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Facebook to launch App Center

2012-05-10T12:02:53Z

Facebook have announced that they are launching their own cross-platform application store, called App Center, which has been described “a single place to find social web, desktop and mobile applications”. The App Center will not only feature Facebook applications but any application that has users sign in via Facebook Login.

Facebook already had an app directory, which was launched in 2009, but it was well overdue an update and now with the App Center, Facebook intends to provide their 900 million users with the best Android, iOS, web, mobile web and desktop apps. The App Center has been designed to grow mobile apps that use Facebook login. Users who browse the App Center on a compatible mobile device, and if a mobile app requires installation, then if the user chooses to download it they will automatically be sent to download the app from Google Play or iTunes.

App Center – App detail Pages

App Developers have been requested to go and create detail pages for their Apps, where they can upload screenshots and provide better descriptions similar to what is available with Google Play and iTunes. Each app will gather user generated reviews that are displayed as a star ranking out of 5 like other app stores but Facebook will also provide developers with information on how often users come back to the application and how long they remain on it, which will be displayed through Facebook Insights in the new app rating metric report.

Paid Apps

Facebook expects that in-app purchases will still be the best way to generate money for the time being but the option to make paid apps available through the new App Center is being tested through a Beta, which you can sign up to here.

If you’re a developer of Facebook apps you can access the App Center on the left nav within your application’s settings on Facebook.

Email Marketing Stats for the Charity Sector 2011/2012

2012-04-19T12:49:44Z

The 2012 eNonprofit Benchmark Study, done by M+R Strategic Services and NTEN, looked into how email marketing is performing for a number of Global and American Nonprofit organisations between January 2011 and January 2012.

On a whole email engagement has been on a decline for a number of years, but the Charity sector appears to buck that trend with organisations continuing to grow their databases and maintain their key metrics, such as click-through and response rates.

Almost every organisation in the study revealed that they had further grown their email database in 2011, with the average growth being 16%. Although this average yearly growth does appear to be slowing on a whole.

The average open rates for the organisations interviewed was 14% which remained consistent with the previous year. With the general downward trend with email engagement the ability to remain consistent year-on-year is quite positive and is even better when you add in the fact that the email lists had grown and older emails often go dormant and unused.

As with all email marketing campaign the most important metric is the click-through rate. The study split nonprofit email marketing into two categories in order to look into click-through rates. The two categories are general newsletters and campaign emails. The Email newsletters, which were sent on a regular basis, generated an average click through rate of 1.6%, whereas more campaign/objective driven emails experienced 2.1%.

To keep their email marketing effective the nonprofit organisations said their tactics had to change in order to keep their emails engaging and relevant to the reader. This was done through more sophisticated audience targeting and segmentation, then providing them with more localised content.

You can download the study here: 2012 eNonprofit Benchmark Study

Social Media numbers for the Travel industry

2012-03-29T13:39:49Z

The development of Social Media and Mobile has had a huge impact on the Travel industry by changing the way consumers engage with brands and how they search for information.

Research done by EyeforTravel looked into where travel brands are focusing their social media efforts and how mobile is emerging as a vital channel for the Travel industry to embrace. The video belows shows their findings.

Although the numbers shown in this video are impressive it doesn’t cover how effectively the brands are using social media. Having a presence on a social media site is one thing but it is whether those brands are effectively using the medium as an engagement tool.

If you would like to discuss your social media strategy then please get in touch.

Some examples of our award winning Social Strategies within the Travel industry are Manchester Airport’s Twitter and TrekAmerica live.

Social Customer Service

2012-03-29T14:17:54Z

Social Media is changing the landscape of customer service, with more and more people turning to the likes of Facebook and Twitter to express their grievances and look for solutions.

Turning to the Internet and looking to social media as a means for users to solve their problems is no surprise when the alternative might be searching for a customer care number, navigating through a number of confusing automated messages before sitting on hold (all of which costs the user time and money).

Social Customer Service Stats

This trend isn’t just due to younger more web savvy users because 1 in 5 adults aged 45-54 said they used a Q&A site to answer a problem and 1 in 4 adults say they’ve watched video tutorials on a company’s website or on Youtube.

Users are not always looking for answers when they turn to social media. Research done by Our Social Times discovered that 20% of people questioned admitted to using social media to vent their frustrations and anger about a product or service. This number went up to 36% of people when the research group was limited to people under the age of 25. This information can be view on this infographic – Social Customer Service.

In 2011 we saw an increase in brands engaging with Social Customer Service.

A study done by Auros in April 2011 found that, of the UK’s top 25 retailers, only 25% of them responded to questions/complaints directed to them and only 20% responded to negative comments when their twitter handle was included in the tweet. The stats for their Facebook pages were slightly better with responses being posted within 78 minutes (compared to 94 minute through Twitter) but it still showed that there was a lot of improvement to be made in their Social Customer Service strategy.

Thankfully research done by Econsultancy found that the number of brands using Twitter to actively engage with customer service issues through social media had increased dramatically. 52% now said that they use their Facebook page for reacting to customer issues and enquiries and the number of brands doing the same through Twitter increased to 50%.

Although these figures show that more and more brands are actively using Social Customer Service, the number are still only around the 50% mark, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Developing Social Customer Service in 2012

As we move further into 2012 we should hopefully see more brands creating specific customer service communities to help resolve disputes away from their main social profiles. Two great examples of this are the award winning Xbox Support Twitter account @XboxSupport, and the Best Buy @Twelpforce account (Twelpforce video).

Greater emphasis will also be placed on applications built to address specific customer issues, like the new “Answers” tab that Walgreens applied to their Facebook page to help answer their customers questions about their health by either searching through previously asked questions or by speaking with an online pharmacist.

If you would like to discuss improving your social customer service through the use of Social Media and applications like Ask ASDA then please get in touch.

.net Developer wanted

2012-03-29T13:23:48Z

Location: Stockport
Duration: Permanent
Probation: 6 months

Overview

Are you an experienced web-developer? Would you like to become part of our 6 man technical team in Stockport? If so read on….Your role will primarily involve the creation of websites and web solutions across a broad spectrum of clients, both new and existing. In addition you’ll be supporting existing web sites and systems, be exposed to cutting edge technologies and work day to day with project managers and account managers. Our recent projects have included ecommerce & corporate website builds, Facebook apps, Twitter apps, iOS & Android apps.

Essential Skills

Thorough understanding & experience of .net with the C# language
SQL Server
Java Script / jQuery
HTML/CSS
Make a good cup of tea

Desirable Skills

Experience of PHP
Experience of one or more of the following CMS: Sitecore, Umbraco, Drupal
Experience of .NET MVC

Company

We excel at creating and managing user-centric digital experiences that deliver outstanding ROI for our clients, who include Asda, Manchester Airports Group, Sue Ryder, IMI Cornelius, Punch Taverns, Royal Liver, Renold plc.
Since our inception we have been at the forefront of cutting edge technology and marketing strategies as well as dedicating ourselves to discovering and nurturing fresh talent, many of which you will find carrying on our ethos within various digital agencies and blue chip companies throughout the North of England.

Send your CV to recruitment@kmp.co.uk. NO AGENCIES PLEASE

Manchester Airport’s multi-platform mobile site

2012-03-22T11:09:50Z

We are happy to announce we have launched a new multi-platform mobile website for Manchester airport combining real-time traveller information with social media and travel extras booking functionality.

The new site has been optimised for all smartphones, but particularly the airport’s key target audience iPhone and Android users. The site includes live flight and timetable information, airport maps and enables bookings of car parking and other extras. It also links with the airport?s Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Manchester Airport said it developed the app as part of its approach to develop a consistent multi-channel experience for its customers.

Simon had this to say about the new mobile site:

This mobile site is about ensuring that the content delivered is relevant to a user. We looked in detail at user and passenger journeys, their touch points and informational requirements when identifying the elements, to optimise within a mobile offering for Manchester airport.

The new mobile website is only one part of a wider mobile strategy developed by us for Manchester Airport, which includes the iPhone and Android applications.

YouTube’s Non-profit programme now has live streaming

2012-03-15T10:34:57Z

YouTube’s Non-profit Program was launched back in 2007 to help organisations broadcast their stories. The programme now has more than 16,000+ nonprofits taking part and benefiting from the programme’s features. The newest feature is the ability to do live streaming, which YouTube release to all 16,00+ organisations on Monday.

The Live streaming had previously been provided to a select group of YouTube partners. An example is the ONE and (RED) campaign, where a day-long live stream was done on World AIDS Day.

The Live Streaming feature is released over a month after YouTube announced the new design for Non-profit programme members’ channels where greater emphasis is placed on the donate button.

The Non-profit programme is available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. If you’re not already a member and would like to join then you can apply here. For more information on the programme, please watch the video below.

Charities and Augmented Reality

2012-02-09T14:05:31Z

The use of Augmented Reality in marketing campaigns is slowly increasing with the likes of Lego (Lego AR Kiosk) and Universal (Coraline window) using it to increase exposure, but we are now starting to see a number of Charities looking at using the technology to help communicate their messages.

With the recession companies must look to more cost effective ways in spreading their messages and Charities are now exception. Websites, emails and social media are still the most popular digital tools that charities use but we have now seen a couple using Augmented reality in order to better engage with people and ultimately achieve their business objectives, such as increase the amount of donations and people volunteering.

Save the Children have launched an Augmented Reality campaign aimed at raising money for their East African Appeal. In their printed newsletter an image is used to trigger a video and a link to a mobile donating page and in doing so provides users with the easiest and quickest way to donate, a video of the process can be seen below:

By using the Aurasma app Save the Children are able to turn their printed advertising into a more engaging message and effectively turns their print into a digital experience.

Alexandra Bono, Senior Digital Fundraising Executive of Save the Children had this to say about the campaign:

At Save the Children, we are always looking for new ways to engage people with the human stories behind our life-saving appeals… Video has the power to connect with people in a very impactful way, and our printed newsletter is a trusted and familiar communication. This campaign, facilitated by Aurasma, brings together these two channels in a compelling new way which we hope will support donations to our East Africa appeal.

Some other examples where Charities are using Augmented Reality are:

Quit – AR Lungs

The app used by Quit superimposes a pair of lungs onto the users through the use of their web-cam and lets users to see the damage smoking is doing to their lungs. The user can then select their age, number of cigarettes smoked a day and how many years they’ve smoke for, then the app shows then a visual representation of their lungs and provides them with the number of years it will take for their lungs to recover.

CoppaFeel Breast Cancer Awareness – Hello Boobs

The US based campaign featured billboards that when viewed through the Blippar app became interactive, allowing viewers to share the message through their social networks and provide information on how women can check themselves for Breast Cancer. A video of the AR campaign can be seen here.

If you know of any other charities using Augmented Reality then we would love to hear about. If you’re interested in using AR in your marketing then please get in touch to discuss how it can work for you.

Pinterest is the quickest growing referrer for retailers in the USA

2012-03-15T15:50:17Z

Launched back in March 2010, Pinterest is a social bookmarking site that allows users to create an online pin board of all the things they like, that can then be organised and shared. In the run up to Christmas a number of large apparel brands saw Pinterest appear in their 5 five social referrers in their analytics.

Pinterest users create a number of pin boards for categories such as interior design, food, fashion and as they discover things they like they can “Pin It” to one or more of their boards. This is nothing special in the social bookmarking field, but Pinterest’s heavy emphasis on imagery has seen it become popular amongst women, who are interested in fashion and other aspects of retail.

Since September Pinterest has seen its user base increase fourfold, resulting in 7.51 million new visitors in December and in a single week (Dec 10-17th) it received 11 million return visits. This obviously resulted in the amount of traffic Pinterest was referring to other sites increased substantially

Brands that were early to use the service, such as Nordstrom, have used Pinterest as an online catalogue where other users can re-pin their favourite clothes items and outfits to share with their friends, while always linking back to their online store. More apparel brands are odopting this strategy help users share their favourite clothes.

This is a trend that is likely to come across the pond as more and more people become aware of Pinterest in the UK, but unfortunately you will have to wait for an invite. You can add yourself to the waiting list here.

Below is an infographic about Pinterest potentially becoming a social commerce game changer, made by Monetate.

2012 is the year of SoLoMo in the Travel Industry

2012-02-03T16:48:56Z

Social, Local and Mobile, nicknamed SoLoMo, is going to be huge in 2012 for a lot of sectors but in particular the Travel Industry. The term SoLoMo consists of three main components of a travel customer’s behaviour.

Social interactions are hugely influential on travel customers when they are looking a sorting out a holiday/trip, with recommendations from friends having more weight than a piece of advertising. This can also be thought of as your customers influencing their friends and effectively becoming ambassadors to your brand.

For the travel industry, the local aspect of SoLoMo is obviously important due to customers wanting to know information about where they are going or wanting to discover information once they are at the physical location. 1 in 3 searches done from mobile phones in 2011 had local intent, meaning that people are looking for information from their immediate area.

Back in September we said the 26% of the western population had a smartphone and that the number of people owning them was increasing by 3% each month. New predictions suggest that percentage of people owning smartphones will go beyond 50% in 2012. Add the fact that the mobile phone is one of the few personal possession that travel customers take on their holidays, you now have an extremely strong reason to engage with your customers on mobile devices.

As we look into 2012 and beyond we can see that travel customers are accessing information and sharing their experiences in real time from their location aware smartphones and tablets.

SoLoMo Strategy

Mobile websites and applications need to be robust, cater for all sizes of smartphone screens and have clear navigation. It is also important to has cross channel consistency because it is likely that visitors to your website might of been on your desktop site or seen your social media presence and will expect to navigate around your mobile site in a similar fashion to the desktop and for it to have the same aesthetics.

For local, the most important action is to make sure that all the location information about your hotels, attractions or destinations are correct. Without correct local information any strategy you implement will be immediately ineffective. Once all the geo-location information is correct then, thanks to location aware devices, your mobile website or application can access the user’s location in order to provide then with the most relevant information for their area. This could take the form of showing the user where your nearest hotel is, information about the local area or public transport information.

With a robust mobile website that can provide location based information the next step would be to integrate social functionality to allow users to easily share the information they have found or use services like Facebook connect to create a more personal mobile experience. Social media integration can go further than just sharing experiences, it can help users to ask for recommendations from their friends through the likes of Facebook and Twitter, rate a product.

Although we’ve talked briefly about SoLoMo as a whole package, they can also easily exist separately and paired together in order to achieve your business objectives. If you would like to discuss SoLoMo in more depth and how it can work for your organisation then please get in touch.