What We Are Reading

What We’re Reading | Week of January 2, 2012

January 4, 2012 | Posted by FSC Interactive

Ashley: As an online marketer, I understand the incredible value found in the creation and output of original content. Social media is a great way to cultivate a relationship with your customer base, but when it’s time to go beyond the 140 character limit, blogs are the perfect way to reach your customer base at a deeper level. Whether you’re just starting out in the blogosphere, or you’re a seasoned pro, these 6 tips for building a high quality blog following can really help you out.

Adele:When it comes to paid search, so many people only measure the online effects, but studies show that your online efforts have a greater impact on dollars generated in your bricks and mortar shop. How big an effect? According to “Paid Search Drives Offline Sales, Compensation Model Broken” recently published by MediaPost, “for every $1 of ecommerce revenue generated from paid-search ads, marketers gained approximately another $6 of in-store revenue.” And that’s just the half of it. With even more data to attest to the influence of your online marketing push to drive dollars to your storefront, but tracking these click to IRL purchases is another story. Retailers also estimated anywhere between 9% to 26% of in-store sales to their online PPC efforts. Let this be a lesson to those that are only looking at online conversions – keep your eye on the overall bottom-line, it seems some people are just looking for the closest place to make their purchase.

Andy: Social Networking: A Key Role in 2012 Election. I didn’t watch the Iowa Caucus on Tuesday night. Instead, I followed what people were saying about it on Twitter. Though I certainly spent more time laughing at the jokes, snide comments and down-right offensive remarks about the candidates than I actually did learning anything new about their stance on any kind of issue, I do feel as though I have a better understanding of who I’d consider voting for. Isn’t that strange? Strange that I, a person who did not actually watch the caucus and has only the most basic understanding of each candidates stance and the hot topic issues, now feel as though I have a better understanding of each candidate because of what people were saying on Twitter for better or worse? Hm. Looks like those candidates are going to need to get someone on their campaign staff manning a Twitter account pretty quickly.

Brooke: “Watch it bring you to your knees, knees.” I couldn’t help but channel the Guns N’ Roses song, “Welcome to the Jungle,” when reading my article this week: Social media have companies quaking. Grocery chain, Wegmans apparently planned to cancel commercials featuring its popular and controversial spokesperson, Alex Baldwin, but to no avail. Thanks to a lot of angry birds, well, Tweeters, who couldn’t stand to see Mr. Baldwin go. The company has now offered a public apology and plans to re-air the ads. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this however. Twitter has provided the perfect platform to combat Bank of America’s ridiculous “debit charge fee” and Verizon Wireless reversed a decision to charge a “convenience fee” for credit- and debit-card bill paying because of the outrage on social media. My mom is one of those “letter writers,” who always voices their opinion about a product or service via snail mail to the company. I guess I can more easily follow in her footsteps now with Facebook and Twitter.

Kristin: Is Google+ Personalization ‘Breaking Search’? As Google is altering search results to accommodate the new mission of social search

personalization, some search engine watchdogs are concerned that search results may become less dependable and consistent. Google’s premise is that personalization enhances the organization and context of web content. But the author of this article poses that the missions of social and search might be mutually defeating. Only time will tell…

Tiffany: “If we no longer have to remember stuff we can just look up online, what will we use our memory for?”Interesting question posed by MediaPost contributor Gord Hotchkiss.I don’t have to remember birthdays (Thanks, Facebook!) or meetings (Kudos, Calendar!) anymore and I can basically Google whatever stat or fact I need. Is this leaving more space for other information, useful or not? Or will our memories begin to atrophy? Noelle: Have you made the switch to the new Facebook Timeline? It definitely takes some time to get used to but in no time, I think you’ll be a huge fan. To get you even more excited about the new look, check out these 5 tools for killer cover photos!

Burke: – What Happened in 2011 and Predictions for 2012. Did you know that clicks influence search rankings? It was proven in 2011. And although Mobile did affect search a little in 2011, it will be even more in 2012. Go to SEOMOZ to find out what else they predict for 2012.

FSC Interactive
FSC Interactive is an Internet marketing firm based in New Orleans. We Integrate social media, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing and content creation into our clients' overall marketing strategies.