News – Page 6 – Social Media Strategist

TEN BIGGEST SMARTPHONE MANUFACTURERS IN Q3 2012 (BY UNIT SALES)

Rank . Maker . . . . . . Units . . . Market Share . Was in Q2 of 2012 . . OS supported (coming)

1 . . . . Samsung . . . 56.2 M . . 32.8 % . . . . . .( 32.9 %) . . . . . . . . . Android, bada, Windows, (Tizen)
2 . . . . Apple . . . . . . 26.9 M . . 15.7 % . . . . . . ( 17.0 %) . . . . . . . . . iOS
3 . . . . Huawei . . . . . 16.0 M . . . 9.3 % . . . . . . ( 4.6 %) . . . . . . . . . Android, (Tizen)
4 . . . . Sony . . . . . . . 8.8 M . . . 5.1 % . . . . . . ( 4.9 %) . . . . . . . . . Android
5 . . . . ZTE . . . . . . . . 8.0 M . . . 4.7 % . . . . . . ( 5.2 %) . . . . . . . . . Android, Windows
6 . . . . HTC . . . . . . . . 7.8 M . . . 4.6 % . . . . . . ( 5.8 %) . . . . . . . . . Android, Windows
7 . . . . RIM . . . . . . . . 7.4 M . . . 4.3 % . . . . . . ( 5.1 %) . . . . . . . . . Blackberry
8 . . . . LG . . . . . . . . . 7.2 M . . . 4.2 % . . . . . . ( 4.2 %) . . . . . . . . . Android
9 . . . . Lenovo . . . . . . 7.0 M . . . 4.1 % . . . . . . ( 3.9 %) . . . . . . . . . Android
10 . . . Nokia . . . . . . . 6.3 M . . . 3.7 % . . . . . . ( 6.7 %) . . . . . . . . Symbian, Windows, MeeGo
Others . . . . . . . . . . . 19.8 M . . 11.6 % . . . . . . ( 7.3 %) . . . . . . . . Android, Windows, others, (MeeGo) etc
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . 171.4 M

So, first, Moto-Moto falls out of the top 10? Wow, goodbuy Google smartphones, eh? And who jumps in to replace it? Lenovo with its LePhone. Didn't you know Lenovo makes smartphones? I'm not surprised, so far they've only sold in China but are now eagerly expanding for example into India. Yes, already a Top 10 sized smartphone maker and yes, this is the same Lenovo from China that bought IBM's branded PC operations some years ago.

Other big news, Nokia tumbles from 3rd place to 10th, and is facing expulsion from the Top 10 as well – there's another hungry Chinese smartphone maker, Yulong, which sells smartphones under the Coolpad brand, who may topple Nokia already in Q4. The top is settled, Samsung rules this race now and Apple is in secure second place. Huawei is jumping ahead of the rest of the pack, and watch Sony, it finally is back to making smartphones profitably and showing aggression on the chart. Now lets look at the smartphone operating systems:

Table and commentry source from TomiAhonen Consulting, Estimates November 14, 2012 from vendor data and other sources. This table may be freely distributed.

What % (percentage) of Google searches click on sponsored adverts?

Only 6% of searches in Google now lead to a sponsored advert being clicked on (according to the Search Agency, 2012).

What % (percentage) of Google searches click on sponsored adverts?

Social Media is more important for SEO now than ever before

Social Media appears to be more important for SEO now than ever before….

This conculsion is made on the findings and study by search and social analytics company Searchmetrics aimed at identifying the key factors that help web pages rank well in Google searches. The company analysed search results from Google for 10,000 popular keywords and 300,000 websites in order to pick out the issues that correlate¹ with a high Google ranking.

The five key findings of the study are:

1. Social media has arrived in search

Social signals from Facebook and Twitter now correlate very strongly with good rankings in Google’s index. The number of Facebook 'shares' a web page has received appears to have the strongest association (a correlation of 0.37). Twitter is far behind Facebook but is still the 6th strongest factor on Searchmetrics’ list of Google ranking factors with a correlation of 0.24

2. Top brands appear to have a ranking advantage

Despite the perception of search as a level playing field, the study found that top brand web sites enjoy a ranking advantage. Some of the main factors that are commonly believed to help web pages rank well, such as the quantity of text on a web page and having keywords in headlines and titles, have no effect in the case of large, well known brands.

“Surprisingly, the data show a negative correlation between these factors and rankings – contradicting traditional SEO theory. So not having keywords in headlines or having less text on a page seems to be associated with sites that rank higher,” explains Marcus Tober, CTO, Searchmetrics.

“When we looked deeper at the top 30 results we found that this pattern really starts to emerge with highly ranked pages. And when we looked at sites that are in the top position on page one of Google – the natural position occupied by brands – this is where the negative correlation is strongest. This indicates that strong brands rank highly even without perfectly conforming to common SEO practice.”

3. Too much advertising is a handicap

Too many and/or excessively clumsy advertisements were presumed to be a factor in the Google Panda Update and its successors which have tried to lower the search visibility of poor quality results. The data in this study supports this assumption as all the analyzed advertisement factors returned a negative correlation (-0.04).

A deeper analysis revealed that this pattern was strongest when there was a high percentage of Google AdSense ads; rankings for pages with more AdSense ad blocks seem to drop sharply. This supports Google’s statements early in 2012, in which the company said that particularly prominent, distracting or above-the-fold ads could lead to ranking problems.

4. Quantity of links is still important but quality is vital

The number of backlinks (links to a website from other sites) is still one of the most powerful factors in predicting Google rankings (with a correlation of +0.36). To get the most benefit, however, it appears a site needs to have a spread of links that looks natural – not like it was artificially created by SEO experts.

This means that a site should not simply have a large number of perfectly optimized links that include all the keywords it wants to be ranked for in the anchor text. It needs to have a proportion of ‘no follow’ links (links which do not convey ranking benefits) and links that contain ‘stopwords’ (such as ‘here’, ‘go’, ‘this’).

5. Keyword domains still frequently attract top results

Contrary to reports, websites with keywords in the domain name such as cheapflights.com still often top the rankings (correlation of +0.11). Although Google has repeatedly said that keyword domain sites will slowly weaken in power in searches, this does not yet seem to be the case.

“We collated the data for our research in February and March 2012, meaning it takes into account the impact of Google’s various Panda algorithm updates that have greatly changed the look of search results since early 2011. We conducted similar studies in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy and found very similar results across the board, which seem to show that these findings apply internationally….Of course, only Google knows for sure as they control how the search algorithm actually behaves,” (Tober, Searchmetrics)

About the Searchmetrics Study

The study analyzed Google search results for 10,000 keywords and 300,000 web sites, as well as billions backlinks, Tweets, Google +1s and Facebook likes, shares and comments. The data was collected in February and March 2012. The correlations between different factors and the Google search results were calculated using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.

Bog reference from Searchmetrics Press release & SEOMoz

Podcasts from Mozilla

A few weeks ago I blogged about 'Mobile Day' an event that Social Media Strategist helped to market at Mozilla (Firefox) HQ. It included a series of panel sessions hosted by Mobile Heroes before closing with Swedish Beers Mobile Networking Party's 11th Birthday!

Social Media Strategist recorded three podcasts from Mozilla and streamed the event across the 'tinter-web'.

*State of the Mobile Nation (sponsored by Hotwire PR) was chaired by Russell Buckley. The discussion was a review of where we are and where we’re going in the mobile industry.
*Mobile Advertising will Eat itself was also be chaired by Russell Buckley. It addressed the latest innovations (or not) in the world of mobile advertising.
*(Mobile) Money Makes The World Go Around was chaired by Tim Green and took a look at the world of mobile money, from payments to mobile wallets to the future (if any) for NFC and more.

All three podcasts can be listened to and downloaded below:

If you or your business are interested in podcasting your event and/or video streaming it live get in touch

Speaking at Digital TV Summit 2012

I will be speaking on a panel at Informa's Digital TV Summit 2012 on the 5th December (day 2) between 12:10-1:00 . The panel will address "Why social TV is the next big thing?"

The areas looked at in detail during this discussion will include:

*How can companies monetize social TV?
*How can traditional TV companies benefit from social TV?
*Does social TV lead to more piracy?
*How important is the companion screen for social TV?

The rest of the panel will consist of Antonio Gioia, Project Manager, Content & Product Innovation, Mediaset Fabienne Fourquet, Director of Digital Content, Canal Plus Mark Ghuneim, CEO, Trendrr and Greg Dale, EVP International, comScore

Other speakers include representatives from BBC, Sky, BT, Canal+, Dutche Telecom, Ofcom, Orange, Playboy and Vodafone. A full list of the speakers can be found here

SMART TV's (aka Social TV's) have exploded into the living room over the last couple of years. In the first quarter of 2012 almost 20% of all TV's Shipped globally were SMART TV's).

Although the panel I' m speaking on will largely focus on Social TV's the event itself will cover all aspects of the TV industry in the EMEA region, with a renewed focus on the operators' perspective. As well as discussing how cable, satellite, IPTV and DTT operators can grow their businesses in mature markets, the event highlights the new players such as online and mobile players. This assesses the impact of newer phenomena such as social television and connected TV sets.

Social TV is one of the hottest aspects of this fast-moving industry. More and more content owners and advertisers are embracing the benefits to be gained from social TV recommendations and engagement. In short "How much will social TV viewing change the future television experience?"

*More information and early bird tickets can be found here
*More information about how your brand could benefit from video marketing can be read here

Eventbrite Marketing

On average, every time an individual shares an event on a social media site, they generate an additional £2.01 in ticket sales for that event. In the UK, the figure is £2.32 generated per share on Facebook, and £1.46 per share on Twitter (Eventbrite 2012)

Further impressive statistics from Eventbrite can be seen in the infographic below:

EventBrite Marketing

Twitter Statistics, 2012

2012 has been a great year for the micro-blogging GIANT 'Twitter'. Below is a visual breakdown highlighting the amount of accounts and tweets that have been created thus far. It also highlights the countries where Twitter is most active.

Heroes of Mobile Day: London Edition

Last year I was lucky enough to work on the first ever Heroes of the Mobile Fringe festival that ran paralel with Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Ahead of HOTMF 2013 a series of smaller scale events starting in London to keep the buzz going and help build up to the festival in Barcelona during February.

Heroes of Mobile Day: London Edition on Wednesday 17th October

Three discussion panel sessions happening at Mozilla HQ on St Martin’s Lane on Wednesday 17th October. All being well, these will be live webcast, but if you’re in London, you can join the audience as well and participate in a bit of networking at the same time. Each session will run for about 45 minutes with some time for refreshments before and after. You’re welcome to come to one, two or all three sessions, as you wish. They’re free to attend but we are limited in space as we want to keep the atmosphere intimate and to encourage discussion and questions from the audience.

State of the Mobile Nation – This session is sponsored by our friends at Hotwire PR and chaired by Russell Buckley. The discussion will be a review of where we are and where we’re going in the mobile industry and what that might mean for your business. More details and RSVP here. Doors open at 09.30 for a 10.00 start.

Mobile Advertising will Eat itself – This session will also be chaired by Russell Buckley and look at the latest innovations (or not) in the world of mobile advertising. More details and RSVP here. Doors open at 11.00 for a prompt 11.15 start.

(Mobile) Money makes the World go Round – This session will be chaired by Tim Green and will take a look at the world of mobile money, from payments to mobile wallets to the future (if any) for NFC and more. Details and RSVP here. Doors open at 12.30 for a prompt 13:15 start. We will be finished by around 14:00 but you’re welcome to stay for further networking and refreshments.

About the sponsors

Hotwire is an integrated PR and communications agency. Founded in 2000, the agency spans a number of industries including telecoms, media, marketing, consumer, technology, financial services and cleantech. Quickly becoming a global offering, Hotwire has offices in the UK, across Europe, Australia and the US. Suffice to say, the team are passionate about all things mobile and will be on hand to chew the fat with you.

Mozilla Spaces are open working environments where Mozillians can hack,code, design, research, create, engage and contribute to building a brighter future for the web and they are hosting this session. You may be familiar with Mozilla's brilliant Firefox browser for desktop and mobile and more recently, they announced their Firefox OS for mobile.

Swedish beers

To round off the day, we’ll be celebrating Swedish Beers’ 11th Birthday Party at The Nordic Bar from 18.30 with our friends from Millennial Media,LoopMe Media, Yuilop and Inspiring Interns. Again, free to attend. No formalities, no presentations, just good company, good chat and some free drinks (beer, wine and soft drinks a-plenty courtesy of our sponsors). More details here.

(Information on this page lifted from Musings of a Mobile Marketer and slightly tinkered with).