Post #1 Internet Marketing tools and technologies

ANSWER OF POST #1

All of the following articles are internet marketing tools and technologies. Internet marketing has been described simply as 'the application of the Internet and related digital technologies to achieve marketing objectives'. Using digital technologies to help sell your goods or services. 24-hour global reach, lower cost, trakable and measurable results, personalizd/one-to-one marketing, more interesting campaigns, seamless experience. In practice, internet-based marketing will include the use of a company website in conjunction with promotional techniques such as banner advertising, direct e-mail and links or services from other websites to acquire new customers and prodide services to exisiting customers that help develop the customer relationship. Here are the good examples which using those marketing tools and technologies with more effectiveness for their company business.

Blog :
A blog is a website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. extract from -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Recently many organisations also make good use of this tool to create a platform for viewers to discuss and share thoughts and ideas. They may also invites some critics, experts, celerities or politicans to write on their blog in order to make "noise".
Example -
http://blog.mingpao.com/cfm/index.cfm
http://artiste.tvb.com/?tab=blog&gender=all

Interactive advertisement :
Nowadays it is not difficult to find examples of interactive advertisement with the aid of fast growing information technology.
There are various types of interactive advertising Via Internet ~ Banner ads ~ Pop-up ads ~ Online sponsorship/ Affiliates
The web can be distinguished by the potential user interactivity. The Internet enables advertisers to track responses which can serve as direct advertising and communciation channels with their existing/ potential customers through editing their web content.
Via cell phone ~ SMS ~ MMS
The distinctive characteristics of mobile media make them in some ways more interactive that the Internet. The small size of mobile devices represents that customers carry them all the times. Owing to their personl identity, mobile media are potentially well suited to provide service that are personalised based on the user's preference.
Such as ADIDAS, we can find their Banner ads from http://www.yahoo.com.hk/

Search engine : http://www.yahoo.com/
(Yahoo! is one of the famous search engine in the world. The two founders of Yahoo!, David Filo and Jerry Yang, were Ph.D. candidates in lectrical Engineering at Stanford University when they began building their guide to the web in February 1994. The name Yahoo! is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," but Jerry and David insist they selected it because they liked the genera definition of a yahoo: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth."
Jerry and David soon found that they weren't alone in wanting a single place to find usful websites. Soon hundreds of people were accessing their guide from well beyond their Stanford trailer. World Internet community. Yahoo! celebrated its first million-hit day in the fall of 1994, translating to almost 100,000 unique visitors.
From these humble beginnings, Yahoo! has grown into the world's most essential Internet service for consumers and businesses. A leading provider of comprehensive online products and services worldwide, Yahoo! is the number one Internet brand and the most trafficked online destination. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Yahoo!'s global network includes 25 world properties and is available in 13 languages. They provides free website service, free blogger set up and e-mail set up to attract worldwide user registration. Have huge amount of users, Yahoo! attracts many different customers putting their on-line advertising through Yahoo! search engine.
Yahoo! is well-positioned for the future with innovative thinking, growing revenues, nearly ten thousand talented employees worldwide and new opportunities every day.)

Online partnerships or affiliate marketing : http://www.ebay.com.hk/
(eBay was born over Labor Day weekend in 1995, when Pierre Omidyar, a computer programmer, wrote the code for an auction website that he ran from his home computer. eBay provides an open trading platform where the market determines the value of items that are sold. Since its initial public offering in 1998, the company has continued to innovate and connect people - and not just through its marketplaces. Two critical acquisitions have made eBay Inc. a global leader in online payments and communications as well.
PayPal enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online
eBay has online partners covering 39 markets and including 20 categories on their website, including U.S., and approximately 84 million active users worldwide. eBay not only set up a platform to let her worldwide partners for "free trading" but also has eBay Feedback to let her partners posting their needs and wants for further satisfaction. eBay feedback is each user's reputation on eBay. 2-way communication can glow up relationship between e-bay and all of her online partners. Besides eBay feedback, e-Bay also concerns users' Protection and Safety during online trading, e-Bay protection, e-Bay Toolbar with Account Guard and eBay Security Centre are also the main issues for e-Bay becomes the world's largest online marketplace.
In 2007, the total value of sold items on eBay's trading platforms was nearly US$60 billion. This means that eBa users worldwide trade more than $1900 worth of goods on the site every second. Has a hugh data from eBay online arketplace, analysis market trend and customer behavior by the measure of each visitor clicks on a link, this is also a very important and valuable assess for e-bay to develop their future internet business.)

RSS feeds :

RSS means Really Simple Syndication. It provides a standard way for content publishers to distribute updates on their web sites through a list of notifications. It is a convenient way to contact between a company and the customers. Through the RSS feeds, you can update from multiple websites without having to go from one site to another. When you add the RSS feeds, it will send the news to you without going to their site. It becomes more and more popular for not only many company but also the Government. http://www.gov.hk/tc/about/rss.htm
After you added this RSS feeds to your blog or site, you can know the update news of the government. Nowadays, there are many types of RSS feeds in the internet e.g. news, weather, ever the Mark Six.

For the company, it is a good communication with the customers. Throguh the RSS feeds, customers can know what new product or new promotion the company provided.

Social networking : http://www.facebook.com/

In the pass, content of webs are only built by the owners of the webs themselves. But nowadays, most of the popular webs are with content built by the users.

People can share their opinions, photos, video, games, and then make friends, or even bid buy transactions. It won’t restricted by time & place by using the web. All these are reflecting the new way of their social networking. One of a good examples is Facebook.

“Facebook is a social networking website that allows people to communicate with their friends and exchange information. Launched on February 4, 2004. Initially the membership was restricted to students of Harvard College. It was subsequently expanded to other Boston area schools within two months. Many individual universities were added in rapid succession over the next year. Eventually, people with a university email address from institutions across the globe were eligible to join. Networks were then initiated for high schools and some large companies. Since September 11, 2006, it has been made available to any email address user who inputs a certain age range. Users can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a high school, place of employment, or geographic region. As of July 2007, the website had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 34 million active members worldwide (also from non-collegiate networks)."

Ref : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

Gadgets : www.google.com/ig/directory
https://www.hsbc.com.hk/1/2/special/gadget/igoogle

Gadgets is a mini-application, it can apply to all web-page and enrich it’s content. It is helpful no matter to work (schedule, exchange rate, calendar), to work (calendar, translation), or kill time (news, blogs, games)...etc. You might add gadgets to your home-page, or add to your desk top.

By using gadgets, users will find the web-page more interesting, more user-friendly & more personal. E.g. you can create weather gadgets, calculator and horoscope….

To company, by providing gadgets can keep customers in touch with real time information. HKBS has launched a desktop gadget, it provides exchange rate, Heng Seng Index, stock prices and personal account details… all these are helping them to provide a more convenience & efficiency service, to their wider business target. Customers do not have to come in person but can operate these transactions on net It is saving customers’ time, and saving bank cost in opening branch & hiring staffs.