Why This Billion Dollar Fund Manager Is Betting Big on Facebook Inc

As Facebook (NASDAQ: FB  ) stock sets new all-time highs, pushing its valuation to the $250 billion milestone, it is pretty clear investors — individual and institutional alike — see a lot of good things ahead for the social media company. Even with a consensus stock price target of $96 per share, it is not hard to find investors who expect Facebook to easily surpass that price level.

This outperformance has caught the attention of Wall Street, including big hitters like Geode Capital Management. With over $200 billion in assets under management, its list of holdings runs into the hundreds, and one of the top bets is Facebook. As of this writing, Geode owns nearly $1.5 billion worth of Facebook stock, including approximately $700 million added during the first three months of 2015.

What’s not to like?
Video ads on Facebook are not entirely new: The company began testing the waters a couple of years ago, but the potential was obvious. In fact, for the lucky few that were included in the video ad testing phase, Facebook was reportedly asking for a cool $1 million a day for the privilege. Now, video spots have gone mainstream, and early indications are that video is everything Facebook, and investors, had hoped it would be.

According to one of Facebook’s primary marketing partners, the social network has taken an ever-increasing piece of its over two million advertisers’ budgets, and at least part of that trend is thanks to video spots. Video is already the fastest-growing advertising segment at the company. Considering it only unwrapped video spots across its massive 1.44 billion monthly average user (MAU) base a few months ago, that kind of early success should have digital ad king Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) (NASDAQ: GOOGL  ) on the alert.

With YouTube, Google remains the video leader, but the early success at Facebook cannot be ignored. It may actually be one reason the search leader is concentrating on better monetizing the site. News of a pending paid subscription service, the growing number of “skippable” ads, and a lot more time spent discussing YouTube on quarterly earnings calls may simply be a coincidence, or they may be signals that Google is focused on that opportunity, at least in part, due to Facebook’s success.

The next great thing(s)
Institutional investors like Geode can certainly hang their hat on video spots, growing MAUs, and strong mobile adoption. But what should really get Facebook fans excited is what lies on the horizon.

The $2 billion Facebook spent for Oculus and its Rift virtual reality (VR) headset last year was a head-scratcher for some. Hardware? What was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinking? It turns out, Zuckerberg was thinking about the $3 billion market VR is expected to become in just five years, thanks to a worldwide community of 1.2 billion gamers. Facebook has plans for Oculus that go well beyond gaming, but that alone should make the industry-leading Rift well worth the price tag.

Now, toss in the recent deal with new VR pal Microsoft to sync Rift with its popular Xbox console, and Oculus really begins to look like another growth driver. Scheduled for release in early 2016, Facebook shareholders will not have to wait long to begin seeing a return on the Rift investment.

Even more exciting for Geode and other Facebook investors was the recent news that the ad testing phase at Instagram has come to an end, and it is time to start monetizing what nearly every industry pundit agrees is a potential goldmine. Naturally, revenue estimates vary, but many suggest Instagram could generate nearly $6 billion annually by 2020 with some forecasts going much higher.

It is easy to see why there are so many Instagram bulls around. Its photo-sharing foundation is a natural conduit for thoughtful, targeted ads, which Facebook does extremely well. And with video spots in full-swing, Instagram and its 300 million plus MAUs are an ideal market for Facebook’s marketing partners — the app should help rein in even more brand name advertisers, an opportunity COO Sheryl Sandberg alluded to last quarter.

And that’s not all
In April of this year, WhatsApp announced it had surpassed the 800 million MAU benchmark, inching ever closer to the magical one billion. One billion MAUs is “magical” because Zuckerberg has said Facebook will not consider monetizing the service until there are one billion users. It appears that time is close at hand, which presents another tantalizing revenue opportunity.

Not be outdone, Facebook recently announced that its as-yet-unmonetized Messenger service also has over 700 million MAUs, up from 600 million just a few months ago. It is no wonder folks like Geode are adding to their already large stakes in Facebook: as impressive as its performance has been, the company is just scratching the surface.

This $19 trillion industry could destroy the Internet

One bleeding-edge technology is about to put the World Wide Web to bed. And if you act quickly, you could be among the savvy investors who enjoy the profits from this stunning change. Experts are calling it the single largest business opportunity in the history of capitalism… The Economist is calling it “transformative”… But you’ll probably just call it “how I made my millions.” Don’t be too late to the party — click here for one stock to own when the Web goes dark.

Tim Brugger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Facebook, Google (A shares), and Google (C shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook, Google (A shares), and Google (C shares). Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Why This Billion Dollar Fund Manager Is Betting Big on Facebook Inc

Is Facebook the new YouTube?

Retailers and brands are taking note as the world’s largest social network evolves into a platform where they can use videos to market their products.

With 1.441 billion monthly active users, Facebook Inc. is the largest online social network in the world. And it could soon surpass Google Inc.-owned YouTube as the primary platform where consumers view videos, according to a new report by U.K.-based consultancy Ampere Analysis.

Retailers and brands have taken note as Facebook bolsters its video ad units and businesses are increasingly turning to the social network to market their products via online videos, the report says.

The result is a new advertising “arms race,” according to Ampere, which notes that Facebook gives marketers a chance to reach consumers who might not see its ads on YouTube. That’s because roughly one-sixth of Facebook video viewers in May did not watch videos on YouTube in the past month, according to Ampere’s survey of more than 10,000 European and North American consumers.

One sign that marketers are taking notice of Facebook’s evolution into a videocentric platform is HBO this week offering free access on Facebook to the debut episodes of its series “Ballers” and “The Brink.” The episodes are not available on YouTube or other non-HBO digital platforms.

Facebook’s video ads are particularly attractive to marketers because the social network’s users are logged in, which means it often has more data about its user base than YouTube and its parent Google offers them. Marketers can use the Facebook information to target particular consumer segments, such as men between the ages of 18-25 who are interested in tennis who are in a brand’s email database (Google enables marketers to target consumers on YouTube based on their demographics, location and language, as well as by their apparent interests based on the videos they’ve viewed or if they have visited the retailer’s site or YouTube page).

That’s despite Facebook charging advertisers once three seconds of video have been delivered, which is far less marketer-friendly than YouTube, which only charges when the ad runs for its full duration or when the consumer engages with it.

While Facebook’s newfound video advertising strength is providing a new revenue channel, many marketers will continue to use YouTube, says Richard Broughton, Ampere’s research director.

“The scale of the two players is such that there is likely to be no speedy victory for one side or the other—years of competition are on the horizon,” he says. But as more marketers find video ads to be effective, it will likely result in more video ads on the platforms. 

Is Facebook the new YouTube?

Poling named new marketing project manager at GRSB

Kristi Poling has been hired as Grand Rapids State Bank’s marketing project manager. Poling will coordinate marketing projects for Grand Rapids State Bank and Minnesota Lakes Bank with emphasis on maintaining the company’s social media presence and on designing both banks’ marketing and communications materials. In this role she will report to Julie Birkey, marketing director.

“We are excited to have a person with Kristi’s skillset working for us,” said Birkey. “Her graphic design background will be an enormous asset for the marketing team and allow us to create the majority of our advertising materials in-house. Kristi will make the Minnesota Lakes Bank office in Mound her primary location, but will spend time in Grand Rapids, too.”

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Poling named new marketing project manager at GRSB

CashKaro may rope in 50 global retailers to India market

NEW DELHI: Online cashback and coupon site CashKaro.com is planning to list about 50 global retailers over the next six months, according to one of its founders, as the company seeks to strengthen its position in the Indian market.

About two months ago, CashKaro had signed a collaboration deal with Alibaba.com Wholesale one of the largest online market places. Among the retailers likely to feature on CashKaro are US-headquartered Macy’s, Banana Republic, Bloomingdale’s, Victoria’s Secret and Gap.

The UK sites could include River Island, Lookfantastic. com, BeautyExpert.com and House of Fraser, said Swati Bhargava, CashKaro’s co-founder. CashKaro, set up in mid 2013 by Swati and Rohan Bhargava, offers cashback and free coupons for more than 500 online shopping sites, including Amazon.in, Snapdeal, Paytm, Flipkart, Groupon, Jabong, Homeshop18, LensKart and FabFurnish.

The company, which competes with Pennyful and Cazbak, has been clocking average sales of Rs 45 crore every month for these shopping sites, Bhargava said. Till date, it has credited aboutRs 10 crore as cashback to users.

The company has registered a month-on-month growth of 30-40% in revenue, Bhargava said. “We want to be Fanli.com of China. Today, we see that e-commerce is one of the popular ways for global brands to test the India market,” said Bhargava.

Fanli.com is China’s largest discount site with about 70 million registered users. In April, Fanli had raised over $1 billion from Japanese ecommerce titan Rakuten. CashKaro has 500,000 registered members.

In an email interaction earlier, David Jaffe, affiliate marketing manager at The Hut Group UK’s leading multi-website online retailer which is in talks with CashKaro, had said, “We generally have good experiences with cashback sites as it’s a performance based model with a high RoI ratio. We tend to offer higher than base commission rates in order to secure newsletter, homepage and banner space, since cashback sites are targeted and have a high conversion rate.”

The online UK retailer has been associated with Pouring Pounds, the UK-based cashback and vouchers site run by CashKaro, for more than three years, and thus CashKaro was the obvious choice as affiliate partner for the Indian market.

CashKaro may rope in 50 global retailers to India market

Differences That You Might Not Have Been Aware Of-Affiliate Program

By distributing the ads on your website and mine, they stand to gain more exposure, regain advertising funds quicker and also pay us good money!The reason Adsense has become so popular is because it allows websites like ours to earn good money from the commissions Google receives from advertisers. By just placing a couple of ads on the site, you can earn a good commission percentage. However, there are certain drawbacks that an Adsense program has.

One good thing about Adsense is its immediate ability to boost your page ranking and popularity on search engines. That way you tend to receive a lot of traffic to your affiliate site. Also, people with affiliate programs on their site can actually look at Adsense as an alternate way of supplementing their income. Adsense lets you monitor which ads are performing and earning you most income. They do this by placing some Javascript code into your site which monitors the performance.

Most of the time the traffic that comes to your site will most likely not find what they are looking for, on your site alone. That’s where Adsense helps you. One good thing about Adsense is its immediate ability to boost your page ranking and popularity on search engines. That way you tend to receive a lot of traffic to your affiliate site. Also, people with affiliate programs on their site can actually look at Adsense as an alternate way of supplementing their income. In order to make your Adsense program most profitable as part of your affiliate program, you need to ensure you have contextual and relevant ads placed on your site. Else it defeats the very purpose.

You want customers to click on these ads if they don’t find something on your site. Hence it needs to be closely related to your website theme and your own products. Most contextual ads are characterized by lots of clicks but poor conversion rates. So make sure to test these ads out before placing them on your site. Pros and cons Both affiliate marketing and Google’s Adsense have their own pitfalls and benefits. Here we explain the pros and cons of each.Both Adsense as well as affiliate marketing have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Affiliate program methods can be utilized quite easily but you are going to have to study things over in the beginning so that you do not make too many mistakes. Therefore, the best approach would be to balance the two to maximize your income potential online. You could have content on your site which you are interested in, while combining it with Adsense revenues. Every site needs plenty of effort. You need to spend time in creating product reviews, email list creation as well as web content creation – which can take up considerable time.Main focus is on creating and building email lists since they are the backbone for all promotional efforts.

Differences That You Might Not Have Been Aware Of-Affiliate Program

Web-marketing sessions planned

The Ohio Small Business Development Center at Kent State University at Stark will host two web-marketing sessions with Eric Spellmann, president of Spellmann & Associates, a technology company offering online marketing, social media management and website design.

The sessions will take place July 21, beginning with a continental breakfast at 7:30 a.m. The first session, “How to Drive Visitors to Your Website Without Paying Anything Per Click,” will take place from 8 to 9:30 a.m.

The second, “Turning Clicks into Clients,” will be from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Both will take place at the Kent State University at Stark Conference Center, 6000 Frank Ave. NW.

Registration is $29.95 and includes an access code to Spellmann’s webinars. Registration and payment must be made at www.cantonsbdc.org. For more details, contact the Small Business Development Center at 330-244-3290 or info@cantonsbdc.org. Call 330-244-3239 for TDD only. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance.

Web-marketing sessions planned

Ben Black Hired as New Online Marketing Assistant at The Clix Group - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY Clix | Posted: Thursday, June 25, 2015 02:42 PM

The Clix Group is proud to announce the recent hire of Ben Black as online marketing assistant. He brings an enthusiasm and a skillset for inbound marketing tactics and email marketing. Being well versed in social media digital strategy has allowed him to easily spot trends and stay current on the ever-changing digital landscape.

His experience with creating content for a diverse portfolio of clients provides an added level of depth in SEO optimization for websites and predicting future marketing trends. Additionally, Ben is able to pair his analytical process with clients’ goals to create a winning strategy. Also, being a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog never hurts, if we’re keeping track of that sort of thing anyway.

The Clix Group has gained a valued asset in the form of Ben Black. As Jason Hylan, CEO of The Clix Group stated, “With the recent hire of Ben Black, we have solidified yet another prong in our online marketing strategy and he will make a great impact on our client’s search engine marketing campaigns. He possesses a discriminate eye that is able to examine the most minute details of each campaign and that can be the difference between a success or failure in search engine marketing.”

About Clix

The Clix Group, or simply Clix, is a reputable and experienced Internet marketing company with locations in St. Louis, San Francisco, and Little Rock. The Clix Group specializes in search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), website design and development services. Its mission is to provide our clients with unparalleled value by delivering results, being responsive and being personal. For almost two decades, the members of Clix have helped local and national companies build or expand their presence online. For more information, visit http://www.clixfuel.com, call 314-222-2582, or email clix@clixfuel.com.

Posted on Thursday, June 25, 2015 02:42 PM  | Tags: Business , Job Changes (promotions, etc.) , Local News , Technology

Ben Black Hired as New Online Marketing Assistant at The Clix Group - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

5 Reasons You Need to Be Targeting Mobile Email Users

In recent years, a growing percentage of people have made the transition from desktop to mobile, choosing the latter as their leading digital platform. Web browsing, online shopping and checking emails on mobile have become the norm, especially when all it takes is just a few apps to consume your time with. Mobile has become our “friend”, replacing the same role the desktop filled not too long ago. In order to maintain that friendship, here are a few reasons why it’s important to target mobile users, especially via emails.

1. Mail is more popular on mobile. Fact.

According to a study conducted last summer, 52% of Americans prefer surfing on mobile over the traditional desktop platform. The numbers may not come as a surprise, as the importance of mobile in our daily lives increases by the hour, including our emails.

Since 2011, there’s been a tremendous growth for emails on mobile platforms, slowly but steadily replacing the desktop as the preferred choice for opening emails. For the past 4 years, email opening on smartphones and tablets has increased with an astounding 500%. These days, more than 50% open emails on their smartphones rather than desktops. The numbers don’t lie – with the steady growth of email apps and mobile consumption, more people will shift to mobile emails, and that’s where the targeting focus should be.

2. MMM = Mail’s Making Money

It’s all about the money, and a recent study shows that mobile is gaining plenty by email clicks. According to Yesmail, an email marketing solutions provider, mobile email revenue has risen in 12% from Q4 2014 to Q1 2015, and the numbers are expected to grow even more as the year winds down.

Recommended for YouWebcast: Answers to the Top 10 Email Marketing Questions

The statistics are even more astonishing, as 45% of email opens have occurred on mobile while 36% were done on desktop, indicating how mobile email has become more popular. However, one head popping question comes to mind – how did mobile email revenue grow when basically emails apps don’t cost a thing?

Social media and messaging apps are usually free of charge, and the same applies to email apps, as mobile users wouldn’t purchase a service they wouldn’t pay for on desktop. Yet, mobile email didn’t earn money miraculously – like any good app or service, it finds ways to make money. It all depends on the users.

3. Everything’s become smarter. Even emails.

Mobile users became smarter with time, knowing what suits them right. A top reason for the success of mobile email is the fact that users have a better knowledge of what they’re looking for, especially when it comes to apps. Mobile users wish to save their time while browsing on their smartphones, and checking emails is a time consuming action, especially at work. And as the old saying goes – time is money. Many users have reached the conclusion that if they’re already reading emails on their phones, then why go through all the trouble of viewing their mail accounts when those can be combined? The same users decided to make their email accounts clutter free, using apps like MailWise to keep all their emails in one place. This move may sound trivial, but for many users, this may be equivalent to an epiphany.

4. Making purchases via emails.

When reading emails, many users take the time to go over social and promotional updates, checking out online sales and bargains, along with reading the standard work emails. Then again, the idea of bidding for that item on the eBay app suddenly doesn’t sound too bad. Moreover, in 2014, e-commerce, and online sales have generated an amazing revenue of $304,100,000,000. With the growing use of smartphones and phablets for online shopping, the numbers will keep getting bigger by the end of the decade.

Not only will mobile sales improve and have better conversion rates, as mobile technology and its accompanying devices will enhance rapidly as well. The mobile experience is consistently improving, and each generation of smartphones outdoes its prior. Smartphones have become bigger, better, faster, and more important – becoming a product which is our second nature.

5. The ads do work.

An integral part of that nature is to click, stop and shop till we drop. In this case, all done with the touch of our fingers. The same fingers that click on emails will continue to push the “buy” button, generating revenue for retailers, emails and any company or app that does business on mobile.

Mobile users are apparently a great target for advertisers. Contrary to popular belief, mobile ads draw not only clicks, but conversions as well. Although users don’t click on too many mobile ads, it’s still a good way to catch their attention, especially if the ads are located in their email apps. The clicks won’t always lead to a purchase, but they will lead to your product, and that’s a start.

Looking for the perfect experience.

Mobile users have become smart users, as they are always looking for the best experience when browsing on various apps. Mobile companies are aware of that need and work their way to supply that demand, searching for the best ways to improve their products and services. Shopping apps, mobile and desktop alike, aren’t the only apps that will continue their steady improvement – email apps will also be easier to handle, giving a better user experience and a friendlier approach for reading multiple emails and maintaining accounts. Mobile consumers will always look for ways to simplify the experience of online shopping. Their wishes will be granted when email and shopping apps will integrate better, the buying process will become easier, giving users the experience they’re looking for, as well as generating revenue for mobile emails, which function much more than just for reading mail at home or at work.

5 Reasons You Need to Be Targeting Mobile Email Users

Sticky Web Media Debuts Complimentary eBook to Build eCommerce Apparel Business Success

Sticky Web Media, a leading full-service digital marketing agency, has announced the availability of a new complimentary ebook designed to help ecommerce apparel companies experience success.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 24, 2015

Sticky Web Media has today announced the publication of a complimentary ebook designed to provide ecommerce apparel business owners with an in-depth understanding of the industry and to debunk myths that can easily derail success.

“At Sticky Web, we believe in giving our clients and potential clients more,” explains company founder Tony Tateossian. “I believe that every business owner should experience success, and this book is one way we help ensure that’s possible.”

Entitled 10 Secret Ingredients to Make Your Online Business Successful, the new book offers 100 pages filled with expert opinion and advice from successful ecommerce business owners and Internet marketing experts provided in a friendly, accessible format. Included in those pages are the top five myths that all too often lead to failure, including:

1.    A strong market name will make up for the lack of a good website.
2.    Blog writing is a waste of time and energy that could be better used elsewhere.
3.    Affiliate marketing is too costly, and a team of experts offers better chances of success.
4.    The only thing needed to improve SEO is using more keywords in the copy.
5.    Ecommerce isn’t really necessary as long as a business can use wholesale.

“Ecommerce is booming,” Tateossian adds. “We brought together thought leaders and industry experts to create the single most important guide for business owners moving online and unsure of the ecommerce sector.”

10 Secret Ingredients to Make Your Online Business Successful contains essential steps to effective online business management, as well as information to help business owners understand the radical changes in customer relationship management created by social media. Without knowledge of how to use ecommerce successfully, businesses are at a significant disadvantage.

To learn more about Sticky Web Media’s services or to download the new ebook, visit http://www.StickyWebMedia.com.

About Sticky Web Media: Sticky Web Media began as an SEO company in 2009 and has transitioned to a full-service digital marketing agency today. The company offers a broad range of essential digital marketing services designed to help clients build success in the online and offline environment.
Contact: Tony Tateossian
Name: Sticky Web Media

Phone: (213) 377-5133

Web Address: http://www.StickyWebMedia.com
Email: Sales(at)StickyWebMedia(dot)com
Source: Tony Tateossian

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/StickyWebMedia/Free-eBook-to-Build-eCom/prweb12807358.htm

Sticky Web Media Debuts Complimentary eBook to Build eCommerce Apparel Business Success

Mondelez partners with Facebook to sell more cookies online

Mondelez International has renewed its global strategic partnership with Facebook. The renewed partnership will focus on creating and delivering creative video content and “driving impulse snack purchasing online”, said Mondelez in a statement.

According to the statement, the companies will work together to innovate around two of the fastest growing consumer behaviors on social media platforms: video consumption and mobile commerce.

On the video front, a dedicated, full-time Facebook creative strategist will work alongside Mondelez International marketers and its agencies to develop scalable video content natively for the platform to optimise social engagement. In addition, Facebook will be responsible for developing playbooks, webinars and eLearning modules that create a unified approach to developing content for the platform across Mondelez International brands.

“The partnership with Facebook is a core element of our fearless marketing vision which aims at accelerating growth through transformational marketing. Investing in large-scale media partnerships enables us to connect our brands with consumers in new creative ways,” said Dana Anderson, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Mondelez International.

The partnership also includes opportunities to opt into beta-testing programs on Facebook and Instagram. Brokered in conjunction with Dentsu Aegis Media, the agreement covers 52 countries.

“Our recent campaigns with brands like Philadelphia in Europe have demonstrated that we can deliver engaging, tailor-made video on Facebook and seamlessly convert that content into purchases,” said Gerry D’Angelo, media director Europe at Mondelez International. D’Angelo added that partnering with Facebook allows the company to leverage Facebook’s video platform, which is currently the fastest-growing.

“Combined with their unparalleled reach and social sharing capabilities, we have the opportunity to make Facebook our single largest-selling channel,” D’Angelo said.

On the e-commerce front, Mondelez International and Facebook will work together to test scalable solutions to drive impulse purchases with some of the company’s Power Brands across key markets such as Australia, India, the U.K. and the U.S.

“Facebook is the number one player in mobile, and its ability to reach millennial consumers, our primary target audience, is what makes our partnership so invaluable,” said Cindy Chen, global head of e-commerce at Mondelez International.

She explained that used by consumers and distributors alike, Facebook is the ideal channel for the company on “cracking the code on how to ‘sell a cookie online” and creating a “true social digital commerce model” with the potential to become its largest digital storefront.”

“Working with partners like Mondelez International inspires us to build innovative programs and impactful campaigns that drive business results,” said Carolyn Everson, VP global marketing solutions, Facebook. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to co-create the future of mobile commerce together.”

Mondelez partners with Facebook to sell more cookies online

New USD Major Prepares Students For Sports Marketing & Media Careers

VERMILLION – When it comes to career opportunities, the University of South Dakota believes sports is more than fun and games.

In fact, the sports industry has become a booming business.

In response, USD is adding an undergraduate degree in sports marketing & media starting this fall on the Vermillion campus. It will teach broad skills in marketing, advertising and public relations, event management and law/ethics. Students can then create a specialized major.

Michelle Van Maanen, chair of USD’s Media & Journalism Department, said the program will help fill demand in the sports and sports entertainment industry.

“A Bloomberg Businessweek article … noted that ‘the sports industry in the U.S. is a $200 billion-plus powerhouse,’” she said.

She predicted the new USD program will draw national attention.

“The new major is not only unique in the region,” she said. “There are only a handful of programs in the country that combine the areas of sport marketing & media.”

By combining sports marketing and media, students will understand how the sports industry as entertainment and a leisure pursuit — serves the public’s needs, she said.

Classes will be taught through four existing majors: kinesiology and sport science, media & journalism, communication studies and business marketing.

Students can design their major to fit their specialized interests, VanMaanen said.

“For example, if they are interested in multimedia design for scoreboard or online media products, they might emphasize graphic design and video courses,” she said. “Or, if they are interested primarily in marketing, they would select the advertising, sports marketing, social media marketing and business electives.

“Students interested in sport journalism careers would take such courses as sports writing, video production, digital imaging and sports broadcasting.”

　

NEW POSSIBILITIES

The South Dakota Board of Regents recently approved the major. However, the program has been under discussion for at least three years, Van Maanen said. In early 2014, Berkeley Research Group consultants believed it was good timing for adding the sports marketing and media program.

The sports industry has seen tremendous growth fueled by the rise of social media, televised coverage, online streaming and extensive marketing, Van Maanen said.

“The online content has exploded,” she said. “There’s a high level of interest in sports and a growing awareness of expanded career opportunities in the field.”

The new major and minor will use existing resources as well as faculty reassigned to new courses supporting the major. The increased enrollment created by the major will contribute to its ongoing support.

Even before it starts, the USD program has drawn strong interest from current and prospective students, Van Maanen said.

“We have heard from a significant number of existing USD students who plan to transfer into the program, and word is traveling fast beyond campus,” she said. “I have already met with a number of high school students who are interested in learning more about the program. We anticipate a graduation rate of approximately 15 students annually.”

Graduates of the new major can work at every level, but especially in marketing, media and managerial positions in the industry, Van Maanen said. Those fields include pro sports teams, high school and college teams, facility management, the sporting goods industry, resorts, fundraising, event management and fitness companies.

Those graduates can find a wide variety of careers in the immediate area, she said. She pointed to professional sports teams such as the Sioux Falls Stampede, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Sioux Falls Canaries and Sioux Falls Storm as well as teams in Rapid City, Sioux City and throughout the Midwest.

　

DRAWING ON CONTACTS

In designing the new major, USD officials consulted with professionals in the industry, including USD alumnus John Gillis. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mass communication from the Vermillion campus. He has served for 26 years — currently as the associate director of development — for the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHSAA).

“He’s an insider in the industry who knows its career potential,” Van Maanen said. “He has hired USD interns in the past and has provided input on program changes.”

Gillis pointed to the wide variety of opportunities with the new USD program.

“I feel that this academic major has unlimited potential as it can be used in several settings,” he said.

For example, NFHSAA combines marketing and media on a daily basis to promote various national programs and initiatives, he said.

“As we seek corporate sponsors for those programs and initiatives, we use all kinds of media to reach those goals — which (today) includes the Internet and social media — in addition to ‘traditional

The USD sports marketing and media program didn’t exist when Gillis was in college However, he said his USD education and work experience have allowed him to adapt to today’s sports environment. He described himself as a type of “hybrid staff member with one foot in media and the other in sports marketing.

“However, a person who graduates with USD’s new academic degree would do so already possessing the knowledge that it took me years to gain through practical work experience,” he said. “Without question, this is an extremely valuable academic program.”

　

GETTING TO WORK

The new USD program requires internships for the major, Van Maanen said. Each department supporting the major offers an internship coordinator.

“We have had many interns work within the sports industry, so the ties to the profession already exist,” she said.

USD coordinated the new major among various departments based on industry contacts, Van Maanen said. Each department plans to tailor new courses to meet changing industry needs.

“There are many career possibilities that do not fall neatly into the area of a single college department,” she said. “The sports industry is a good example of that.”

Gillis feels confident about the new program, given his familiarity with USD academic offerings, particularly the Department of Media & Journalism.

“I strongly believe that USD’s course offerings and sports marketing major would compare extremely favorably with any such similar course offerings and majors at other universities around the nation,” he said.

Van Maanen believes graduates of the new sports marketing & media major will definitely be at the top of their game, so to speak.

“There is a lot of excitement about the new major and minor, just like there is in the sporting industry in general,” she said.

———

For more information on courses, curriculum and requirements, visit the Sport Marketing & Media section of the USD Catalog.

Follow @RDockendorf on Twitter.

New USD Major Prepares Students For Sports Marketing & Media Careers

Accelerize Rating Lowered to Sell at Zacks (ACLZ)

Accelerize (NASDAQ:ACLZ) was downgraded by Zacks from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued on Monday.

According to Zacks, “Accelerize Inc. is an online based media and customer acquisition solutions provider. It owns and operates CAKE, a software-as-a-service enterprise platform providing online tracking and analytics solutions for advertisers, affiliate marketers, and lead generators. The Company also offers cupCAKE, a campaign management solution for small and medium sized affiliate marketers. Accelerize Inc., formerly known as Accelerize New Media, Inc., is headquartered in Newport Beach, California. “

Accelerize (NASDAQ:ACLZ) traded down 2.68% on Monday, hitting $1.45. The stock had a trading volume of 1,000 shares. Accelerize has a one year low of $0.87 and a one year high of $1.80. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $1. and its 200-day moving average is $1..

Accelerize (NASDAQ:ACLZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the analysts’ consensus estimate of ($0.02) by $0.01. Analysts expect that Accelerize will post $-0.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Separately, analysts at Aegis initiated coverage on shares of Accelerize in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock.

Accelerize Inc owns and operates CAKE, and getcake.com, a marketing technology that provides a suite of marketing intelligence tools. The Company’s software-as-a service (NASDAQ:ACLZ) is an enterprise solution providing online tracking and analytics solutions for advertisers and online marketers.

To get a free copy of the research report on Accelerize (ACLZ), click here. For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

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Accelerize Rating Lowered to Sell at Zacks (ACLZ)

Difference Between An Affiliate & Super Affiliate

Summary:

The vast majority of affiliate marketing sites online are run by people who have no great interest in turning a huge profit. For example, you’ll find thousands of blogs where people put up a few Amazon listings and/or Google links on the off chance that a passing browser will click on them.

This article from The Online Master is about: affiliate programs money making at home

Difference Between An Affiliate & Super Affiliate

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Super Affiliate! Corny, but “super affiliate” is the new buzzword for affiliates who are both ambitious and successful at affiliate marketing. There are wild claims online about affiliate marketing: Make Millions Overnight! Never Work Again! Unfortunately, these claims are usually false. To go from being a plain affiliate to super affiliate takes a lot of work. In short, you need to be an affiliate of steel.

The vast majority of affiliate marketing sites online are run by people who have no great interest in turning a huge profit. For example, you’ll find thousands of blogs where people put up a few Amazon listings and/or Google links on the off chance that a passing browser will click on them. That’s all well and good, but this is no way to make a dent in the affiliate marketing game. To be a super affiliate, you need to treat affiliate marketing as a job, not just something that you do on the side to put a couple of bucks in your pocket.

There is a misconception that affiliate marketing is not a real business. After all, the affiliate is not putting out a product. This is patently false. Even though an affiliate marketer is not manufacturing a product, he or she is still offering the product up for sale. An affiliate marketer still needs to be in charge of search engine optimization, custom content, quality web design, financial management, and everything else that goes into running a successful e-business. As with any business, an affiliate marketing plan is only as strong as the amount of work you put into it.

A super affiliate will be able to turn as hefty a profit as a standard business

Difference Between An Affiliate & Super Affiliate

How digital marketing can help local banks attract – and keep – customers

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The days of most companies solely turning to print media and television ads to market their products and services are long gone. But some community banks have been slow to get the message and are missing out on instituting strong digital and social media strategies to draw and retain new customers.

“In general, banks have a case of marketing myopia. They are fixed into the rhythm and routine of what they’ve done in the years past,” said Jacques Hart, CEO of Miami-based Roar Media. “However, the media and social media landscape has been turned upside down and a ‘years-past mentality’ doesn’t cut it.”

Because of regulations in place to protect customer and bank information, a financial institution has to be very cautious with its marketing, and that can slow a bank’s social media strategy. That’s particularly true of smaller banks that often lack the resources needed for a full-blown digital marketing team.

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“Compliance is a thorn in traditional marketers’ sides, and it’s a big thorny bush for digital marketers,” Hart said. But today’s banking customers expect digital and social marketing, and by employing a smart digital strategy, banks can be both safe and maintain an active presence online, he added.

Banks are limited in how transparent they can be when it comes to social media, but a lackluster corporate Twitter account doesn’t mean that banks are behind the times when it comes to technology. In fact, on the backend security and support and customer-facing sides, banks are extremely innovative.

“They are geared, in general, on how a customer can bank now. At the ATM, online, mobile,” Hart said. “The flip side is that while banks have really innovated with their service availability, they haven’t with their digital and social marketing to drive customer engagement.”

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How digital marketing can help local banks attract – and keep – customers

Content Marketing by Connecting the Data Dots

One of the biggest challenges of marketing anything online is integrating data (i.e., managing, interpreting, connecting and efficiently acting on all data) you have access to in the quickest way possible to make the most of each of your investments. The challenge in managing online marketing lies in being able to connect one insight from one source to another insight from a different source to devise the best strategy possible.

Disjointed Data Creates a Jumbled Picture

Imagine you have high engagement for a twitter campaign in which you invested X dollars. You’ve acquired new followers on your Twitter account, so that’s one KPI, but what about clicks to your campaign’s landing page?

You can also see that Y number of people landed on the website by way of that Twitter campaign, so you’ve also increased traffic—another KPI.

But who are those people that visited? Have they visited before? What’s more, how do you retarget them? Via an email campaign? A message on LinkedIn or Twitter? Finally, how do you filter through the noise so that you do not waste resources on dead ends? And how do you do that without spending hours figuring it out?

There are a lot of tools out there that claim to do everything, and many of them have very complete systems—particularly when it comes to managing marketing automation. In many cases, however, such software carries pricey licenses, making it unfeasible for both small and large companies.

Moreover, most tools focus heavily on one particular strength—whether it’s listening, content curation, amplification, social media management, tracking users’ activity, identifying users or facilitating and automating email marketing.

So, as a marketer trying to build an efficient system whereby you’ll get the most out of your communication and marketing investments, how do you address these issues? Whether your company has a large budget to invest in a completely integrated system or you have to make due with previously purchased tools and build a system piece by piece on your own, the questions are the same:

1. Where are you hemorrhaging data?


2. Are you under-utilizing available resources?


3. How easy is it to connect data from one tool to the next?

1. Make the Most of the Data You Have

No matter what type of campaign you’re executing, you need to track all the data associated with each element of communication for every channel you utilize.

Can you answer the following questions for each new content piece you create and distribute?

What kind of content works?

What are the tone, topic and format of your best content pieces? The answers give you an indication of which subjects are the most interesting for your audiences so that you can produce more in the same vein.

Where did you receive the most conversions?

Was it a social media campaign, AdWords or a display campaign? Paired with sentiment analysis above, you can discern two things: X content is really effective on Y channel. Next time, you will know what kind of content to promote and the best way/platform to share it.

Who did you attract?

This is the most challenging part, so you’ll need to rely on tools that combine tracking and databases to give you the best idea about who is coming to your site. The real challenge is figuring out which one best suits your business needs.

At the most basic level, you should track IP addresses to identify the companies visiting your site. If you have an internal database, you should also track at an individual level to further understand who they are (e.g. the CMO at Company X) and how best to reach them (e.g. email, social media or phone).

What was the reaction to your communication?

Listening tools are a powerful way to learn what’s trending and determine which topics to touch on in your content strategy. It’s also a nice way to gauge whether you are making an impression (positive or negative) within your target communities.

2. Encourage Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy boosts your content marketing strategy by:

• serving as a test pool for your contents’ appeal


• increasing the organic reach of your content without spending more on paid media


• increasing the trust associated with your content (because it is a form of word of mouth marketing)

Whether you are already engaged in employee advocacy or just getting started, the following steps are crucial to get the most out of your efforts: track, track and track. Make sure your employee advocacy tool can do the following:

• Track the kinds of content being shared among employees, as well as end user audiences. This allows you to compare listening tool data with sharing data. It can also help refine the topics in your content calendar.


• Track the reach and engagement generated by your employees.Celebrate the work of employees who continually write engaging posts that gain a lot of traction on social media. This not only rewards those who are succeeding, but also helps educate employees on the best tactics and practices.


• Target your content to the right employees. Employees are more likely to share content that is relevant to them. Each business unit that is engaged in your employee advocacy initiative should be creating and sharing marketing content that makes sense to them and their respective job functions.

3. Connect the Data Dots

Before you take the time and effort to build a workflow around tools and the data they help manage, it’s essential that you understand how (if at all) they integrate with one with another.

Total integration isn’t always possible, but if you can at least connect a group of tools (e.g. social media campaigns that feed into lead tracking tools and CRM systems or listening tools and content marketing databases that connect with employee advocacy and amplification platforms) then you are almost there.

The idea is to track content from its point of origin to the point of engagement, which then triggers an outbound marketing treatment or kicks off a lead nurturing cycle. It’s better to determine that integration isn’t possible early on and avoid the tool altogether than to be knee-deep in a campaign with mountains of data that you can’t take action on.

Focus on the Big Picture

The most important point to draw from all of this is to make sure you build a system that makes sense for your workflow and your company’s current capacity—whether it’s in terms of human resources, budget or scope of marketing activity.

Don’t over-invest in tools you do not need, but rather look at what you are doing now and find out where you need to plug the data leaks. Power your current marketing activities by making sure you are making the most of every single click and potential lead by finding a way to collect, connect and evaluate your data. That’s the aim of the game.

Content Marketing by Connecting the Data Dots

How Can CMOs Make Sense of Big Data?

As with so many other areas of the modern economy, marketing has been revolutionized in the past few years by the growth of data analytics. Marketing teams and chief marketing officers (CMOs) are using big data for search engine optimization (SEO), e-mail marketing, customer segmentation, loyalty and rewards programs, and overall marketing strategy.

While the vast majority of marketers understand the need for gathering and analyzing data, many still struggle with determining the best way to use that data. A recent survey showed that 45 percent of marketing executives rated their team’s use of data and analytics tools below proficient.

It’s clear many CMOs are still in the process of truly figuring out big data. One thing is certain, we know it can make us smarter. Big data is being tasked to provide a “direct measurable impact on knowing the value of budget dollars in marketing,” according to Carl Tsukahara, CMO of cloud business intelligence provider, Birst.

Aligning Data with Objectives

A Gartner study found that the top three priorities for CMOs are:

• Driving their company’s growth


• Responding to any competitive threats


• Delivering an outstanding customer experience

The question, then, is how data analytics can help marketers measure the success of their campaigns in meeting these goals. Too often, marketers view this data gathering and analysis as a passive process. They run the same campaigns and just use data to track things like hits and conversions, maybe tinkering with their strategy if certain elements are working better.

A more useful way to utilize big data is to be proactive about experimentation, trying out unique campaigns and targeting, then figuring out what works through data analytics. You want to marry human creativity that can’t be contained in raw numbers with the analytical rigor to establish which efforts need to be pursued further.

On the customer experience side of the equation, big data can be used to anticipate customer needs. You want to develop a platform that is immediately responsive to customer requests, and that means tracking user activity and feedback on your site in order to determine their primary needs.

Getting to the Core Metrics

CMOs need to determine how to make the transition from big data to useful data. Often, marketing teams get so overwhelmed with the sheer volume of data they receive from CRMs, databases, market research and other sources that they end up losing the forest for the trees.

The key step for marketers is to figure out which metrics are essential to their brand, and which are merely interesting factoids. That means determining which metrics are most closely correlated with key brand objectives such as sales growth, market share and customer retention.

According to Azita Martin, CMO of big data analytics and visualization company, Datameer, essential data metrics are those that clearly identify what gets prospects to convert to customers, and identifies which campaigns have had the most impact on customer acquisition. On the brand awareness side, brand mentions and search, media impressions, social media mentions, and number of social media followers are essential metrics to understanding customer interaction.

“Nice-to-have” metrics, on the other hand, while important for understanding the overall health of marketing, are less immediate. “Those metrics which are more the ‘canary in the coal’ mine ones,” explains Wynn White, CMO of converged data specialists, Druva.  “You want to track them because they show trends in the business that when take a dip (or spike) means something is probably not working the way it is supposed to and gives you an area of focus in which to drill into,” White concludes.

The most obvious example of the kind of data points that might not have much of an impact on sales are things like Twitter followers, Facebook likes, etc. If you’re increasing your followers but not growing sales, then those followers aren’t doing you any good. Find the metrics that are essential to your business, have tangible links to your key objectives, and experiment with ways to improve those metrics.

The Human Element

People sometimes bemoan how the increased volume of data in all walks of life seems to hide people behind statistics, but the truth is exactly the opposite. Data is a way to understand people and it requires an investment in your own human capital to understand.

A recent Adobe survey of marketing professionals found that many companies lack the analytical skills to properly make use of their data. Machines can gather data, but it takes people with analytical and creative minds to turn all those numbers into actionable insights. “The job market has not caught up to the reality of this role, nor has the marketing community in general,” explains Jason Rose, SVP Marketing at human data platform, DataSift.

That’s why employment growth for statisticians is expected to significantly outpace the overall labor market over the next decade. In addition to investing in their own people, marketers need to think of data as a way to understand their customers as people. The end goal of data analytics is to be able to respond to individual needs.

Reflecting on his own recent hiring experience trying to find a qualified marketing analyst, Rose advises, “I would consider not including marketing in the job spec and finding a general “kick-butt” analyst who can crunch numbers.”

And those numbers may be getting more and more finite, as executives have gone so far as to say that big data means customer segmentation will become irrelevant. Businesses will eventually need to understand each customer as an individual, some predict.

“Marketers will say my job has always been to understand customers segments,” says IBM CEO Ginni Rommetty. “The shift is to go from the segment to the individual. It spells the death of the average customer.”

How Can CMOs Make Sense of Big Data?

4 Reasons Social Media Marketing May Not Be Working for Your Business

You can make social media marketing work. I’m not going to lie – it’s hard and does take time, but it can work.

I come across business owners everyday who struggle with using social media in their business’ marketing plan. I eat, live and breathe it so it’s like second-nature to me, however most business owners are focused on what their business does, whether it be food or clothes or B2B services.

If social media isn’t working for your business, you need to figure out why. There’s always a reason something isn’t working or lining up. Figuring out what it is will help you know what to fix in order for it to work because when it does work, it’s a beautiful thing.

So let’s take a look at why social media marketing may not be working for you right now.

You’re trying to do every platform.

I understand wanting your business to be everywhere, but realistically, it can’t (not unless you hire a person for each social media platform). If you attempt to give every platform 100%, you are going to fail. You’ll spread yourself thin and things will fall through the cracks. What I suggest is to start with the platform that the majority of your market is on. Start with one and give it 110%. Once you have that platform thriving, add a second one. I know everyone is saying you have to be on Instagram or Pinterest or you have to Snapchat because it’s hot right now – don’t listen to them. Listen to your audience. Go to them.

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What you need to remember: Focus on the platform that the majority of your audience is on and go to them.

You are broadcasting sales pitches instead of building relationships.

The last thing anyone wants to see in their newsfeed (on any platform) is sales pitch after sales pitch after sales pitch. Social media is about building relationships. Sales will come from that. It’s not all about you, it’s about them. Think of how many Facebook pages you’ve unliked because of what they do (or do not) post. Don’t be like that page. Ask your audience questions – get to know them. Show them that you care.

What you need to remember: People buy from people they have a relationship with.

You are doing too much online.

You could google “how many times should I post in a day?” and get a different opinion from everyone. The one constant piece of advice you’ll get is not to overpost. Ideally, 1-2 times per day on Facebook is fine. Not once an hour for 10-12 hours straight. If I see too many posts in my Facebook newsfeed from a business in a short period of time, I quickly find the unfollow button. You may be posting awesome content, but I don’t want to see only you in my feed. Likewise on Twitter, don’t send out 30 tweets in 60 seconds. You will overload people and turn them away. My recommendations? 1-2 posts/day on Facebook and 5-6/day on Twitter (depending on how active you are).

What you need to remember: Posting too much in a short time span will cause people to unfollow or unlike you.

You’re trying to do it all yourself – and run your business.

I’ve had over a dozen business owners tell me that they could spend all day doing just social media for their business. Rarely can a business owner effectively (and successfully) run the social media for their business and run the business itself without something getting left behind. Don’t get me wrong – it can be done. However for most business owners, it’s in their best interest to pass it off to someone else or to hire someone to handle it. Your primary job is to do what you love, what your business is. If you’re a designer, you need to be designing, not scheduling Facebook posts. If you’re a photographer, you need to be taking pictures, not figuring out what picture will look best on Instagram. Trust me, you’ll spread yourself too thin if you take on too much.

What you need to remember: Sometimes it’s worth it to hire someone to handle your social media.

If any of these seem familiar to you – I encourage you to take a hard look at your marketing plan. Sometimes it’s worth it to outsource the social media portion or hire someone (who knows what they are doing) to handle it for you. As much as it can benefit your business, it’s not your primary focus – running a profitable business is.

What are some other stumbling blocks you may face making social media work for you?

Author: Mandy Edwards

Mandy is the founder of ME Marketing Services, a social media marketing company located in Statesboro, Georgia. A proud graduate of the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia she has a thorough marketing background of over 12 years covering sales, event planning, local store marketing, advertising and… View full profile ›

4 Reasons Social Media Marketing May Not Be Working for Your Business