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How many quick response (QR) codes do you see on posters in a day?  Now, how many near field communication (NFC) codes do you tap in a month?  If you don’t know how to answer that question, you’re not alone; NFC is being touted by many as “the next big marketing tool”.  Here’s a hint: if you have ever used Google’s Mobile Wallet application, you’ve used NFC.

NFC is a short range wireless radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, making it possible for users to simply touch or hover over an application and share information, such as sharing contact information or making a payment.  NFC is the driving force behind technology such as Google’s Mobile Wallet, which allows users to store credit card information on their smartphone using an app, and to pay for purchases in store by swiping their phone over the terminal during checkout.  The Walt Disney Company has been researching RFID technology, and has now announced their plan to create MagicBand bracelets that use NFC to allow Disney Theme Park guests to access park entrances, pay for purchases, and enter hotel rooms, all with one tap of their wrist.  The potential opportunities for user interaction using NFC technology are exciting, but is all of the hype worth it?

NFC may sound like the next big marketing tool for companies, but don’t expect it to explode just yet.  Although many Android smart phones have this technology, Apple has yet to incorporate it into any of their devices, eliminating about half of target markets from the capability to tap into your advertisement.  Furthermore, there are too few ways to differentiate  NFC from a QR reader, which has been met with mixed success.  Running a NFC campaign may just confuse customers and even turn some away.

Although some brands, such as Google and The Walt Disney Company, have taken advantage of this technology and are making it more convenient than ever for customers to complete transactions with Google Wallet and get around the Disney theme parks, NFC’s will have greater success once the technology is available for everyone.  In a few years when more of the technology is developed, society will be more accepting of keeping their wallet in a cloud and tapping their phones to share data.  We don’t expect NFC to be the NEXT big marketing tool, but we’re excited to see just where it is a year from now.

The Internet has not only affected the way people consume information but also revolutionized visualization theories. With the evolution of Web 2.0, it is becoming easier to deliver content to audiences. However, with so many pieces of information out there, it is essential to create content that is not only rich, engaging and relevant but also eye-catching and easy to understand. The key is to give your audience information that is both attractive and unique.

Infographics serve as a way to visually present concepts and data so that it can be easily digested by readers. In addition to making information easy to comprehend, infographics also make it look appealing and attention-grabbing. The graphics, lines, charts, text, numbers and icons serve to intrigue the reader as well as inform them.

The persuasive nature of infographics is one of the reasons why more websites and bloggers are using them to convey information. The unique presentation of information chunks has a more positive influence on readers than giant paragraphs of written data and inferences. Also, infographics typically adopt a very subtle and natural flow of information which enables them to present the reader with data in the most logical way. When creating infographics designers must keep in mind that the flow should not mislead the reader in order to avoid misinterpretation. In fact, designers are very careful to pick colors, shapes, fonts and sizes that vary depending on what they want to convey more strongly to a reader.

Also, infographics are fun! They reduce boredom when attempting to process complex ideas by engaging the reader in a pleasant way. A well-made infographic conveys information effectively and looks great. This also means that people will be more likely to share this information via social media which is great for SEO.

A well thought out concept is the most critical foundation of a great infographic. It is also, unfortunately, one of the most commonly ignored element by companies that make them. This leads to an overload of poorly designed visuals that convey no message at all or are very confusing. The more often this happens the more likely it will be that people will stop turning to infographics for information, thereby diminishing their value.

The best way to start thinking about infographics and the strategy behind them is to do some research and look at examples. To see a few good examples of infographics visit: http://www.good.is/infographics.

Google (GOOG) announced yesterday that they are going to launch a massive update for advertisers on YouTube. These changes will apply to how marketers display their video advertisements on the network. Unlike the prior model of YouTube advertising, which displayed random videos to individuals, the new platform is keyword based and integrated into Google AdWords. This will enable advertisers to refine the audience that their ads are presented to. With over 800 million monthly visitors on the site, there is plenty of money to be made by the search giant (which is already making over $30 billion from YouTube social media marketing alone).

So what can we expect from these changes? Well, depending on how effective it is, this brings a whole new audience to the advertisement market and could be a significant game-changer. However, it needs to be noted that creating effective, good quality video advertisements is no easy task and can be quite costly. Google is giving away $50 million in free Google AdWords advertising to help more than 500,000 businesses get into the video advertising game. In order to request your free credit you can click here. The following is what YouTube had to say about the changes on their blog: “Google AdWords for video is now available to all. Similar to search advertising - where you pay for clicks and set budgets with bids - Google has created a new model for video advertising. With Google AdWords for video, you only pay when someone chooses to watch your ad and you can create and manage video campaigns from the same platform as your search and display ads. You can create an account and start promoting your first video in less than 5 minutes. With AdWords for video you can:

• Find the right audience: AdWords for video provides a range of options to reach the right audience. For example, you can promote your video by keyword to appear in YouTube search results, or you can choose to show your ad against content your customers are most interested in - such as sports or music. Connect with your audience on YouTube and the Google Display Network, which includes millions of websites. AdWords for video links to your YouTube account so you can easily start a video campaign with your existing videos.
• Measure the effectiveness of your spend: On average, we’ve found that YouTube video ads drive a 20 percent increase in traffic to your website and a 5 percent increase in searches for your business (Google Campaign Insights, 2011). With AdWords for video you can find out how viewers are engaging with your brand during and after they watch your ad. You can see how many viewers watched your entire video, visited your website, stayed on your channel to watch another video, or subscribed to your channel, after viewing your ad.
• Only pay for engaged views: With TrueView video ads you only pay when viewers choose to watch your ad so you aren’t charged when viewers skip your ad if they aren’t interested or have already seen your video. This means your ad budget is focused on viewers interested in your video. By displaying a call-to-action overlay on your video you can talk about a sale or specific offer to your viewers, share more information about your business, or drive traffic to your website.”

More information and a video detailing the changes can be found in the full blog post linked above.

Keyword research is a critical part of optimizing a website. The goal of keyword research is to determine which keywords will get your site a higher search rank which ultimately leads to more traffic. The driving question of this process is: how do I find the best keywords for my site? There is no one way to do this, but there are a few key things to keep in mind which will enable you to choose the best keyword set.

Relevance

When performing keyword research one of the most important questions to ask yourself is “How relevant is this keyword to my website?” A keyword may drive a lot of traffic to your website but if the content of your site is not relevant to your visitors they will leave immediately. Relevant keywords those that are related to the products or services that you offer. Your end goal is to receive targeted traffic; traffic that will convert. If you optimize for the wrong keywords your site can still receive traffic but if your visitors don’t convert you might as well not have any at all. You probably have a pretty good idea what terms are related to your business, content or website. Now you need to figure out which terms will drive more traffic and, ultimately, lead to more conversions.

Traffic

It is a fact of SEO that some keywords drive more traffic than others. When you perform keyword research you want to focus in on the terms that drive the most traffic to your site. Keywords have different search volumes which are based on how many people are using them to search. Once you have identified the relevant keywords with the highest search volume you can include them in your content in order to attract this traffic to your site.

Two important factors to note about traffic:

• 95%-98% of traffic comes from the 1^st page of Google results.
• Ranking first in the Google search result gets you only 42% of traffic. This means that being the first result is not going to get you all the traffic but it will, often, get you the most.

This is why it is important to look at the traffic metrics of a keyword rather than just the search volume.

Competition

This is one of the most important factors in keyword selection but it is often over-looked. You don’t want to target a keyword if you can’t handle the completion. There are two things that you want to ask yourself when you look at your competition for a particular keyword:

• How many sites am I competing against?
• How strong are these webpages?

Both of these factors play a big role in determining how competitive a keyword is. For example, there could be a billion webpages that appear in the results for a keyword that you are considering. However, if most of them have a page rank of zero while your site has a page rank of six you have a good chance of showing up fairly high in search results.

(Source: blog.insegment.com)