beautiful bytes – Social media pulls its weight
Help for Japan
After the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan on Friday, several organisations have set up easy ways to donate to the relief fund. As with other recent natural disasters, it hasn’t taken long for these mechanisms to be set up.
Social media has lent its hand. Explore.org has vowed to donate $1 for every ‘lie’ of Dog Bless You’s page due to the help rescue dogs can provide in rescue operations. Zynga’s social game Farmville has also managed to raise $1million through the sale of virtual gifts.
The American Red Cross has created a page on Facebook’s Causes function, while the British Red Cross has teamed up with Amazon.co.uk to enable donations to the relief fund.
Apple has also allowed donations through iTunes, simplifying the donation process down to two clicks. Could this be the beginning of a donation revolution that will see Apple allow donations through iOS applications? I hope so!
The speed at which these online mechanisms have been set up, and the amount of money already generated to help Japan is also very encouraging for the charity sector. It is proof that donors are receptive to online appeals and willing to donate online.
Long Tail > Small Tail
I read this article with great interest, though now I’ve come to write about it, the findings seem totally obvious. Research based on ad activity in Q4 of 2010 has found that long tail websites (that is, smaller sites with more niche content) can significantly increase click through rates for ads compared to small tail sites (aka the blanket placement approach).
According to the research, charities saw a 48% increase in click through from ad placements on long tail sites (i.e. employing a more focused approach to targeting)
Our advice? Do your research, know your audience and target them where they browse the web. You might also find that ad placements on smaller websites is cheaper than on web giants such as MSN, so you could even save some money and make your ROI even more impressive!
Facebook Places and its impact on Foursquare user base
Upon the launch of Facebook Places, I (prematurely) expected the slow demise of Foursquare. With the overwhelmingly large user base has at its Facebook’s finger-tips, it seemed safe to presume that users would favour the service provided by a site they already have a relationship with.
And the reason for this huge growth? Perhaps those introduced to location-based social media by Facebook wanted to see what Foursquare was like, being something of a pioneer in the area.
Hopefully this news will lead to some healthy competition between the two service providers – maybe we (the consuming public) will get some good deals out of it?
Microsoft launches Internet Explorer 9
For those of us cool enough to have a ‘browser preference’ (Google Chrome for me please), I’m sure the news that Microsoft’s launch of Internet Explorer 9 is somewhat welcome.
In the past, Internet Explorer has almost gained notoriety with it’s incompatibility with so-called web-standards. However, Internet Explorer 9 is expected to change this.
While the update might not be able to match the bar set by Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, those upgrading from previous versions of Internet Explorer should see the biggest improvement.
Until next time,
Ash
