The death of Pay per Click advertising------ A story of social media today

Pay per Click Advertising is not a strange word to the public, it also named cost per click. PPC is a marketing strategy which means that enterprise pays for some key words in some particular search engines. PPC charge mode uses a pay-per-click system, which is different from the transmission regarding traditional interference type advertisement mode. When the users are searching something, the potential customers can more easily approach the products and services provided by the enterprise (2007).

However, the form of advertisement can not survive for a long time. Then, let’s talk about the reason why it fails in business.

Firstly, it is a short-range measure.

Pay per Click advertising can catch the attention of the customers at beginning; however it is hard for them to maintain the customer during a long period. It can not ignore the power of Internet. To be more precise, customers who tried of this kind of advertisement may share their experiences through Internet and then other people will not notice it any more (Shuen, 2012).


Secondly, the brand of the advertisement does not own high reputation

Generally, the brands choose to make Pay per Click advertising are not famous. Most Pay per Click advertisements aim to grab the customer’s attention in a short time. Besides, the majority of its customers are attracted by the cost rather than the quality of the product (Shuen, 2012).

To conclusion, Pay per Click advertising can not be a long-term deal. If PPC wants to obtain a bigger market, it needs to make a long-term and strategic plan.

References: 

Shuen, S. (2012) The Death of Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC). Social media today, [blog] March 20, 2012, Available at: http://socialmediatoday.com/sookie-shuen/473076/death-pay-click-advertising-ppc [Accessed: 31/03/2012].

SouMai (2007) Pay Per Click. [online] Available at: http://www.soumai.net/seo_service/ppc.html [Accessed: 31/03/2012].

The New Google “+1 Button”------ A story of social media today

Last year, Google launches “+1 buttons”, and this year they experience some new changes. The function of Google “+1 button” could let your website become more advanced, which is similar as the “Like” button of Facebook. (Foy, 2012)

Today, I want to share the features of Google +1 button with you, which can be totally divided into three respects.

Firstly, Integrating Search engine system with user appraisal elements.
The launch of Google”+1 button” allows customers to participate in making comments to the search engine. It means that users can mark the searching results, which can help search engine discover its shortages and then to improve it as soon as possible. In addition, the service also can help Google to win more customers and become more confident to compete with its opponents (2012).

Secondly, the connection between Search engines and social network tends to be closer.
In the process of launching Google new “+1 button”, Google paid more attention to the problem if the friends of the searchers interested in the relevant searching contents as well. This is because sometimes the contents people are searching will be more helpful to their friends due to their similar hobbies. Thus, Google also blends the function of “+1 button” into some social network websites such as Buzz. Using this button people can know some recommended information through this social network website. Compare with the function of “Like”, Google “+1 button” has a closer connection with search engines (2012).

Thirdly, Website Optimization

Through learning about the working principles of Google “+1 button”, it can be seen the direction of search engines’ forward motion. The key is to pay more attention to the users’ comments and improve the searching result which can satisfy the users (2012).

References

Foy, L. (2012) The New Google +1 Button. Social media today, [blog] March 15, 2012, Available at: http://socialmediatoday.com/liam-foy/469771/new-google-1-button [Accessed: 31/03/2012].

Tee 5 (2012) some views about the new Google "+1 button". [online] Available at: http://www.tee5.net/html/seo/372.html [Accessed: 31/03/2012].

The new functions of Facebook ------ A story of social media today

Facebook is a famous social media tool that most people accustomed to use in their daily life.

Recently, Facebook held Facebook Marketing Conference in New York, in which it launches three new functions. And then I will introduce you the three changes of Facebook.

The first one is about the design of its Pages.

In the past the Timeline of Facebook is designed only for individual users. However after the conference, it also can be used by business users. It is a piece of good news to the business users because it is better for them to show their brand history, their latest products and services (Wang, 2012) Through Timeline, the business users can communicate with their customers more conveniently. In addition, it offers a good platform for the business users to share their plan with their customers.

The second big change is Reach Generator.

Using Reach Generators the customers can participate into the business activities more deeply. To be more precise, through the Reach Generator, the customers can praise reviews or sharing the business report of the company they like (Wang,2012).

Last one is Premium on Facebook.

Normally, Premium on Facebook helps you maximize the number of people interacting with your brand and talking about you, while unlocking the power of fans and their friends (2012).Its birth is to ensure that the company publishes some valuable information at a right time and in a suitable time.

According to the Facebook Marketing Conference, it can be found the three changes are all with regard to business activities. It also reflects that social CRM becomes more and more important at present.

References :

Facebook (2012) Premium on Facebook. [online] Available at: http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Premium_Guide_2.29.12.pdf [Accessed: 25/02/2012].

Wang, C. (2012) Facebook Marketing Conference. ifanr, [blog] 02/3/2012, Available at: http://www.ifanr.com/75970 [Accessed: 25/02/2012].

Social Customer Relation Management

Last week, we talk about social customers, this week I will introduce social CRM to you.

I think it is a shift from traditional CRM to a new social customer relationship management. From my point of view, social CRM combines social media with CRM (Thompson, 2009). Social CRM is about your communications, listening, internalizing and responding (Lieberman, 2012).

In the next part, I will share some examples which reflected the importance of Social CRM.

BEST BUY------Twelp Force:
The employees of Best Buy has grew to 2,200 in 3 months and there are over 13,000 customers  accustomed to interact with the employees on social networks such as asking questions, stating their views. Thus, Best Buy set up a better relationship with their customer though social media. Nowadays, there are 29,000 followers of TWELP FORCE. To maintain the good relationship, everyday the employees of Best Buy will answer 100-125 questions from its customers per day (Petersen 2011).

FOILED CUPCAKES:

FOILED CUPCAKES is a Chicago company which is based online. However, once it’s the lauch of its website can not work normally but its cakes are all prepared. To not to influence it sales, they use Facebook and Twitter to communicate with their customers. The reasons referred by the host are that people can tweet all day long can update their Facebook pages all day long. In addition, the owner Mari Luangrath also pointed out: “people only listen if they know you care about them.” (Petersen 2011)

From the two examples, it can be found that as the power of traditional CRM diminishes, companies should turn to online social networks to catch their customers.

References:

Lieberman, M. (2012) Best Practices for Social CRM?. The social customer, [blog] 13/02/2012, Available at: http://thesocialcustomer.com/mitchlieberman/46089/best-practices-social-crm [Accessed: 20/03/2012].

Petersen , R. (2011) 16 case studies that prove Social CRM . BarnRaisers , [blog] January 13, 2011 , Available at: http://barnraisersllc.com/2011/01/19-case-studies-show-social-media-builds-1-to-1-sales-relationships/ [Accessed: 20/03/2012].

Thompson, B. (2009) Social CRM: Strategy, Technology or Passing Fad?. customer think, [blog] 16/09/2009, Available at: http://www.customerthink.com/blog/social_crm_strategy_technology_or_passing_fad [Accessed: 20/03/2012].

Pinterest：A new visual social directory site

IntroductionPinterest is a new visual social directory site, which looks like a visual wall full of different kinds of pictures. 
The origin of its name is simple, which is the abbreviation of Pin and Interest. 
Pinterest=Pin + Interest.
Pinboard and Pin are the two elements of Pinterest (2012).

Functions
It uses pinboards as unit and you can pin your favorite picture on your individual site, in addition, you can follow other users' flavor (2012).

To be more precise, Pin means that users can pin their favorite picture on their white board. Repin means that if you find a good picture pinned by your friend you can repin it on your board as well. It is similar with the Re-tweet function of Twitter. Share means that you can share all kinds of pictures from other social network such as Facebook. Finally Board is like an individual photo album which is divided by different themes and interests.



Pinterest currently uses invited system, people can apply for an invite code on its home page.

Applications
Now people can pin pictures whatever they like and whenever they want. For example, it can be found the application of Pinterest in iTunes.
Nevertheless, it can be found Pinterest's account on twitter. The users can make comments, give suggestion or ask for help on twitter.

Similar sites

FFFFOUND!------It is an old-launched website, which has the same function like Pinterest. However compared with Pinterest, the design of FFFFOUND is not good enough (2012).













This is My Jam------It is a website like Pinterest in music fields. It contains nearly all the social elements such as like, attention, comments or share (2012).


Reference:


Pinterest.com (2012) Pinterest / Goodies. [online] Available at: http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/ [Accessed: 5 Apr 2012].



Quora (2012) Pinterest: How does Pinterest differ from Tumblr or FFFFOUND!?. [online] Available at: http://www.quora.com/Pinterest/How-does-Pinterest-differ-from-Tumblr-or-FFFFOUND [Accessed: 04/03/2012].

Social Customers

At beginning, let’s to see some data:

·Twitter has 75 million registered users, on average, there are 95 million tweets released every day.

·LinkedIn has over 50 million users.

·YouTube every minute when about 24 hours long video upload.

·Facebook users, there are 350 million people through the mobile equipment log in (Jake, 2011).

From this data, it can be known that the influence of social media is enormous. We can define that people who are using social media to make some critical claims with their friends are social customers. And now we are all in the era of the social customers.

In addition, the shift was interacted with companies and their products. To be more precise, companies need to pay more attention to designing their products and developing their services because social customers can not only communicate with the company but also they can speak their voice to their peers. For example, they can make comment on the company’s blog, as well as, they can share their using experience in Facebook or twitter.

In other word, it becomes more significant for company to know and understand social customers. Thus, a new business model birth, the features of which are list as follows:

※The user and producer become partners.

※The business moves to be an aggregator of products, services, tools and experience, rather than simply a producer of goods and services for sale.

※The business should concentrate on what your customers want not on the dizzying array of places they converse (2010).

Reference: 


Jake, H. (2011) 20+ Mind-blowing social media statistics: One year later. [online] Available at: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7334-social-media-statistics-one-year-later [Accessed: 21.02.2012].

Social Business Advisor (2010) Who is the Social Customer?. [online] Available at: http://www.jmorganmarketing.com/who-is-the-social-customer/ [Accessed: 21.02.2012].

Augmented Reality

Hello, everybody. Welcome to my blog, in the last ten posts, I introduced the internet newspaper and print newspaper. However, in the next few months I will share some new topics with you.

In the first week, let's talk about Augmented Reality.

To begin with, Augmented reality is defined as a skill that lets people come into contacting with the real world, which is added with virtual electronic information. It makes an enhancement or expansion to the information from real-world. And it can also help people who are engaged in various activities (Lu, 2010).

And then let's look at the development history of AR (2009).
§ 1960s – Sutherland & Sproull’s first HMD
§ 1970s / 1980s – USAF helmet displays, Super cockpit (Furness)
§ Early 1990s – Boeing wire harness assembly application.
§ Early to mid 1990s – UNC ultrasound visualization project
§ Early 2000s : （Outdoor AR，ARToolkit / Magic Book，Applications!）

From my point of view, Augmented Reality is a skill which is helpful to an individual or some business activities.
For an individual, it can bring a new experience to people which can enhance the reality of people's daily life. People's life will endured a great change under the AR technology

For some companies, it can help companies make more appealing way to attract their customers. For example, they can apply AR skill to do the advertisement. Also, they can make some promotion associated AR skills. Then, I will also use some examples to let you have a clearer picture of it.

And then I will share some videos and pictures with you (2009).

1. Through AR to do some business activities 

http://prius.ndm.tw/

2. Company can promote their product through AR skills

http://always.com/3D

3. Go shopping through AR skills

http://www.zugara.com/index.aspx?id=1056

From these videos you can find that through AR skill, people's life become more colorful, which also can bring you a direct feeling about the impression left by AR.

I guess that many people are looking forward to the future of AR applications.

Reference:

Lu, W. (2010) Augmented Reality. Blog garden, [blog] 31/05/2010, Available at: 

http://www.cnblogs.com/luweii/archive/2010/05/31/1748048.html [Accessed: 05/02/2012].

TIANYA. (2009) What is Augmented reality？. Web 2.0, [blog] 13/12/2009, Available at: http://www.web20share.com/2009/12/augmented-reality.html [Accessed: 5/02/2012].