The Kongalytics Team: Our Week in Tech News

admin August 25, 2017 Comments Off Blog, Uncategorized

Clearly, the Kong team has been in full on reading mode this week. There are so many developments coming from all social platforms and Google that we’re keeping up at a great pace!

Justine

In reporting social media data, there are always discrepancies between Google Analytics and Facebook data, especially. As one gets to know patterns it’s easy to understand why there are differences, but to read these simple steps and understand it fully made for interesting realisations. Cookies are always a big element of Google Tracking, so anyone who has disabled them is already discounted as a number. An informative read!

Article via Social Media Today: 8 Reasons Why Google Analytics Data Will Never Match Your Facebook Insights

Lucy

Twitter hashtags were 10 years old this week. Yes, TEN! The very first one was used by Chris Messina and the rest, as they say, is history. This article focused on how the hashtag symbol came to be used in the first place and it stems back to very early Internet days. Internet Relay Chat was a form of group chat rooms where hashtags were used to group similar messaged together, similar to Twitter. Amazing how time flies!

Article via Mashable:Twitter hashtags are 10 years old and they wouldn’t have happened without old-school texting

Jessie

Online sales is becoming less about hard selling and more about offering good value in products and services. It’s not always easy to convince yourself that digital sales have to be different to selling in a store, for example, but there are simple, but effective, steps to take to make it easier to change your mindset on digital sales and create great customer relationships.

Article via Social Media Today: 5 Methods to Profit from the Digital Sales Transformation

Robert

When investing time in optimising Google Ads, it would be frustrating not to see results in the form of website clicks and conversions. One of the largest reasons for people to not complete a conversion after clicking on ads is if landing pages aren’t mobile friendly. One in three smartphone users will switch to another website if yours doesn’t look good on the screen. Nearly two thirds leave if there are too many steps to complete or if what they’re looking for isn’t right in front of them. “Landing pages” is on its way from Google and will allow you to see which URLs in your account are mobile-friendly.

Article via Google Blog: Go beyond the click with the “Landing pages” page

The Kongalytics Team: Our Week in Tech News

admin August 18, 2017 Comments Off Blog

Lots of new things coming from Facebook this week. Plus a solar eclipse, which isn’t something we can write about every week!

Sandra

It didn’t escape my notice this week that Facebook is set to change its layout with the idea of making it more user friendly. There will be circular profile pictures, bigger link previews, and probably the biggest change it the look of the comments. In terms of being easy to use, Facebook probably doesn’t need too many changes, but a fresh look is always welcome.

Article via Marketing Land: Facebook redesigns news feed with larger link previews, circular profile photos

Robert

Video is the king of content at the moment, so this tool has caught my attention as something really useful for pulling together videos for Facebook quickly and easily. The impact of a moving visual for users is clear and to be able to add your own touch with logos and text is something everyone will be making use of.

Article via Facebook Business: Remix your existing videos with Videoshop

Lucy

There’s a solar eclipse happening in the east of the US on Monday and Twitter is joining forces with nature to broadcast it live. Obviously, as many people as possible will love to go out and see this once in a lifetime event, but for anyone who will be working or if it’s cloudy, this is great! Most people will be tweeting away about the event anyway, so why not let them see it for themselves on screen?

Article via Digital Trends: Twitter joins the eclipse party with full coverage…

Rocy

The Google Knowledge Graph is Google’s systematic way of putting facts, people and places together, to create interconnected search results that are more accurate and relevant. As marketers, we help our customers to build their knowledge database by figuring out exactly what the content is, who the target audience is and how to connect their searches with the right information.
Gaining traffic requires a long term strategy and there are three main steps highlighted in the blog for short term, which are very interesting.

Article via Neil Patel Blog: The Beginner’s Guide to Google’s Knowledge Graph

The Kongalytics Team: Our Week in Tech News

admin August 11, 2017 Comments Off Blog

What a varied bag of news we’ve been looking at this week! The team has diversified into interests in marketing, business and even AI. Let us know your thoughts on Facebook.

Robert

This news means that advertisers won’t be paying for people who accidentally clicked on ads any more. It’s a common occurrence on Facebook – we all do it! Facebook will not count clicks where a user bounces back after two seconds or less. This may see reduced click numbers but will also further reduce wasted ad spend.

Article via Tech Crunch: Facebook says it’s removing accidental clicks from its ad network

Iva

With the breakthrough in augmented reality and AI, we are about to face rising issues such as gender equality and cultural diversity. Issues, accompanying our society for decades. A challenge but also an opportunity, AI can contribute to innovations in society and change in cognitive perceptions when it comes to gender equality and cultural diversity.

Article via Think with Google: AI: 3 Ways to Unlock Trust in Tech & Why Diversity is the Key

Paula

This simple guide to strategic business planning, advertising and more provides tips and techniques for advertising and PR, for non-marketing managers. It’s an all round easy to read piece that’s great to dip into when writing and planning. It covers fundamental aspects of marketing which sometimes helps to get back to basics.

Article via Business Balls: marketing and advertising tips

Lucy

Facebook’s ‘Watch’ idea is heading to the US pretty soon. It’s a new platform for shows, available on mobile, desktop and in TV apps. A mixture of live and recorded episodes follow a theme or storyline and will help users to discover things that they’ve never seen before. It’s an interesting concept and with the stratospheric rise of video it seems the right direction to head. It will surely create conversation and engagement.

Article via Facebook Newsroom: Introducing Watch, a new platform for shows on Facebook

6 great Simpsons quotes and how they relate to online marketing

admin April 3, 2017 Comments Off Blog, Online Advertising, Social Media

We know that some of you could turf out Simpsons quotes like there’s no tomorrow, but have you ever thought about how some of them can actually relate to your career as an online marketer? No?
We’ll help you out then…

“Now we play the waiting game…Ahh, the waiting game sucks. Let’s play Hungry Hungry Hippos!” Homer Simpson

Online marketing isn’t a waiting game. There’s plenty you can be doing in between your campaigns. Think about the strategic spend you can place on your social campaigns and targeting, which means that your wait time for results will be minimal. Granted, there’s a certain amount of being patient, but there’s so much more that can be done than creating campaigns and anticipating

“I used to be with it, but then they changed what “it” was, and now what I’m with isn’t it. And what’s “it” seems weird and scary to me.” Grampa Simpson
Well yes, this much is true – there are changes going on all the time in the online marketing world. One minute you know what you’re doing and the next it’s all changed.Trends come and go, even platforms change their interface at the blink of an eye. Keeping up is just part of a life in marketing and branding. The beauty of tracking online campaigns is the speed at which reactions can take place in order to keep everything relevant, cost effective and visible.

“I’d be mortified if someone ever made a lousy product with the Simpson name on it.” Lisa Simpson

Ah yes, the importance of perfection! We all know nobody’s perfect, but getting as close as you can is vital when putting your name out there. Your social accounts, online ads and website all proudly carry your name and branding and represent everything that’s great about you; company values, products, customer service. If you’re not proud to put your name to something, think twice before publishing to the world via online.

“Science. What’s science ever done for us?” Moe the Bartender
B..b..but science is everywhere! Believe it or not, there is a science behind everything you do in a marketing campaign. From the techniques you use to draw the eye to an ad, to the processes you use to get it seen and promoted, there are the sciences to all aspects of online advertising and marketing. Our analytics services might just help you out with that side of your business.

“Just because I don’t care doesn’t mean that I don’t understand.” Homer Simpson

Getting your messages seen by people is the first step. Getting them to care is the next one. Creating and publishing quality content is a start, but by continuing to target those who have genuine interest in your product, service or brand you’ll go a long way to making people care. There comes a time to accept that not everyone on the planet needs you, but those who want to share your greatness with you will build an authentic relationship with your business online. People might understand your message, but do they care?

“Yes, but I’d trade it all for a little more.” Mr. Burns
More, more, more…There’s a part of every marketer that wants more. Sometimes it’s about testing the water to see what reaction you can gauge from an online campaign. Other times you’re sure you’ve got it spot on and, hey presto, it works. The idea is to target your audience, not just the masses. Check back into your online analytics at regular intervals and take it all in for a moment. Listen to what the results say, and don’t get greedy. If you’ve reached your peak audience, great job! Pushing it too far may result in negative effects.

Are your kids using mobile devices and apps safely?

admin February 1, 2017 Comments Off Blog, Hints and Tips

As a keen technology enthusiast and a parent of 3 wonderful kids 🙂 I always ask myself; are my kids safely using the technology and apps that are widely available to children across the world today?

My digital marketing software company, Kong Digital, integrates our unique platform, “Kongalytics”, with a number of social media & online advertising platforms and we get to see the powerful tools that are available to reach your target audiences with precise accuracy! In today’s digital environment, these platforms are extremely important to businesses and essential to driving positive ROI from their online activity.

On the parent side of my life, I see the potential risks that are out there for young kids who are growing up with a smart device in their hands. I have been asked multiple times by parents, and regularly see articles in the media, about the dangers of certain apps and social media platforms.

Here’s a bit of advice to parents who have young kids using mobile/tablet devices & apps…

All messaging apps & social platforms need to be monitored by parents. I see articles in the media alerting parents about the horrible stories of predators grooming kids; the most recent one I’ve seen was ‘Paedophiles are using hugely popular musical.ly mobile phone app to groom underage children’.

What I see off the back of these articles are parents thinking that the social media app in the article is the one they should ban their kids from, but to single out one or two apps as the only ones that are dangerous to kids is risky. There are potential threats to kids across all social & messaging apps.

It's more important than ever to monitor children's online activities, including games and chats.

It’s important to monitor children’s online activities, including games and chats.

Here are a few suggestions on what you can do to limit the risks to your kids.

For each app that your kids are active on, control the privacy settings and restrict who can view, follow or interact with your kids.

If your kids are online using social apps, then they also need to be regularly monitored. I do weekly checks on my kids’ devices and will also do random checks throughout the week. I also make sure my kids know that I am checking to make sure that they stay safe online.

If your kids have their own email address, make sure that their emails are automatically forwarded to your email address and make sure, where available, that you have notifications switched on within the apps they use, so you know as soon as someone contacts them, follows them or sends a private message.

Also, carry out weekly checks of their searches on Google/YouTube etc… And monitor who they are following or who they allow to follow them. There are a lot of fake celebrity accounts that kids think are the real celebs, so you need to be very careful of these.

Another one to be aware of are the games your kids play, there are lots of games that have chat features built into them and kids are chatting away on these without you even knowing. Clash of Clans and Roadblocks are just two examples.

I’m a big fan of technology and my kids are too. There are lots of great benefits of using these apps but also a lot of risks for kids. So, try and get into a routine of doing weekly checks and making sure that the proper privacy restrictions are enabled on the apps your kids are using.

I think the most important thing to do is to educate your kids on the potential risks of being online. You just never know for sure who is behind the online profile you are interacting with. It’s also good practice to monitor your kids’ interactions with their peers/classmates etc. Cyber bullying is a big issue and can have a very negative impact.

Kong Digital is a Seedcorn Investor Readiness finalist

admin October 8, 2015 Comments Off Blog, Miscellaneous

We’re delighted to be regional finalists in the Seedcorn Investor Readiness competition, which takes place in November.

The competition is run by InterTradeIreland who support businesses through innovation and trade initiatives to take advantage of North/South co-operative opportunities to improve capability, drive competitiveness, growth and jobs.

Best of luck to everyone competing in the regional and national finals!

It’s going to be a great set of finals this year.

Instagram Advertising – It’s Nearly Here

admin September 24, 2015 Comments Off Blog, Facebook, Instagram, Online Advertising, Online Advertising, Social Media

Facebook owned company Instagram has recently launched a new advertising service for marketers to enjoy.

The photo sharing social media site, which has recently hit over 400 million users, has grown at a rapid pace since its launch in 2010.

Just over a year ago Instagram began testing how their advertising would work by allowing trusted marketing partners to avail of the service, however, over the past few months Instagram has allowed for other companies to test their new service.

As of September 2015, Instagram has announced the following additional features.

“Landscape photo and video to unlock new creative opportunities and give ads a more cinematic feel

Video ads of up to 30 seconds in length, so brands can engage in richer storytelling

Marquee, a new premium product that helps drive mass awareness and expanded reach in a short time-frame—perfect for events like movie premieres and new product launches

Delivery and optimization tools to manage and drive the best performance of campaigns across Facebook and Instagram”

In comparison to other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, people tend to focus more on content they see on Instagram. This means that the opportunity to post ads on Instagram will provide marketers with the chance to reach a whole new audience.

The focus now is on how to utilize this service in order to effectively reach your company’s target audience.

As Instagram is based purely on visually appealing information, it is important to deliver relevant, high quality content which is targeted to the right people.

It is also important to frequently post content and at the right times to reach your audience and maintain their interest. This can be achieved by regularly placing engaging and targeted ads and by being consistent.

A final tip is to ensure to take advantage of how Facebook and Instagram are integrated.

The opportunity to use the same tools across both social media platforms offers multiple benefits for companies, including, the best targeting possibilities in the world. The option to use these two platforms allows for marketers to target specifically down to geography, interests, education and more. This, as a result, allows for companies to reach the widest audience possible.

We’ll be bringing you more blogs soon on Instagram advertising development, and step-by-step guides to help you understand how and why to target your audiences.

We’re going to whisper this, but – “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”

admin September 9, 2015 Comments Off Blog, Hints and Tips, Online Advertising, Social Media

It’s September, which can only mean one thing…It’s CHRISTMAAAAAAAS!

We’re truly sorry for the content that follows – it’s festive and early – but it’s true to say that as a marketer, you have to be ready. In fact you had to be ready yesterday.

Christmas is the biggest online marketing opportunity in the calendar and to not have a proper plan in place for the coming months is almost scandalous.

In the UK alone, £636million was spent online just on Christmas day last year. Across the world, online traffic increased from the festive period on 2013, a trend that is only set to continue this year.

Don’t believe us? Check out this ridiculously informative infographic that proves how online retail is increasing.

We also can’t continue without a mention for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, because they are a HUGE deal too. Last year, Black Friday was the biggest day for online sale…EVER! Sales were up by 92% than on the same day in 2013. Just make sure you’re prepared for the demand.

Visits to retail websites on Cyber Monday were also up by 39% from 2013 to 2014, so with the demand for bargains rife at that time of year, it might be worth considering offers of your own to bring in valuable customers.

So now you know how important it is to get your social and online campaigns planned, so what are you going to do about it?

Remember, when you’re setting out your schedules, remember to include deadlines, dates to publish, platforms and to make sure all personnel is in place to deal with the incoming traffic.

Here are a few ideas of what to plan:

Blogs – make your blogs relevant to your products or services. Ask questions, encourage engagement and educate your followers.
Social posts – get your Christmas Day messages and images ready now. Schedule them well ahead of time so that no one forgets to do it at the last minute.
Special offers – if applicable to your business, do you want to roll out discounts and specials heading in to the festive period?
Online advertising – what Facebook posts and tweets are you going to promote? What’s the budget? Decide now!

Be timely with everything, don’t leave anything too late. People are incredibly organized in this day and age with purchasing abilities at their fingertips, so to get ahead of your competition is vital.

Be decisive and stick to your plans as much as possible. Of course, factors can change, so don’t be afraid to move things around and re-plan along the way. But that’s why it’s vital to begin planning and run with it before you end up just doing a few slap-dash campaigns for the sake of it.

You might even want to stick to a theme, an idea, a single campaign. Penguins worked for John Lewis.

What kind of subjects should you be planning blogs and social posts about? How about…

Order deadlines
Special offers
Opening hours for the holidays
Highlight great products or services
Last minute ideas
Something for the kids – a Santa message maybe?
Post Christmas sales
How your products/services tie in to the festivities

Feel ready to spread festive cheer this year and don’t make your Christmas campaigns a last minute rush. If you enjoy the festivities, so will your customers!

PS: Over 40% of consumers expect an online response to queries within an hour, so also make plans to deal with an influx of inquiries. Keep up your customer service with prompt and helpful responses.

Bonus Content Klaxon

Here are a few resources that you might like to use for your social campaigns.

Free Festive Stock Images

Christmas Song Lyrics – y’know, for all your cheesy blogs…

Free Christmas Fonts – just double check each license before you download

Gifs, gifs, gifs

‘Drive’ Online Sales – Hit Customers That Are “In Market”

admin August 19, 2015 Comments Off Blog, Facebook, Online Advertising, Online Advertising, Social Media

Last year, I bought my first car. It was an

сialis generique

exciting time, but as someone who likes to partake in a lot of research before making a purchase, it was also a little bit stressful.

I was looking for resources to make it as easy for me as possible and I naturally turned to online sources to assist my decisions.

After looking at various car sales websites, review sites and forums, I can honestly say that my head was fried.

I’m also a bit of a Facebook addict (maybe that goes with the job territory!) so as I was regularly flicking through my timeline, I noticed a gradual increase in targeted ads.

The one that struck me the most and sticks in my mind to this day was a Facebook ad to highlight the introduction of the new Ford EcoSport to the market.

Although we all like to think of ourselves as people who aren’t easily swayed by advertising, I have to say I was really taken with this

particular one. My thought process was something along the lines of –

Yes, it looks nice and shiny
Ooh look, I could get credit and pay it off monthly
I’d be the first to have a new product – cool!
It would solve my undeniable problem of having no transport

Although I didn’t end up buying one, at the time the ads addressed all of my problems. Isn’t that what a targeted ad should do? It was near on perfect.

Having since done a bit of research into the Ford EcoSport advertising strategy, it turns out they did intentionally make big waves in social advertising that year. They focused solely on social ads to get the word out about their brand new product.

It worked a treat, as Ford sold all 500 limited edition cars before the campaign was due to come to and end. Check out more details on the Ford strategy here.

Facebook tends to agree that it is the ideal platform for sales leads in the automotive market. It reveals these stats as having a role in its influence to purchase vehicles:

60% of people are “in market” for a car for at least 6 months
27% of people report doing most of their vehicle research on a mobile device
More than 7 in 10 mobile-first consumers report feeling overwhelmed by all the information that is available
65% of these mobile-first consumers worry that they’re going to make the wrong decision

It also highlights the potential problems that current advertisers face and how they can further capitalize on their advertising spend:

“By the last month before purchase, most people have narrowed down the type, size, fuel source, brand and other vehicle features for their car-purchasing decision. In fact, 59% of average car buyers have narrowed down their choice of vehicle to 1–2 cars by the last month before purchase. But this last month is when people say they are exposed to the most car ads on digital. This signals an opportunity for marketers to reach and influence car buyers on digital earlier in the purchase cycle, when they are still trying to decide on their choice of vehicle and features.”

Let these be small lessons towards understanding the needs of a potential customer. Go the distance to identify the problems that your products and services offer and be sure to address them in ads using imagery and clever wording.

While we agree that to only use one medium to advertise is a risky strategy, this success story proves that if done right, social streams are powerful selling tools.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Strictly Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Category: Blog

*Bonus Content Klaxon*

Bonus Content Klaxon