CaliberPulse

In this fast-paced world, are you maximizing your “second screen” time by using the most efficient business apps?

We’ve all watched social media become an integral part of PR in recent years and now we are seeing image and video messaging become an integral part of social media.

Today Twitter joined the ranks of fellow social media networks Facebook and LinkedIn when they announced their plans for an advertising Application Programming Interface (API). This step will allow brands to create, optimize and measure Twitter ad campaigns using third-party advertising management providers instead of purchasing individual ads from Twitter and uploading them one at a time. In short it means advertisers will have more control of their Twitter ad campaigns.

Hashtags became a part of everyday lingo for active Twitter users, but now they are popping up in the strangest places. You are likely to find them on your television screen while you are watching your favorite shows, on printed pieces arriving in your mailbox, splashed across other social networks (Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram), and prominently displayed on event banners, billboards, websites, etc. So what is a hashtag and how do you successfully implement this tactic for your brand?

Two recent op-ed pieces featured by Mashable presented opposing opinions on the value of LinkedIn’s relatively new endorsement feature. One article, written by Todd Wasserman, called it “meaningless,” while David Berkowitz’s rebuttal article argued that it is “…one of the best uses of game mechanics online...” So which is true?

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, achieved 1 billion users in September 2012. Why then, would anyone opt out of advertising with a company that has captured the attention of such a large percentage of the world’s population?

More often than not, we are able to understand and present both sides of an argument, allowing our audience to make their own decision about the correct path to follow. There are rare instances when the negatives of a certain topic grossly outweigh any perceived positives, making it difficult to present an unbiased debate. The policy of purchasing Twitter followers, in our opinion, is one such case.

With the continuous rise of technology and digital accessibility, the marketing industry has found itself in the heat of what could be called the ‘Gilded Age,’ for mobile marketing. What can be attributed to the massive increase in mobile ad spending and mobile device use? Accessibility, accessibility, accessibility! Marketers know their audience well. Generation C, those between the ages of 18-34, accounts for 23% of the population, and they thrive on connectivity 24/7. What better way to get your message in the hands of these connected consumers than through the medium that never leaves their hands in the first place?

As we cross the threshold of the eleventh month of 2011, we find ourselves once again in a unique position to reflect on lessons learned in the months behind us and apply them to projections and trends in the year to come. November Caliber Pulse articles will do just that. In this week’s post, we will examine the well-predicted trend of localized marketing.

As we dive into refreshing our strategic toolkit this Autumn, we should consider our automated tools. A new study by Strategy Analytics found that tablet use currently accounts for 20 percent of weekly digital media consumption. It is estimated that 15.1 million tablets were sold during the second quarter of 2011 (18 percent of the total PC market). The study also found that the average user spends 1.5 hours per day browsing content and other communication-based apps, and more than 25 percent of all tablet usage is dedicated to web browsing and email.

Consumers are increasingly using mobile devices to access the internet for deals, product information and social media engagement. Mobile can be defined as any device that can be taken with you–smart phones, tablets and laptops. By 2015 more people will connect online by mobile devices than desktop PCs. Marketing campaigns and tactics targeted to these devices such as texting campaigns, QR codes, apps and mobile internet sites are quickly becoming required tools for businesses. The mobile advertising industry is expected to be worth more than $1.56 billion by 2013.

Nearly 90 percent of U.S. households have access to the Internet. Two-thirds of homes with Internet access have Wi-Fi network. More than half of Americans 12 years and older have a Facebook page. These are just some of the highlights that Arbitron, a radio rating and media research company, and Edison Research released in the results of their recent survey, Navigating Digital Platforms. The survey combines a cross section of previous research spanning thirteen years of inquiries into traditional, new, and digital media preferences and user habits. Here are the three top takeaway trends, discoveries, and significant implications that will affect marketing decisions today and tomorrow.