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ICYMI: What would you do if you were banned from Twitter?
In case you missed it, several news headlines in October reminded us that depending on free web tools — from SEO data trackers to social media profiles — can be risky business for organizations large and small.
At the end of the month, Google Analytics stopped providing organic search data; a limited version of that information still available for Adwords advertisers, but an Ad Age quote called it “one of the most significant losses data marketers have seen in half a decade” and “a punch in the face for small businesses.”
Small nonprofits with limited budgets and even more limited staff aren’t the only ones who rely on these free tools to get out their messages.
We followed this story from The Atlantic on Philadelphia City Paper’s erroneously-shut-down Twitter account. The incident (pictured above) brought City Paper reporter Daniel Denver to a point of realization: “It had never really hit home for me before that we all depend on these external social media entities, controlled by private companies, to provide a service that is now integral to publishing news online.”
The gap between large organizations that can afford data scientists and integrated measurement tools and those struggling with small-business budgets seems to be growing. According to a 2011 report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, three-quarters of all cultural groups operate with a budget of less than $250,000. A Wall Street Journal article quoted this statistic in a feature on Artful.ly, a new, free software for arts organizations to sell tickets and create a database of their patrons.
A few other marketing tips and tricks that showed up on our Facebook and Twitter feeds in October:
- E-mail marketing mythbusters — including refuting the hypothesis that the best time to send email is 3 p.m. on a Thursday
- Storytelling captures audience attention — the notion that stories are more than just “fun escapism”
- Audience habits and the news — if you’re not reading at age 25, you probably won’t by age 45
- The perils of changing your visual identity — especially when your logo looks like RJ Metrics’
Submitted by Rachel on Wed, 11/13/2013 - 6:16pm
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November 2013
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October 2013
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June 2013
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April 2011
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February 2011
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