Google Adsense

ComScore Report Says Divas Drive the Dollars

Written on July 30, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

Divas drive the dollars.

That’s according to a new report from ComScore called Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet. The study shows that women spend 20% more time on retail websites overall than men. Not surprisingly, they lead in sales in every category except Computer Hardware/Software, Electronics, Sports/Outdoor and Music to a smaller extent. Movies is near even but when it comes to shopping for clothing online it’s women by a large margin.

Though women have been known to enjoy window shopping, in most cases they are actually spending. The ComScore report states:

“In February 2010, [women] accounted for 49.8 percent of the U.S. online population, but made up 57.9 percent of all non-travel buyers, made 61.1 percent of online purchases and accounted for 58.2 percent of online dollars.”

So shopping is popular, but that’s not all women are doing on the web. They’re managing their money online, they’re playing games and they’re dominating social media. The report goes on to say that many advertisers wrongly assume that women’s magazines, celebrity and baby sites are the top online hang-outs for women. But women are also the primary visitors to pet care, health and spiritualism sites. If you have something edgy to sell, the numbers also indicate that women are only slightly behind the men on gambling sites and there’s less of a gap than you would think when it comes to adult entertainment.

Speaking of entertainment, women find gaming online highly engaging particularly when it comes to puzzles, card and social network games. Men only dominate in the action and sports game arenas.

If you’re thinking of hitching your ad to an online video star, note that about the same number of US men and women watch videos, but men spend more time watching by a large margin. Women preferred short YouTube videos but that could be because we’re too busy shopping and networking online to sit for a whole movie.

When it comes to the future of online shopping, the ComScore report noted a huge increase in interest in group buying and “flash sales” sites which they attribute to the fact that they’re a mix of shopping and social networking.

“The rise of social networking has prompted women of all ages to engage in a host of associated online activities, such as photo-sharing, gaming, video viewing and instant messaging. All of these activities have benefited from their linkage with Social Networking sites in terms of their ability to attract new female users. Social retail, especially since it combines two activities that are already firmly in the mainstream of women’s Web activity, may be the next frontier in this evolution.”

If you go with that theory, then Twitter’s new Early Bird program should be a sure winner.

Does gender play a role in your marketing plan? We’d like to hear about it.

Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Here is the original:
ComScore Report Says Divas Drive the Dollars

Will “Google Me” Be A Worthy Facebook Challenger Or Will It Be DOA?

Written on June 29, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, book

Let’s take “Google Me” seriously as a social networking site, successor to Orkut and overall Facebook challenger. As everyone by now knows Digg’s Kevin Rose started a wave of coverage when he asserted over the weekend, in a Twitter post now removed, that Google was working on a Facebook competitor.
Yesterday I asked Google for a [...]



*** Read the full post by clicking on the headline above or, in Facebook, by clicking on the “View Original Post” link below. ***

Original post:
Will “Google Me” Be A Worthy Facebook Challenger Or Will It Be DOA?

Facebook Blocks Twitter. Is a Lawsuit Next?

Written on June 24, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing

Just minutes after Twitter announced a feature to see which of your Facebook friends are on Twitter, Facebook blocked it!

Now, thanks to Techdirt, we can see that this is not just some harmless mistake. Facebook does not want you having access to the data you’ve worked hard to compile. In other words, if you try to access any of your Facebook data via a 3rd-party app then the social network won’t just block you, it may sue you!

We’ve been following the rather bizarre and dangerous lawsuit filed by Facebook against Power.com, an online service that tries to let users aggregate various social networking activity into a single service. All Power.com does is let a willing user have Power.com’s tools log into Facebook and reuse/reformat the data within its own framework. From a user’s perspective, this could be quite useful. From Facebook’s perspective this is both a violation of copyright law and a violation of computer hacking laws. Why? Because Facebook says so. That is, it says so in its terms of service, and it’s arguing that in ignoring the terms of service, Power.com is criminally hacking.

And, that is exactly what Twitter just attempted to do with its new feature!

Two questions are now raised?

1. Will Facebook sue Twitter? Doubtful, but if the company allows Twitter to have this kind of access, does it weaken its case against Power.com?

2. Did you know that you can’t use another service to access what’s really your own data anyway?

More here:
Facebook Blocks Twitter. Is a Lawsuit Next?

Study: Young Adults Better Managing Online Reputations, Only 4% Suffered Attacks

Written on June 14, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

Originally posted here:
Study: Young Adults Better Managing Online Reputations, Only 4% Suffered Attacks

Trackur Launches White-Labeled Social Media Tracking for just $297!

Written on June 14, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

I’m delighted to share with you the brand new Trackur web site AND announce the launch of the industry’s most affordable white-labeled social media monitoring dashboard.

We’ve revamped the Trackur.com site and also made some usability improvements to the Trackur dashboard–which, by the way, has moved to its new location at track.trackur.com.

Along with the new look, we’ve renamed all of the Trackur plans, and have added some ground-breaking features to the Trackur Ultimate plan. Here’s what’s new:

• Use your own domain name: You asked for it, and we’re delivering. You can now point any domain name to your Trackur Ultimate dashboard and that’s what you–and your clients/users–will see. Your domain name will be used for everything, while we take care of everything else.
• Use your own logo: We’ve made it easier for you to upload your own logo and replace the Trackur logo. This further allows you to place your brand front and center with those that login to your Trackur dashboard.
• Pick your color scheme: We know, we know. Green doesn’t match with every company’s color-scheme. So, we’re delighted to announce that our Ultimate plan now allows you to pick from a wide range of color-schemes.

So, to recap, Trackur Ultimate let’s you provide you own branded social media tracking dashboard without you having build, update, maintain, or lift a finger! We do all the heavy lifting! Building your own reputation monitoring dashboard would cost you tens of thousands of dollars in time and resources. Trackur Ultimate is just $377 a month–and we take care of everything! Better yet, sign-up before June 30th and you’ll get the Trackur Ultimate plan for just $297 a month! And that’s a rate that you will keep each month–so long as you renew your plan!

This is just the start. What’s going on behind the scenes is just as important as what we’re announcing today. We’re building a new platform that will allow us to announce some cool features over the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Oh, and don’t forget, everyone can enjoy Trackur without charge, thanks to our Trackur Free plan!

Andy Beal
CEO

Read the original:
Trackur Launches White-Labeled Social Media Tracking for just $297!

Disney Sells Movie Tix on Facebook

Written on June 2, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing

The Walt Disney Company is doing more than wishing upon a star that their new release “Toy Story 3” will have success at the box office. While the movie doesn’t open until June 18 Disney is using their Facebook presence to pre-sell tickets and create buzz for Buzz Lightyear and company.

The New York Times reports

The Walt Disney Company has created what it believes is a first-of-its-kind application allowing Facebook users to buy tickets to “Toy Story 3” without leaving the social networking site and while, at the same time, prodding their friends to come along.

The application, called Disney Tickets Together, could transform how Hollywood sells movie tickets by combining purchases with the powerful forces of social networking. When you buy a ticket through Disney’s application, for instance, it alerts your Facebook friends and prompts you to invite them to buy tickets of their own.

If this concept takes off then there are limitless applications for this including selling tickets for sporting events (when not restricted by other agreements) and any other event. Disney is trying to leverage the 1.3 million Disney Pixar “Likers” on Facebook. While this sounds really cool for Disney the next question we have to ask is whether Facebook is getting a cut of this deal? Apparently not.

Disney Tickets Together, which has been in development for months, works with ticket-buying sites like Fandango.com and covers the majority of the movie theaters in North America, Mr. Luckett (senior vice president and general manager of DigiSynd, a Disney subsidiary that manages the entertainment giant’s social networking presence. ) said. Facebook receives no percentage of the ticket sales but does, in theory, get more visitors on its site.

Facebook must feel like the lowest paid event planner on the planet. They arrange where everyone will meet and they give people the chance to do a considerable amount of business through their platform then when it comes to their cash register it sits there collecting dust and cobwebs. There has to be some deal we are unaware of because Facebook doesn’t need a theoretical increase in people visiting the site, they need revenue.

Facebook seems to be happy taking the high road of playing matchmaker for businesses and customers without getting a cut. If this catches on I think that will not last too much longer. If Facebook has learned anything in its years of existence is that the longer you let this happen for free the harder it becomes to turn off the entitlement factor.

But Disney Tickets Together represents a deepening relationship between businesses and Facebook users, according to Dan Rose, the site’s vice president for partnerships and platform marketing.

Very insightful and magnanimous for sure, but will this attitude pay the bills for Facebook moving forward?

Read the original post:
Disney Sells Movie Tix on Facebook

Facebook Privacy: an Oxymoron?

Written on May 19, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, chat

If you re online odds are you are a member of at least one social networking site probably Facebook. And you already know that the things you do online can affect your friends online. But you may not realize the many ways that decisions about your own privacy can affect your friends….

Test Drive the Next Wave of Productivity Find Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 trials, demos, videos, and more.

View post:
Facebook Privacy: an Oxymoron?

MySpace Wants to Become Your Privacy Buddy

Written on May 17, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing

OK, it’s 2005. Imagine you are the reigning social media champ, MySpace. You are the number one social networking site and you get all the great press. It appears as if there was no way to stop you. You even get purchased for some serious scratch from one of the premier media companies in the world, News Corp. Sure there are some bothersome startups around like those kids over at Facebook but this is a done deal. You are the king of the mountain. What can go wrong?

Fast forward 5 years. You are a social media also ran. You are white knuckling your existence. Those “kids” over at Facebook have not only passed you but they have basically made you obsolete. You are the butt of social media jokes and no self respecting person or company (unless you are promoting music) talks about their “presence” on your site.

Ah, but there’s a glimmer of hope. Your hopelessly arrogant competition at Facebook has stuck its privacy foot in its mouth and just about every other orifice it can find. Its privacy made it popular but Facebook has gone and pulled the carpet out from underneath its trusted users by making everything public unless you have the guidance to undo the web of privacy options. What do you do?

Well if you are MySpace you go ahead and tout yourself as the social network where privacy matters! As Mashable reports

Facebook is under fire of late as members threaten a mass exodus and NYU students attempt to build an alternative Facebook. Today MySpace is taking its own jab at Facebook by announcing that the social networking site will soon make the default setting for updates “friends only.”

This default privacy change will affect all users who “previously had any granular page setting to ‘friends only,’” but can easily be changed.

The change is part of MySpace’s new public commitment to privacy. The once-dominant social network’s stated goal is to simplify settings and let users more clearly post updates publicly, to friends only, or publicly to anyone 18 or over.

So is this sheer coincidence, utter brilliance or quiet desperation? Probably a little of all of them but I think desperation is in the lead. These “changes” have been discussed in a blog post by MySpace co-president Mike Jones but guess what? They won’t actually be available for a few weeks.

Well, either they figure that we are dumb as dirt and won’t see the opportunistic media play that is not supported by reality or they just got real lucky with this new “policy” over at MySpace. Hmmmmm, I wonder which one it is?

As I write this I wonder if this was even worth the time to mention. Maybe it shows just how lame this industry can be and that’s what makes it interesting. Either that or in the deep recesses of everyone’s minds, even those over at MySpace, we hope that there will someday be an alternative to Facebook because the whole “ask for forgiveness, rather than permission” policy of Facebook is growing old…..real old.

Can anyone say Diaspora?

Original post:
MySpace Wants to Become Your Privacy Buddy

Google Responds to Countries’ Privacy Concerns (Kinda)

Written on May 10, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

Last month, privacy and data protection officials from Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom wrote an open letter to Google voicing their concerns about Google Buzz. Of course, this is nothing new, since Buzz has prompted privacy concerns since the day it rolled out.

Now Google is responding: and they’ve decided that what those ten countries really wanted was a briefing on Google’s privacy policy and guiding principles. Yeah, that’s what they were looking for.

Let’s rehash this conversation here. First, the ten countries say:

In essence, you took Google Mail (Gmail), a private, one-to-one web-based e-mail service, and converted it into a social networking service, raising concern among users that their personal information was being disclosed. Google automatically assigned users a network of “followers” from among people with whom they corresponded most often on Gmail, without adequately informing Gmail users about how this new service would work or providing sufficient information to permit informed consent decisions. This violated the fundamental principle that individuals should be able to control the use of their personal information.

And then Google says:

At Google, we have 5 privacy principles that describe how we approach privacy and user information across all of our products:
1. Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.
2. Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
3. Make the collection of personal information transparent.
4. Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.
5. Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.

Hm… So are they now claiming that Buzz “reflected strong privacy standards,” “transparent information collection,” “meaningful choices to protect [users'] privacy” and “responsible” stewardship? Because that was kind of exactly what users and governments alike were complaining about.

Read Write Web hits the nail on the head: Google’s response “reads more like a public relations form-letter on the company’s privacy practices.” Or, essentially: Thank you for your interest in our company! We wish we had the time to respond to every user. Or even the governments that represent nearly 400 million people. Unfortunately, we don’t care.

What do you think? Is Google being flip? Or is there no better way to respond?

Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Read the original post:
Google Responds to Countries’ Privacy Concerns (Kinda)

Does Google Latitude Have the Fortitude to Beat Foursquare?

Written on May 7, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, marketing

Watch out Gowalla!

Run for the hills Foursquare!

In your face…er, Facebook!

Location based status updates are the hottest thing in social networking and Google would like in on the action. Oh, and if it decides to enter the race, it already has a head-start with 3 million willing users.

3 million? Already? How’d that happen?

Well, Google Latitude has offered location awareness since before your best friend became the Mayor of the men’s restroom on the 4th floor–it was a nasty incident with a beef burrito, I’m sure he’ll explain more on Twitter.

Anyway, Google has hinted that it might just get in on this check-in nonsense by turning Google Latitude into a Foursquare competitor:

While he wouldn’t specifically speak to Google’s plans, Lee also hinted that Latitude would soon have a check-in component. When moderator Brady Forrest asked if Google would move from implicit to explicit location based on the popularity of check-ins, Lee said he does see the company moving that way. But he made sure to emphasize that they still see promise in the implicit model. “It will be a hybrid model eventually,” Lee said

What’s between Google and domination of this hotbed of “I’m here, so my house is empty if anyone wants to break-in”? Well, three things:

1. Google Latitude is pretty much locked out of the iPhone. Until the iPhone offers background running apps, Latitude won’t be on your iPhone anytime soon.

2. 25% of all Google Latitude users have zero friends. Sounds bad, but I suspect many Foursquare users are heading in that direction–if they don’t shut-up already!

3. Google has pretty much bombed with any social networking launch. Think Orkut or Buzz.

So, I don’t think Google Latitude is going to be a threat anytime soon, but–assuming Google is serious about the location awareness space–it could signal a buying spree among rivals hoping to snap-up Foursquare or Gowalla before the search giant gets its hands on them!

View post:
Does Google Latitude Have the Fortitude to Beat Foursquare?