What is Marketing?
Marketing is the promoting and selling of products or services for your business. Most businesses will have someone working for them who targets the marketing side of the business and promotes your company and the products/services that you offer. The aim of marketing is to make yourself known to as many people as possible, let them know who you are, what you do and what you can do for them.
If you’ve been watching TV, reading Twitter or viewing the latest videos on YouTube, it’s hard not to be bombarded with advertising about tablets this Christmas. Which one deserves to be bought though?
On paper, there appears to be little to chose from. It all seems to depend on what mobile operating system you prefer and how much you wish to spend.
There’s no doubt about the fact that we are living in the digital age with social media playing a huge part in people’s every day lives. Every little trend and issue is broadcast over a number of social media platforms with twitter especially playing an essential role in connecting people from all around the world.
This was furthered this week when the US presidential election trended worldwide with people everywhere in the world letting their thoughts and opinions be known across the web.
He’s done it. Obama is still President of the United States and making the coolest speeches known to man. Barack Obama also has been awarded another title today, his Twitter account is home to the most popular tweet ever.
At the time of writing, over 560,000 people have retweeted @BarackObama tweet which simply read “Four more years.” along with a picture of the President with the First Lady Michelle Obama
As the latest video epidemic hits the web going viral with over 2,271,865 hits in 24 hours of it’s release, what else would I be writing my blog about. I couldn’t help but grin for the 4 minute duration of the new flight safety video from New Zealand Airways. A light hearted spin on the traditional, and lets face it rather boring flight introduction video that celebrates the upcoming The Hobbit cinema release that has followed every trick in the ‘Viral Success Bible’. I found myself laughing and marvelling in the perfect production that was always going to be an online success due to it’s amazing sharable content.
One of the biggest problems that a company can face is predicting what will happen in the future in regards to online presence. There are natural peaks and troughs throughout the financial year in any industry as demand for product and services change due to the nature of season i.e Christmas in retail, the first quarter of the year for the property market.
American Apparel has faced a backlash over its latest email campaign enticing east coast Americans to its stores during Hurricane Sandy. People have taken to Twitter to let the company know exactly how they feel about it.
Whilst most of the world has been worried about loved ones over on the east coast of the United States, American Apparel has offered 20% off to shoppers “in case they were bored of the storm” via email. It’s a classic misstep in judging public perception during a very sensitive time.
There has been a revolution recently in online marketing and Google has been the driving force, with their numerous algorithm updates: Panda; Penguin and Top Heavy. Ironically, in an attempt to improve the quality of search results, Google have accelerated the importance of building an online brand and somewhat lessened the need to be found for keywords.
SEO is a dying practice and this, in my opinion, is the best thing to ever happen to online marketing. Why?
Some locations lend themselves to the perfect career path, for instance if you happen to live in the Shetlands and love fishing then happy days, similarly if you’re into mountain climbing, etc then living next to Snowdon is for you. The same is true with social media, believe it or not living in a big city is a huge advantage.
One of the benefits of doing social media in Manchester is that you can tap into the zeitgeist of todays modern culture. The same is true if you live in London or Liverpool as well.
Analysing thousands of websites develops your mind and you start to see campaigns and industries less as numbers (competitiveness, links, keyword reach and social) and more as illustrations. These illustrations have become clearer still since we produce industry reports.
I have developed a few examples of how I see a industry online.
Each circle in these examples shows the respective size of a website influenced by links, keyword reach and social. The center is the epicenter of the industry, being closer to the center shows that you are progressing well and becoming very influential in the industry.