Google Wants to Find your Business
Businesses, no matter the size, have been looking for ways to get themselves on the map for decades. In keeping up with the latest news in the world of online marketing, SteerPoint has found that one of the world’s largest internet search engines, Google, has taken steps to help make that easier. Last week, Google announced an upgrade to its Google+ interface for businesses. The new service, called Google My Business, is…
Facebook Ads Become More Targeted
As Facebook has evolved into the social media giant we all know, it has developed new methods for companies to reach out to potential customers. At SteerPoint, we saw an announcement last week that takes the advertising on Facebook a step further. Facebook has long supplied advertisers with information based on user activity within the site – pages you liked, games you played, etc. Now, that has expanded to include users’ web-browsing…
Computer Passes Turing Test (Or Not)
At SteerPoint, we’re always on the cutting edge of tech updates, so imagine how our interest was piqued when we discovered a computer program called Eugene Goostman passed the Turing test at a competition in England. Or, he supposedly passed it, depending on who you’re talking to. For the unfamiliar, the Turing test supposedly measures whether or not a machine is capable of thinking. The test has been around for 65 years,…
Apple Looking to Gain Eyes with iBeacon
For those who want to taste the cutting edge of development, this week is the much-vaunted WWDC, or the Apple World Wide Developer’s Conference. This is where Apple engineers and developers gather and work on various Apple-based innovations. The Wall Street Journal reports that plans for iBeacon will be released at the beginning of the conference, which is leaving marketers with open eyes and ears, as this technology plans to do for…
Facebook’s Latest: L.Facebook.com and LM.Facebook.com
We like to stay on top of our social media channels; considering how important they are to Internet marketing, it’s worth watching changes like a hawk. Facebook in particular is crucial, given that it’s one of the major social media giants. If you’ve had your eagle eyes on recently, you might have noticed some new referral sources from Facebook cropping up in your analytics: L.Facebook.com and LM.Facebook.com. Intrigued yet? If you’re not,…
Can Canva Make You a Design Guru Overnight?
Anyone who is not technically or graphically inclined knows that trying to design visually appealing marketing collateral isn’t easy. Design tools like Photoshop and InDesign impose a major learning curve for even the simplest projects. Farming out design work can be costly and sometimes misses the mark when implementing your concept. Thanks to Canva, a new web-based design tool creating serious buzz in the industry, the days of complicated and time-consuming processes…
How Google’s Panda 4.0 May (or May Not) Affect You
We all know Google has openly said it would stop informing us about Panda updates, but the latest one is a little different. For those who aren’t tech heads, Panda updates generally happen at least once a month, but these are data refreshes. Usually, the changes that occur over refreshes are minimal and don’t affect overall rankings much, so there’s really no need for a major announcement. Panda 4.0 is different. It’s…
Google’s Getting Ready to Twitch
It’s been a crazy week for acquisitions. Last week, we were reading about Apple acquiring the headphone giant, Beats, and this week seems to be playing out with more of the same. AT&T officially announced that it’s going to buy DirecTV, and the newest on the bandwagon is Google/YouTube’s plan to buy Twitch. If you haven’t heard of Twitch, chances are you aren’t a gamer. Twitch is a social media platform for…
Taking a Bite Out of Apple’s Potential Beats Purchase
If you haven’t heard, there’s been a lot of noise surrounding Apple’s potential purchase of Beats headphones. Apple is expected to announce whether or not the purchase went through (all signs indicate that it did) in the upcoming week, and the hullaballoo around the acquisition is thick. For those unaware, Beats is the producer of Dr. Dre’s headphones, and a lot of the controversy is aimed at their target demographic. However, there…
Pizza Hut and Hulu: Creating a Couch Potato’s Dream
Pizza commercials make us all wish we could reach into the screen and pull out a yummy pizza. Hulu and Pizza Hut have now made that a reality – almost. Hulu has added in-stream purchasing to its array of fabulous offerings, and Pizza Hut is its first partner. Last year, Hulu raked in over $1 billion in advertising revenue, and a partnership with Pizza Hut is likely to keep that number strong.…
Will Your Web Design Survive the Five Second Rule?
You’ve heard of the five second rule for food. When your toast hits the ground, you’ve got five seconds to pick it up before it’s lost to whatever bacteria is coating the floor. There’s also a five second rule that good web designers use when creating effective content. The basic rundown is if you can’t grab the attention of your site’s visitors in five seconds or less, they’re probably gone for good.…
How New Balance Ran Away With the Boston Marathon
While this year’s winner of the Boston Marathon was actually American Meb Keflezighi, the first American to win the marathon in more than 30 years, some may argue that the real winner was the company New Balance. The company, a maker of athletic shoes and other athletic apparel for men, women, and children, was not the official race apparel and shoe sponsor of the marathon. That role was reserved for Adidas, with…