A briefing on the opportunities and limitations of Graph Search to prepare businesses for Facebook’s new breakthrough social search tool
By Carlton Jefferis
You will have been hard-pushed to avoid news this week that Facebook launched Graph Search, a major new feature which Mark Zuckerburg hailed “the third pillar of Facebook” after News Feed and Timeline.
This overview introduces the basics of Graph Search and looks at what it could mean to digital marketers and businesses. Over the coming weeks I’ll cover this feature in more detail as further information emerges from Facebook and from those with early access to the US beta release.
What is a Facebook Graph Search?
Graph Search is not a competitor to Google as some of the newspaper headlines may suggest. Instead it's a completely new concept in performing a search on Facebook. It’s not about finding links to…
REACH webcasts from the Smart Insights Digital Marketing Priorities 2013 summit
At our recent free summit many viewers asked us to share the slide decks and recordings, so to collect them together we have a short series of posts to point you in the right direction.
There will be one for online marketing topics covering each of Reach, Act and Convert and Engage in the Smart Insights PRACE digital strategy framework.
The two webinars focusing on reaching new audiences were:
1. SEO priorities for 2013 with James Gurd of Digital Juggler
The focus of this talk by James Gurd of Digital Juggler was analysis techniques to help improve results from SEO. It also shares examples of tools to assist with SEO.
Related Ebook: 7 Step Guide to SEO
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Why you should place regular analysis at the heart of your SEO
In this article I will review the importance of regular analysis to help SEOs learn what is and isn’t working on their website, helping to inform optimisation and testing programs.
Why is regular analysis required?
The world around us is forever changing which impacts online behaviour. The key reasons for this are:
1. Online search patterns change
This is driven by several factors, including social trends and fads. A fad can drive a surge in specific search activity, only for this to wilt quickly.
A great example is retail fashion – each season has its theme and only a few of these themes will stand the test of time. Also some trends are cyclical/seasonal so will phase in and out of search e.g. Knitwear – popular at Christmas and through Winter.
Screenshot – declining and rising search keyphrases in the UK market
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A case study of using social media in higher education
In this post I will give a summary of a detailed analysis of some findings from a brief audit Carlton Jefferis and I have recently carried out when pitching for some social media consultancy for the University of Hertfordshire. I hope you find the insights shared useful and in addition to comments and advice throughout you'll also find some great creative ideas for content which can work in other sectors too.
Multiple audiences, multiple departments, multiple platforms
The first thing we notice is that the University utilises many different social media platforms and within each has multiple accounts to reflect different Schools/Departments. The question is, does this lead to a silo-ed, somewhat inconsistent approach or is it necessary?
A University has to juggle messages to multiple audiences - students, prospective students (UK and…
Four affiliate marketing experts give their view on key developments in 2012 and their predictions for 2013
With 2012 coming to a close I wanted to look back at the past year. Understanding the changes we have seen helps to outline potential growth areas for 2013. To get a good perspective I asked a number of leading experts in the affiliate marketing field to give me their views on where they see affiliate marketing developing in 2013. A big "thank you" to:
Fiona Robertson, Head of Performance at agency LBi;
Kevin Edwards, Strategy Director for Affiliate Window;
Geno Prussakov, author, consultant, founder and chair of Affiliate Management Days conference
Matt Bailey, Commercial Director at Performance Horizon Group
Question 1. What for you has been the biggest development in affiliate marketing in 2012?
Fiona Robertson (FR): The continued progression away from a standalone…
Five factors to consider to grow your market share in 2013
Affiliate Marketing is an area that doesn’t always get as much focus as some other digital areas, but for people that take the time to embrace it, there are rich rewards available. I thought I would look at some of the key things that should make you think about investing more time or budget in the channel. This graphic shows the range of options it gives you to increase your online footprint across multiple digital media channels.
A £5 billion industry
In 2009, Econsultancy predicted that the industry was worth £4.13bn, and that it would be worth £4.6bn in 2010. The IAB are currently conducting research into the size of the UK industry which is expected to value the industry at £5bn. Within the affiliate market you have a wide…
How attribution data has informed the affiliate channel
I recently met Helen Southgate, Online Marketing Controller for Strategy & Planning at Sky, presenting their approach to media channel attribution and how it informed their understanding of the affiliate channel in context with other online activity. With that in mind she kindly agreed to this interview where I asked about how BSkyB manage their affiliate marketing. You may also find her presentation interesting for reference:
1. You have been talking attribution for some time at Sky. How did you begin the process?
Yes, I have been talking about it for some time and to be honest it’s still in progress. It’s a massive project and one that is forever changing given the dynamic nature of online. I…
New research reveals increased mobile usage during holiday periods
Value : [rating=3]
Recommended link: Clash Group announcement
All marketers are familiar with the increasing adoption of mobile browsing, however, it’s worth considering the averages conceal seasonal changes in mobile usage, particularly over holiday periods.
New data from the Clash Group, a Performance media company that offers targeted advertising services in both mobile and wider digital markets is seeing significant increase in interest on mobile devices amongst its clients:
A 33% uplift in mobile ad spend during the first week in December compared to normal shopping periods, and a 100% increase on the period in 2011
Clickthrough rates on mobile rose 26% compared to the average for normal shopping periods, and a 5% increase on the same holiday period in 2011
This stands in contrast to a rise of 7% in CTRs on desktop ads compared to normal shopping periods, and a 1% increase on the same…
7 tips to effectively promote your infographics
Last week I gave tips about creating effective marketing infographics. But creating an infographic isn't enough, to generate the return you'll obviously have to promote it. You'll want to do this since infographics are primarily useful for promoting your knowledge around a topic by being insanely shareable, and in turn attracting inbound links - the more exposure you can build, the better the return.
The power of show not tell
Infographics are visually appealing - if I were to tell you about the popularity of pork pies vs steak and kidney pies you'd be bored very quickly, however let me show you a crafted graphic to illustrate that and I'll be sure of at least a wry smile and probably a tweet or share into Facebook if you have an opinion on either over the other. Leveraging this obvious benefit holds the key to promoting an…
Using Google+ Ripples and other free tools to connect with influencers
Influencer outreach should be a core approach in today's marketing. Google+ gives great new options for identifying and interacting with opinion leaders and industry experts who have the ability to influence others to take positive action. Those interactions may include sharing content, links or even signing up to newsletters or product demos.
Google+ is a very powerful 'information network', a place where many people (100 million active according to the latest estimates) go to connect with others around their interests and passions. Whilst Google+ may not have the sheer size in numbers of Facebook (with over one billion users), those active on Google+ are enthusiastic and highly engaged.
One of the benefits of seeking out influencers on Google+ is the impact Google+ content is having on natural search results. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, where search engines are…
