Twitter Ad Revenue to Approach $1 Billion by 2014, Fueled by Mobile

If you have not recognized Twitter as an legitimate avenue of advertising think again.

Twitter's global ad revenue will catapult from $582.8 million this year to $950 million next year, according to new projections from the market research firm eMarketer on Wednesday, which cited the strength of Twitter's mobile presence in revising its earlier projections upward by a combined $180.1 million.

Twitter rules the mobile radio waves and I getting even more mobile ad friendly. “Mobile has pushed Twitter beyond previous expectations," Clark Fredricksen, eMarketer's VP-communications, said. "Ultimately, that's a result of steps it took very early to make sure its ad products work well across all platforms."

Just more than than half of Twitter's ad revenue, 53%, comes from mobile today, according to eMarketer. But that proportion will increase to more than 60% by 2015, when the researcher estimates that Twitter will collect more $1.3 billion in ad revenue.

The company's worldwide mobile ad revenue will jump to $811 million in 2015 from $551 million next year and $308.9 million this year, according to eMarketer's new projections. Just last December, eMarketer forecast that Twitter would get U.S. mobile ad revenue of $248.9 million this year. Now it's predicting $266 million in the U.S. for 2013.

Twitter will also likely lag further behind Google and Facebook for global mobile revenue, because Google and Facebook have a far wider global reach. Twitter gets 83% of its ad revenue from the U.S.

Get Facebook makes Ad Targeting in User News Feeds

@Prism_Social News Network March 28th 2013 : get ready for a whole new world of suggestions while you are wasting your companies time on Facebook. Coz they are monetizing all the time that you will spend on Facebook. Starting today, Facebook will start placing ads purchased through its ad exchange, FBX, in the newsfeeds of users, including retargeted ads from the likes of Zappos, Zipcar, Bonobos and many others as it ramps up advertising in its prime real estate. The move will give exchange-purchased ads more visibility, and theoretically boost prices across FBX by making the bidding more competitive. Facebook's exchange allows advertisers to match their own data to Facebook inventory, allowing many types of behaviorally-targeted ads, including retargeting, which is the leading way e-commerce sites make a sale after a shopper has left their online storefront behind.

Behaviorally-targeted FBX ads had formerly only been available on the less conspicuous right-hand rail of Facebook pages, but now advertisers and agencies can buy ads that will show up in users' news feeds via demand-side platforms. (Just three of FBX's 15-plus partners -- TellApart, MediaMath and Nanigans -- have the capability as of today.)

The ads don't include social context from a user's friends, since for privacy reasons FBX is fenced off from Facebook's user data and targeted purely based on users' browsing activity off of the social network.

They also won't show up on mobile devices just yet, but Facebook hinted that's coming, too. Facebook hasn't revealed how lucrative FBX has been since it officially launched in September, but chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg did offer up some nuggets about advertiser adoption during the company's most recent earnings call in January. She said then that FBX was serving a billion impressions and 1,300 advertisers per day. Including more coveted and visible ad real estate could be a means of raising FBX prices, which have been relatively low. In the latter half of 2012, the average CPM -- or cost-per-thousand impressions -- on FBX was 82% lower than for traditional web retargeting. "More demand will always make the auction more competitive," said Lovetto Nazareth Managing Director  of Prism Digital.FBX ads were being brought to desktop news feeds first (ahead of mobile) because it's a natural migration from the desktop right rail, but also because advertisers' goal in real-time bidding is typically to send people back to a desktop site they've recently visited.

Since they're targeted based on a user's web history, FBX ads are in the domain of the online ad industry's self-regulatory program, which stipulates that behaviorally-targeted ads should disclose their origins and give users an opt-out from tracking. Facebook began complying with the program in February when it developed a way for users to see where right-rail ads came from by clicking on a drop-down menu in the ad. (It's not meeting the same bar as other publishers, however, since the program's "AdChoices" icon isn't currently being delivered in the ad creative itself.) In the same vein as on the right rail, news feed FBX ads will show the AdChoices icon when users click on a drop-down menu to learn more about the post.

Are QR codes really dead and what impact they have in the middle east

@prism_ Social : Thursday, March 28, 2013 : I was an early proponent of QR Codes, but now I have to admit that they are history. Invisible ink and augmented-reality apps are replacing the clunky codes. The new technology is superior in that you don't have to take a picture of the code, which then records your contact information and sends you to a website, video or document, or sends you a text message giving a web address. With the new apps, you just run your smartphone over the content and get the enhanced features immediately. IN the Middle east in 2011 and 2011 QR codes we the hottest things and every body was trying to incorporate them into their marketing campaign.

Here's a sampling of the new technologies that will surely supplant QR Codes, permanently.

As Springwise reports, the Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbu has launched the AR News app, which enables kids to scan specially marked articles with smartphones to reveal more kid-friendly versions of the stories.

The app was developed by Dentsu, which was challenged to make newspapers appealing to younger readers. Articles suitable for children are printed with blue borders. Using AR News app, readers who place tablets or smartphones over those articles will see a simplified Japanese alphabet for those still learning to read, along with animated characters and graphics, pop-up headlines and explanations that make the topics easier for kids to understand.

Blippar is a mobile app that lets users pull information, entertainment, offers and augmented-reality 3D experiences from markers placed on newspapers, magazines, products and posters. No clicks, no delays, no codes, says Crunchbase: just instant gratification.

Another new technology, Touchcode, is an invisible electronic code printed on paper, cardboard, film or labels. When you touch your smartphone or tablet to it, tickets sing, toys come to life, or you can confirm the authenticity of a brand, just to give a few examples. Items imprinted with Touchcode's invisible ink look no different from standard print products, until you touch them with your smartphone.

The QR codes did have some brilliant and successful applications, like the mobile-code campaign for an independent music store in Hong Kong that sold music by allowing users to listen to and buy the tunes of 14 bands, half of which sold out their inventory. But more often, the codes we are deployed  poorly in spots where they couldn't be scanned, like billboards, or -- perhaps lamest ever -- on license plates. Some QR Codes require a proprietary scanner good only for that code, which few people are likely to want to download. And, while many people still have no idea what a QR Code is or how to use one, instructions rarely have been included.

What are the lessons of QR for brands using the new technologies?

1.  Make it easy for consumers to use.
2.  Explain how it works, in clear, concise language.
3.  Employ it only when it can add something unique to the user experience.
4.  Make sure content or ads that contain it won't be put in places where cellphone service is unavailable.
5.  Make the apps available only for situations when using them makes sense.

It will be fascinating to see whether these new technologies are used both creatively and effectively. The potential is vast. Hopefully agencies won't blow it this time around.

How to make your blog mobile friendly?

Before we start here are some important questions 

1. Do you want more mobile subscribers and readers?
2. Is your blog suitable for a mobile device? 

In 2012, mobile users spent 63% more time on their devices accessing mobile websites and apps and this is set to increase. In this article I’ll explore the importance of mobile for your blog and the different options available to you to use. 

Is Mobile Important for Your Blog?

Yes! An increasing number of your readers will access your blog from their mobile devices. Smartphone usage will continue to increase and don’t be surprised if more people access your blog from a mobile device rather than a desktop in the future.

Before you make an investment in this area, it’s useful to check your analytics to find out how many people access your blog from a mobile device.Most analytic programs will provide you with this information.

If you use Google Analytics  under the Audience section, select Mobile > Overview. This screen shows you the amount of traffic that comes from a mobile device. Switch to a pie chart view and you will see the percentage of your site’s traffic that is coming from mobile.

Under Devices, you can see which mobile devices your visitors use. In this example, you can see the iPhone and iPad are the most popular options. Although an iPad has a larger screen size than an iPhone, there are still potential issues viewing your blog through it.

Do your sharing icons work on the mobile device? Can users comment? Is there far too much scrolling to the right required? Generally is most blogs close to 20% of all the traffic comes from a mobile device. Is that something you can ignore?

Check out your site. What percentage of traffic do you get from mobile devices? Has this increased? Is it likely to increase further?

How to Test Your Blog

The best way to test your site is try to view and interact with your blog from a variety of mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy, etc.). Google provides a website called How to Go Mo which helps you test your mobile website for mobile compatibility.

How to make Facebook drive business to your business some startling facts

Facebook is the worlds largest aggregator of social content in the world.

Some startling facts

1.    If Facebook was a country It would be the world third largest populated country.
2.    Over 75% pc of people on Facebook share their like dislikes, wants needs and aspirations to their friends.
3.  1 out of 3 couples in the world because of Social Media.
4.   And 2 out of 3 divorces in 2012 in USA happened because of Facebook and twitter

It is not whether your brand does social media or not … the real question is how well do you manage your social media.

Lets look at this equation:

Say for example you gave each of your 100 friends on Facebook a buy one get one free offer. And asked them to each send these buy one get one vouchers to 100 of their friends.

So within a week each of your 100 friends actually tell each of their 100 friends about their experience and give them the free coupon. So literally within a couple of days your friends could have spread your brand message and the Buy one get one free voucher to over one million people …. You heard it right I said One Million …. 1,000,000 with six zeros !! So in short this is the real power of Facebook. You can use the power of social media and facebook in particular to drive business to you.

Every restaurant and every business out there seems to have a Facebook page but only a few brands actually use Facebook to their beneit to drive business so here are a few golden rules to driving great business to your business via Facebook:

Be Real : you need to know what your customer wants, and give him / her exactly that. Facebook is an excellent way for your brands to make a lot of friends out of customers and evangelists out of friends. But if you don’t communicate message that are REAL and convey your true brand proposition, you could soon be making a lot of enemies. Take a look  at our case study.

Be Original: Your brand is as unique as your fingerprint so every communication you have with your fans needs to be original and unique. Don’t bore them with reused and somebody else’s stuff. It completely boring which brings me to my next point.

Be Fun : your brand proposition needs to have an element of fun. No body like a sour puss and a grumpy person. Similarly your brand need to have an element of fun in it’s communication because people love having fun and when they r having fun they are more likely to accept your sales pitch and but your product.

Engage your audience : You need to engage your fans and give them a cause or a purpose to rally under. If you post about your offers and discounts every day you are going to bore your audience to death, so engage them with topics that they might be interested in even though they might not be really connected to your product.

If all else fails contact Prism …. For a free quote on managing your social media outlets….