Posted by Manuela Barreto @ March 9th, 2010 in Mobile Marketing

As mobile internet becomes more of a necessity to users, it is predicted that brand engagement with mobile services will be reflected in an increase in spenditure on mobile internet marketing.

According to figures from comScore, visits to social networking sites Twitter and Facebook via mobile internet browsers showed triple-digit growth during January.

The study found that 30.8% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3% from 22.5% one year ago. Access to social network Facebook, in particular, grew 112% in the past year attracting 25.1 mobile users in January, compared to Twitter which experienced a 347% increase on the corresponding period of 2009.

Overall figures for January 2010 revealed that 11.1% of all mobile phone users accessed a social networking site via their mobile’s internet browser. This shows an increase of 4.6% over the past 12 months.

Such figures are proof that social media sites are increasingly being used by individuals worldwide regardless of their location, and this is where mobile marketing still holds great promise for marketers. Not only are users accessing social sites and community networks via their phones, they’re also feeling more comfortable making purchases from their handsets, as revealed by a recent Compete Smartphone Intelligence Survey.

Posted by Manuela Barreto @ March 5th, 2010 in Media News

Google’s user-generated video website, YouTube, will make available automatic speech recognition captioning for its video selection.

This new service could be revolutionary since it will open up a huge share of its content to people who are hearing-impaired, and will also lead to creating a network of videos that could be subtitled between many languages.

comScore’s January 2010 press release regarding online video usage reported that 170 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month of November.

Online video viewing continued to reach record levels in November with nearly 31 billion videos (viewers watched an average of 182 videos per viewer).

This feature will not only help out the hard of hearing, it will make them feel connected to society, especially one that continuously communicates itself through online video.

YouTube has offered closed captioned videos in the past, however, the captions were provided by the video producer, and represented a very small share of YouTube’s database.

Today, the new speech recognition technology will allow for automatic transcriptions on all of YouTube’s videos, even if a few funny errors happen to pop up here and there.

Posted by Manuela Barreto @ March 4th, 2010 in Social Marketing

Social Media has created ample opportunities for marketers to distribute high quality content, as well as added entirely new opportunities for collaboration and interaction between businesses and its customers.

However, in order to capitalize on this rising trend, companies must develop comprehensive social media advertising strategies to attain their goals. Such principle applies not only to B2C marketers, also B2B marketers are benefiting from these current media tendencies.

According to new predictions from a study by Forrester, B2B interactive marketing spend will be doubling up to $4.8 billion in 2014.

Social has proven to be a good vehicle to connect with consumers. However, we personally find that B2B and B2C social media campaigns are quite similar in that they both work to target opinion leaders or decision makers- whether they’re the consumers or the business executives.

We also keep hearing about social media being the best channel to foster relationships with consumers, respond to feedback, answer questions, engage in conversation and share important product information. Truth is, the same process works for B2B companies in that most of their business is centered around longer term relationships, only this time instead of customers it involves suppliers and consultants.

Forrester’s forecast states that paid search is still the top interactive line item for B2B marketers, but display, mobile, and social marketing are all growing quickly. As B2B marketers gain experience with interactive marketing, they are beginning to stretch outside of their comfort zone and turn to channels that can spark brand interest and help educate potential customers.

B2B companies that utilize the social tools available today are at a great advantage compared to those who have not yet joined the bandwagon simply because networks such as LinkedIn or Twitter help create better comunication as well as build strong relationships and partnerships.

Posted by Jo Reynolds @ March 3rd, 2010 in 77News

This year, 77Agency will be attending Europe’s leading social media event, Social Media World Forum, to be held at the Olympia Conference Centre in London the 15th and 16th of March.

The two day conference and exhibition aims to bring together industry experts to share social media knowledge and case studies from global brands, plus the latest in brand engagement using social media, social media monitoring tools, new avenues for social network advertising, and building community based management.

Cores issues to be covered include monetization, future technologies, social media & brands, PR in social media and B2B networking. A total of 2,500 people have already signed up to attend the exhibition with 200-300 having already paid for conference passes.

On Tuesday 16 March at 10.30am, 77Agency’s Managing Director, Marco Corsaro, will be part of a panel of guests who will be discussing “Benchmarking advertising on Social Networks”.  Other participants include the Digital Marketing Manager for Speedo, Head of Digital Media at Ikea, the Head of i-level’s Social Media Unit and the Head of Social Media at Media Contacts.

77Agency will have a small booth – see number 27 on the floorplan – where we’ll be available to meet with exhibition guests and showcase the agency’s social media services.

For more information about the event, full list of speakers and conferences, visit www.socialmedia-forum.com

Stay tuned for news updates prior to and during the event via our 77 Fan Page!

And if you’re also planning to be there, give us a shout so we can meet up!

Posted by Manuela Barreto @ March 2nd, 2010 in Social Marketing

A recent study by the Network Solutions and University of Maryland’s Business School revealed that social media adoption by small business has now doubled from 12% to 24% in the last year.

Among the numerous online initiatives that were measured in the study, having a company page on a social networking site had the highest adoption with 75% of small businesses using it.

Small businesses today are considering different, cost-effective alternatives to keep their brands visible and accessible to potential customers some of which include posting status updates and/or articles of interest on social networking sites, building network through sites such as LinkedIn, creating a blog in area of expertise and monitoring positive and negative feedback about own organization on social networks.

As the study shows, the second highest activity used by small businesses is posting status updates and/or articles of interest on social networking sites which was implemented by 69% of businesses.

In addition, small businesses also declared that building online presence was one of their main priorities for the coming years, property sites being the top technology investment in the next two years, followed by an online showcase of products and services to help attract new customers and placing third are social media activity investments.

One highlighting fact which can be greatly exploited using social networks such as Twitter or Facebook is the fact that small businesses hold customer service as one of their biggest strengths, and have proven to be quite efficient at responding to customer claims, answering their questions and solving their problems.

For more information on the study you can visit www.growsmartbusiness.com