Study Says Majority Of People’s Attention On Smartphone, TV Just Background Noise March 23, 2014

Study Says Majority Of People’s Attention On Smartphone, TV Just Background Noise

I can completely believe this study. For instance, it’s very common for my wife to be sitting on the couch watching YouTube on her phone, while the TV is on. But she’s not paying attention to the TV. Meanwhile, I’m in the home office and my attention primary on my computer. And from time to time I’ll glance at the TV. Then fast forward through the commercials. Just another piece of evidence confirming that the TV advertising business is on a slow decline. And the internet advertising business is growing.

 

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US Senator Trying to Ban .sucks GTL Domains March 23, 2014

US Senator Trying to Ban .sucks GTL Domains

If you haven’t heard, ICANN, the organization which is in charge of domain related stuff, has been creating what they call generic top level domains. So in other words, you can now buy domain names like customwave.cool or customwave.successful or customwave.online.

However, there’s a few GTL domains that have people wary and one of them is .sucks. Yes, lol as of now, you can buy customwave.sucks. So West Virginia’s senator Jay Rockefeller is out to try and ban it saying that there will be online trolls using the .sucks domains to shake down businesses. Building websites saying ___ company sucks and unless the business pays up, it’s going to remain up.

I think the intention is noble, but the senator won’t be successful in the long run. The internet is not big on censorship and even when it tries to be, there’s too many workarounds.

My best advice is for small businesses to be proactive in protecting their reputations and asking customers to leave positive reviews to combat negative reviews and .sucks websites and others like it.

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I Think People Underestimate How Many People Are On The Internet March 23, 2014

I Think People Underestimate How Many People Are On The Internet

What I’m about to say is more theory on my part than actual fact. I think when people think of reaching an enormous amount of people, they think of TV.

I’m just here to share how many people have been on entertainment related websites in January 2014. Nielsen says that the number is 167 million people in the United States. YouTube alone got a little over 110 million people in that one month with each person averaging 12 visits throughout the month.

Overall, there were 198 million Americans online in January 2014. Average time each person spent online throughout the month? 29 hours and 43 minutes.

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Apps Take Up 90% Of Internet Time On Smartphones, Browsers Take Up 10% On Smartphones March 23, 2014

Apps Take Up 90% Of Internet Time On Smartphones, Browsers Take Up 10% On Smartphones

To me, this report from Nielsen shows that people might know what the internet is. They might know that their cell phones now connect to the internet. They definitely know what Google is. They’ve figured out how to download apps on their cell phone. But this report shows people still aren’t comfortable navigating the internet in the regular mobile browsers. Like using the url aka, address bar.

So what does this mean for marketers and small businesses? With the majority of internet use shifting from regular computers to mobile devices and 90% of these people using apps to navigate the internet on their mobile device, every small business should have their own mobile app. The last thing you should want is for someone wanting to find your phone # or other info on your website, but that user decides not to look it up because you don’t have an app where they can easily access the content.

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YouTube Is Developing A New Version For Kids Under 10 March 19, 2014

YouTube Is Developing A New Version For Kids Under 10

One of the dilemmas parents face letting their kids use YouTube is that they can easily access content that’s not suited for them. YouTube has now come up with the brilliant (no sarcasm) idea to make a separate version of their website for kids 10 years and under. And they would also be encouraging content creators for content that fits the age group. Makes total sense because a lot of parents I know won’t let their kids go on YouTube. Now that could change. We all know that the kids movies make boku bucks at movie theaters. So kids content on YouTube could do just as well. For marketing, it presents a great opportunity to reach this age group on a massive scale.

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Google Finally Unveils “Smart Watches” That Connect To Internet March 19, 2014

Google Finally Unveils “Smart Watches” That Connect To Internet

They’re finally here!! Google finally has unveiled it’s much anticipated “smart watch”. Watches that little display screens that act like mini computers. Even smaller than cell phones! We’ve already seen how much smart phones have taken off. So it’d be a wise assumption that the US consumers will adopt the watches in the same way. So for us marketers, making sure our websites are “smart watch” compatible and show up properly on watches will become a new part of the job description. To me, the more devices there are out there that connect to the internet, the more website traffic and online marketing opportunities there will be : )

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Is Native Advertising Worth The Premium Cost? March 19, 2014

Is Native Advertising Worth The Premium Cost?

For those that have heard of “native advertising”, I’m not convinced of its effectiveness. And I’m not the only one. An ad is an ad is an ad is an ad. And just because you trick someone into reading your ad cause they think its a part of the content on the website they’re reading, doesnt mean that the ad is more valuable than a typical banner ad. I’m not saying native advertising doesn’t work at all. I’m just saying its not worth the premium price publishers are charging for it right now.

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Content Gets You On Google’s 1st Page In Organic Section March 19, 2014

Content Gets You On Google’s 1st Page In Organic Section

The search engine optimization (seo) people are funny. Years ago, I decided to stop being one of the SEO people that look for shortcuts to get on Google organically. I decided that if anyone was going to pay Customwave for SEO, we would focus on content. Because throughout all the years of existence, Google has always and will continue to always reward websites with superior content. But there are still people looking for flaws in Google’s algorithm to give them a shortcut. It’s a teachable moment because i think it says something about society in general. A lot of people would rather spend a whole bunch of money going from temporary shortcut to temporary shortcut having mixed results. Rather than putting out hard work that is tried and true that produces way better results. Usually the most successful people in business are those that work the hardest. Not those that are always looking for ways to work less.

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Marketers Win By Interpreting Change March 19, 2014

Marketers Win By Interpreting Change

Very thought provoking article on marketing: American Express CMO Jon Hayes explains that marketers win not by having best technology or knowing how to talk to consumers the best. He says marketers win when they’re able to best interpret changes in technology to figure out how best to use it. And interpreting changes in society to figure out how to tailor the message to consumers. Like its not about the ads themselves. It’s about figuring out the value of how to use the technology for marketing purposes. And how to custom fit the new process for each individual business. For instance, it’s key to understand with banner ads, the value is not in getting the clicks to produce immediate phone calls. The value is in branding in the area your potential customers are in.

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By End of 2015, Half Of Google’s Search Advertising Money Will Come From Cell Phones March 19, 2014

By End of 2015, Half Of Google’s Search Advertising Money Will Come From Cell Phones

By the end of 2015, half of Google’s search advertising money will come from clicks from smartphones. Soon after that, the majority of their money will come from smartphones. And everyday, I see some small business have a website that doesn’t show up properly on a cell phone. Let me make myself clear: how your website shows up for cell phones is more important than how it shows up on a desktop computer : O

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