Mobile Starting to Replace Desktop

It is no secret mobile is starting to become the preferred form of technology and according to a recent article in eMarketer, desktops are starting to feel the brunt of the change.

As you can see, over the past year and half, mobile usage has increased 10.5% while desktop use just dropped 5% compared the six months prior. In addition, tablet users are reporting a 6% increase.

With this obvious change in user preference, I am surprised that more businesses are not solely focusing on the device we hold in our pockets 24/7. Companies continue to ignore design elements as well as strategic components needed to hone in on this ever-growing demographic.

Digital marketing, like many industries, continues to evolve. It is widely known that any company that doesn’t adapt to the challenges and opportunities they see every day, will undoubtedly fail.

The other day, I was showing my mother an upcoming race I just signed up for. Cutting them some slack, I realize many people will not sign up for 5-mile race on a mobile device (or maybe even tablet), but their website could barely be read on these devices. In the common day, especially when they make a different website each year for this race, why would they ignore mobile or tablet users? Laziness is my answer.

Consumers nowadays expect their technology to fit with the times. The times are calling for mobile and tablet friendly websites, emails and applications. Those who continue to ignore the trend will fall behind and become extinct before you know it.

We Are the News

Two weeks ago, as we saw the full aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombings, I started thinking about the way we gather our news and how the process has evolved over the years.

As I noted in an earlier post, as soon as the bombs went off, I headed to Facebook to see what was going on. Coming from a journalism major, that is a pretty big deal. After all, I wanted live action from the people truly affected and Facebook is a great way to get it.

The opinions are unbiased, sadly something that is not always common with traditional news outlets, but more importantly, you can feel the emotion when you gather news from your friends and family. I could watch CNN for exclusive interviews from those involved, but why not get the same from the people I actually know and trust? When you think about it, it's targeted news.

All the advances with iPhones, mobile and social media have allowed the public to become our own news source. It is truly one of the great benefits our society has seen from technology over the past ten years.

I no longer have to wait for the Sun-Times to report who won the Sox game. I no longer have to wait for a phone call to hear if the girl of his dreams said yes to the big question (which happened this weekend by the way). I can get the news as soon as they share it with the world. Once again, targeted news for me when I want it.

Who needs traditional news outlets when you have your friends and social media? 

DVR Has Nothing on this Commercial

Anyone who has ever met me knows my affinity for TV. There is nothing better than coming home after a long day of work and a run than sitting down on my couch, dinner in hand, and watching one my shows.

Like many other Americans, eight out of ten to be exact, I tend to DVR a show or watch it via Netflix, DVD, on-demand or HBOGo. According to a recent eMarketer article, of those eight consumers, 41% did so through cable or satellite on-demand, 40% did so through streaming and 37% used a recording device like a DVR. For the sake of this story, we are going to concentrate on that 37%.

If someone records a show on their DVR, chances are, they are fast forwarding through the commercials. Clearly, advertisers are not happy about this and have been paying the price this past decade. Until now, ad buyers and sellers had no response. Volkswagen just changed the game.

As you can see from the video, the commercial is viewed almost identically in regular time vs. fast forwarding. How are they the first ones to come up with this?

This tactic doesn’t mean much to marketers, but perhaps advertisers will now look for more creative ways to bypass the obstacles of our society.

Agencies, here comes the money. 

Social Media is the New News

If you have kept up with this blog, or many others for that matter, you have seen everyone and their mothers write about the Boston Marathon Bombings. Of the many lessons I have learned from this tragedy, one that stands out to me is that our entire nation is starting to view news in a different manner from different sources.

As a former journalist, as soon as news broke of the two bombings, you would think I would head to The Boston Herald or The New York Times. Not in 2013. The first news source I went to was Facebook. After doing a little digging, I found out I wasn’t the only one. Instead of hearing from the professionals, I wanted to see and view the story through the eyes of my friends and family. Just saying this puts a cringe in my stomach, but that is the way our world is going.

Who can blame us? When every citizen out there is their own reporter, with smartphones capable of taking HD video or photos and instantly posting them online, why wait for the dinosaurs to report? We now live in a day an age of the 24/7 news cycle and with the help of Vine, Facebook, Twitter and every other social network out there, professional news sources are losing credibility by the day.

I realize that any news I see on Facebook won’t be 100% accurate. Hell, it may not be 1% accurate. Nonetheless, the fact that a former journalist who still believes in the true power and responsibility of good reporting went to Facebook instead of an established news source shows that our world is truly evolving before our very eyes.

At school, they called the idea of citizens reporting the news citizen journalism. Supposedly, this has been going on for centuries. I wonder if they ever knew it would get this far.

Where did you go online when you heard of the Boston Marathon Bombings?

Recruiters Make Their Way to Twitter

Everything in this world is being simplified and moving faster by the day. Why should recruiting or searching for a new job be any different?

I was reading a recent article in the WallStreet Journal and found that recruiters and eager job applicants have made their way to Twitter to find a better future. I personally have not tried it, but I think this is a win-win for everyone.

As an experienced job seeker (sadly), I know the pain of looking for a new job. I know the draining feeling one gets as one applies for job after job after job. Just connecting with the hiring managers is a job in itself. Finding ways to attract their interest is the toughest part of the process. With Twitter, applicants, with very minimal research, can get front and center right away.

Then, job seekers must find a way to peek a recruiter’s interest in 140 characters or less. What do you say? I am looking for a job at your company and here is my resume. Where do you post the resume? How often should you reach out? If you are reaching out on Twitter, how do you segregate your personal life from professional? If a recruiter sees something in you, you can bet they will be browsing through your Twitter feed. These are just some of the questions all applicants need to ask themselves before reaching out.

On the other side of the coin, I see only positives for recruiters. I have never been a recruiter, but have been in serious relationships with two human resources professionals. They see thousands and thousands of resumes. They claim there is just not enough time in the day to respond to each and every resume that comes in. As an applicant, you have no idea how much this angers me. If I take the time to write a cover letter, update my resume and apply for your position, I think the recruiter or HR rep has time to send a two line email. With Twitter, it could take literally one minute to respond to someone on Twitter.

In addition, recruiters will be able to see what their applicants are like outside of work. LinkedIn is 100% professional and Facebook won’t allow recruiters to access certain pages (depending on the security of their profile), so Twitter is easily the best choice. Recruiters need to know about skills and traits that have gotten their applicants to where they are in the work world, but every employer needs to know much more than it if they plan on hiring them. Twitter accounts for that.

As you can see, I am a strong proponent of Twitter as a recruiting platform. Everything in life is moving faster and allowing less time (or characters) to react, but change isn’t always that bad. If you are looking for a new job, Twitter is a safe bet.

What do you think of recruiters using Twitter to find applicants? 

What Recent Facebook Changes Mean to Marketers

This past week, many social media goers noticed some changes to their Facebook, on mobile and on the desktop that both challenge and aid a marketer’s job in driving engagement with their fans and attracting new ones.

On mobile, Facebook now allows users to segment their newsfeed based on friends, following companies, music, games and so on. Marketers need to realize that now, no matter what non-paid tactic they implement, users have the ability to turn them off instantly. To be perfectly honest, many users will do this.

Just think of it from your perspective. I only follow brands if I have a deep interest in them (like the White Sox), if they are a good company to know about (future job possibly) or if I think I could get a discount/coupon down the road. However, no matter what, I will always want to see what my friends are up to before any company or team. This will probably never change and I can bet many people feel the same way.

On the other end of the spectrum, Facebook recently updated my account to Open Graph. It is truly amazing that I can search restaurants my friends like, games my friends are obsessed with or photos I have liked. That is incredibly targeted. In addition, you can also locate people based on their city, job or interest. The best part about it is that you don’t have to be friends with these people. Not that people put much of their professional life on Facebook, but it’s like Facebook is on the way of replacing LinkedIn.

So as any marketer can see, some change is positive and some is negative. Needless to say, like any business, Facebook is encouraging brands to spend more money on ads to better connect with their fans. However, if you have been posting engaging photos and posts that encourage your fans to act on your page, even with the segmentation, you should hopefully see little change with your analytics.

What do you think of all the changes coming out? Good or bad for us?

Is All This Data Worth It?

No matter what industry you are in, companies need data to see how they are stacking up against their competitors and to learn everything there is to know about their fans. We all say we need it and if we had it, we could do great things. However, unless you have the resources to make sense of this mountain of data, 

this strategy may not be right for you.

According to a recent eMarketerstory (and for you daily readers, I bet you are starting to see a trend on where I get my blog ideas from), six out of ten marketers in a CMO Council and SAS survey said big data was part opportunity, part obstacle, yet still have a ways to go.

Immediately, that tells me that companies are just following the trend. Like Pinterest, content marketing, Instagram and many more fads in our industry, marketers think they need to stick with the times, even if that channel or tactic doesn’t mesh with your company. Certain companies do not need to be on Pinterest. As much as we say it at work, certain companies do not have a good enough story to implement a word of mouth marketing program (hint: topic for tomorrow’s blog). Big data, like everything else, is not right for everyone.

Take WOMMA for example. We preach on and on how we want to learn everything there is to know about our most loyal fans. I whole heartedly believe that to be true. In order to do this, it takes research, surveys (which less and less people are taking nowadays), time and money. And even after all this, it takes even more time and money to make sense of it all and implement a strategy using this new information. Certain companies just don’t have the resources and if you can’t do things right, why do them at all?

My point is that not all marketers need to do what everyone else is going if it doesn’t work for them or their company. Big data, despite its relevance to understanding your audience, is not for everyone. If you don’t have the resources to invest 100% energy and effort into something, don’t do it.

What’s the point?