
Olav Waschkies Es lassen sich die folgenden drei Herausforderungen charakterisieren:
1. Interne Herausforderung – Wird das Thema mobile Web als unternehmensrelevant erkannt, erhält es Promotoren auf Entscheidungsebene und findet seinen Widerklang in der E-Business-Strategie?
2. Technische Herausforderung – Lässt sich das Thema in die eigene E-Business-Infrastruktur integrieren und wie, bzw. mit wem lässt sich dieses zielführend umsetzen?
3. Markt Herausforderung – Wird von den Unternehmen der richtige Marktbedarf erkannt und ein adäquates Angebot für die eigene Zielgruppe(n) geschaffen?

In Summe münden die Herausforderungen in die Aufforderung das Thema mobile Web aus der Ecke des Experimentierumfelds herauszuholen und anzufangen, das Thema als geschäfts- und somit strategierelevant einzuordnen, da das mobile Web in den nächsten Jahren sich im Massenmarkt etabliert haben wird.

Herr Waschkies, wir danken Ihnen für den spannenden Einblick in eine mobile Web-Zukunft.

Spot On!
Ergänzend hierzu soll eine Studie von TNS Infratest im Auftrag der E-Plus nicht unerwähnt bleiben, die die Usersicht beleuchtet.
– Mobile Datenangebote: Trend zu Handy- und Laptop-Surfen hält an
– Sprach- und Datentarife: Deutsche bevorzugen Flatrates
– Telefonie: Jeder Dritte würde ganz auf einen Festnetzanschluss verzichten
– Deutschlandweit repräsentative Studie unter 2.000 Verbrauchern

Die am häufigsten genutzten Mobilfunk-Anwendungen sind demnach…
– SMS-Versand (81%)
– Telefonieren (69%)
– Foto und MMS-Versand (33%)
– Musik-Downloads (15%)

Die Studie steht zum Download bereit bei E-Plus.

Cost per User – the next digital currency?

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The discussion about the best advertising currency is long-lasting. It may never be ending. Still the discussion needs to be continued. The web publishing space had all the options on the table: cpm, cpi, cpc, cpl, cps and so on. And each and everyone of those failed in a way that makes all sides of the publishing and web value chain happy. The only currency that did not seriously come up as a currency ratio in media is cost per user (cpu) although every company follows this metric to evaluate their website costs.

Advertisers love to purchase ‘cheap’ quality space of extraordinary target groups. Platform owners need premium-price compensation models in order to provide high-quality content to their users. The users don’t care. Although they are the stumbling block, the center of attention, in this issue between platform providers and advertising clients. Now that web 2.0 and social media comes into the ‘cpx-game’, everyone gets a chance to rethink digital currency models. What is missing in this discussion is the cost per user model.

A Retrospect on Controlled Circulation
If we go way back to the beginning of this century, there was an interesting discussion about controlled circulation going on in the publishing industry. This discussion indicated that the best value of a medium is the registered or qualified user. Someone who gives away a lot of personal data in order to receive a medium for free. And there were numerous print magazines in the market that do and did controlled circulation. And today? There are hundreds of community-based business models on the web – all of these are to a huge degree controlled circulation orientated. Only a few of these businesses know about it, or see the premium value of controlled circulation media in this advertising space.

Now, what exactly is controlled circulation?
In a lot of meetings with clients, the question came up a thousand times when we explained our old community model. Controlled circulation is a distribution model, usually free of charge, for newspapers and magazines that wanted to have a deeper control of their target group. Thus, controlled circulation magazines offered the ideal targeting of the best quality audience for their advertisers. The benefit was quite obvious if we read the articles here and there. Advertisers spend more money for an ad in the controlled circulation arena than for the classical news-stand magazine. In booking controlled circulation media advertisers know in details what target group get for their money. This premium model could have been applicable to business models on the web. But only a few saw this option and took advantage of the ‘closed’ access door idea.

Why is controlled circulation a winner?
The big benefit of controlled circulation is that non-profit organizations audit the reader database of magazines or web platforms in terms of database quality and quality reach: for print BPA and for web platforms ABC Electronic. Both independent ‘controllers’ double-check in the means of the advertisers what kind of target group quality content providers ‘pretend’ to offer to the advertisers. Advertisers love the audits as there is some reliable data that marketers could show to their bosses or the management team after the sales people had captured the marketing-office for their sales pitches. It needs to be said that the audits were based on projections – only 10-20% of the total database really was tested, but still the quality check was much appreciated by the advertisers.

Controlled circulation and the modern web communities
The question is: Why did the controlled circulation discussion ‘die’? Why was it not carried on as an idea for a premium-priced advertising currency in the web world? Why did the focus on the high-profile individual user registration get lost when there was such a huge benefit for the advertising industry? Did it get killed alongside the top-valued personalization idea which got stepped down by the advertising cpm valuation? Maybe…

Nevertheless, in days where social media, social networking and community-building is exploding, is it not the right time to focus on the value of the registered user in terms of digital currency and critically scrutinize the ‘odd’ cpm valuation? Does not the individual need to be in the center of attention of the modern web 2.0 world? The modern web individual that communicates with companies. The one that reads, comments, blogs, publishes, networks, rates or reviews?

A vision
Just imagine there was a kind of database that all magazines and platform owner have to use who want to earn advertisign dollars. That database is held by a non-profit organization or the government. A system where all users unite, active and inactive web users. Every user could define their most interesting platforms and status of activity which would lead to a cost per user index for each online magazine or web platform, based on consumption intensity of the average user, social networking value of the active user and staying-time frequency of each individual. In the end, the combined data of the website generates a platform coefficient which leads to a cost per user. This is the cost that advertisers want to book, right?

Spot On!
In the modern social media world registration processes become daily business for users. If it was one database as described above, the users would be held responsible. They would be more careful on how to define access and care about their data. From day to day, users get more open minded about showing their data on other media including registering their preferences, interests and hobbies. And platform owners benefit from that. In the future, it will become a state of the art for publishing houses and digital platform owners to have their own web community visible on the side-bar for new visitors. This is a huge success for web platform owners. What could be a better reference if you can show your audience, visual and accessible for everyone with avatar picture that the users upload themselves? Bloggers already use this option to attract more interest. The single user will become the reference for each platform.

So, what if the best targeting measurement of a platform becomes the cost per user (cpu)? If we think about how connected (via Google, Facebook or Yahoo) these platforms are becoming and see all the website and social media metrics we could monitor, the question rises: Is there an option to standardize registration on web platforms and communities plus integrating all the generated data of these platforms into one non-profit system or organization which calculates a cost per user index based on targeting criteria like b2b or b2c and different demographic data? Is Cost per User the next digital currency? The discussion is yours…