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The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) assumed extra responsibilities today that will ensure it is better able to regulate the growing field of internet marketing – and especially internet advertising via social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

Prior to this date, the watchdog was only able to examine and adjudicate paid-for advertising online, leaving a loophole when it came to social media, which lay outside its remit.

However, the ASA has received more than 4,500 complaints over the past two years which concern social media and online advertising. It now hopes that its expanded remit will be adequate to cover this burgeoning field.

It could, under its new powers, remove advertising from search engines such as Google, as well as being able to place its own adverts warning users about ads that are in breach of the regulations.

The ASA stressed that it will be “acting on and investigating complaints as well as pro-actively monitoring and taking action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements.”

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

photo credit: ralphhogaboom

A study of online marketing habits by research company ForeSee Results revealed this week that only 3 per cent of the traffic that commercial websites receive comes from social media sources such as Twitter or Facebook.

The researchers warned that these findings showed that the vast majority of companies are failing to sufficiently exploit the social networking phenomenon.

After looking at the habits of over 10,000 British internet users, ForeSee found that the most common reason that people gave for visiting one website over another was the familiarity of the brand – some 46 per cent of respondents said that this was the main factor that would put them at ease when shopping online and reassure them that they were shopping safely.

Another 13 per cent of respondents said that they would choose a certain website because of the recommendation of a trusted search engine, such as Google or Yahoo. This indicates that the search engine giants still have a lot of influence over the online marketing process.

However, only 3 per cent of respondents said that an encounter on a social networking site had led them to a commercial website – strongly suggesting that there is still a vast untapped hinterland for internet marketing and online advertising campaigns to exploit.

Researchers were also quick to point out that none of the reasons for ultimately visiting a commercial site appeared to have any greater effect on whether the visitor made a purchase on that site. In one example, 74 per cent of customers bought a familiar-branded product and later recommended it to a friend. This was almost as high a proportion as those who were directed to a product via a friend on a social network.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

Online fashion retailer Asos revealed last week that it enjoyed a 59 per cent increase in revenue after online marketing efforts put its new US website well and truly on the map.

Asos said that the success of the US site means that revenues from its are on course to match its UK operations in the medium term.

According to the company, which has been trading now for over 10 years, the launch of its American website in October boosted sales in the US by 267 per cent for the last quarter of 2010 – thanks to online marketing efforts, US sales are now growing faster than their UK equivalents did in the early days of Asos. In the first few years of the century, its growth rate stood at around 100 per cent.

Asos chief executive Nick Robertson told the Independent newspaper that “the US will be at least as big as the UK in the medium term, which is very exciting.”

photo credit: Idhren

The fashion retailer also announced that it is taking advantage of the growing prevalence of online advertising via social networks – with plans to launch its very own “Facebook Store” on Thursday. The new platform will allow Facebook users to buy Asos products using their usual login for the Asos site, which attracts over 11 million visitors every month.

Millions of Asos customers already interact with its main website via Facebook, and the company’s e-commerce director James Hart said: “Our Facebook Store will allow them to do this directly through Facebook.”

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

The head of an online services company has urged online marketing executives to make sure that their campaigns are capable of having an instant impact on potential customers.

The Growth Masters founder and boss Robert Kintigh said that the growth of online marketing has represented “the most dynamic evolutionary step” in the unique medium of advertising that took decades to develop on the radio and television.

“Back then, you had to write down information on a paper pad. Today, you click on a website or a link and you’re instantly provided the information you want,” he pointed out, arguing that because of this, anyone involved with online marketing has a smaller window of time to grab the attention of customers and pitch the attractions of their service or product.

Mr Kintigh said that ideally, effective online advertising is able to both capture the attention of its target audience and make them wish to desire the products and services on offer.

The increasing popularity of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook is making the process of online marketing even faster, British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) Justin Cooke argued recently.

Mr Cooke said that social networks will become the favourite platform for many users buying products or services online in 2011, insisting that the UK was “fast becoming addicted to checking in, following and snacking on social media snippets while on the move,” before pointing out that growingsales of smartphones mean that people are able to log on to Facebook and Twitter from almost anywhere at almost any time of the day or night.

“I have no doubt that this love affair will continue to blossom in 2011 and even bear some new digitalicious fruits,” Mr Cooke added, predicting that “major brands will create social transactional applications and it will become commonplace for users to be able to make transactions on social media platforms.”

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

Online marketing expert Craig MacDonald said this week that Facebook will be the place to be seen in 2011, with an expected surge in the number of companies advertising on the social network.

In an article for Search Engine Watch, Mr MacDonald estimated that online marketing departments are going to devote up to 20 per cent of their total advertising budgets to Facebook alone.

He admitted that promotions on Facebook suffered from “atrocious” clickthrough rates last year, but insisted that things are now very different, with the social media platform now competing with established search engines such as Google for conversion rates.

Stressing that Facebook is “huge, it’s global and it’s growing,” Mr MacDonald insisted that it now operates “dollar for dollar” as efficiently as Google, in online marketing terms.

Recent figures from Experian Htiwise would appear to support his thesis, showing that Facebook was the most visited domain in the US in 2009, with 8.93 per cent of all American online traffic.

Online marketing investment is set to grow throughout 2011, according to eMarketer analyst Geoff Ramsey.

“The bad economy has actually accelerated the shift to digital advertising,” he told the New York Times. “Online ads, especially search ads, are increasingly seen by many marketers as a more reliable bet than print ads, which are often difficult to tie to a measurable financial result.”

Mr Ramsey pointed to figures from November 2010, which showed that US computer users conducted over 17 billion searches in that month. Google remained the major platform for such searches, with 64.3 per cent of the total.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

The Office of Fair Trading has warned companies that sponsor Twitter messages and blog posts that they must disclose their intentions as online marketing promotions or face possible fines and censure.

The watchdog took its first action this week, after finding that a London-based online advertising firm broke the OFT rules on disclosure. The 18-month old firm Handpicked Media was the target of the regulator’s wrath yesterday, but the incident raised questions as to whether it is now set to go after other online marketing companies that are just beginning to explore the potential of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Although the OFT has not revealed whether it now plans to make online marketing companies apply the rules governing disclosure for newspapers and magazines to the Internet, its decision will nevertheless be seen as a precedent giving more power to the elbow of the Advertising Standards Authority, which will take over internet regulatory duties in March next year.

In a statement, the OFT said: “The OFT has received undertakings from Handpicked Media, an operator of a commercial blogging network, requiring them to clearly identify when promotional comments have been paid for.

“In taking this enforcement action the OFT has confirmed its view that online advertising and marketing practices that do not disclose they include paid-for promotions are deceptive under fair trading laws. This includes comments about services and products on website blogs and microblogs such as Twitter.”

The world of online advertising will surely now be watching developments with interest.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

A new study this week by the international Boston Consulting Group urged companies to make greater efforts to harmonise their online marketing efforts and their strategies for online sales.

The research warned that although many brands have woken up to the possibilities of promoting their products and services through such global phenomena as Twitter and Facebook, but have not ensured that this follows on to an easy way for interested computer users to purchase the products or services online.

In many cases, Boston Consulting said that potential customers were forced to hunt down the providers offline – sometimes even on the high street – in order to avail themselves of their products.

In the course of the study, researchers found that some 65 per cent of firms with an online marketing presence had invested time and money in developing natural search techniques, and 62 per cent were heavily funding internet advertising.

Despite this though, only 40 per cent of firms surveyed said that their customer base was able to order their products and services online.

Earlier in the year, figures published by the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index showed that there had been an impressive year-on-year increase in online retail selling – and with Christmas just around the corner, the smarter businesses are already gearing up to make online shopping as easy as possible for customers.

Companies that have yet to marry their online marketing and online sales should take note of the way the wind is blowing and seek to bring the hordes of Facebook and Twitter users on board.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

Online marketing professionals may need to get used to yet another game changing development on the internet soon, if reports of Facebook’s latest cunning plan turn out to be true.

Sources have revealed that the social networking phenomenon is busy on a new feature, grandly codenamed Project Titan. This is nothing less than a comprehensive email service aimed at eclipsing such established contenders as Googlemail, Yahoo and Microsoft’s venerable Hotmail.

According to the reports, Facebook will be an entirely web-based email service, operating within the social networking program itself and users will be offered a “facebook.com” email address. But what sets this plan apart is the ambitious message filing system.

Sources say that the application will analyse events, photos and friends on Facebook proper and use the information to sort emails by what it believes are the highest priority.

Facebook has tentatively announced that it will be staging a “major press event” on Monday in San Francisco, with the invitations strongly hinting that it will concern messaging and emails.

The new email service should prove a boon to online marketing campaigns, with another set of targets for online advertising and commercial mailouts. Companies such as Google are likely to feel threatened by the development – Google has already had a public spat with Facebook over the sharing of data – and online marketing experts are predicting a response from the search engine giant – expect to hear of new applications and features on Google soon.

Until Monday’s grand unveiling by Facebook, that classic dictum applies – watch this space.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

New figures published yesterday revealed that Facebook is the single largest platform for online advertising in the UK.

The data, by analysts comScore, showed that the market share of display advertising controlled by the social networking phenomenon had soared since 2009 to nearly a third of Britain’s online advertising sector.

Researchers estimated that UK internet users were exposed to almost 221.1 billion display ads in the third quarter of this year, representing a 34 per cent year-on-year increase.

They then subdivided these into a top ten – some 68.7 billion were on Facebook, well ahead of the 13.7 billion placed on various sites under the Microsoft umbrella, the 8.8 billion on eBay and the 8.2 billion via Google. There were 7.7 billion display adverts on Yahoo, an increase which was more than twice those seen on lesser platforms such as Glam Media, Trader Media Group, AOL, Bebo and Amazon.

The largest number of these ads were provided by large companies who have been swift to embrace the possibilities of online marketing, such as the Virgin Group, which was responsible for 4.4 billion adverts concerning its broadband, mobile and TV services – topping the comScore list of brands.

It was followed by the O2 group’s owner Telefónica, with 2.9 billion ads, and broadcasting company BSkyB, with 2.6 billion.

In fourth place was telecoms giant BT, with 2.3 billion ads, followed by eBay, Microsoft and Google itself, with 1.2 billion, 1 billion and 814 million ads respectively.

ComScore Europe managing director Mike Read noted that many companies were responding to the global economic downturn by placing more of an emphasis on online marketing.

“Following the ad recession that occurred from late 2008 through most of 2009, we are now seeing a strong resurgence in the online display ad market,” he said.
Mr Read predicted that the market would expand even further in the final quarter of the year.

“In the run up to Christmas with consumers searching for gifts, the growth in online advertising is likely to continue its ascent,” he added.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

Social media are going to play a large part in online marketing campaigns this Christmas, according to new research.

Research by internet marketing affiliate network LinkShare found that at least 43 per cent of companies involved in some form of online advertising campaign over the holiday period this year will be taking advantage of the unprecedented opportunities offered by Facebook, Twitter and other social networking websites.

Another 37 per cent of online marketing respondents said that they would be hoping to tempt customers over Christmas with online vouchers and special offers, while 17 per cent would be creating videos to promote their online advertising.

Just 18 per cent of companies surveyed believed that next year’s rise in VAT would have a deleterious effect on their online marketing budgets – with 30 per cent sure that the increase would spur companies on to make more effectively targeted campaigns than ever before.

The network’s managing director Liane Dietrich commented: “A call for more targeted and measured campaigns is certainly in line with what we are seeing from our own customers who are looking to increase their efficiency, and after the Christmas sales boom this will remain important.”

With the growing popularity of iPads and smartphones, many companies that use internet advertising believe that video campaigns are set to become more important than ever next year.

Nearly 30 per cent of respondents surveyed agreed that online videos, which can be searched for using Google or other engines, would be the largest digital advertising format, although another 28 per cent were sure that the likes of Twitter and Facebook would continue to reign supreme in 2011, dominating the online marketing world.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.