Online marketing expert Karin von Abrams has stressed that internet marketing campaigns are increasingly at the heart of companies’ branding strategies.

Ms von Abrams, a senior analyst at the eMarketer organisation, said that nowadays virtually every brand has included online marketing within their overall marketing operations. At the same time, ad agencies are becoming ever more skilled at creating the perfect integrated internet advertising campaigns.

Although some sectors of the business world have taken longer than others to realise the full potential of online marketing – with one example being the fast-paced consumer goods sector – many companies within these sectors are now pioneering internet advertising and setting the standards for the rest of their sectors to follow.

This can be seen by the innovative ways in which many brands are using social networking or micro-blogging sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and in the strategies adopted to rise to the top of the search ratings in Google.

Ms von Abrams said: “It is now clear that every brand or business can benefit in some way from building awareness online, or from rethinking its business processes to make full use of digital channels.”

The rise of internet advertising was underscored recently when market analysts the Nielsen Company, which showed that worldwide spending on advertising increased by an eighth in the second quarter of this year – and spending on online marketing alone increased by 12 per cent.

At the end of the first quarter of 2010, the total global spend on advertising stood at a massive £65.4 billion.

The alcoholic drinks industry association The Portman Group is offering its members the opportunity to learn how to undertake the responsible online marketing of their products.

The group, which oversees the drinks industry’s code of practice regarding the packaging, promotion and naming of alcoholic beverages, and operates the “Prove It” identity card system, is holding a number of interactive training sessions from the end of the month in London, Manchester and Edinburgh.

The sessions will explore the right and wrong ways to approach an online marketing campaign for drinks using a number of role-play and fictional scenarios dreamt up by marketing firm BD Network.

The Portman Group’s chief executive David Poley commented: “With over 18 million households in the UK now having access to the internet, it is critical that the drinks industry markets its products online in a socially responsible way.”

“The Portman Group provides expert advice in this area and these sessions will provide marketing professionals with vital information on how the code applies to digital marketing.”

The first step was taken last year, when the group published guidelines for drinks companies on responsible online advertising, and the dos and don’ts of promoting alcoholic drinks on social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. These guidelines can be found on the Portman Group website.

Any in-house drinks marketing departments or agencies working within the alcoholic beverage industry are welcome to attend the online marketing sessions. The first takes place in London at the offices of the Portman Group on 28 July.

Global goods colossus Unilever’s senior vice-president Laura Klauberg stressed the importance of social networking sites such as Facebook in online marketing and advertising last week at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival.

Delegates from all over the world gathered in the south of France to discuss the changes and challenges facing the industry and were all singing from the same hymn-sheet when it came to the pivotal role of social media over the next decade and beyond.

In previous years, special guests have included the bosses of the Microsoft corporation and search engine giant Google, but this year’s online marketing focus was well and truly on Facebook, with a special appearance for its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Ms Klauberg, who is Unilever’s senior VP for global media, insisted that “social media isn’t just another channel. It’s not just about Facebook, it’s much bigger as it changes the relationship with the consumer, forcing us to change the whole mindset of our business.”

She revealed that her company is increasing its budget for digital advertising by at least 50 this year and said that it is increasingly reliant on online marketing to complement its advertising in more traditional media such as television or print.

Procter & Gamble is another company that is beefing up its social media role. The firm’s chief marketing officer Marc Pritchard told delegates that “the moment I realized the huge potential of social media was when I joined Facebook two years ago.”

With its ability to generate “instant feedback” on brands, services and products, Facebook – along with Twitter – are increasingly being targeted by forward-thinking companies for their unique contribution to advertising and marketing.

The social networking phenomenon Facebook has proven to be one of the most remarkable success stories of the modern age, growing from a way for college friends to keep in touch, it now has an unprecedented global reach with over 400 million active users.

The sheer number of Facebook users has also made it a fertile ground for online marketing, with Facebook adverts fast becoming known as an ideal way for businesses to reach the right kind of customer.

This is because Facebook stores many of a user’s personal details, plus a list of their likes and dislikes – making it far easier for online marketing experts to target the right consumers for their products.

Because of this unique new marketing opportunity, there has been a concomitant increase in the number of organisations and publications dedicated to helping businesses reconfigure their online marketing strategies to take maximum advantage of the situation.

A lot of these businesses teach marketing departments or small business owners how to use Facebook features such as the “Like” option, which helps build an internal hierarchy within the website and swiftly shows which ideas, brands or products are popular – and with who.

With extra marketing applications such as Facebook ads in place, and more on the way over the next five years, it looks as if the social networking site will be reaping even greater financial rewards – it already makes more than a billion dollars a year and expects to increase this tenfold by 2015 – and it makes sense for any business committed to online marketing to try and get on board.

Search engine giant Google has begun offering independent financial advisors (IFAs) free training and support services to help them brush up their online marketing skills and make themselves more visible on the internet.

With online commerce becoming increasingly vital to the success of businesses, Google has pledged to help IFAs make the most of the burgeoning demand for online financial advice.

From the beginning of next month, Google will also host a downloadable online seminar complete with demonstrations showing IFAs how to use Google’s free online resources.

Recently it published a White Paper entitled “IFAs in the Digital Space,” which stressed that many such advisors and their companies are failing to take advantage of this growing market.

The paper is available to members of the social networking website IFA Life and looks at online searches for financial advice services. Google revealed that in February this year, the search term “unbiased financial advice” was used 84 per cent more frequently than at the same period in 2009.

Despite this surging interest, Google warned that IFAs are not throwing themselves into the online marketing and SEO campaigning necessary to tap into this growing market for financial help. Most IFAs either do not have a website at all, or are lax when it comes to keeping it up to date and promoting their business.

Google UK head of finance Ian Morgan told Money Marketing magazine: “We want to offer more support to IFAs looking to grow their business through effective use of search marketing.

“Our aim is to offer an educational starting point to these financial advisers. Consumers are looking for guidance in their wealth management and we believe that the internet can play an important role in helping them find the appropriate support.”

A leading online marketing organisation has urged companies to harness the instant feedback possibilities of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

A recent poll found that nearly half of all online consumers demonstrate their support or dislike for certain brands on Twitter or Facebook.

Referring to the study by market analysts ExactTarget, search engine optimisation company SEO Junkies argued that even negative feedback from such social media was very useful when it comes to formulating online marketing strategies.

SEO Junkies director Di Forster insisted that any companies that experience negative feedback online are well place to “turn it around and spin it to a positive.”

“You’re finding out how people are talking about you, whether it’s good or bad. It might be bad, but you need to know about it, then you can change it,” she added.

With the recent introduction by Google addition of an improved real-time search algorithm, which updates the search engine’s databases more swiftly and accurately than ever before, social media such as Twitter has become more important as a marketing device than ever before, Ms Forster insisted.

However, the benefits for companies intent on incorporating Twitter into their marketing strategies will not come without effort. Writing for Official Wire, SEO expert and social media businessman Leon Hill stressed that for social media to be at its most effective, brands have to put work into building up a strong and loyal following.

A company needs to consider what sort of fans it wishes to attract and then concentrate its online marketing efforts into enticing them.

A study by a Dubai-based marketing and communications agency has concluded that there are more Facebook users across the Arab-speaking world than there are newspaper readers.

Research carried out by Spot On Public Relations found that there were over 15 million people across the region who had profiles on the social networking phenomenon.

This compared favourably with the total number of newspaper copies sold in the Arab-speaking world in Arabic, English and French, which stood at just under 14 million – apparently confirming that social networking sites such as Facebook are becoming the number one way for people to communicate and read about new events and products in Dubai and beyond.

Spot On argued that the findings revealed how Facebook, Twitter and the like were starting to redefine how Arab citizens found out about new phenomena, and how they shared the new information.

It said that the largest number of Facebook users could be found in Egypt, at 3.5 million – which far outstripped the circulation of any Egyptian daily paper. Surprisingly the second biggest number could be found in Saudi Arabia, despite its severely conservative government and society.

In the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, a third of the population had a Facebook profile, according to Spot On.

The company said that online marketing firms should take note of the study and recognise the incredible potential that exists throughout the Arab-speaking world for marketing opportunities.

It suggested that companies eager to explore the online marketing potential of sites such as Facebook should consider carefully how their brand would fit in, and decide what tactics would be right for them, such as SEO-orientated marketing or the creation of a Facebook fan page.

If you are a new business or have no experience in marketing your established business online then Facebook is a great place to start. Facebook now allows companies the option of opening there very own fan pages. If you have a Facebook page for personal use then great you can use your current account to setup the Fan page.

If you are totally new to Facebook then that is no problem you can start a fresh specific business page. Where having an existing stock of friends on a personal page comes in useful is you can suggest these people become a fan of your business. Once your friends are fans of the page they will be provided with regular updates from your page if and when updated.

One of the most common things we have experienced with our clients is as soon as the facebook page is setup that is it and no further content or information is added. The key is the constant interaction and being able to engage the audience if your Social networking campaigns are going to be a success online. Lets face it why on earth would anyone be interested in a page on facebook called “RJD Joinery” for instance but lets say that same page provided regular updates with help and advice or even diy tips then people will engage with the page and perhaps share that information with there friends and thus the snowball effect of social networking begins.

Its the same old tale you only get back what you put in and this is very much the case with social networking. How on earth am I going to find the time to update the facebook page on top of my website? you may ask. Well the key is to get this fully integrated to a source of news and this is where the social marketing experts come in handy. Existing experience in making these campaigns work is a must before you consider getting any help in this area.

So to round things up -

1. Open up a fan page for your business,

2. Suggest friends

3. Provide regular updates with free help and advice

Remember it is free and if you offer a product or service there are millions of people on facebook who may be interested.

No 1 Manchester Estate Agents Thornley Groves

Online Media Direct were proud to work for manchesters no1 estate agents on google thornley groves recently with a number of key improvements made to there existing website along with an integration towards social networking and online video. Thornley groves have had three professional videos produced which are now embeded on the homepage of there website.

The videos cover three sides of the thornley groves business the first video is aimed at people looking to sell there homes. The second video is aimed people looking to let there property and the final video gives a brief overview of the business.

Full social networking integration was achieved by importing the RSS feed from the thornley groves website to the Facebook and Twitter pages. Twitter was also updated with the all important hash tags which help catergories the tweets automatically to the estate agents keyword.

Michael Groves the managing director of Thornley groves makes his presenting debut online in a very professional video which really showcases the high standards and professional approach Thornley Groves are famous for in the Manchester area.

Google Buzz v's Facebook

Google Buzz a way to compete with Facebook.

The Internet has seen a similar situation in the past. You tube was increasing its traffic levels then Google stepped in and purchased the site. Google followed on and integrated its famous AdSense ads and has now added a wide range of in video advertising.

Google could see the massive potential of youtube even though they already had there own Google video tool. Now the next threat and major traffic generator is Facebook and Google has introduced its very own social networking tool with Google buzz using your existing gmail email account you can begin. Follow and chat with people using the tool and you can even install it on your iphone. Add photos and integrate the other social networking advertising tools such as twitter, picasa, Flickr.

Will Google Buzz compete with Facebook ?

In my opinion I don’t think so. Facebook for me is here to stay but will google buzz provide a nice add on to current gmail users yes it will and this is as far as I see this new tool progressing.

I am afraid it will take another hundred million pound bid from google if they are to take Facebook.