Did you hear? We just celebrated HubSpot's 6th birthday on Friday! We're still reeling from the realization that, well, we're not a little baby startup anymore (or maybe it's just from all the free beer at the party we threw). Although we may be 6 years old now, thankfully HubSpot is like fine wine -- our software only gets better with age! So help us keep the celebration going by joining us in reading the best inbound marketing stories of our birthday celebration week.
98% of Americans Distrust the Internet, From Mashable
This one comes to us from Mashable, reporting on a recent Harris Interactive survey of 1,900 Americans asking them about their trust of the internet. The study revealed that a whopping 98% of Americans distrust the information they find on the internet, with 94% claiming that "bad things can happen as a result of acting on inaccurate information online." In addition to fearing things such as wasting time or computer viruses, marketers need to be aware of the worries that many of their leads and customers likely hold, including ads (59%), outdated information (56%), and self-promotional information (53%). Check out the full story here.
Foursquare Launches Local Updates, Allowing Businesses to Talk to Loyal Customers, From Foursquare
This one comes straight from the horse's mouth. Foursquare's blog reports that the location-based social network has officially launched a service called Local Updates, which will allow the one million businesses that have claimed their location to communicate with users who check in frequently. While this has immediate implications for restaurants and retail stores, it's also huge for small businesses and other companies that have been looking to leverage location-based social media but weren't sure how to capitalize on their Foursquare presence. The addition of some pumped-up analytics isn't too bad for marketers looking to utilize the network, either. Check out the complete story here.
What Types of News Go Viral on YouTube? From MarketingProfs
MarketingProfs is responsible for this interesting report on a study conducted by PEJ on the types of news content that go viral on YouTube. While professional news organizations' content dominated the numbers (comprising 51.2% of the viral content), user-created news content accounted for over one-third (39.2%) of the content that went viral during the study's fifteen-month period. The survey also found that a whopping 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the United States, and that viral content tended to be devastating or graphic (35.4%), controversial (31.2%), or humorous (18.5%). Check out the full story here.
Magic Mike's Guide to Seducing Your Audience, From Copyblogger
We have Copyblogger to thank for taking the, um, visually stimulating movie Magic Mike, and turning it into a fascinating marketing lesson, backed with case studies for every tip. As the protagonist of the movie demonstrates, knowing what your product means to your target audience is key: while Magic Mike's product is, in fact, views of his body, it is also an escape from reality for the women who patronize his club. Other tips include grabbing your customers' attention in ways that delight them, providing consistently compelling content, and rewarding loyal fans. Check out the complete story here.
How to Communicate "Quality" Through Your Email Marketing, From Smart Insights
Our last story comes to us from the Smart Insights blog, and it's the first email marketing article we've featured in awhile. The piece takes its readers through every step of the email marketing experience, from email design functionality to the voice of the email, and provides a checklist of questions to ask yourself before finalizing an email. For example, when verifying the voice of your email, make sure you're sending an error-free, jargon-free email that doesn't sound like an unmodified template. Or, when it comes to email design functionality, is the email mobile-optimized? How will it look if the recipient's preferences are set to automatically block images? Check out the full story here.What are some other helpful inbound marketing stories you came across on the web this week?
Image credit: Will Clayton
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Karrie 10:38 AM on July 22, 2012
Wow, so many persons distrust the internet? I had no idea, still I can appreciate their concerns as sometimes I too come across inaccurate info on the internet. That i why I try to keep my own website credible. I only write about that which I know to be true from my own travels.
Greeting Cards Online 11:43 AM on July 22, 2012
WOW Happy 6th Birthday I just love reading your articles they are so informative well done
Jim Crawford 2:21 PM on July 22, 2012
Take this with a grain of salt. Sponsored studies -- this one was paid for by a company offering a site with "trusted answers" -- have a tendency to align with the business mission of the company writing Harris a check. "Trust me" on this: I've paid for quite a few in the realm of public policy. Opponents, in turn, magically produced equally valid-looking surveys that refuted my/my client's position. It's a game, chillun'.
Cagayan de Oro News 9:26 PM on July 22, 2012
It could be that majority of those more than a thousand Americans interviewed are against the internet technology, they're old persons who do not love technology.
Surveys are not accurate but only guessing results.
Proemini 2:53 AM on July 23, 2012
That's not correct Servey...I agree that many old people are not interested in technology. However, internet is very important for human life.
Duke 7:20 AM on July 23, 2012
I find the survey number to be a little low. I am hearing from more and more people of all ages leaving the internet...mainly the social networks.. because of the Trolls, Spam and the fear of picking up a computer virus.
Rocket Mary 6:57 PM on July 23, 2012
I can totally see a majority of people distrusting the internet. I love the internet, work on it, and use it every day and I'm still distrusting of a lot of things I see on it. Once you've seen one lie, one scam, or one virus it makes it harder to trust everything else.
James 9:33 AM on July 25, 2012
Trust is a hard thing to get, on and off the Internet.