iMedia Impact Group

Moms of all ages are using smart phones to shop

May 27, 2011: Mothers across all age categories are about equally likely to use their smartphones for shopping in some form, but mothers under age 45 are more sophisticated in their usage, taking advantage of coupons, doing research and completing purchases, according to mobile ad network Greystripe. Younger mothers were also found to be more open to downloading shopping applications.

Starbucks takes Lady Gaga out to launch social media campaign

May 19, 2011: According to USA Today, Starbucks and Lady Gaga have paired up to promote the provocative singer’s new album through a series of games that capitalize on her significant social media presence. The coffee chain hopes the move will appeal to younger consumers. The promotion launches today with a scavenger hunt challenging fans to follow Lady Gaga’s exploits via Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

Mobile-specific web sites becoming a necessity

May 4, 2011: Most marketers are missing out on revenues because of less-than-optimal mobile sites, according to Google executive Michael Slinger. Media Post News reports that only 21% of Google’s top advertisers in the U.S. have built mobile-specific web sites. This means that most are not ready for the future, the report states, pointing out that Google has seen a 500% increase in mobile search just in the last year.

Mobile payments almost doubled last year in North America

April 22, 2011: North Americans have nearly caught up with Asians in their use of cellphones to make mobile merchandise payments, according to Mopay. Carrier billing in North America has almost doubled in the past year alone, says the company, which handles mobile billing for more than 400 merchants.

Half of all smartphone owners use their units to shop

April 19, 2011: A recent marketing survey has found that fully half of U.S. smartphone users use the device when shopping.

“The imperative for U.S. merchants to get into mobile commerce is growing,” says an article in Internet Retailer which reports the findings of the survey conducted by a branch of the Leo Burnett Agency.

The mobile experience “has completely transformed the way people research and purchase products,” says William Rosen of Arc Worldwide, the unit of Leo Burnett that conducted the survey.

There are 5.1 billion mobile subscribers worldwide

April 1, 2011: There are 1.8 billion Internet users. This compares with more than 5.1 billion mobile phone subscribers. In other words, if you are doing any Internet search marketing but not mobile search marketing, you’re only reaching a fraction of the prospective customers you could be reaching.

Mobile searches jump by more than 500%

January 11, 2011: Google’s mobile searches have grown by more than five times over the past two years, according to the company’s Mobile Ads Blog. The author notes that in the third quarter of 2010, Google mobile searches jumped 130% year over year.

Consumers trust customer reviews

December 10, 2010: A recent online survey of over 2,000 U.S. and U.K. Internet users found that a growing number of people trust customer reviews.

Highlights of the survey by U.K.-based SEO firm BrightLocal:

• 79% of U.S. respondents said they used the internet to find local businesses in the past year.
• 71% of online consumers consulted local business reviews at least occasionally, with 22% saying they do so regularly.
• 55% of U.S. consumers say they trust a local business more after reading positive online reviews.
• 67% say they value online reviews as much as word-of-mouth recommendations.

Google launches ‘Place Search’

October 28, 2010: The visibility of Google Place Pages took a quantum leap forward yesterday as Google formally launched “Place Search”. Now with one click users can convert a general search into an exclusively local search. This new functionality takes Google’s commitment to local search to a whole new level.

As Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land points out, the new function displays “a richer presentation of local results (complete) with images” and a floating map that remains visible as users scroll down the page.

“Place Pages now appear with each listing,” Sterling explains, “which will raise the profile of Place Pages considerably and increase usage accordingly.”

For more info, check out the official Place Search announcement from Google.

Customer review incentives are a no-no with Google

September 10, 2010: Google’s policy on customer reviews: Companies cannot offer customers incentives to post reviews, but they can encourage customers to post reviews.

This means you can tell customers that you’d really appreciate them taking a few minutes to share their experience at a customer review site, but you cannot offer them cash or discounts to do so. –source: SEO expert Matt McGee

Of course, there’s no reason why you couldn’t show your appreciation after the fact: “We really appreciate the nice things you said about us online,” when a review customer returns. “We’re knocking X% off your next invoice.”

Mobile search growing ‘faster than everything else’

September 8, 2010: In his keynote address at a consumer electronics event in Berlin yesterday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt shared a number of remarkable statistics about Google products and services:

• Google’s mobile search traffic grew 50% in the first half of 2010. “It’s growing much quicker than everything else,” says Schmidt.
• 1 in 3 queries from smartphones is now location-specific, i.e., where I am, something around me.
• The mobile web is growing eight times faster than the equivalent desktop web of 10 years ago.
• Android (Google’s operating system for mobile devices) is shipping upwards of 200,000 activations per day now.
• Search traffic from Android-equipped phones tripled in the first half of 2010.
• Google Chrome (Google’s Internet browser) now has 70 million users. The latest release is four times faster than two years ago.
• YouTube has more than two billion views per day, 160 million of which are mobile views.
• 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute, and more than two billion monetized views per week (up 50% in the last year).

–source: Matt McGee, Search Engine Land

Local search rules for bargain-hunters this season

September 4, 2010: Online researcher eMarketer forecasts “the same bargain-hunting attitude” that has defined the last two holiday shopping seasons will prevail again this year.

“Despite signs that the economic recovery is losing steam, the outlook for online holiday sales remains upbeat,” the digital researcher reports. “Consumers will go online to find coupons, compare prices on shopping engines and research items, even if they plan to buy them in-store.”

It means Internet searches will be more popular than ever as a welcome alternative for North American shoppers intent on avoiding the crowds of real-world bargain-hunters.

“Savvy consumers, knowing that retailers are posting some of their best Black Friday deals online, will shop the web from the comfort of their homes rather than rise early to face crowded stores. Those who do head to stores are likely to take their smartphones with them” to compare prices and ensure they get the best deals.

Google takes 81% global search share, 71% in U.S.

August 18, 2010: Not much changed in search engine market share in the U.S. in July, hitwise.com reports. Google still dominates with 71.43%, down a touch from 71.65% in June.

Earlier this week, Chitika Research reported that Google’s world domination is well above its U.S. showing, accounting for 80.97% of global search. That was down a tad from June (81.54%).

Yahoo! held steady in second place in the U.S. with a 14.43% share, up just a dash from its 14.37% showing in June. Bing was number three with 9.86% (9.85% in June).

Globally, Bing maintained its second place position with 10.56%, down slightly from 11.26% in June. Yahoo! was the only gainer in the big three world leaders, raising its June share of 4.92% to 6.14%.

Google announces ‘Voice Actions’ for smartphone users

August 12, 2010: A new feature called Voice Actions is going to make local search and other tasks much easier for smartphone users running Google’s Android application. Users simply speak a command, elmiminating the need to type words into the search field.

This is an enormous convenience because the small size of the keys on smartphones and other mobile devices makes typing difficult. Apple is expected to introduce similar functionality for its iPhones shortly.

Although Google’s voice activation is only available in the U.S. right now, it likely won’t be long until it expands to Canada and other countries.

Big shift to mobile Internet under way

July 5, 2010: Internet access by cell phone will become more common than desktop access within the next three years, according to Google UK Managing Director Matt Brittin.

“As growth in broadband starts to flatten off, we’re seeing the next wave,” says Brittin. “The big shift is to mobile Internet. Between 25 and 30 percent of consumers use their mobiles to access the Internet. But in three years’ time analysts believe more people will be accessing it from their mobiles than from a desktop. That’s a massive change.”