5 Top Changes in Digital, Traditional and Social Media in 2012 & how they will affect Marketing Tactics for 2013 and Beyond.
With the year almost over, it's time to start implementing your 2013 marketing and social media tactics. Many big changes are coming or have already begun in terms of digital, traditional, and social media, and will cause major changes from your 2012 marketing techniques. To be prepared for 2013 and beyond, consider these top 5 changes in digital, traditional and social media:
1. New Facebook Changes. With Facebook going public back in May 2012 and a falling of their stock price, there have been plenty of rumors going around in terms of how Facebook is planning to increase monetization efforts, in order to boost revenue. While no one knows for sure what Facebook’s future plans are, their recent addition of “Promoted Posts” has drastically affected the online marketing space on Facebook.
Promoted posts have caused uproar for marketers who own Facebook Fan Pages because this new feature restricts how many fans can see a post. As it stands now, Facebook users have three options when arriving at a Fan Page: Like, Subscribe, or Add to an Interest List. Users who simply “like” a page will not receive all updates unless they optionally “subscribe.”
This is where promoted posts come into play. Facebook now allows marketers the ability to pay a certain fee in order to get their posts seen by a certain percentage of users. The higher number equals the larger amount of fans your post will reach.
Should advertisers in the online marketing space be up in arms about this? Well the answer is ‘Yes’ and ‘No'. While this may seem like a frustrating new way how Facebook is trying to squeeze more money out of its advertisers, it can also be very beneficial. Promoted posts allow marketers to get their content seen by any demographic they choose, similar to how the Facebook ads system works. You can target options like activities, gender, age, and more. If you are marketing on a Facebook Fan Page, and rely on it heavily for promotion, remember to take these factors into consideration.
2. Context, NOT Content, Is King. For many years, marketers have been continually informed that “content is king” when it comes to creating a fantastic website. As we enter into 2013, it seems apparent that context is the main variable to consider now.
While SEO is not dead, the recent Google algorithm updates this year, most notably titled ‘Penguin’ and ‘Panda’, wiped many businesses completely off of the top ten results. The crazy thing is that many of these websites had amazingly detailed and thorough content that seemed to relate to the keyword they were ranking for exactly.
Although this may very well be true, Google now isn’t just looking at your website’s content, but also the context of the content, and will utilize that when ranking your site. Consider the example that your site discusses Chinese food recipes and you have been ranking for the keyword “Chinese Food in San Francisco” for years.
Google has been getting smarter at how it ranks and displays results for its users. If a person is searching for a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco at 12 am, now they’re more likely to find open restaurants near them at the time, instead of finding your site, no matter how high you are ranked. Google wants to give the user the best and most accurate results possible while eliminating the need to have a user constantly search around to find what they are looking for. This is why the context of your site in terms of how it relates to your demographic will play a huge role in 2013.
3. Target “People” In Your Mobile Marketing Campaigns.
While most online marketing experts realize that it is essential to target mobile device users when handling paid search campaigns, many don’t exactly realize what types of details should be paid attention to when optimizing those campaigns.
According to many experts, clicks from mobile devices may make up between 20 and 25 percent of total search engine clicks in 2013. While marketers can currently target users of a specific device, additional demographic and social features may be available to choose from within the next year.
This is why marketers should be planning on targeting “people” in 2013, instead of just factors like keywords and device. Advertisers should be seeing additional access to social data so that they can more easily target a person based on their current interests or activities.
4. Social Media Is Not Slowing Down Compared to Traditional Media.
Businesses that continue to utilize their online marketing efforts with search engines only or would rather advertise using traditional media, need to jump onto the social media marketing train.
While many marketers may believe that marketing on social media is useless, recent studies have shown that number of Americans following their favorite company or business on Facebook has jumped for 106 percent between 2010 and 2012. These numbers are continually rising. According to another study by the Pew Research Center, only 23 percent of people surveyed had read a newspaper the day before. In 2000, this number was at 47 percent. As seen, the number of newspaper readers continues to fall as new media gains popularity.
Even if you own an offline business, it is very important to represent your brand online using sites like Facebook or Twitter. This gives you an efficient way to connect to your customers and gain feedback.
5. Twitter Integrated Advertising.
When it comes to online marketing, Jakob Nielsen’s eye tracking usability study has shown that when users are browsing the web, they are typically trained to ignore banners completely.
Although many marketers know of the “banner blindness” mentality, it has only gotten worse in the past few years. This is why the new norm, when it comes to campaigns, is to have ads that are “integrated” into the content that a user is currently viewing.
Integrated ads tend to be noticed more and feel less obtrusive for the user. Consider Twitter’s recent addition of their integrated advertising model. These ads coincide with a user’s tweets on their Twitter feed and are more targeted and integrated. While banners still have their place in the online marketing realm, as users become more tech savvy, banners and traditional ads will become less effective as the years progress. For this reason, integrated content advertising will play a key role in 2013.
What other changes in Digital, Traditional and Social Media do you predict for 2013? Share your comments with our readers!
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