The Kongalytics Team: Our Week in Tech News

admin June 30, 2017 Comments Off Online Advertising, Social Media, Technology

As you might imagine, the team members at Kong Digital are quite the tech enthusiasts. We spend lunch times browsing the latest news, testing gadgets and dreaming of owning the next big thing. Obviously, we’re also keen on new developments in all things Internet and marketing too.

We’d love to share with you some of the things that stood out to us on a weekly basis. As individuals, our tastes and interests vary – we hope that sharing our favourite stories and articles gives you a small insight into the personalities that make the Kong team!

Rocy

Picture this: 2 shops are right next to each other. However, one attracts more customers than the other, although both have the same goods. This is for one reason; the one shop that attracts more customers uses the concept of interaction with people. This is in terms of consumer suggestions, attractive offers, contests and displays. These methods draw more people, as the overall environment makes a customer feel more comfortable.

In terms of web design, the concept can work in the same manner. If a website is one sided in expressing content about your company, product or service, users will feel bored. Isn’t communication the best thing? Why not make it happen on your website?

Article via Business 2 Community: How Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Helps to Guide Better UI Design

Iva

I’ve been learning a lot about the use of video in advertising recently, because there’s so much to keep up with – it’s an ever evolving landscape! This particular article answered some of my FAQs, particularly on KPIs. It also confirms that benchmarks aren’t always possible although they’re something that many like to aspire to or surpass. I’m sure I’ll be reading something new every week on video marketing!

Article via Think With Google: How to Identify the Right KPIs for Online Video: Lessons From Google BrandLab

Robert

I shared this within the team this week and it’s fair to say the whole team was amazed by the numbers being thrown around. Of course, we all know the importance of Google and Facebook for advetsiting, but I think this gives everyone more of an idea of how key is is to get campaigns right, because there’s stiff competition out there!

Article via Inc.com: Google and Facebook Now Make More From Ads Than Every Newspaper, Magazine, and Radio Network In the World Combined

Lucy

I’ve owned a OnePlus since meeting their team at the Web Summit in 2015, so this week I’ve been reading a lot of reviews following the announcement of the OnePlus 5 last week. I’ve read mostly good reviews so far but there is the feeling that it could have been so much better, especially given that their price scale has risen. So now I’m on the fence as to whether to buy one or not!

Article via Forbes: OnePlus 5 Review: A Risky Gamble Against Samsung And Apple

Are your marketing plans summer ready?

admin June 22, 2017 Comments Off Online Advertising, Social Media

Summer is well and truly upon us with the solstice occurring yesterday and some sporadic hot weather putting smiles on faces.

But for online marketers and advertisers, we’ve often found that social media and online advertising analytics show slight dips in summer months, sometimes showing lower click throughs and engagements on warmer days.

School holidays, summer holidays and generally getting out and about more are just a few reasons for audiences becoming less reactive than in the winter months.

This means it’s highly important to plan summer campaigns meticulously and take all of the above factors into consideration. We’ve come up with a few tips for summer marketing based on our previous experience of making social media campaigns and online advertising work in better weather…

1/ Special Offers

Does your business have something to offer in summer? Do you have outdoor space that people should be making use of, maybe suitable for kids on school holidays? Give them something not to miss. Ideas include:

• 10% off entry prices on one weekend for people who follow you on Facebook/Instagram
• Free cold drink for anyone who retweets a specific tweet
• Offer a free branded fan/tumbler when people book tickets/appointments through your website

HINT: Data is king (well, content might argue with that). Keep this in mind when creating competitions or
offers – maximize the potential to capture email addresses especially.

2/ Target mobile

Put your efforts into mobile advertising. People are outside at home or on holiday so they’re more likely to be browsing online through a mobile device. Okay, we know this is generally the case anyway but even more so when the weather’s nice and people don’t want to be stuck indoors on a desktop or laptop.

3/ Consider the time of day

Focus your ads around times of the day people are more likely to be online. If people are at home in the evenings, the chances are they’re settling in later than they would in the winter. They also might be more likely to go out over the weekend rather than stay in with a box-set, so bear this in mind too…we realise that’s not always easy!

4/ Make content relevant

Keep your imagery summery and colorful to awaken all the senses that summer brings (or at least it should, if the weather is agreeable). For example:

• Illustrate someone using your product on a beach front
• Picture someone wearing your clothes having fun in the park
• Make text over images bright and cheerful

The same rules apply to copy. Use vibrant language to stir summer feelings within your target audience. Just put yourself in their shoes – what would you want to hear as a consumer in summer?

HINT: Don’t be afraid to put relevant emojis in text. Emojis stir emotions and catch attention…science says so! But don’t go off topic.

Hopefully, these basic tips will give you a few ideas for your upcoming social campaigns and online ads. Give us a shout if you’d like more advice!

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.

What social networks should you be using to kick-start your student recruitment in China?

admin February 18, 2016 Comments Off Online Advertising, Social Media, World Wide Web

The recruitment of international students to colleges and universities used to be something that happened with more traditional methods of advertising and media.

But with a 34% increase in Chinese students coming to study in Ireland last year, this seems to be a market that
establishments are aiming to target more meaningfully, but perhaps are struggling to bridge the long distance gap.

With several social networks and search engines that we know and love being unavailable in China, here’s a quick guide to popular ways of communicating with your new target audience via social media and online advertising.

WeChat

WeChat is the fastest growing online messaging app in China. It has similar characteristics to WhatsApp and allows people to communicate on a one-to-one basis or in a group. With over a billion accounts signed up for, around 650 million are active.

It is also home to a public accounts platform, which has a similar purpose to Facebook. This is the key feature that allows people to interact with businesses and vice versa. It’s mobile capabilities are seeing it become the most highly used social networking app in China.

WeChat provides text messaging, voice messaging, broadcast messaging, video conferencing, video games, and photo/video sharing, and isn’t limited to communication with only friends.

It also includes a ‘Moments’ features, which is similar to Instagram – it allows you to take a picture and share it with your friends and other social networks, with filters and captions available.

QQ

QQ is an alternative instant messaging service to WeChat, although it is owned by the same company, Tencent. It has similar features such as online social games, music, shopping, microblogging, movies, group chat and voice chat.

Last year, there were 829 million active accounts, which peaked at over 176 million simultaneous users online.

QQ moved to being a free platform in 2003, but there is still a premium membership scheme offering extra features like QQ mobile, ringtones, and SMS. Users can also purchase ‘Q Coins’ for in-app purchases such as avatars and items for blogs.

Weibo

Weibo has some similar features to both Twitter and Facebook. It’s one of the most popular networking sites in China, and is used by over 30% of Internet users.

The word Weibo is actually the Chinese word for “microblog”, which makes it the perfect platform to share your stories for potential students to read and interact with.

It has 222 million active users, a number that is growing fast – the platform has seen 38% year-on-year increases in users with active accounts.

Posts consist of up to 140 characters. In the same style as Twitter, you can mention users using ‘@’ and you can use hashtags to create tags by typing ‘#content#. The platform also allows for reposting someone’s content, formatting, favouriting, using emojis and auto-shortening URLs.

Baidu

Baidu is the largest online search engine in China. It is a highly intelligent service and offers various search types within its powerful software.

Not only does it boast a great search engine, it also hosts maps, a music service, encyclopaedia, language services, cloud storage, online communities, anti-virus software and SO much more.

It’s advertising platform is again similar to Google AdWords with a pay-per-click mechanism working across the search engine itself and sites in association with Baidu.

—

There is clearly plenty of potential for educational establishments to pinpoint target future students in China through interest, courses of study and job aspirations.

Kongalytics is committed to growing its presence in China and will be featuring handy links to several Chinese social networks and search engines allowing you to feature online and advertise to those will will be excited at the prospect of studying in Ireland, the UK or the USA.

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.

#RWC2015 Is Almost Here

admin September 17, 2015 Comments Off Miscellaneous, Social Media

The 2015 @RugbyWorldCup gets underway tomorrow and, as always, Twitter will be a great way of staying in touch with all the action.

This year, Twitter hopes to be at the heart of the tournament like never before, bringing fans closer in ways that simply weren’t possible four years ago.

There are plenty of ways to stay connected through Twitter and there will be a few special features making an appearance for the event.

There are, of course, special Rugby World Cup emojis.

Twickenham Stadium will also house a giant screen displaying fan’s tweets and vines.

And for England fans, the o2 Arena in London has been transformed into a canvas for a spectacular 3-D projection mapping light show. Fans can Tweet their messages of support using #WearTheRose and they will be projected onto the roof of The O2.

There’s TONNES more stuff going on over on Twitter. Take a look at their latest blog post to check it all out.

Enjoy the World Cup everyone!

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

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Category: Social Media

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*Bonus Content Klaxon*

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