This Week’s Poll Question:
Which mobile device do you like the best ?

What Makes Facebook Fan Pages Successful?

Well-known brands like Coca-Cola and Starbucks have had success turning their Facebook fan pages into popular sites with millions of fans. Local businesses are also leveraging the site and can learn from their global neighbors. Read more
Source:  eMarketer

0nline Video is the fastest growing format of digital advertising

45% of business owners said they would do more with online video in the coming year.  At the same time, 22% said they were frustrated with trying to understand online advertising.

Before too much time and money are wasted on videos, marketers should figure out the best fit for video ads.  eMarketer states that 59% of executives said they would watch a video first, even if video and text appeared on the same page. If your goal is to reach other businesses, don’t expect to engage older executives with in-stream ads.  According to Forbes Insights, young executives (under 40, in this study) are comfortable watching an in-stream ad accompanying an online video, and a smaller but still high percentage are less bothered by “must-watch” in-stream ads. However, older execs (ages 50 and older) are far less tolerant of such advertising.

Source:  eMarketer

Did this help? 

Wanted: Good advisors

Rick Spence, Canadian Entrepreneur Communications

What does an entrepreneur do when she runs out of ideas? Or when he realizes he needs to be more systematic about gaining new business contacts, more professional about setting strategy or more proactive about seeking out management mentors? Read more

Essential #2 of 6: 
Know—and find—your target audience.

Branding is in the eye of the beholder. All of the prospects on your typical buying committee will not perceive your brand in the same way, especially if their business demographics are different. For example, let’s say your product plays a role in helping medical device manufacturers design and build their products. In your typical sales process, there are a variety of people involved in the decision-making process, representing the engineering, IT, finance, and executive functions. While the entire company will benefit from using your product, the everyday design issues facing the engineers differ from the compliance concerns with which the C-level executives are concerned. As such, it would probably make more sense for you to target the innovative design features of your brand to the engineers, and save your key messages on compliance for the CEO and CFO.

Once you’ve determined the business demographics of your buying committee, incorporate this information into every marketing and media opportunity you do. Work with your vendors or technology providers to find and segment only the audiences in which you’re interested. Just as you wouldn’t exhibit at a tradeshow that didn’t attract the right attendees, avoid sending email campaigns out to massive lists that aren’t well segmented. Similarly, make sure your banner and display advertising is highly targeted. Today’s technologies enable marketers to show their ads only to the right business audience. When this happens, no ad impression is wasted, and prospects are more likely to convert into leads because the advertising messages are more relevant. Before investing dollars into any marketing activity, make sure you’re able to target the right prospects in different ways to make your brand more meaningful to the right people.

Source:  Bizo, Inc.

Essential #3 – Stay tuned next week!

February 1, 2011
2010 Top 40 Under 40
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Markus Frind
CEO & Founder
Plenty of Fish

Plentyoffish.com was started in 2002 by Markus Frind as a way to expand his skills in the programming language ASP.NET. Because the site was free to use, unlike many other dating sites at the time, it began to quickly gain popularity in Canada and eventually spread to the US, UK and Australia. Seeing the potential to turn a learning experience into a business, Markus implemented the use of Google AdSense ads, and due to the rapidly growing user base, the site began generating substantial revenue for its founder. For several years, the popular dating site was run entirely by Markus and his girlfriend Annie from their Vancouver apartment.  In 2008, Markus opened POF’s first office to expand its operations; from a one-man show run out of the CEO's apartment Plentyoffish expanded to a business run by 23 employees, including tech, marketing and customern service staff to help manage the ever-increasing base of users from around the world. Plentyoffish.com boasts an impressive 2.8 billion page views and 23 million members and is the leader in the online dating industry.

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