Summer Project Pooja Khatri - 2012 - 06 - 29 - 11 - 45 - 54 - 500
Summer Project Pooja Khatri - 2012 - 06 - 29 - 11 - 45 - 54 - 500
Summer Project Pooja Khatri - 2012 - 06 - 29 - 11 - 45 - 54 - 500
At
AdGlobal360 India Pvt.Ltd.
Summer Project Analysis among the various digital media firms and developing SEM/SEO/SMO engagement strategies for AdGlobal360 India.
Faculty Guide: Mr. Sapan Kumar Gupta Submitted By: Pooja Khatri MBA MM Semester II A2021311021
The report is submitted under the partial fulfillment of academic requirements of MBA-MEDIA MANAGEMENT program of AMITY UNIVERSITY, NOIDA (U.P.)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I wish to express my gratitude to all the people who are very generous in sharing their expertise and knowledge besides their precious time with me, in completion of the project and my summer internship for my academic requirement and professional enrichment. I am grateful to AdGlobal360 India team for giving me an opportunity to work in their prestigious company and getting an exposure to the working environment of a Digital Media firm. I would like to thank Mr. Rakesh Yadav (Head India, AdGlobal360), for giving me this opportunity to work in his company on a project that holds a genuine value for the company and providing a brilliant pathway to my professional growth. I express my sincere regards to my faculty guide, Ms. Sapan Kumar Gupta for all the advice, suggestions and his valuable contribution for enriching my knowledge of New Media and management applications which helped to choose Digital Media as my career option. He has been kind enough to correspond with me and be always there with his time, support and advice on the project. I also take this opportunity to express my sincere regards and thanks to Mr.Lav Shangari (Interactive Manager, AdGlobal 360 India) Mr. Sushant Vashisht (Sr. Campaign Manager, AdGlobal360, India) Ms. Shilpi Tyagi (Asst. Campaign Manager, AdGlobal360, India) Mr. Subhasis Bhattacharjee (Creative Director, AdGlobal360, India) Ms.Aditi Mittal & Ms. Sheetal Pooni ( Head HR, AdGlobal360, India)
I am sincerely thankful for their constant encouragement in completing my internship and to make my project in good stead with the valuable guidance and support throughout the tenure. Being a Management Intern in the organization I have received a compensation of Rs.14, 000 for two months.
ABSTRACT
Adglobal360 has its core team, people with acumen, having a combined experience in various online marketing platforms like Digital Advertising, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Optimization (SMO), Pay per Click (PPC) and Internet Marketing which has made it to fulfill the online marketing requirements and business to brand strategies in India & abroad. Brands and companies need a very high level of expertise and commitment for their marketing & advertising management, which many companies are unable to provide at satisfactory and desired level. Their mission is to bridge this gap, providing the best online marketing solutions to their clients and customers with highly competitive advantages. AdGlobal360 has its two functional branches in India at Gurgaon and Mumbai and head office in USA. With an aim to providing a stimulating experience in digital media through dynamic online marketing solutions the company handles over 300 clients and their online marketing management. Equally active in social media, search engine, e-commerce and website designing AdGlobal360 operates the digital media platform of their clients very well. In the duration of my internship and while making the project, I have studied about the Search Engine Optimization, Social media optimization, Google Adwords, Google Ad rank procedure, Pay per click advertising and have done a strategic analysis on various digital media firms on their online engagement strategies. The analysis Ive done for AdGlobal360, has helped to develop more innovation on its social media profile and to get more attraction of customers. AdGlobal360 has an extensive track record in Online Marketing and played a multi-functional role in digital advertising plans. With experiences of: Search Engine Marketing Social Media Optimization Search Engine Optimization Par per Click Website Designing
From top notch to middle level brands, education to corporate world, private firms to independent firms they have created records in term of quality and quantum of online marketing solutions. We attract customers from all walks of life. Guaranteed customer engagement and high publicity using all mediums of digital advertising and online marketing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction of the field: New Media & Digital tools 2. Introduction of company 3. Introduction of project 4. Objective 5. My role in the organization 6. Materials and Methods 7. Results and Discussion 8. Implications for Future Research 9. Conclusion and Recommendations 10.Appendices 11.References
Most technologies described as "New Media" are digital, often having characteristics of being manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible, and interactive. Some examples may be the Internet, websites, computer multimedia, video games, CD-ROMS, and DVDs. New media does not include television programs, feature films, magazines, books, or paper-based publications unless they contain technologies that enable digital interactivity. Also, combining Internet accessible digital text, images and video with web-links, creative participation of contributors, interactive feedback of users and formation of a participant community of editors and donors for the benefit of non-community readers. Facebook & Twitter is an example of the social media model, in which most users are also participants.
Nature and Scope: New Media is nowadays a resounding, influential, and strong concept
which hides/reveals some of the most complex realities such as the multimedia, the electronic commerce and entertainment, the civic participation and political deliberation or the e-learning. The term started to be used in the 60s in the American cultural setting, especially by researchers in the field of information technology and communication. It was included in the international academic vocabulary, and consequently, in the international academic canon, in the 90s, which saw a significant growth in higher education programmes and their correspondent literature. Therefore, we can consider New Media as a recent research domain which needs to be continuously updated and reconceptualised. In spite of the fact that this field involves a global dimension, in practice, studies concentrated mainly on western countries, thus excluding extremely large areas.
The rise of new media has increased communication between people all over the world and the Internet. It has allowed people to express themselves through blogs, websites, pictures, and other user-generated media as a result of the evolution of new media technologies, Globalization occurs. Interactivity and new media: Interactivity has become a term for a number of new media use options evolving from the rapid dissemination of Internet access points, the digitalization of media, and media convergence. Companies are providing new media as communication technologies that enable or facilitate user-to-user interactivity and interactivity between user and information which is an extremely revolutionary step in the field of marketing. Any individual with the appropriate technology can now produce his or her online media and include images, text, and sound about whatever he or she chooses. Thus the convergence of new methods of communication with new technologies shifts the model of mass communication, and radically reshapes the ways we interact and communicate with one another. Such a definition replaces the "one-to-many" model of traditional mass communication with the possibility of a "many-to-many" web of communication.
Online Marketing : Internet marketing, also known as web marketing, online marketing, webvertising, or e-marketing, is referred to as the marketing (generally promotion) of products or services over the Internet. Internet marketing is considered to be broad in scope because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems are also often grouped together under internet marketing. Internet marketing ties together the creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising and sales. Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along many different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media optimization (SMO), and banner ads on specific websites, email marketing, mobile advertising, and Web 2.0 strategies. Search Engine Marketing : Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through optimization (both on-page and off-page) as well as through advertising (paid placements, contextual advertising, and paid inclusions).Depending on the context, SEM can be an umbrella term for various means of marketing a website including search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages, or it may contrast with PPC, focusing on only paid components Search Engine Optimization: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines' "natural or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic"), search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a standalone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site and site content, SEO tactics may be incorporated into website development and design.
Social Media Optimization: Social media optimization (SMO) refers to the use of a number
of social media outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, brand or event. Social media optimization includes using RSS feeds, social news and bookmarking sites, as well as social media sites, such as Twitter, and video and blogging sites. SMO is similar to SEO search engine optimization in that the goal is to create awareness and create a specific action, such as driving traffic to a web site. Social media optimization refers to optimizing your websites and content in terms of sharing across social media and network sites. Usually social search and social proof go hand-in-hand with social media optimization.
Pay Per Click: Pay per click (PPC) (also called Cost per click) is an Internet advertising
model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay the publisher (typically a website owner) when the ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system. PPC "display" advertisements are shown on web sites or search engine results with related content that have agreed to show ads. This approach differs from the "pay per impression" methods used in television and newspaper advertising. In contrast to the generalized portal, which seeks to drive a high volume of traffic to one site, PPC implements the so-called affiliate model that provides purchase opportunities wherever people may be surfing. It does this by offering financial incentives (in the form of a percentage of revenue) to affiliated partner sites. The affiliates provide purchase-point click-through to the merchant. It is a pay-for-performance model. If an affiliate does not generate sales, it represents no cost to the merchant. Variations include banner exchange, pay-per-click, and revenue sharing programs. Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser's keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant content. Such advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to or above organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a web developer chooses on a content site. Among PPC providers, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search marketing, and Microsoft AdCenter are the three largest network operators, and all three operate under a bid-based model.
Introduction of company :
AdGlobal360 India is a digital advertising company with rich experience in a wide array of business verticals ranging from education, financial services, utilities, real estate to travel, retail and e-commerce. Helping your brand to connect with your consumers online, we develop digital marketing programs that define your charisma in the e-market. The plethora of services on our platter that includes Pay Per Click, Social Media Optimization, Search Engine Optimization and Email marketing results in generating leads and online sales. Our result driven approach showcases your services in just the apt manner and the world class tracking too Adglobal360 India Private Limited, the full service Google authorized Internet Marketing company since July 2009 works towards enhancing your online presence with the most effective and pertinent internet strategies. Adglobal360 India Private Limited, the full service Google authorized Internet Marketing company since July 2009 works towards enhancing your online presence with the most effective and pertinent internet strategies. The company has been working quite closely with Google to educate businesses in India on the merits of being online With dedicated management, excellent customer support and Google trained resources; Adglobal360 has created hundreds of successful stories. The company believes in its concept of abiding to the 3 Ts namely transparency, targeting and tracking. It works on the principles of identifying needs, enhancing presence and driving sales for its huge clientele from different parts of the world.ls help you convert your online sales into prospective customers.
Introduction of Project:
Along with the management training in Digital Media and Online Marketing tools, my company has assigned me a project for my professional enrichment in the field of new media entitled Analysis among the various digital media firms and developing SEM/SEO/SMO engagement strategies for Adglobal360 India. Doing an analysis on various digital media firms, I had to focus on to develop the engagement strategies for Adglobal360s social media platform on Facebook. Including a comprehensive research on all the social media platforms of various other digital firms, e-market analysis of getting a customer attraction, social media psychology and application of creative strategies, I had to work on those useful advertising techniques for my company. During the completion of project, I had few informative sessions with my supervisory team and in my regular duties my regular tasks were: Regular posting for clients on Facebook and twitter with the relevant issues and engagement strategies in the provided schedule of every client including : Image post Poll post Query or promotional stuff Relevant links and videos Delivery of content for various websites, SEO/SMO articles and for PPC campaign Developing site maps for clients Preparing Ad-copies for Googles Ad Ranks Write ups for community posts on Facebook and Linked-In Blog posts Study and practical implication of creative ideas for the traffic development for our clients social media portal.
During the project I have gained a vast knowledge of New Media and how it works through digital advertising and the key tools of online marketing as Advertising Campaigns Need to be Social by Design Narrow the target market with Facebook Making Web Analytics Optimize for Social and Search Engine
Objective
Getting attention of consumers and bringing new strategies of digital marketing for promotion and effective engagement.
7th May 2012- The day when I started my summer internship and joined AdGlobal360 India Pvt.Ltd as a Management Intern at Gurgaon (Haryana). After being informed about the tasks to be performed on a regular basis, I was briefed about the various digital services carried out by the organization. Then, I was assigned to make regular social media posts for the various clients of AdGlobal360. For an online marketing professional it is very important to stay updated with every new thing happening on social media platform and the psychology people follow while they use social networking platforms as Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in and Blogger. Then an official id was created ([email protected]), for sending mails and daily task reports to my industry mentors as well as for official communication. Later on, I was provided the administration credentials of facebook & twitter account for few clients and a schedule of regular posting stuff and name of the clients. Being a management intern I got an opportunity to work and learn almost in all the profiles of the company and the different aspects of digital advertising and online marketing. I was also briefed about the Google Adwords and Search Engine Optimization time to time and also the working management of a PPC campaign. During my summer internship I was assigned to handle clients from different domains and industry for their social media platforms. Some of them are: Campus Shoes (Footwear) Supertech Pvt. Ltd (Real Estate) Moneysukh Trading portal (Finance) Medspa (Health & Beauty) IIMM (Education) E-Techies (Information Technology) Career Launcher (Education) WWF ( world wide fund)
I also attended some sessions of idea generation and conceptualization of Ad campaigns. How the team management work on the idea screening and developing. I observed what makes a campaign concept striking and suitable for the requirement of client. A snapshot of my creative participation in the organization includes: Designing Tag lines for the Ad campaign Writing captions for the website banner images Article writing for Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization Writing concepts, objective and consumer insight for a campaign
Being a part of the organization I have worked with my best efforts and dedication and got the same feedback from the company also which supported my moral and efficiency.
Social media marketing : People dont go online to surf the web today, they Facebook. Every company needs a Facebook strategy and the right resources to manage it unless their brand is so badly perceived it will do more harm than good. For other companies as B2B, Twitter may be more important. The resurgence of display advertising: Resurgence may be overstating it but many companies have found the newer remarketing and retargeting options available through established ad networks and Googles new Adwords Remarketing feature effective. Using weighted attribution studies can also help establish the value of the display advertising halo effect. Mobile Strategy: The growth in use of Apple App store has been phenomenal, increasing by several billions of downloads in 2010. Meanwhile other handset manufacturers are achieving success with apps, although Apple still has over two thirds of the market by download. See my post about mobile app strategy which summarizes the growth and the options of app strategy. Googlization: In many countries, including the UK Google still drives the majority of traffic or it should if you get your SEO and PPC right. Its increasingly important for generating awareness and display through the new Goggled Display (formerly content) network too which in 2010 saw remarketing added. Google is so important for most pure plays that you could say you need a specific Google Strategy. A Google strategy requires an intimate understanding of your online marketplace or ecosystem. Oftentimes partnering, PR and contextual advertising can help you by thinking beyond your own SERPs position. There is even a book on Googlization out in 2011. Online channel integration: With growth of importance of social media channels it has been suggested that email marketing is dead or less relevant. My belief is the two works best in an integrated way. To get ideas on the best strategies to achieve this I recommend signing up to Social Email Marketing. Article Marketing: Article marketing implies writing articles and submitting them to web article directories. When you write article, you are allowed to put a back link to your website in authors bio box. People looking for information will come and read your article. If it interests them, they would visit your web site for more information. Article marketing is a very good method to build links for your site, enhance your websites search engine ranking and getting traffic. What is more, it is absolutely free until you wish to use paid services. Here, we search for potential keywords that can be dominated, write articles on those and submit them to article directories with an affiliate link to the product you want to promote. Forum Marketing: Forum is a place where people gather and discuss their problems, strategies etc. There are many forums on the web that one can join and participate in discussion. Most of the forums allow a link back to a website in a signature text which would appear below the post you make. A gain of good traffic builder. Search Engine Marketing: This involves search engine optimization of a website design and content. Search engine use their algorithm to rank websites and when people search for
something, these websites are displayed as the search engines would rank them. Search engine optimization or SEO are the methods by which you try to build your site and content so that it may please the search engines. You either learn SEO or use the paid services. Pay Per Click Advertising: This is a paid service where you pay the service provider every time your link is clicked. This kind of marketing is quite popular with internet marketers. Apart from Google and Yahoo there are many other pay per click services available. Link Exchange: In this a website places a link for other website in exchange for its link on that site. Earlier it was also used for SEO purpose but a change in search engine algorithm has stripped that advantage. But it is still it is a powerful method for traffic generation. Link Purchase: One can purchase placement of your website link on other website. This is very commonly done for SEO as one way incoming back links are used to rank a website by search engines. This method also brings in traffic if the site that you purchased link placement from is heavily visited website. Classified Advertising: You can advertise your website on Classifieds websites on the web like Craigslist.com and USfreeads.com. Both paid and free services are available. Ezine Marketing: This refers to email marketing. one can start his own newsletter or ezine or electronic magazine which his subscribers can choose to receive. Creating an ezine is an integral part of an internet business. You can also choose to purchase an advertising space in the ezines that are already running successfully. A website gets exposed to targeted readers who may like to become your customers. List Building: This refers to building a subscribers database, who are entered into the list of that database when they opt in for your ezine or agree to a free download against providing you their email address. You can contact these subscribers with your offers and promos. Lead Purchase: There are some paid services which provide the names and email addresses of the people or leads against a payment. This method is called lead generation. This is done by them by placing your opt-in form (Form which a visitor fills in order to subscribe) on heavily visited websites, a process that you can do on your site also. Normally you are charged per lead. Viral Marketing: Here, one make a useful product like ebook or software and allow people to pass it on freely. This helps in spreading your website links and branding your site. Apart from ebook or software, one can also build some humorous video or funny email. Build anything that people would like to pass on and share. Press Releases: Here, one builds a press release for his website and submits it to one or more press release sites like prweb.com. Press releases are done to create awareness among the web visitors and are displayed on various news channels or sites on the net. Also builds increased back links. Both free and paid submissions are available.
Joint Ventures: Here two or more marketers come together and promote a product or service in a way that it will benefit them all. Joint ventures are a great way to build your business because the marketing efforts are combined and results are always more than individual efforts. Affiliate Program: One can launch your own affiliate program where people can join. Then they would advertise your product with their affiliate link. When a sale is made, they get a preset commission. You will need an affiliate program manager to do this. Clickbank.com offers an easy alternative. Resell Rights Marketing: One can offer resell rights to your product where people would be able to sell it and keep all the money. It increases your product value and helps in building in name because more sales are made than when one sells it just on his own. Helps in branding too. RSS Marketing: RSS stands for really simple Syndication and it may be difficult to conceptualize in the beginning. RSS works by RSS feeds which needs to be generated by website. People can subscribe to these RSS feeds and can view the content of the website via their RSS reader. By this people are enabled to receive the content directly on their desktop. This method is quite new as compared to others and has become really popular following spam issues in email marketing. Blog Marketing: Blog is an online journal which you can update on regular basis. one need a blogging platform like WordPress or Blogger etc and you can publish at their site or host on his own. Blogs are immensely popular with marketers and are very much loved by search engines. A must for your business. Social Bookmarking: This is latest marketing buzz. There are online bookmarking sites available which people can use to bookmark the places on the web they like. You can display these bookmarking buttons on your site or blog and people may submit the link for bookmarking if they like your site. Generates good traffic. Video Marketing: This is even newer. One can upload a video on the sites that allow. People would watch and then visit his site. Theory is similar to article marketing but media used is different. A popular website that allows video upload is Youtube.com. Digital Media Planning: Planning a marketing campaign to target key consumer groups increasingly means integrating digital into the media mix at the first stages of planning. A marketing campaign that takes into account consumers media consumption patterns and increased media multi-tasking is far more likely to engage and cut-through. The most effective digital campaigns dont simply extend offline executions onto the web; they respond creatively to the way that consumers use digital media in conjunction with other channels.
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Made Ad copies for Supertech Builders for the Google organic ad-links (Paid Ads) Regular posting for Social Media platforms of clients.
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WED Worked for creative duties of various digital campaigns of Clients including the idea screening, visualizing Ad concepts, consumer insight studies and campaign objective. Article writing for SEO and SMO according to the key word and density requirement. Off SAT
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Regular posts for clients on social media. SEO Article writing for SBIT. TUE Regular posts for clients on Social Media as Facebook & Twitter. Analysis of Ad concepts and digital marketing on various interactive websites as www.afaqs.com. SEO Article writing for SBIT and Regular social media posts for clients. THU Regular social media posts. Participated in Idea Generation session on an Ad campaign for WWF India. Off SAT
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MON Social Media Posts and WWF digital campaign idea screening session TUE
Social Media Post making, Press release for IIMM, SEO Article for IIMM
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Regular social Media post making for various client Monthly Docket for Kesari Tours Pvt.Ltd on Social Media marketing. Social Media Posts Making. Final submission of project report.
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MEC active engegement McCann Worldgroup
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As per the analysis and comparative study, results and discussions can be explained through the SWOT
Strengths:
Large market reach or penetration Easy to set up Very useful if for a digital engagement strategy (to new people, young people) Active community members who are willing to become institute representatives Build a conversation and converse with others and build close networking bonds Quick information exchange Direct contact with audience (almost like face-to-face) Lets you follow and connect with people/groups that interest you but are not necessarily your friends (as with Facebook). Authors, celebrities, co-workers, colleges, organizations, whatever Cost-effective in the sense most of the platforms are free. They just demand time Human factor: Your brand becomes more HUMAN Media exposure Twitter is in a strong market position in micro-messaging. Facebook is the only real competitor here and they attract users for different reasons. Build strong, long term relationships through online social networking, at a faster pace than just relying on traditional face-to-face networking Gets tons of publicity. Is a thing on its own (almost no competition in microblogging) It is simple but powerful It is 100% social in an all-social web It is free Has developers creating hundreds of applications around its API. Businesses, Organizations, Companies like it a lot It is real-time
It is searchable It is totally RSS-enabled It is the ultimate link discovering and sharing tool Tweets show link attachments (may need to be shortened) Some post-secondary institutes use it openly (not blocked on intranets)
Weaknesses: Tough to train or convince management team/group members on social media principles Unequal distribution of tweets. 90% of tweets are coming from the top 10% of the users. Has low retention rate. Only 40%. Lack of tools or resources to track and monitor social media campaign results The API calls are limited. Hurts App growth What about information leakage, liability, security, and management? Effort vs results: Even if it is more measurable than other channels, it is difficult (especially for small business operations) to balance the effort put on social media against the results obtained Consistency: Engaging with your audience at a direct level means more efforts in terms of keeping a consistent message/ corporate image Making up for mistakes: The time-frame to correct errors that affect your audience is less. Because you are heavily exposed, your company has to take action more promptly than if you werent (especially if people are having conversations about your brand, you will have to engage and clarify) Blocked at many work sites: management sees it drops productivity; hurts bottom line
Opportunities: Creating/joining online presence on sites where the company currently doesnt exist Great opportunity for individuals and organizations to connect and exchange information New target or niche markets that are untapped: students, the public Promotions, news, events that can be offered through social media platforms Partnerships with other groups, organizations, schools, government, etc Penetration into a new geographical market quickly Recruitment of interested new members, students, public support Allows you to build short and long term relationships with prospects Humanizes the brand and makes the recruitment process more personal Twitter could become our digital public face to the world Can gain deep insights into real-time trends, news, and all of us; be the pulse of the internet as said by Founder Biz Stone
Integration into real-time games, media, and apps. Weve barely scratched the surface so far on whats possible. Twitter as real time infrastructure. It can become a dominant search engine It is becoming the biggest social media marketing tool It may acquire some of the desktop clients or the url shortening services. It may become the dominant way for businesses to communicate with their customers quick delivery, branding opportunities, and enhanced marketing opportunities Twitter feeds that provide everything from alerts to new blog posts to breaking news and political messages. One example of a popular Twitter feed is @cnnbrk, Allow Tweets to be crawled by Spiders Being present where stuff happens: People research for info/products/services online and value more the opinion of other individuals than whatever a company may say about their own offer. If your company is present in an interactive environment like social media, the opportunities for engagement, conversion and most importantly clarification of doubts regarding your brand, are countless. Developing a following/ audience that auto-nurtures itself: Your efforts in Social media, together with the effort of your following may mean that your audience become your best sales people Talent coming your way effortless: Because of the possibilities of exposure that Social Media allows for, interacting here, may mean that future talent (in the shape of employees, partners or, you-name-it) will come your way through the power of connecting online! Reach out to certain groups that traditional media didnt allow you to: Because Social media is for everyone, sooner or later youll come across people you never thought of as your client. This opens the doors to building new relationships but also to valuable feedback that can help you develop your products or services more intelligently Threats: Macro factors such as economy, will this affect your user base? Competitor is going after the same space or same audience with similar campaign Is the current campaign sustainable, can it continue? What obstacles stand in the way of success and failure? Attitudes on privacy: while lately it seems everyone is willing to share the most intimate as well as mundane details of their life there could easily be a backlash against this trend Weve all heard of a few embarrassing stories about over-sharing online, and a few highprofile examples might make people rethink their habits
Micro-messaging may just be a fad. Theres nothing inherently awesome about 140 characters. Its working for now, but Im sure theres a better way to share information out there than 140 character bursts It got too much publicity in a short time. May get burned out It is getting dangerously spammy/porn spammy Has no solid revenue model (future advertisements?) May have trouble with unauthorized accounts on behalf of groups/government/organizations/people Paid twitter streams may hurt the brand image Facebook may get even more twitty and compete face-to-face with Twitter in microblogging sphere Other social networking sites (MySpace, Tagged, Friendfeed, identi.ca, others) may grow and steal market share Acquisition by a bigger player (Google) may disappoint early adopters and loyal users Advertisements on the sites
Divergence and the evolutionary nature of things. In digital marketing there is ample evidence of the same as we can see from the chart above. Online marketing has evolved into many many branches and sub specialties. Starting from simple web design all the way to todays social media and mobile websites. As the services split it will be difficult for a single firm to provide the whole lot of them. Here lies the opportunity for niche players. Already many start-ups are exploiting the niche areas of marketing instead of going full service. Some are concentrating only on social media and some are even more super-special i.e. only Facebook. We can take reputation management services for example. A niche service emerging from the need of companies to keep their nose cleans online. Who would have foreseen it as a money making opportunity. Not only are the services splitting but they are also diverging wildly, taxing digital marketing companies resources The resources required for SEO are completely different from those required for social marketing or email marketing. Not only does it require different skill sets but it also requires a different cross functional teams. For a digital marketing firm trying to provide the whole range of services it will mean increasing staff and overheads substantially. But of course the opportunity to make a lot of money exists. Companies will have to weigh the cost/benefits to determine whether it makes sense to have that service in their portfolio. Due to varied nature of the digital marketing services there will have to be a lot of cooperation and tie-ups between companies and specialists. Gone are the days when one digital marketing co can provide everything under one roof. Even if they do try to project the services as their own, behind the scenes they will have to tie up with other companies and specialists to get the job done. This gives small companies a fighting chance where a number of startups can come together to present a united front and bag some lucrative contracts. One thing remains common even after splitting concept and content are important. No matter how wildly diverging the services are, one thing will always remain common - good concepts and good content. Factors such as design, delivery, speed, size etc will vary from service to service but they will always require an engaging concept backed by good content. Ultimately the goal is engage the prospective customer no matter the medium or channel. No one would have guessed that the next step for ecommerce would be group buying. Even those in the heart of the parent service cannot guess where the next split might take place. Otherwise Ebay instead of Groupon would have been the leading group purchase website. Facebook and not Google is leading social media. There are many such examples where the existing leader never emerges the leader in the new category. New digital marketing trends are a function of technology follow the technology, follow the trend. Tweeting got a boost from the emergence of smart mobile devices otherwise it would not have made sense for anyone to log into a site using a computer just to tweet. Similarly Cloud
computing got its boost from mobile computing people did not want to lug around those heavy laptops instead preferring to keep their data on the cloud and carry lighter devices. In Conclusion A very dynamic and fast moving digital marketing scenario that is growing, mutating and self correcting.
There's obviously no clear winner, social bookmarking can deliver the most for free but is notoriously hard to manipulate and is temperamental at best. Marketing and testing advertising techniques is one of the easiest ways to attract customers. Test out everything you think will help your campaign succeed. Even as a seasoned marketer you know the importance of testing out the product as well as the market for it before running with an idea. Your media advertising and campaigns, sales copy and ads are important factors to test. Every element you make the effort to track and test can affect your bottom line. In conclusion, Internet marketing is simply diversifying your spread of information to a variety of areas and to get all you can out of each one. One major benefit of online advertising is the immediate publishing of information and content that is not limited by geography or time. To that end, the emerging area of interactive advertising presents fresh challenges for advertisers who have hitherto adopted an interruptive strategy.
Another benefit is the efficiency of the advertiser's investment. Online advertising allows for the customization of advertisements, including content and posted websites. For example, AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdSense enable ads to be shown on relevant web pages or alongside search results. The internet has become an ongoing emerging source that tends to expand more and more. The growth of this particular medium attracts the attention of advertisers as a more productive source to bring in consumers. In addition to contextual targeting, online advertising can be targeted based on a user's online behavior. The Internet is certainly the place for businesses to expand, reach new markets and provide new services but there must be a balanced approach to the Internet. The Internet must be regarded as a strategic resource important to the whole business. The technical detail of the Internet can be complex. Management responsibility however is more productively focused on managing the implementation process to achieve strategic goals and assure smooth, secure operations. The IS Manager must first define why the company wants to be connected to the Internet then move to establish the appropriate connection, choosing the most cost effective option between capacity and speed. For medium businesses it is recommended that high speed modem links to a provider with dedicated telephone lines would be most appropriate. Issues such as how to advertise and promote the company on the Web must then be tackled, taking into account the human and social issues on the net. Theres no doubt about it: internet marketing has really taken off in recent years. One thing thats changed is that people are no longer afraid to do business over the internet. Companies that may have once relied on offline sales are now realizing how many more people they can reach by marketing online. Online shopping is catching up and is expected to reach billions of dollars in sales in the coming years. This suggests that online marketing is poised to enter a period of even larger growth, making it a great time to start an internet business. Internet marketing has made many individuals really wealthy and helped them create a business that can run on auto-pilot.
Appendices
Effects of online advertising beyond the click Online advertising drives offline sales: Online advertising drives purchase behavior in offline channels - particularly retail and phone. This was shown by a Yahoo! and Comscore in a study (2007) that revealed 89 percent of consumers shop for information about products online, but less than 7 percent of retail sales actually take place online. These effects are not measurable in clicks, though one of our clients does undertake weekly in-store surveys to identify search terms that are driving retail traffic. Online display populates the search sales funnel: Search volumes are driven by consumer demand for information and this demand is accelerated by all forms of online and offline brand communication. Online display is one of the drivers of search term demand, but consumer response often takes place outside standard cookie windows or in forms that are not easy to track unless you have a form of universal tracking in place to analyze click paths. As a result this effect is not always fully understood and accounted for. Cross-media synergy: When two channels work together, engaging with the same person about the same product on the same day, there is likely to be a 2+2=5 effect. Of course its very difficult to quantify the precise effects of this especially on a micro level but the difficulties presented in measuring this type of cross-media synergy do not mean that the effect is not present. An ad exposure online may well stimulate a purchase elsewhere - an effect not measured by clicks. Attitudinal change: Ongoing online display is likely to drive attitudinal change over long periods of time. Over periods of weeks, months and even years, online advertising can positively reenforce, modify and update brand perceptions. These changes are unlikely to be reflected in short-term click traffic, but are likely to be valuable to a brand from a positioning perspective. Pre and Post Purchase effects: Advertising has effects both before and after the purchase. Sometimes this is long before the purchase - when consumers are not consciously selecting products but subconsciously compiling their preferred sets. Sometimes its after the purchase and during ownership when consumers are reassured about their brand purchase decisions. This may result in increased future sales and increased brand loyalty, but this cannot be measured by realtime clicks. Accessibility signals: Because online is a distribution channel as well as an advertising medium, its use can send signals about accessibility to consumers. It says were open for business in the digital space. This was certainly the case with direct response advertising and direct brands
where the presence of phone numbers in ads was viewed by consumers as making the company appear more accessible and ready to talk. These accessibility signals are not directly measurable by clicks. Relationship with technology: Advertising online helps to demonstrate how companies relate to digital technology and the internet. By being there in the digital space a brand is saying that it values the digital channel as a means of communication and distribution and has the competencies required to participate. Again, a brand attributes which is not measurable by clicks alone. Facebook likes dont increase brand preference or sales Heres an iron for the fire: Facebook likes do not cause increased brand preference or increased sales so marketing campaigns designed to increase the number of likes are unlikely to increase brand preference or sales. I was moved to develop and explore this hypothesis after reading an article on the real cost of brand building in social media by Mark Ritson who is a professor of marketing, formerly at London Business School. Ritson is renowned for injecting some good solid critical thinking into the often sloppy logic of marketing. Ritson argues that whilst there may be apparent relationships between brand preference, share or sales and Facebook likes, the relationship between these factors is unlikely to be causal. Causality is important. Its about understanding the the cause of relationships between variables in order to assess their significance; just because there is a relationship between two things, it doesnt mean that one of them causes the other. To say with certainty that one factor drives the other, causality has to be proved. Ritson argues that causality is being overlooked or even ignored in studies that set out to consider the value of Facebook likes in relation to brand performance. There have been a number of studies which show that the most popular brands have the highest numbers of Facebook fans. but this shouldnt come as a surprise to any marketer with more than a handful of brain cells. Common sense tells us that the most popular brands are likely to have the most Facebook likes because they have higher numbers of users and advocates. But we need to remember that these likes are an expression of pre-existing brand preference and not a cause of it. Moreover, when studies try to assess the financial value of a Facebook like they find that Facebook fans spend more on a product than Facebook users who are not fans. One study found that Facebook likers of Starbucks coffee spent more in store than non-likers. Well that shouldnt come as a surprise either. Those consumers who prefer certain brands are likely to spend more money on those brands - after all isnt that the whole purpose of consumer marketing and the process of building brands? In both cases, there is a relationship between Facebook likes and brand performance but the relationship is caused by the strengths of the brand that almost certainly existed before the
impact of Facebook. The Facebook like is not the cause of brand preference but simply a reflection of it. If we use logic to extend these observations into prediction we can say that if likes do not cause brand preferences or increased sales, then strategies and campaigns that seek to increase the number of likes will not increase brand preference or sales. However, the predictive power of logic doesnt stop there; brand owners developing social media strategies to grow likes risk creating false-positive brand advocates. These false-positives are consumers who have no genuine relationship with the brand or product but simply click the like because they are incentivized to do so. Corralling opportunistic consumers into Facebook fan pages may actually skew the brands Facebook page and community away from genuine fans. Worse still, subsequent eCRM activity to develop these prospects may prove to be far less fruitful than initially anticipated. Marketers, Ritson argues, would do well to remember the factors that really did build their brand preference. These are likely to be product quality, availability, consumption experience and visual branding. They might also bear in mind the fact that research company TNS says that 61% of Britons do not want to engage with brands via social media and suggest that much of what is being build by brands in the social media space amounts to little more than digital waste. I wouldnt go that far, but I would say that brands need to tread carefully when investing in these areas. When we plan any social media activity, our objective is always to add new value to a brand in some way. That invariably involves strategies that take the consumer and the brand beyond the territory of the like. If we are going to have a meaningful social media strategy we need to think in CRM terms. Some of your brand advocates may be gathering as a segment within certain social media environments. You need to be there to recognize and respond to their statement of loyalty and preference in a relevant way. When you do meet up with them, make sure you give them something that reflects their commitment to you. And whatever you do, dont mix these high value customers with competition chasers wholl move as quickly to the next brand as they did to yours.
References
As per my project required, Ive done the research and analysis at my best efforts and during the research and development of project report I had to go through from various digital media portal to grasp and observe the scenario of New Media and to understand the procedure, views and thoughts of critics in a reference. Addresses are mentioned below of the web links in which I have taken the reference.
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