Prime One Global is a Full-Service Performance Marketing Agency. We empower millions of brands around the globe to start and grow their businesses with our smart marketing solutions, award-winning strategies, and inspiring support. Over the years, we’ve worked with and helped millions of global brands. However, today, we’re happy to celebrate a special achievement that comes from the initiatives of our valuable clients and partners! Yes, Prime One Global is an awardee in The 2022 Philadelphia Manifest Awards!

The 2022 B2B Agencies Philadelphia Manifest Awards are determined by the number of successful campaigns we completed in the first quarter of the year (Q1), and what our clients share as an ROI for their investment and engagement with our firm.

The Manifest is a business news platform that helps companies find the ideal vendor for their upcoming or pending projects. They do this by collecting data regarding each business in their consideration pool and creating ranked listings for each industry. For these particular Philadelphia Manifest Awards, the criteria were the amount of positive feedback each company earned from their respective audiences.

According to The Manifest, Prime One Global is one of the most reviewed and recommended B2B firms in Philadelphia for the year 2022. Prime One Global is awarded as:

The 2022 B2B Agencies Philadelphia Manifest Awards

 

1. Most Reviewed Digital Marketing Companies

2. Most Reviewed SEO Companies

3. Most Reviewed Social Media Marketing Companies

4. Most Reviewed Branding Companies

5. Most Reviewed Digital Strategy Companies

6. Most Reviewed Inbound Marketing Companies

7. Most Reviewed Content Marketing Companies

Our team has found itself on the receiving end of a domino effect that began with our clients and partners. They took the initiative to make positive feedback about our work. These Philadelphia Manifest Awards were given to us because of their good ratings. As a result of these recognitions, more businesses will give us consideration for their SEO and digital marketing needs, and we will keep growing as the year unfolds.

We can’t express how grateful we are to everyone who contributed to letting us receive these awards. This is an honouring opportunity that we shall not squander. Our work will reflect this higher status, and we will prove that we are deserving of it in our future projects.

We’re elite digital pros committed to winning! Our talented and highly experienced team will help you get the job done. Explore our website to get more information on what we do for our clients on a daily basis. Feel free to contact us through any of our available channels for questions and inquiries as well. Let us help you level up your business digitally!

The popularity of webinar marketing has skyrocketed in 2020. Just about every business and marketer is hosting webinars these days.

So, Do you also need Webinar Software? Oops, That’s a big question! As, once you decide that you actually do need one, there’ll be another important question that you need to find the answer is which of the dozens of webinar solutions should you choose?

When going digital with your clients, you’ve probably dealt with an unstable internet connection, audio issues, software bugs and many more. That’s why it’s really important to choose the right webinar platforms.

So, which are the best webinar platforms 2020? Glad you asked!

I’ve come across and tested the most popular webinar platforms 2020. Some, I liked, others, I couldn’t get around with their technical bugs or simply, the apps didn’t fit my needs.

Maybe you run a small business, startup or blog, regardless of the situation, I’ll cover everything from pricing, features, to pros & cons for the best webinar platforms on the market.

Here we go! The following list of 20 webinar platforms is my absolute best picks for 2020. Keep reading to gather more info on how these webinar platforms work!

1. What is a Webinar Platform?

A webinar platform is an important tool or software that helps you run online live events or meetings with one or more attendees. Since there are lots of elements that go into organizing and running an online meeting or event, so, a software tool that’s specifically designed for this job provides a list of features that the webinar creator (host) use during the process.

The best webinar platform is able to cater to many needs such as managing and following up with attendees, providing in-depth detailed analytics and displaying Call-to-Actions (CTAs) so that participants are compelled to obtain what the presenter has to offer.

There is a wide range of webinar platforms on the market, especially since webinars have become increasingly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Each webinar platform has its pros and cons, but the main focus of these webinar platforms is to offer the best user experience for attendees while making it easy for the host to run the online meeting and effectively interact with his/her audience.

2. Key Benefits of Using Webinar Platforms

Can you imagine having to juggle with various tools to run a successful webinar that need to be integrated with one another and work together seamlessly? I know it’s a tiresome job!

That’s where webinar platforms come in, most of the webinar platforms are “all-in-one” products where you get all the features and functionalities you need in one place. For example, the best webinar platforms allow for easy internal communication, customer interaction, remote team meetings, marketing presentations, Outreach & lead generation, and web-based training with the use of high-quality visual and audio presentation.

Inexperienced marketers and entrepreneurs often oversee the potential of the webinar which is a great mistake. There are plenty of success stories speak of people doubling, tripling or even quadrupling their email list through webinars. Also, well-presented webinars help people to make five or even six figures in their sales.

Webinars are very much alive, more than they’ve ever been. Here are some key benefits of using webinars in your business:

• Webinars are the best way to automate and track your marketing efforts
• Webinars will position you as an expert in your niche industry
• Webinars will help you boost your audience’s engagement
• Webinars can help you attract other people’s audiences
• Webinars can be automated and scaled easily; in result, you will get a constant stream of leads for your business.

In nutshell, when you’ve got an army of people who’re eager to promote your webinars for you, the possibilities are endless!

Top 20 Emerging Webinar Platforms 2020 for Startups and Individuals

You know what? There are more than 30 active webinar startups and services in the market. Interestingly, most of them are founded in the last 2-3 years. When I started my research I used strict criteria to compare, analyze and review the top 20 webinar platforms 2020 such as webinar platform’s flexibility, easy usage, features & Functionalities, registering experience, attendee experience, follow-up experience, etc.

That being said, let’s have a closer look at the top 20 webinar platforms 2020.

1) GoToWebinar

GoToWebinar is owned by LogMeIn and marketed along with the GoToMeeting software. It’s one of the most popular and best webinar platforms for good reason. GoToWebinar is trusted by more customers than any other webinar platforms in the market and it powers millions of webinars each year.

Whether you use webinars for marketing outreach, corporate communications or training, GoToWebinar provides you with reliable technology that’s super simple to use. You can get the features, functionalities, integrations and analytics you need to engage your audience and make personal connections that help you thrive in your business.

When your reputation is on the line, you need a solution you can rely on and GoToWebinar is that webinar solution for you.

Pricing

• STARTER –€89 Per Month / Billed Annually – 100 Participants
• PRO –€199 Per Month / Billed Annually – 500 Participants
• PLUS –€429 Per Month / Billed Annually – 1000 Participants

Features

• Generate data reports for source tracking, attendees, and events.
• Integrations are available for the biggest and most popular CRMs and marketing tools.
• You can record and re-record your meetings and events for later viewing.
• Simple engagement features with webcams, polls, and a dashboard to monitor the type of engagement coming in.
• You can get planning and promoting tools like webinar templates, scheduling, and branding.

Pros

• Compare to the competitors, GoToWebinar is more flexible
• Beginners can start working with GoToWebinar without much training.
• Webinar participants can connect and interact with the presenter via chatting and virtually raising their hands.
• Presenters can stream webinars from all devices
• Marketing and analytics tools are the best options for businesses

Cons

• GoToWebinar frequently update its software which can be frustrating to often download the new version
• GoToWebinar recording quality could be better.
• Some businesses might not like the higher monthly fee, but this totally depends on the size of your organization and how many participants you have per webinar

2) EasyWebinar

EasyWebinar is another popular webinar platform 2020. You can Use EasyWebinar as the backbone of your online business.

The platform offers tools for marketing outreach, lead generation and customer acquisition with interactive training onboarding.

EasyWebinar is both a live stream platform and marketing automation tool. You can leverage the platform to conduct workshops, webinars, and masterclasses to rise above your competitor while also allowing you to scale up your marketing through automated and live webinars.

Leverage the power of EasyWebinar to do more and grow your business to new heights.

Pricing

• Standard – $78/Month – 100 Live Attendees
• Pro –$129/Month – 500 Live Attendees
• Enterprise –$499 /Month – 2000 Live Attendees

Features

• Provides Alerts and Notifications
• Offers tools for event management
• Multi hosts option
• Reporting and analytics tools for the better marketing process
• Live Chat, Q&A and HD Screen Sharing facilities
• Offers social media promotion and customizable branding
• You can record and archive your webinars

Pros

• Provide a live chat feature for the audience.
• You can able to share your screen, your webcam feed or PowerPoint Presentation in just one click.
• EasyWebinar has a strong structure that ensures the stability of your webinars.
• EasyWebinar offers good customer supports with its supportive staff and training videos that help you get started and take full advantage of the features.

Cons

• Personalized branding is only available for higher monthly subscriptions plans
• EasyWebinar full suite of features can be a bit daunting at first

3) ClickMeeting 

ClickMeeting is a browser-based all-in-one webinar solution. This webinar platform suitable for organizations of any size, from individual firms to multinational enterprises.

This web-based webinar platform is easy to use and covers the entire process of the webinar from preparation to presentation and from attendees’ interaction to follow-up.

What’s even better about ClickMeeting is that all its features come at a very reasonable price if you choose the right plan; getting started webinars is much easier with ClickMeeting.

Pricing

• Free Trial –For 30 Days
• Live –US$ 25/Month – Billed Annually
• Automated –US$ 40/Month – Billed Annually
• Enterprise –Custom Pricing

Features

• Provides automated and evergreen webinars
• You can run paid webinars
• Provides Custom branding options
• You can send customized attendee invitations
• Whiteboard feature Available
• You can live stream your webinars to Facebook or YouTube Live
• Options to do Polls and surveys
• Offers simultaneous chat translation feature
• Mobile app available
• You can get advanced analytics and statistics
• CTAs options available during and after the webinar

Pros

• Extremely feature-rich professional webinar solution
• The platform has an Intuitive and easy interface
• Reasonable pricing options
• Offers great engagement enhancements
• The webinar platform works well with a large number of audiences
• Perfect webinar solution for Follow-Up/Live Webinar task automation

Cons

• The platform does not allow scheduling recurring meetings.
• The analytics and statistics aren’t as detailed as they can be, but you can get basic data
• Lengthy webinars take a long to export
• Limited storage options

4) EverWebinar 

EverWebinar is owned by the same company that runs WebinarJam. According to the name, EverWebinar lets you create evergreen webinars that are pre-recorded but look and feel live to the audience.

EverWebinar completely automates the operations and provide the best live webinar experience for customers. You don’t need to install, upload or host anything EverWebinar handles it all for you.

EverWebinar is packed with lots of features that help you put your webinar process on autopilot.

Pricing

• Installment Plan –$1 for 14 days then $199 x 3 Yearly
• Annual Plan –$1 for 14 days then $499 Yearly
• Biennial Plan –$1 for 14 days then $799 Two Years

Features

• Flexible scheduling – your audience can decide when the webinar will be broadcast.
• Pre-record your webinars and make them evergreen.
• Provides pre-made landing pages and registration pages.
• You can get high-def 30FPS video and audio features.
• You can display clickable offers during the webinar with built-in scarcity elements
• Live chat option available.
• Provides multiple features such as email marketing software and CRMs like ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit and more.
• You can keep your audiences engaged with a built-in email and SMS system.
• You can run polls, questionnaires and surveys by your attendees.
• “Hybrid Webinars”: Webinar is pre-recorded, but still you can chat with attendees in real-time.

Pros

• You can turn a live presentation into an evergreen broadcast in minutes
• Offers great in-depth analytics
• Automatic time-zone detection lets your audience choose the best time for them to watch the webinar
• You can put the webinar process on autopilot

Cons

• Works great with WebinarJam, but purchasing the two can become a little expensive.
• Streaming webinars on mobile might give a few glitches.
• Some might not like the fact that the webinar is portrayed as live when they’re actually pre-recorded.

5) Zoho Webinars 

The Zoho brand is well known for its wide range of simple, reliable and affordable products. Zoho Webinars is part of the Zoho Meetings software that helps smaller firms an affordable way to conduct webinars.

Zoho Webinars aim to make webinars extremely affordable for smaller organizations, without compromising on the quality and the overall user experience.

Zoho Webinars has a great UI and design together with engagement-enhancing features and excellent customer support.

Pricing

• WEBINAR 25 –$15/Host/Month Billed Annually – 25 Attendees
• WEBINAR 50 –$23/Host/Month Billed Annually – 50 Attendees
• WEBINAR 100 –$31/Host/Month Billed Annually – 100 Attendees
• WEBINAR 250 –$63Host/Month Billed Annually – 250 Attendees

Features

• Registration page customization with embed registration widget
• Automated email reminders and follow-up
• All web-based webinar solution
• Provides interactive polls and Q&As options
• Offers Presenter-switching options
• Provides reporting and analytics features
• You can integrate with other apps

Pros

• Affordable when compared to similar webinar platforms
• Simple and easy to use interface and design
• Excellent customer support
• Provides Dial-in function for attendees

Cons

• Support only limited numbers of attendees
• Analytics can be improved and more in-depth
• Apart from an email, other automation is not that strong

6) Livestorm.co 

Livestorm.co is the web-based webinar platform for hosting customer training sessions, demo, etc. Livestorm.co fits for companies of all sizes.

Livestorm.co user-base is continuously growing because people love its modern and clean interface. Also, it’s extremely rich features can cater to all webinar needs.

Livestorm.co be aware of fact that webinars come in all kinds of shapes and sizes; therefore, it offers various modules and tools for specific webinar styles like, live events, customer training, online courses, product demos, video podcasts, hiring sessions and many more. Altogether, Livestorm is a powerful ‘video meeting’ software.

Pricing

• Webinar Basic –Free
• Webinar Premium –€89/Month, Billed Annually
• Enterprise –Custom Package

Features

• Provides unlimited HD-quality webinars
• Web-based webinar platform
• You can play pre-recorded videos during webinars
• Offers both real-time and reusable polls options
• Provides customizable branding features
• You can have embedded registration forms anywhere
• Provides advanced analytics options
• The platform provides unlimited recording storage
• You can automate your emails
• The platform’s whole interface can be translated into 17 different languages for corporate webinars

Pros

• Modern and clean interface that’s easy to use
• Great email automation options
• Excellent landing-page templates
• Offers a free plan for users to get started
• Great automation tools

Cons

• Users have reported some problems with webinar video quality
• The free plan only supports limited attendees and the event is capped at 20 minutes

7) WebinarNinja 

WebinarNinja is an all-in-one webinar marketing solution. The Conversation-centric webinar platform makes it easy for businesses to teach market and sell their products/services via webinars.

The webinar platform provides built-in landing pages, email sequences, slide templates and comprehensive tools to create live, automated and hybrid webinars.

All these above-mentioned features, intuitive UI and step-by-step process of WebinarNinja makes it stand out among competitors.

Pricing

• STARTER –$39/Month, Billed Annually – 100 Live Webinar Attendees
• PRO –$79/Month, Billed Annually – 300 Live Webinar Attendees
• PLUS –$129/Month, Billed Annually – 500 Live Webinar Attendees
• POWER –$199/Month, Billed Annually – 1000 Live Webinar Attendees

Features

• You can create Live, Automated, Hybrid and Serial webinars on WebinarNinja.
• The host can able to display live polls for the webinar audience to answer.
• Provides proprietary hosting for automated webinars.
• Email notifications and automation with drip campaigns.
• The platform’s Media Library allows you to store images, logos, etc.
• Provides advanced statistics.
• Countless built-in integration + more than 1000 integrations are available via Zapier.
• You can create paid webinars.

Pros

• Modern, clean and very intuitive user interface.
• The platform provides a super-fast and reliable chat feature.
• Well-designed templates pages and have a proven record of conversions.
• Good audio and video feature back up Web RTC technology.

Cons

• Some users have reported poor video quality.
• “Polls” and “Offers” features can be improved.
• Webinars running time is limited to 2 hours.

8) BigMaker

BigMaker is definitely one of the top players when it comes to webinar platforms 2020. It’s trusted and used by world-class brands like Google, McDonald’s and Panasonic.

BigMaker combines powerful video technology with a robust marketing and interactive experience that lets you create so much more than just live webinars. BigMarker allows you to record automated and evergreen webinars, host on-demand video, run live streams and even create virtual summits.

BigMaker is an all-encompassing solution that you can use for marketing, monetization and customer engagement purposes.

Pricing

• Starter –$79/Month – 100 Attendees and 1 Host License
• Elite –$159/Month – 500 Attendees and 2 Host License
• Premier –$299/Month – 1000 Attendees and 4 Host License
• White Label –Custom Package – 10,000 Attendees

Features

• Provide conversion-optimized registration pages and live-room.
• Offers Polls, embeddable quizzes, handouts and Q&A options
• You can enable live popups during the webinar
• You can integrate with your CRMs and email marketing platforms
• You can host HD webinar videos
• Provides customizable video-player branding feature
• Offers you loads of landing page templates
• You can get embeddable registration forms
• You can automate follow-up emails

Pros

• The platforms user interface is great and easy to use
• Extremely rich-features
• All-in-one solution to create effective live videos
• Provides great page templates that are fully customizable

Cons

• The platform might be ‘overkill’ for some users
• The platform’s chat interface loaded with lots of buttons and CTAs
• Some users have reported glitches with the email integration feature

9) WebinarJam 

WebinarJam is one of my top picks when it comes to webinar platforms 2020. Webinar Jam is primarily built for marketers and a digital-first crowd. It’s one of the best webinar platforms available for webinar marketing.

WebinarJam is a very simple to set up webinar platform. The platform offers the best features to Live video casting, event streaming, and webinar broadcasting. The platform provides dozens of integrations and features to create great webinars.

If you’re a marketer WebinarJam is the best choice for you. It’s perfect for seamless “pitch making” at the end of the meeting, and the great UI/UX never leaves your attendees disappointed.

Pricing

• Basic –$499/Yearly
• Professional –$699/Yearly
• Enterprise –$999/Yearly

Features

• The platform has built-in email-marketing integrations with ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, etc
• The platform automatically records the webinars, without you having to manually turn on the feature
• Works virtually on any browser
• Provides a built-in page builder that allows you to fully customize your registration pages.
• You can poll, questionnaires and surveys for your attendees
• Great marketing features, you can “sell” during and after the webinars.
• You can integrate it with your social media accounts.
• The drawing board feature lets you draw notes directly on top of your slides or diagrams to explain a concept.
• The platform lets you handle up to 5000 people per webinar, also you can accommodate up to 6 co-presenters
• You can make your Webinars live stream on FB live or YouTube
• “Panic Button” (Only on Pro and Enterprise plans): allows you “escape” from a bad webinar with the touch of a button. The system will then boot up a brand new live room and automatically transfer your attendees into it.

Pros

• The platform is extremely easy to use; within minutes you can get started
• Excellent chatting platform during the webinar that provides a great opportunity for audience engagement
• High-quality video-streaming
• Top-notch customer support

Cons

• WebinarJam email Notifications might sometimes end up in the spam folder
• Sound can be sometimes being delayed on webinars

10) Demio 

When it comes to webinar platforms 2020, Demio is a new kid! The platform has a crisp UI design and UX. Not only that, Demio has strong marketing capabilities and offers an all-in-one solution.

Whether you are looking to generate qualified leads/customers, active users, and increase conversions, or educate your customers, Demio is the perfect solution for you.

Demio is incredibly easy to use and making the entire webinar-creation experience as straightforward as possible. Also, the platform has a cloud-based recording feature that ensures top-notch video and audio quality.

Pricing

• STARTER –$34/Month, Paid Annually- 50-Attendee Room
• GROWTH –$69/Month, Paid Annually- 150-Attendee Room
• BUSINESS –$163/Month, Paid Annually- 500 -Attendee Room

Features

• The platform provides live, automated, on-demand or hybrid webinars
• Easy-to-use interface with great user experience
• The cloud hosting feature guaranteed HD video streaming
• The platform offers customizable registration pages
• You can send email notifications to registrants
• Polls and quizzes feature available with stats that you can view to assess audience engagement
• Provides advanced analytics feature
• The platform offers countless integrations

Pros

• The platform has a pro-level design and easy to use interface
• Web-based webinar solution
• Provides great automation features
• Well designed and compelling Polls and CTAs
• Great Audio and Video quality

Cons

• If you need more than 50 registrants, it can get expensive
• The platform’s replay page lacks marketing features
• New to the market so glitches might come up here and there

11) Cisco Webex 

The leading IT firm Cisco owned the Webex software. Apart from the webinar, Webex can also be used for video conferencing, team collaboration and online training that help professionals to move their projects forward faster.

Webex provides integrated video, audio and content sharing features. You can keep your conversations private with highly secure Webex meetings that are powered by the Cisco Collaboration Cloud.

Though Webex can be used by smaller companies, it’s mainly aimed at large corporations and caters to the needs of these big businesses. Webex is one of the reliable, high-quality and feature-rich webinar platforms 2020.

Pricing

• Webex provides 4 different pricing plans. You can be billed monthly or annually. The “Free” plan is a great starting point but limited to 50 attendees only.

Features

• Entirely cloud-based webinar solution
• You can accommodate up to 200 attendees
• Provides Q&As, polls and surveys options to maximize your audience engagement
• Mobile app available
• Webex provides hardware devices that work in conjunction with the software

Pros

• Great platform for team collaboration
• Offers excellent video and audio quality
• The platform has great security features Webex provides meeting transcription (Starte plan or higher)
• The platform has a great customer support
• Webex offers a 100% free plan to get you started

Cons

• The platform is not fully optimized for marketing purposes
• The platform is best for large corporations
• Not a standalone webinar tool as originally built for video-conferencing

12) ON24 

ON24 is one of the leading webinar platforms 2020. The platform is built from the ground up to be a dedicated enterprise webinar solution. ON24 has everything you might need from a great webinar platform.

ON24 is powering interactive, data-rich webinar solutions and content experiences that help people connect and make smarter business decisions.

Marketers can use ON24 to create Live, On-Demand and Personalized Engagement and drive more revenue through the platform.

Pricing

• Free Trial Available for 30 Days
• Live Demo Available

Features

• Easy to create, manage, deliver, measure and scale your webinars
• Provides data-driven engagement analytics
• You can integrate your webinars engagement data into your marketing automation platform and CRM system.
• The platform offers a customized interface for a better user experience.
• The platform offers an all-in-one webinar solution with extremely rich features.
• The platform provides live chat, Q&As, polls, voting and screen sharing options.
• ON24 offers customizable branding and social media promotion for customers

Pros

• ON24 provides a suite of powerful enterprise tools for webcasting
• The platform offers an engagement-first approach to the video experience
• Powerful interactive, intelligent and data-driven solutions to help you optimize your marketing efforts

Cons

• Extremely difficult to master the webinar software
• Requires a full hands-on effort to use the platform’s full potential

13) Adobe Connect 

Adobe is popular for its art software like Photoshop and Lightroom. The Adobe Connect is the latest addition to the Adobe arsenal. Adobe Connect is a video-conferencing platform with webinar functionality.

Adobe Connect is one of the highly powerful webinar platforms 2020 that is tailored for enterprise use where you can conduct webinars, host videos, share documents and so much more.

With its general number of features, Adobe Connect can be a great option for hosting video conferences and webinars that provides great digital learning experiences.

Pricing

• Small Meetings – Free – 3 Participants
• Meetings – Starts at $50/Month/Host – 25 Participants
• Webinars & Learning – Starts at $130/Month/Host – 100 to 1500 Participants

Features

• The platform offers great analytics
• The platform has an easy to use interface
• The platform provides “Smart Q&A”, multiple poll types, ‘ice breakers’ and other engagement enhancers options
• Fully customizable “Prepare mode” and advanced host controls Webinar room features

Pros

• Great analytics feature
• You can integrate with your CRM software
• Provides great customizable templates
• To-notch audience-engagement features

Cons

• One of the most expensive webinar platforms out there
• The platform’s mobile experience can be improved

14) GoToTraining 

GoToTraining is one of the dedicated webinar platforms 2020 for online training. The platform is built by the providers of remote-access software bohemet LogMeIn. GoToTraining is the perfect webinar solution for online training within your company.

GoToTraining has great educational tools that allow trainers to create effective and engaging training sessions. Trainers can evaluate their students’ knowledge before the training via custom registration, distribution of course materials, and tests.

Compared to other all-in-one webinar platforms 2020, GoToTraining is extremely limited and niche, but it provides a good solution for online training.

Pricing

• STARTER – €107/Organizer /Month, Billed Annually – 25 Attendees
• PRO – €169/Organizer /Month, Billed Annually – 50 Attendees
• PLUS – €315/Organizer /Month, Billed Annually – 200 Attendees

Features

• Provides custom registration option
• You can manage your registrants’ payments and refunds through PayPal integration.
• Provides content sharing options like videos, PowerPoint presentations and course catalogs.
• You can evaluate your students’ knowledge with tests and polls
• Features to boost engagement and collaboration with small-group discussions

Pros

• The best webinar solution for company online training programs
• A great platform for educational and training webinars

Cons

• Specific Niche platform with limited features and functionality

15) BlueJeans Events 

BlueJeans Events is a globally trusted live video streaming tool. It’s a great virtual event platform for thought leadership, keynotes and brand awareness.

BlueJeans specifically designed for marketing teams that aim to capitalize on audience participation. The platform provides a premium content delivery platform with a feature-rich moderator dashboard that supports a range of one-to-one and one-to-many communication options.

BlueJeans integrates with various marketing tools like Salesforce, Splash and Marketo to automate invitations, collect RSVP data, and accelerate the follow-up process. Plus, users can create virtual payment gateways with TicketSocket and stream webinars to Facebook Live or YouTube Live.

Pricing

Meetings

• BLUEJEANS STANDARD – $9.99 Host/Month – 50 Participants
• BLUEJEANS PRO – $13.99 Host/Month – 75 Participants
• BLUEJEANS ENTERPRISE – Custom Package

Events

• BLUEJEANS VIDEO WEBINARS – $83/Month – 100, 200, 500 Attendee Plans Available
• LARGE-SCALE VIDEO EVENTS​ – Custom Package – 50,000 View-Only Attendees

Features

• Provides attendee management feature
• Offers customizable branding
• Online registration and live streaming options are available
• Great reporting and analytics features
• Provides virtual lobby
• The platform provides a lead generation feature
• You can record & playback your webinars
• Survey and poll management feature with
• real-time chat option

Pros

• Fully web-based solution
• Best moderator dashboard
• Easy event setup and scheduling
• HTML embed allows event admins to stream content from their domain of choice
• Automated closed captioning and Intermission/pause broadcast features are available

Cons

• Fairly limited marketing features and customer experience
• Price is a bit higher but includes a wider range of built-in features

16) Zoom 

These days, everybody talking about Zoom. That’s because it’s one of the reliable, fast and extremely affordable webinar platforms 2020. But, Zoom originally born as a video-conferencing tool and recently it has come out with a solution that’s catered features and functionalities for host webinars.

Zoom provides HD video, audio, and content sharing features across different devices like mobile, desktop, telephones and conference room systems. Zoom has cloud and local recording features with transcripts and multi-user annotation capabilities via screen share.

Altogether, Zoom webinars are excellent in quality and have all the usual features you’d expect in a great webinar solution, however, they are a little thin when it comes to marketing features.

Pricing

• BASIC – Free – 100 Participants
• PRO – $149.90 /Year/License – 100 Participants
• BUSINESS – $199.90 /Year/License – 300 Participants
• ZOOM UNITED BUSINESS – $350.00 /Year/License – 300 Participants

Features

• Provides great HD video quality
• Extremely easy to use dashboard
• You can integrate with Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and iCal
• You can bac-up meetings in the cloud
• Multiple attendees can screen share at the same time
• App available for iOS and Android devices
• Live broadcasting with the connecting option to Facebook and YouTube live
• You can create on-demand or recurring webinars
• The platform supports for larger events
• You can integrate Zoom with PayPal through Zapier

Pros

• The platform Can be used for free with limited features
• Provides great video and audio quality
• The meeting scheduling process is extremely easy and straightforward
• Go-to webinar solution for many users

Cons

• The platform’s webinar feature is still ‘young’, so there’s room for improvements
• Marketing and sales features can be improved
• The automation process can be improved
• Generally, the platform is very stable, but some users have reported it crashing sometimes

17) Skype for Business

Skype for Business is one of the useful video conferencing and IM tools that can become your to-go-to webinar service. On Skype for Business, you can schedule a meeting that’s similar to a webinar with up to 250 attendees.

Skype for Business allows you to chat, audio & video conversations, schedule & facilitate online meetings for your internal & external teams and provides features for dial-out & dial-in online conferences.

Overall, Skype for Business is one of the best solutions for Collaboration, Communications, Enterprise Messaging & Mobility Management.

Pricing

• Free Trial Available

Features

• Best HD video and audio calling features
• Smart messaging with emojis and reactions
• Screen sharing option available
• Provides features like call recording and live subtitles
• You can do private conversations on the platform

Pros

• Available for desktop and mobile devices
• You can host a meeting for up to 250 attendees
• You can manage the access of the participants through phone call

Cons

• Not an exclusive solution for the webinar, originally, it’s an IM and business communication/video conferencing tool.

18) ezTalks Webinar 

ezTalks is designed for providing reliable web conferencing and video conferencing solutions. So, relatively it’s a new player in the webinar space. With its mobile-first approach and a range of features, it’s already a successful web conferencing solution.

ezTalks offers cloud and on-premise software with powerful features like HD video & audio Chat, screen sharing, record, whiteboard, etc. Also, with its high-quality video conferencing tools and integrated software, ezTalks provides a simple and collaborative video meeting experience.

Pricing

• STARTER – Free – 25 Participants
• STANDARD – $25/Month/Host – 50 Participants
• PRO – $32/Month/Host – 100 Participants
• BUSINESS – $300/Month/Host – 1000 Participants

Features

• Unlimited live webinars
• Provides HD video and audio
• Offers custom registration page
• Screen sharing feature with co-annotation
• Custom branding and Social media sharing
• You can replay & download recordings
• Webinar cloud storage available
• Polls, surveys, instant chat options
• Interactive whiteboard feature

Pros

• A new disruptive startup in web conferencing space
• Built with the purpose to serve webinar marketing space
• Offers both free and paid webinars

Cons

• A bit difficult to get set up
• As a newborn, it comes with its limitations and bugs

19) joinMe 

joinMe is a video conferencing tool with easy to use simple functionalities. The tool allows you to quickly go live and share your link with attendees in a rapid manner.

Even though joinMe is not a perfect webinar solution, it’s a good choice for you, if you’re looking for a quick and rapid tool for a webinar-based meeting. Especially if you have high-ticket LinkedIn Clients, this webinar solution might be the right choice for you to create a webinar meeting and connect directly with them.

Overall, joinMe is the easiest way to connect and collaborate. Anybody can share ideas instantly with screen sharing, video, audio, whiteboard and chat options. joinMe provides a personalized meeting experience where users can personalize participant URLs, backgrounds and much more.

Pricing

• LITE – $10 – 5 Participants per Meeting
• PRO – $20 – 250 Participants per Meeting
• BUSINESS – $30 – 250 Participants per Meeting

Features

• Video conferencing and audio conferencing features
• Advance meeting scheduling option
• You can set up your own custom link for meetings
• Whiteboard feature available for mobile and desktop devices
• Provides screen sharing and presenter swap options

Pros

• Simple and reliable webinar solution
• Affordable and extremely easy to use webinar software

Cons

• A limited number of webinar-first features
• Limited to only 50 attendees

20) WorkCast

WorkCast makes webinars and webcasts simpler and more engaging that allowing you to generate more leads and connect with your global audience virtually.

WorkCast is a web-based solution so there is no downloads, no plugins, and no barriers for webinar presenters and attendees. Simply, WorkCast is one of the effective webinar platforms 2020 to maximize your audience engagement, generate leads and grow your business.

Pricing

• Present+ – £95/Month – 500 Attendees
• Producer+ – £395/Month – 500 Attendees
• Enterprise – Custom Package

Features

• Lead generation features with webinars
• You can connect with a massive number of a global audience
• You can able to host flexible and cost-efficient training via webinars
• Boost sales through products demos
• You can have meaningful interactions with your customers

Pros

• The platform provides easy setup and integration
• Provides helpful Customer Support Team
• The platform offers embedded webinars and a full suite of features

Cons

• WorkCast constantly improving and upgrading its features and functionalities, means you’ll have to deal with bugs in the process

3. Proven Tips & Tricks to Use Webinar Platforms

Anybody can use webinar platforms and run a live stream. But, to successfully collect leads through webinars and turn those leads into customers you need some effective tips & strategies that actually work.

So, here are some of my best tips to make your webinars experience memorable for you and your audience.

• Ensure good audio and video quality
• Personalized your webinar according to your specific audience
• First, give value to your audience then do the sales pitch
• Learn from your own webinars and improve them
• Get to know your audience’s interests and create webinars on them

Conclusion

There you have it all! It pretty much rounds up the list of top webinar platforms 2020. Now, it’s time to identify the best webinar platform for your business. For that, you need to consider several things. If you’re a beginner, see what fits your budget and then compare the features accordingly.

Next, you need to identify what size your audience is and what specific features & functionalities you might require to engage your audience.

Also, consider what’s your end goal? Whether do you want to increase your sales, boost your brand awareness or need to conduct a survey? It’s important to choose the right webinar solution that offers the specific features you need.

The best part is that most of these webinar solutions offer a free trial or money-back guarantee, which helps you to test out the product before you go for a paid plan. When you find the right solution, then you can make the final purchase.

I tried to do my best to analyze and review the best use case frameworks for the top 20 webinar platforms 2020. I hope you found it insightful.

Now I’d like to hear from you….

What’s your experience with hosting webinars? Have you ever tried any of the above webinar platforms 2020?

And, let me know if you have any other favourites. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

What is the best business plan one could ever plan for? Quality!

Starting an own business with that full passion and self-confidence is the biggest happiness a person could ever hold onto, but sustaining in the competitive world can be quite complicated. As soon as you start a business you cannot expect instant success, you will, in turn, have to go through a lot of trials and temptations to lead yourself into the path of success.

You would not believe that 50% of the startup businesses will fail in the first five years! The often-related problems are fraud, neglect, lack of experience, lack of management and lack of incompetence.

Usually, the goal of every startup is an experiment, discover and sustain a place in the market as their vision says. Every single hour, minute and second in the present acknowledgeable world thousands and millions of new brands are being launched in the market. The new products being launched needs to have a separate, unique identity for it to stand out with long-standing companies and with millions of marketing campaigns. Good market research along with a SWOT analysis would play an advantageous role for the startups.

The only outgoing hope of being successful in the market is to be than the old business that already exists, otherwise, a good profit can not be anticipated. For example, if you own a startup (booking site) you will always have your plans made in a lean budget, which means that you will have your entire process engaged and made out the most with a limited range of finance.

Did You Know: 70% of new entrepreneurs to start their own business possibly developed their idea from company’s while they were working under someone else.

In a matter of fact, our current life is dependent on the internet & technology where we rely on the internet with whatever questions or answers we are looking for. Since the internet has enabled businesses to interact with their targeted audience in real-time, digital marketing has been taking over the world for centuries which will never fade away but increase in no time!

Here are the topmost reasons why a startup needs the help of digital marketing to sustain itself in the market. Let us take a decent look at why it is necessary.

A start-up needs marketing to reach its targeted audiences. When compared to traditional marketing digital marketing can be done at a much lower cost. For instance, it can cost thousands of dollars to make prints and television advertisements, while an online advertisement may cost only a few hundred dollars giving an expected outcome. Blogs are playing a vital role in the digital world making thousands of readers for the cost of producing articles and paying to create a server.

Lower Cost:

Did you know: Businesses that blog 20 times or more per month get 5x more traffic than those who blog 4 times or less per month.

To connect with your customers more controversially, you need to be publishing blogs that will benefit you to connect with your customers. With active comment sections, you will be able to know your visitors and their response to your brand, whereas you will be able to respond quickly, targeting your audiences through high quality, relevant contents.

Digital marketing is the gateway that allows startups to reach new clients and incubate relationships with customers by taking away the traditional cost of marketing.

”A brand is no longer what we tell consumers, it is what consumers tell each other.”

Social Media The King:

If you want to stay synced, updated and connected with your customers, then social media is the latest trend in marketing you can not possibly ignore. If you are a business existing already with a huge fan base then, you can tweet or post on Facebook where your message will instantly be reached to thousands of users around the world.

For example, if you are selling a software product, social media can keep them updated and informed about the newest upcoming updates and releases. Also, helping you to find new customers, educate your customers who already exist and keep them on track. It is important that startups quickly adjust to the changes in social media before they become dead.

The world of digital marketing compromises assets like bookmarking, content marketing, videos, SEM, and a lot more. However, a startup should always keep in mind to only invest in tools and platforms that make sense to their business.

 Content is King:

”Good content is not storytelling. It is telling your story well.”

The quote simply defines that content is everything, which directly means the better your content is, the more time your customers will spend time on your site. This will make them more interested, keep them on track and give them opportunities to become familiar with your brand. Therefore, this will automatically generate a huge conversion rate. It is always a great thing if your visitors stay for a longer period on your website, which can be lead by great content.

Content does not have to necessarily be in the form of a blog. It can be in the form of GIFs, webinars, memes, infographics & images, these all can be part of the startup content strategy. A company’s online content can be something that is even liked or shared.

 

Each share that is made in social media is counted as free advertising and new successful ways to get new prospective clients for the new business. When people go through your content, they will be imagining an impression of your brand’s presence. In case, if they find it helpful for them, then a trusted entity will be formed for your startup. Hopefully giving your brand an enlighten making them think highly of your brand.

 Increasing Web Traffic:

 

What is the most important thing a website needs to be a success story?

Traffic, traffic, and traffic!

Eventually, more traffic means more revenue. Entrepreneurs need good website recognition to grow their startup and develop it further. Hence, more traffic means more brand awareness and good exposure to your website. Some business owners engage in SEO so that they could boost their credibility, visibility, and authority, to generate organic traffic. More website organic traffic than paid traffic can help your business to expand its revenue in the long run. Helping it with hiring new employees, offerings, ideas, and locations.

Apart from this, some startup owners invest in PPC advertising. This helps them to increase their leads to their website. The preferred method you use depends on your businesses need. By looking at the PPC benchmark you will see a good knowledge about your investment and leads who are interested in making a deal with you.

Even though a PPC might bring you a few leads, it cannot simply be the main source of lead generation. A few years ago, PPC advertisements were the main source of advertisement conducted by online marketing. Today, this method has gone out of use and has a far lower impact than the current marketing methods that are being used. Paid advertisements are being so-called in use for promotions than educational ones.

Maturing with the right digital marketing approach:

• PPC campaigns
• Video Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Social, media marketing
• Creating a website
• Search engine optimization

Start-ups can use the above elements apart from the different methods available in the digital world. For a startup, planning has to be carefully focused. When creating a strategy, you have to make your approach carefully. Since emails, advertisements and contents are integrated into each other. From creating a website to posting a post on social media, all the techniques have to be carefully planned and executed.

For a startup operating in a lean budget, SEO needs to be effective. The backlinks acquired from other websites, social media or blogs will help generate more traffic. Each backlink is a clear indicator that a third-party website found on your website to be interesting or useful for them.

At the end of the result, a page with more backlinks will get its page ranked high compared to the pages with no backlinks. Digital marketing will help start-ups identify which preferred products and services should be created to match a customer need.

Final Considerations:

Making a name for themselves and competing against businesses that already exist in the market can be a difficult challenge for a startup. However, with the help of digital marketing, you will be given the opportunity of a wide success story in the long run, even with the ongoing competition.

As soon as your startup is formed, digital marketing needs to be done so that you will be able to reach your customers, convert your leads into sales, and increase your conversion rate. Since technology is rapidly making its growth in the 21st century, and you are at your early stage, remember that building brand and creating great content should be perfect.

Up above, I have summarized, the main key importance of digital marketing for a startup, in short, hope this blog may benefit your startup. Since a startup will essentially face its ups and downs during the first 5 years of its business. Always begin your startup with digital marketing! Feel free to leave your discussions down below in the comment section as I’m looking forward to your ideas too. I bet you will have something more interesting to talk about!

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow is a special day 🙂 Yes, it’s our 8th Anniversary 🙂

Unbelievable! How time flies. It only feels like yesterday when I was walking down an old apartment corridor on a mission to rent a small, dusty room, which would later give birth to such a beautiful company – Prime One Global. It only feels like yesterday! But, it’s been Eight Years. Eight beautiful, incredible, challenging years.

There haven’t been many constants in my life –  The beloved partners, stakeholders, members of staff, family, friends, and well-wishers. Starting from my first day of the vision, when I stepped into the world of Digital Marketing as an aspiring Entrepreneur, when I was deeply in debt, and I had no idea where to start, from the first five-dollar I earned after a tiresome day of Link Building (thank you for being with me still, you know who you are), to the incredible milestones of 2012, 2014, and 2015 where we completed 12000, 24000 and 40000+ Digital Marketing Campaigns respectively, you all have been there. And, I for one, am grateful that you have been a part of this Journey – Our Journey.

You have been there too in the darkest of times, when I faced lots of obstacles, I felt alone at times, and I am thankful for your presence. All our achievements would never have been possible without the beloved Prime One Global Family, friends Partners, Clients, Stakeholders, and every other person who is even remotely associated with us.

All through this journey, we have had to bid farewell to a few valued members of our team and friends, but we have also teamed up with a new, more energetic, enthusiastic army of individuals this year. No matter how much we expand, how many milestones we achieve, we at Prime One Global will be grateful to every individual who has been a part of our company. As I always say, we are what we are because of everyone who has had faith in our vision and the trust they have put in our company.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to our 8th Year Anniversary Celebrations of Prime One Global, where there will be lots of fun and entertainment and some mysteries to be unraveled.

Thank you all,
Sharanyan Sharma
Co-Worker @ Prime One Global

We are pleased to announce that we are the winners of Promotion World’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2015.

With over 5500+ votes cast across myriad categories, The Reader’s Choice Awards are a flawless indicator of a company’s influence in its genre of excellence. We are grateful for being able to work in such a positive community, with like-minded employees and comforting clientele that have supported us in every hurdle we faced.

Kokul Krishnan, The new CEO of primeone.global, said, “Another medal on our chest, a milestone in our journal that we have set our eyes on for the last five years, and many more years to come. It is such an honor to be nominated as the best Digital Marketing Agency of 2015. We have been in business since 2008, and since our inception, we have endeavored to create a company where the employees are eager to come to work and contribute enthusiastically. We are thankful to all our friends, family members, partners, stakeholders and clients for their unwavering support and loyalty towards Prime One Global. This success is just one of the many we aim to conquer under the shade of your love and guidance.”

This is not merely an award for us. It is the emblem of our drive to build a ground-breaking and ever-growing market of services in a highly competitive business environment. We will strive to improve ourselves over the coming years and deliver even better and realistic results for our clients. Results, which will boast of better returns on every dollar they choose to spend on Digital Marketing.

With new trends and technological advancements in the Marketing Industry, the likes of content marketing, retargeting, pay per click, mobile adoption, and video marketing all pacing ahead into 2016, the marketing landscape is ever-changing and it requires companies to rapidly evolve according to its dynamism. It is vital for all Marketing and Ad Agencies to embrace the change and stay update with best practices, hunt new opportunities and take calculated risks to stay ahead of the game. This cannot be simply achieved by looking for clients and dispersing services, but by being actively involved in the community through video outreach, guest speaking, blogging, seminars, webinars or teaching. Our ultimate motive in 2016 would be to become an even more active participant in the Marketing Community than last year.

Shan Dilan (Director of Operations) exclaimed, “A massive round of applause to all my colleagues, back-office staffs and Mr. Sharanyan for making this victory possible for us four years in a row. Yes! For all of you who are unaware or have joined our company recently, we have won Reader’s Choice Award of 2013, 2014, 2015 and this year, we have done it again! Thanks to all our clients and partners as your unbiased feedback and unfaltering support have helped us live up to our own expectations.”

Our devotion to quality and client satisfaction has led us to many awards winning moments, all of which have earned us high honors in the Digital Marketing Industry. As a fastest growing Digital Marketing Agency, We’ve won quite a few awards for accomplishments in entrepreneurship, search engine optimization, social media management, and web design. We have already set Reader’s Choice Award of 2016 in our future milestones because we know for sure, the best of us is yet to be seen.

The team at Prime One Global LLC would like to give a big thank you to everyone that voted for us in The Promotion Readers Choice Award. We are voted as the Internet’s favorite Digital Marketing Firm of 2015.

7th Anniversary Invitation Letter

 

Dear Colleagues,

September 17^th, 2015 marks the date that Prime One Global will be celebrating seven triumphant years in the Digital Marketing Industry.

The last seven years have flown by, and it seems like only yesterday when I was walking down an old apartment corridor on a mission to rent a small, dusty room, which would later give birth to such a beautiful company.

Your Past Has given you the Strength and wisdom you have Today, So Celebrate it. Don’t Let it Haunt You.

I feel elated, very excited, my heart is content. Out of words to describe how far our company has come ever since its beginning in 2008. We have won many awards, reached uncountable milestones, and have backed the success of over 40,000+ successful digital marketing campaigns Worldwide to date. But, all this would have never been possible without our beloved Prime One Global family members, Friends, Partners, Clients, Stakeholders, and every other person who is associated with us.

Whilst we have had to bid goodbye to a few valued members of our team and friends, we have also acquired an army of nascent talent to help multiply our family this year. No matter how big our company becomes, we will forever be grateful to every person who has been a part of our company for even a short span of time. We are, what we are because of everyone who has had faith in our vision and trusted our company for their Digital Marketing requirements.

With a deep feeling of nostalgia, I am really excited to invite you all to our 7^th Year Anniversary Celebrations of Prime One Global LLC.

Thanking You,

Regards,
Sharanyan Sharma
Founder of Prime One Global LLC.

The Webmasters Guide To Survival On The Internet Post #Mobilegeddon Era (21st April 2015)

 

———————————————————————STOP PROCRASTINATING!—————————-——————————————

If you are reading this blog right now, then chances are that you have a website(s) or you are responsible for the online presence of your company/client’s websites. Back in February, Google announced an upcoming update that will take the Internet by storm. This update will target websites that are not fit for mobile viewing – So if your website is not mobile-friendly (now is the time to take action). Here is all the information and resources that you might need to make your website “Google Quality Compliant,” when the clock ticks into 21^st April 2015. Make it or you will break it! No puns intended.

 Contents:

1. What is Mobilegeddon?

2. Scope of the Update

3. Why did Google Take This Move? (Trend Analysis)

4. Estimating Your Present Mobile Traffic with GA

5. How to Avoid Getting Bitten By Google Mice?

6. Detailed Checklist of Things to do

7. Print-ready Checklist

8. Comprehensive List of Resources for Mobile-fixing

9. Verdict

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#1 What Is Mobilegeddon?

The trend of mobile surfing has seen such an upward slope since the past few years that come 2016 – 60% of people who will surf the internet, will do so from their mobile phones and other portable devices. If you are not aware of what I am talking about, then you can check your Google Analytics to see how much mobile traffic your website is experiencing. Even without looking at it, I can state that any website today will at least be getting 30% of its user base from people surfing through portable devices. And it is safe to conclude that if your website is not user-friendly, you may be losing out on tons of cashing opportunities.

Mobilegeddon – is an informal term coined by SearchEngineLand in March 2015, to spread awareness about the impending Google epidemic that’s going to hit the web in April. Through this update, Google is going to give more importance to websites that are mobile-friendly, which means better rankings for responsive and user-friendly websites.

NO-MATTER HOW CLEAN YOUR BACKLINK PROFILE IS AND NO MATTER WHAT THE QUALITY OF THE CONTENT ON YOUR WEBSITE – IF YOU HAVE NOT TAKEN ANY MEASURES TO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE MOBILE-FRIENDLY – THIS ONE IS GOING TO HURT YOUR BUSINESS, IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.

On 21^st April, Google will unleash the Algorithm which is going to scan each and every website on the web, and drop those websites from mobile SERPs if they are not “mobile-friendly.”

So what does mobile friendly actually mean?

In technical terms, “mobile friendly” demand websites to size their content to the viewport of a user and encompasses everything even remotely related to responsive designing. Speaking in layman’s terms – it basically means that if a user has to scale your website down to viewable size on mobile-devices (apparently because the desktop version of your website is opening on their mobile). Then your website is not “mobile friendly” or “mobile ready.”

Keeping up so far? Don’t be morose if you are not prepared for it. There are still a few days to go and you can work a solution these days!

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#2 Scope of Mobilegeddon

This update is going to be Larger than PANDA!

THIS UPDATE IS GOING TO BE LARGER THAN PENGUIN!

ZinebAitBahajji – a renowned member of Google’s Webmaster Trends Team quoted at SMX Munich that this upcoming mobile-friendly update from Google is going to impact the search engine ranking of even more websites than what the Penguin and Panda have done in the past.

Let me give you a clear view of this scene – if you are still confused.

[blockquote photo=”” author=”” company=”(Panda 4.0) SearchEngineJournal 21^st May 2014″ link=”http://www.searchenginejournal.com/hit-hardest-panda-4-0-answer-may-surprise/106461/” target=”_blank”]The past 24 hours have been a wild time for those who either work in, or follow the field of SEO. Google confirmed the rollout of two major updates, one of which was Panda 4.0, an update projected to impact roughly 7.5% of english search queries.[/blockquote]

[blockquote photo=”” author=”” company=”(Penguin 3.0) SearchEngineLand 11^th Dec 2014″ link=”http://searchengineland.com/google-algorithm-changes-210285″ target=”_blank”]“I believe that the indisputable truth about Google’s updates belongs to Google only, and for all that we know, Penguin 3.0 impacted less than 1% of the English language queries. However, as with anything related to SEO, we can only take what we have and work ourselves out of the dark.” [/blockquote]

–

As you may be aware off, Google has its very inconspicuous ways of shedding light on its upcoming Algorithms. But, from whatever information it has given out on the Webmaster’s blog, the Internet is brimming with speculations as to how the update will impact websites and what measures can be taken to avoid it.

We are still unclear about what other factors would Google be looking out for during this update, and it is impossible to claim how drastically these factors will be able to change the website’s search visibility. From what Zineb commented at SMX, we can safely conclude that most of the non-optimized websites will be taking a blow from the ‘Google Mice’ a.k.a Armageddon … oops Mobilegeddon.

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#3 Why Did Google Make This Move? Trend Analysis. 

Statistics show that more than 60% of the searches performed on Google are now executed on mobile devices – so this only helps emphasize Google’s motive to take advantage of this traffic to ensure the best user experience for web surfers.

Let me explain the scenario better with the help of a few graphs. (Courtesy to ComScore.com for aggregating this data based on U.S. Demographics). This information is priceless.

In addition to the upcoming algo, Google has already started rolling out some ranking changes that are based on information collected from indexed applications of Signed-in users. Though this appears to be a small change, it will have a large impact on the way search results are displayed on Google. Businesses that are really catering well to their mobile users will have the best benefits from Google this time.

ICE BREAKER

There was a short Q&A round with Gary Illyes (Google Webmaster), in which he revealed quite some information to break the ice, on what we can expect from Mobilegeddon.

1. Responsive websites will not experience any major benefits in ranking.
2. Googlebot must be able to crawl CSS and Java in order to pass the upcoming mobile-friendly test.
3. Tablets and larger devices will not be affected by this update. Only mobiles and feature phones will.
4. Google is presently working on making a dedicated mobile index – Crazy isn’t it?

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#4 How to estimate your present mobile traffic? Google Analytics.

In order to understand how much traffic you could possibly lose from Mobilegeddon, it is important to understand how much organic mobile traffic are you actually getting?

If you do not know how to check your present Mobile traffic from Google, it’s fairly simple. All you have to do is log into your Google Analytics account:

1. Click on Reporting on the Top Bar.
2. Select Mobile under Audience in the Sidebar.
3. Click on Overview.

Tada, you have all the mobile traffic information that you could possibly want.

So, once you are inside your Google Analytics, you can scrutinize the number of visitors that you are getting from mobile phones every month. Observe the image below, the upward shift in organic mobile visits is a clear signal of the increased use of mobile phones for surfing the web.

—

I am dealing with hundreds of websites every month, and 90% of this kind of upward slope is common for all these websites. This trend is so obvious, that I call in on some of my careless and lazy clients to observe their mobile trends and act accordingly in order to stay ahead of the competition all the time.

Why should you only optimize for mobile because of the oncoming Google update? Isn’t the whole idea already beneficial without having to take #mobilegeddon as a catalyst to fuel your interest?

So by studying the number of visitors your website is experiencing day after day, month after month – you can clearly estimate the number of visitors you may end up losing if your website is not effectively and timely optimized.

Here is a neat Case Study – Search Engine Land conducted on Moz.com to explain the process of estimating Mobile Traffic for a website that you do not own.

Say hello to “Mobile-friendly” Tags

If you haven’t noticed this before, take out your smartphones and type any keyword into Google. You will notice that most of the first page entries have a “Mobile-Friendly” tag attached to them.

Just for the fun of it, I performed a quick search on Google with my Mi4 (Awesome Phone – !@$%Missing affiliate link). The keyword I selected is “Music Quotes” and here is a partial print-screen of the results.

Now you may notice that the first 2 results have a Mobile-friendly Tag, but the 3^rd and 4^th results don’t have a “Mobile-friendly tag.” Come 21^st April, 2015 – I can say that these websites are going to be in trouble because they have not been optimized for mobile usability. (You can also keep it as a test and check on these websites when the day comes)

Write down the keyword – “music quotes”

Website No1 in trouble – quotegarden.com

Website No2 in trouble – musicmasterclass.com

Or do this experiment with a number of websites selecting a keyword from your industry.

Now, I am not saying that the first 2 websites are completely safe and prepared to face the upcoming update. But they may as well be in trouble for their other pages – You never know.

What you can do is, perform a few Google searches which your website is already ranking for and check if your website is getting the “Mobile Friendly Tag.”

Don’t just check your homepage, search “keywords” that display your Inner pages in the SERPs and see if you are still getting the “Mobile Friendly Tag.”

Perform the same check for your competitors and see if their pages are getting the “Mobile Friendly Tag.”

If they are and you are not, then you better buckle up your seat belts as they will get a massive advantage over you after 21^st April, which they will enjoy for quite a long period of time. And if it’s the case vice versa, then Congratulations! You are prepared for the post #mobilemadness days.

Don’t just stop after you see the “Mobile Friendly Tag” for your website in the Google SERPs.  This detailed guide will give you a clear view edge over your competition for many more days to come. There is lots of work to be done and there are only a few days – so keep reading!

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#5 How Can You Avoid Getting Bitten By Google Mice This Time?

Before we jump into the Checklist of how to make your website mobile friendly, it is wise to brush along the sides of the subject (just the way Google like’s it).

1. Allow Googlebot to access the JavaScript, CSS and Images files of your website.
2. Don’t use any kind of unplayable content – Especially Flash.
3. Avoid Faulty Re-directs. This can happen when you inappropriately redirect your desktop URLs to Mobile URLs.
4. Don’t harass users by blocking them from viewing content with too many intrusive download links and messages or advertisements.
5. Avoid cross-linking blunders. This can happen if you have multiple versions of the website and you redirect users to the wrong mirror page.
6. Enhance your mobile site speed with Google PageSpeed Insights.

 This is just the way Google likes it. Now head over to my all encompassing Checklist of To-Do things to dodge the April 21^st Update and prepare your online business for the future.

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 #6 Checklist for Mobile Friendly Website (~Avoid Google Nerf)

With Mobilegeddon on the loop, and not many days for it set the Internet crazy – Here is my detailed checklist of things that you must take into consideration if you are a website owner or are responsible for the good health of your organization’s website.

Look at the image above, this is a screenshot from the Google Analytics of Prime One Global. You can clearly see that we receive a steady inflow of footfalls through organic mobile search. Now, if we were to ignore this figure and not bother about mobile optimization before the 21^st of April – you could call us sheer foolish (but, thankfully it is not the case as we are already up and ready, and we help others optimize their websites too).

You can be a designer, developer or another SEO company, or even someone managing a website, and this detailed checklist will help you with making your website mobile friendly. So even if you are in the website development phase or are planning to design one in the future – you can use this checklist to make your website Mobilegeddon safe.

1. GOOGLE QUALITY COMPLIANCE CHECK

With all the #mobilemadness #mobilegeddon hype on the web, it is easy to get swayed and puzzled about what you should do to make your mobile, website friendly, err… website – mobile friendly before the 21^st of April. Before you even jump into the nitty-gritty of mobile optimization it would be wise to check if your website is already “As mobile friendly as Google wants it to be.”

Check the individual pages of your website with Google’s Mobile Friendly Test Tool, which will help you with detailed information regarding optimizing your website. And if most of the pages of your website are passing the test without a twitch, you can be rest assured that nothing too dramatic is going to happen to your online presence after the onset of 21^st April 2015.

With this said and done, you can also read what the search giant has to say about mobile optimization in their Webmaster’s blog. There is another useful read which Google published back in November last year about helping users find Mobile friendly websites.

2. Determining your INVESTMENTS AND RETURNS

If you are reading this checklist, then most probably you did not pass the Google Mobile Friendly Test or you are just hunting for more information. Planning to optimize your website for mobile can call in for an enormous investment, especially because the algorithm in question is going to do a full-site scan and not just a site-wide scan. Even if you are ready to go all-in on mobile optimization it is crucial to determine the amount of investment you need to make – both in terms of money and resources. Don’t rush to a conclusion – Plan your moves and execute them one by one, to reap the best benefits in the long run.

It’s important to understand how much organic traffic you are presently experiencing from search engines. If you haven’t done this yet, now would be the ideal time to log into your Google Analytics (I hope you have integrated your website(s) with GA) and determine whether there has been an upward shift in the amount of traffic you have been receiving in the past few months. If you notice that your business is receiving less than 10% traffic through mobile devices, it could mean one of the following things:

1. Your website has poor SEO, which is resulting in poor organic traffic.

or

     2. Your website has poor Mobile Optimization and that is why it’s receiving less traffic.

or

     3. your business model doesn’t call for mobile viewers (9  out of 10 times this will not be the case)

Now if you are already experiencing very little traffic from mobile, I would suggest taking the slower route for this process as you may have more time than you really think.

But.

Let’s say, 30-50% of your organic traffic is from mobile phones, it calls for a faster and effective mobile strategy implementation.

How do you determine what amount of money and resources to invest?

The safest bet would be to allocate the same amount of money and resources that are available to you, to equal the share of mobile to desktop traffic that your website has been experiencing over the past few months.

3. BUILDING A MOBILE APP TO ENHANCE USER EXPERIENCE

Even though Google introduced the App indexing feature to display applications in search results back in October 2013, it’s still a powerful way of enhancing the overall user experience of your brand.

It is not rocket science, we know that Google is driving these updates with a strict motive to give users the best search experience possible – Thus, if your business model can support an App for the users, it would be one of the best times to plan this out.

You may be wondering how on earth will you plan and execute an App development campaign before the 21^st of April. Well, you don’t need to hurry about this; you can take your time and scale this into one of your marketing projects for the future.

Obviously, everything boils down to your capacity to invest/allocate (money and resources) at the moment, but again – you can keep this in mind for the future.

4. RESPONSIVE / DYNAMIC / PARALLEL

There are rumors that Google loves Responsive designs more than Dynamic URL Segmentation or Parallel URLs, but this is completely untrue. I have run quite a few tests in the past weeks, especially after Google’s  Feb 4^th Update, and I can assure you that if your website is mobile-friendly there is nothing to worry about.

If you are unaware of which configuration option you should select for your website, then here is a description for a clear view:

1. Responsive Design: This configuration serves the same content to desktop, mobile, and tablets by using CSS3 elements. So, the contents of your website will automatically resize for perfect display according to the device it is being viewed on. This configuration is the best because there is no duplication of content and there is no need to handle multiple mirrors of the same content. You just have to manage one single website. The only disadvantage of this configuration is that you cannot segregate Mobile only content nor have different content for different platforms.
2. Dynamic / Adaptive Design: This option is almost the same as responsive design as you will be working on a single URL but, different HTML and CSS codes will be presented to users depending on the device they are viewing your website from. The only con of this configuration is that you will have to re-write the code of your website every time a new mobile device is released.
3. Parallel URL Websites: Even though this is one of the most strenuous of all the options available, it still has its perks for those websites which need to laser focus on the mobile experience of their visitors. Opting for a Parallel URL website is like having a separate subdomain for example (m.yourwebsite.com or mobile.yourwebsite.com). Its cons include having to manage the mirror image of your website and dealing with duplicate content etc. Every time your website is updated, the changes have to be reflected in the other domain as well.

5. USING USER INTENT FOR ENHANCED VISIBILITY

It is not an unknown fact that most of the searches that are performed on the move are done via mobile phones and other hybrid devices. According to research, more than 80% of the searches performed on mobile are with local intent.

This means that people are most often looking for local addresses, telephone numbers, stock availability, and other business-related information via mobile phone. With this in mind, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do customers come to my shop or office?
2. Do I have a helpline to deal with customer inquiries?
3. Do I sell goods and services that have the tendency to out-stock?

The answer to all these questions will mostly be a yes, and thus it may be a crucial business booster if you can place your Contact and Stock Information like (Map, Address, Contact Numbers, Email Id, etc) before the other information on your website, it will greatly boost conversions of your mobile site.

6. CREATE A MOCKUP FOR YOUR MOBILE WEBSITE

Before you jumpstart your mobile optimizing or website development journey, it is crucial to have a simple mockup of what you would like your website to look like in the end. You can use different mockup creation tools like Adobe In-design, Photoshop, etc., but just don’t trade the comfort of your users for elements that make your website too heavy to load or don’t appear properly on all devices.

Also take into consideration that some of the aspects of your desktop website will be difficult to convert to a mobile version, for example, the navigation menus or mouse hover menu reveals. These features never adapt to mobile websites, so you must look for better alternatives. Now let’s take a detailed look at the creation of your mobile website wire-frame.

i. Development: Remember to put the meta viewport tag on top of all your pages. If you took time out with the Google Mobile-Friendly Test Tool, then you must have already fixed this up.

ii. Readable Fonts: Is your content legible for mobile viewing? If viewers have to constantly pinch the screen to change the size of your font, this does come as an obstruction in fluid visibility. Google recommends 16 CSS pixels and a line height of 1.2em.

iii. Distance Between Touch Elements: Ensure that all touch elements of your website have a considerable gap between them, or users may end up clicking the wrong button. This is the primary cause of increased bounce rates, low sales, and possible frustration or agitation among mobile surfers. Make sure that your Call-to-action button is clearly visible and accessible on all devices. You can also check if Google has picked any element of your website for being inaccessible in the Mobile Usability section of GWT.

7. AVOID HORIZONTAL SCROLLING IN MOBILE SITE

Even though this one is obvious, it wouldn’t hurt to have it in the checklist. Mobile surfers are used to vertical scrolling to view hidden aspects of a website, but if users have to scroll horizontally to read between the different sections of your website, then it may cause problems in user experience as they will mostly have to pinch the screen to resize it for a complete view.

This problem is also easily traceable through the Google Webmasters Tool.

NOTE: You can avoid getting this error in GWT by using relative width and position values in the CSS and also making sure your images are scaled properly.

8. OPTIMIZE FOR FASTER PAGE LOADING ON MOBILE

Again, this is a no-brainer.  The user’s type of device and data connectivity also plays an important part in the mobile surfing experience. Even though the world is blessed with 4G connectivity, more than 60% of people who are surfing the internet, do so through 3G connections. You wouldn’t want to properly optimize your website in all aspects and then lose out on precious leads or sales because your website was not able to load completely on slower devices, would you? There are variable controls that can be tweaked to achieve the best results but the first thing you should do is to head over to Google Page Speed Insights Tool to see what Google says about your website load time.

NOTE: You can do things like compressing images, minifying codes, and leveraging browser codes to enhance the load speed of your website(s).

9. AVOID FLASH AND DON’T BLOCK CSS, JAVASCRIPT, AND IMAGES FROM GOOGLEBOT

If you are using any flash elements on your website, now would be the time to get them removed. HTML5 is one of the best alternatives to flash elements on a website. We say that flash is not good for the mobile experience because Flash is not readily available on all mobile devices. Due to this, it may cause an erroneous mobile viewing experience for your users.

And the first thing that Googlebot will check when it crawls your website is for blocked CSS, JavaScript, or images. If it finds that any of these elements are blocked from crawling, then it will mark your website as “not-mobile-friendly.”

10. DISPLAY RELEVANT KEYPAD FOR FORM FIELDS

This is one of the most overlooked factors when it comes to mobile optimization and I have personally seen a 30% growth in opt-ins and leads from mobile visitors, when websites optimized their forms do display the right keypads. Check out your existing forms and see what the users will have to fill in separate fields. Check if the respective fields are displaying a relevant keypad. Having a ‘number keypad’ displayed in the contact number field and an ‘email-keypad’ displayed in the email form field will greatly enhance the mobile experience or your viewers and is worth tweaking.

11. CONTACT NUMBERS TO OPEN IN DIALER APP

My dad is not aware of how to copy and paste things on mobile phones and so are the majority of the people in this world. You must take this into consideration when optimizing your website for mobile because having to copy the number and paste it in the dialer or even write it down on a piece of paper makes the whole process cumbersome and messy. Sometimes, it may even result in people leaving your website without contacting you. Ensuring that clicking on your contact number opens the dialer app will get you those visitors who might be stuck on the fence just because they are unable to call you without leaving the screen or memorizing your number just to forget the last few digits when they are frantically typing into the dialer pad. Think about it.

12. HAVE YOUR WEBSITE TESTED INHOUSE OR HIRE PEOPLE

During the development phase of your website, it might be a good idea to constantly see how well it is performing on variable devices. This can be done through various emulators available online or you can manually do it on various devices (Borrow from your colleagues or family members).

Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, both have this nice ‘Inspect Element’ feature that lets you view your devices as seen by other devices – This is a very handy feature that I sometimes overuse.

Alternatively, you can also hire a bunch of testers or even organize an in-house event where the members are asked to surf your website in various mobile devices and give their inputs after 10-15 minutes of wading through your pages.

After the demo run, you can the testers to pen their individual feedback and collate them later on to pick up bits and pieces that need enhancing. Sometimes, it is just better to have someone else analyze your website because they will only think from a user’s perspective and tell you very obvious things that you may overlook, just because your brain is clustered with lots of plans and ideas.

Ending Note 

This is my all-encompassing checklist of website mobile optimization. I have helped a lot of my clients cope up with their mobile optimization needs, so if you need any help you can always ask for assistance on the Facebook Page or even in the comment section below. If you have any questions or want me to add something to this checklist, again, the comment section is a few blocks away.

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 #7 Print Ready Extreme Checklist for Mobilegeddon

Here is the download link to the print-ready version of this checklist for your convenience. Don’t forget to pin this checklist if you found it useful.

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#8 List Of Useful Links And Resources Related To Mobilegeddon!

1. Google Algorithm Database – List of all Algorithms updated will date.
2. Google App Indexing Service – Want to get your app featured in SERPS? This is the door.
3. Google Mobile Friendly Website Guidelines – Self Explanatory
4. Google Mobile Friendly Test Tool – Check if your individual pages are mobile friendly.
5. Google Mobile Usability Report – Get instant reports on mobile usability issues.
6. Google Webmaster’s Help Forum – Ask Google for help!

Here is a list of Big G’s Guidelines for optimizing various leading CMS or similar platforms:

1. WordPress
2. Joomla!
3. Drupal
4. Blogger
5. vBulletin
6. Tumblr
7. DataLife Engine
8. Magento
9. Prestashop
10. Bitrix
11. Google Sites

Here is a list of guides that can be used to change your not-so-responsive website into a “Responsive website.”

1. Design a Skeleton Website
2. Bootstrap Website Downloads : CSS/Java/Fonts + Source Code Rails/Compass/Sass
3. Responsive Grid System Website Toolkit
4. Advanced Responsive Website Designing Tutorial – Advanced HTML and CSS.

Extra Resources:

1. List of different options for mobile navigation menus.
2. Mashable’s list of top online wireframing tools.

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In the end, it depends on what your website is focused on and what business models you are following. There are a few things however that need no excuse not to be followed and doing the basic mobile optimization checks is one of them – After all, who doesn’t like an extra influx of visitors from mobile phones.

Unless you are from the underworld, in which case you will be using the .htaccess file – a few people will get what I mean and #5MinutesOfSilence for the people who don’t. Haha.

My apologies for such a lengthy post, but again I love to keep all the information in a single file so that you don’t have to run around from blog to blog, hunting for more information. If you like what I write or if you have any suggestions or need help regarding Mobile Website Optimization, you can also shoot a comment below or contact me at our official Facebook page and I will get back to you at the earliest. Hope you found this Guide helpful. Have a Good day! 

Facebook has attained the coveted dominant position that makes it the most popular and indispensable part of not only our social networking but also our business. It has become a rage since its inception in 2004. Nowadays, if you are not on Facebook, you are probably non-existent in the virtual world.

” 654 million people use Facebook on mobile on a daily basis, an increase from 609 million last quarter. “

If you are using this social media giant for your business, here are some interesting Facebook facts that will help you know and use it in a far better way. Facebook did have a humble beginning, and its dramatic rise is not without some downsides. There are facts that state Facebook’s negative effect on its users. However, the compelling effect of Facebook on social networking is more powerful than its flipside making it the first choice to socialize as well as market one’s business online.

 

#1.  Are you aware of the Huge User Base of Facebook?

Facebook now has close to 350 million active users, with approximately 35 of these updating their status every day. 63% of users log on to Facebook daily. A majority of this access the network from their smartphones.

Statistics reveal that users log in close to 14 times during a day from their mobiles. On average, a user has 130 friends and sends 8 friend requests every month. Statistics reveal that there is approximately a 3.74 degree of separation between any two Facebook users.

Every minute around 2.5 million photos are being uploaded onto Facebook and close to 4.5 billion ‘likes’ are being generated on a daily basis as of May 2013, equating to 1.8 million ‘likes’ every minute. Every second five new profiles are being created on Facebook.

#2.  Are There Fake Accounts? Yes, at least 83 Million Fake Accounts

Yes, there are facebook fake accounts. About 8.7% of users on Facebook are fake profiles and the total of fake profiles reaches 83 million. Surprisingly, there are even accounts of dead people, accounting for close to 30 million! Also, do you know that approximately 600,000 attempts to hack Facebook accounts are made every day?

#3.  What Is The Best Time To Reach An Extended Audience?

The maximum traffic on Facebook happens around 1 pm to 3 pm midweek, with Thursdays and Fridays having 18% higher engagements compared to other days of the week. Also, the common age group is from 25 to 34 years, making up 29.7% of the overall users. Gender-wise, Facebook is equally popular and frequented by both genders, with 53% users being females and 47% being males. 50% of youngsters of the age bracket 18 to 24 years usually log on to Facebook first thing after waking up. Women aged 55 years and older are currently the fastest-growing demographics of Facebook users in the US. You can use these facts to focus on more aggressive marketing strategies during these peak traffic hours and for specific demographics too.

#4.  Want More Data to Judge Facebook’s Growing Popularity?

If the above facts and figures are not enough proof of Facebook’s ever-growing popularity, then the following ones should seal the deal.

• • There are more Facebook users in the US compared to the number of citizens who voted in the last US elections.
  • In Australia, a court notice can be served to defendants on Facebook, and summons posted on Facebook are considered legally binding.

All these figures point to the fact that Facebook has become an inevitable part of our everyday lives and cannot be ignored by businesses trying to establish a footing in the now popular social media domain. Hence we can indeed make a good profit if we can use this site effectively!

#5.  Is Facebook A Boon for Businesses? How Can You Make Profit Using It?

Doing business on Facebook has never been so lucrative. There are about 1.35 million active Facebook users worldwide of which 864 million users logging in daily, thus indicating an increase of 14% over the last year. In Europe alone there are 223 million people who have accounts on Facebook. Interestingly, if Facebook was a country, it would be the fifth-largest, after China, India, the US, and Indonesia. All these figures establish the fact that there is a large active target audience on Facebook. And most of this audience is a consistent audience to various marketing efforts of marketers. Also, as Facebook has a worldwide reach you can catch the attention of not just the US, but reach out globally.

#6.  How Facebook Helps Marketer? Can It Be Termed As A Marketing Heaven?

There are close to 30 million businesses that have a Facebook Page. Close to 1.5 million businesses are now paying for advertising on Facebook. Most of these businesses are paying 122% more per ad unit than they did last year. The sales are impressive – if last quarter’s figures are considered – users purchased goods worth $234 million dollars! Close to 42% of marketers suggest that Facebook is vital and indispensable to their business. However, to make the best use of this site and get maximum profit, you need to market your business in a positive manner and stand out among your competitors. As of May 2013, almost 16 million pages of local businesses have been created as compared to 8 million created in June 2012, indicating a 100% increase. These figures are proof that companies are acknowledging the fact that Facebook users comprise a major chunk of their clients and are thus willing to advertise, as well as create interesting pages to be seen.

#7.  Making Use of Facebook’s Tracking Data in Reaching out to Your Audience

Facebook keeps a track of the sites we visited even after we have logged out. This tracking assists businesses to indulge in intelligent marketing, but only when they get access to the information. Pages will display advertisements in accordance with the type of pages or sites visited by individual users, and thus will help you reaching the interested audience faster.

#8.  Facebook is a Platform to Know and Understand People

Facebook has now become a sort of people search engine and is often used to know people, their likes and dislikes, opinions, etc. Data reveals that people search one billion times in a day on Facebook. This has made Facebook the overall second-ranked site in the US, after Google. A survey of 500 colleges revealed that Facebook accounts were visited by 10% of admission officers to evaluate the applicants seeking admissions. About 38% of these officers acknowledged that what they saw on Facebook affected the applicant’s admission negatively. Even job seekers and prospective marriage suitors are evaluated on Facebook. The police department as well as citizens are resorting to Facebook to nab suspected criminals.

#9.  Facebook’s Role in Helping Businesses to Grow

Facebook and social media craze has also given rise to different types of professionals. There are a lot of consultants who guide businesses on how to tap the market on Facebook, how to launch campaigns on social media networks, and how to advertise. Also, programmers and developers are benefiting from this rage. The number of developers building applications for Facebook is close to 800,000.

#10.  History of Facebook: The Beginning

Are you aware that Facebook had humble beginnings? Mark Zuckerberg, its founder, created Facemash in 2003, where photos of undergraduates were placed beside each other, and visitors to the site could rank which student they found “hotter”. Facemash eventually turned into the now universally known Facebook in 2005. In the beginning, Facebook was like a directory of sorts linking all students, faculty alumni, and staff at various colleges and universities through social networks. Initially, Facebook was limited to only Harvard university students but later on added other colleges and universities. Within 6 months of its launch, Facebook had around 200 colleges registered as users. Mark Zuckerberg went on to become the youngest billionaire at the age of 25 with a net worth of $1.5 million. As an aside, if you ever wondered why Facebook is blue, it is because its founder Mark Zuckerberg suffers from color blindness and cannot distinguish between red and green. Another intriguing piece of historical information was that twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss had hired Mark Zuckerberg to program their site ConnectU or Harvard Connect but claimed that he stole their idea. There was a lawsuit that was settled for an undisclosed amount. Mark Zuckerberg’s fellow students such as Aaron Greenspan also made similar claims of having invented Facebook.

#11.  The Facebook to Facebook and Its Role in Ads

By the way, do you know that Facebook was first called Facebook (thefacebook.com)? Right from the beginning, Facebook or Facebook had its media plan chalked out. Eduardo Saverin, Facebook’s CFO, back in 2004, approached advertisers to run standard IAB ads emphasizing the personal data they could access and target audiences by their universities, political inclination, or even dorms or their sexual orientation. Even though at its nascent stage, Eduardo Saverin quoted $80,000 for advertising through Facebook.

Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, was the first person to invest in Facebook in June 2004 and invested $500,000 dollars. Li Hu Shing, East Asia’s richest man, invested in 2005 in Facebook around $120 million dollars. Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm, in May 2009, invested $200 million for a 1.96% stake in the Facebook website. By September 2009, Facebook was making a profit, with Mark Zuckerberg announcing that for the first time Facebook had a positive cash flow and made more money than it spent.

#12.  The Facebook-Myspace Affair

In 2005, MySpace, another popular social network site, sent an offer to buy Facebook but when Mark Zuckerberg quoted a price of US $75 million they rejected the offer thinking it to be too expensive. The tables have turned since then and Facebook not only outnumbered the traffic on MySpace but also American users spend 13.9 billion minutes on Facebook in a year compared to 5 billion minutes on MySpace. Facebook spends approximately US $30 million in a month to just host the site and loses about US $25,000 every minute when the site is down.

One of Facebook’s many quirky facets is that the language can be changed to ‘pirate’ too. Another interesting Facebook fact is that the “like’ button was originally going to be called ‘Awesome’. In 2009, the New Oxford Dictionary declared “unfriend” to be the word of the year and defined it as “to remove someone as a friend on a social networking site”.Even though Facebook boasts of being a gold mine for investors and advertisers, it has had negative impacts on users too.

#13.  What are the Negative Effects of Facebook?

However, this social networking giant has its negative too.  It has led to many negative consequences. For example, people have been murdered after they ‘unfriended’ someone on Facebook. Cases of depression too, with 1 in 3 users feeling low and unsatisfied with their lives post visiting Facebook were in the news. Girls have been predisposed to depression and anxiety by chatting too much with their Facebook friends. Frequently talking about the same problems is called ‘co-rumination and can lead to a serious obsession, which is not healthy. Of the divorces filed in the US in 2011, around a third of them had the word Facebook mentioned.

Facebook has become such an addiction that a man hired a woman to slap him every time he logged onto Facebook. Another bizarre incident is that of a woman in Britain who created fake profiles and sent abusive messages to herself. She was sent to jail for 20 months. In England and Wales, the head of the Catholic Church warned patrons that children could be vulnerable to committing suicide because of Facebook and MySpace, as these sites barbarize community life and encourage fleeting relationships among teens. Facebook also has eating disorder groups named “Get thin or die trying” and “What nourishes me destroys me”, which encourage starving, and since the majority of users are teenagers and young adults such groups influence them negatively.

#14.  Are You Aware Of Issues Like Banning and Misuse?

Since 2009, Facebook along with Twitter and The New York Times have been blocked in China due to its negative influence. The site has also been banned by Syria, Iran, and Vietnam.

The sharing of information, including personal details, on Facebook has been a bane, too. This information has been used without permission by various miscreants. The director of public policy of Facebook, Tim Sparapani, complained that millions of users shared information online without stopping to think about the consequences. Facebook itself is to be blamed for this at some point, as the information assumed to be public (like profile name, display pictures, cities) is available to any Facebook user or to their friends who use any Facebook application. Also in 2009, Facebook’s controversial advertisement system, Beacon that gave out user’s shopping activity information to other sites, was part of a lawsuit. The settlement resulted in Facebook paying $9.5 million towards a settlement fund.

There are also several absurd cases where Facebook has been misused. Lauren Michaels, a 23-year-old woman, in 2008, created a group on Facebook titled “I need sex” and slept with about 50 of the 100-plus members. Since then her page has been removed. An EMT in 2009 took a picture of at the crime scene of a dead New York woman who had been beaten and strangled to death and posted the picture on Facebook. He later faced arrest on charges of official misconduct and was removed from his job. Such facts and cases warn us to use Facebook wisely. It is not its popularity, but the consequences of this popularity that are rather frightening.

#15.  Facebook becomes one of the most powerful Marketing Platform

If you evaluate properly the ratio of active users of Facebook to any other social media, you can notice the big difference! Here are some tips that can help you to better market your business on Facebook:

• • Try to find out if you are marketing at the right time- that is during peak hours!
  • You are targeting the right demographic
  • You are consistent in engaging people and keeping them updated about your business

We are sure you will get better results following the above simple tips. We would appreciate your next query on better marketing on Facebook to get the maximum profit!