Gragg Blog

Companies Plan To Increase Spending On Social Media Over The Next Year

Posted by admin on February 27, 2010  |  No Comments

by Michael A. Stelzner

We asked two questions to determine the survey participants’ experience using social media to market their businesses.

Use of social media marketing

We asked two questions to determine the survey participants’ experience using social media to market their businesses.

Business owners were more likely to use social media marketing (90+%) than employees working for a business (81%).  People aged 30 to 39 years were most likely to use social media marketing (92.8%).

Experience with social media marketing

When asked to rate their experience using social media marketing for their businesses, a significant 72% of marketers have either just started or have been using social media for only a few months.

The largest group just getting underway with social media marketing was sole proprietors (30.2% reported just getting started) and owners of 2- to 100-employee businesses were the most experienced (29.3% reporting
doing social media marketing for years).

People aged 60 to 69 were significantly more likely to be just getting started with social media marketing than other age groups.

The Value of Social Media Report – Full Report Here

Yahoo Adds Real-Time Tweet Results

Posted by admin on February 25, 2010  |  No Comments

Yahoo!’s Partnership with Twitter

Today Yahoo! announced a partnership with Twitter which includes integrating Twitter content and social features across the Yahoo! network.

Public Tweets are already available in Yahoo! search results and you will see them appear more frequently, for more of your queries. Soon you will see topics in Yahoo! News, Finance, Sports and Entertainment enhanced with relevant real-time Tweets.

A key driver for this Twitter partnership is to enable Yahoo! users to share and stay connected more easily with the people and things they care about across the web, in keeping with our Yahoo! Open Strategy and platform. We announced the first phase of this Social Aggregation Strategy back in December when we outlined our plans to implement Facebook Connect on Yahoo!. Adding Twitter to our users’ experiences is the next phase in this strategy and it further expands the power of the Yahoo! ID as a single key that gives our users an access token to the best of the web. Whether they want to check their email, consume media, comment and participate in communities, or follow their Facebook newsfeed and Twitter stream, they can now do all of those things through Yahoo!.

Read Full Article Here

Yahoo MSN Deal – Advertising Search Alliance

Posted by admin on February 18, 2010  |  No Comments

Now that Yahoo and Microsoft have received DoJ and EU approval on their search and advertising deal, Yahoo is doing plenty of talking about what the deal will mean for its search engine and its advertisers.

The two companies have a Search Alliance page set up that gives some insight about what to expect, such as:

When the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance is implemented, both companies will continue to have differentiated consumer search experiences. However, Microsoft will manage the technology platforms that deliver the algorithmic (powered by Bing) and paid (powered by adCenter) search results.

Read the entire Article Here

GROWTH AT GRAGG ADVERTISING RESULTS IN EXECUTIVE PROMOTIONS

Posted by patrick on February 16, 2010  |  No Comments

In 2009, Ingram’s Magazine highlighted Gragg Advertising as one of Kansas City’s fastest growing companies. In 2010, to accommodate this growth, Gragg Advertising’s founder Gregory Gragg stepped into the role of CEO and Chairman. Darryl Mattox, formerly the Agency Director, was promoted to President to manage the daily operations of the company.

Gragg has 20 years of experience in the industry of direct response marketing. In 1992, he had a vision to open an agency that could measure, analyze and place media ensuring the best return on investment for his clients. Today, this vision has become a reality. As the economy suffers, Gragg stresses it is more important than ever to know a company’s marketing efforts are working both online and off.

“We have moved from a traditional offline media agency to a marketing technology company,” Gragg said. “Our growth has developed as technology has advanced. Pay-per-lead, lead aggregation, database management, IT development for clients and more are available to help reach our target demographic.”

Mattox credits the company’s growth to internal strengths and staying ahead of today’s rapidly changing marketplace. “I am fortunate to have several strong leaders in the agency who have been and continue to be instrumental in the exceptional growth of Gragg Advertising,” Mattox said. He continued by commenting on the future of Gragg Advertising. “The landscape of marketing technology is changing daily. By seizing these opportunities, we have a great chance not only to maintain but also exceed our growth over the next five to 10 years.”

Gragg and Mattox are both extremely passionate about teaching others, and feel it is their duty to identify and implement new technology and pass this information on to their clients in order to serve them successfully.

Gragg Advertising is a full service, direct response marketing agency in the River Market of Kansas City, MO, established in 1992. Working with a variety of companies throughout the United States, its clients see a quantifiable return on investment for their advertising and marketing dollar. Gragg Advertising specializes in direct response marketing focused on driving consumers to retail, education, legal, medical and industrial businesses. The agency combines traditional branding strategy with proven direct marketing tactics in order to create advertising that is both memorable and measurable.

E-Commerce Spending Up 3 Percent vs. Year Ago

Posted by admin on February 9, 2010  |  No Comments

comScore Reports U.S. E-Commerce Spending in Q4 2009 Reached $39 Billion, Up 3 Percent vs. Year Ago

Q4 Offers Return to Positive Growth Following Four Consecutive Quarters of Year-Over-Year Declines

RESTON, VA, February 9, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its Q4 2009 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending reached $39 billion, up 3 percent versus year ago. Total retail e-commerce spending reached $129.8 billion for the full year 2009, marginally below the previous year’s total of $130.1 billion.

Retail E-Commerce (Non-Travel) Growth Rates

Excludes Auctions, Autos and Large Corporate Purchases

Full Article Here