2011 Marketing Milestones and Headlines
Social Media
In the last few years, the social landscape has exploded. New platforms and opportunities present themselves almost monthly. Companies are beginning to become much more sophisticated in their social marketing efforts. Social media is extending throughout organizations, from the marketing department, to sales, to customer service and beyond. Companies increased budgets allocated to social marketing and management with many also dabbling in social advertising. Much more emphasis was placed on social analytics to help brands evaluate which platforms were working, where opportunities lied and how to report ROI.
Content Marketing/Community Building
More and more companies/brands started their own thought-leadership blogs. New, interactive sites were created and dedicated to host relevant content and insight to retain and engage customers and fans. These sites incorporated technologies to allow for forums and chat so that customers can engage with one another, create dialogue and make for more of a community setting. Slideshare and many other content sharing sites have grown in popularity, allowing brands to provide valuable content to customers/fans.
Mobile
Fueled by ever-growing smartphone consumption and tablet takeover, more companies and brands adapted their marketing efforts to include more mobile emarketing campaigns, a focused search strategy, mobile advertising and social activities to meet the needs and wants of their customers. QR codes and location-based marketing campaigns took off. Businesses are asking customers to check-in and are providing some sweet incentives to do so.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
More and more brands strengthened their efforts when it came to CRM solutions. CRM solutions allow brands to gain a 360-degree view of their customers in order to improve quality, satisfaction and explore new opportunities. Brands have an edge over their competition when it comes to consumer data insight.
Multichannel Integration
Online and offline doesn’t exist anymore. We are seeing many more brands running real multichannel campaigns to target more people and provide them with the experience they want.
Viral Video Campaigns
More than 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, resulting in 8 years of content uploaded every day. Tens of millions of branded channels have been created. YouTube is the 2nd most popular search engine behind Google. Many brands picked up on this growth explosion and its SEM opportunities and started to create, post and promote many more grassroots-style videos to capture the potential to go viral.
2011 Marketing & Technology Headlines
• Google launches its own social platform, Google+, to compete with Facebook.
• The passing of Apple Co-Founder, design guru and technology titan, Steve Jobs.
• Twitter reaches 1 billion tweets per week.
• Apple’s iPhone 4S topped 4 million units sold worldwide over its launch weekend.
• Adobe puts end to its efforts with Flash Player for mobile devices.
• Skype sold to Microsoft.
• Twitter launches brand pages.
• Facebook launches new timeline layout and incorporates Skype.
• Apple iPad 2 sales broke quarterly sales records at 11.2 million units sold in early Q4 2011, but the Amazon Kindle Fire begins to affect sales with lower price point.
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