Posts tagged Google

Facebook Advertising | Let’s give ‘em something to click on!

Mar06
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Kimberley_Williamson

The communications paradigm has permanently shifted.  Once upon a time, an advertisement in the New York Times assured top visibility; this is no longer the case.  Attributable in part to declining circulation and the digitization of content, this phenomenon is in larger part because traditional advertising is no longer the most important factor people look to when making purchase decisions.  In a world where people share everything with their social media networks, word-of-mouth has become king.

This new system works just great for large businesses with recognizable names, but what about the little guy?  How can small businesses reach an audience online that extends past the reach of their network?  Enter social advertising, specifically Facebook ads.

Here are the top 3 reasons why our clients find our Facebook ad campaigns effective:

1. Laser targeting: Beyond focusing on people within a geographic area, we have the ability to include age ranges, favorite activities and many more criteria when defining target audiences.  This means that rather than advertising in a magazine which is read by women between the ages of 18-35 in the United States, we can focus our attention 32 year old, college educated mothers whose children are under two years of age.  That’s powerful.

2. Performance metrics.  What would the Olympics be without a stop watch? With the impressions and ad tracking available within the Facebook platform, any advertisement that is not performing optimally can be paused, altered, and launched again in minutes – no need to wait for magazine circulation numbers.  Additionally, we have the ability to create and measure more than one ad at a time – we can develop a campaign, launch it, measure it, optimize it and get immediate results.

3. “Like” us! Easily, the fastest way to boost your network.  How often is there a button built into an advertisement that lets the reader carry out the exact action intended by said advertisement?  Not since perfume samples in Vogue has the “Go here, Do this” been simpler but even with those little samples there was something missing: shareability.

4. Shareability: When you perform an action inside Facebook, such as liking a video, a business’ page or you’re your goofy friend’s status, it is published to the newsfeeds of people in your network.  The potential for sharing and continued interaction is almost limitless.  The bigger your network, the higher your chances of hitting that jackpot.  It’s that simple.

On that note I want to hear from you. What’s the last promotion or advertisement that caught your attention or got you involved in a new brand?

Posted in Fashion, Goldstein Communications, Social Media, Social Networking, Uncategorized - Tagged , , , ,

Happy Birthday Google!

Sep27
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Julia Knox

Image via Google

Google turns 13 this month–hard to believe, especially for people who barely remember life before the search engine. To celebrate, Mashable put together a slideshow of Google’s famed celebratory images from the past nine years.

Do you remember the first thing you Googled?

Bye, Bye Facebook Pages…Hello Google+ Brand Pages!

Aug11
2011 1 Comment Written by Valeriya Koval

Even before Google Plus was open to the public, businesses and brands were already speculating on what novel opportunities this social networking effort would bring. Google was not expecting brands to jump at their latest offering, but brands like to be where the customers are.  Google+ is growing quickly, reaching 10 million users in just 16 days, compared to Facebook at 852 days and Twitter at 780.  Though several big brands have already  created their pages on Google+ (including www.mashable.com), the search engine giant is asking for brands to put their ambitions on hold and discouraging businesses from using regular profiles as their team is actively working on shutting them down until the launch of brand pages.

Google is working on creating a unique experience for businesses and brands, saying the launch will take place later this year (some blogs reporting a one to two month wait). The brand pages are expected to solve Facebook’s biggest problems of post-click engagement, paid search inefficiencies and limited customization. So, when will brand and businesses have access to Google+? Senior Vice President, Commerce & Local at Google Jeff Huber has said, “I can’t announce the launch date yet, but we want to make [brand pages] great, and we’re coding as fast as we can.” Although businesses don’t have their pages yet, it is comforting to know that they are on their way. Once the feature arrives, it will probably be similar to Facebook but will offer Google SEO benefits, be indexed, “followable” and will allow individual posts and updates to be +1’d. According to a video response by Christian Oestlien (Product Manager at Google), the optimized Google+ business experience will offer Rich Analytics and ability to connect the brand identity to other parts of google that the business might use. He urges brands to hold off while Google uses a small group of business to test the feature.

How will the Google+ Business Experience be better than Facebook Pages? First, it will offer better search options. “A major challenge with driving paid search ads to a Facebook page is that the Facebook.com domain generates a lower click-through rate (CTR), most likely due to people finding the domain irrelevant to their query”(Zeny Huang, Emerging Media Strategist at JWT).  Google will probably provide benefits to Google+ brand pages, whether it will be a “certified check mark” or a colored box it will give a strong incentive for brands to adopt a Google+ brand page.  Second, Facebook is limited in its content allowing for few branding or creative opportunities. Judging by the design of Google+ pages, there is ample white space for advertising similar to that of YouTube. This will provide opportunity to drive traffic to pages outside of Google+, assuming advertising opportunites will be immediately available after the launch of Google+ brand pages (since Google is fully prepared to support it with its Google Display Network, AdWords and DoubleClick Advertising products. Third, better analytics will provide detailed data including metrics like time spent on page, top content, referring sites and geographic information. This date will guide prioritization, organization and creation of content. Most importantly, Google Analytics and DoubleClick will let advertisers tie paid media placements to page interaction, optimizing the value of media spend. Fourth, Google+ has second mover advantage and can learn a lot from Facebook.

Posted in Facebook, Public Relations, Social Media, Social Networking - Tagged , , , , ,

Google’s Chromebook: Changing The World of Computing

Jun24
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Ben Essig

Google confirmed at its I/O developer conference on Wednesday, May 11th that it was planning on releasing Chrome laptops to schools and businesses in a program called, Chromebooks for Business & Education. The program allows businesses and educational institutions to pay Google a monthly fee in exchange for a supported, updated Chromebook.  On June16th, Google revealed that the first Chromebooks are now available for purchase. The devices are available from Acer and Samsung through Best Buy and Amazon.com in the U.S., and at various online retailers in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

The Chromebooks run Chrome OS and are optimized for the web, which could prove to be beneficial for both educational and business purposes. Under the program, business users will pay $28 a month for each Chromebook and educational institutions will pay $20 a month per unit. For both, the program allowed schools and companies to order them as of June 15th.  Although the potential for education sales is vast, especially at the $240-a-year price point we think the bigger play for Google is in the business space. For personal purchase, pricing starts at $379.99 and may go up to $499.99. When Mashable‘s Charlie White reviewed the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 3G, he said it “could change the world of computing.”

The Samsung Chromebook Series 5 at its starting price is cheaper than iPads, MacBooks and most other standard laptops. Yet, many question if its speed, Chrome OS software, and hardware are enough to pull consumers to the device. However, with its dual core processor, Google Chrome OS loads fast and is simple to use, and thanks to the lack of desktop apps and to the improved hardware of the Samsung Chromebook, it will be able to load simple flash videos faster.

The device can’t run Photoshop, Skype and isn’t an overall good machine for a power user, although, “It’s ideal for businesses that only need machines for data entry. Casual users may find some use out of the Samsung Chromebook (here’s Google’s video explaining the Chromebook), but they will probably be better off with an iPad 2 or an Android tablet.”

The device is said to be sleek, sexy, light and portable. What do you think about the new Chromebook from Google?  Do you feel the device will be a hit in the market? Many think due to its capabilities being lesser than that of an iPad, and with the price range falling only within a 100$ of other devices like the Motorola XOOM, that it will not sell. How do you think it will do in stores compared to things like the iPad? Let us know what you think by posting on our blog.

Posted in Apple - Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Internet Giants Join Forces to Fix the Internet’s Biggest Problem in Decades

Jun22
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Maggie O



Last week, Facebook, Google and Yahoo joined forces to fix the internet’s biggest problem in decades.   Along with hundreds of other major organizations, Facebook, Google and Yahoo pooled resources on Thursday, June 8th to execute World IPv6 Day.  World IPv6 Day was a single 24-hour period where providers would challenge their primary web site to handle both IPv4 and IPv6 connections.  Successful implementation of the IPv6 system is detrimental to support the continued growth of internet community worldwide.  The web’s billions of IP addresses are about to hit its max, so it is essential that the IPv6 or “Internet Protocol version 6” can be executed successfully.  Internet Protocol version 6 is the first new version of the Internet’s addressing system in decades and will provide trillions upon trillions of more unique addresses on the web.  Every time you go online or print a document you are utilizing a unique number called an IP address–which is used to communicate with other devices and computer networks.

As the number of homes, businesses, and devices connected to the Internet around the world continue to substantially increase each year, new IP addresses must be created in order to compensate.  The solution to this problem, IPv6, is simple to understand but difficult to implement.  The original version of the web’s address system, IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4), had a shorter range of numbers.  The IPv6 system will have more digits, increasing the number range.  “The whole address is now 2^128, which is a huge, nearly infinite number”, said Donn Lee, Facebook’s lead engineer on IPv6.  In order to successfully transition into the upgraded system, IPv6, the web’s biggest players must come together in order to take the first steps.  World IPv6 Day, was designed to be a 24-hour test to weed out any bugs and accelerate what some are calling “the biggest experiment in the history of the Internet”.  Lee clarified that the goal is not to switch over to IPv6, but rather to integrate IPv6 to work along with the existing IPv4 address system.  In a sense, the Internet is becoming “bilingual”, by continuing to support IPv4 but adding IPv6 compatibility.  World IPv6 Day, is the first time that this push to integrate the two address systems has been accomplished on such a global scale with extensive participation from companies around the world.

There was a lot of concern prior to when World IPv6 Day because many feared that the plan to integrate systems would cause massive problems for the Internet.  Some also feared that you would not be able to reach your favorite web sites or that hackers might easily expose vulnerabilities during the 24-hour trial period of implementing and integrating the IPv6 system.  It is clear that none of these fears have come to light with the integration of the new system as some of the larger companies involved have reported World IPv6 Day as a success.

How do you think World IPv6 Day will impact the Internet into the future?  Do you believe that the IPv4 and IPv6 systems will be able to fully integrate and run smoothly around the globe?  Do you think that the IPv6 system will eventually replace the IPv4 system?  We would love to hear your opinion, so please post your opinion on our blog!

Posted in Blog, Facebook, Uncategorized - Tagged , , ,
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