Instagram App: Zero to $1 billion in 17 months!

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Stellar Team

Back in October 2010, Instagram launched its first app. Little did people predict that today it would be bought for $1 billion.

The app had almost 200,000 users within the first week. By February of that year, it had 1.75 million users, and reached 4 million three months later. Growing to 14 million users in just over a year, Instagram now has more than 35 million users and counting.

“We were all like, ‘what’s the big deal? It’s just photos and filters,” Brian Blau, a Research Director with the Consumer Technology and Markets Group at Gartner, told Mashable. “There’s something to be said around that simplicity.”

If you’re not familiar with this craze, here’s the 411:
Instagram is a free photo sharing and social networking service for your iPhone, and recently now Android. Users download the app from their app store and can take pictures with the app’s camera feature. The pictures can then be edited with various lighting effects and boarders before uploading to any synced social network, such as Twitter or Facebook. The pictures are also shared on the Instagram network itself and users can create their own albums to share with friends. Simply put, it is basically photos and filters.

This past Monday, April 9, Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion. On that day, The startup’s iPhone app had30 million downloads marked. In the same week, its six-day-old Android app hit the 5 million downloads. Correspondingly, Instagram’s valuation shot up. Facebook acquired Instagram just as the startup was closing a round of funding at a $500 million valuation. Instagram’s $1 billion price tag means it literally doubled its valuation within a week.

Interesting enough, if we look strictly at the acquisition cost per user, Facebook is paying roughly $28 for each of Instagram’s 35 million users. According to Wired Magazine, the median cost across all the acquisitions is about $92 per user—so Facebook got a steal!

Regardless, the $1 billion price tag proves Instagram’s value. With social network photo giant, Facebook as its owner, this picture app is bound to keep skyrocketing its numbers.

To learn more about Instagram or other social networking trends and optimization, contact Stellar Blue’s crew today!

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Know Your Facebook Tools

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Stellar Team

Facebook has made some changes. Have you noticed?

The new timeline format is visually stunning but with such a drastic change comes with a slew of learning curves.

The new format, which was enabled for all Facebook Pages March 30th, has a new set of analytical tools that can improve your page analysis and how you monitor your brand with social media. One of the new additions is the ability that allows anyone to send a message to a brand directly. This is a great way to allow consumers to message a brand without having to broadcast it on the wall. This provides a more personal connection with a brand.

But the best change? Stellar thinks the best change is the new Facebook admin panel – it’s like your own social media command center. Check out Buechel Stone’s Facebook command center:
This area is located at the top of a page. Only admins have the privilege of seeing this data for a page. It provides an overview of all your page’s activity. If you have lots of activity in any given area, you can hover your mouse over that section and scroll!

If you are an admin but do not see this admin panel, make sure to open it up! In the top right corner of your page, click on ‘Admin Panel’ button.

With the admin panel expanded, you can also set up Facebook Advertising through the “Build Audience” as well as email your contacts about your page. In the admin panel you can access “Help” resources such as a tour of the new layout. And the most important, under “Manage” you can access the edit page options to the behind the scenes of your Facebook page and its permissions.

Stellar Blue encourages you to explore your new page and its new tools. Contact us if you have any questions or would like to explore options to further enhance your social media marketing!

*Thanks to our client Buechel Stone for allowing us to use their page as an example. Click here to check out how they use Facebook!

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Facebook Search Engine Gets a Face-Lift!

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Stellar Team

Facebook is revamping its search engine and grabbing a part of the $15 billion search advertising market!
About two-dozen Facebook engineers, led by a former Google engineer, are working on an improved search engine. “The goal is to help users better sift through the volume of content that members create on the site, such as status updates, and the articles, videos, and other information across the Web that people “like” using Facebook’s thumbs-up button,” according to Business Week.

Facebook has a gold mine of social data it can apply to search queries, or terms users typed into its search field. In February, Facebook fielded 336 million search queries, according to ComScore–only magnitudes fewer than Google and its closest competitors.

With a stronger search engine, Facebook would be like the Wal-Mart of the Internet: a one-stop shop! For example, if a user is on Facebook and wants to go out to dinner for Italian food, he can query the closet Italian restaurants that have been liked most often and maybe even find a coupon from the restaurant’s business page!

Instead of crawling and ranking the whole Web, as Google does, Facebook already allows users to avidly flag the most interesting content, such as the best articles, recipes, and shopping deals.

Facebook could also start selling relevant and profitable keyword ads alongside results. 

However, the golden road is never without bumps. Facebook’s search revamp will hit a few obstacles. Users see and rate only a fraction of the Web’s content [generally “new” content,] so Facebook may have a harder time including more obscure content in search results, such as an older restaurant. The site also has a strong working relationship with Bing and therefore needs to avoid stepping on their toes. In 2010, Bing began personalizing results based on what a user’s Facebook friends “like.”

Greg Sterling, a senior analyst at Opus Research, says Facebook could easily become the second-most popular search engine if it overcomes these small roadblocks. “There’s a huge amount of revenue waiting to be unlocked if they want to explore search-based pay-per-click advertising,” he says. “They can leverage the data and demographic information they already have.” Only then will that blurry photo of Facebook’s potential new search box come into focus.

Facebook already has a leg up on Google in terms of ad targeting by interest and demographic; finding users based on specific things they have “liked.” Add a great search engine and you also get users while they’re actively seeking something out.

Improving Facebook search in some ways simply means making more effective use of our data–which leads us to wonder..do they have something bigger brewing?

Want your organization to break into the social media world? The Stellar Blue is a pro at Facebook and social networking. We can help you set up Facebook for your business today. Contact us to discuss!

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Don’t Forget to Update: Browsers

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Stellar Team

Your browser is the tool you use to surf and access the world wide web: Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox, Safari, Google Chrome, and so on. Commonly, when Stellar is asked why things are appearing a certain way on a website or database, we first ask which browser and which version they are using. Your browser version plays a huge role in your online security, usability, and browsing speed. It’s so important to keep your computer, software and browser updated.

For majority of users, here are some reasons to upgrade to the latest browser version taken from webdevelopersnotes.com:

Security: Typically, the newer version of the browser will have patches for security holes.
Faster rendering engines: Though downloading speed is dependent on the internet connection, the latest browser version will render web sites faster than its predecessor. The same can also be said for the JavaScript engine.
Better compliance to web standards
Better usability: For instance, all the latest versions of popular browsers now sport tabbed browsing.
New nifty features: Such as those that give more control to the user on how to manage their private data, cache and cookies.
Easier to use interface: Not always true, however. But this is what the browsers are trying to achieve.

*Before any updates, we suggest that you read-up on the new version. This might provide some tips to help the transition and to make sure your computer can support the upgrade without slowing it down.

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Rockin’ Mobile Ideas

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Stellar Team

Find yourself in a struggle while brainstorming how to spice up your mobile marketing strategy?  We want to give you inspiration from a few ingenious mobile marketing ideas created by an organization that understands its audience.

A cross between politics and pop culture, Rock the Vote organization has registered more than five million 18-24 year old voters around the nation and pioneers creative mobile marketing ideas fit for its demographic.

The 18-24 year old age group has a high smartphone ownership and on average individually sends 1,640 text messages per month. This explains why the organization has made SMS [texting] a priority to connect with its audience.  Rock the Vote’s “Get out the Vote” SMS campaign included a text message sent the day before an election, which increased election turn out by three to four percentage points.

But with the mobile web growing 8x the speed of the Internet, consumers everywhere are craving mobile. Break cook-cutter mobile marketing ideas by learning from Rock the Vote’s techniques.

USE QR MOBILE CODES EVERYWHERE
At a recent concert, Rock the Vote volunteers wore t-shirts with a QR code on the back that users could scan with their smartphone and register to vote and enter their email. This year the organization plans to use more mobile bar codes at live events allowing users to do things such as buy merchandise, interact with social media and watch videos. Additionally, all of the nonprofit’s retail products come with mobile bar codes placed on tags that users can scan to learn more about the products.

HEAR YOUR AUDIENCE BY POLLING THEM
Rock the Vote uses mobile polls to find out what issues teens are interested in. For example, by using mobile polls in the organization’s high school civics program Democracy Class, the nonprofit learned that 32% of voters were most interested in the cost of college. Rock the Vote also used a web poll to let users cast their vote for political candidates via texting. After voting, consumers can join Rock the Vote’s text program. During a recent poll, Rock the Vote saw 8,000 users text in their votes for their pick on a Republican presidential nomination.

INTEGRATE ALL PLATFORMS
Rock the Vote has also bolstered its texting strategies by combining it with social media and email efforts as a way to get users engaged. Rock the Vote promotes its SMS program on its Facebook page to help spread the word. The organization has also used mobile as a way for users to enter social media sweepstakes.

PERSONALIZED APPS
Rock the Vote’s Chase app lets volunteers contact users to see if they plan to vote, similar to a paper call list. Additionally, the Rock the Vote 2012 app will educate users on how to vote while also interacting with content from the nonprofit. A customized app can be tailored for any business!

Rock the Vote continues to strengthen its social media and integrate mobile usage into its strategy. Additionally, the organization is beginning to “equip tablets to on-the-street volunteers to let users sign up to vote on the spot.”

Still need help letting your creative juices flow? We have an innovative team that can kick start you in the right direct. Contact Stellar Blue today to hear more about mobile marketing ideas and initiatives. 

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Timeline for Business is Here!

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Stellar Team

Facebook is changing, are you ready? As of March 30th, all business pages will change to the Timeline layout. This is the most visual update to happen to Facebook profiles and pages and it is already available for businesses to update.

*Video of a personal profile example.

Think of timeline as a scrapbook. For over five years, Facebook focused on growing users while storing all the data we posted on walls, photo albums, events, etc. So now with over 850 million users, Facebook turned to the stored data and decided to do something with it. According to Mark Zuckerberg, the thought behind this is to easily access memories and look back on certain events – like a scrapbook.

So now all posts you have ever made are placed in chronological order for viewers to go back in time easily to view past content.

For a business, Stellar Blue wants to provide the first five steps you should take to update your business today with the new Facebook Timeline:

  1. Log into Facebook and go to your business page. There should be an announcement at the top of your page mentioning timeline (if you don’t have it yet and if it’s before March 30th). It gives you the option to update now; so update now! And take Facebook’s mini tour.
  2. Update your profile image. Your profile image before was the long image in the top left corner of your page. Previous, this image had dimensions closer to 600 pixels high by 200 pixels wide. Now your profile image is just 150 pixels by 150 pixels. Use this space for your logo since it will be next to all your business activity on Facebook.
  3. Update your cover image. This is the large banner image along the top of your page. Facebook prohibits this space for use of promotions or coupons. So use this space to really showcase your business, services, staff, etc. This image is large so make sure you have an appropriately sized image prior to updating (851 pixels by 315 pixels). Keep in mind Stellar can help you design something amazing!
  4. Explore our new admin panel. When you are an admin of a page, you have the option of viewing an admin panel above the actual page’s content. This area can be shrunk down by selecting the ‘hide’ button in the top right corner or expanded by selecting ‘admin panel’. This area opens you up to your page’s stats and activity. It’s also he portal to edit your page details. This is a feature only available to Facebook pages – not personal Facebook profiles.
  5. Contact Stellar Blue for a free Facebook eBook that provides a glossary of terms, business goals for your Facebook page, tips and tricks and more!
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Stellar Blue is Hiring: Marketing

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Stellar Team

(POSITION FULFILLED 4/12/12)

 

We are growing and we need more talent to grow with us! We are looking to add an Internet Marketing Assistant at the part-time level with the expectation, and hope to grow the position full-time. Ideal candidates are ones that have a working experience in the field, educated skills as well as the ability to work seamlessly with a team. Below is our formal write-up on the position!

Grade Minimum: Senior
Type of Position/Time Requirement: Part-Time/15 hours per week minimum
Compensation: Paid, Part-time
Application Deadline: ASAP
Position Start: Immediately

General Description:
The employee will gather, organize, record, analyze and retrieve appropriate information when necessary to help Stellar Blue and its nearly 200 clients. Other responsibilities include and are not limited to image resizing/formatting, article writing, social media initiation, SEO keyword research as well as advertising copywriting. Employee’s schedule is flexible. Employee is expected to complete at least 15 hours of work per week; however the schedule is dependent upon overall production schedule. The employee will be on an ‘on-call’ basis where they will be provided with tasks via email or phone call and are expected to complete tasks within the provided time frame. This flex schedule is
convenient for school and other work schedules. Stellar Blue is an active company looking for potential internal growth.

Qualifications Include:
• Pursuing a BA/BS degree with a strong self-motivated nature;
• Ability to write effectively and perform necessary research;
• Ability and willingness to learn new computer applications;
• Proficient Adobe knowledge (*Extensive experience in Adobe InDesign and Photoshop (CS3 or higher) as well as AP Style is desirable);
• Excellent communication, organizational and analysis skills;
• Meticulous attention to detail in a timely manner;
• Strong initiative, inquisitiveness and self-discipline.

Application Process:
• Prospects must email cover letters, resumes, and at least two reference contacts to
info@stellarbluewebdesign.com.
• Additional items for submission: writing samples, online portfolios, blogs, links to social media activity, etc.
• Chosen prospects will have interviews set up immediately. Please indicate within your cover letter which day and time will work best for your schedule.

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PayPal Ventures into Mobile Commerce with ‘Here’

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Stellar Team

Aimed at offering a great solution for small business to accept payments, PayPal introduced PayPal Here.  Much like other options that Stellar Blue has discussed such as Square or Intuit GoPayment, PayPal Here is connected through your smartphone device.

“While the PayPal Here app is designed to be used hand in hand with the card reader, the app can also be used to accept checks, keep track of cash transactions, and accept credit card transactions in situations where you might not have your card reader present,” said Emily Price, writer for Mashable.com. “Merchants such as plumbers can also use the app to send an invoice for services on the spot. The invoice comes to a customer via email, and can be paid using any credit card or via PayPal online.”

Details of this new application include:

Secure: Fully encrypted and PCI compliant.

Cost: Charges a 2.7% fee, though each merchant that signs up gets a PayPal debit card, which earns the merchant back 1% instantly, taking the cut down to 1.7%.

Available formats: Will work with iOS and Android, though neither is available yet.

Design: PayPal’s solution is a triangle about the same size as Square’s square.

Click here to learn more on this opportunity.

To learn more about mobile commerce, check out Stellar Blue’s latest newsletter! Click here to explore!

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‘Stuff’ You Can Do for Your Site

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Stellar Team

Just because you built it; doesn’t mean they will come. Stellar Blue does provide many great services to help your website get found; however, we are asked quite often by clients what are some things they can do to help.

The following tips are for optimizing your online presence and creating that relationship with the major search engines. Ultimately, we need tell them what you are about and to become an authority online.

1.) Building online Links
The internet is one big popularity contest. Everyone is striving to be #1 on search results. Well how do we conquer that? You need to build your popularity and you accomplish that through links. The more links pointing to your website increases your popularity. Google gives a grade to every website; it’s called PageRank. PageRank is on a scale from 0-10. ‘10’ symbolizes that your website is fully optimized and is the highest in popularity. ‘0’ means… there is definitely room for improvement. You boost your PageRank by boosting the number of links pointing to your website. Great ways to building links:
• Create high-quality, educational or entertaining content. If people like your content, they will naturally want to link to it.
• Submit your website to online directories such as www.dmoz.org
• Make sure your website information is up to date on Chamber sites, associations, social media sites, etc.

2.) Keyword Association
Your website is providing a message to search engines in regards to your services, products and where you provide them. These keywords are being associated with your company name and image. Therefore, integrate the same keywords into any online source that uses your company name or logo such as social media sites, blog posts, e-newsletters, online press releases, etc. Search engines index all those materials. So make sure you are properly displaying yourself on each channel.

3.) Critically review your own site
It depends on the industry, but most websites have a 40-60% bounce rate on average. This means a large majority of web traffic entering your website leaves without navigating to any other pages. Your website represents who you are and what you offer. You don’t need a high-end consultant to know that when people see it for the first time they’re thinking:
• Is this site credible?
• Is it trustworthy?
• Is this a professional company?
• Is this company stable?
• Does this site make me feel welcome?
• Am I in the right place?
You need to ask yourself all of these questions when evaluating your website. Now, design may not be the most important factor in a website overall and often times folks put too much emphasis on how a site looks instead of it works, but it does play an important role in making a good first impression. Bottom line, first impressions count.

Contact Stellar Blue at info@stellarbluewebdesign.com or (920) 905-0250 to discuss these tips in more detail and explore all the opportunities your site has to be found online!

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Google Plays in the Cloud

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Stellar Team

We’re excited that Google keeps putting its head up in the clouds. Starting on March 6th, Google empowered users to “play anywhere” and introduced an entirely cloud-based digital entertainment system. Google Play is a fully equipped one-stop shop for everyone’s favorite entertainment and took over Android Market, Google Music, and Google eBookstore.

Cloud computing is the ability to store and share resources and information as a utility over a network (typically the Internet,) rather than on a hard drive or software. With Google Play, users can eliminate the annoyance of constantly syncing music, movies, or games across multiple devices and avoid countless wire tangles.

With the cloud on Goggle’s team, we’ll be able to read, listen and watch content anywhere! Visualize buying a book on your Android phone and later reading it on the web at play.google.com. Just found a new app on the web and can’t wait to try it? Install it from Google Play on the web without ever touching your device. The app you install is now available on the device you choose – instantly. That’s the beauty of the cloud.

If you are in real estate, imagine working on your desktop in the office using Google Maps application from Google Play. You find the directions needed to a new property and save them on the app (in the cloud.) Later, you are on-the-go and meet with a client to explain the directions to the new property. Simply pull out you Android phone and access the directions you saved while working in your office earlier!

The possibles of leveraging Google Play are endless.

  • Store up to 20,000 songs: hundreds of free songs and millions more to buy.
  • Download more than 450,000 Android apps and games.
  • Get thousands of eBooks and movies, including new releases and HD titles.
  • Google Play cloud is free to use.

Want to know more about Google’s toys or additional information on Google Play’s features? Contact Stellar Blue today and we can give you the 411 to start leveraging Google’s ecosystem for your business today.

 

 

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