Interactive marketers need agencies to keep them ahead of the social marketing curve, reveals a new Forrester research. The interactive marketers have a wide range of responsibilities and multiple agencies help them cover a wide range of services including creative, Web development, search marketing, and social media. Read More
As we get ready to usher in a new marketing era, CMOs are piling more resources behind their social marketing efforts. No wonder then the buzz word during the recent Forbes CMO Summit was social media. Discussions during the summit revealed that marketers now recognize that social marketing affects nearly all forms of digital marketing, and what they need now is an umbrella strategy that covers all of e-mail, advertising, search and Web marketing. Here are some suggestions that emerged out of the summit for devising a comprehensive marketing strategy. Read More.
Social media, content marketing and their integration with novel, open technologies opens channels for direct communications with customers, says Christine Beardsell of Clickz.com. Read more
Despite the economic slowdown, a majority of enterprises continue to invest in Social media – reports a Deloitte Survey. Creating a successful community, getting people to join and stay engaged, and keep returning are the three biggest social media challenges faced by a company. Interestingly, though 94% enterprises are investing in social media and the awareness about social media best practices is profound, yet organizations continue to struggle with harnessing social media’s full potential. Read more.
A new market research has indicated that the synergy of social media and search campaigns can yield results that are a sheer marketing pleasure. The report provides evidence to believe that search campaigns gain a lift of over 19-percentage-points for a product when its paid search advertisements are supported with a mention of brand across social media channels. Read more
Social media is at its all time high with over 17 percent Internet time being spent on social networking and blogging. A report by the Nielsen Company suggests that the time spent on social networking has gone up by 3-times within a year’s time. Jon Gibs, Vice President, Media and Agency Insights, Nielsen’s Online Division feels that though video and text content remain the focal point of the Web experience, the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the growth of social networks. Read the report here.
Microsoft is soon planning to jump the social media band wagon with its Looking Glass. According to a report by Tech Crunch, the product would be able to aggregate feeds from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and other social media sites and connect with CRMs, databases, service centers and more. Empowered by Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, Looking Glass would be a product to watch out for. Read more about it here.
What is Google Sidewiki?
Google Sidewiki is the latest Google offering that can be developed into a potential touch point between marketers and customers. This Google toolbar application enables you to put in helpful information next to any webpage. Google Sidewiki appears as a browser sidebar, where you can read and write entries along the side of the page. Anyone who uses the FREE Google toolbar with Sidewiki enabled can use this application. You can also download this application from the following URL:
http://www.google.com/sidewiki/intl/en/install.html
How Can Marketers Leverage it?
By writing Sidewiki entries that are informative and relevant, marketers can leverage the space for interacting with their customers and prospects. Moreover, since Sidewiki allows visitors to submit their comments, it becomes an excellent platform for promoting a service or products and gaining feedback at the same time! In addition, the Sidewiki space can also be used for guiding visitors about your website, upcoming events/offers, industry trends and much more. Another advantage is that the comments or information that you share vie Sidewiki can be directly promoted through Twitter and Facebook. The way you use Sidewiki would vary with the type of website or blog you have, however, the application certainly presents a unique opportunity for interacting with your audiences directly from your websites.
How Add Google Sidewiki to a Website?
Here are a few simple steps that would guide you through the process of adding Google Sidewiki to your website:
Install the latest Google Toolbar with Google Sidewiki. The tool bar would look something like this:
Visit your website or the web page where you want to run Google Sidewiki.
Ensure that Google Sidewiki is turned on in the Google Toolbar. You then need to log in to your Google account to be able to see the Google Wiki sidebar on the left side of your web browser.After signing in, you will see the name of your site, as well as the field to “Edit your name”. You can modify your display settings or add relevant keywords etc. here if you wish to.
Next, you make an entry about what ever information you wish to share with your audiences and click the Publish button.
The entry can now be seen on your website.
From instigating discussions, to prompting offers, marketers can utilize the Google Sidewiki space in multiple forms to spur interaction with their audiences directly from the website. The application promises not only increased web traffic, but also ensures multi pronged benefits for marketers.
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