We’ve covered several mobile efforts from brands and agencies over the past few months. Here’s a collection of the interviews and case studies we’ve conducted on mobile app development, cross-channel strategies and general best practices for mobile marketing. (Read more…)

Three Op-Ed pieces in Sunday’s New York Times were devoted to ICANN’s recent move to allow URLs without Latin characters—a change that each writer agreed would not effect the global virtual village very much. In the US, Latin characters are the norm since English is spoken by about 80% of the population, age 5 and older, according to the US Census Bureau. Within the remaining 20%, Spanish is the dominant language, spoken by about 12% of the population.

While the addition of non-latin characters probably won’t signal any fundamental shift in how most US consumers view the Web, the move by ICANN did get me thinking, however, about the 29 million Hispanic Internet users in the US—and whether US marketers were doing enough to connect with them via Spanish-language sites. For now, the answer appears to be no. Here’s why.

Many marketers have Spanish-language Websites that mirror or complement their brand’s English-language one. According to comScore, about 19% of Hispanic Internet users use Spanish as their primary language, and most visitors are able to choose which version (English or Spanish) of the site they’d like to read.

The problem is many of the Spanish-version sites are lagging behind their English counterparts. According to AOL’s Hispanic Cyberstudy, one-quarter of Hispanic Internet users say they could not do all the same things on a Spanish-language site that they could do on the corresponding English-language site. And 23% agreed that the English-language sites were better or more comprehensive. A small 8.8% felt they got better deals on English-language sites, too.

Realize that it isn’t just Spanish-dominant Internet users who visit Spanish-language sites. The same AOL Cyberstudy found that bicultural and English-dominant Internet users spent time on Spanish-language sites every week, while Spanish-dominant users also went to English-lanaguage sites.

If brands are going to connect online with one of the country’s fastest growing demographics, they are going to have to create equally engaging experiences in both English and Spanish. Those who do will find their efforts rewarded by more positive word of mouth and higher brand loyalty. Half-hearted efforts will reap fewer rewards.

Facebook made a series of big announcements today, many of which will have a direct impact on how businesses market both on and off of Facebook. Two of the more notable pieces of news for marketers were:

• The Open Graph: The open graph will attempt to make the Web more social. The intent is to bring together social actions from all over the Web and allow for a rich depiction (and semantic memory) of what people are liking, reading, reviewing and rating. Using the examples of Yelp and Pandora, each of which are businesses with vast quantities of information about what people like and don’t like in the realms of local businesses and music, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the Open Graph would make the Web a richer, more connected experience.
• The “Like” button: As one of the social plugins that works with the Open Graph, it allows users to “Like” any form of content on the Web—provided that the Website they are visiting has implemented the small amount of code provided by Facebook for “Like” functionality. Zuckerberg predicted that 1 billion “Like” buttons will be clicked within 24 hours after today’s launch.

From Facebook:

You’ll begin seeing “Like,” or in some cases “Recommend,” buttons appearing on popular websites spanning a variety of industries, including NYTimes.com, IMDb, CNN.com, TIME.com, LIFE.com, Fandango, NHL.com, USA Networks, Levis.com, Univision and ABC.com.

For example, if I like a pair of jeans on Levis.com, my action will be shared with my friends on Facebook, where they can comment on it. I can also see which of my friends like the jeans on Levis.com.

I’m still processing the details of all of the announcements, but here are a few opening thoughts.

The ambitious Open Graph idea allows something rated or reviewed on a site like Yelp to be seamlessly transmitted back to Facebook users’ newsfeeds, profile pages, and search. A Yelp user would also see what their Facebook friends have reviewed or recommended—while still on Yelp’s site (or perhaps, mobile app). Not only does this have the potential to expand the reach of services like Yelp through more interaction and usage, but it could also help brands more easily show that their products are validated by potential customers’ social circles.

The “Like” button, meanwhile, has the potential to provide a far more interactive experience between businesses and customers. In one example given during the opening keynote, someone could visit ESPN.com, “Like” a football player participating in the NFL draft, and then receive a notification back from ESPN (via their Facebook news feed) alerting them to what happened to that person during the draft. In other words, the “Like” option takes a familiar Facebook activity—in this case, clicking a button to become a fan—and gives it a much more wide reaching effect, one that extends to a brand’s Website or anywhere a brand’s assets exist.

It also seems likely that the Facebook Connect concept, and the “share” button, where people need to take the step of logging in order to distribute content, may be going by the wayside.

Overall, the success of Facebook’s plans depends directly on Web firms’ willingness to add the social features announced today—along with consumers’ willingness to click a “Like” button frequently, or ignore it. Judging from the number of press releases I’ve received today about “Like” from Facebook’s business partners, I’d say that at the very least, brands are fairly excited to see what happens.

More consumer packaged goods brands are getting into the online video content game. Take the case of consumer products giant Clorox–its Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing brand has produced “Garden Party”, a series of original Webisodes extolling the virtues of fresh, seasonal veggies. The series of Web shorts star actress Jennie Garth of “90210″ fame, a mom of three and an advocate of healthy eating. The Webisodes are being distributed via iVillage.

(Read more…)

Some people may think they are ignoring marketing on social networks, but according to a recent study conducted by researchers at Penn State University, we may be engaging with brands much more than we think.

“People are using tweets to express their reaction, both positive and negative, as they engage with these products and services,” said Jansen. “Tweets are about as close as one can get to the customer point of purchase for products and services.”

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Results from the study found that users employ Twitter to inquire about product information. About 20 percent of the tweets contained product information in the form of asking and providing, thus giving companies a “rich source” of information concerning issues and questions that customers have regarding their products.

Jansen’s prediction was not far off from the results, though some results did surprise him.

“A lot of the brand comments were positive,” he said. “There are some good products out there, or at least products that people are happy with.”

More here.