Monthly Archives: January 2010

AT&T “Beefing Up” its Network to Cope with iPad

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Lately, AT&T has faced numerous complaints of poor or slow data bandwidth from its users of the iPhone, specifically the business users and the typical Apple consumer. Metropolitan regions like New York and San Francisco, where iPhone use is exceptionally heavy, make up the bulk of these complaints. AT&T’s main competitor Verizon even uses AT&T’s lack luster network in its marketing to differentiate their services.

With the introduction of Apple’s latest media technology the iPad, AT&T’s network could become even more crowded now that the iPad’s internet capabilities will be provided by AT&T’s 3G network exclusively, like that of the iPhone. To cope with the increase in users in their 3G networks, AT&T is really serious about expanding their network.

The expansion of AT&T’s networks began in 2009, where they added 1,900 new cell sites that expanded 3G coverage to over 360 markets enabling it to now reach an estimated 75 percent of the population.

AT&T is now looking to invest over $2 billion in 2010 to expand and improve the broadband data network even further… Finally! It plans to deploy fiber-optic backhaul, which will increase 3G data speeds even further, as well as focusing on boosting data capacity in troubled areas like New York and San Francisco.

AT&T CFO, Rick Lindner, offered this statement in response to AT&T’s excitement to take on the Internet capabilities for the new iPad:
“We believe, though, the device, based on where we believe it will be used–in homes, in offices, coffee shops, bookstores, airports, so on and so forth–will be used a substantial amount of time in a Wi-Fi environment. And so we’ll just–we’ll have to monitor this usage as the device gets out there. And if it’s substantially different, we’ll adapt to it. But right now, I think the economics will be very positive because it will be a very low-cost device for us–no cost, really, in terms of acquisition.”

Hopefully, AT&T can effectively expand and improve upon their 3G networks all over the world in order to better service its customers. Once they do this, and their Internet services become one without issues, their competitor Verizon will have to find another flaw in AT&T’s system to market against!

Information Provided By: Tony Bradley, PC World
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

Link building and inbound link relevance

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Conventionally the purpose of link building is to give a website a better chance to be noticed by the search engines. Every SEO professional knows the key to high search engine ranking is link building.

However, most importantly we must not forget a website’s true worth according to the search engines, is the content it provides. Does the site present ideas, services, products and educating information to improve our daily lives? Much too often websites are packed with keywords in order to rank for a certain product or service while offering something completely irrelevant.

Sites that appear in the first pages of the search engines are the ones with the most relevant and useful information using honest and appropriate techniques. Some have developed sophisticated yet irrelevant SEO techniques that may be damaging the Internet’s value, however, search engines have responded to such techniques and will penalize websites by removing them from search results. Therefore, stay away from link farms, spamming, duplicate websites and keyword generated link pages.

Some SEO experts are seeing great success in achieving high search engine ranking through substantial effort put into receiving inbound links from high-classified websites. When your site receives links from pages with high page rank, your website is able to maintain or grow in page rank simultaneously.

Written By: Sam Kim

Apple iPad Release

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iPad Specs:

Height: 9.56 inches
Width: 7.47 inches
Depth: 0.5 inch
Weight: 1.5 pounds

Display

* 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
* 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
* Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
* Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Capacity

* 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive

Processor

* 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

Battery and Power

* Built-in 25Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
* Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music

The release of the iPad has obviously been hyped and swarms of consumers blindly following the newest most talked about trend will flock to the apple stores. Perhaps the question we should ask ourselves before jumping on the consumerism bandwagon is, will the iPad be able to perform all of the functions you need it to consistently and reliably? If the iPad follows the trends of the iPhone, then maybe we should think twice. Lastly, with iPhone prices being dropped down to an inexpensive $99 now, could it be difficult to justify spending $499-$829 on a product that is similar.

Mobile App Usage on the Rise in 2010

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The number of mobile applications is growing daily pretty soon we won’t even need computers! Marketers are quickly jumping on this trend in 2010- the world of applications will soon grow to an all-time high. Although the spending on social apps will stagnate this year, most marketers have already produced them. “Less than one-half of marketers created either a mobile or social app in 2009, but most plan to invest in a mobile app this year. The iPhone is the platform of choice, followed by Android.” And among those marketers with apps in 09, Facebook was the leading platform.

Social apps were perceived as the top goal for achieving engagement, audience targeting, reach, sharing and branding potential. “The top one-third of advertisers and agencies using mobile apps planned to up their investments by 75% or more. Marketers who used apps reported a growing market, client demand and increased standardization in the app world as reasons to spend more in the coming months.”

Mobile applications by marketers and publishers are the next goal for distribution and discover ability.

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15% of advertisers and agencies spent more than 60% of their budgets on promotion in 2009, but more than one-third spent less than 5%. Times are changing, and today consumers want easy access to their favorite sites quickly. Mobile apps are the newest trend for 2010 when it comes to reaching your target audience.

Information Provided by: eMarketer.com
Written by: Samantha J Stephan

The Importance of Your Brand Reputation within Social Media

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Many companies fear that online consumers will post negative or hurtful comments about them and their products or services. This is worrisome especially on social media where opinions about certain things are shared all over the globe and in real-time.

In their “Social Media and Online PR Report,” Econsultancy and bigmouthmedia explored ways marketers can combat “brand bashing” online.

They reported, when asked how companies most often combat these negative comments, that:
• Nearly one-half suggested having directly engaged with the consumer
• The second-most-common strategy was longer-term in focus: trying to improve products and services.

Many respondents had even tried to get offensive content written about their company removed entirely but that tactic can have many negative effects on a company’s image.

Econsultancy also noted that only 12% of companies tried to create their own content to offset negative consumer opinions in search results, and that more could go this route.

When companies were asked about their activities on Twitter specifically, Brand monitoring was the third highest activity behind publicizing new content and marketing using this form of communication channel.

Other findings from Twitter usage found:
• About one-quarter of companies were using the microblogging site for customer service or gathering customer feedback.
• Nearly two-thirds (63%) of companies reported responding to tweets, and 34% responded “systematically.”
• More than one-fifth of client-side companies told Econsultancy that fear of reputation issues was a factor preventing more effective social media engagement.
• Almost 30% of agencies said the same of their clients.

In response to the results of these findings, Econsultancy offered this statement to address brand monitoring and how to effectively combat it: “To address this, there needs to be more education around how to deal with negative PR and social media crisis management, as well as best practice on how to engage in the first place,” according to the report. “There is clearly an opportunity here for agencies to better educate their clients.”

Happy Branding!

Information Provided By: eMarketer
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

Tech Growth in Emerging Markets Embraced

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Due to a rising middle class in the emerging countries, there has been a rising demand of the latest gadgets and online media activities while Internet users in the US and other mature markets are loosing their edge.

According to reports by Accenture, the top consumer electronics owned by US Internet users were computers and mobile phones, with web-enabled mobile phone usage increasing more than 300% in the past 3 years. Mobile phone and web-enabled smartphones taken together become the most important consumer technology to Americans.

Web users surveyed in emerging countries such as China, India, Malaysia and Singapore were ahead of mature markets such as the US, Germany, France and Japan in areas such as:

  • “Emerging-market Web users were more than two and one-half times as likely to buy a smartphone during the next year (52%) compared with mature-market respondents (20%), and were also more likely to have bought a smartphone in the past year (67% versus 32%).
  • Internet users in emerging markets were twice as likely to have bought a computer in the past year (40% versus 20%).
  • Emerging-market respondents tended to spend more money on consumer electronics in 2009 than their mature-market counterparts.”

In addition emerging markets are showing more usage of Web activities than mature markets in areas such as – watching tv shows/movies on the Internet or mobile, working from home, managing photos and videos on the Internet, connecting with people on social networking sites, and blogging.

“One of the reasons for this emerging-country growth is the rapid expansion of the middle class with its substantial disposable income,” says Jean-Laurent Poitou, managing director of Accenture’s Electronics & High Tech industry group.

Written By: Sam Kim
Information Provided By: eMarketer

Women Responding to Brands via Social Web on the Rise!

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According to the new edition of the SheSpeaks “Annual Social Media Study”, social networking profile penetration of women climbed from 58% in 2008 to 86% in 2009.

Along with this increase, there was also an increase in brand-related activities on social media sites of female internet users. The study shows that 80% of female users said that they had become a fan of a product or a brand on one of their social media networking profiles. In additon, 72% of female users had learned about a new product or brand, or joined a group about one.

Twitter has become the least-likely alternative to finding out about products or services via social networking sites compared to the rest, the study also demonstrates.

Also, according to the study:
One half of female internet users had bought a product because of a social media network, adding to the overall growth of purchasing with the influence of social networking sites and blogs over the last year.
Women have also been more receptive to social network advertising, where 2% in 2008 said that they look at the banner ads and click-through them which has increased to 9% in 2009.

Women seem to be responding to social network advertising and brand awareness more-so now than ever, so it is important to target them as best as possible. According to Aliza Freud, the founder and CEO of SheSpeaks, “Last year our members were going online primarily to research purchases, but now they are looking to social media to help them research, guide and facilitate every kind of transaction, from social exchanges to purchases. Women have become more comfortable using social media, and for marketers, the overall growth and habitual use of social media represents opportunities to reach and engage women of all ages, and influence their purchase decisions.”

Information Provided By: eMarketer
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

Android OS sees significant growth in handset market

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Android is quickly catching up to iPhone to become a mobile platform to be recognized, according to data from ChangeWave Research.

The majority of growth was seen between September and December 2009. Android-based phone purchases jumped from 6% to 21%, which the much-hyped launch of Motorola’s Droid undoubtedly was a big reason for the surge. Thus, Google’s operating system was able to overtake Blackberry in the handset market.

Although iPhone remains the top choice for handsets at 28% of the market, they did see a 4% drop between September and December 2009.

Meanwhile, overall smartphone usage continues to see a steady rise, with 42% of US consumers by December 2009. Data shows that over the past 3 years, usage of smartphones has increased 27%. Additionally, roughly 13% of respondents in the study were planning to buy smartphone over the next 90 days.

According to ChangeWave, iPhone owners were most satisfied with their handsets followed closely by Android-based phones. Satisfaction rates drop significantly with other smartphones. Another common trait the iPhone and Android users have is that they share similar mobile content habits.

Written By: Sam Kim
Information Provided By: eMarketer

Subdomain Blog Post

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Although Pagerank is not available on the Google Toolbar, Google still ranks websites higher in their index if they have a higher Pagerank. It would benefit your website greatly within the search engines if all of the pages within your site’s directory contained high Pageranks so that each page is ranked higher for the keywords they possess, but this is hard to come by.

Normally, the homepage of your website is usually the page with the highest Pagerank because when online users share and link to your site (link-building), they are linking to your homepage’s url the majority of the time, rather than the subpages’ directory urls of your site. This makes your homepage more visible in search engines leading to higher traffic over the rest of the pages your site contains. Many ask the question: In theory, would it benefit my website’s subpages, and their Pagerank, if they had their own subdomains rather than using their current directory urls?

A change for a subpage’s directory url to a subdomain would look like this:

WebitMD’s current blog directory url is http://www.webitmd.com/blog

If we changed the blog’s directory url to make it a subdomain, some examples would look like this:

http://www.blog.webitmd.com/ or http://www.webitmdblog.com

By changing your subpages’ directory urls to their own subdomains, this would allow those that share and link to your site’s content to drive straight traffic to your subpages thus increasing their Pagerank individually. This is because Google looks at subdomains as individual websites themselves. This in turn, will allow visitors to come across these subpages more often in the organic results of search engines.

Is this strategy worth pursuing on your site? In theory, yes and no.

If we look at the basic rules of SEO, fresh and interesting content is key! If you have a website that has subpages where you often update and provide interesting content for the online audience, this subdomain strategy can help tremendously provided that people are linking to your subpages and the content is rich in SEO text. For those pages that are not updated very often, this would be a waste of time.

It is important to note that if you do pursue this strategy, you may experience an initial drop in Pagerank when you first create the new subdomains from your original homepage at first, but provided you stick by the smart rules of SEO, you may end up with three or four websites with high rankings instead of just one. This is certainly worth the time!

Information Provided By: Entrepreneur’s Journey
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders