We all want to spend our advertising funds in the most efficient way possible and after reading this, you’ll probably want to stick to mobile advertising or add it to your budget. Nearly three in four mobile users (74.0%) say they fully pay attention to mobile ads while browsing the Web, either on a regular (35.3%) or occasional (38.7%) basis, according to a recent survey from Prosper Mobile Insights.

Below, other findings from the Prosper Mobile Insights survey:

• Men pay more attention to ads, and are more likely to be influenced by ads
• Men are more likely than women to regularly pay attention to mobile ads, particularly when surfing the Web (38.2% of men vs. 32.8% of women), watching video clips (17.8% vs. 12.6%) and, surprisingly, shopping (21.7% vs. 16.1%).
• Moreover, 51.0% of men say ads viewed via smartphone or tablet regularly or occasionally influence the products and brands they purchase, compared with 43.7% of women who say the same.
• Most mobile users would not pay to remove ads on apps or social sites

If this doesn't convince you, total US mobile and social media revenues—including business and consumer content, access, and advertising and marketing—reached $45.38 billion in 2011, up 30.2% from a year earlier, according to new data from PQ Media. 

Additionally, though search and display continued to lead ad formats in 2011, mobile emerged as relevant category, increasing 149%, from $641 million in 2010, to $1.60 billion in 2011.

This growth doesn't look like it is slowing down either. "Mobile will also reach the $100 billion mark in 2015 faster than any other communications industry, driven by several key growth drivers, including strong growth in overall mobile device penetration, the transition to smartphones and tablets, the torrent of new mobile content launches, and the continued growth of consumer and business time spent with mobile media," said Patrick Quinn, CEO of PQ Media. 

We all want to spend our advertising funds in the most efficient way possible and after reading this, you’ll probably want to stick to mobile advertising or add it to your budget. Nearly three in four mobile users (74.0%) say they fully pay attention to mobile ads while browsing the Web, either on a regular (35.3%) or occasional (38.7%) basis, according to a recent survey from Prosper Mobile Insights.

Below, other findings from the Prosper Mobile Insights survey:

• Men pay more attention to ads, and are more likely to be influenced by ads
• Men are more likely than women to regularly pay attention to mobile ads, particularly when surfing the Web (38.2% of men vs. 32.8% of women), watching video clips (17.8% vs. 12.6%) and, surprisingly, shopping (21.7% vs. 16.1%).
• Moreover, 51.0% of men say ads viewed via smartphone or tablet regularly or occasionally influence the products and brands they purchase, compared with 43.7% of women who say the same.
• Most mobile users would not pay to remove ads on apps or social sites

If this doesn't convince you, total US mobile and social media revenues—including business and consumer content, access, and advertising and marketing—reached $45.38 billion in 2011, up 30.2% from a year earlier, according to new data from PQ Media. 

Additionally, though search and display continued to lead ad formats in 2011, mobile emerged as relevant category, increasing 149%, from $641 million in 2010, to $1.60 billion in 2011.

This growth doesn't look like it is slowing down either. "Mobile will also reach the $100 billion mark in 2015 faster than any other communications industry, driven by several key growth drivers, including strong growth in overall mobile device penetration, the transition to smartphones and tablets, the torrent of new mobile content launches, and the continued growth of consumer and business time spent with mobile media," said Patrick Quinn, CEO of PQ Media. 

You might not use Instagram, but you’ve probably come across photos that 50 million users of Instagram have taken and put on the web. Also, more than likely you’ve heard the news that Facebook acquired Instagram in April for $1 billion.

What’s so special about Instagram? Its calling card is the photo filter, a digital layer that, when added to a standard photo, gives it the appearance of professional editing. So how can you jump on this photo filter craze? ActivEngage is here to share the Instagram basics, whether you’re new to the network or need some additional tips as well as how to use this app for your dealership.

First off, let’s register:

1. Instagram has always been an almost exclusively mobile platform. You must download the iPhone or Android app to your device in order to register an Instagram account.
2. Instagram accounts are public by default, but you may elect to create a private account. In that case, only users who you approve may follow you and view your photos. Head to your profile tab and scroll down to “Privacy.” There, you may select to make photos private.
3. Once registered, change your profile picture and edit your profile information, which includes a brief 150-character bio and a website. You may also edit profile information here.

Connecting to your Social Media sites:

It’s important to connect social accounts to get the most out of the experience. You may choose to link Instagram to your Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Flickr.

To connect social accounts, head to the Profile Tab > Edit Sharing Settings, then choose the network you wish to connect.

Each time you upload a photo to Instagram, you’ll have the option to share to each of the social networks you’ve enabled, or to none. If you choose to share to no social networks, the photo will post only to Instagram, viewable only by those users who follow you on the app.

Adding a Photo:

1. Click the blue camera button in the center of your Instagram navigation panel.
2. You may either choose to snap a picture or choose a picture already saved to your phone.

Adding Filters-the Fun Part:

Once you’ve either taken or selected a photo, a set of three icons appears beneath the image.

• These are the 17 famous Instagram filters which add different pre-determined layers to your photos, and give the effect that you’ve altered or professionally edited them.

• Scroll through the filters and experiment with the best one for that particular image. You’ll soon find that certain filters work well with specific types of photos.

• Each filter also has its own associated border. For instance, the Earlybird filter adds rounded edges to your photo and Kelvin adds a rough, sandpapery frame.

• If you're not the border tip, you can forego borders altogether by tapping the square “frame” on the upper-left of the edit screen.

Now it’s Time to Share:

• Once your photo is ready to go, click the green checkmark. This brings you to the social sharing screen.

• You can add a caption explaining what you’ve photographed. Make sure  to add category hashtags and @mention people, especially if you plan to share via Twitter. The caption will be the text of the tweet, and the app will file hashtags and @mentions accordingly.

• If you’ve enabled location services, you even have the option to tag where you took the photo.

Not so hard, right? Using these helpful tips will increase your social media presence as well as establish a relationship with your consumer. Upload photos of new arrivals to your lot, accessories, and employees that best represent your dealership. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words!

You might not use Instagram, but you’ve probably come across photos that 50 million users of Instagram have taken and put on the web. Also, more than likely you’ve heard the news that Facebook acquired Instagram in April for $1 billion.

What’s so special about Instagram? Its calling card is the photo filter, a digital layer that, when added to a standard photo, gives it the appearance of professional editing. So how can you jump on this photo filter craze? ActivEngage is here to share the Instagram basics, whether you’re new to the network or need some additional tips as well as how to use this app for your dealership.

First off, let’s register:

1. Instagram has always been an almost exclusively mobile platform. You must download the iPhone or Android app to your device in order to register an Instagram account.
2. Instagram accounts are public by default, but you may elect to create a private account. In that case, only users who you approve may follow you and view your photos. Head to your profile tab and scroll down to “Privacy.” There, you may select to make photos private.
3. Once registered, change your profile picture and edit your profile information, which includes a brief 150-character bio and a website. You may also edit profile information here.

Connecting to your Social Media sites:

It’s important to connect social accounts to get the most out of the experience. You may choose to link Instagram to your Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Flickr.

To connect social accounts, head to the Profile Tab > Edit Sharing Settings, then choose the network you wish to connect.

Each time you upload a photo to Instagram, you’ll have the option to share to each of the social networks you’ve enabled, or to none. If you choose to share to no social networks, the photo will post only to Instagram, viewable only by those users who follow you on the app.

Adding a Photo:

1. Click the blue camera button in the center of your Instagram navigation panel.
2. You may either choose to snap a picture or choose a picture already saved to your phone.

Adding Filters-the Fun Part:

Once you’ve either taken or selected a photo, a set of three icons appears beneath the image.

• These are the 17 famous Instagram filters which add different pre-determined layers to your photos, and give the effect that you’ve altered or professionally edited them.

• Scroll through the filters and experiment with the best one for that particular image. You’ll soon find that certain filters work well with specific types of photos.

• Each filter also has its own associated border. For instance, the Earlybird filter adds rounded edges to your photo and Kelvin adds a rough, sandpapery frame.

• If you're not the border tip, you can forego borders altogether by tapping the square “frame” on the upper-left of the edit screen.

Now it’s Time to Share:

• Once your photo is ready to go, click the green checkmark. This brings you to the social sharing screen.

• You can add a caption explaining what you’ve photographed. Make sure  to add category hashtags and @mention people, especially if you plan to share via Twitter. The caption will be the text of the tweet, and the app will file hashtags and @mentions accordingly.

• If you’ve enabled location services, you even have the option to tag where you took the photo.

Not so hard, right? Using these helpful tips will increase your social media presence as well as establish a relationship with your consumer. Upload photos of new arrivals to your lot, accessories, and employees that best represent your dealership. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Pinterest is a pretty easy thing to grasp, right? You just pin pictures and hope that someone likes them or comments on them. We all know that Pinterest is quickly becoming the go-to social media site and if you have a Pinterest account and a decent amount of followers/likes, you may be asking yourself, now what? You think you might have mastered the art of the pin, but have you thought about making words pinnable? Let’s say you have a great blog you want to share on Pinterest. Take a simple quote from the blog and use Share As Image to transform your text into a pinnable photo!

Share As Image allows you to highlight text anywhere on a website and instantly convert that text into an image. Just grab the bookmarklet from the Share As Image website, and you're ready to pin the text. Here is an example of one I made:

In order to pin text, highlight the words or paragraphs that you wish to pin and hit the "Share As Image" button on your browser. The bookmarklet will then generate a pinnable image containing the text you highlighted. For $2.99, you can buy the pro version of this app in which you can customize your text pin.

Ever wondered which of your pins on Pinterest were the most popular? Or did you want to know how your board on Pinterest was doing? With PinReach you can access all that data and more! PinReach also assigns a PR score to your Pinterest account to give you an overview of how popular you are on the site. The higher your score, the better you're doing. Here is an example of ActivEngage’s data:

Wouldn’t it be great to pin your tweets on Pinterest? With Pinsmatic you can! You can also add locations, music, quotes, and websites. Pinsmatic even has an automatic post-it generator that's perfect for pinning clever quotes or lines from your blog posts. Using the quote part of Pinsmatic would be a great way to showcase customer recommendations:

Hopefully, after reading this blog you’ve gained more valuable tips to master your Pinterest board and to capture more followers, likes, and repins. You can even pin our blog!

To align with the photogenic theme, tomorrow I will have a blog post on Instagram for beginners so be sure to check it out as well. And, as always, Happy Pinning! =)

Pinterest is a pretty easy thing to grasp, right? You just pin pictures and hope that someone likes them or comments on them. We all know that Pinterest is quickly becoming the go-to social media site and if you have a Pinterest account and a decent amount of followers/likes, you may be asking yourself, now what? You think you might have mastered the art of the pin, but have you thought about making words pinnable? Let’s say you have a great blog you want to share on Pinterest. Take a simple quote from the blog and use Share As Image to transform your text into a pinnable photo!

Share As Image allows you to highlight text anywhere on a website and instantly convert that text into an image. Just grab the bookmarklet from the Share As Image website, and you're ready to pin the text. Here is an example of one I made:

In order to pin text, highlight the words or paragraphs that you wish to pin and hit the "Share As Image" button on your browser. The bookmarklet will then generate a pinnable image containing the text you highlighted. For $2.99, you can buy the pro version of this app in which you can customize your text pin.

Ever wondered which of your pins on Pinterest were the most popular? Or did you want to know how your board on Pinterest was doing? With PinReach you can access all that data and more! PinReach also assigns a PR score to your Pinterest account to give you an overview of how popular you are on the site. The higher your score, the better you're doing. Here is an example of ActivEngage’s data:

Wouldn’t it be great to pin your tweets on Pinterest? With Pinsmatic you can! You can also add locations, music, quotes, and websites. Pinsmatic even has an automatic post-it generator that's perfect for pinning clever quotes or lines from your blog posts. Using the quote part of Pinsmatic would be a great way to showcase customer recommendations:

Hopefully, after reading this blog you’ve gained more valuable tips to master your Pinterest board and to capture more followers, likes, and repins. You can even pin our blog!

To align with the photogenic theme, tomorrow I will have a blog post on Instagram for beginners so be sure to check it out as well. And, as always, Happy Pinning! =)

More and more automotive brands are recognizing the value of live chat and OEMs such as Nissan and GM are suggesting that their dealerships use allocated funds towards chat. At ActivEngage, we are our own largest customer.  We use the very same live chat and real-time analytics reporting software we sell to dealers every day to engage visitors on our own website and to provide the managed live chat service for which we are so respected.

The analysis of more than one million live chat conversations allowed us to develop the following live chat deployment best practices. These are the same strategies that we employ on our website and recommend to our clients for the greatest success:

1) Avoid chat graphic styles and designs that blend in with the content and background of the webpage.
Chat graphics should be eye-catching and pop from the page so consumers take note of their location and availability. These graphics can help promote your brand, but should be quickly noticeable too!

2) Place chat buttons on the header of each web page.
If chat buttons are placed at the top of the page, they are more quickly and easily recognized by consumers. Our data shows the higher the button’s placement on the page, the higher the conversion rate of visitors to chats for your website.

3) Make sure the placement and design of chat graphics are consistent on all pages.  

Consistency allows users to easily recall chat button locations and readily engage in chat without having to search the website.

4) Keep visitors on your site while they engage with your social media.
A connectivity toolbar on each web-page will created an integrated social shopping experience for website visitors by allowing them to engage with your social content without leaving your site.  When used in conjunction with “forced” proactive invitations, connectivity toolbars achieve the highest conversion rate on non-inventory pages.

If you find that your website is lacking these strategies to great success, call your website/chat provider and they should be able to handle it. 

Heads up! Todd is doing a webinar this Thursday, June 7th on Digital Dealer: Check it out!

More and more automotive brands are recognizing the value of live chat and OEMs such as Nissan and GM are suggesting that their dealerships use allocated funds towards chat. At ActivEngage, we are our own largest customer.  We use the very same live chat and real-time analytics reporting software we sell to dealers every day to engage visitors on our own website and to provide the managed live chat service for which we are so respected.

The analysis of more than one million live chat conversations allowed us to develop the following live chat deployment best practices. These are the same strategies that we employ on our website and recommend to our clients for the greatest success:

1) Avoid chat graphic styles and designs that blend in with the content and background of the webpage.
Chat graphics should be eye-catching and pop from the page so consumers take note of their location and availability. These graphics can help promote your brand, but should be quickly noticeable too!

2) Place chat buttons on the header of each web page.
If chat buttons are placed at the top of the page, they are more quickly and easily recognized by consumers. Our data shows the higher the button’s placement on the page, the higher the conversion rate of visitors to chats for your website.

3) Make sure the placement and design of chat graphics are consistent on all pages.  

Consistency allows users to easily recall chat button locations and readily engage in chat without having to search the website.

4) Keep visitors on your site while they engage with your social media.
A connectivity toolbar on each web-page will created an integrated social shopping experience for website visitors by allowing them to engage with your social content without leaving your site.  When used in conjunction with “forced” proactive invitations, connectivity toolbars achieve the highest conversion rate on non-inventory pages.

If you find that your website is lacking these strategies to great success, call your website/chat provider and they should be able to handle it. 

Heads up! Todd is doing a webinar this Thursday, June 7th on Digital Dealer: Check it out!

Do you hate seeing that your customers have unsubscribed from your email list? Do you loathe seeing them “unlike” your fan page. Do you cringe when your customers are no longer your Tweeps? Well, the average customer is bombarded with around 3,000 messages a day so more than likely, if they leave, they’re just not that into you.

How can you court your customers back and gain their grace? Easy! Personalize their shopping experience! Pitney Bowes asked 6,000 consumers across France, Germany, the UK, and the US, despite marketing efforts, why aren’t you into our brand?

According to the survey, customers are clear about what they want and expect from companies. They want personalization, some 59% of surveyed consumers said they appreciate personalization on websites, such as the greeting "Welcome, {customer name}." For transactional sites, especially when purchases are being made,  customers might find reassurance in seeing that the site recognizes them and their previous transactions. So, in other words, pay attention to your customer and their shopping history. Don’t mix them into one big pot and assume they all want the same things. Personalize their shopping experience!

As Dan Kohn, VP of Corporate Marketing at Pitney Bowes, Inc said, “This survey confirms that brands should listen to their customers before they send out their communications,”adding, “Every interaction must honor the interests of the customer first, only then is a relevant offer or call to action acceptable to consumers. Each conversation between a brand and a customer is an opportunity to delight or disappoint. We’re all learning how to do more of the former and less of the latter.”

Again, personalizing your emails, website, etc, is a top point to gain customers back. Customers want to know that you are listening to them and their concerns.  Here is the Survey Findings and the Do's and Don'ts of Brand Interactions with Customers:

1. Personalization
Do: Amp up the level of personalization on the Web (59% positive).
Don't: Let your call center reps get too chummy on the phone (70% negative).

2. Asking the Customer for Action
Do: Conduct customer feedback surveys regularly (75% positive).
Don't: Invite consumers to create their own home page (69% negative).

3. Frequency
Do: Send a special offer in the mail each month (74% positive).
Don't: Send weekly emails (89% negative).

4. Invitation to a Brand's Cause
Do: Keep customer forums related to customer service efforts, not marketing (81% positive).
Don't: Ask the customer to support the brand's charity (84% negative)

What other do’s and don’ts of brand interactions do you recommend? Post your thoughts below! And as, always, subscribe to our blog!

Do you hate seeing that your customers have unsubscribed from your email list? Do you loathe seeing them “unlike” your fan page. Do you cringe when your customers are no longer your Tweeps? Well, the average customer is bombarded with around 3,000 messages a day so more than likely, if they leave, they’re just not that into you.

How can you court your customers back and gain their grace? Easy! Personalize their shopping experience! Pitney Bowes asked 6,000 consumers across France, Germany, the UK, and the US, despite marketing efforts, why aren’t you into our brand?

According to the survey, customers are clear about what they want and expect from companies. They want personalization, some 59% of surveyed consumers said they appreciate personalization on websites, such as the greeting "Welcome, {customer name}." For transactional sites, especially when purchases are being made,  customers might find reassurance in seeing that the site recognizes them and their previous transactions. So, in other words, pay attention to your customer and their shopping history. Don’t mix them into one big pot and assume they all want the same things. Personalize their shopping experience!

As Dan Kohn, VP of Corporate Marketing at Pitney Bowes, Inc said, “This survey confirms that brands should listen to their customers before they send out their communications,”adding, “Every interaction must honor the interests of the customer first, only then is a relevant offer or call to action acceptable to consumers. Each conversation between a brand and a customer is an opportunity to delight or disappoint. We’re all learning how to do more of the former and less of the latter.”

Again, personalizing your emails, website, etc, is a top point to gain customers back. Customers want to know that you are listening to them and their concerns.  Here is the Survey Findings and the Do's and Don'ts of Brand Interactions with Customers:

1. Personalization
Do: Amp up the level of personalization on the Web (59% positive).
Don't: Let your call center reps get too chummy on the phone (70% negative).

2. Asking the Customer for Action
Do: Conduct customer feedback surveys regularly (75% positive).
Don't: Invite consumers to create their own home page (69% negative).

3. Frequency
Do: Send a special offer in the mail each month (74% positive).
Don't: Send weekly emails (89% negative).

4. Invitation to a Brand's Cause
Do: Keep customer forums related to customer service efforts, not marketing (81% positive).
Don't: Ask the customer to support the brand's charity (84% negative)

What other do’s and don’ts of brand interactions do you recommend? Post your thoughts below! And as, always, subscribe to our blog!