CDG Interactive Blog

Worldwide, mobile now accounts for 10.01% of total web traffic. In the US, more than 120 million people now own a smartphone, and 48 million people own a tablet.  Half of all local searches are currently performed on mobile devices.

Clearly, you've got to make sure that your site is ready to welcome traffic from mobile devices, and to provide those visitors with a great user experience.

Even if you're not ready to completely overhaul your site, there are several quick and easy steps you can take to vastly improve the mobile experience.

Here 5 fixes you can implement right now to ensure your mobile visitors stay on your site:

1. Control Pop-Ups: Either eliminate pop-ups for mobile users or ensure they are resized to not be larger than the screen.  Visitors will spend little time scrolling around looking for a way to close the window. If you must use a pop-up for some reason, be sure to watch your bounce rate for mobile visitors in your web analytics to ensure you’re not losing visitors.
2. Push Your Buttons:Test the target areas of buttons and links for touching with fingers. Most websites were designed and built for clicking with the more precise mouse which allows for items to be placed in close proximity. At the very least, ensure that your purchase and cancel target areas don’t overlap and can be touched separately.
3. Select the Right Keyboard: In any situation that requires user input, make sure your site serves up the correct keyboard to match the input you/re requesting from users – using the options for email, URL, telephone numbers and numbers will help your mobile visitors provide the correct information with fewer typos, resulting in fewer errors and less frustration.
4. Turn Off Auto-Correct: Disable the auto-correct function for form entry. Nothing is more frustrating for a visitor than having to re-input information because the device “knows” better.  Depending on the form fields, you may also choose to turn off auto-complete and auto-capitalize.
5. Never Think You're Finished: Okay, this isn't exactly a quick fix, but it's important. Between new products and user expectations, mobile standards are constantly evolving, so you can't simply "fix it and forget it." You need to keep vigilant and continually evaluate whether your site is still performing optimally, and whether you can improve it. (That goes for us too! At CDG, we regularly revisit and improve previous work.) 

If you need help refining what you’ve done or aren’t sure where to get started, CDG’s mobile development and design teams are ready to help. Contact us to get started.

Personal New Year’s resolutions are notorious for failing within a mere month or two into the new year, only to be recycled again the following January.

We’re recycling our resolutions, too, but not because they don’t work—because they do. These are optimization steps to take every year, not just once.

This year we’ll be adding to them, not replacing them, based on the experience we’ve gained and the ever-changing digital landscape.

So in addition to these resolutions, we’re adding a few more. Here's are some resolutions that will help you make the most of your digital presence in 2013:

Analytics

• Use event tracking (if you’re using Google Analytics) to collect more granular data about what and where your users are clicking.
• Claim your site in Webmaster Tools and connect it to your Analytics account for additional information on search queries and landing pages.

SEO:

• Review the keywords people are using most to find your site, what pages they are going to and which pages they are bouncing from; use this information to re-optimize your site.
• Revisit your title tags and meta descriptions to ensure what your potential visitors see in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) is reflective of what they will find when they arrive on the page.
• Ensure that your inbound links come from a variety of domains; multiple links from one highly trusted domain aren’t as valuable as links from several different domains.

Content

• Do a content audit: identify “dead weight” pages that aren’t being viewed & remove or repurpose them.
• Create an editorial calendar for all of your digital environments (website, blogs, etc.).
• Prepare for the content trends that will shape 2013.

Social Media

• Review your dashboards from the past year and look for what worked and what didn’t; revise your efforts accordingly.
• Consider expanding onto additional platforms, like Pinterest or Tumblr.
• Sign up for the 8-week social media 101 email course at PowerUp Social.

Conversion

• Create a segment or filter for visits with conversions; identify how these users’ behavior differs from those who don’t convert. Use this information to target them more effectively.

Now we want to hear from you. How will you be revising your marketing strategy for 2013?

Don’t get left behind in 2013. Contact CDG Interactive today for help crafting the marketing strategy that will drive more leads and more sales to your organization in the year ahead

To all of our clients, partners and friends, thank you for another great year.

Highlights of 2012 include the launch of new sites for the Ms. Foundation for Women, AFB's VisionAware.org and AFB.org and four markets for Cover-More Travel Insurance: New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia; as well as 2 more iAd campaigns for GEICO, including the Taste of Savings, and an interactive health care law tool for AARP.

From all of us at CDG Interactive, we hope your holidays are delicious and your New Year is sweet.

(Speaking of delicious, here are the entries to our fourth annual cookie smackdown competition, above.)

It’s been a whirlwind few weeks at CDG, punctuated by the launch of several high-profile international sites for Australia-based travel insurance company Cover-More. Over the past week, we’ve launched a total of four sites serving B2C markets in New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.

Cover-More New Zealand: An Immersive Experience

Cover-More Travel Insurance New Zealand is a major milestone in our ongoing collaboration to rebrand and enhance the online B2C presence for Cover-More. The core of new site is a streamlined and intuitive quote process that makes it easy for users to select and purchase the best travel insurance product for their needs.

The site’s design and content frames the quote process in an immersive environment that serves up customized information about the destinations where the user intends to travel.  (In addition to providing a compelling experience for the user, this vast library of content is also optimized to draw organic search traffic.)

Built in CDG’s content management system, ZeusCMS, the site integrates with Cover-More’s purchase process for a seamless user experience.

“We intended to create a site that’s not only highly usable, but that also pushes the boundaries of what you expect from an insurance site,” says CDG President Scott Adams, “We came up with an environment that both appeals to a traveler’s sense of adventure and presents Cover-More insurance as a valuable addition to your travel experience.”

Malaysia Airlines: An Integrated Approach

In addition to offering travel insurance in a B2C environment, Cover-More also partners with travel providers who want to make travel insurance available to their customers. That’s case with Malaysia Airlines. CDG worked with Cover-More to create an experience that integrates with the airline’s existing brand and website, while providing users with all the information they need in order to make a smart decision about travel insurance coverage.

Malaysia Airlines customers can get a quote on travel insurance before or after purchasing their tickets.  The travel insurance section on the site provides a fast and easy quote and purchase process, as well as comparisons of the available policies, and quick, scannable information about the benefits of travel insurance.

Customers who don’t initially choose to get travel insurance have a second chance after they purchase their airline tickets. An ad on the confirmation page provides a fast track to the quote process.

The travel insurance section is integrated into Malaysia Airlines' Singapore, Australia, and Malaysia sites.

To find out how CDG can help you create more effective digital environments, contact us.

Score one for 51% of the population! CDG has just launched forwomen.org, the new website for the Ms Foundation for Women. The launch marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the Ms. Foundation, which has been a driving force in the women’s movement since 1973.

The Ms Foundation is the premiere organization in the United States that addresses the entire spectrum of women’s issues—from reproductive health to equal pay to child sexual abuse and much more. In recent years, Ms had directed much of its energy to grant-making and grassroots activities and kept a lower profile with the general public.

Last year, the organization decided to complement its grant-making focus with increased supporter engagement. They were ready to be bold, provocative and even controversial, and they turned to CDG to execute a site and strategy that matched their vision.

The result is forwomen.org, an energetic and somewhat irreverent site that compels users to get mad, get motivated, and get involved on women’s issues. The centerpiece of the site is its “Action of the Week”; each week visitors to the site are given a new action to take on behalf of a specific women’s issue. (This week, Ms is asking you to tweet and email key members of Congress and tell them to pass the Violence Against Women Act before the end of the year.)

CDG also worked with Ms to streamline the site’s content and present it in a way that would appeal to a wider, yet targeted audience within the “general public.” Visually vibrant and arresting, the site highly integrated with social media, and is designed to encourage activism and education through sharing among an ever-expanding community of followers.

“We are thrilled to share our new website with the world,” says Kelly Parisi, vice president of communications for the Ms. Foundation for Women, “It is the perfect vehicle to raise awareness about our issues, reach a new audience, and expand our base. CDG truly integrated with our team to create an exciting and compelling digital platform to carry us into the future.”

We at CDG are extremely proud to unveil this powerful new site ForWomen!

Hard to believe, but the year is winding down, and we’re starting to look toward all that 2013 has to offer.  To that end, I was interested in a discussion that emerged on LinkedIn’s Content Strategy group regarding content trends for the coming year. Following are 3 trends mentioned in the discussion that I predict will be the most interesting and significant for 2013.

1. Mobile content – This one is sort of a no-brainer. It’s no secret that mobile devices are literally changing the way we experience the online landscape. According to a recent Pew Internet study, more than 45% of Americans own a smartphone, 25% own a tablet, and the vast majority of those people access the Internet regularly—or even primarily—on their mobile devices. By now, many design-related mobile conventions have emerged, but not so with content. Next year people like yours truly will continue to grapple with how to best present content in a mobile context. (Personally, I’m preparing myself by reading Karen McGrane’s wonderful new book Content Strategy for Mobile.)
2. Content for responsive design – Separate but related to mobile content, this trend is an outgrowth of the increasing demand for “responsive” online environments; that is, sites/apps that adapt their display to the device on which they’re accessed. (So, for example, instead of having a separate mobile website, you’d have a single site that automatically displays differently on a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone, etc.)  Responsive design presents an enormous challenge for content strategists and producers. In fact, I’d argue that it requires you not only to write, prioritize, and optimize your content, but actually to “design” its individual components (headlines, subheads, meta content, product descriptions, long-form articles, etc.) with an extreme degree of precision and attention to detail. This is something I particularly look forward to tackling in 2013.
3. Visual content – With Pinterest really taking hold and becoming a legitimate force on social media during 2012, it was inevitable that companies and organizations would look for ways to use it to market products, extend brands, and gain a wider audience. Well-designed, eye-catching, and compelling infographics are becoming an increasingly potent way to get your message across online. Designers and content producers are going to have to hold hands and do some creative collaborating to create visual elements that aren’t only memorable, but sharable.

What do you think? What will you be working on content-wise during 2013?

Remember, no matter what challenges lie in store for you next year, CDG can help. Contact us & let's talk content.

Tumblr, the microblogging platform, is getting increasingly prominent in the social media landscape, and for businesses, that's a reason to give thanks.

First launched in 2007 as a quick and easy microblogging platform, Tumblr has now grown to over 64.7 million blogs and 26.9 million unique visitors.

Along the way it has expanded beyond its initial notoriety as a platform for one-concept theme blogs (Feminist Ryan Gosling, anyone?) to one ideally suited for supplementing traditional blogging with more focused content curation.

And that means it’s time for businesses to take another look at using Tumblr for content marketing and promotion.

Here are 3 reasons to use Tumblr for business marketing and promotion:

1. Content Curation. The currency of Tumblr is reposting the content of others, called “reblogging.” Many businesses use their Tumblr blogs for this purpose while publishing longer original content on their traditional blogs.
2. SEO. All of those reblogged posts generate links back to their original sources, providing some nice link juice and a little SEO boost. And of course the Tumblr content itself is indexed, giving your business one more way to be found in search (ComScore calls this strategy the “Digital Shelf”).
3. Younger Demographics. Overall, Tumblr users are younger (and slightly more female), making it an ideal option for reaching this demo, whether it’s your current target market or one you want to expand into.

Intrigued and want to learn more? Our self-guided social media training site, PowerUp Social, has more detailed information on Tumblr for blogging and small business promotion, including the marketing tactics described here and examples of organizations and businesses using Tumblr right.

Or Contact CDG to review your digital strategy and determine whether Tumblr—and any other social media platform—should be a part of it.

When it comes to choosing a social media platform to use for your business marketing, one of the considerations to make is its demographic profile. Does its audience match your target audience? After all, you want to spend your time & resources talking to your target audience, not a random group of folks on, say, Google+. It pays to take some time to investigate who is hanging out where in the socail media landscape.

And even after you’ve done the initial research, be sure to review those demographics periodically because the numbers are always changing. Where you find your audience today may not be where it is tomorrow—and your target market may have changed, too.

Here are 5 social media demographic stats for the U.S. you should know:

1. You can reach more women on Facebook than on Pinterest. Although Pinterest’s users are more disproportionately female, the total audience on Facebook is greater: 70% of all female online users, according to a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project report.
2. Older men love Google+. The user base of Google Plus is 71% male and half of them are over 45.
3. Most Instagram users are under 29. The photo sharing service is used by 27% of internet users aged 18-29, but only 8% of those who are 30-49.
4. More adults use LinkedIn than Twitter. Professional networking site LinkedIn has an audience of 20% of U.S. online adults; Twitter’s is 16%.
5. The majority of YouTube’s global audience is female. Out of a total audience base of 800 million (that’s a lot of people watching “Gangnam Style”), 55% are female.

These numbers are just a portion of the social media demographic data that’s available, of course. To really dig in for the information that’s most relevant to your business, try these sources:

• “Photos and Videos as Social Currency Online,” Pew Internet & American Life Project, Sept. 13, 2012
• “Photos and Videos as Social Currency Online: Additional Material and Demographics,” Pew Internet & American Life Project, Sept. 13, 2012
• “Pew Internet: Social Networking,” Pew Internet & American Life Project, Sept. 17, 2012
• http://www.checkfacebook.com/
• “Report: Social Network Demographics in 2012,” Royal Pingdom Blog, August 21, 2012
• Online MBA Infographic: “A Case Study in Social Media Demographics,” March 8, 2012
• “2012 Social Network Analysis Report – Demographic, Geographic and Search Data Revealed,” Ignite Social Media Blog, July 31, 2012
• “The Beast With a Billion Eyes,” Time Magazine, Jan. 30, 2012
• “Flickr,” Yahoo! Advertising Solutions, retrieved Oct. 19, 2012

Still not sure which social media platforms are right for you? Review our information and tools at PowerUp Social, www.powerupsocial.com, or Contact CDG to craft a custom social media strategy plan for your business.

Fall is officially here, so in the spirit of the Back to School season, here’s a quick lesson for you on some of the changes and trends you need to pay attention to on social media. Let’s get to work:  

1.       Twitter has a new header image

Launched on September 18^th, Twitter introduced a headline image, similar to that of Facebook and Google+. The dimensions are different (1252px X 626px for optimal viewing across all devices), so you you can use an image that has a broader impact. Also, whereas on Facebook your profile picture is on the left side, on Twitter both your profile picture and personal bio are centered on the header image in white. The new header image has been optimized for mobile and tablet interaction, so there are even more reasons and opportunities to get creative about how you present yourself and/or your organization.

Why this matters: You and your business now have the ability to put a better public face forward on one of the two most influential social media channels. The sooner you adapt to the new format, the better you look compared to the competition who is surely working on the same thing.

Your homework:

• Take a look at 10 examples of the new Twitter header done right. 
• Review PowerUp Social's in-depth guide to using Twitter for your business promotion

 

2. Yelp is now integrated into iOS 6

With the release of iPhone 5, Apple’s faithful users were inundated with new features to make the gadget even more synchronized and easy to use. Among the most anticipated was the integration of Yelp into iOS 6 Maps. Even though post-release Apple’s Map application has been less than ideal (see Tim Cook’s apology), Yelp’s introduction to the platform has been widely accepted.

As Yelp’s director of business development Mike Ghaffary said, “Yelp’s integration with Apple maps is now available on iOS 6 on all iPads and iPhones . . . and in 17 countries where Yelp has a presence.” So when you search for bars, coffee shops, spas, movie theaters and more, Apple Maps will return a collection of places all tied to their Yelp business pages, with their Yelp star rating on the map.

A click on any business shows a vibrant business page with a rotating cover picture, business information, Yelp reviews, and photos sourced from Yelp. You can also click to “check-in” at the location, add a photo, or leave a venue tip all through this new integration.

Why this matters: It’ never been more important to list and claim your business on Yelp. With the kind of audience that Apple products provide, there is no reason not to take advantage of the free listing and see your visibility increase and your business increase with it.

Your Homework:

• If you haven't already done it, claim your business' listing on Yelp. Here's an overview on how to do it. When you're ready to claim it: start here.
• Review the social media marketing tips, tactics and resources on PowerUp Social’s guide to promoting your business with Yelp. 

 

3. Facebook reintroduces Facebook Gifts for users to buy friends real gifts through mobile and desktop

With more than 800 million active users, Facebook exerts the heaviest gravitational pull in the social media universe. (To wit: Apple announced that more than 100 million iOS devices are running the latest operating system, which means approximately 15 million iOS users have connected with Facebook only a week after the option became available.)  With that kind of audience, any changes to Facebook deserve your attention.

Here’s what you need to know:  Gifts are back.  Yes, those quirky little relics from mid-2010. If you can remember back that far, you’ll recall that you could send your friends virtual gifts for $1, which were then donated to a charity of Facebook’s choosing:

On September 27^th, Facebook officially re-launched Facebook Gifts, available through their desktop or mobile versions. But this time, it’s a true e-commerce function, meaning that you can choose, purchase and send real (as opposed to virtual) gifts to your friends. Facebook announced this new feature shortly after acquiring Karma, a social gifting application.

Why it matters: Facebook + ecommerce. Nuff said? Even if you’re not in a position to become a retail partner and offer Facebook Gifts from your business, this feels like it’s the start of something big. We all need to pay attention.

Your Homework:

• Reevaluate your own Facebook presence and make sure you're doing all you can to promote your business. Here's a handy overview with specific information about Pages, Places, Groups and Ads. 

 

4. MySpace is bringing music back…to a social platform

Until last week, few people gave MySpace a second thought. Although it still had 25 million monthly visitors, when compared to Facebook’s 800 million, it was considered an antiquated social media platform from the early 2000’s and most people couldn’t say if it still existed or not. Undoubtedly the biggest change in this list, MySpace is trying to make a huge comeback after its demise seemingly as a result of Facebook becoming available to the general public.

After trying to remember my login information from six years ago, I saw first-hand that Myspace has been hanging in there with a relatively small but committed base that’s dedicated to sharing and finding new music. In fact, most musicians still maintain a Myspace page, and often Googling an artist will show their MySpace page as a top result. (And as we pointed out in May, the MySpace audience is primarily young and racially diverse—and potentially still attractive to businesses targeting this demographic.)

Then, the musical heavens opened up and Justin Timberlake took a vested interest in the out-of-date platform. After watching the “New Myspace” promotional video, I have to say JT and his team have made me hopeful that this once giant site will make its return to the big leagues. The new MySpace will let users connect to the site with their Twitter and Facebook accounts, signaling that they won’t try to compete with those social media giants as a networking service, a smart move no doubt.

Why this matters: One niche the current top five is missing is social music exchange and this new, seemingly flawless design seems like a promising contender to fill the gap. If MySpace does reemerge as a big player in social media, businesses will need to assess whether it makes sense for them to have a presence there.

Your Homework:

• This one's fun. Put yourself on a list to get an invitation (eventually) to try out the new MySpace. Sign up here. 

 

5. Klout adds support for Facebook pages

And finally, let’s talk about the measurement tool everyone loves to hate: Klout. In case you weren’t tuned in this summer, Klout has made some major changes in how it determines social influence and how it is used. Here’s a run-down:

• Klout introduced support for Facebook Pages almost two years to the day after they added support for Facebook users’ influence. In respect to how this addition will affect individuals’ Klout scores, the website’s blog (ambiguously) says, “It depends. The mean score increase for a Klout user with a Facebook page is about seven points, all else held equal.” They also quickly make the distinction that they will only support having one type of Facebook account connected per Klout account. In other words, you can only connect your personal profile or your business page.
• Klout and Bing have recently teamed up to create more “influential search results.” According to Klout, this change will allow people to understand their influence, be recognized for it, and benefit from it. Perhaps more importantly, Bing will provide Klout with additional search data, a long-time missing piece of the user-influence puzzle. "Just like Wikipedia articles can reflect a person's real world influence, search results for a person signal accomplishments achieved beyond social networks and serve to influence others," Klout CEO Joe Fernandez said.
• Klout also revamped its formula to determine your Klout score. Its new algorithm purports to give a better and more authentic measure of a person’s influence.

Fun fact: As a result of this adjustment, President Obama finally has a higher Klout score than Justin Bieber, who used to have a perfect 100 (though under this system, he has been pushed down to a mere 92).

Why this matters: Although there is ongoing debate about the accuracy and importance of Klout scores, the number is becoming increasingly  pervasive, as indicated by their multi-million membership numbers. If you have a Facebook page, this can help bump your influence in areas of interest and if you have any desire to gain a bump from the new calculations, this is a reminder to check the account and see how many points your score has increased. Klout is a good way to identify influencers on specific topics and in your industry though we often take their topics with a grain of salt – they still have trouble parsing phrases versus individual words.

Your Homework:

• Review our our take on why businesses should pay attention to their Klout scores. 

And now, we've come to the end of our lesson. Hopefully, you're good and motivated to get back into the social media groove. If you could use a little tutoring to get you up to speed, please Contact Us at CDG. We'll make you an A+ social media student in no time.

Class dismissed.

 

This is the second in a series of posts about rethinking the museum experience to attract a new audience.

In the past, when a museum mounted an “interactive” exhibit, it typically meant that attendees could touch what was on display. Now interactivity has a newer and richer meaning, and museums are scrambling to keep up. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has jumped into the fray with The Art of Video Games, not only allowing visitors to interact in the traditional sense (you can play Myst, PacMan, Super Mario Brothers and other games), but also incorporating social media, QR codes and webcasts.

I had a chance to catch up with Georgina Goodlander, the exhibition coordinator for the Art of Video Games, who said that the exhibit was an outgrowth of Smithsonian 2.0, a brainstorming conference that addressed ways the Smithsonian can continue to interpret its mission “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge” in the digital age.  “Video games are a huge part of American culture and they are an art form,” said Goodlander.

The concept of allowing online participation in the exhibit was introduced early in planning stages; curators developed an online voting system to determine which games would be included in the exhibit. (The exhibit features one game from each of 5 stages in video game development: "start," "8-bit," "bit wars," "transition," and "next generation.")

The voting site was promoted on Twitter and the museum’s blog as well as the website announcing the upcoming exhibit.  Goodlander said that the voting exceeded the Smithsonian’s expectations and sparked interesting discussions, not only on the museum’s blog, but also on gaming forums.

Commenters debated the question of who should be able to answer the question “What is art?” and wondered whether the online voting would skew toward the best-selling/most popular games. (They didn’t). “It was clear that people though carefully about which [video games] should be represented in the Smithsonian,” Goodlander said.

Continue reading "The Smithsonian Gets Interactive: Exploring The Art of Video Games" »