I remember last year when we were writing blogs about the Facebook migration to timeline. This big change reshaped how both brands and everyday users would come to know and interact with the social media mega-power. Over the past year, there have been sporadic changes, but nothing like what was announced on Thursday.

Yes, folks, Facebook is making another big change. This time, it’s a timeline redesign.

We’ve seen the push toward the visualization of social networks.  Not only have visual-based channels such as Instagram and Pinterest become major players in the social scene, but tried-and-true Facebook and Twitter have also started migrating to a more visual format. Take, for example, the addition of cover photos to Facebook and Twitter. Now, brands and individual users can further customize their spaces, making a visual statement on each page.

Facebook is taking it one step further with its timelines changes.

Thursday’s announcement on the updates (coming to a Facebook account near you soon), proved to be the biggest change we’ve seen since last March. Now, posted photos will be bigger, cover photos will be more apparent, and users can segment the content in the feed by selecting what they want to see, when they want to see it.

In my opinion, though, the big winner of this all? Brands. Hear me out.

The first benefit to brands of the new timeline? Visual brand opportunities. With the advent of the new timeline, brands will be able to have a stronger visual representation on not just their own pages, but on ads and referral page links, too. Take into consideration, though, that your cover photo will be more important than ever. On the newly designed newsfeed, brands’ cover images will be front and center on sponsored stories and friend stores. Check out this example.

Not only is the cover photo displayed on this cover story, but the call to action to like the page is actually more noticeable than before. Good for brands, right?

Another big change that benefits marketers and brands alike? The newly segmented feeds. Why? Think of it as a qualifier for brand interaction. Users who are perusing the new “Following” category will be privy to all the updates from the brands they follow. This is a good thing. If a user is going to this specific tab to explore, they’re more interested in seeing your brand message than in the new pictures of their friend’s baby or second cousin’s Bat Mitzvah. A more captive and receptive user, after all, is a user you want.

All of these changes have been made across all platforms of the site. Now, the Facebook website and iPad and mobile apps will all have the same visual feel, allowing brands to interact on a deeper visual level with mobile users.

As with all the changes that have happened with Facebook in the year I’ve been with LFI, this is, without a doubt, the most exciting yet. Brands: take this change as an opportunity to take your social media marketing plan to the next level.  In the new feed format, you’ll get your chance to better engage with users, become a more visual presence, and have a captive audience with whom to communicate. 

Google+... it seems as though G+, as we lovingly call it around the LFI office, is having a hard time picking up speed with ‘regular consumers’ but seems to be the social network of choice for “techies”, social media lovers and digital marketers. While none of those may be your company’s target audience, that doesn’t mean you should ignore Google+…there are definite advantages for your brand to use it.

Let’s get back to the Google+ basics. What is the purpose behind this social media platform and how can you, as a brand, need to be involved?

Google+ was developed by Google and released as a social media platform in early 2011. By the summer of 2011 there were rumors swirling about when Google+ Pages would be available for brands and by November they were. Today millions of businesses and brands have joined the Google+ community and are connecting with fans and brand enthusiasts. Google+ was created with more of community sharing feel in mind with the ability to follow experts and others in your industry, along with brands. Google+ took the best of the Facebook and Twitter community experiences and combined them.

There are two major reasons for your brand to be on and take advantage of Google+. First, Google+, much like Twitter, provides a venue to distribute relevant, business-related and branded content. Posting engaging and relevant content on your Google+ increases the likelihood of sharing by your followers, as well as having followers +1 the content you are sharing. This increases your likelihood, depending on the topic, of becoming an “expert” in the eyes Google+ and thus more likely to show up in a follower’s search results.  That leads straight into point number two: search. Or in this case social search optimization (SSO). SSO is the big time for brands and businesses using Google+. SSO is so important in Google+ because a user’s search results in Google are personalized when they are signed in, meaning if a user follows your brand and you posted something related to their search recently, that piece of information (usually a link you posted) is likely to appear in the first page of the users search result. Tada…you have successfully infiltrated your followers’ search results with relevant, timely information they are searching for and you have set yourself apart as the expert. And consumers are more likely to trust the information that results from sources they trust (your brand or business) or results endorsed by their peers, colleagues or expert they follow (hence the reason that +1 button can be so powerful).

So why as a digital marketer do I like and encourage the use of Google+? Because as a user there is a bountiful amount of information available plus when I search I am presented with the information those in my circles have posted or recommended. And that information is the most valuable to me – as a consumer and marketer – because it is what I trust the most.  So, the real answer, I urge Google+ usage for the same reason brands should be engaged with consumers on this social media platform.

And finally, I give you my top three tips for brands using Google+:

1. Know what content your fans are looking for and provide it. Content is the king of the web and the more industry-related content you can provide that excites sharing from your followers, the higher the impact on your search
2. Understand social search optimization. By understand SSO, you can take advantage of the search benefits provided by Google+ for your business.
3. Be creative. Use Google+ to release new information first or create special consumer interactions. For example, +Coca-Cola hosted a hangout for NASCAR fans with drivers of the Coca-Cola racing family and +Fiat debuted the new Panda model to fans via a hangout.

Google+ for business allows your brand to get social around the web. From the search benefits to face-time with consumers (Google Hangout), the connection options available to your business extend beyond the typical social network.

The LFI "Back to Basics" blog series takes social media back to step one. From discovering the "must haves" of Facebook to the ins and outs of Tumblr, each blog will focus on the essentials of the world's most loved (and sometimes, loathed) social networks. Not only will you learn where your brand should be, but why it should be there, and how to maximize your social influence. 

At times I find myself spending more than a few minutes digging through an inbox loaded with newsletters and emails. No, it isn’t ‘spam’…I apparently signed up for all of it from companies I like. Often times, however, I find myself asking, “Why did I signed up for all this?” Then it happens. I inevitably come across an email that teases me with a half-off coupon for those designer shoes I’ve been eyeing, and I remember exactly why. Two minutes later I am clicking through to purchase, and likely then posting a pic of my hot new kicks to Facebook for all to witness the awesome deal I just got from X company.

In today’s very social, very mobile economy, consumers expect far more from the brands they choose to engage with, and they interact with them differently via various marketing channels. Two of these channels, email and social media, bring value through very distinctive types of consumer engagement – and each are key to maximizing the impact of your digital marketing strategy.

With the rise of social media marketing, email marketing has evolved over time to better integrate with other channels, however the main reason customers choose to allow you access to their inbox continues to remain the same, they want a good deal.

This theory has been confirmed not only via my personal research (read: shopping habits), but by a recent study conducted by Constant Contact which analyzed why consumers choose to subscribe to email lists. A whopping 58% of respondents do so in order to receive discounts and special offers. This is no surprise as consumers continue to be price-conscious in a still recovering economy. In fact, according to another study by Yahoo! and Ipsos, 27% of respondents prefer receiving coupons digitally vs. offline from brands they like, and 64% subscribed to at least one email list in order to receive these deals. Clearly engagement via email is largely driven by the desire to save a little cash and be in the know for the next big sale – who doesn’t like a good sale? But does the same hold true in the social space? Do customers only ‘like’ a business page in order to receive discounts?

Not according to recent studies. While the top reason for ‘liking’ a business on Facebook is to receive access to special offers and discounts (41%), studies have also found that 25% of respondents do so in order to show support of a brand they like and 22% said they do so to demonstrate their support and share the good deal on Facebook.  

While customers love getting good deals in the social space, they also ‘like’ brand pages to brag about the awesome deal they received to all their friends or to show some ‘social love’ to the business that gave them the great product or service.  This is especially true when it’s for a high-dollar or luxury purchase. According to a recent consumer insights panel conducted by Empathica, while less than 6% of consumers will brag about the high cost of a recent luxury purchase, over 30% said they DO brag if they get a good deal. In other words, if I score those killer designer shoes for half off – I’m going to share that savvy shopper nugget with my fellow shoe-loving friends on Facebook and will ‘like’ the brand page in hopes of gaining access to additional sales in the future. Basically, old school ‘word of mouth’ marketing coming into play big time via social media.

If your business is looking to revamp your digital marketing strategy, be sure to incorporate a savvy mix of e-mail and social media as part of your plan. If leveraged appropriately, these two channels provide very different and equally valuable user engagement opportunities, which will help maximize customer engagement and ultimately increase the return on your marketing investment.

We’ve all heard (or used) the excuses to avoid social media

-       fear of the unknown

-       our customers don't use it

-       we don't know enough about it

-       there are no guaranteed results

-       I have no time for it

-       I’m nervous about feedback and the truth

and the list goes on and on.

The truth is, social media is here to stay.  We all need to be onboard.

Social media is certainly no magic pill to a huge ROI.  There are steps that need to be taken in order to provide the best opportunity for success. 

Best practices include:

Setting goals and objectives - these goals might be to increase sales and profits while reducing costs or to generate a 25% increase in web traffic.  Maybe your goal is to reduce customer service calls by 10%.

Create a plan - know what tools you will need to reach your goals (Facebook? Twitter? Blog?) and be sure to set benchmarks along the way.  Consider what (or who) it will take to execute this strategy for your organization.

Measure results - verify whether the plan is working by measuring against the goals that were set.  Check web analytics if you need to measure web traffic or evaluate customer service calls to see if your 10% reduction is being met.  Social media is really pretty easy to measure.

Stay committed - stick with the social media process.  It takes time.  Many companies "join" and expect people to just show up.  After a few months of trying, many companies quit because they don't see enough fans, activity, or followers.  At the very least, social media is an annual commitment that can help provide your organization results.

Enhancing your branding and awareness, protecting your brand reputation, extending your PR, and facilitating research and development are other things that social media can do for your business.  Enough of the excuses.  Social media is no longer a fledgling fad. It's time to use social media to help you effectively market your organization.  Many of your competitors are leveraging this valuable tool and you should be too.

You have been making concerted efforts to increase the social media buzz about your brand. You do regular posts and Tweets hoping that talk of your brand will spread across the social landscape. One of the ways you measure your success is by looking at an overall trend in the number of conversations about your brand over time. 

As you look at this trend you see that some days there are spikes in the number of conversations about your brand—these spikes look like mountains on the line graph. Other days you may see valleys. Often times it is volatile and a peak can be immediately followed by a valley. But, how do you know if these peaks and valleys are normal or abnormal? Which peaks and valleys are part of the normal ebb and flow of conversation and which ones are not?

There is a helpful statistical concept called control limits that can be used in this situation to answer these questions. There is an upper control limit (UCL) and a lower control limit (LCL). These limits are calculated by taking the average number of social media conversations per day and then adding (for UCL) or subtracting (for LCL) the product of the standard deviation multiplied by three.

So, for example, let’s assume there is an average of 8 social media conversations per day about our brand. Using the control limit formula, our UCL would be 13 and our LCL would be 2.9. As we look at our social media conversation trend line graph we will see that some days the number of conversations falls between 2.9 and 13 conversations per day. Even though there may be 12 conversations in one day (which is 50% higher than average), we know that that day was part of the normal ebb and flow of conversation because it fell within the control limits. 

However, other days the number of conversations in a single day may be 25 or it may be 2. If there were 25 conversations in one day about the brand, that is not part of the expected ebb and flow of conversation because it falls outside of the control limits. That day should be analyzed to determine why there were such a large number of conversations about your brand.  You may find that it was due to a particular type of Tweet you did and this may be something you will want to repeat in the future because it caused a higher than normal amount of social media conversation about your brand.

Understanding the analytics behind your brand’s social media conversation is just as important as the conversation itself. Through developing a high level of analytics awareness, you’ll be ready to tackle your social media marketing strategy for the quarters and years to come.

[Contributed by Ben Hill]

Earlier this month Social Media Examiner released their 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. One of the top items to note was the expected increase of the use of video marketing by social media marketers. Sixty-seven percent of respondents plan to increase the use of YouTube and video marketing in 2012 and YouTube is the fourth most commonly used social media tool.

According to the report, the top two benefits of social media marketing are increasing exposure (85%) and increasing website traffic (69%). Lead generation as a benefit of social media marketing increased 7% to 58% in 2012.

Not surprising, Facebook was at the top of the list as the most commonly used social media tool at 92%, followed by Twitter (82%), LinkedIn (73%), blogs (61%), YouTube (57%), and Google+ (40%). Google+ is making an impact on social media marketers all around. In addition to being the number 4 most commonly used tool, 70% of marketers want to learn more about it and 67% plan to increase Google+ activities.

It is apparent from the report that social media marketers understand the value of integrating other forms of marketing with social media. Email, SEO and event marketing top the list of current other forms of marketing used as well as those that social media marketers were looking to increase in 2012.

Given the information from the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, brands should not only be ready to beef-up their social media engagement and marketing efforts, but align those efforts with other marketing efforts to create an overall digital marketing strategy for 2012.

Welcome to the new “Pin Up” era! No, I’m not talk about Betty Grable or Marilyn Monroe, I’m talking about the social media sharing sensation Pinterest. If you’re not on Pinterest, you need to request a membership as soon as you’re done reading my blog (Warning: this site is HIGHLY addictive). This new social media site allows users to share content via “pins” by adding links you find interesting on your various “boards”. This sharing nature is also known as referral traffic. According to a study conducted by Shareaholic, Pinterest had more referral traffic than Youtube, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn, and MySpace last month. Pinterest took its overall referral traffic from 0.17% in July 2011 to 3.6% in January 2012, making it only .01% behind Twitter.

For you non-pinners, you probably don’t understand why Pinterest is so great. “It looks like a bunch of pictures” was my initial reaction. Once I started exploring, I realized it’s subtle powers. Its interface is designed for members to follow certain interests - food, fashion, fitness, etc - and displays pictures and links based on those specified categories. It allows you to “repin” links to your own boards, mimicking Twitter’s “retweet” action. Users can also “like” pins that keep them in a separate area for easy access when they wish to recall that link. You can link your account to your other social properties, personal website, and search engines. You can also post infographics, videos, and even conduct contests!

So what does this mean for businesses? You want to be in this space. For the retail industry, this is a huge development for how consumers shop. Users can “follow” a company’s pins and if they see a picture of a product they like, they can simply click and it was take them directly to the ecommerce site. Pinterest allows greater exposure for companies who may not be considered leaders in the industry by showing up in specific searches. It won’t be long until Pinterest will become a integrate part of a brand’s social media strategy. Now that’s Pin-teresting!

[INFOGRAPHIC via Mashable]

Super Bowl XLVI will be one for the record book for more reasons than being a rematch from 2008 between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. From mobilelive streaming of the game via Verizon and advertisers changing their strategies to reach consumers to version 2.02 of the Super BowlGuide app and a social media command center to reach tweeters and Facebookers, the digital media aspects of this year’s Super Bowl are unprecedented.

The socialmedia command center will be set-up downtown in host city Indianapolis and staffed with strategists, analysts and techies to help monitor fans’ social conversation and give fans parking information, directions to fun attractions during their visit and answer any other questions that may come up. The command center will also be prepared in the event on an emergency or disaster. Like many brand or company socialmedia marketers, the social media staff for Super Bowl XLVI will be searching for specific keywords and phrases from fans and Indy visitors while watching for hash tags such as #superbowl2012, #Indy, #SBVillage and #NFLExperience among many others. Creating a social media experience for Super Bowl fans and game goers helps create a positive reputation for Indianapolis and Super Bowl XLVI, as well as provides communication with fans in the way fans are communicating with each other.

As 150,000+ fans are expected to flood Indianapolis, millions more will be watching the big game from home on their big screens, small screens and Verizon Smartphones. I’m excited to see what other digital media rolls out during the game on Sunday and which brands embrace an integrated marketing strategy to entice consumers with commercials and then direct them to a Facebook or Twitter pages to increase engagement. 

The best way to explain balancing your company’s relationship with Facebook is…”it’s complicated”. When it comes to looking for advice about Facebook ratings, there seems to be just as many opinions as YouTube has likes (which is 48 million, by the way). With so many opinions and do’s and don’ts, they can’t all possibly be correct, right? Well, to make matters more complicated the answer is yes…and no.

Despite the abundance of opinions on company branding and marketing with Facebook, experts and bloggers alike come to agreement on a few of the same big ideas. The main one being the measurement of your brand’s impact on Facebook. The number of ‘likes’ now has less importance when evaluating your social media presence. As Neff mentions in his article, “More Than Just Numbers: The Brands With the Top Relationship Quality on Facebook” the amount of engagement relates closer to a high score on the Fathom Analytics Relationship Quality Index than ‘likes’ alone. This score like others such as EdgeRank mentioned in Smith’s “How to Virally Grow Your Facebook Fan Page”, are based on a combination of criteria such as user affinity, status weight, freshness, momentum, engagement, and emotional quality.

Multiple other opinions also believe that things such a language, time of day, and frequency should meet a certain requirement. Some say, be personal. Some say, be professional. Nine AM, no two PM. Once a day, no twice a day…etc. To add to the opinions, here’s mine - ”it’s complicated”. No one expert or blogger can definitively decide these factors. It depends on your audience and industry. What works for one brand will not always be the case for another in the world of social media marketing. It is much like a real relationship, you have to try different things to find the right mix.

So go ahead, take the plunge and tie the knot on your “complicated” relationship with Facebook and live happily ever after! Need help? Contact LeapFrog Interactive and our digital marketing team will help counsel your brand in a healthy social media relationship.

[Contributed by Kara DeLost, Marketing Specialist]

Engagement. Discussion. Branding. Three words many companies, and digital marketers alike, use to describe reasons they are using social media or recommend their clients join the social media conversation. As a digital agency, we are often asked why a company should create a social media presence and why it is important to stay engaged with consumers on social media platforms. There are many reasons we provide as to why a business should become engaged with consumers or other businesses online via social media channels. Three of those key reasons include (1) brand perception, (2) customer service, and (3) market/brand research.

Brand perception is the obvious big reason to engage in social media conversations and social media marketing. Presenting your business in the best light possible not only leads to increased brand awareness, but also to the possibility of changing a consumer’s perception of the brand. Brand perception and brand awareness is a key step in increasing sales, new leads and new customers.

Consumers love good customer service – on the phone, via email and on social media. Developing a solid social media plan that involves customer service will benefit the company and the consumer. The consumer sees that the company is paying attention to its customers, which then leads to an improved brand perception. Personally, there are brands and companies I am more likely to Tweet if I have a problem with their product or service than others given their likelihood to respond and solve the problem. Positive interaction with consumers, even those with negative comments or concerns, benefits your business to be seen as a “helpful brand” and that message has the potential to spread virally via your consumers’ social media channels. Take for example Twitter. You have a consumer who has a problem with a product and tweets to you. Rather than ignoring your consumer, your customer service team quickly tweets a reply and asks to help. The conversation continues resulting in the problem being resolved. Not only is you consumer happier, but also then tweets how great the customer service is and thus recommends your brand or product to all their followers – potentially creating many new customers.

Monitoring social properties not only to improve customer-company relations, but also to conduct social market research with fans and followers creates a more integrated experience. Where else can a business receive unbiased, real-time opinions of products services and marketing campaigns? Brand feedback, negative or positive, sets the stage for any business to improve products, services or processes and develop new products, services or marketing campaigns based on consumer feedback. This monitoring helps brands understand their consumer better and as a result produce better user-oriented products and services.

As you probably noticed, these three reasons are intertwined and should be recognized together to produce a successful social media campaign. Development of a social media campaign should include many additional elements, but these three key reasons provide a solid ground for a business’ social media engagement to grow on.

As holiday cheer and celebration is in full swing at LeapFrog Interactive, I wanted to have a little fun with a classic Christmas song, The Twelve Days of Christmas with a digital marketing spin. And so I present…

LeapFrog Interactive’s The 12 Days of Digital Marketing

(Somewhat to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas)

On the first day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

An integrated marketing strategy

On the second day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

On the third day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Three emails sending

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

On the fourth day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Four clients calling

Three emails sending

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

On the fifth day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Five Facebook posts

Four clients calling

Three emails sending

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

On the sixth day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Six Tweeters tweeting

Five Facebook posts

Four clients calling

Three emails sending

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

On the seventh day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Seven campaigns a-running

Six Tweeters tweeting

Five Facebook posts

Four clients calling

Three emails sending

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

On the eighth day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Eight fans a-liking

Seven campaigns a-running

Six Tweeters tweeting

Five Facebook posts

Four clients calling

Three emails sending

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

On the ninth day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Nine websites launching

Eight fans a-liking

Seven campaigns a-running

Six Tweeters tweeting

Five Facebook posts

Four clients calling

Three emails sending

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

On the tenth day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Ten blogs a-posting

Nine websites launching

Eight fans a-liking

Seven campaigns a-running

Six Tweeters tweeting

Five Facebook posts

Four clients calling

Three emails sending

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

On the eleventh day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Eleven coders coding

Ten blogs a-posting

Nine websites launching

Eight fans a-liking

Seven campaigns a-running

Six Tweeters tweeting

Five Facebook posts

Four clients calling

Three emails sending

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

On the twelfth day of Christmas my digital agency gave to me

Twelve keyword searches

Eleven coders coding

Ten blogs a-posting

Nine websites launching

Eight fans a-liking

Seven campaigns a-running

Six Tweeters tweeting

Five Facebook posts

Four clients calling

Three emails sending

Two mobile apps

And integrated marketing strategy

Happy Holidays from all of us to you!

2012 is quietly sneaking up on us as we approach Thanksgiving and with Christmas just around the corner. While consumers are planning their holiday dinners, shopping and gift ideas, marketers are heavily concentrating on the upcoming trends for the New Year. Many trends look to be emerging for 2012 from SEO updates to social media channels to the advancement of mobile technology & mobile marketing. Beyond those typical digital marketing arenas, more advanced technologies are propelling digital signage and digital-out-of-home displays forward.

SEO

With the release of the Panda updates throughout 2011, improving content has been top of mind for all search marketers. That isn’t predicted to change moving forward into 2012. Relevant, original content will continue to play a major role in all SEO strategies.

In November, Google rolled out two more SEO updates that will have a significant impact on search and search results pages – freshness and social. The goal of the freshness update is to ensure searchers are getting the most up to date information – specifically when it comes to news and sports. For example, if you search “Olympics,” Google will know you mean the upcoming game in London in 2012 rather than results from four years ago. If your website is a news site or concentrates on current information, this new update may impact your SEO. Moving into 2012, updating content regularly with unique, relevant information will help keep your website from slipping in being found in search results.

The second announcement Google made was in regard to search and social working together. Google can now execute AJAX and JavaScript on social pages like Facebook and Twitter. With this update, Google has the ability to serve Facebook comments and Twitter posts as search results. Making it even more essential for businesses to create posts, comments, and tweets relating to their business and containing keywords.

Watch for continued social medial integration in search marketing and more emphasis on website content moving into 2012.

Social Media Marketing

As mentioned about, social media and SEO will continue to become more integrated moving into 2012. Google and Bing have already begun the integration process. In May, Bing pushed a Facebook integration which allows logged-in Facebook users to “like” search results and sites and brings users personalized results based on information from their Facebook profile. Additionally, Bing shows logged-in users what they’re friends are “liking,” reading and sharing. More recently, as mentioned above, Google’s new update has the ability to push Facebook comments and Tweets into search results.

The rollout of Google+ Pages for Business creates an additional communication channel for business to consumers and business-to-business. Google+ lets businesses showcase their portfolio of work and give additional information and products and services offered.

Social media and social media marketing will continue to be a “mover and shaker” with consumers, business and brands and the communications between them in 2012.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile technology and advanced mobile marketing strategies will continue to move forward in 2012. Mobile marketing moving into 2012 will continue to include local mobile search, mobile app development and in-app ads and mobile coupons. Local mobile search will make its mark as Smartphone users continue to increase and use their phones to search for restaurants and shopping near their current location. Mobile couponing will remain steady as consumers remain pressed in their spending on non-essential goods.

The newest technologies moving forward in 2012 and beyond include near field communication (NFC) and voice search. NFC is the technology behind the “mobile wallet.” It allows consumers to have money in their phone and not have to necessarily carry a wallet or purse. The mobile wallet will continue to rise in 2012 and beyond as more Smartphones include the NFC technology.

Voice search has appeared more heavily on marketers’ radar with the release of Siri and the iPhone 4s. Siri allows users not only to set reminders and have messages read out loud, but it also allows users to search by talking to Siri and not typing in a search engine. Search markets and mobile markets now need to consider the differences in how consumers search when they type vs. how they ask questions. While this may not be an immediate need in 2012, it is definitely something to consider moving forward with mobile marketing strategy for the future.

Outside of SEO, social media and mobile marketing there are additional digital trends to watch for in 2012. Digital signage and digital-out-of-home campaigns create a new sense of interaction with consumers.

In today’s “social” world of ‘liking’, mentioning, and ‘retweeting’, it seems that anyone who is anyone has some form of social media channel. What once was cutting edge now seems to be the norm. This proposes a new challenge in thinking about marketing strategy. Ok you’re on social media…so what? Everyone is. Many companies take the first step of creating social media pages, but then fail to keep their consumers engaged. Companies now face the challenge of ensuring that their social media marketing efforts are relevant so consumers actually utilize it beyond simply ‘liking’ or ‘following’ them.

In late October of 2011, Louisville Slugger decided it was time to shake up their standard social media efforts. Even though the company had been “social” for three years strong, the activity level had become dormant. The recent conclusion of The World Series (with a triumph win by the St. Louis Cardinals), gave the company the perfect opportunity to reach their fans. Slugger’s efforts went beyond the typical Facebook and Twitter contests and not only got their fans engaged, but active.

The Louisville-based company lead their fans on a hunt, scavenger that is, all around the city of St. Louis in search for 45 commemorative bats. They were giving out live “clues” on where the bats were located through Facebook and Twitter. After only one day with this new approach, the brand’s ‘likes’ increased by 143% and ‘followers’ by 161%. Not to mention the enormous increase of 834% of fans “talking about this” on Facebook. This new social chatter feature is a raw number expressing how much activity is going on about a brand which includes status updates, mentions, RSVP’s, photo-tags, and check-in’s.

Louisville Slugger’s digital scavenger hunt caused quite the frenzy around St. Louis and more importantly around Louisville Slugger’s brand. By making their social marketing efforts more engaging, the company was able to reach their fans in a new and physically active way. So if you need “clues” on how to make your social media efforts more effective, try thinking outside box or, in their case, the house.

Have you utilized a digital scavenger hunt for your product? Have you participated in a digital scavenger hunt? Share with us on Twitter or Facebook. We’d love to hear about your experience.

[Contributed by Kara DeLost, Marketing Coordinator]

On November 3, Google rolled out its newest algorithm change which they say is an extension to the “Caffeine” update launched mid 2010. The goal of the “freshness” update is to bring searchers the most up-to-date, or freshest, information possible in areas where new information really matters like current events, frequently changing technologies, and regularly reoccurring events. Along with the focus on fresh content, Google can now execute AJAX and JavaScript to index comments on pages like Facebook and Twitter. This means comments made on social media pages could very well pop up on search engine results pages (SERP) – especially if they are in reference to a subject in one of the affected categories.

What This Means for Digital Marketing

Obviously fresh content is going to become more important. While this will have a bigger impact on some websites than others, if the site you’re managing happens to be among those considered to be one in the “freshness” category, then you’ll need to constantly crank out the new content while remaining relevant and unique. In this respect, SEO will become more difficult and time consuming, but hopefully rewarding you for the time spent producing the content with higher SERP rankings and traffic.

Social media can now be considered to be a tool for SEO. With Google indexing comments from social media pages, it stands to reason that relevant, keyword dense comments could achieve high rankings on search results pages. This means more thought and planning will need to go into coordinating our social media campaigns with SEO efforts to incorporate keywords.

On the surface it seems that Google has made it easier to achieve high rankings for sites that constantly publish new content and are active in social media marketing, but as with all Google updates there are winners and losers. The categories considered in this update will become more competitive, and require increased efforts to maintain rankings. However, with a well-planned and executed digital marketing strategy these changes can certainly be used to your advantage.

[Contributed by Sean Matthis, Marketing Coordinator]

In the small-medium business (SMB) realm, clients are always looking for the most cost efficient way to build a website and utilize digital marketing options such as search engine optimization, email marketing and more. The LeapFrog Interactive (LFI) SMB department is constantly implementing new product lines and offering abbreviated versions of digital marketing products that are commonly utilized by Fortune 1000 clients. 

In 2011, not only are we offering content management systems (CMS) through WordPress, search engine optimization (SEO) programs, HTML email marketing campaigns and monthly retainer plans, but we have also added social media management to our line-up. Many of our clients are excited about Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but are not quite sure where to start with a social media program. LFI has a couple of plans that allow the SMB team to manage your social media properties so that you can stay current with digital marketing and be on target with your brand and audience.

While social media management will help many clients stay on top of their game, the SMB team at LFI is most excited about offering a template for mobile websites coming in early 2012. The template can be customized with the client’s logo, content and more, making it easy to reach their target market on the go with features like push notifications and live call links.  Users can also connect to Facebook and Twitter from the mobile website.

LFI is planning to roll out even more products in 2012 from the SMB team to their clients.  It is great to continue to grow and offer tailored digital marketing products and services to small and medium-sized businesses.

Halloween is just around the corner. And by corner, I mean the weekend. During the month of October, many companies have been using social media to promote Halloween specials, products or events. Embracing the holidays your audience enjoys establishes an understanding of your target customers and presents your social fans with something fun to keep them engaged with your brand. I follow several brands that embraced Halloween this year. Below are just a few examples of companies that developed Facebook tabs and apps specifically designed to engage customers during this holiday.

1. Target

Target transformed not only its Poll Friends app into a poll for Halloween costumes, but also updated its Facebook profile images to include Halloween ambiance. Using the Poll Friends: Halloween tab, Target fans can select who the costume will be for: myself, my kid, my mother, my father, my sister, my brother, my baby or my pet. In my example below, I selected my pet. Fans can then select up to four costumes for the poll. Once the poll is created, fans publish the poll on their walls and friends are able to vote for their favorite costume. Target created a great example of using social media for interactive marketing by not only creating a fun app, but also allowing fans to get their friends involved, which created an even greater interactive digital experience.

2. Starbucks

Starbucks created a Carve Your Pumpkin Facebook app associated with its Pumpkin Spice Latte tab. Starbucks Fans can use the app to carve a digital pumpkin using a photo from their Facebook photo albums. Once the pumpkin is complete, fans can share the pumpkins on their Facebook walls and print the image as a pattern with instructions to carve it on a real pumpkin. Starbucks created an engaging app tied to its fans’ personal profiles. In addition, it created a hard take-away. When a Starbucks fan’s friend asks, “How did you carve your dog? Or kid?” that person is able to respond with, “I used the Starbucks Facebook app.” This created a wave of word-of-mouth marketing for the company in addition to the digital marketing from posting the image on the fan’s Facebook wall.

3. Mike’s Hard Lemonade

4. Milk Mustache Campaign

The Milk Mustache Campaign — also known as “Got Milk?” — created a Halloween Headquarters tab complete with the Peanuts gang dressed in Halloween style. While not interactive, the Milk Mustache Campaign embraced Halloween from a more direct marketing approach via social media. In keeping with its message, the image copy reads, “This year milk is dressing up as the perfect Halloween treat: chocolate milk,” with the Peanuts gang sporting chocolate milk mustaches.

From big brands to big campaigns, companies are embracing Halloween to increase their digital marketing through social media. Increasing engagement with fans through interactive tabs and apps creates a sense of belonging for fans and increases digital word-of-mouth marketing for brands.

Have you seen other companies, brands or campaigns embracing Halloween via social media channels? Let us know! Comment here or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter. We’d love to see them!

Happy Halloween!

Several weeks ago, I wrote a blog exploring how companies integrated their social media efforts with email marketing. While most of the newsletters and branded emails I received mentioned Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, there was never really a highlighted call to action to join or view a social property. That being said, I received an email last week that I believe really showcases integrating social media with email marketing and hits home the point of the interaction, as Magdalena Georgieva at HubSpot pointed out in July.

Not only is there one focused call to action that relates to the newly unveiled fall flavors, but there is also a call to action directing consumers to join the Facebook conversation — and it is prominently displayed. As a consumer, and a marketer, sometimes it is just better when the obvious is highlighted. In this case, the focused message of the email was the new fall flavors, but I liked being so easily reminded of the company’s Facebook page.

Consumers are looking for information on a variety of platforms. Connecting those platforms produces interactive marketing efforts consumers can appreciate. And calling out social networks in emails helps increase Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and YouTube views — ending in a successful email/social marketing campaign.

Google is quickly trying to capture the $4 billion dollars in ad revenue Facebook is projected to make this year. Google announced this week they are adding Google +1’s on Google Display Network ads. Users will see pictures of their connections (if they are logged into Google+) within the display ads, indicating their connections endorsed the ads. And, the number of people who have endorsed your ad will affect the auction.

So far, Google has said +1s have not influenced the paid search ads. However, if it goes well in the GDN, my guess is they will extend it to the PPC ad auction as an indicator related to Quality Score.

Two questions immediately came to mind when I saw this announcement:

1. Do your friends share ads, either PPC or Display? I have yet to have one friend +1 any ads. Facebook ads are not shared. They appear based on profile data and the topics posted by users. I understand why Google is trying +1s as a social indicator. I just have not seen a high amount of usage.
2. How will they prevent fraud in this arena? In the PPC space, click fraud is a major issue. I think it is feasible that a company could encourage users to +1 an ad to help improve Quality Score and decrease CPC. Does Google have measures in place to help counteract fraud?

Obviously, there is more to come on this subject. If you are wondering how this impacts your business, ask others if they have +1 your ads.

In this second entry of a two-part series, I’ll look at how healthcare companies are using social media marketing to connect with patients and other medical professionals. Part one focused on mobile technology for healthcare.

Social media, from networking with healthcare companies to participating in health forums, presents a new media outlet and new challenges for healthcare providers and other health-related companies. The Internet provides a way to research information related to health conditions and share experience with hospitals and doctors.

Eleven percent of consumers use social networking sites to find or share health information.

Healthcare companies can take advantage of patients using social media sites by engaging with them where they are.

Examples of useful social media marketing for healthcare:

• Tweeting live procedures from operating rooms – doctors, medical students and others follow along as tweets feature short updates of the procedure. Provides useful and interesting information for followers and helps create buzz about that medial center or hospital.  
• Training medical providers – using twitter to create dialog and ask questions during conferences or presentations across the web and having the ability to create slideshows and video to share across social media platforms.
• Accurate information for patients – According to the HealthCare New Media Conference, 73% of patients search for medial information before or after a doctor’s visit, with this knowledge in hand healthcare providers have a unique opportunity to provide accurate medical information online through social media networks. Providing timely information related to symptoms, diseases, medications and treatments, just to name a few, allows patients to gather information in an easy way from trusted medical providers.

Digital marketing provides opportunities across the board not only for healthcare companies to engage with patients, but also to begin to develop a more positive digital footprint about their practice, hospital or company through providing interesting online conversations and accurate medical information.