YouTube
Have you heard of a Web psychologist? Nathalie Nahai claims the title. She explains how online marketing strategies change dramatically, depending on the country and the culture. She studies how emails, apps, and Web sites influence behavior and persuade actions at a subconscious level. Knowing the target audience, communicating persuasively, and selling with integrity are the three most important factors that will create a successful campaign.
Washington Post
The National Security Agency secretly broke into the main communications links connecting Yahoo and Google data centers worldwide, according to The Washington Post, which cites documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials. The ability to infiltrate the systems proves the weakness of links and the inability for companies to keep data private as data moves seamlessly around the globe.
MarketingSherpa
Courtney Eckerle tells us how UNC Health Care, a large integrated health care system with an academic medical center, brought health information through live chat to its Facebook. The company enabled live chat series between medical professionals and page Fans to strengthen the bond. It found a new audience for the content, and a way to connect while driving Facebook likes up 140% and weekly reach up 2,576%. Interactions on UNC's Facebook page rose 480% for starters. Eckerle takes us through the strategy. Read the article
here.
eMarketer
Programmatic ad spending should hit $12 billion this year, with the U.S. accounting for $7.5 billion, according to eMarketer, citing an October Magna Global report. Estimates put spending at $32.6 billion by 2017, with about $16.9 billion allocated to the U.S. Real-time bidding -- which is one form of programmatic buying -- will reach $3.3 billion in the U.S. in 2013 and see double-digit growth rates through 2017, about $8.5 billion, per eMarketer.
YouTube
Google doesn't play favorites based on the size of the company or its Web site. This topic of the latest webmaster help video focuses on whether a Web site receives better overall ranking when it has a large amount of indexed pages. Matt Cutts says that a Web site with a large number of pages will not automatically rank better, and that if a company's Web site has more pages with different optimized keywords, those can rank higher for more specific queries.
Covario
Covario's work with a client hit hard in both Google rankings and referrals in May 2012 -- the first month the Penguin update went live. The client didn't use Google Webmaster Tools, so it didn't receive a Link Warning or Manual Penalty messages from Google. Still, traffic and rankings fell dramatically after Google rolled out Penguin and did not recover. Here's the process that Covario took to help the client recover, and the results since the recovery.
Engadget
Google brings TV shows to Japan, but those who want to view the content will need a Japanese Google account. The content includes drama, animations and American hits translated with subtitles. The Google Japan TV store offers a mix of rental and full-purchase media, per Engadget.
USC
The University of Southern California conducted a study that found Google increased the number of sites worldwide from which its serves search queries. The change will allow Google to speed query results to searchers. Query requests previously went directly to the Google data center. Now requests route to the regional network, which relays them to the Google data center. This might seem like it takes search request longer to route by adding in another step -- but the process actually speeds up searches.
Search Engine Watch
Reaching the top of the query list takes some work, but those who reach the top should deserve the climb. To get there, Chuck Price gives us a list for his pick of the 21 best free search engine optimization tools for on-page optimization. As he tells us, keyword selection continues to have a greater impact on performance, so marketers should not rely on just one tool. At the top of the list sits WordStream, followed by Keyword Eye Basic, YouTube Keyword Tool, and more. Read the article
here.
Jewish Business News
Yandex execs in Israel are looking around to establish development centers in the country, according to Jewish Business News, citing the Globes. It turns out that the search engine isn't the only Russian company interested in Israel, a country long known for its technology innovation. Ernst & Young estimates Russian companies have invested $60 million in Israel in the past few years.