It may be time to start rethinking the purchase funnel. Engaging with media, discovering and researching brands, and making purchase decisions are no longer limited by time and place. Consumers now engage in similar activities across several different screens, and the choice of screen affects each purchasing decision’s path.

So it’s important that marketers engage their audiences by placing the right tone and message in the right environment, all while preserving a cohesive experience.

It’s a multi-screen world, after all
Those are the primary conclusions of a new white paper titled “The Multi-Screen World: Marketing At The Crossroads from Microsoft Advertising,” produced in partnership with Wunderman.

The study defines a multi-screen consumer as someone between the ages of 18 and 64 who accesses the internet at least two times each week using both computer and smartphone, a group that now includes about 33 million Americans. It’s a desirable target audience, too: They have higher discretionary income and higher mean household income than average.

Information unbound
Several trends emerge from the data, many of which emphasize consumers’ growing desire for control over their experiences. For example, half of these multi-screen people use a DVR for watching television. Most (70 percent) use their phone to find information while on the go. Even networked game consoles are put into the service of this goal, with 23 percent using it to watch video and 39 percent using it to socialize.

In fact, gamers are the category to watch for predicting the future. Compared to other groups, they tend to be social influences who spend fewer hours passively absorbing content, and more time interacting with content and connecting with others as they play games, send text messages, and post reviews or comment on blogs.

You can read more about this study’s implications here.

— Chris Marlowe

(Image by dan taylor via Flickr, CC 2.0)

Will this be the year for display?
A new report from the Rubicon Project says it just might be. CPMs among the optimization firm’s top 20 index have surged 47% from the start of this year to date, according to a report from BrandWeek.   

The power of “negative” buzz
What happens when your time-honored brand suddenly gets associated with something… unsavory? What do you do? Earlier this week, Edgar Valdez, also known as “La Barbie,” the suspected kingpin of a notorious Mexican drug cartel, was arrested by authorities while wearing a famous-name polo shirt. Time to rebrand, or just ignore it?

Location: the next digital bonanza?
“Now that Facebook has entered the location-based services market, ‘places’—and the information generated by users about those places—is the next digital bonanza.” So writes Sheila Shayon on Brandchannel.com. But where to go next? Invoking Flickr founder Caterina Fake’s new startup Hunch.com, which uses Twitter and Facebook polling data to better target users’ desires, Shayon offers six tips on how to get your locale-based offerings to the right customers.

A verification bill of rights
As networks and demand-side platforms have grown ever larger, writes Goodway Group COO, Jay Friedman on Adotas, advertisers’ control over where their ads appear has flown out of control. “And when something is out of human control, someone is going to cheat,” he notes, citing malware, nudity and profanity ads as chief culprits. He proposes an eight “amendment” bill of rights for advertisers to help ensure the appropriate ad shows up at the appropriate place. Number one: “You have every right to know that your ads only appeared within the provided site list during and after the campaign, and to see the URLs of any sites on which your ads appeared outside of that pre-approved site list.” Not exactly “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” but a compelling idea.

The tweet tweet world of SES San Francisco
We love this Search Engine Land article about the top tweeters at SES San Francisco. And, no, it’s not just because @YahooAdBuzz ranked number six. We also love that it offers actionable insights into how industry leaders interact on Twitter as well as examples of the kind of content that can really increase your social media profile when live tweeting from events. We plan on using all these tips for the next big industry event we’ll be covering: Ad Week 2010. 

Tired of spam?
So are we. Well, it turns out that 92% of email is spam and 41% of that comes from a single, nefarious botnet called Rustock, according to a new study by Semantec MessageLabs, reported on SFGate.com. What can you do about it? Lots, if you use Yahoo! Mail.

Video: Stephen Colbert on the dangers of social media
Comedy Central’s eponymous star of “The Stephen Colbert Show” warns young people against the dangers of social media and offers a few not-so-serious tips.

— Michael Mattis and Dianne Molina

Appolicious launches the YAP app finder

Appolicious is a website that lets users find and review apps. (Yeah, it’s one of those clever ideas you and I both wish we’d thought up first, but didn’t.) Well, the big brains over there recently added a new section to their site devoted entirely to apps built using the Yahoo! Application Platform, or YAP.

For more on this YAPtacualar moment, click on over to the Yahoo! Developer Network blog.

By the way, if you think you’re ready to build an app, try YAP. It’s easier than hiring your nerdy stepson.

— Michael Mattis

So you’ve jumped on the social media bandwagon. You’ve grabbed a Twitter handle; you’ve set up a Facebook page; you’ve told your friends and coworkers to follow, friend or like you; and you’ve been tweeting and posting the heck out of everything you can think of about your brand. But who cares? No, really, who’s listening to you? Is there anyone besides your loyal employees and sympathetically supportive spouse?

Whoever coined the phrase, “If you build it they will come,” didn’t know about the intricacies of getting brand attention on the Web.

We know that if you build it—whether “it” is a Facebook page or group, a Twitter account or your own website—people aren’t going to come flocking to you in droves like you’re Justin Bieber in a shopping mall. Your hair just isn’t that awesome.

OK, so maybe it is, but people just don’t know yet. Let’s start here: To gain attention, you need to know your audience and determine what you can provide that grabs attention and makes people want to share it with their friends. What makes your voice stand out among the competition?

Metrics matter
Take these findings on why people follow a brand into account. Razorfish did a study in 2009 called the Digital Brand Experience Report, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers (50.5% female, 49.5% male) in four major age groups to understand how their adoption of Internet technology and services impacted the way that they engaged with brands. See the full study here (pdf).

The overwhelming majority of consumers who actively engage with a brand (e.g., friend a brand on Facebook or enter a contest) can evolve from passive reactors to advocates almost instantaneously. On average:

• 97% reported increased brand awareness.
• 98% show increased consideration.
• 97% will likely purchase a product from the brand.
• 96% may recommend the brand to their friends.
• 69% of [consumers] have provided feedback to a brand, either through its web site or a third-party service like GetSatisfaction.com.

Of those who follow a brand on Twitter, 44% say access to exclusive deals is the main reason (followed by entertaining content).

Lastly, brand experiences online (positive or negative) have affected 97% of people’s decisions to buy from that brand. What has their brand experience been with you?

Tweet an offer they can’t refuse
What does all of this have to do with your Twitter account? We know that most people follow or friend a brand for exclusive deals or offers. So ask yourself these questions:

1. Can I provide exclusive deals or offers? 
2. If I’m not selling things on my website, can I offer deals from my partners or from the community on my site?

Secondly, 23% – 32% will follow or friend you because they’re already a customer, so:

1. Are you promoting your social networks on your site?
2. Are you promoting them in your other marketing channels?

Not everyone is capable ofproviding interesting or entertaining content. If you’re not particularly interesting or entertaining yourself, hire someone who is to manage your account. The personality behind the person managing your social accounts is often quite transparent through his or her streams. Besides, you don’t want to sound robotic, even in digital friendships:

1. Don’t talk solely about yourself and your product or company news (unless you’re Apple—then maybe you can get away with it).
2. Provide content that will catch someone’s eye and make them want to read it or click on it.
3. Don’t be afraid to provide content and links to other sites in the web. Your audience will appreciate your sense of camaraderie.

These little things seem so simple that they could easily be neglected. Don’t neglect the social web, or it’ll neglect you back. Learn from the greats like Zappos, Whole Foods, Dunkin’ Donuts and others who have turned audiences into advocates, and advocates into evangelists. 

Try out some stuff today. And if you have your own success story of using unique and innovative techniques to engage your audiences, please share with our readers in the comments!

— Laura Lippay

Visit Laura at Lip Service, and see some of her previous posts, “Is Your Creative Ingenuity Costing You Money?” and “Defining Your Target Audience for SEO.”

Last week, we completed the transition of the back-end technology for English-language Yahoo! organic search results in the U.S. and Canada. This week, advertisers can start transitioning their paid Yahoo! Search Marketing account, in anticipation of the Yahoo! ad serving transition which we expect to start mid-October. We encourage you to transition your account before the ad serving transition begins, so that you are ready to reach more than 159 million searchers in the U.S. and 15 million searchers in Canada* on Yahoo! Search, Bing and our partners.

Start your account transition now
Beginning today, you may log in to your Yahoo! Search Marketing account and initiate your transition to Microsoft Advertising adCenter. We’ve created a detailed Transition Checklist that you should review now, to help ensure that you’re prepared to make a smooth transition to adCenter, as well as a Feature Comparison Guide, to help you get familiar with adCenter’s features and capabilities.

There are three stages to completing your transition:

1) Prepare your account for transition to adCenter
When you log into your Yahoo! Search Marketing account, you’ll automatically be taken to a new tab labeled “adCenter.” We recommend that you review your Compatibility Report, and fix incompatibilities between your current Yahoo! campaigns and the adCenter platform before starting the transition to adCenter.

2) Transition your account to adCenter
When you begin your transition, you’ll be able to create a new adCenter account, or indicate that you have an existing adCenter account that you want to continue to use. If you choose, you can use the transition tool to copy your Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns over to adCenter. Please note that your campaigns will retain the same status (active or paused) as they have within your Yahoo! account, so you may start incurring click charges for Bing traffic right away.

3) Continue to manage your Yahoo! Search Marketing account
The last stage in the transition process will occur when Yahoo! Search ad serving moves to adCenter, which we expect to begin in mid-October and be completed by the end of October. During this period, you should expect traffic from your Yahoo! Search Marketing account to decrease, and increase in your adCenter account. But until this process is complete, you’ll still need to actively manage your Yahoo! Search Marketing account to have your ads displayed on Yahoo! and our partner sites.

Commitment to quality continues
Our primary goal remains providing you with a quality transition experience in 2010, while protecting the holiday season. While we are confident that the preparation work done to date and the transition plan we are moving forward with now will help us reach this goal, please remember that deferring the paid search transition to 2011 is still a possibility if we conclude it would improve the overall experience.

We appreciate your business, and look forward to bringing you the benefits of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance.

— The Team

* Source: comScore qSearch (custom), June 2010

Last week, we showed our partners a little look-ahead on things to come at the 2010 Yahoo! Partner Summit, and shared some of the findings with you. This week, we unveil more of what was learned from this truly remarkable, candid conversation.

In the afternoon, partners split up into separate tracks: Search Partners and Integrated Partners. Here are a few highlights from the afternoon sessions:

Search Partners track

• Search and display are coming together like never before, with display informing search decisions and driving consumers to search while increasing brand awareness.
• Yahoo! search partners showed how they are using Yahoo! content and apps to optimize their own brand experiences.
• Yahoo! search partners were treated to a deep dive on the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance. (For more on recent updates on the Search Alliance, see this previous post.) 
• International’s a real Y-bang, with reps from our Latin America and Asia Pacific teams detailing our efforts in these vital merging markets.
• We’re on “cloud nine” with our efforts to imbue Yahoo! syndication with the extensive data we glean from the cloud, to help advertisers with advanced targeting, location, content and analytics.

Integrated Partner track

•  With 200 million users and 270 million daily pageviews, the Yahoo! frontpage has seen engagement increase 200% in the last two years.
• Partners were introduced to the four pillars of Yahoo! strategy in the content space: user-generated content, the strengths of Associated Content (recently acquired by Yahoo!), partner-licensed content and linked-to content. 
• The ways in which people communicate are changing rapidly, and Yahoo! is evolving with it through mail, IM, chat and more.
• When considering locally targeted digital advertising, time has almost as much meaning as location. People searching locally need access now to the goods and services for which they’re searching, and Yahoo! is committed to getting the right ad to the right consumer at the right time.
• Yahoo! is putting its Science + Art + Scale concept into practice. “Scale” doesn’t mean just reaching huge numbers of people, it means reaching the right customers in a meaningful way, on a scale large enough to make a difference to your bottom line. Science comes in through thoroughly understanding that audience to develop the most effective campaign. And the art is in creating long-lasting engagement with customers through context and Yahoo!’s unique canvas. Only Yahoo! offers this combination to drive your business.

Up and coming
Partners were also treated to sneak peaks of current and emerging Yahoo! technologies, including mobile, Yahoo! original programming and video, social media and our partnership strategy. Stay tuned to the Yahoo! Advertising blog to hear about these emerging technologies yourself.

Feedback is king
The real take-away from the Partner Summit was the amazing interaction between us Yahoos and our partners. Just by meeting them in person and talking candidly, we gained valuable feedback—feedback that will be used to make Yahoo! products and services better than ever for partners, users and advertisers.

— Michael Mattis

The launch of Twitter’s “promoted tweets” allows advertisers to get their messages out on Twitter without crippling Twitter’s democratic experience. Advertisers are lining up to take advantage—and so should you.

But once your promoted tweets campaign is active, how do you track it? Yahoo! Web Analytics has the answer.

“Unlike other web analytics solutions, Yahoo! Web Analytics gives advertisers the flexibility to log into their account and see visitors right after they’ve reached their web site,” writes Matt Lillig, a senior analytics lead at Yahoo!. “No more waiting for hours to see how their campaign is performing. With real-time measurement, advertisers can follow the viral effect of the ad campaign and optimize their Twitter advertising efforts accordingly.”

For more analysis on these analytics, tune in to the Yahoo! Web Analytics Blog.

— Michael Mattis

Retail Pulse, the monthly report that taps into Yahoo! data to track changes in U.S. online shopping trends, confirms that back-to-school shopping started earlier than in 2009:

• “Back to School” searches on Yahoo! entered the top term list as early as the first week of July.
• Search for “backpacks” on retailer sites surged after July 5.
• Users who visited Office Supplies sites also increased over four consecutive weeks. 

Women’s passion for fashion
The report also highlighted that search in the Apparel category has increased over four consecutive weeks, recovering from a four-month slide. Specifically, Yahoo! Shopping click volume in the Clothing category saw an up-trend. The number of women aged 18-49 who visited sites in the Department Store category has also increased since July 5. 

— Dianne Molina

Below is an extensive list of upcoming search, social media and marketing events around the globe taking place in September 2010, with descriptions provided by the sponsors. We’ve included the Twitter pages and hashtags where available, so that you can follow chatter from the event organizers even if you can’t attend in person.

Know of any we missed? Please feel free to share them with our readers in the comments section.

iMedia Brand Summit, US 
Date: September 12-15
Where: Coronado, CA
Twitter: @imedia
Cost: (request invite)
Event Description: The iMedia Summit provides a rich environment to chart your company’s digital future among peer-level executives, industry thought leaders and select publishers and service providers.

Search Engine Strategies (SES) Hong Kong
Date: September 13-14
Where: Hong Kong
Twitter: @sesconf
Cost: $895-$995
Event Description: This conference will be packed with sessions covering PPC management, keyword research, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link-building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization and usability, plus networking events, parties and more.

Ad Club Leadership Breakfast
Date: September 14
Where: New York, NY
Cost: $65-$275
Join Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo!; and Peter Sachse, Chief Marketing Officer of Macy’s, as they discuss the importance of understanding today’s consumer and the best ways to connect with them. Sponsored by Yahoo!.

Internet Marketing Conference (IMC) Helsinki
Date: September 15-16
Where: Helsinki, Finland
Twitter: @imconference
Cost: €250.00-€495.00
Event Description: IMC Helsinki will touch every aspect of today’s modern marketing world concerning Finnish and Nordic companies.

Social Media Conference, Paris
Date: September 15-17
Where: Paris, France
Twitter: @socialnetwrk
Cost: € 450-€ 1300
Event Description: This conference focuses on the Internet community market in the E.U., exploring European business strategies, mobile technologies, social networking, software, partnerships, venture capital, legal issues and payments.

ad:tech London
Date: September 21-22
Where: London, England
Twitter: @adtech_london
Cost: £581.63-£934.13
Event Description: For the sixth year in the UK, the online marketing and advertising community will gather together at ad:tech London to reveal the latest trends and market figures, share best practices, and address industry challenges.

OMMA Global
Date: September 27-28
Where: New York, NY
Cost: Free
Event Description: OMMA GLOBAL is a two-day, intensive tour de force—all their separate conferences rolled into one.

Web 2.0 Expo
Date: September 27-30
Where: New York, NY
Twitter: @w2e
Cost: $175-$1,945
Event Description: This year, Web 2.0 Expo New York focuses on “Platforms for Growth,” diving into the platform opportunities for the whole Web ecosystem, particularly mobile, real-time and the social Web.

Advertising Week
Date: September 27-October 31
Where: New York, NY
Twitter: @advertisingweek
Cost: $79-$499
Event Description: Advertising Week is North America’s premier gathering of cutting-edge communications leaders. Yahoo! will have a big-time presence; stay tuned to the blog for more details.

Iab Mixx
Date: September 27- 29
Where: New York, NY
Twitter: @iab
Cost: $1,095-$1,395
This always-sold-out gathering draws marketers, ad agency executives and publishers to debate the hottest trends and shape the future of the dynamic media marketplace. Yahoo! is an event sponsor, and Blake Irving, Yahoo!’s Chief Product officer, will be speaking. We’ll be sharing more details about this event on the blog in the coming weeks.

The Future of Media
Date: September 29
Where: New York, NY
Cost: $95-$395
Event Description: MediaPost’s Future of Media Forum brings to life Media Magazine’s annual “Future of Media” issue, gathering together prominent executives from all sides of the media business to discuss, debate and opine about the industry’s future.

Find local events and communities in your area
See this previous event post for tools that you can use to find more local events in your area.

— Laura Lippay

Visit Laura at Lip Service, and see some of her previous posts, “Is Your Creative Ingenuity Costing You Money?” and “Defining Your Target Audience for SEO.”

It’s no secret that creating original content for your website is a terrific way to get your marketing messages across, establish yourself as an expert, and humanize your company and its employees.

By writing articles, blogs and white papers, companies can offer a real service to their current and potential customers and clients. It is essential, though, that the content be well-written, informative and understandable for your target audience. It is worth the investment to either have an accomplished copywriter on your staff, or to seek the services of a professional copywriter.

Creating meaningful content is just the first step, though. The key is delivering that content to as wide an audience as you can. Fortunately, there are many online platforms through which you can distribute your original content.

Properly marketing your content across multiple platforms requires an investment of time and money , but that investment is often rewarded with a spectacular return, as increases in viewers frequently translate to increases in clients, customers and revenues. 

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds
An RSS feed is a simple way to “subscribe” to a blog, the same way you would subscribe to a magazine. You can use a program called an RSS reader (Bloglines and the one provided on your MyYahoo! page are popular and easy-to-use examples) to subscribe to blogs. Once you’ve subscribed, you don’t have to check each site individually—just fire up your RSS reader, and you’ll see all of the new content that’s been created since the last time you checked.

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and others
If your company has a social media account (or multiple accounts) on a service such as Twitter or Facebook, use it to announce the publication of your latest content piece. Virtually all social media accounts allow you to hyperlink directly to your online content. If your friends or followers like the content piece, they are also likely to tell people in their networks about it, creating an ever-growing audience.

Online article directories
A number of online articles directories, such as GoArticles ArticleBase, TopArticle and Buzzle, let you “publish” your articles. These sites are used by websites looking for free content, enabling you to get dozens or possibly hundred of in-links to your website.

Social news and bookmarking websites
If you have created truly useful content, social news websites are a great resource for getting your message out and driving traffic to your website. These “general news” sites post news stories on a wide variety of topics.

Posting your article on Digg, Reddit, Propeller, Slashdot or Delicious not only gives you a chance to broadcast your article to a wide audience, it also lets you get a link back to your website. A well written and entertaining article can go “viral,” attracting thousands, if not tens of thousands, of visitors to your site.

The social news sites also let you comment on other articles, ones related to the subject matter of your article. This is another great way of driving traffic to your site and getting your company’s message out to a larger audience.

Guest columns
If you run a business, then almost certainly you possess expertise in your field. Many industry-related websites are dying for content and would be happy to publish your articles as a guest or expert columnist. (Ed: Like this one.)

Writing a guest column gives you direct access to an audience of prospective clients/customers. The key to becoming a guest columnist is to make life as easy as possible for the host site. Here’s how to do that:

• Provide a list of story ideas that you could be writing about. Don’t just give a headline, provide a detailed synopsis.
• Provide samples of other articles that you’ve written.
• Give a detailed description of your particular expertise and welcome the site editor to suggest story ideas for you.

By serving as a guest columnist, you also get the benefit of any “broadcasting” of the article done by the host site.

Commenting
Most blogs allow for readers to “comment.” This can be a terrific way to get the word out about your content and your company. Find the most popular blogs that cover areas where your company has expertise. If you feel that your content can supplement the information contained in a blog or provide a different take on the information contained in the blog, then you can make a brief comment, linking your comment to your company’s original content.

Answering
Many social media sites, such as LinkedIn, give members the opportunity to ask questions. If you join an industry group or interest group, regularly review the questions written by group members. If you believe that your content can assist in answering a particular question, don’t hesitate to provide an answer with a link to your original content.

Well-written original content tells the world that you are an expert in your field. By giving something of value to your audience, you enhance your company’s brand, as well as your personal brand. Once you’ve attracted a wide audience, you then have the opportunity to market and sell directly to that audience.

— Jon Gelberg, Chief Content Officer, Blue Fountain Media

 Jon Gelberg is Chief Content Officer at Blue Fountain Media, a website development and online marketing company headquartered in New York City and serving clients worldwide. For more useful insights from Jon and his team, check out the Blue Fountain Learning Center . See his previous Yahoo! Advertising blog post, “How to Approach Your Social Media Campaigns, Intelligently.”