Twitter Unveils @Anywhere at SXSW

The publishers above have already signed up for @anywhere.

Twitter announced a new platform at SXSW this week, which will allow publishers to integrate the service deeper into their site and create “open interactions” with readers directly from third-party sites (instead of Twitter.com). Early publishers to get on board include Amazon, Yahoo, Bing, Digg and the New York Times. For publishers, this means better interactions on their site and opportunities to accrue more followers.

In a Digital Connections post this week, David Berkowitz posed two questions that marketers should ask when considering how @anywhere will pan out in the future.

1. How important is Twitter for helping me achieve my marketing objectives?
2. How important do I want Twitter to be?

If Twitter’s an important communications channel, traffic driver, or a sales channel, then you need to follow @anywhere (literally, by following the account, and figuratively, by following related updates) and consider integrating it when it’s live.

If Twitter isn’t as essential yet, but you’re investing more resources into using it effectively and you see its influence rising (such as the share of traffic it sends to your site), then you can probably afford to be a fast follower – or a not so fast follower, where you can learn from how other sites use it before deciding how deep you want to dive in, if at all.

Hitwise: Last Week Facebook Got More Traffic than Google

According to Hitwise data, Facebook passed Google to become the most visited Web site in the U.S. for the week ending March 13. This has happened before, generally on holidays (Christmas Day, New Year’s Day etc.) – but this is the first time it has happened on a non-holiday. According to the data, Facebook.com’s market share of visits increased by 185 percent last week as compared to the same week last year. Google’s share of visits rose by 9 percent.

The news may seem staggering – and it indeed seems to signals the growing prowess of Facebook; however, ClickZ puts the stats into some more perspective, pointing out that the study specifically centered on traffic to Google.com and Facebook.com. “Though those numbers are encouraging for Facebook, they bear little relevance to the relative health of the two companies’ businesses, since they essentially compare two specific products,” writes Jack Marshall.

Facebook Adds Fan Pages to Notifications

This week, a small change was made to Facebook’s notification system that could mean big things for companies who manage Fan Pages. Brands now have the ability to appear in fans’ “Notifications” feeds on Facebook if the fan has engaged with Fan Page content. After a fan likes or comments on a Fan Page and the brand responds through a comment, the brand’s activity will pop up in the fan’s toolbar as a new notification, saying “Brand X has commented on their status” (or post, link, photo, etc.).

How does this change the game? Appearing in fans’ Notifications gives brands additional visibility and extends their relationship with consumers on the platform. This should encourage Fan Page admins to carefully consider how and with what frequency they should respond to fan comments on their Pages. You can read our full POV on the update in this post from Social Marketing Strategist Christine Hsu.

Google Looks Ahead at the Future of Display

In a post on the Official Google Blog this week, Susan Wojcicki (VP of Product Management of Google) provided a comprehensive recap of how Google is integrating DoubleClick technology into the heart of its business. Here are some of her main points:

• Display as evolved tremendously. The best ads today are like “mini-websites” with complex features and “stunning” graphics, and many have interactive elements. They’re more relevant and they’re bought & sold easier, too.
• Google and DoubleClick will continue working to ensure advertisers get better results. Right now they’re working on a solution to allow advertisers and agencies to plan, buy, create, serve and measure within one interface.
• New tools have been paramount and will continue to be. She cited DoubleClick Exchange, DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Studio as evidence of Google’s innovation in the display space.
• With more advances in measurement, creative and targeting, Google believes that display will grow dramatically. Wojcicki concluded the post with a prompt to follow the Google Blog for more important announcements about its evolving display program.

Google has set the pace for innovation in other areas of its business (namely the search space), so it comes as no surprise that the company is trudging forward in other areas like mobile and display. As the landscape continues to evolve, the combination of better technology and more personalized, interactive creative will mean opportunities for marketers to reach consumers more efficiently – and effectively – than ever before. We look forward to hearing about new opportunities from Google, in addition to other key players, in the near future.

Last month was the annual DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit, and there was one talk in particular that captured a lot of imaginations — Carnegie Mellon University Professor Jesse Schell’s “Design Outside the Box” talk, which covered Facebook, convergence, and the future of reality-based gaming.I knew this talk was generating tons of buzz when, at a recent conference I attended, it was heavily copied by not one but two separate presenters. The biggest takeaway from Schell’s presentation — and you should definitely watch the whole thing if you have the time — is that games that connect to reality, either by letting you compete with your friends, or by awarding you points for real-world activities, exert a special kind of psychological hold on gamers, especially casual gamers.

Social apps like Foursquare are currently taking advantage of this concept, and they’re also getting partners like Bravo into the act, awarding users badges for checking into locations that appear on the “Real Housewives” TV shows and eating at “Top Chef” restaurants. The TV network is essentially giving Foursquare users points and recognition for living the Bravo lifestyle.

Brands have been awarding points for their users for ages. They’re called loyalty programs, and some are remarkably effective, while others sort of fall flat. The key difference is social currency. People want to be associated with loyalty programs that say something about them as people other than “I buy a ton of this specific product.”

The example Schell gives in his talk is tooth-brushing. In his vision of the future, toothpaste companies will award you points for brushing your teeth, and badges or bonuses for doing it every day in a week, or twice in a single day, and they’ll do it in the name of getting you to buy more toothpaste. But consumers will take part in that not because they want to be known as Crest aficionados or Colgate partisans, but because they want to be known as people with extremely clean teeth.

Schell’s talking about the nebulous future, but there’s plenty of time in the present for brands to get involved in game concepts like awarding points and Xbox Live-style “achievements” to real-life, branded activities. Consumers are hungry for ways to measure their lifestyles against their social nets, and brands can win by offering them a way to do that.

This article was originally published in MediaPost’s Gaming Insider.

Yes, like so much of the digital media universe, we at 360i were awaiting Twitter founder Evan Williams’ keynote address at South by Southwest (SXSW) this week. I was personally at the event, eager to hear how Twitter was about to change.

And then it didn’t.

There wasn’t any new ad platform launched, as had been widely rumored. Instead, Williams referred to the ‘@ platform,’ specifically dubbed @anywhere. It has nothing to do with advertising – at least not yet. What it does change is how Twitter functions on other sites.

With @anywhere, publishers can allow their visitors to share content or follow Twitter users that the publishers feature. For example, If The New York Times has reporters on Twitter, their bylines can include @anywhere snapshots of their Twitter usage, and consumers can follow that reporter on the spot. In such a scenario, the Times could include links to various official accounts, or even Twitter accounts of people and businesses mentioned in their stories. All of this can happen by adding a few lines of code to the publisher’s site.

The Times, MSNBC, Meebo, Amazon.com, YouTube, and Advertising Age are among the launch partners, but Williams didn’t mention exactly when it launches, and you won’t find more specifics on Twitter’s announcement on its blog. But it’s coming.

It’s unclear exactly how site owners will get to sign up and when this will be rolled out. There are two questions that any marketer needs to ask right now when considering this:

1. How important is Twitter for helping me achieve my marketing objectives?
2. How important do I want Twitter to be?

If Twitter’s an important communications channel, traffic driver, or a sales channel, then you need to follow @anywhere (literally, by following the account, and figuratively, by following related updates) and consider integrating it when it’s live.

If Twitter isn’t as essential yet, but you’re investing more resources into using it effectively and you see its influence rising (such as the share of traffic it sends to your site), then you can probably afford to be a fast follower – or a not so fast follower, where you can learn from how other sites use it before deciding how deep you want to dive in, if at all.

There are still some fundamental questions. Will this provide any value to visitors to your site who aren’t Twitter users? Will it convert some of the Twitter spectators into participants? What data will be available to publishers who use @anywhere, and will this data be available exclusively to such publishers? Will this ever have anything to do with advertising?

We’ll share answers as we get them here on the blog, and any other way you want to stay in touch with us.

What has changed?

Brands now have the ability to appear in fans’ “Notifications” feeds on Facebook if the fan has engaged with Fan Page content. After a fan likes or comments on a Fan Page and the brand responds through a comment, the brand’s activity will pop up in the fan’s toolbar as a new notification, saying “Brand X has commented on their status” (or post, link, photo, etc.).

Above: Fan Page updates are now appearing in fans’ notifications.

How does this change the game?

Appearing in fans’ Notifications gives brands additional visibility and extends their relationship with consumers on the platform. Facebook users often check their Notification section to see how their friends have responded to their own content and posts, and now they will also see how brands have responded to them. This should encourage Fan Page admins to carefully consider how and with what frequency they should respond to fan comments on their Pages. Every Fan Page notification will encourage fans to check back on content they’ve interacted with, as well as remind them to visit the Fan Page more frequently.

To illustrate with an example – on Starbuck’s last post, 1600+ fans interacted in comments or likes. Now, if Starbucks also comments on that post, all 1600+ fans will see Starbucks pop up in their notifications on their home page. These fans will likely click through to see what the brand wrote, and then may end up perusing the Fan Page further.

As such, responding to fans in their wall posts and comments becomes increasingly validating as fans will actually be notified of the brand response. If managed correctly, fan pages should see an uptick in engagement, as well as page views from fans who click through the notifications.

Keeping all these benefits in mind, it’s still important to strike a balance between too much and too little interaction with your fans. Excessive responses to fan comments will inundate fans’ notifications, leading to potential abandonment of engagement, or even worse, unfanning. The best way to ensure that a brand doesn’t overwhelm fans is to keep responses to one or two per post, and always keep a finger on the pulse of your fans by monitoring engagement and growth through Facebook insights.

-Christine Hsu, Social Marketing Strategist at 360i

Stories that made the digital headlines this week include a new whitepaper from Microsoft on the effectiveness of online  branding campaigns, Google’s newest search feature for online shoppers and exciting news about 360i’s participation in this year’s SXSW Interactive conference.

New Whitepaper: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Digital Advertising for Brand Campaigns

This week Microsoft released a new report that explores the significance of “dwell scores” – calculated by the time spent with advertising multiplied by the rate of active engagement with an ad – when it comes to digital programs. The research, derived from comScore and Eyeblaster data, shows that higher dwell scores correlate to “significant improvement in positive engagement with a brand post ad exposure.” The report notes that such positive effects often include a higher volume of branded search queries, more visits to the marketer’s Web site and higher levels of engagement by visitor’s on site.

As digital continues to become more and more central to brand strategy, understanding how consumers interact with online advertising will become increasingly important. As this report shows, click-through-rate alone cannot adequately measure the performance of branding campaigns – and other metrics such as dwell scores should be more closely considered.

Download the whitepaper: Digital Challenge: Being Greater with Data.

Google Debuts “In Stock, Nearby” Mobile Shopping Experience

Yesterday, Google unveiled a new real-time inventory discovery feature for mobile searches. Explaining the feature is easy. As Google puts it: “Just look for the blue dots” when searching within Shopping. These dots indicate if the item is in stock and if it is at a location near the searcher. According to Search Engine Land, the product is only available on mobile devices for now, but soon the feature will be integrated into the desktop search experience as well. Currently just a handful of retailers are involved – the list includes Best Buy, Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn, among others – but Google is inviting other retailers to get involved depending on their ability to provide the necessary data.

Image via Google

As Search Engine Land projects, there might be opportunities for advertisers to include such “blue dot” information in future paid search ads – though this could be a ways off. Regardless, the opportunities for retailers seem ripe. Additionally, if this feature takes off it could produce valuable insights into the relationship between online searches and in-store consumer behaviors.

Yee-haw! SXSW Interactive 2010 Kicks Off

The SXSW Interactive conference begins today and lasts through March 16. The renowned event brings together some of the biggest players in emerging technology each year – and we’re so happy to announce that we will be part of the action this year. David Berkowitz, Sr. Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy, will speak on the Future15 panel “Convergence 2015: Ten Cool Things That Could Happen This Year” on Monday, March 15 at 5:40 p.m.

Can’t make it to Austin? Worry not – 360i has teamed up with Kyte to bring you behind the scenes at this year’s conference with a custom video player that we’ll update throughout the week. Be sure to check the blog regularly and follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates from Texas.

Gowalla Follows Foursquare’s Lead with Real-Life Incentives

Like its rival Foursquare (which recently inked deals with brands like Bravo, the New York Times and Zagat), Gowalla has partnered with a big brand to integrate branded content within its location-based platform. ReadWriteWeb reported this week that Gowalla and the Travel Channel have teamed up to provide special badges, information and event real-life incentives for venues featured in its programming. For example, to help promote “Food Wars,” the Travel Channel will offer badges for viewers visiting venues featured on the show, allow them to “pick up items specific to the show” and award Gowalla users with special passport stamps.

As 360i’s David Berkowitz recently shared with Ad Age, marketers will continue flocking to services like Gowalla and Foursquare so long as these platforms continue to enjoy burgeoning audiences. If so, these sites hold golden opportunities from brands to engage with increasingly mobile-centric consumers.

ComScore Releases February Search Rankings Report

ComScore released its search industry report for February – and for most engines it was more of the same. Google topped the list at more than 65% market share (just 0.1% more month-over-month) and Yahoo! lost 0.2%, falling to 16.8% overall. Bing rounded out the top three with 11.5% — a 0.2% gain from January. More interesting, however, was Facebook’s 10% growth in terms of search queries. As Search Engine Journal points out, Facebook’s query volume of 435 million paled in comparison to the 13.5 billion searches conducted on Google – however, the leading social network was the only online property that demonstrated search query growth last month.

What would a brand need to give you to become a fan of their page on Facebook? A free hamburger? A pair of underwear? Virtual cash to support your virtual farm?

These are all real examples. T.G.I. Friday’s gave out the burgers in September 2009. Victoria’s Secret first gave away panties in June 2009, and then it offered fans two pairs of underwear in September to celebrate getting 2 million fans. Just last week, Microsoft ponied up (pun intended) 3 Farm Cash, the virtual currency of Facebook’s leading application FarmVille, to players who became a fan of Bing.

On the surface, it works. Bing grew its fan count from over 100,000 to over 500,000 overnight with the one-day promotion March 2, and it now has 593,000 fans, indicating continued residual growth. By comparison, Google has 529,000 fans. Microsoft’s Bing only needs another 18,000 fans to overtake Chandler Bing (of “Friends” fame), and the page is now far more popular than “I just realized that Bing stands for ‘Because Its Not Google’” with its 258,000 fans. So it was successful, right?

This is the question marketers need to ask. Was it a success? And then you can break it down further – in what ways was it successful, and in what ways wasn’t it? I haven’t seen the press tackle these questions. Even a story yesterday from Silicon Alley Insider, a publication that makes a sport of ripping into large tech and media companies, treated it with kid gloves.

There are several reasons Microsoft should celebrate:

1) The creative in FarmVille was beautiful, showing a massive farm with Bing’s logo, instantly visible in the game.

2) Zynga, the company behind FarmVille, made it relevant for its audience, with a prominent call to “become a fan,” and then the hook to “get fun FarmVille tips on Bing now.”

3) Microsoft “owns” these fans now. It can directly communicate with nearly 500,000 more people than it could at the start of last week. That’s tremendous.

4) Microsoft has cash to burn. When you’re sitting on billions of dollars, paying a few million bucks for this kind of promotion might be a relatively good use of ad spending. The cost of this promotion wasn’t disclosed and I know it wasn’t anywhere near that ballpark, but the one-day spend undoubtedly trumped what most marketers spend on social media in a year.

5) The press value alone probably helped with some of the incremental fan gains, and its public relations team can add the media love to their clip files. In this bizarre world where Microsoft is the David to Google’s Goliath (or “The Hurt Locker” to their “Avatar”), it’s going to get the ink.

Yet the promotion’s hardly perfect. There are several reasons why this might not be the best use of marketing dollars:

1) Die-hard fans will do anything for virtual cash. Zynga games often have two kinds of currency: the kind you earn by playing the game and the even more special currency you have to pay for. There are items and other in-game boosts you can only get with that special currency. As a Mafia Wars player for about a year now, I’d become a fan of Stalin for Godfather points. Getting FarmVille players to become a fan of an innocuous brand like Bing is a cinch when you’re dangling Farm Cash. Without a doubt, these same people would become a fan of Google, Yahoo, Apple, the Burlington Chamber of Commerce, hedge funds, or the Senate’s latest version of health care legislation (hey, Obama, you might want to try that). It doesn’t mean they’re fans.

2) A week later, the vast majority of comments from fans on Bing’s page are still about FarmVille. Consider the latest post from Bing about a maps app. The first ten comments are mostly relevant, though largely negative. And then the FarmVille comments come: “I just joined this group for the FV$.” “I got my 3 FV dollars – and what other search engine offers you anything? So thank you to Bing!” “My son got his fv cash, but I didn’t.”Its wall is also full of fan posts such as, “Need some farmcash ASAP thanks in advance.” These will drop off in time, but it’s doubtful that these FarmVille players will ever contribute meaningfully to Bing’s Facebook presence.

3) Another way to look at engagement is by the number of people who “like” a post. Bing’s two official Facebook updates since the FarmVille promotion garnered about 150 likes. Bing’s post about the FarmVille campaign garnered 1,280 likes. And before that? It’s a mixed bag. A post about someone from Bing riding a mechanical bull in Dallas got 325 likes – and that was when it had 117,000 fans, according to All Facebook. Typically, posts netted around 50 to 100 likes – and occasionally far more, such as a Christmas update with 222 likes. Microsoft will have to figure out what resonates with the new crop of Bing fans now that they’re overwhelmingly FarmVille fans too (do they search for virtual animal husbandry?). Or perhaps Bing will fare better letting that FarmVille contingent remain a fallow fan field, while continuing to reap the fruit of the organic Bing fans.

All in all, size only matters so much. Bing could have had a successful page with 10,000 fans if they were passionate users who could spread Microsoft’s messaging further, or Bing could buy 10 million fans that give Microsoft nothing but bragging rights.

My final recommendation: next time, run the promotion in Mafia Wars for 100 Godfather points, and I’ll be Bing’s biggest fan in the whole wide world. Burlington Chamber of Commerce, that goes for you too.

This article was originally published in MediaPost’s Social Media Insider.

E-Commerce Sites Poised for Improvements in 2010

According to a study by Internet Retailer and Vovici, web retailers have big plans to provide better online shopping experiences for consumers. The “Website Design Strategies & Tactics” report found that two-thirds of retailers plan a site redesign in 2010.

Reports eMarketer on the study: better organization, “updating of home, category and product pages” are the top priorities among web retailers improving their sites. Improved SEO is also on the agenda for many e-commerce sites. Retailers surveyed said the biggest reasons for the redesigns were to increase sales and to build buzz for their brands among new visitors.

Approximately 25% of retailers surveyed said they will introduce personalized product recommendations in order to optimize conversions on their sites.

Report: Huge Gains in Mobile Social Network Usage YoY

ComScore released a study this week that pointed out the substantial increase in social media usage via mobile devices from January 2009 to January 2010. The report found that more than 30 percent of smartphone users access social sites via a mobile browser in 2010 – up from 22.5 percent a year ago. Broken down by social network, Facebook saw 112 percent gains and Twitter enjoyed a nearly 350 percent boost.

As Mashable points out, the study likely underestimates the gains, as it only encompassed data from mobile browsers (not mobile apps). Mobile social network usage should continue to grow as leaders like Facebook and Twitter continue to enjoy increasing popularity with mobile alternatives.

Universal Pictures Repo Men Campaign Ties Mobile to Offline Creative

A new promotion for “Repo Men” integrates mobile bar codes powered by Red Laser with offline media in order to build buzz around the film. The new Universal Pictures film (disclosure: Universal is a 360i client) involves selling organs via bar code scanning, “so it is not only a good digital integration but also a cool tie-in with the subject of the film,” writes MobileMarketer.

The mobile component of the campaigned ties directly to offline creative found online and among the top 15 markets in the United States.

“Red Laser met two important needs for the program: it’s one of the most popular mobile applications especially for tech-savvy early adopters, and they had the flexibility to incorporate real bar codes for fictitious products from the film,” said David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media & Innovation, in the MobileMarketer article.

Business locations have unwittingly joined a world of local social gaming. The use of “check-in” technologies, and buzz around this new kind of social activity has blossomed thanks to the recent growth of sites like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, MyTown and Brightkite. These are just some of the technologies out there that create social utility and a bit of fun around the everyday places we visit.

Through GPS functionality, mobile browsers and apps have empowered consumers to share their daily adventures, longitude by latitude, tweet by tweet, at any given second in time.  For example, Foursquare allows its users to quickly find a location, check in and supply content that is relevant to their geographic location.  For places of business, a user may want to inform his or her social community in real time of his or her location and thoughts about the spot.  This might include a traditional status update, advice or a review of the location itself.

The above example shows how a new venue is entered, resulting in a new Foursquare address (screen shot below).  Once created, users of the Foursquare community can now check-in, create dialog, and battle for “geographic domination” at this location or business.

Foursquare creates a pursuit for its users who can earn status levels and recognition at certain locations by checking in frequently.

For businesses, there are SEO implications from all this location-based socialness.

As Web sites such as foursquare.com facilitate user-generate content, they also enable natural search visibility via Google.  This realization is an important factor in their ability to grow user profiles, content, and popularity.  Once a location is created by these sites, they are indexed by the engines and become searchable.

• Foursquare Google Index Count – About 300,000 of their “venue” pages are now indexed
• Loopt Google Index Count – About 22,000 of their “places” pages are now being indexed
• Gowalla Google Index Count – About 8,000 of their “spot” pages are now being indexed of

Getting indexed by Google is clearly valuable, as these types of local content pages can rank for geographic related searches. For example, a Google search for “360i Atlanta” results in a Foursquare venue URL ranked in position 3.  On the resulting Foursquare page, users will find some basic info about 360i such as the business address and phone number, plus other user-generated Content (UGC) like shouts, tips and more, which all contribute to the page’s keyword relevance.

Foursquare isn’t the only mobile application contributing to local search relevance. Yelp.com embraced SEO best practices years ago, improving their organic visibility in Google’s results for local search queries aligned with businesses.  The site now offers a mobile “check in” system a la Foursquare.

A big mystery in the mobile/ local page saga is Google itself.  They have not allowed their own “Google Places” pages to become indexed in their web catalog. At the moment, they disallow /places/ URLs via robots.txt.  So Google’s Place pages are not currently indexed, although there are SEO-friendly Google Place URLs available that could be indexed in the future. [Example of Google Place page: http://maps.google.com/places/us/folly-beach/center-street/39/-woodys-pizza.]

A Google Place page for Woody’s Pizza

With Google’s renewed focus on mobile, will they eventually create a mobile app that allows their Gmail users or other community members to do “check-ins” at local businesses? Don’t be surprised if this happens.  They could certainly integrate UGC into their own Google Places along with our Google Profiles (example below). This is speculative, but certainly possible as Google looks to expand its user profiles reach, with social and local relevance.

Regardless of what happens next or who becomes the next Geographic Twittering platform, below are some local social SEO tips that marketers should consider:

*Check out these sites, notably Foursquare and Google Places to review your “venue” pages:

• Ensure each of your business locations is accurate.
• Do you have duplicate listings under various platforms?
• Claim or verify your listings whenever possible on each platform.
• Listen to your customers and learn whenever possible – is there buzz happening about you right now from a customer in your store?

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*Consider adding outbound links from your own location pages to your presence on Foursquare and Yelp!

• If you have enough, create an index sitemap.

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*Learn more about Foursquare for Business and sign up or ponder customer loyalty concepts.
This space is changing fast!  Google’s Buzz and layering onto of local maps is just another recent example of how this environment between mobile, social and location buzz is evolving. Understanding the major players and technologies today will help marketers test and learn until things shake out.