A basic guide to digital acronyms

In general marketers tend to use a lot of acronyms, from B2B to ROI, KPI to IO and so on. However, the sheer volume of acronyms used in digital marketing takes this to a whole new level. When starting in digital, the ease of recollection and frequency in which acronyms are thrown around can often be intimidating. So, here's a list of the most common acronyms that are used in digital marketing.

AR - Augmented Reality
CMS - Content Management System
CPC - Cost Per Click
CPM - Cost Per Thousand
CR - Conversion Rate
CRM - Customer Relationship Management
CTA - Call To Action
CTR - Click Through Rate
DM - Direct Mail
DMP - Data Management Platform
DR - Direct Response
ESP - Email Service Provider
FB - Facebook
FTP - File Transfer Protocol
GA - Google Analytics
HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language
HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
HTTPS - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure
IP - Internet Protocol
ISP - Internet Service Provider
PV - Page Views
RON - Run Of Network
ROS - Run Of Site
RT - Retweet
SEM - Search Engine Marketing
SEO - Search Engine Optimisation
SMO Social Media Optimisation
SMS - Short Message Service
UGC - User Generated Content
UV - Unique Visitor
VM - Viral Marketing
XML - Extensive Markup Language  

- Luke

Facebook ph-ph-phone?

Say what? When is Facebook going to stop expanding? Never- they have been rumoured to be bringing out a so called "Facebook Phone". Facebook is not actually manufacturing their phone, but more listing HTC as it's supplier and Facebook supplying the software.

Why would you want a phone that is purely built for Facebooking? Isn't that what the Facebook app is designed for on our phones? Well that 5 second wait to logging into your Facebook app takes too long. Basically this "Facebook Phone" is a personalised home page that connects you closer to your fellow friends. Notifications are now on the home page- no need to log on to the app!

Now this will be great for extreme social bunnys, making it quicker for them to reply back to messages and generally more efficient with responses. Facebook is on an never-ending quest to seamlessly integrating themselves into our lives. It seems that the gap between internet immersion and reality are slowly rolling into one. For example "Google Glass" gives users the chance to take "Google" with them on the road. Slowly but surely we are becoming cyborgs.

I'm not against the Facebook Phone, but I'm quite happy with my iPhone. I guess the only great thing about the Facebook Phone is when you are frustratingly trying to load the app and it continues to crash. Now if it is your homepage, no need to keep refreshing!

-Enna

Facebook new feature: the reply button

How many people noticed awhile back that Facebook gave us the ingenious idea to reply back to people's comment individually? Gone were the days of replying back with a tagged name on an never ending thread. Then suddenly, they took away this feature from brand pages but left it on personal profiles (It was a testing phase).

Now it's back for good and they've brought a new feature with it too. The most engaging comments will now be shown at the top- good and bad news.

The good news for marketers is that you can find out what is your most popular comments without scrolling through the hoards of comments. The bad news is that they maybe negative comments.

One annoying thing I find with this is that now all your fan's comments are out of order! Now when I go to check notifications, Facebook doesn't take me directly to the comment but to the thread. I will now miss out on following up on fan's comments because everything is out of order.

- Enna

Social Media Club (Part 2) - Social Media and PR

The second part of Auckland Social Media Club's first monthly seminar of 2013  focused on the use of social media as a avenue for PR. This centred around the recent launch of 'My Food Bag' which, pre-launch, targeted prominent media personalities that were active on Twitter to send samples to.

'My Food Bag' is a new concept targeted to affluent families. Based on the insight that many people tend to recycle the same recipes over and over again, 'My Food Bag' is a pre-packed bag of gourmet ingredients which are delivered to your door with an easy to follow recipe, so that you can avoid the hassle of shopping and also experience creating a new, tasty dish.

The main ideas shared from this campaign were quite common-sense and can be summed up as follows;

1) Target individuals with large followings who you believe will be an advocate of your product - this can apply to Twitter, blogs, Facebook etc.

2) Be open about sampling - do not try to hide or downplay that these individuals have been given free samples to try. Doing so may detract from the overall purpose of sparking conversation around the launch.

3) Don't dictate - it is generally agreed upon that you cannot tell an individual what to say (or not say). However, you can expect and tell them to use a hashtag (for Twitter) or keyword (e.g. product name) so that their review is easily found by others.

4) Don't expect too much - you need to realise that as careful as you are to select individuals for samples, not all of them will feel compelled to actually review it through a blog or social media. Through sampling across multiple campaigns  you can weed out those who do not contribute and keep sampling those who do.

5) The review belongs to the individual - if an individual is being criticised for accepting free product to review, it is generally agreed upon that it is the individual's reputation which is impacted, not the brands. If the individual is not up front about the sample being free, this will also affect the individual.

- Luke      

Social Media Club (Part 1) - Social Media and PR

Last night saw the first 2013 meeting of the Auckland Social Media Club's monthly seminars. Each month tackling a different topic in front of a panel consisting of a mixture of journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaboraters.

After initial introductions the evening turned to an overview of the key digital highlights from the recent South by Southwest festival, highlights of digital spurred advertising techniques which look to be used increasingly more include:

Big Data - Big data usually includes data sets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, curate, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big data sizes are a constantly moving target, as of 2012 ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of data in a single data set. Marketers look to increasingly utilise big data in order to tailor advertising solutions to individuals.  

Recommendation Engines - Recommendation engines are systems that seek to predict preferences based on previous behaviour (e.g. suggesting movies based on movies that an individual has previously viewed and enjoyed). These are already in place to some capacity through sites such as Facebook who recommend friends based on existing friends. Expect more sites and digital platforms to utilise this technology moving forward.  

'The internet of things' - This refers to uniquely identifiable objects and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure. The general idea is that equipping all objects in the world with minuscule identifying devices could be transformative of daily life. For instance, business may no longer run out of stock or generate waste products, as involved parties would know which products are required and consumed. One's ability to interact with objects could be altered remotely based on immediate or present needs, in accordance with existing end-user agreements.

Native advertising - This is focusing on advertising to individuals who will have an interest or find your advertising informative in some way. Current examples include Facebook's sponsored stories and Youtube's Trueview.  

While each of these started as ideas for specific platforms, they have proven so successful that they now look to be used more widely across marketing Initiatives. 

- Luke

Qloo

Sometimes it's difficult to find out new things without the "word of mouth" from friends and family. Or maybe you just don't have to time to go and search for new things? Here's one word that will solve your problems: Qloo.

What is Qloo? At first impression, I thought it was somewhat related to Glee (They share a VERY similar logo/font). Actually this platform is designed to put together recommendations/suggestions of music/clothing/restaurants/bars etc based on your current interests. This will be very handy if you've recently moved into a city/town and are having trouble finding places that cater to your interests.

I visited the gloo.com, but it is still in its final stages of beta. I've registered my "invitation", and hoping they will grant me access because I'm very interested in testing this out. Recently I've struggled to open myself up to new music and clothing lines. I found myself feeling comfortable to sticking to what I know, while being incomprehensible of how my friends are discovering new things. Qloo to me, is a way to make people become more cultured and it will definitely be good for businesses in the area.

- Qloo can suggest new films to entertain you.

-UI design is aesthetically pleasing.

What I'm looking forward to about Qloo is new music suggestions(I joined Spotify because I lacked the ability to discover new music now) and clothing labels... (I'm so sick of buying at Asos/Topshop/mid-class labels #becausetheyaretheonlyonesiknowonlinethatshipquicklytoNZ).

-Enna

Apple iWatch

Aren't we excited about the Google Glass (see post below)? I just wanted to add my two cents to this latest buzz around Google Glass. 

Now you know about the Google Glass, but what do you know about the iWatch? Who wears a watch nowaways? I certainly don't anymore- I rely 100% completely on my iPhone (yes, I had to name my phone as the iPhone itself has become a commodity. The need for smartphones has eliminated the need to use a watch to check our time. Our smartphones have been an extension of ourselves: we just can't leave without it or leave it alone. 

This sleek wristwatch is Siri-enabled and can take voice commands and keep you updated about emails, faccebook status updates and tweets while being wirelessly connected with your phone. However, this is all speculation and we don't know exactly what Apple are planning. I really do hope they can make a game changer as Samsung has released their Galaxy s4 which has generated much hype for Samsung. People are now awaiting Apple to bring out more innovative products as their iPhone5 was not too much different from its predecessors. On an interesting note, here is what Apple released to protect their iPhone5 against Samsung's new Galaxy.

- Mock up designs for the iWatch.

If this proves to be successful, this could be dangerous: our lives will be more completely immersed with technology. We would be eliminating the need to take our phone out to message because everything we need is now on our wrist. There are pros to this is that we won't lose our phones so easily! I unfortunately belong to the #Mybaghastoomanythingsinitandifreakoutwhenicantfindmyphone group. I'm all for Apple's iWatch idea and I think it's another solution to "hands-free" technology for driving. 

-Enna