Stream Companies recently sponsored Internet Battle Plan 9, an automotive internet sales and marketing conference in Cleveland, Ohio. During Internet Battle Plan 9, 8 speakers, including our co-founder, David Regn, presented workshops about the future of automotive advertising. David presented, “All Things Google,” which explained how dealerships could use Google and all of its components to their advantage.

Throughout Internet Battle Plan 9, it was increasingly clear that in order to be in the digital marketing game, you have to protect and manage the review and reputation … Continue Reading

Facebook Timeline for brand pages is coming, and there’s not a thing you can do to stop it.

This transition to Timeline will create numerous hassles for all involved. We’ll all need new artwork, new strategies and a new history.  Yes, I said new history.  I’ll get to that later.

Facebook Timeline provides more room for visual displays.  The super-sized Timeline cover photo is only the most obvious example. Facebook will NOT allow those pictures to be used for advertising purposes. (I can’t wait to see how they are going to police that!) Photos will be displayed in larger formats … Continue Reading

Facebook is almost ready to tackle what pretty much everyone else has already done – advertise on mobile devices.

From Fat Booth and Auto-Tune to Peep and Pandora – every dumb app that’s on my phone forces advertising down my throat. Whether I’m tweeting or playing a word, I skip through a handful of meaningless, irrelevant ads about creating an online zoo or what’s on Lifetime tonight, etc. Do I care? No. But that’s the price I pay for…well…not paying for any of the apps on my phone.

Facebook mobile, on the other hand, has been a breath of fresh, ad free … Continue Reading

The advent of social media as a way-of-life has created a new reality in marketing: word-of-mouth, peer based reviews, testimonials, and complaints now carry an unprecedented amount of weight.

All it takes is a quick stroll through Facebook, twitter, Google, Yelp, and countless other sites to see the staggering amount of content & conversation dedicated to brands.

In fact:

• 92% of buyers have more confidence in info found online than they do in anything from a salesclerk or other source
• 90% of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust … Continue Reading
  
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A ComScore study has shown that the average American spends 32 hours per month on the Internet. So, what does this mean for your advertising dollars? Many people would jump to the conclusion that because people spend more time online, their online ads will automatically bring them more business.

But you’re smarter than that.

In order to get any results, your business must invest in targeted, relevant ads which are on sites that your consumers visit frequently.

Say your business is a car dealership. You’d like to reach customers that live within … Continue Reading

Facebook marketers were thrown into a tizzy last week by the suggestion that using 3rd party apps can be detrimental to your post’s EdgeRank.  If that sounds indecipherable, you are not alone.  There’s a lot to know when it comes to making your brand voice heard on Facebook.

Let’s look into the brouhaha more deeply.

Last week, EdgeRank Checker released a study outlining the influence of 3rd party application programming interfaces (“APIs”, more commonly referred to as “3rd Party Apps”) on Facebook engagement.  These apps are commonly used to schedule … Continue Reading

Mashable reports that the Nielsen Co. will soon offer ratings service for Facebook campaigns. Nielsen will be able to assess the impact of Facebook marketing campaigns in the same way it has gauged the audience reach for television advertising.

Nielsen’s system will use “gross rating points” (GRPs) to assess the reach of an ad by means of the frequency that the audience sees it. Unlike traditional online metrics like click-through rates and impressions, gross ratings points will let marketers buy online ads in the same way that they buy ads for … Continue Reading

Facebook Storefronts now have the same sales conversion rates as e-commerce websites.

Webtrends latest white paper, conducted with Adgregate Markets (a company who makes Facebook storefronts) revealed data on Facebook e-commerce pages and brand commerce websites.

The key findings were as follows…

• Facebook commerce conversion rates ranging from 2% to 4% are on par with Commerce websites.
• Websites that do not engage in e-commerce are losing traffic to their Facebook pages at an alarming rate.
• Facebook stores are very efficient at traffic acquisition ac­quiring visitors at no cost through wall posts and establishing a store monthly user base equal to 1-10% of the retailer’s fan base

Companies are faced … Continue Reading

Bing announces “Liked Results” shortly after Google’s increased social emphasis

Microsoft’s Bing has followed Google’s example by changing their search results to emphasize social results.

Bing, who recently partnered with Facebook, has created “Liked Results” which will show links that friends have shared or liked on Facebook.

Both Bing and Google are placing more emphasis on social for similar reasons. Social aspects of the internet enhance the user experience and users will want this social data available … Continue Reading

 How much do low average clickthroughs matter for marketers?
eMarketer recently estimated that marketers around the world will spend $6 billion advertising on social networks this year, yet the return on that investment is still in question.

Many ad performance metrics have been low on social networking sites, suggesting that users do not want to click on ads while they’re socializing. But how useful are measures of average performance to real-world marketers when so many variables can affect ad performance?

According to a widely reported … Continue Reading