Reality Digital

A Tax Preparation Company Using Social Media?

Tax preparation would be one of the last markets that could utilize social media in their business strategy to boost sales…or so you would think.

H&R Block recently announced the incorporation of live video chat with a tax expert while using their online tax preparation tools. They also have a secure phone application where customers can take photos of their documents and send them to the tax expert to instantly review while in video chat. 

Not only can you video chat from your living room at any time with a tax professional, H&R Block ties their traditional stores online by letting customers find one of their office locations and schedule an appointment. 

H&R Block has seen their low-overhead, online competitors, TurboTax and TaxSlayer, eat into their brick and mortar tax preparation services and over the past few years have changed their online strategy big time. TurboTax and TaxSlayer’s online products only offer phone and email support, making emailing a document for review a hassle. H&R Block’s new social tools puts them light years ahead of their competition in terms of support, availability and response times. They were the most accesible tax preparation store but can they regain their dominance with an online strategy shift?

Since tax preparation is seasonal, H&R Block wins this year. TurboTax and TaxSlayer probably don’t have enough time to release a similar online support toolset this season but expect them to come back next season with more competition.

Facebook tax preparation application, anyone? Maybe next year we’ll see one.

Google+ Brand Page Integration

Our clients here at Reality Digital have increasingly asked about how to integrate Google+ with their social campaigns. Unfortunately Google+ brand pages do not allow custom iframe tabs yet. The only way for our clients to integrate is by adding a Google +1 button.

There is no doubt in the near future Google+ will release some sort of brand page iframe where brands can add their own custom interactions to their page and integrate with Google’s API’s. Google already does this with YouTube brand pages and Reality Digital has been creating custom YouTube brand pages since their inception. Google currently charges a fee for a YouTube brand page to have access iframe customization, will Google+ follow the same model?

In either case, we have mocked up what we think the potential Google+ custom iframe may look like when implemented. We have thrown our realitydigital.com website in the frame as an example.

While you’re waiting for the custom iframe to be launched, you can check out Lawrence Mak’s in-depth piece on how to effectively build a Google+ brand strategy to get your brand page started in the meantime.

Mobile Social Networking Audience in Europe Grew 44 Percent in 2011

ComScore just released new figures that show social networking through mobile devices grew 44% in Europe this past year. ComScore’s research, gathered across UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, also showed a 67% increase in daily mobile access to social media.

The report says most of the growth came from increased use of mobile applications. Accessing social media through apps grew 101%. Twitter and LinkedIn saw the biggest increase. Twitter rose by 115%, LinkedIn grew 134% and Facebook had a 54% increase in use.

Facebook Tab Application Dialog Placement

During a past Facebook tab application campaign, the user-experience required a video upload call to action on the landing page of the tab. A legal obligation also required a user to accept the application permissions dialog prior to clicking on the upload button.

This meant that users who land on the tab application are immediately prompted by the application for their first and last name and email address prior to being able to see what the tab application is about and what it’s using your information for.

After implementing this workflow you can see in the graphic above that in the first week of the campaign, only 31% of users accepted the permissions. Even as the number of impressions increased, it didn’t effect the number of accepted dialogs.

69% of people do not feel comfortable coming to an application and immediately handing over their information before seeing what it is going to be used for.

Tab applications should have at least one page explaining the application before requesting permissions to make users feel comfortable about where there info is going. Users are becoming more aware of where their private information goes, which is a good thing, but application experiences must compensate for the shift in the thinking.

Millward Brown’s Top 100 Most Valuable Brands

Millward Brown released their annual Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Brands report.

Looking through their list, I counted 20 brands that Reality Digital has worked with to build social media and social video web experiences in the past year. All of the 20 brands but one have also increased their Brand Value from 2010 to 2011.

In fact, if you look at just the brands that increased their value from 2010-2011 you will recognize that almost all of them have a strong social media presence from Google+ to Facebook apps to social integrations on their websites.

Who’s Using Geosocial and Location-based services? Infographic

The popularity of location-based services aren’t showing any signs of slowing down. A Pew Research Center study in September found that 28% of U.S. Adults use mobile and location-based services (LBS).

Flowtown’s infographic breaks down the Pew study with easy to understand statistics. The most interesting stat I found was that more people use MySpace (130 million active users) as a geosocial network than Twitter (100) and Foursquare (10) combined.

Adobe Discontinues Mobile Flash

It must have been a tough decision for Adobe to kill mobile flash. Not only did Adobe’s executives have a public fight with Steve Jobs and Apple about the use of Flash on mobile devices, but as technology is evolving and becoming more focused on mobile discontinuing Mobile Flash is sending a message that one of Adobe’s core products is not headed in the right direction.

We do not know if this was a business decision based on if a product was not as profitable as desired down the road or if their recent cutting in staff and recent refocus on Digital Media and Digital Marketing left Mobile Flash the odd product out, and we may never know.

Adobe is changing their mobile focus to HTML5. Here at Reality Digital, we have built mobile social applications with our Opus platform for clients from Fortune 500 companies to ad agencies and we have never been asked to integrate with Mobile Flash nor have we ever needed to use the Mobile Flash framework for a project. All of our social applications on mobile devices run on HTML5. There’s a simple reason — All mobile browsers can view HTML5 and not all of them can view Flash. We will dive into the technical aspects of HTML5 and it’s capabilities in coming weeks.

Our small sample-size may be part of a larger sample that Adobe has based their decision to discontinue Mobile Flash. It may be belated and may have been a reluctant decision, but Adobe has come to the conclusion that HTML5 makes more sense across all mobile platforms.

4 Benefits of UGC Video Mashup Campaigns

Video mashups are a fast growing trend that is quickly becoming the hot thing to integrate into brand campaigns. Whether you’re promoting a new product or incentivising customers to participate in a contest, UGC video mashups can boost your social media efforts to new levels and really drive consumer engagement with your brand.

Integrating UGC video mashup technology into your social media campaign yields several benefits. Here are four that customers often cite as key gains:

Brand Assets

For brands that are just getting started with an online video strategy, user-uploaded and user-remixed video is a great way to generate content that extends the brand through unique perspectives and creates a library of assets that can repurposed in later campaigns.

Engagement

The very nature of creating a video mashup translates into longer and deeper engagement with your brand and content. Between content creation, upload, editing publishing and sharing, typical engagement time with your brand can be 15 minutes or longer when all is said and done.

Word of Mouth

Video mashups tend to be viral in nature and are quickly distributed across social graphs. Contests are particularly great at generating traffic as contestants will share their mashups with friends and networks to garner popular votes while users can spend hours viewing and voting on entries.

Brand Reputation

Given that users take considerable time out to contribute, video mashup content tends to be positive representations of the brand, embracing creativity and exhibiting loyalty and favorable opinions. With content moderation, you can monitor and control brand-safety.

As with any other marketing program you execute, remember that video mashups are an extension of your brand. When designing a video mashup campaign or contest, be thoughtful in your choice of technology, UI, workflow and overall experience; it should reflect the reputation of your brand. Great content, a simple hook, and a persuasive call to action really drive the success of these campaigns.

High-quality video delivery and flexible, scalable technology are just as important as conceptual design when it comes to execution. And you’ll also want to consider how to moderate content, especially if users are allowed to upload their own videos and photos, add captions, record voice-overs, or upload soundtracks.

We offer several video mashup app solutions that allow users to remix professional content that is pre-populated by the brand and/or user generated content including video, audio and images.

Adobe Premiere Express™ is our flagship online video editor and remixer and includes a comprehensive but easy-to-use set of video editing tools and effects that can create mashups and remixes in a studio-like setting in-browser.

GridMasher™ video technology mashes two or more videos into one video grid, great for Rock Band-style collaborations or multi-track performances.

WaveMasher™ video technology stitches several videos together that play seamlessly after each other like an endless or looping wave and can be synced with one audio track.

Each app is skinned with your brand’s look and feel and can be customized with customer-specific workflow. Add to that hosting in multiple environments like Facebook, YouTube and/or a microsite and you have a lot of flexibility in implementation.

We’ve powered several video mashup contests and campaigns for major brands over the past few years. Check out realitydigital.com/video-mashups.html to learn more about the solution or contact us for a demo.

What is HTML5 Video and Why Does It Matter to You?

HTML5 is the latest version of the HTML standard for rendering content on the Web. Amongst the many improvements included in this version, its new video embed capability is one of the most interesting features for us here at Reality Digital. The new language allows us to embed video in any webpage for playback in any HTML5-supported browser or device without the need for third-party plugins like Adobe Flash or QuickTime.

Why Would HTML5 Matter to You?

The biggest advantage for our customers in supporting HTML5 video is the ability to deliver video content to Apple iOS devices, which currently do not support Flash-encoded content (FLV format), without additional iterations of a site, app or player. Android-based mobile devices that do not support Flash are also benefiting from this update.

Our social media and online video platform has historically encoded video content to FLV output and served Flash-based video players for the playback environment. Now with HTML5 video, we can deliver high-quality video content to browsers on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch; end-users can play that content right in the browser without requiring the Flash plugin or opening an external video player.

Ultimately HTML5 support means our customers who are launching video-centric contests, social media campaigns, and online video communities benefit from greater adoption, increased reach and improved engagement in a more seamless viewing environment, no matter what browser or mobile device their end-users are on. We’re thrilled to expand our platform with this capability and have already implemented HTML5 video for several customers.

HTML5 video support is standard in the Opus platform and Opus API and is available today. Check out realitydigital.com/opus.html for more information on our social media platform

What’s a YouTube App and Does My Brand Need One?

With over 144 million unique visitors this past September according to comScore, YouTube represents a massive opportunity to spread awareness about and encourage engagement with your brand. Aside from uploading a branded video to YouTube, and hoping timing, relevancy and popularity take it viral, what can a brand do to promote itself within this network?

YouTube Brand Channel and Masthead Ad Apps

YouTube offers several ad programs that make a lot of sense for marketers exploring online video marketing, but it’s the Brand Channel and Masthead Ad offerings that tickle our fancy here at Reality Digital. Both environments allow marketers to insert “gadget” (or small web apps) that offer deeper functionality to users.

According to YouTube, gadgets can be pretty much anything. But given the audience profile and online video environment you’re working with, interactive apps that enable deep engagement with UGC video make a lot of sense. If you’re looking to run a UGC video contest, or want users to interact with your brand via online video, you’ll want to look seriously at a custom YouTube App in your Brand Channel or Masthead Ad. The more time you can get those 144 million visitors to spend in your channel or ad environment interacting with your brand, the better the conversions down the line.

Reality Digital’s YouTube App Solution offers brands several capabilities and benefits:

• Develop interactive, immersive UGC video apps and create video content for your brand
• Integrate webcam/mobile upload and video editing and remixing
• Run entire contests without leaving the channel or ad unit environment
• Moderate UGC videos before publishing to YouTube to keep your brand safe
• Embed branding in UGC videos with bumpers and watermarks

We’ve powered several big contests and campaigns for major brands on YouTube over the past couple of years. Check out www.realitydigital.com/youtube-channel.html to learn more about the solution or contact us for a demo.

Social Media Strategy – Part 4: How will you monetize your social media program?

Today’s blog post is part four of a seven-part series of key planning questions everyone should ask themselves when developing a social media strategy.

In Part 3 of our Social Media Strategy blog series, we covered why it’s important to have a plan in place to drive traffic to your social media program. The next step is to determine if and how you will monetize your initiative.

Monetization of social media can take different forms, from online advertising to subscription models, but social media can also be a branding exercise or a means to remain current and competitive. Look at your overall business goals and determine whether or not monetization makes sense in your social media program.

If considering online advertising, for instance, would your site or app make enough impressions, turn enough pages, or generate enough video plays to make the impact of ad revenue dollars significant? Would your audience even want to see ads on your social property? The answer can go either way. A niche online community with an active user base could very well generate the traffic needed to make ad integration worth it, especially when relevant ads are served. On the other hand, monetizing a video remix contest promoting a new product with other brands’ ads is probably inappropriate.

Click here for other examples of social media monetization models and check out our new and free Strategy Guide: Getting Started with Social Media. It includes seven additional planning questions you should ask yourself before launching into your social media initiative. Good luck!