Vidicom's Christy Ferer Urges Businesses to Start Using Mobile Advertising to Increase Brand Awareness

Here at Vidicom, Christy Ferer is always seeking effective ways to increase exposure for brands. Data from this year shows that 17.4% of web traffic comes directly from mobile.  Based on this information, it is clear that companies should develop, if they haven’t already, smart mobile advertising strategies to increase brand awareness. Many businesses have already started using mobile advertising.  Listed below are businesses that are using mobile advertising in effective ways.

1.     Rock/Creek: The outdoor gear and apparel company uses Twitter’s Promoted Accounts to increase awareness and engagement with followers who were interested in their products.

2.     Karaoke Heroes: When the karaoke bar opened in 2012, it was able to reach its target audience via Facebook.

3.     Colombo & Hurd: The Florida law firm was able to get more people into it’s office via Google Adwords.

4.     Just Salad: The salad chain geotargets by using Foursquare ads.

http://mashable.com/2013/11/07/mobile-advertising-wins/

Christy Ferer Recommends Brands to Become Familiar with the Four Types of Holiday Shoppers

Not only is Black Friday a big day for shoppers, but it is also an important day for businesses/retailers. Vision Critical, a market research and technology firm, defines four types of Black Friday shopper personas: the Modern-Day Coupon Queen, the Millennial Generation Shopper, the Mobile Tech Embracer, and the Single Cyber Male. Vidicom and Christy Ferer suggests brands to become familiar with the four major personas when marketing to them.

1.     Modern-Day Coupon Queen: This persona is typically a mom in her forties who spends the least amount of money on herself during the holidays. The Modern-Day Coupon Queen is likely to line up for doorbuster Black Friday Sales.

2.     Millennial Generation Shopper: Usually in their mid 20s, the majority of Millennial Generation Shoppers admit to impulse buying and about 2/3 are not in-store when shopping on mobile devices.

3.     Mobile Tech Embracer: This type of persona embraces traditional forms of shopping while adopting new ways of purchasing.

4.     Single Cyber Males: This persona generally makes purchases via their computers. Most Single Cyber Males look for gifts ahead of time and are not likely to bother with lines and crowds for in-store holiday promotional sales.

http://mashable.com/2013/11/28/marketing-holiday-shoppers/

Vidicom Suggest Ways for Brands to Bring More Consumers to Their Sites

Here at Vidicom, Christy Ferer stresses the importance of connecting brands and consumers. Bringing consumers to brands’ websites is one way to increase consumer engagement. Brands need to know their referring traffic sources in order to do so.  Some effective ways to analyze and optimize referral traffic include:

1.     Analyze the two types of referrers: The two types of referrals are referring domains and individual referrals.  In order to understand your referral sources, brands should know both metrics.

2.     Track everything: Brands should go into great detail in their data so they know where to invest for the next campaign.

3.     Optimize for social: Social media is a powerful tool that can increase visits, develop brand affinity, and get your brand in the conversation of consumers; all of which will pay off in the long run.

4.     Partner opportunities: You can find potential partners with similar missions and goals by keeping track of your referrals.

http://mashable.com/2013/11/27/referrals-metrics/

Vidicom Provides Brands with Tips to Build Customer Relationships

Christy Ferer agrees that we strongly value customer relationships here at Vidicom. It is a nonstop effort to strengthen our customer relationships as well as help other brands build theirs’. Some useful advice for brands regarding cultivating customer relationships include:

1.     Realize that happy customers are returning customers: When customers are happy, they are more likely to spread a positive message about your brand by speaking to potential customers or posting reviews online about your brand.

2.     Set and manage realistic expectations: To avoid disappointing your customer, it is better to under-promise and over-deliver than to set unrealistic expectations that your brand cannot follow through with.

3.     Be a connector: Your brand will benefit in the long run if you help people fulfill their needs by making connections for them.

4.     Keep track of customer information: Documenting customer details such as names, birthdays, kids’ names, etc. will build your customer relationship and will keep your customers coming back.

http://mashable.com/2013/11/25/customer-relationships/

The New Addition to Instagram will be Beneficial for Brands, Recommended by Christy Ferer

Christy Ferer and the Vidicom team love discovering what’s new in the social media world. It was recently reported by GigaOm that Instagram will be adding private messaging before 2014. What the messaging function will look like is unclear, but it is likely that a user might be able directly share photos with particular friends or groups instead of posting to the public newsfeed. Private messaging is a efficient tool for brands to use to reach out to consumers as well as potential consumers more directly. Brands should get excited for the new addition as it can enhance consumer relationships!

http://mashable.com/2013/11/22/report-instagram-messaging/

Vidicom Helps Businesses Grow in Cost-Efficient Ways

To help other businesses expand that are just starting up, Vidicom's CEO Christy Ferer shares some bootstrapping tips from successful entrepreneurs:

1. Use Time Wisely: Laura Kenney, founder and editor-in-chief of YouBeauty.com, has set up a process to ensure productivity. The development team makes a clear direction on which task to accomplish first by having weekly priorities meetings.

2. Be Smart about Customer Feedback: Co-founder of Unroll.me, Jojo Hedaya, knows the importance of not only listening to customer feedback, but also being resourceful about what to do when addressing it.

3. Hire Well: Alexa Hirschfield, co-founder of Paperless Post, stresses the significance of the quality of a new hire in a small company.  Hirschfield says, “ Recognize that skill comes first and personality comes second, but if the personality is wrong, still don’t hire someone.”

For more productive tips, check out: http://mashable.com/2013/11/18/tips-resourceful-small-business/

Tumblr Add-ons Help Brands Improve Overall Experience Tumblr, Says Vidicom

As Vidicom previously noted, Tumblr is a great tool for businesses to use to build their brands. Christy Ferer agrees. There are extensions offered for users to improve their overall experience on the social media site. Some of the add-ons include:

1.     Missing e: Provides faster reblogs, a bookmark for your place in the dashboard and enables you to select multiple posts at once.

2.     X Kit: You can add timestamps to posts, improve your inbox experience, reply to notifications, dim posts you have already read, and browse safely in public.

3.     Tumblr Savior: Add words and phrases to a “White” or “Black” list with this Chrome extension. The Black list prevents you from seeing posts containing unwanted words and the White list displays posts on your feed containing the words.

4.     Tumblr Hate: This add-on is similar to Tumblr Savior because you can hide posts that are reblogged over and over again.