Marketing Day: March 26, 2014

Here’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on MarTech and other places across the web.

From Marketing Land:

• Mobile First: Facebook Claims 1 Billion Active Mobile Users, 200 Million On Instagram
  In answering questions about Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus, CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a couple of new user stats that show the company’s mobile-first strategy is paying off. Zuckerberg told analysts on a conference call yesterday that Facebook now has 1 billion active monthly mobile users. That’s up from 945 million in December. Facebook’s […]
• Study: Expert Content 83% More Effective Lifting Purchase Considerations Than User Reviews
  A recent content marketing study conducted by Nielsen revealed consumers are more likely to be influenced by third-party expert content over branded content and user reviews when making buying decisions. According to Nielsen’s “The Role of Content” study, expert content — product reviews and articles from third-party websites and blogs — was 83 percent more […]
• Infographic: Winning Local Through Search Engines, Yellow Pages, Maps & Reviews
  Virtually all consumers turn to the internet to find local products and services. Are you positioned to win them, as a local business? There are four key steps to consider: search engines, internet yellow pages, map services and reviews. The folks from Kenshoo Local have put together an infographic with these four key areas, along with […]
• Google Rolls Out Analytics Reporting For YouTube TrueView Ads
  Google is beefing up the reporting for TrueView video ads in Google Analytics. Advertisers manage YouTube TrueView ads through AdWords for Video. Rolling out over the next few days, the new Video Campaigns report will be found under the AdWords section in the Acquisition menu in Analytics. The report includes TrueView-specific metrics like Paid Views, […]
• Key Data From Pew’s “State Of News Media” Report
  The Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project has released its 11th State of the News Media report. A comprehensive “document,” it covers TV, newspapers, magazines, radio and digital. I won’t try to summarize the full sweep of this “best of times, worst of times” report. However, below I’ve excerpted a few key findings and charts that provide […]
• Toppling Yahoo, Google Back On Top Of comScore Top 50
  After several months that saw Yahoo atop comScore’s top 50 US desktop rankings, Google has reclaimed the number one position. That’s according to comScore’s February’s traffic/reach rankings. Yahoo and Microsoft are two and three, respectively; Facebook is number four. If Tumblr traffic were included in Yahoo’s total, however, the site would still have the greatest US desktop […]
• “Real Time” in Display Advertising Doesn’t Really Mean Real Time
  A lot of nonsense is spoken today regarding “real-time marketing” and “real-time bidding,” yet most of what is actually being bought isn’t really “real time” at all, and marketers need to know why that’s a problem. With the rise of the media exchanges came the separation of the media (the “where” to target) from the […]
• Instagram Surpasses 200 Million Users & 20 Billion Photos
  It appears that Instagram and their hefty one billion dollar price tag was one of the most valuable Facebook acquisitions over the past two years. The photo sharing network has officially topped 200 million users who have posted 20 billion photos to date. While Facebook has taken some slack recently for their perception in the […]
• Google’s Got Glass, Facebook Has Oculus, How Might AOL and Yahoo Respond?
  In the wake of the $2 billion Oculus acquisition announcement by Facebook people on Twitter are expressing their opinions of the deal and speculating about potential copycat acquisitions by Yahoo and AOL. BREAKING: Yahoo buys ViewMaster pic.twitter.com/dbMtDq6rTd — Evan Kirstel (@evankirstel) March 25, 2014 AOL is embracing 3D Virtual Reality too, it seems! pic.twitter.com/YTidIYe5qg — Scott […]
• Instagram Experiment Dumps Foursquare for Location Tagging & Ties In Facebook Places Instead
  It’s now been nearly two years since Facebook purchased Instagram for a mere one billion dollars. Before the initial purchase (and in today’s current iteration of the app) users input their location of an Instagram photo by tagging the location from information pulled in by Foursquare. According to Fast Company, Facebook is now testing the […]
• Facebook Buys Virtual Reality “Platform Of Tomorrow” Oculus For $2 Billion In Cash And Stock
  Facebook has just acquired “the platform of tomorrow.” The company announced this afternoon that it was acquiring Oculus — the company behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) gaming headset and platform — for $2 billion in cash and stock: Facebook today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Oculus VR, Inc., the […]

Recent Headlines From Search Engine Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Search News & Information:

• How A Single Guest Post May Have Gotten An Entire Site Penalized By Google
• Bing Ads Launches Product Ads In U.S., Mobile Version Now In Beta
• New AdWords For Video Reporting Now Rolling Out In Google Analytics
• Link-Building Webcast This Thursday
• Google Says Don’t Delete Your Disavow File Prior To Uploading A New One
• Why “Barnacle SEO” Is Making A Big Comeback In Local

Online Marketing News From Around The Web:

Affiliate Marketing

• Affiliate Marketing: 3 Legal Issues to Monitor in 2014, Practical Ecommerce
• Digital Dilemmas: affiliate marketing, www.marketingmagazine.co.uk

Analytics

• 7+ Under-Utilized Google Analytics Reports for Conversion Insights, ConversionXL
• Automate GTM’s Lookup Table Macro from a Spreadsheet, Luna Metrics
• How One Startup Uses Carrier Data For Real-World Analytics, streetfightmag.com
• The Benefits of Google Tag Manager, Overit
• Use the Data Validation feature for Clean, Detailed Client Reports, 3qdigital.com

Blogs & Blogging

• 39 Blogging Tips From the Pros, Social Media Examiner
• 73+ Pivotal Blogging Shortcuts, Tools and Tips for 2014, www.blogtyrant.com
• The Big Mistake Most Bloggers Make and 5 Tips on How to Fix It, www.jeffbullas.com
• The guest post trap (which can destroy your web site), www.damniwish.com
• The Real Reason Copyblogger Should be Commended for Turning Off Blog Comments, The Sales Lion
• The Top 10 Reasons Why Marketers Should Forsake Top-10 Lists, Ad Age
• Web Sites – Engage Customers via the Blogosphere With Sponsored Posts and Giveaways, MarketingProfs

Business Issues

• Acxiom CEO: Rockefeller Bill Worse Than Worst Part of ACA, Ad Age
• AOL Aims To Unify Its Programmatic Efforts With A New Ad Platform, ONE, TechCrunch
• Challenging the access ban in Turkey, Official Twitter Blog
• Facebook and Oculus Rift: game developers react, The Guardian
• French consumer group: Google, Facebook privacy policies are too hard to read, PC World
• Judge dismisses Ceglia lawsuit over ownership of Facebook, CNET
• TubeMogul Files S-1, Seeks To Raise $75M In IPO, Ad Exchanger

Content Marketing

• Content Marketing: it’s All About Targeting, wiep.net
• Content Promotion: How to Amplify Content & Build Your Brand, www.wordstream.com
• Examining the Product Life Cycle to Become Better Content Marketers, Convince and Convert
• The Science of Great Digital Content Ideas, moz.com
• Why Content Marketers Need to Stop Chasing Pageviews, Contently

Conversion Optimization

• Most People Won’t Actually Read Your Landing Page – How to Get Your Message Across Anyway, KISS Metrics

Copywriting, Design & Usability

• Performance Tuning: 4 Things that Make or Break Usability, Crazy Egg
• Usability Tip: One Main Call-to-Action Item Per Task, uxmag.com

Domaining

• Cheers! .Wine and .Vin domains ready to be bottled, Domain Name Wire
• End user sales report: People still want the matching .com, Domain Name Wire
• Valuing a Domain Name, DomainInvesting.com

Ecommerce

• B-to-B Ecommerce: How to Implement, Improve, Practical Ecommerce

Email Marketing

• Email Marketing Essentials: A Checklist for Writing Emails That Get Opened, Online Marketing Blog
• Four Tips for Better Video Emails, Movable Ink
• Gmail Turns the Inbox into a Visual Feast – What Marketers Need to Know, blog.returnpath.com
• Kill Screen’s Exclusive and Informative Emails, blog.mailchimp.com

General Internet Marketing

• How social media + email drives sales, myemma.com
• The Worst Marketing Campaigns of 2013: Why They Failed, www.revenews.com

Internet Marketing Industry

• ReactX Introduces Advanced Capabilities for Brands to Create and Deploy High Impact, Custom Premium Advertising via Real Time Bidding, home.reactx.com
• The Shifting Line Between Free and Paid Local Marketing Services, streetfightmag.com

Mobile/Local Marketing

• How Amazon is driving sales via mobile services for third-party sellers, www.mobilecommercedaily.com

Other Items

• The Million Dollar Homepage still exists, but 22% of it has rotted away, qz.com
• U.S. Withdraws from ICANN: Why It’s No Big Deal, www.newrepublic.com

Reputation Management

• Five ways to handle negative online reviews, eConsultancy

Social Media

• Brands Respond To Customer Support Enquiries 8 Times Faster On Twitter Than On Email [STUDY], Media Bistro
• Facebook Pages Without Direct Message Button Get 5X More Wall Posts, Social Bakers
• How Social Media Can Ruin Your Brand: 5 Ways to Keep it Safe, blogs.constantcontact.com
• How to discover social media influencers, www.razorsocial.com
• People Mag Allowing Celebs to Publish Directly to People.com, Ad Age
• Social Media WIN (for a change), Avalaunch Media
• The Business Benefits Of Pinterest, Koozai
• The Social Media Automation Strategy Every Marketer Needs, blog.bufferapp.com
• Twitter Recovered Most Of The Tweets That Vanished, Including Ellen’s Oscar Selfie, TechCrunch
• What do we get out of brands interacting with each other on Twitter?, eConsultancy