Hot Dance To Internet Marketing Rap

By Carmen Wallace
Marketing Rapper

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In the March 29 Adweek article by Mark Dolliver writes about how search-engine marketing is growing and is becoming more important. A survey issued by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization and Econsultancy went into more detail on the movement. Companies are willing to pay more for SEO.

However, 47% of the surveyed companies said that they preferred in-house SEO. Rather than be charged by outside firms bigger companies try to keep these specialist within the company to keep up with the trends.

To read the whole article click here .

oogle succeeds at marketing to customers without being overly intrusive. Look at its sponsored text ads, appearing in its search results: They work. But as more and more marketers use the Web to reach customers, many companies fail to transmit product information without breaching their customers' sense of privacy.

A new study suggests ways companies can better target individuals without crossing a line. Avi Goldfarb of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Catherine Tucker of the MIT Sloan School of Management, the study's coauthors, had access to a database that tracked just under 3,000 online ad campaigns.

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Macy's and Sears have decided to use social media to better reach out to their target market for prom. Sears is doing this in order to "make a more personal connection with [them]," said Sears rep Tom Aiello.

Macy's has added a Prom 2010 page to their Facebook fan page and set up a Twitter hasttag, #prom2010, so that customers can tweet about the in-store promotions. Sears a microsite called "The Ultimate Prom Experience" that can serve as a one stop shop for girls to want to pull the perfect look together for prom. Visitors to the site have to option to link their findings to Facebook and/or Twitter.

Social media is the way to go when majority of their target market are on these sites longer than do on their homework. The constant exposure to these brands would increase the likely hood of these teen girls to shop at those department stores instead of the others ones out there.

To read the full article click here.

Implementing a social media business strategy is key for any business to be successful today, and is a part of a successful marketing plan. But oftentimes (and especially for small business with limited resources) it is difficult to know how to go about executing an effective plan. In the article "HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy," written by Sharlyn Lauby, it talks about some step-by-step ways to create and follow a social media plan.

The Google Toilet: Supernews!

According to an upcoming eMarketer report that previews the online holiday shopping season, the tough economy has affected how holiday season retailers will go about marketing to consumers. Retailers will rely on 'proven marketing techniques like paid search and e-mail marketing', while other techniques such as social media (Facebook, Twitter), won't be used.

I would have thought that social media would be used in a tough economy where companies may be strapped for marketing money. Being that social media is free, it seems like it would be favored by those companies who are looking to keep their money in the bank, however, social media is not yet a proven marketing tactic. Since it is not yet a proven tactic, the marketing tactics that are proven will be used because the companies can be assured that the tactics will work, which means more money in their pockets.

Interesting article because I would have assumed the opposite.
http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/retailers-focus-basics-holiday-season/

Farmville Article Here

If you follow the above link, you will see an article about how FarmVille, the facebook app, is becoming a huge powerhouse in the social media application realm.

"When it launched June 19, FarmVille picked up 25,000 users in its first day, according to Mark Skaggs, head of the game's development team. Its cute, G-rated content now draws 21 million users daily and 60 million monthly worldwide."

The following article describes the tactics used by the top companies who are utilizing social media marketing tools to better connect with their customers. These top companies are:
1. Starbucks
2. Dell
3. Ebay
4. Google
5. Microsoft

If you want to read more about why these are the top 5 and some cool tactics they are using, go here.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/181721.asp