Archive: Blogging
SOCIAL SPARK IS LIVE!!!
The first thing I want to say is how proud I am to be working for a company that is on the cutting edge of social media marketing. We have come a long way even in the short time that I have been here. And now the questions about our new product are starting to pour in.
The new Dynamic Pricing has really caused a lot of questions. How does it work? Why does it work that way? Is this better for the advertisers or the bloggers? Well, I will do my best to address all of these issues here. I do have a finance degree so, as Crystal says, that should come in handy!
How Does It Work?
It's simple supply and demand really. If there is more demand than there is supply, the price will change until there is equilibrium. If an Opp seems undesirable because it is offered at a lower price, no Postie will take the Opp. After a certain period of time, the price offered for the Opp will increase until someone takes the Opp. If a bunch of people rush to take the Opp (demand), then the price offered will drop back down. Advertisers choose the range they want to pay for each Opportunity.
Why Does It Work This Way?
We often had Opps that never filled in PayPerPost because they were offering a lower price for harder requirements (high word count, embedded pics, multiple links, etc). Advertisers simply did not know what to offer for certain kinds of Opps. We have added the dynamic pricing feature so that the advertisers will be able to offer a price range for every Opp. Therefore, the dynamic pricing system takes the guesswork out of pricing an Opp. Now, you simply offer a range.
Is This Better for the Advertisers or the Bloggers?
The answer to this question is .... BOTH. IT IS MORE BENEFICIAL TO THE ADVERTISERS AND THE BLOGGERS!!! Advertisers no longer have to worry about overpricing or underpricing an Opp. If it is over-priced, the price will drop to decrease demand. And if it is under-priced, the price will rise to increase demand. Bloggers now can decide if that 300 word Opp with four links and a pic is worth $5.50 to them. Or if it is worth waiting to see if the price will go up. Either way, the Blogger gets paid whatever they reserve the Opp for (as described in <a href="http://community.izea.com/blog/2008/04/dynamic-pricing.html#comments">Carri's Post</a>)
Just Remember: SocialSpark relies on Supply and Demand. If you have any questions about how this works, please send in a ticket by clicking on the 'Help' tab at the top right of your SocialSpark account.
Happy Friday, lovely people!
As part of a new push to enlighten and keep our users informed of all the features and enhancements PayPerPost offers, I'm here to give a little information on FLAGS. As you know, we provide many tools to help you target the best Posties for your campaigns, as well as communication tools to help guide them in the right direction.
So, let's get right to it- FLAGS: What/where are they, what are they for, who gets them, what do they do and how do I see them???
Once you have created an Opportunity and have received submissions to your Opp, you are then able to view the submissions by clicking on the title of your Opp, from the Manage Opportunities page. Then, the next page will show you your Opp's description and segmentation, scroll past it to view the titles of each submitted post.
To the far right of each title is a little green flag. If you notice that the post submitted missed a part of criteria you requested, click the flag and let us know! Flags are handled by the lovely Account Management team, specifically, Crystal. Crystal is a whiz at helping reach out to the Posties that need a little guidance or she can help you reword your description so that your directions are more clearly stated.
Remember, if a post has been manually approved in error, we can certainly reach out to the blogger and ask for the specified changes. If we're unable to reach out to the Postie, we can simply refund the cost of the post, due to our error. Yay! Posts that are auto-approved are still able to be rejected, too.
Note: Flags are answered via the 'View Flags' area of your account, not through the Parature system of support. So, to view your flag responses, click on your 'Account Info' tab, and the 'View Flags' button is under the 'View Bans and Benches Button,' in the middle of the page.
Later today we will be introducing a new blog category that our Posties and Advertisers alike can use. It is 'Autos' (for automotive). You may have noticed we've had several Opportunities in the past that focused on auto supplies, auto insurance, and even purchasing the right car. We also have many Posties with an interest in autos that they share on their blogs.
Now that topic has grown to the point within PayPerPost to need its very own category, and we're happy to bring that to you!
Advertisers, please remember: You don't want to start a new Opportunity right away and select 'autos' as your only category. Posties are getting access to this category at the same time you are, and they can only update their categories once every 30 days. So the Posties will begin using the new category today, but you'll see more and more folks using it in the weeks to come.
For now, it would be a great idea to include a few other categories along with auto if auto is your focus. But as many of you already know - it's often a good idea to include multiple categories. Keep in mind both the Postie who is writing the blog, and the readers who view it!
Thank you!!
Hello All,
I'm the new outside West Coast Sales Director at PPP... and as you can see from the picture below... I did receive a warm welcome! Folks missing from the picture who also made me feel welcome include Dan, Sandi, Joe, and Randy in sales; Jenni, our office manager; Ted Murphy, head honcho; Karen, head of customer love... well come to think of it everyone was quite nice really... so thanks to everyone for a warm welcome!
From Left: Glennis/HR; Kash/Sales; Britt/Marketing.
I'm looking forward to engaging with some great brands/advertisers (Toyota, Edmunds.com, Neutrogena, PlayStation, EA, XBOX, Apple, Starbucks, Nike, movie studios, etc.) over the coming months and look forward to presenting some outstanding opportunities to the PPP community. That said, I better get back to work... so much to do, so little time...
Rock On!
Kash
