Upwardly Mobile!
May/100
Following on from our topic of the iphone v Nexus One, we thought it was worth taking time out to look at the mobile market on the whole.
With mobile phone sales on the increase year on year, clearly this is a profitable industry that has potential to drive forward our recovery.
Recent research conducted by the Gartner technology industry research group noted a 17% increase in mobile phone sales in quarter 1 of this year compared to 2009, with Smartphone models (phones with internet access) leading the way.
As expected, Nokia have topped the pole with 35% of the market, with Samsung trailing closely behind claiming a further 20.6%.
As for Smartphone sales, Nokia again hold the title with over 44.3%, whilst RIM, Apple and Google share the remainder of the market.
But what does this mean for you and me? Well we can already see the inevitable effect of profitable sales in the mobile market with O2 announcing 100 new jobs in the European HQ in Dublin. These new positions will act as a support function to 02’s expanding workforce. And that in my opinion is good news for all!!
Verkom’s 2010 Salary Guide launched today!
May/100
We are delighted to announce the launch of our 2010 Salary Guide! As part of the Premier Group, we continuously monitor market trends.
Since our 2009 Salary Guide the Irish employment market has clearly undergone significant changes and continues to experience very challenging economic conditions. In the midst of such uncertainty we have commissioned an “up to the minute” salary guide which we feel will be of significant benefit to both employers and job seekers alike.
The Premier Group guide is the best and definitive guide to salaries in the Finance, IT, Technical and Office Support sectors.
Find out the latest salaries and hiring trends for 2010 on http://www.verkom.ie/salary-guide-2010
Social Media: Return On Investment
May/100
Social Media ROI (Return on Investment)
- Social Media = Positive ROI
- Over 300,000 businesses have a presence on facebook.
Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media.
Vaynerchuk found:
- $15,000 in Direct Mail = 200 new customers.
- $7,500 in Billboards = 300 new customers.
- $0 on Twitter = 1,800 new customers.
Wetpaint/Altimeter found companies widely engaged in social media surpass their peers in both revenues and profits.
- Company sales with highest levels of social media = +18%
- Company sales with least social activity = -6%
Lenovo = 20% reduction in call centre activity as customers go to community website.
BK Whopper Sacrifice facebook application:
- Estimated Investment < $50,000.
- Estimated Return: > $400,000 in press/media value.
- 32 million free media impressions.
- That’s like reaching the combined population of 19 US States.
Blendtec quintupled sales with “Will It Blend?” YouTube Videos.
Dell sold $3 million worth of computers on Twitter.
- Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive POI.
25% of Ford’s marketing spend is on Digital/Social Media.
- “You can’t just say it. You have to get the people to say it to each other.” – James Farley, CMO Ford
- 37% of Generation Y was aware of the Ford Fiesta via social media before its launch in the US.
- They are the only US auto company that didn’t take a government loan.
Naked Pizza set a one day sales record using social media.
- 68% of sales from Twitter.
- 85% of new customers from Twitter.
VW goes 100% Mobile for launch of GTI
Social media is only for B2C = false.
- Tweets for a Cause sent out a tweet from Atlanta to encourage support of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
- Retweets from @marshable, @G_Man, @zaibatsu and others caused Atlanta Chapter site to receive 11,000 visitors in 24 hours.
InTUIT introduced “Live Community” into their TurboTax products 2 years ago.
- Unit sales up by over 30% each year.
Software company Genius.com reports 24% of social media leads convert to sales opportunities.
President Barack Obama
- 5 million fans on social media.
- 5.4 million clicked on an “I voted for Obama Facebook button”.
- 3 million online donors = $500 million.
- 92% of donations were in increments of less than $100.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre
- 9.5% increase in registrations using social media.
Web host provider Moon Fruit:
- $15K social media investment
- Website Traffic up over 300%
- Sales up 20%
eBay found participants in online communities spend 54% more money.
Customer support cost = $12 via the contact centre vs. 25 cents via self service.
“Why are we trying to measure social media like a traditional channel anyway?
- Social media touches every facet of business and is more an extension of good business ethics – Erik Qualman”
- “You can’t buy attention anymore. Having a huge budget doesn’t mean anything in social media …
- The old media paradigm was PAY to PLAY.
- Now you get back what you authentically put in. You’ve got to be willing to PLAY to PLAY.” – Alex Bogusky, C–Chairman, CP&B.
- Think of Twitter as the canary in the coal mine – Morgan Johnston (JetBlue Airways)
71% plan to increase investments in social media by an average of 40%, because:
- Low Cost Marketing
- Getting Traction
- We HAVE to do it.
MacDonalds:
- “Our head of social media is the customer”.
What is the cost of doing nothing?
Find Out More: http://www.enoov.com/ytplinternet.html
The Rise of the Android!
May/100
The new Android based mobiles are fast becoming the must-have gadget of the year. The battle for control of the global mobile phone market is a tug of war between Apple’s much loved iPhone and the new Google Nexus One.
Android-based mobile phones overtook the iPhone to become the second highest selling US mobile phone type after Blackberry in Q1 2010, according to market research firm NPD Group. NPD reports that, based on unit sales to consumers last quarter, Android phones had a market share of 28%, ahead of the iPhone at 21%.
When the iPhone was launched in 2007 by Apple, it was a huge selling success world wide. Within months there was a high demand for iPhone Developers, and specialized iPhone software companies. This ripple affect created new opportunities for both developers and software firms. The Android based mobiles can provide a similar story line, and already there is a high demand for Android developers, particularly evident in America. Key skills such as core Java, J2ME and JQuery are top of the list across many jobs sites in America,
The Android based mobile phones could provide the Irish market with a new innovate area to develop, and could provide a niche profitable market for both developers and specialized software companies.
Is Social Media a fad or the biggest shift since the industrial revolution?
May/100
- In 2010 Gen Y outnumbers Baby Boomers, 96% of them have joined a social network.
- Social Media is the #1 activity on the Web.
- 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media.
Years to reach million users:
- Radio (38 years)
- TV (13yrs)
- Internet (4 years)
- iPod (3 years)
- Facebook (100 million users in less than 9 months)
- iPod Application Downloads (1 billion in 9 months)
Some Interesting Facts:
- If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest country after China, India & the USA.
- Over 300 million use China’s QZone (QZONE.QQ.COM)
- 2009 US Dept. of Education study in 2009 revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction.
- 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum.
- 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.
- The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year old females.
- Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire population of Ireland, Norway & Panama.
- 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
- Generation Y & Z consider e-mail passé.
- In 2009, Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen.
- What happens in Vegas, stays on facebook, twitter, orkut, bebo, flickr, digg, myspace, YouTube, etc.
- YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world.
- YouTube hosts over 100 million videos.
- Wikipedia has over 13 million articles. Studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopaedia Britannica. 78% of these articles are non-English.
- If you were paid $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia, you would earn $156.23 per hour.
- There are over 200 million blogs. 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily.
- 25% search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content.
- 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands. Do you like what they are saying about your brand?
- People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services than how Google ranks them.
- 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Only 14% trust advertisements.
- Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI.
- 90% of people that can TiVo ads do.
- Hulu has grown from 63 million total streams to 373 million in April 2009.
- 70% of 18-34 year olds have watched TV on the web. Only 33% have ever viewed a show on DVR/TiVo.
- 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video on their phone.
- 35% of book sales on Amazon are for the Kindle.
- 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation.
- We no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
- In the near future, we will no longer search for products and services; they will find us via social media.
- Social Media isn’t a fad; it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.
- More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook daily. It’s a people-driven economy.
- Successful companies in social media listen first and sell second.
- Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators and content providers than traditional advertisers.
- Welcome to the world of socialnomics.
You can find out more at http://www.enoov.com/ytplinternet.html