This year we have witnessed some phenomenal changes and advances in our industry. Almost every day, there has been some form of development or story which affects online marketers making it one of the most fast paced and compelling industries in the world. Below is a list of what we think are the most significant stories and changes in search engine marketing, social media and digital marketing as a whole, in 2011.

Google

The search giants have undoubtedly solidified their dominance out of the search engines. Globally, Google accounts for an astounding 85% of all searches, which has remained relatively unchanged over the year. They have had uncountable updates and changes to their search engine, from the altered SERPs interfaces to crawlers, and recently their analytics data. Most Google products have seen multiple improvements and updates over the year, from simple street-finder improvements to the introduction of facial/ picture recognition on image search! Panda The notorious Panda updates (8 in all) have been somewhat of a touchy subject of 2011, having caused distress and turmoil with webmasters across all industries. At the times when Google announce the Panda updates, whole groups of sites seemingly drop off the rankings, undoing months of SEO strategy. Google have insisted that all the updates (including panda) are to improve the users search results. It has been the introduction of new products and services from Google that has really caught our attention in 2011. Google have launched new initiatives and sites including the hotel finder, upsetting many who see Google as monopolising the internet. Android Arguably its biggest success story of 2011 has been the Android, its mobile operating system, which now holds 52.5% of the global market share. Google+ This summer saw the gradual roll-out of the fastest ever growing social media site Google+. It was reported as having up to 10 million users within the first 24 hours or launch.  Since then we have kept an eye on the developments of the social network that was set to “kill Facebook”. It is arguably difficult to see where the platform is positioned against its competition, although there seems to a lot of interest surrounding its future and the significance of the +1 feature. In the latter part of the year, Google also retired a list of products in a clean-up operation.

Social Media

Other than the launch of Google+ we have also seen key developments in other aspects of social media in 2011. More and more brands have adopted social media marketing into their online and campaign strategies. Advertisers have utilised this relatively new interactive medium, and some of the results have been spectacular. Twitter In January, Twitter announced it was taking a “hands off” approach, lifting all censorship on political and controversial content. The site has since become almost a primary source of breaking news and celebrity gossip. In June, Twitter reached 200 million registered users, and continues to grow despite fierce competition. Facebook The nets largest social media site and second most visited domain has been in a continuous spotlight over the year. From being partially blamed for acting as a platform for planned rioting in London, to being acclaimed as being the communication tool for uprisings and revolutions in North Africa, Facebook has evolved from being a social network into a global hub of opinion and influence. In September, precisely one month before the world population reached 7 billion, Facebook reached 800 million users.

Mobile

2011 has undeniably been the year of mobile smartphones. Through developing countries and improving technologies, the smart-phone industry has exploded over the year with sales of the devices up nearly 50% on 2010. In a time where convenience, speed and flexibility are key, mobile online users have enjoyed more optimised services specific to their devices.  This has led to the increased importance of mobile marketing and reaching users on the go. As the market has grown, the competition within it has intensified. Users have benefited from some of the most incredible advances in mobile technology. Have a look at the infographic below to see just far smartphone usage has come:

Smartphone Mobile App Usage by[x]cubeLABS

Keeping abreast of the news and using it to optimise our own performance has been educational as well as an enjoyable challenge, ensuring our clients get the best possible service available. If you feel there have been any other significant stories, please feel free to comment below!

In the past couple of months Mediarun has been heavily immersed with international digital marketing. After having organised an event in the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and attending various other events organised by the likes of IMRG or Transperfect, I have come across various misconceptions regarding international digital marketing and multilingual SEO that I would like to share my thoughts on. The Traditional Export Misconception: A common misconception for companies is to assume that the markets they have done well exporting to traditionally are good targets for their online marketing strategies. Firstly it is important to understand that the UK is arguably one of the most sophisticated e-retail markets in the world, with highly active online consumers across all age profiles as well as one of the highest annual spend per capita (€ 1,300/y). This is not necessarily the case for other countries that have traditionally been lucrative export targets and have proven to have a large “high street” demand as they might not have evolved accordingly in the digital space. When researching international digital markets, it is imperative to understand the target country’s online connectivity, smart phone adoption and online spend to be able to measure the size of the opportunity and make educated investments or budget allocations. For example, a British brand that traditionally has done very well exporting to the Italian market but not as well to the Swedish markets might assume it should spend larger budgets in the Italian digital strategy.  However if you look in to the online statistics you will see how Italy’s connectivity levels are 50% lower than the British and that their average annual online spend per capita is one of the lowest in Europe (€ 400/annum). On the other hand Sweedish connectivity levels are higher than the British and their internet spend per capita one of the highest in the world (€ 1,100/annum). Sweden suddenly becomes a much more attractive market for the online strategy. Additionally national search trends have to be taken in to consideration before making any conclusions, which brings me to my next point. The Translation Misconception: Surprisingly one of the most common misconceptions I have come across is the idea that if a website is ranking well in a specific language, a like for like translation should get good SEO results for the translated language. Unfortunately it is slightly more complicated than a simple translation; cultural idiosyncrasies are potentially the wild card that makes this process much more complex. Prior to engaging in the actual translation the most important part of the strategy should be to identify “the critical path” of your target market, this will tell you what areas of the website actually need to be translated. By identifying what the target market requires you can avoid translating the whole website and considerably reduce translation costs further down the line. This can be particularly beneficial for the larger e-commerce websites were ongoing translations are a common requirement and can amount to a surprisingly large part of the marketing budget. The critical path has to be identified by traditional market knowledge as well as keyword research that will identify cultural digital trends that might be surprisingly different to what you would expect. Ultimately the objective is to identifying how do different cultures and countries actually refer to your product/service and more importantly what keywords do they actually type when searching for them. In the example below we can see the differences in how Spaniards and Brits search for a holiday destination like the island of Ibiza. Highlighted in green we can see the search terms that are common for both countries;  “cheap hotels Ibiza”  “flights to Ibiza” which have exact equivalents in Spanish “hotels baratos ibiza” and “vuelos Ibiza”. However these are not the most popular search terms for either country; while Brits seem to me more interested in the complete package “holidays in Ibiza” Spaniards who potentially are more familiar with this holiday destination are more interested in the actual accommodation to the extent of searching for apartments and nearby more secluded islands like “Formentera”. The Buying Habit Misconception: Last but not least, what a lot of companies fail to identify in their international marketing strategies,  is the buying behaviour of different countries. Even though it may be well integrated to other marketing channels a lot of companies fail to apply the same logic online. In some cases were differences are identified the misconception is to believe that the job can be done by grouping countries in to areas (north vs south) or categories (Mediterranean vs Scandinavian) and applying a common seasonality rule without taking in to consideration individual differentiators. Some main seasonality factors that have to be taken in to consideration are things like working hours, national holidays or search trends that may not be that obvious or explainable. For example, it is a well known fact that northern European countries typically have lunch much earlier and quicker than their Mediterranean neighbours who would rather take a long break out of the office rather than eat a quick sandwich in front of their computers, consequently creating two distinct daily search trends.   Differences in traditional holidays can have a big impact in online traffic as well; in the UK and most other European countries online Christmas shopping happens before Christmas day on the 25^th of December, while in a country like Spain that celebrate Kings Day on the 6^th of January the shopping peak is delayed by a few weeks. Similarly some countries celebrate Halloween in October while some others celebrate Carnival in February or have   different dates for mothers and fathers day. In some cases differences in buying behaviour are less obvious. Referring back to a previous example on the differences in how Spanish and British search for “hotels in Ibiza”  the graphs below show main differences that may not have a logical explanation apart from Spaniards leaving their holiday bookings to the last minute. There are many more things to consider when developing international online marketing strategies, but these are three most common areas I found businesses struggling with. To this I would add that although e-commerce has been around since the early 90’s, it is only recently that we have seen an explosion in international digital marketing. The rules of the game are far from being written in stone there is still a lot to learn, making this space much more exiting.

For those of you who are not familiar with the event, “El Clasico” is the nickname given to one of the biggest football matches in the world: Real Madrid v FC Barcelona. The two will clash Saturday night at Real Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabéu for their first match of the season. The event sees us football enthusiasts/online marketers hunting for historical stats to back our theories of who will win this year.

The reality is that Real Madrid have faced FC Barcelona in 215 official matches. Real Madrid has so far won 86 times, while the Catalan team have emerged victorious on 84 occasions. At home in the Bernabeau, Madrid has faced Barcelona 85 times, with 45 victories, 19 defeats and 21 draws making them statistically, marginally the best team… I am sure many Barcelona supporters will disagree.

In the battle of statistics to prove who is the better team I came across a very interesting article in the sports magazine, Sport. The article takes the argument to the social media arena by measuring the two teams’ popularity and makes some interesting points that I feel can equally apply to any company’s social strategy.

Amongst some of the more interesting conclusions the article highlights the following:

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Madrid) is the football player with the biggest following (40 million fans on Facebook and Twitter) although Leo Messi (Barcelona) with half the followers is 4 times more spoken about.

2. Real Madrid, as a team again is the most followed but is not the best spoken about with only 45% of its comments being positive rivalled by Barcelona’s 64%. This might reflect the negative media that both Cristiano Ronaldo and trainer Jose Mourinho seem to attract.

3. Although not leader in terms of followers Barcelona’s Cesc Fabregas is one of the players that best manages his personal social reputation with one of the highest engagement levels in up to three languages: Spanish, English and Catalan.

In my opinion this research highlights a few truths of social media. First, it’s not always about the number of followers but the engagement and how this can positively be steered to communicate and improve a brand’s reputation. Second, social media is becoming increasingly a more important tool and asset for a brand to communicate and engage with its customers. In football when a club is thinking of signing up a player it will consider how the player can contribute to the team winning trophies but will also asses how many shirts and tickets the individual can sell. I wonder if in the very near future when clubs look in to signing players their social media profiles will be viewed as an asset the team can exploit to build their own reputation and therefore quantified monetarily. Furthermore I wonder how long this will take to translate to the rest of the business environment.

Google Maths

This week Google launched new graphing results on their search engine. By simply typing in a mathematic function into search, Google will provide the graph as an image in the first result. Mathematicians are now able to zoom in and out on the image and pan across the plane to explore the detail of the function. The tool allows users to draw multiple functions, which is done by simply separating them with commas. This feature is available globally and in all modern browsers.

Minnie’s Verdict

Surprised grunt/ puff It is another impressive feature to add to Google’s collection, always looking forward to seeing what they’re going to come up with next. This way they guarantee loyal visits from A-Level maths students.

Google in the EU’s Firing Line

Within the next few weeks Google should be receiving a 400 page document containing allegations of “abuse of dominance” from the European Commission. This document will be a result of an investigation into Google that the EU started a month ago. The investigation into the search giant stems from a complaint made by search engines Foundem, eJustice and Ciao!. Google should attempt to settle the dispute as the fine imposed by the EC could be as much as 10% of Google’s annual turnover. That and Google are in the process of a take-over of Motorola, which could possibly be hindered by such legal proceedings.

Minnie’s Verdict

Grrrrrrrrr… If Google are hit with a fine (a considerable one at that) it could be incredibly damaging for the brand and business. Executive Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt has flown to Europe on a so-called “courtesy visit”. We can only imagine this is as a move to calm the situation as well as ensure the take-over of Motorola runs smoothly. This story adds to the ever growing pressure on Google, that have been coming under increasing scrutiny surrounding their growing dominance over the internet. We will watch developments closely.

How Social Media Has Changed the Advertising Industry [Infographic]

There is no denying it, Social Media has become one of the most significant areas in marketing, specifically in online strategies. Campaigns have developed to become more creative and innovative, meaning advertisers are now working harder than ever to maximise their affectivity in this area. Results show that users are spending more of their time (and money) on social media sites. Below is an infographic created by MDG Advertising, which shows how and why marketers have had to adopt social media strategy to survive.

Advertise on Your Blog!

The world’s most wide-spread, open sourced, content management system, WordPress, have announced brand new advertising programme WordAds, as a way for bloggers to monetize their blog. The new programme has been launched as an alternative to Google AdSense, which has long gone out of fashion for bloggers. As a way of ensuring that WordAds remains a viable advertising tool and preventing spam, only quality bloggers will be able to utilise the programme. Bloggers will be vetted based on quality of content, traffic, engagement and the requirement that they have a custom domain. If you have a blog you can now register with WordAds, which is the result of the recently announced partnership between Federated Media and Automattic.

Minnie Verdict

Jumping up, barking, excited, and nowhere near time for walkies! This is great news. Bloggers and marketers can now segment and target their content more specifically. Users will benefit because it means that bloggers will have to ensure their content is better written and topic specific. It’s also provides competition to Google, which is healthy for the online market and means that maybe, just maybe, they’ll make some sort of improvement to AdSense, which has long fallen out of fashion. We cannot wait to have a play, and will keep you informed of our findings.

The New Google Bar

Google has updated its user and profile services… again! This time they have announced the change in the Google bar (runs across the top of the screen when using any Google product). There are some notable changes you should be able to see (as and when the update is rolled out in your region):

• The new grey bar has replaced the (recently added) black bar
• The Google logo on the left acts as a drop down box to other Google products.
• The search box in the centre of the bar will act as a search engine for the product you are using.
• The right side of the bar is where you can administer your Google+ account, i.e. sign in/out or switch accounts and check for account updates.

You will also have the ability to share whatever you are looking at with different circles using the new Google+ area.

Minnie’s Verdict

Grunt, tail-wagging, long groan. This is quite a predictable update by Google, but is a smart one none-the-less. It is obvious that one benefit of Google+ is that it encourages users to stay on Google products. Now it should be easier for a user to navigate between products without even looking at the address bar. The Google+ share feature also acts like a social plug in for any site you go on, and increases the likeliness of users to share through Google+ rather than its competitors. This feature has yet to be rolled out in the UK, but if there is anything worth reporting on we will keep you updated!

Bing – Top Searches 2011

This week, Bing released their users top searches throughout this last year. The results provide an insight into interests of users and search habits. The post on the Bing blog shows how popular search terms have changed from last year’s results. Aside from the whimsical celebrity search results, Bing also pointed out a few behavioural changes that highlight the mood of users; searches for “bankruptcy” and “selling your home” were among the highest financially related search terms. However most of it does focus on popular figures and TV shows. The search engine (when coupled with Yahoo) holds about 10% of the global market share for conducted searches, so these show a fair representation of user search behaviour.

Minnie’s Verdict

Sat up,  ears pricked. It is always important to monitor and understand user behaviour. Researches can use this data (even the celebrity related searches) in analysing how public opinion and broadcast media affect search. It also is a good way of gaging public opinion and finding out whether your product or campaign is affective. For example, here are the top ten most searched consumer electronics:

1. Xbox
2. Kindle
3. Playstation
4. iPhone 5
5. iPad
6. Wii
7. iPad 2
8. Nook
9. Windows Phone 7
10. Macbook Pro

This is great news for Microsoft as the Xbox is more widely searched than its closest competitor Sony Playstation. However, Apple products make up 4 of the top 10 results (including a product which hasn’t even been released yet, the iPhone 5).

Indoor Maps from Google

Google have announced the ability for Android users to see indoor mapping in selected shopping centres, stores and airports. This addition to the “My Location” feature on Google Maps was rolled out in the US and Japan this week! Users can now use the app to help find what they’re looking for and locate exactly where they are by the familiar Google Maps blue dot. Users will have access to detailed floor plans which is provided and will be updated by the stores themselves. Have a look at this demonstration of someone making their way through popular furniture store, IKEA. [tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT0KMsfD4d8, 500, 290[/tube]

Minnie’s Verdict

Jumped up on the chair, ran around for a bit, now lying down… it’s been a good week! This is a really good initiative by Google. It means shoppers can locate to exactly what they are looking for without getting lost in large department stores, as well as find their way easily to the toilet! Bing has a similar product, “Venue Maps” but simply acts as a fixed map. With this new feature you can affectively us SatNav in a store. Google are yet to announce whether there will be an Apple app developed, but we have a feeling they may hold onto this as a competitive advantage for Androids. We can’t wait for it to be rolled out in the UK!