Tom Funk's Blog, page 4

Gap's Groupon Campaign Grosses $11 Million

[image error]Gap's 50%-discount offered on the collective-buying site Groupon last week rang up a reported $11 million in sales, says ClickZ, and in the process demonstrated some best practices for ecommerce in this new, more social Web 2.0 era.

According to Groupon spokesperson Julie Mossler, the Gap offer was the most successful Groupon promotion to date, ringing up as many as 532 transactions per minute during its busiest periods Thursday morning. Traffic was so intense that Groupon had to manage the l...

Tracking ROI for Social Media Is Marketers' Biggest Stumbling Block, Survey Finds

According to a new poll, a whopping 72% of brand managers say that while Social Media offers great potential to reach existing customers and prospects, they lack tools and information to conduct a successful Social Media program.

The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive for the agency Buddy Media, reported tracking or measuring ROI to be the number one thorn in marketers' sides.

The survey also found surprisingly few big companies have stepped up to the plate witgh Facebook programs...

Web 2.0 Expo Call for Speakers

I just received a call for speakers that might be of interest to any marketers, merchants, consultants and techies with Web 2.0 or social media chops. It's the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, which was created by the coiners of the term "web 2.0" themselves, John Battelle and Tim O'Reilly.

Battelle and O'Reilly's are also behind the exclusive, invitation-only Web 2.0 Summit, which is held at the Palace Hotel and San Francisco and serves a much smaller and more elite crowd than the Expo. So...

The 9 Most Common Google Analytics Mistakes

We've been doing a lot of Google Analytics audits, debugging and configuration. It's a crucial time for ecommerce merchants to be thinking about the state of their web analytics, and the correctness of the data. Weak though the ecomony may be, the dog days are summer are quickly giving way to fall/holiday (or should we say "Fall-iday?").

Of course, back-to-school merchandising has been in full swing for a couple months. This weekend when I popped into the supermarket for some milk, I was...

How Facebook Places Works

Facebook just made a big play for the mobile and local markets with the launch of Facebook Places.

Like the Foursquare mobile app, Facebook Places let's you "check in" to retail establishments and other bricks-and-mortar locations, and broadcast it to your social network and the world at large. For businesses, the app gives "place" owners lots of tools to network, communicate, and promote to Facebook users.

The similarities to Foursquare are no surprise, since Facebook built Places in a...

13 Reasons Consumers Follow Brands or Companies on Twitter

Exact Target just released results of their survey of 1,500 consumers to identify the main reasons they might follow a brand or company Twitter feed -- and what other online behaviors the most active Twitterers demonstrate, including brand mentions, ratings and reviews, and word-of-mouth (or word-of-mouse) product recommendations to friends.

Some of the findings are unremarkable. It comes as no surprise, say, that active Twitter users are also more likely to blog about a product or write an o...

Why Do Consumers Follow a Brand or Company on Twitter?

Exact Target just released results of their survey of 1,500 consumers to identify the main reasons they might follow a brand or company Twitter feed -- and what other online behaviors the most active Twitterers demonstrate, including brand mentions, ratings and reviews, and word-of-mouth (or word-of-mouse) product recommendations to friends.

Some of the findings are unremarkable. It comes as no surprise, say, that active Twitter users are also more likely to blog about a product or write an o...

Yahoo Search "Powered by Bing" Launches in US and Canada

The second-biggest player in organic search is now officially Binghoo (or is it Yahing?). Yahoo searchers in the US and Canada have today begun to see "Powered by Bing" appearing at the bottom of their results pages. Microsoft is supplying organic results to Yahoo via an API connection.

The two companies announced the launch yesterday. US and Canada are the first affected markets; Europe will follow suit.

Under the partnership deal announced last year, Microsoft is responsible for crawling...

Facebook Fan Valuation

Looking to put a value on a Facebook fan? First, let's agree the value of social media, of creating strong and sincere connections with your best customers and evangelists, is NOT about a number.

That said, I can't resist the question. Thanks to the rapid growth of social media, and the low cost for businesses to get involved, most companies have waded into social media experimentally, without doing any return-on-investment forecasting.

But doing social correctly takes both time, effort...

Must... Blog... Every Day! (A Case Study on SEO Benefits of Daily Blogging)

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"Must come up with fresh, relevant ecommerce and online marketing blog entries daily..."

"If only I could only... reach... my Utility Belt!"

Okay, maybe the challenge of daily blog-authoring isn't as dramatic as the struggles of TV Batman against Catwoman and his other foes, but hey, it ain't easy.

As you can see by Timberline Interactive's own blog-posting frequency, we're not setting a perfect example. You know how it is -- bubbling pots on the front-burner need your attention. Even when y...