Big Data and the NBA

In a digital world, data is everywhere. Never has human behavior been more measurable and tools to recognize patterns more accessible. So it should be no surprise that in sports, the figure-fondling arena of commentators and insatiable enthusiasts, big data is changing the way in which we watch.

The best example is the NBA.

In a announcement from the sport organization, best outlined in an article from Fast Company, the NBA has partnered with SAP and STATS LLC to elevate expectations to an free interactive real-time platform that layers specific data points for fans.

The platform works through a six-camera system that tracks the players’ names, numbers, and the ball. The data is stored under three silos: in-game tracking, historical data, and video. So, fans can collect and compare favorite teams or players’ stats and film. According to Michael Gliedman, senior vice president and chief information officer for the NBA, they are aspiring to a database with 4.5 quadrillion permutations.

This investment in measurement by the NBA is an exceptional example of how sports organizations are pushing to deepen engagement with fans and get more use out of their content. And with cutting-edge programs such as these, the idea of fantasy sports no doubt just got a whole lot more fantastic.

Campaigns Worth Noting: Land Rover's #IAMDRIVEN Campaign

Personalization is the honey of the comb that is social media marketing. People buzz and remain around a brand that allows them to be and share who they are.

Land Rover understood that when they joined up with Men's Journal, ESPN and Outside magazine to create the #IAMDRIVEN contest to highlight the launch of the all-new Range Rover Sport.

The contest asks for fans and owners of Land Rover to share on Instagram and Twitter their storyboard/video about how they are "driven to another level." 

The recorded feats will then be evaluated, according to Luxury Daily, by a panel based on creativity, nature of challenge and visual fulfillment of overall theme (aka brand compatibility and usefulness). 

Land Rover will then choose six winners to profile and the overall winner will be treated to a two-night stay at the The Land Rover Experience Driving School at the Quail Lodge in Carmel, CA. The previously listed media partners will then be highlighting a series of videos about daring outdoorsy individuals such as paragliding photographer George Steinmetz and underwater explorer David Lang.

This campaign epitomizes brand contests happening on social media that unify both the consumer and brand's interests. The brand provides the arena for customers to tell their personal stories and have a bit of fun, while the brand profits off the publicity and the excitement of its fans. And then when it comes to recognize a winner, the brand gives a special arena that all participants feel they have a stake in and outsiders can be drawn into, all of which feel rewarded by the success of a single participant.

It's clever, cost-effective, and most importantly engaging. The #IAMDRIVEN campaign has all the makings for great outreach and customer engagement, I just hope selected winner will drive the Range Rover Sport 2014 equally as wild.

The Sol Wave House Leads Twitter Use in the Hospitality Sector

Perhaps precedented by restaurants choosing menus by whatever keyword food items are trending within their followers, hotels have also taken new heights into incorporating social media into their customer experience.

As mentioned in Time Magazine, Spanish hotel Sol Wave House (on the Magaluf Beach of Majorca) has built out a virtual community across their private WiFi network, and Twitter, to enable hotel guests to connect with one another and share their holiday experiences. Seemingly one part hookup network, one part extra convenience, customers can tweet which Bali Bed they're using to what food or drink they would like delivered. The Twitter experience permeates even to events with corresponding hashtags and party suite amenities that match Twitter's branding.

It's unclear how much of this online activity is private versus public, but there is no doubt the Sol Wave House (@SolWaveHouse) would prefer as much as possible to be public. Which, while make some elder generations wary, will seem an extra layer of convenience to a digital generation that would be tweeting, Facebooking or Instagramming their swimsuit selfies anyways.

It will be interesting to see what potential this experience has for others in the hospitality sector, especially more traditional customers that fear the internet and see hotels as incredibly private experiences, but until then -- two mojitos to #BaliBed6 please.

Three Reasons Why Your Tech Startup Will Fail

A tech startup is an excellent way to change the landscape of a particular industry or truly make a name for yourself in the digital sphere. There's never been more resources at our disposal nor people ready to adopt new digital products. However, this is not to say the market for startups is an easy sell. Here are three crucial elements, that if not taken into consideration, can cause any tech startup to fail.

1. It isn't cool.
From the user experience to the market materials, in the competitive world that comprises startup culture your business needs to be cutting edge (not a remake of Pinterest). The idea must connect with a simple need that an audience you can reach will quickly understand. The question of, Why? Should be answered within five seconds.

The branding should be as intuitive as the user experience. It should syndicate seamlessly with other platforms (sign-ins through primary social networks speed up the process of getting started and enable easier cross-network promotion). Special attention to mobile is a must. Responsive website design for both tablet and mobile is a must. Geotargeting should be strongly considered, but may not be applicable for all. You are selling to the top digital decision makers -- people that know what their time and information is worth. They also know what developments exist and every step you miss is another ping of doubt as to whether investing their time in your app will be a complete waste.

Is it worth their time? Is it worth their friends' time?

2. Your profit margins are too far out, and you're not prepared for them.
As any business goes, your startup is only as valuable as the people you have using it. It doesn't matter if you angel investor dropped five million into your project -- if no one uses it, no one gets paid.

With that in mind, who you hire needs to be aware it could be months before they get paid. This doesn't mean you can't recruit top talent, but it does mean you are going to need to pander a bit to land and keep them.

Your leadership must be a top notch relationship builder. They must identify which top talent has potential as brand evangelists. Once talent is hired on, that leadership must come through on every promise made. Running a quality company on a shoestring budget is not cheap, it is paid for by the blood and sweat of leadership meeting the expectations of their employees. These employees are not working for your company because it is a job, it is because they are passionate about what they do and who they work for.

And yes, a few interns aren't a bad idea either. Just please be sure to reimburse them better than the man delivering your company sandwiches.

3. It doesn't make enough money.
We've all seen "The Social Network" and listened to Justin Timberlake, as Sean Parker, spout to Jesse Eisenberg, as Mark Zuckerberg, that trying to make money off the early Facebook was a big mistake. That no one knew what it was yet, and to (I'm paraphrasing here) let it gestate to maturity.

Yes, this is great advice, but on the other side of the coin eventually your investors will come knocking, your staff will want to be fed, and all those promises you made will need to be delivered. Facebook was revolutionary, but we don't need to reinvent the wheel. Tech business models have been developed with real business marketing dollars that users are growing increasingly familiar with. Adopting, or at least considering, a few of these strategies is a great step toward giving your employees and investors a plan.

A plan gives order to chaos and even if it isn't how it probably will work out, it gives people a sense of control so they can get on with their best work and the idea that you all believe in can truly flourish.

Had any experience with a failed or successful startup? Would love to hear about your experience.

3 Reasons Why Social Media Belongs In-House

Agencies are not your best brand evangelists, your company and your customers are.

They are the people whose hours and dollars are invested into your brand vision. Agencies are still great for many things -- outsourcing campaigns, producing company materials -- but running a company's social strategy is not one of them. Here are three reasons why.

1. It's No Longer About Selling

Starbucks's in-house team has made them
 one of the top social business in the world.

Since the golden age of Mad Men, agencies have held a firm position in the marketing industry as the aficionados of how to connect with business demographics. That is, until the dawn of the Internet and the relationship between a business and their customer fundamentally changed. Before, the relationship was about selling -- shooting adverts and testimonials at people in the hopes they would stick and those people would become customers. Expensive focus groups and polls had to be run to procure the insights that drove market spending. Now, along with developed technology and the expectations of the consumer, this selling relationship has turned into a two-way highway of information where customer feedback is faster, at lower cost and (ideally) acted upon in real time. In social, time is the enemy. Any excess communication between agency-company exposes a brand to more human error and more opportunity for competition to act faster.

2. Social Isn't a Silo Department, It's a Business Model

You can't outsource social media because inherently social media is about conversing directly with your customer. Social media, like customer service and CRM, is an investment and should pervade everything your company does. Say your Hoover vacuum cleaner breaks down and you call the customer service hotline. Upon taking your call you immediately hear a voice from another country. Quickly this tells your customer your business chose a lower cost alternative to solve your customer's needs and in turn lowers the value your brand places on that service. This then puts the customer at a further distance from your brand and widens the opportunity for miscommunication.

What could happen instead, in a social environment with a comparable budget, is the entire foreign customer service agency could be replaced with a small dedicated team of internal social specialists. These specialists would work across free social networks to engage and assist customers and build up a relationship with customers before they even get to the point of frustration. Say your Hoover is losing power and you're noticing it is getting worse and worse, you could tweet to Gary @Hoover and within a few hours (the average Twitter user expects a business to respond within four) you will get a follow up of either the corresponding link to said issue or a personal email address to someone within the company to work with. No longer is the customer and their issues kept at a distance, but brought in as part of the company culture and community.

And this isn't just limited to customer service. Social is an element that links each department to their end result: the customer. The greatest resource a business has is their employees, and when they treat them well, they don't only get top quality work but loyal brand evangelists. Connecting these employees/evangelists with customers should be a no brainer. Entire shows are devoted to how consumer products are made. Expensive television commercials constantly use employee testimonials to introduce customers to their people. It all closes that chasm and brings the consumer closer into investing with their brand and its process.

3. Control, Ownership and Risk

Nike, another top performer in the social space,
 brought their social strategy in-house in 2013 to get closer to fans.

Your brand's social media network is your brand voice. It is your company database of previous, current and potential customers as well as a history of interaction of what works and what hasn't. So the question is: Does this feel like the place you should be shying away from responsibility? Don't you want to control who speaks your company's voice and interact with them personally on what you want? There are great agency account executives out there, but very rarely does adding another person to a conversation help with clarity (let alone budget) of content between two parties.

In the end, if the people within a company care about the people that are their customers, they should want to be the people that own those interactions. These interactions are the human fruits of their labor and they should be analyzed, responded to and championed as true KPIs. It is the next generation of business to answer the needs of the next generation consumer -- and the best way for that to happen is to start from within.

The Value of Being Anonymous in an Online World

Since pre-commerce has taken over the e-retail space, customers have turned to public forums to learn what products and services to choose. Smart companies have taken great lengths to own these spaces, facilitating open, unmoderated (or at least seemingly) feedback boards where their customers can not only assist each other but provide the company insight into what the evolving customer's needs are.

Anonymity, if used honestly, can add an extra layer of protection for employees and customers to be more honest and less concerned about consequences of their feedback. Anonymity, if used poorly however, can result in false testimonials by competitors and personal attacks by spurned customers or employees.

The underlying question being, "If someone hides their identity does that make someone more sincere or less accountable?" and "What lines can we draw in the sand to procure the protection while negating the trolls?"

For better insight, let's look at these platforms.

Reddit, and many gaming networks, thrive on anonymity. Whether it's to discuss taboo subjects or not be judged for their interests, these have become places where true identities are almost completely removed - but interestingly enough there is still order. This self-policing by the network happens because you still have an identity, it's just an alternate one, and the more that is invested in these alternate identities, the more someone cares about their good standing with the network. Note that this accountability exists completely removed from their real world existence and has little to no potential to harm that reputation.

Twitter has been criticized for their overt display of number of followers. It is often said it is a popularity contest and that it is not indicative of any real quality user (ex: top influencers include Ashton Kutcher, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga). However, if critics were to be avid Twitter users they would realize how quickly someone's followers drop when they are negative, blatantly promote products or falsely impersonate others (unless they are really, really funny at it). Like almost all networks, if you do not have a profile picture NO ONE will follow you. Twitter's identities are closely tied to an individual's real identity, and while impersonal accounts exist, it often takes a longer time for users to trust/follow if unfamiliar.

The most important network where anonymity is almost irrelevant is LinkedIn. Other than viewing profiles anonymously, LinkedIn thrives because users attempt to appear to be as true to their real selves as possible. Any falsehood is regulated by the networks monitoring of how do you know each person, and two way confirmation connections. This network exists because of its goal to represent and simplify reality.

Going back to the original questions of whether anonymity results in more sincerity or less accountability - the answer seems to be to get users to see the value in the forum and to respect and understand its purpose. Sincerity is power and whether that sincerity is tied to a real or alternate identity, it really doesn't matter. When customers are invested, whether it's their true self or alternate self, they will give honest feedback and disregard those opinions that are not tied to invested in identities.

Doing One Thing and Doing It Right: How EyeEm Is The New Instagram

If there is one takeaway from the insatiable growth of Instagram, SnapChat and Pinterest, it is that there is a lot of potential in photo-sharing. Along with photo-filter options, it's a short yet effective way to communicate a message.

Since Zuckerberg decided to add video to Instagram there is a lot of debate about whether adding more services onto a platform is indeed adding more value. It should be no surprise that the owner of Facebook has taken this route, after his platform has adopted more widgets than Angelina Jolie has foreign family members, but what could he have done to improve Instagram instead of expand it's services? Better filters? Different interface? It's no secret that Instagram is a huge point of contention within the Facebook decisionmakers as since the purchase of Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, they have done very little to change it or make a profit off of it. It's almost as if they don't understand it. So what do they do? Attempt to appease users while making a stake against Apple's Vine by adding the rising popular service of video.

The issue with this is that Instagram users are not inherently Vine/video users. Video has sound, takes a bit more time to put together and doesn't make our selfies look beautiful in sepia tone. But there is one app that DOES get it.

Behold, EyeEm.

EyeEm not only has better, new and improved filter options but it has improved the user experience so changes in filters and frames are in the inherent swipe of your finger across the image. EyeEm also crops in shapes other than box and puts images together in unique montages across individual's profiles.

The truly revolutionary facet however, is the tagging. Upon posting you are giving an action and a place that uses geo-targeting. The application then guesses upon your location as to what you are doing.

An example is that I was in Edinbergh this weekend taking pictures outside of a cathedral. It then tagged the cathedral I didn't even know the name of yet along with that I was praying. While that wasn't correct, the accuracy of not just predicting the location correctly but a closely corresponding action was impressive. Another example was later that weekend I was in Newcastle taking pictures whilst drinking with friends. I didn't have time to post so I just did them all the next morning on EyeEm. The app used the iPhone's geo-location to remember where they were taken and did the same predictive tags of "Out for drinks," "Dancing," or "Dinner" with each corresponding bar or restaurant by name.

It gets better. Upon using each tag a drop-down function also lets you know which tags are trending and how many pictures are tagged under those categories - a function that could be insanely beneficial for all users across all platforms. And praise Jesus, there is no need for hash signs! EyeEm uses keywords and even spaces for tags so we can do away with the obnoxious in-text, one word translating business of #omgImsosickofthis.

While EyeEm, like Instagram, still hasn't figured out how to pick up a decent profit off its services - it has done loads to improve a service many have left alone, assumably with the UX perfected (or at least 'good enough'). Thankfully, that was not the case for EyeEm and time will tell if it's the case for 100 million Instagrammers.

Crowdfunding: Finance for a Shared Economy

History's greatest achievements were accomplished by people coming together over an idea. Whether considering the construction of pyramids to the discovery of quantum mechanics, they required people to build from each other's bodies and brains. Now, the Internet has given birth to a plethora of opportunities by simplifying the process of coming together with the click of a button. One of those opportunities is crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding, in many ways, is the most liberating thing to ever happen to entrepreneurs. Using online services such as Kickstarter, an entrepreneur can measure the popularity of an idea while at the same time receiving funds from those supporters. If successful enough to launch, that budding business will also be given permitted access to those supporters, which over time can hopefully develop into their brand evangelists.

What crowdfunding means for the public interest is even more exciting. As leaders have always preached (but resources to do so have never been so plentiful) a small pocket of well-organized individuals can make a huge impact. It doesn't matter if your group cares about the environment, the arts, medical research or funding a volunteer trip, the cost and ease to organize is comparatively zilch.

It is important to note, that not all crowdfunding platforms are the same. Some merely act as intermediaries such as Kickstarter or Sellabrand, while others actually get involved selling shares such as CrowdCube and Seedrs. Whichever platform, whichever idea, it is no doubt an exciting time to be an entrepreneur or interested member of the public.

Instagram: Better Tags and Better Brands

Instagram may be profitable yet.

According to AdWeek, the photo-friendly Facebook arm released last week "Photos of You", a better way to accurately tag users in photos (other users including brands).

So how does this look? Just like Facebook, if you tag someone they get notified and can approve or disapprove of the tagging. Once the user approves, that image is put into that user's photo-feed.

Again in +Adweek, they use the timely example of the +H&M partnership with Beyoncé. If H&M tagged Beyoncé in a photo during their campaign, she could approve it and share it with all of her fans. But perhaps even more powerful, the tagging could be done vice versa.

An example of this, say that could be used by +Urban Outfitters, is a consumer could tag themselves in a trendy shot wearing their latest lion t-shirt. If they tagged the retail business in their post, Urban could then more easily share and promote their customers and products.

What about Instragram ads? According to Zuckerberg, they're still thinking on them; but in the meantime this is definitely something brands can easily and freely sink their teeth into.

Tracking Reveals Chinese Censorship Is Automated and Geotargeted

Due to censorship-tracking software developed by Harvard researcher Gary King, new conclusions can be made on how China’s social media censorship works. Here are the main points as elicited in MIT Technology Review:

Automation Is Huge

While censorship teams at Weibo may reach up to 1,000 people, the high volume and speed of censorship indicates that China’s model has many automated functions. Mass posts can reportedly be censored in a matter of minutes.

Censorship Is Geotargeted

King’s software has indicated in areas such as Tibet, that have seen more political opposition, posts with sensitive words are over four times more likely to be censored.

Government Participation Has Soared

According to Nele Noesselt, a researcher at the German Instute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg, the government has begun taking a more proactive stance by channeling public interest instead of simply trying to battle it head on. This approach is much more popular with the public as it gives the government the appearance of prevalence and accountability while remaining positive.

Prevelancy of Censorship Can Predict Scandal

King has used his software to predict when either controversy is on the rise or mass arrests are to be made by tracking the number of censored posts in a certain area or about certain content. This new discovery has been recognized as a serious enough topic that he has been invited to speak with an undisclosed agency in Washington. Reportedly, after his talk, said agency has sought contractors to begin censorship-tracking.

 For more information on Chinese social media and which networks are what, read Chinese Social Media: What You Need to Know.

How to Set Up Twitter Advertising

Now that Twitter is available to all US businesses, it’s about time everyone learned to use it. Here is how Twitter breaks it down in four easy steps.

1. “Tell us who you’d like to target”
Twitter gives you two options for targeting your audience: location and topic. Location is by country (right now only the US) or city, while topic is either by interest category and subcategory (Food and Drink: Chinese, Health: Vision, etc.) or by users following similar interests to you. This feature is perhaps the most tasty as it allows you to strategize upon which competitors or industry leaders you’d like to be closer in line with.

Another cool feature: If you click the “More targeting options” another cool feature is searching by device (Android, iOS, desktop, etc.).

2. “What do you want to promote”
This is only in regard to your tweets, Promoted Accounts can be seen in step 3. You can either set up your account so it promotes whatever is your latest tweet, or you can pick compose a new Promoted Tweet through the Ads dashboard.

3. “How much do you want to spend”
Here you can either promote your tweets or promote your account. For tweets you pay upon each interaction (@reply, RT or favorite) while your account you pay for followers. Caps are set for each to ensure that if someone goes viral, you don’t owe Twitter an excessive amount of money.

Tips to optimize Promoted Tweets.

Tips to optimize a Promoted Account.

4. “How do you want to pay?”
Exactly what you think it is. The only question is which company card you plan on using.

Overall the practice is as streamlined as you can get. Twitter has eliminated the worry of running over budget while simplifying the process for even the digitally-impaired small business owner. Twitter also provides Promoted Account Analytics to help businesses measure results and build campaign strategy.

Protecting Multimedia: The Rising Importance of Metadata

Multimedia is content: So it makes sense you would protect it like you would any article or publication. But when you want people to share your images or video, it’s hard to know how to protect your rights as creator.

This brings up the issue of permanent metadata.

Metadata is data about data, or more comprehensively, data within an image or video that tells you about it: who the author is, where is originated, etc. You can find this data by looking at a video or image’s properties and looking into its advanced settings. It’s really not as complicated as it sounds. This information is also used by search engines to know exactly what an image or video is about (because search engines don’t have eyes or ears). SEOs call these alt tags and use them frequently to improve search engine’s understanding of a website, and in turn, search rankings.

The issue is this metadata isn’t permanent. It can be altered by anyone at anytime, making protection nonexistent if anyone had the inclination to eliminate your digital affiliation with your work. It is for this reason hardly anyone even uses them.

What is needed is software to make this metadata permanent: a digital thumbprint that would be irremovable from the multimedia. This thumbprint could then be read by search engines and knowing the originator’s site (which would be embedded in the metadata), could boost their rankings, making sharing seamless and responsible. This eliminates the idea of “orphaned” multimedia and protects creator copyright.

Here’s an example. Say you’re a photographer and you post a really cool image of a Starbucks coffee cup. You then share than image and it goes viral, until eventually Starbucks sponsors it in a paid social-ad campaign. Search engines value shares and recognize them as proof that content is valuable. Your website then, which you linked into the Starbuck image metadata, would then get boosted to the top of the search result for whatever keywords were discerned as significant in the meta description.

Cool, huh? There's even more.

While also protecting the creator's work from being used in other campaigns as it no longer being categorized as "orphaned" or unclaimed, permanent metadata could result in further business for the creator as their contact information would be easy to find if a business were so inclined as to contact you to purchase it.

The hurdle is that many businesses like the idea of free "orphaned" images that they can use for marketing purposes. And these business have clout. The hope is that in the future, businesses see that this protection not only protects the Instagrammers but extends to big business as well. That if this metadata became permanent, and a significant piece of that digital Internet structure, they would no longer need their high-power legal teams to protect their assets; they would protect themselves. An innovative idea we should all be able to get behind.

Google Now: The New Benchmark in Data Collection

Asking is such a hassle. What if Google could just read your mind instead of waiting for you to form questions? Welcome to Google Now.

How It Works
Google has compiled all things all people want to know all the time (weather, traffic, schedules, birthdays, etc.) and put them into one application. They've also included a few you probably didn't think of, but will undoubtedly make your life easier such as flights, hotel and restaurant reservations, status of package delivery and even measurements of your physical activity.

Consider it your personal dashboard for all things necessary. Through customization it's possible this app could end up making people more dependent on their smartphones than ever before.

What It Means
Faster, easier and with more integration – those are the trends of mobile marketing. Google Now marks the end of waiting for the consumer to come to marketers, and the beginning of the marketer being aligned with the consumer in a continual wavelength. Once intregrated with someone's life, Google will know everything from how fit they are to what they shipped their cousin last Christmas. This will result in a new level of niche advertising that all competitors in mobile will need to aspire to. Let the race for adoption begin.

Twitter: What It Means to Be Verified

If you’re like me, you’ve long disregarded the blue check mark beside a Twitter username as an ad flag – turns out we were wrong. With a little research we’d discover that this means that an account is verified, or as Twitter puts it, verified business partners that are “high-quality sources of information and trust... at high risk of impersonation.”

Well, who doesn’t want to be endorsed and reduce their risk of impersonation, sign me up!

Unfortunately, Twitter only verifies accounts it deems necessary and does NOT take requests from the general public (ouch). While it’s very possible that this verification is connected to ad dollars spent on sponsored tweets, Twitter hasn’t directly admitted to this. They have directly stated follower count is not a factor in determining criteria.

Another benefit: Once you click on a verified user, their timeline is broken into two feeds – there is All or No replies. This function is built in for businesses and celebrities that frequently respond to customers or fans, that if combined all together, would bury anything said to the general public.

DO NOT USE PICTURES THAT IMPLY VERIFICATION FALSELY. Twitter says any account using the badge in the profile picture or background image without authorization will result in permanent suspension.

Timeline of Facebook's Privacy Changes [INFOGRAPHIC]

Infographic by WebpageFX

When It Comes to Campaigns, Tag Everything

For a brand to be competitive, they need to know what works (and what doesn't). And while this may involve taking a risk on a campaign, that risk can be controlled through evaluating and measuring results.

Using Google Analytics, here are six steps to make sure you are taking full advantage of your campaigns.

 

1. Ensure Tracking Code Is Embedded on Every Page

It’s up to you how you do it, but Screaming Frog’ SEO Spider makes things easy as it crawls your pages and easily tells you which do not include analytic code.

2. Segment Campaign Profile

Create an individual campaign profile for pertinent webpages so you can separate your campaign traffic and conversions from direct (i.e. "Email Leadership E-Blast", "Paid Search Cupcake Ad", etc.)

3. Track Your Social Media Buttons

Using Google Analytics, create campaign tags for said webpages by customizing URLS so there is a tracking code embedded into the link. If you use a URL-shortening service it will even disguise the tag. If you don't, you'll see t.co or Facebook referrals in your analytics, but you won't know specific sources and your data won't be nearly as accurate.

4. Tag Email URLs

Just like your social media buttons, if you just include a generic URL to your email campaigns, your analytics are going to see referrals coming from everywhere (or worse lumped into direct traffic). Create a unique link that you can track success.

5. Omit Company IP Addresses

To ensure accuracy, make sure the people that are working on your campaign aren’t included in your traffic results.

6. Connect Paid Search Advertising

Google AdWords makes this easy. Make sure if you're using the company's budget you've got the ROI data to follow up.

At the end of the day, some of your results will always be credited to direct traffic due to dark or organic social or sharing. No worries, that's still a win for your website; the important part is do your best to know where your traffic is coming from and what they are doing for your website--both for current and future campaign success.

Amazon Gets Social with Pages, Posts and Analytics

It’s a tech trend to find everything in one place: It’s why Facebook invented Graph Search, Google built out Google+, and now Amazon is helping retailers market products from their e-commerce platform.

Essentially, Amazon’s Pages and Posts work intuitively like you would expect them to, as customizable home bases to publish content and update clientele on business announcements. Brands can choose their own URLs free of charge and Amazon Analytics have been built out to measure and tie social interaction to sales. Widgets have also been added to link to social networks along with a special compatibility with Facebook Posts.

While not revolutionary to tech or e-marketing, this is a great step for Amazon toward offering free, in-depth tools to small businesses that can’t afford the powerhouse data firms of Salesforce or Sysomos Inc. It builds on a familiar service and relationship preexisting customers understand and will no doubt be an easy conduit to channel emerging business unfamiliar with social media and analytics.

Video Ads to Hit Facebook This Summer

Since Facebook juiced up their mini-feeds with adverts it has been a touchy subject, but that is nothing compared to the expected backlash of video ads (that we can only assume will be auto-play).

According to Ad Age, Facebook has not finalized the format of the advertisements but it can be expected that they will be housed in either the main news feed or the sidebars, or most likely, both. According to the same article, the ads will be capped at fifteen seconds and the frequency capped to be sure no viewer sees each more than three times per day. The asking price, you ask? According to one executive, the video ads’ ticket price reaches the upwards of a million dollars.

The hopes are to tap into the deep pockets of TV networks with plenty of video to spare, but the real question is whether Facebook can withstand another disastrous hit to a demographic growing tired of the network donning out their information and pinning them with adverts while they provide little innovation in its services that’s actually new (Facebook Home is just an extension of services and Facebook Graph—wait, what happened to Facebook Graph?). They have been patient with the network's slow adoption to mobile and their broken promises of user/marketer privacy, but video will be a hard sell to keep them from migrating to other less ad invasive environments.

Twitter Ads Now Targeted By Keywords

You’ve heard the cliché, content is king, but last Wednesday Twitter announced their own content coronation as they made keyword targeting in timelines the newest feature in their ad services.

The feature will be available in all languages and markets where Twitter Ads are supported and will enable advertisers to target users based on keywords in their recent tweets and tweets in which they recently engaged.

There will be no increase frequency of ads or any great change in how ads are presented. Twitter’s blog announcement compares the setup procedure to setting up search advertising — a market that has long used keywords to run pay per click campaigns.

For marketers, this is great step toward greater real-time target marketing at users with demonstrated interest around their brand. Long live the king.

What You Need to Know: Google Authorship versus Author Rank

There are no shortage of blogs to explain the increasingly importance of Google Authorship and Author Rank — but regardless, here are the basics you need to know.

Google Authorship is your personal stamp for your content, performed by linking your articles to your Google+ profile. Authorship helps protects your work from plagiarism and is entered into your Author Rank.

Author (or Agent) Rank is the compilation of that content to determine your search rank and relevancy. It is used to weed out spammers from search results and improve user search experience.

It is important to note that even if Google+ is not your primary social network, Google Authorship and Rank are of paramount importance to higher web traffic and here’s why.

1. Higher Search Rank

Simply put, Google favors those it can trust and establishing a profile on Google+ with basic matching information is an easy step to ensure your content is given its due place in search results.

2. Stand Out in Search Results

Not only are you higher ranked, but your articles will also be tagged with a thumbnail of your profile picture next to your content along with an icon indicating Google knows you’re a real person.

3. More Page Views

According to copyblogger, another authorship benefit is if a user spends at least two minutes on your page, Google’s algorithm will recognize your site as having value to that user and when they back out, they will be treated to a drop-down of other pages from your domain.

In short, if you've got quality content and you're sharing it via social, you should be claiming it via a Google+ account — your content deserves it.