It seems there is another marketing infographic hiding around every corner of the web, and it will probably fall well short of its potential.Instead of making information easier to consume, many infographics make it harder to understand the information they present or even outright mislead.Here are 5 of the biggest infographic mistakes marketers make with an example of each.
With the growth of smart phones and accompanying apps, quick-response codes are starting to fill an important social media marketing role, some avocado marketing agents say.
Writing the great American novel? Penning the next transformative self-help book? If you’re in the midst of developing one of the more than one million books that are published every year, it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to market your book … because in today’s publishing environment, it’s up to you to build and sustain momentum for your work.“Publishers launch many titles per year, and when a book is considered a new title, it is at the forefront of the minds of the marketing staff … but the slate of the next season’s titles is never far down on the publisher’s to-do list,” Darius Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson write in Publish Your Photography Book.Even when you do have the support of a publisher, their marketing efforts will likely be limited …
In the last 12 months there have been $76 billion dollars in social business IPOs and more than $1.5 billion dollars in social business acquisitions. LinkedIn, Facebook, BazaarVoice, Radian 6, Vitrue, and Buddy Media are now all either part of large companies or have become well-funded public companies in their own right.Yet, with each major event the market finds itself doing some soul searching. Doubts about either valuation or value creation hound every conversation, and despite the attention lavished upon social media by hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses alike there remains a debate: are we engaged in mass delusion or mass enlightenment?Personally, I have never felt more certain that the naysayers are 100% wrong. Here is why.
Reddit is a site characterized by an ultra-simple user interface that basically consists of links, thumbnail images, and a user policy that prizes anonymity and free speech. Still, Reddit’s potential is often overlooked by marketers.For those that are unacquainted, Reddit is a social content sharing and news aggregator site. Despite a user base that may initially seem to lean toward the geeky and liberal, Reddit is actually richly varied with thousands of user-created and moderated subreddits that focus on a diverse range of topics, from silly “AdviceAnimal” memes to highly technical scientific discussions.
Folks with a mind to — and a stomach to — can consume a whole lot of free eats and drinks over the next few days. 7-Eleven doles out free Slurpees for its 85th birthday today. Chick-fil-A offers free meals to guests who come dressed as cows on Friday. Also Friday, Starbucks hands out its new Refreshers energy drink made from green coffee extract and fruit juice. And Saturday, Dippin’ Dots stores give out samples of new Dippin’ Dot Clusterz.Behind these promos: social media. Marketers are convinced that it’s the most effective way to get word out on promotions — especially for free stuff.
I write a lot about social media for external communications, but what about social media for work teams? Turns out there’s a lot of potential for internal communications, but it’s still a patchwork quilt of geekery and confusion.I’m a huge fan of trying new applications in the cloud, adding in browser extensions, applets and bookmarklets, connecting cloud apps via API keys (secret codes) and automating as much as possible with scripts and procedures. I have come to accept that I am not the norm. Most people get overwhelmed when venturing beyond email and one web-based system.
From Twitter to Facebook, to Google+, to YouTube, to Foursquare and more, social media use is the hottest thing in marketing. But does it really work?Brands and businesses are certainly making a stronger push than ever on social media, which makes sense — that’s where the people are. Figuring out just how much social media marketing returns on investments of time and money, however, is harder to do.Facebook marketing company Pagemodo recently pulled research from sources around the web to produce the infographic below, looking at just how much faith marketers have in social media. The aggregated data shows a sense of conservative optimism.Sixty-four percent of business owners say social media marketing is a promising tactic and they believe it provides returns — but they aren’t willing to go all in with it just yet and favor a more cautious approach. Another 20% are more bullish on its potential, according to the same study, while just 6% are hardcore skeptics.
As one who has read, dissected and written about many a study regarding social media, brands and consumers, I can tell you I for one was quite surprised to see read the findings of a survey recently conducted by Market Force – a worldwide leader in customer intelligence solutions.In querying more than 12,000 consumers in the US and UK, they wanted to see how consumers engaged with varying industries – retail, restaurant, travel, entertainment and financial businesses to be specific, via the big dogs of social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.One finding which was not surprising was the fact that 81% of US respondents indicated posts from their friends directly influenced their purchase decision. This finding supports an early study done by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and Lithium, a social media tech firm, which revealed 80% of respondents “tried new things based on friends’ suggestions.”
