Earlier today the internet was a hive of activity as a new release was introduced into the social media site Twitter, which until now has remained a fairly commercially free zone. Obviously companies have been creating and tweeting through their twitter accounts for a long time, but the organisation has always resisted selling out to the big corporate organisations and conglomerates.
The latest release concerns the trending topics links which regular users of Twitter will be familiar with. Basically it appears as though companies and organisations can promote their link onto the trending topic list with the following proviso that the topic is already being trended within the setup of Twitter somewhere. This doesn’t seem like it will provide top level companies and organisations with too much of a barrier when it comes to promoting their products.
HM Revenue & Customs have announced that charitable organisations will no longer have to pay VAT on their pay per click advertising. This will act as a huge boost to the charity sector, who had been lobbying for some time for zero-rated VAT on their online advertising requirements.
Charity advertisements placed on third party websites had already qualified for a zero-rating in terms of VAT but until recently HMRC had adjudged that a PPC advert acted as a means of access to the charity’s website and refused to back them with zero VAT. However, following some fairly strong complaints from the charity sector, HMRC has conceded that PPC, along with the associated copyright and design services, qualify for a zero VAT rating.
The continued emergence of new media over old looks set to continue, with internet advertising set to overtake newspaper advertising as the second most popular medium for companies looking to market their products or services.
These figures are always judged by the amount of spending on each particular medium. Global accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers have estimated that by 2014, spending on internet advertising will surpass 65 poundsm, making it a more popular medium than newspapers. This will mean that only the amount spent on TV advertising will exceed what is being allocated to marketing online.
Struggling social networking site Bebo looks set for a change of hands after sources close to AOL revealed that the internet giants were close to agreeing its sale. AOL announced in April that they would be looking to either sell or shut down the site and it was believed that a fruitless search for a buyer was already well under way at that stage.
Zynga, creators of one of the more ‘controversial’ aspects of Facebook, the social games like ‘Farmville’ and other popular titles like Mafia Wars, Cafe World and just about everything else that fills up your news feed have raised another $147 million in funding from Softbank, a telecommunications and media group from Japan.
The game creators and the media conglomerate have combined forces to spread these popular games throughout the Asian markets, focussing on mobile devices. This is definitely an intelligent move as the mobile phone is the primary source of internet access for many Japanese consumers.
Internet Marketing
Welcome to High Position’s new Internet Marketing site where we will be bringing you all the news from the worlds of SEO, PPC, SMO and CRO and combining it with expert opinion and a touch of that inimitable High Position humour.
Internet Marketing is a fast moving industry and we are committed to helping you get the most out of your campaign by bringing you all the information that you need when you need it. Whether you’ve taken an integrated approach or are concentrating purely on search engine optimisation, pay per click, social media or conversion rate optimisation, we will bring you the news, opinions and tips and tricks that matter from the people in the know.
We’ve all been spammed before and needless to say, it’s both unpleasant and mightily annoying. Fortunately, email providers are slowly becoming more sophisticated in terms of blocking spam from ever reaching our inbox. Nonetheless, getting advertising rammed down our throats 24/7 can tend to be an unfortunate bi-product of surfing the internet.
One major frustration regarding spam amongst internet marketing experts is not only the unethical, black hat approach that spammers take, but also the amateurish content they use and the novice methods they employ. The most infuriating part for those in the know about opening up a spam message in their inbox is the dreadful quality of writing and lack of marketing knowledge that some of these spammers display. Sentences such as ‘would you like great opportunity?’ are far from rare, and attempting to market Viagra pills with lewd comments isn’t unusual either.
A global event that attracts as much interest at the FIFA 2010 World Cup is bound to have a far reaching effect. Much like the sport of football, the internet is a powerful global commodity and the two will be very much entwined for the next month, with internet marketing set to alter to accommodate the football boom.
For the next month, football will sell products and this is sure to have an influence on marketing techniques. Companies are likely to introduce special ‘World Cup offers’, capitalising on the interest in the tournament by drawing people in with football-related deals and freebies. Even cynically taking advantage of national patriotism can be effective, with a St George’s flag idly slug onto the corner of a web page helping your company appeal to the nation’s football fans.
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