Web Analytics Usage Statistics

14 12 2010

I have always been interested in Web Analytics.  Most of the tools claim to solve world hunger, but which of the literally dozens of Web Analytics tools do people actually use out there?  I stumbled across one pretty interesting analysis of who is using what today.

Here are the Top 5 Web Analytics tools used according to this survey:

  1. Google Analytics.  (57%)  Not surprising.  It’s free to use.
  2. Quantcast Tracking. (18%)
  3. Google Analytics Asynchronous (14%) Also free to use.   More about what this is.
  4. Omniture SiteCatalyst.  (14%) Recently acquired by Adobe.
  5. comScore.  (9%)

The number six tool is down around 3% share.

This is just the beginning of a long analytic tool war.  With the data on the Internet fragmenting (see my previous 12/13/10 blog post) they tools makers will have to move quickly to be able to track and measure activity on the Web.

See Full Report


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Categories : Enterprise Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Plan, Social Media Data, Social Media Marketing, Technology, Web Analytics

The Future Direction of Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

13 12 2010

SEM is pretty straightforward, right?  You use some analytics software to figure out the search terms that customers are using to find your product or service and then you bid on the right to place ads with those terms.

A new white paper from Forrester looks at the future trends in SEM.  Like a lot of things, the searchable Internet is fragmenting  in many ways:

  • Into new forms of content.
  • Into new uses: Mobile/Social and GoogleTV are examples.
  • Into communities and platforms that are opaque to traditional search engines.  Examples include the Apple iPhone, Android phones, and social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.  Search engine technology is going to adjust.  In fact, Bing and Google are already making changes.

But, the bottom line is that search engine marketing techniques and analytic approaches must change as well.

You can download the full Forrester report for free from Omniture (owned by Adobe):  The Future Of Search Marketing

It’s well worth reading.


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Categories : Enterprise Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Plan, Social Media Marketing, Technology

Major Cloud & Social Media Announcements at Dreamforce

7 12 2010

Wow!  The pace of change continues to increase – and for the better.  I just attended the Salesforce.com Dreamforce keynotes this morning and there were some pretty interesting announcements.  First, a couple word on Salesforce.com itself.  They are now at a $1.7 billion per year run rate and are rated as the #4 fastest growing company in the Fortune 500. Impressive.

Mark Benioff spoke a good bit about the pace of change; how social media has passed email, how the iPad is selling 1 million units per month, how mobile devices and location-aware apps are changing how we live and work.  What’s impressive to see here is how Salesforce.com has seen these changes and has leveraged them better than most other large companies out there.  IBM, for example, “gets” it but has just not been quite as agile at internalizing the changes in strategy required to lead in this market.

Some of today’s announcements:

  • Chatter. Salesforce.com has done a great job of integrating their social media app, Chatter, into all of their applications.  They say that Chatter is their fastest-growing application.
  • Jigsaw. Likewise, a recent acquisition, Jigsaw, has been integrated to leverage the power of the community to deliver more accurate and complete enterprise contact information, critical to good sales and marketing efforts.
  • Chatter Free.  Salesforce.com is making a free version of their Chatter app available for free to enterprise users and have gone a long way towards making it really easy for corporate IT to implement it.
  • Chatter.com Free.  In February, they will deliver a free mobile version of Chatter.  The point is that they want everybody using Chatter.  They want to make this the social media platform for enterprise use. Smart idea.
  • Database.com. Software.com is delivering an enterprise-quality database in the cloud for the first time. It supports relational operations as well as full-text search and has a built-in enterprise-class security model.  It also has published APIs that modify themselves as you use the database, making application integration easier.  For more details.
  • Open Programming Languages. Salesforce.com also announced that they are partnering with VMware to deliver support for any industry programming language.  Java , for example, will be supported on the platform for the first time.

The conference continues tomorrow and there will be more announcements, but this is significant progress across many fronts including cloud, social media, mobile, etc.  You can follow it all at www.salesforce.com/live


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Categories : Cloud Computing, Company Example, Enterprise Marketing, Marketing Plan, Mobile, Social Media, Technology, Uncategorized

Social Media Marketing at Ford

5 11 2010

This is a follow-up to an earlier blog that I wrote about Ford and social media marketing.  They are continuing to do some great things over there.

The Ford Fiesta Movement

Ford launched the Ford Fiesta in this country entirely with social media marketing campaign called the Ford Fiesta Movement.

  • Ford gave 100 Fiestas to online personalities free for six months
  • The personalities were challenged to a contest where they got points for creating online content about the cars
  • Results at the time of launch
    • Over six million YouTube views
    • 740,000 Flickr images
    • 3.7 Twitter impressions
    • 80,000 people asked for more information about the Fiesta – and 97% had never owned a Ford before.
    • 40% Generation Y awareness

All this was done with zero traditional media.  It was a 100% social marketing campaign.

Ford Social Media Marketing Video

(This is really worth watching — all the way through)

Ford is not stopping there

The video here talks about how Ford is now doing a Focus Rally America event for the Ford Focus.

Here’s how Focus Rally America works (and this is creative):

  • Ford will select six teams of two people to compete in an interactive cross-country road rally.
  • The winner gets $100,000 plus 10 Ford Focus cars to give away to the people who help them the most online.
  • Clues to navigating the rally will be published online and the community will have to pick teams and support them by helping them to solve the clues.

Scott Monty, goes on to describe how Ford is using social media as a part of integrated marketing campaigns that have far more impact than traditional marketing campaigns.  These campaigns include

  • Paid media
  • Earned media
  • Owned media

The key to success, as he describes it so well, is: “It’s people talking to people about Ford, not Ford talking to people about Ford.”

The other important thing to take away from this is that Ford is generating user and interest and buzz without being gimmicky, in my opinion.  This is a fun way to generate genuine interest in their products.


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Categories : Business Models, Company Example, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Plan, Social Media, Social Media Company, Social Media Data, Social Media Marketing

Android Continues Gaining Market Share on Apple iOS

4 11 2010

This quarter’s numbers are in and they show that the Android platform is outgrowing Apple iOS in the battle for the smartphone market.  Check out the Platform numbers in the latest comScore Mobile report.

comScore September Mobile Numbers

Google has claimed in a number of forums that they are turning on 200,000 new Android phones per day.  Eric Schmidt has been quoted as saying that Apple is “only” turning on 90,000 iPhones per day.  Nielsen says that Google is capturing 27% of the new mobile phone users.

Google article.

It doesn’t take much math to figure out who is gaining market share here.  For the June – Sept period, Google gained market share and RIM, Microsoft, Apple and Palm were all flat or down.

So, why does this matter?

  • Market share leadership means apps are developed for your platform first.
  • Leaders get first choice in strategic partnerships with other companies.
  • Leaders get approached first with new ideas and proposals.
  • In summary: Who will get to be the center of innovation for smartphones
  • And, of course, bragging rights.

Does all of this sound eerily familiar?  It should.  So far, we are tracking the same business model strategy path that we saw before with Mac versus WinTel PC.

The one thing that seems remarkably different this time around is that we are seeing both Apple and Google driving innovation on the mobile platform into their desktop functionality.  Apple “gestures” moving to Mac.  Google moving Android features to Chrome OS.

Disclosure: After months of waiting and watching I recently purchased a Droid.

 


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Categories : Business Models, Social Media, Technology

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