Twitter’s New Home Page Focuses On Content, Users (Search Engine Land)

Tracy Norman    Twitter Marketing     nebulous-idea, new-home, new-users, page-design, specific-content, the-more, the-site, trending-keywords, wider-view

Twitter is testing a new home page design that introduces new users to a wider view of the site’s functionality by focusing on specific content and users rather than the more nebulous idea of trending keywords and hashtags.

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Twitter’s New Home Page Focuses On Content, Users (Search Engine Land)

ShadeTree gives canopy list to McCarthy

admin    Web Marketing     canopy, Gives, List, McCarthy, ShadeTree

ShadeTree Canopies assigned management of its list of catalog requests to McCarthy Media Group on March 30. The file is new to the market.

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Twitter Unveils New Homepage [PIC] (Mashable)

Tracy Norman    Twitter Marketing     everyone-yet, first-one, new-homepage, not-clear, rolled-out, top-tweets, trending-topics, users-see

Twitter has just rolled out a new homepage that non-logged in users see when they visit Twitter.com. It features scrolling trending topics, “top tweets” (a tweet from Justin Bieber was the first one I saw… go figure), and a “who’s here” with avatars of well-known users and brands that are on the microblogging service. It’s not clear if the new homepage is live for everyone yet, but here’s a …

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Twitter Unveils New Homepage [PIC] (Mashable)

USPS asks regulatory group for five-day delivery opinion

admin    Web Marketing     asks, delivery, fiveday, Group, Opinion, Regulatory, USPS

The US Postal Service filed a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission on March 30, formally asking it to weigh in on the agency’s planned move to a five-day-per-week delivery schedule. The USPS intends to implement the schedule change in 2011 if Congress approves it.

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Unvarnished.com Launches: A RipOff Report for Individuals?

admin    Web Marketing     individuals, Launches, Report, Ripoff, Unvarnished.com

Hands-up if RipOff Report keeps you awake at night?

Yeah, the site keeps many business owners awake. It takes just one unhappy customer to cause the biggest online reputation headache of your company’s life.

Now imagine a service that could end up doing the same for your personal reputation.

OK, you don’t need to imagine it–it just launched!

While I’m sure the founders of Unvarnished don’t consider themselves to be anything like RoR–and I’m confident that’s not the modus operandi–it likely won’t take long before the new review site becomes the playground of the upset, revengeful, and down-right pissed off.

The site is in invite-only beta, but what we do know of it paints a picture of LinkedIn meets Yelp meets Wikipedia. Yes you can claim your personal profile. Yes, there are some safeguards to prevent flat-out defamation or mischievous reviews. And, yes, the reviews can be moderated by the community. What’s not there is what could cause Unvarnished to become the RoR of personal reputations:

You can claim your profile, but unlike LinkedIn, you have to accept every post, warts and all. And once the profile is up there’s no taking it down. I asked co-founder, Peter Kazanjy, “Will you ever give users the option to take down their profile?” Kazanjy’s reply: “No, because if we did that, everyone would take their profile down.”

Perhaps the most concerning is that review can be left anonymously. I’m waiting for the day when reviewers are held publicly accountable for their comments–maybe then we’ll all be a little more civil to each other!

The lack of moderation by the recipient, the anonymity of the reviewer, combined with an inability for a resolved matter to be expunged, is the exact formula that makes RipOff Report despised by so many.

It’s still early days–the site is still in beta–and maybe Unvarnished won’t get the traction it needs to have any serious impact on your reputation. However, if you thought, as an individual, “I really don’t need to monitor or manage my personal reputation” then consider this your wake-up call.

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Maxus names Kaiser head of digital

admin    Web Marketing     Digital, Head, Kaiser, Maxus, Names

Maxus has hired Jon Kaiser as digital director of Maxus North America. He reports to Louis Jones, CEO of Maxus North America.

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RGF supports b-to-b efforts with consumer campaign

admin    Web Marketing     Btob, Campaign, consumer, Efforts, Supports

RGF Environmental Group has launched a consumer campaign for its Guardian Air and REME air purification systems. HVAC Solutions, which had previously worked with RGF on direct sales and marketing efforts, helped to develop the campaign.

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What Ad Format Is Best on Social Media?

admin    Web Marketing     Best, Format, Media, Social

A study conducted in May 2009 by research firm Psychster asked consumers how they interacted with ads on social sites (PDF). With almost 700 Facebook users and almost 500 users of the cooking/recipe/social website AllRecipes (who sponsored the study), Psychster showed participants a video of an ad type and an interaction. The participants then had to rate how likely they were to interact with the ad as the video did—and how they viewed the brand sponsoring the ads (either a soup brand or a car brand) in the video.

Perhaps most interesting from the above in that corporate profiles with fans and a logo performed slightly better than those without (though unless there’s a lot of rounding going on in the above chart, they could just as easily be placed in slots 3 and 5). These findings held true for both brands and both websites.

The data, however, should be taken with a grain of salt—watching a video of someone else performing an action is likely to increase the number of people reporting “Oh yeah, I’d do that.” A scientific study would be to observe their behavior instead of prompt it.

Sponsored content also scored the lowest for “I would recommend this brand to a friend” (3.4) and “I see this activity as an advertisement” (3.7). Banners and newsletters (4.2) were most likely to be seen as ads, while widgets and social media profiles only fell slightly behind (4.0).

The seven ad types and behaviors were:

1. Banner – This type consisted of a traditional ad on a website; the narrator clicked the ad to view the brand’s website.

2. Newsletter – This type consisted of an ad on a website; the narrator clicked an ad then signed up to receive the brand’s newsletter.

3. Corporate Profiles with Fans and Logos – This type consisted of a profile page, showing photos and notes left on a message board. The narrator further became a fan of the brand, and upon doing so, places the corporate logo on his or her own profile.

4. Corporate Profiles without Fans and Logos – This ad type was identical to the former, except that no mention of fans or logos is made.

5. Get Widget – This ad type consisted of a widget application where the narrator created a digital product and saved it for him or herself. For the car brand, the digital product was a car with customized interior and exterior colors. For the soup brand, the digital product was a collection of recipes based on an ingredient search.

6. Give Widget – This ad type was identical to the Get Widget, except that after creating the digital product, the narrator sent it via email to a friend.

7. Sponsored Content – This ad type consisted of a special St. Patrick’s Day page with a mix of editorial and user-generated content. Twice during the video, the narrator pointed out that the page was sponsored by a company (either the leading soup brand or the leading car brand).

However, the most significant influence appeared to be matching the brand to the site’s audience. The soup brand performed better on AllRecipes, no matter what ad type they used.

What do you think?

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Arkayne Inc. Launches First of Two Interactive Marketing Products Aimed at Improving Online Content Strategy (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)

Wai Khean Wong    Twitter Marketing     announces-the-general, businesses-improve, general-availability, its-first, Online, their-online

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—-Arkayne, Inc., a developer of interactive marketing software that helps businesses improve their online performance and content strategy, announces the general availability of its first solution.

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Arkayne Inc. Launches First of Two Interactive Marketing Products Aimed at Improving Online Content Strategy (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)

The three “E’s” of social marketing

admin    Web Marketing     marketing, Social, Three

For marketers, few things are as cool as having customers talk about how great your company is, while it’s often daunting when they complain to others about a poor experience. For better or worse, those conversations are occurring with more regularity in social communities, networks and blogs. How can companies thrive in this marketplace gone social? Follow the three “E’s”:

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