social media – Page 2

29/Jan/2018

Snapchat announced the arrival of a new Stories Everywhere feature earlier this week, but the drive to get users to share more content on the platform is unlikely to win over marketers and advertisers, who continue to focus their attention on Facebook and Instagram for targeting buying audiences.

Stories Everywhere is basically Snapchat’s way of connecting with the services users rely on every day. Any user-generated content will soon be able to be posted in emails and text messages, as well as Facebook and Twitter, without having to navigate away from the mobile app. The feature will arrive alongside a complete redesign in the coming weeks and is aimed at keeping more users locked into Snapchat.

However, its usability for brands is limited, and a spokesperson for the image messaging site even admitted the latest changes are consumer-focused and will not appeal to advertisers, as there won’t be any impact on ad units. Snapchat said in a statement that Stories Everywhere would make it easier for users to share their favourite moments with “friends and family outside of Snapchat”.

With that statement being aimed squarely at the general public, it is no surprise that some brands and agencies have confirmed that they will not be investing any more money into content and other experiences on Snapchat in the near future. Deutsch’s Senior Vice President Rachel Mercer said the move felt like a “Hail Mary” effort, as the platform has a diminishing relevance in the social media landscape.

Snapchat revealed that it has 178 million users during its third-quarter earnings report, but that was just a 4.5 million uptick from the previous quarter. Mercer believes advertisers already on the platform may see a small boost in engagement but that it would only be a “short-term gain”.

She added: “The reality is that the sophisticated advertising platform, from a targeting and marketing perspective, leans heavily towards Facebook, Instagram and depending on the context or needs, Pinterest and Google. Generally, Snapchat is most effective for awareness plays, and with diminished user reporting, I don’t know if it’s still applicable.”

Wavemaker Managing Partner Noah Mallin echoed these sentiments and added that social users will be less inclined to migrate to Snapchat now that there is the ability to share stories on other platforms. However, he claimed that may change “down the road” if Snapchat can bring new users to the platform.

T3 Director of Connections Angela Yang also believes that Snapchat’s walled garden was one of the reasons why it has been successful and is seen as a potentially viable alternative to the bigger social hitters. She said one area where it could differentiate itself is via visual content and strengthening its commitment to be a “camera company”.

She added: “For example, I created this amazing video for Snapchat. How much more mileage can I get out of it? It gives brands the opportunity to take pieces of content and get more eyes on it in other platforms. Snapchat’s got to think of new, innovative ways to capture the world around us for this to work.”

Aimee

27/Dec/2017

Small business owners are still unsure whether their digital marketing strategies are working and claim that finding the resources and time to support creative content campaigns will be one their biggest challenges in 2018.

Content and digital marketing have been cited as crucial strategies for driving a variety of positive business outcomes, including engagement, awareness, reach and sales in 2018. But, a new report by marketing and sales platform Infusionsoft suggest micro-businesses and other small enterprises are still somewhat short of maximising the potential of video, mobile and other key trends.

The research polled the opinions of 1,000 small-business owners in North America in October. While digital marketing success remains out of reach for most respondents, almost three-quarters said they plan on publishing content across social media platforms next year to acquire new customers. Facebook will be the most popular outlet for these small-business owners.

While the report noted a certain caution in major digital marketing spend, more than a third will invest in social media management in 2018, and 30% will spend more on SEO and digital ads due to the growing importance of featuring on the first page of Google SERPs.

USA TODAY senior columnist, Steve Strauss said: “The vast majority of small business owners are indicating that they plan to invest their money in social media in 2018. I strongly recommend they invest in tools that enable them to…monitor traffic and conversion to see what’s working and what isn’t.”

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the report is the fact that most small-business owners are effectively in a blind spot when attempting to determine the success of digital marketing. A staggering 63% said they either “don’t know if their marketing strategies work” or “know their strategies aren’t working,” which indicates SMEs must do more to leverage tools, metrics and analytics to improve content decision making.

An outside influence could also help. A fifth of enterprises said a major challenge for 2018 would be finding the time and money to market their business properly. A third party, such as a digital content agency, could transform a brand’s marketing efforts, providing them with not only expertise but also regular, high-quality, targeted and relevant blogs, news, and videos that can benefit every aspect of a modern business.

Demand Gen Report & Marketing ID News Editor, Brian Anderson, added. “Finding time and resources for marketing, being able to convert leads into customers, being able to have the types of conversations that lead to sales: it’s ultimately not a technology solution as much as it’s a process solution. If you have don’t have a process to understand your marketing efforts and your sales efforts, your technology isn’t going to benefit.”

Digital marketing can drive the visibility, awareness and revenue small businesses need to grow, so marketers simply must do more to implement effective campaigns, as they risk losing out to larger enterprises that usually have more mature strategies and resources.

Aimee

11/Sep/2017

Shoppable visual content appears to be the latest frontier for marketers to improve engagement and drive better conversion rates after sports apparel brand Reebok and online retailer Very revealed this week that they are planning use to images and videos to push consumers along the sales cycle more effectively on both desktop and mobile.

Reebok has already published a series of videos featuring athletes wearing the brand’s latest clothing and footwear. The shoppable element to this content allows any viewers across social media platforms to click on items they see, find out more information and then advance to a checkout where they can buy them immediately.

Reebok says that this new strategy is designed to capture the attention of a growing number of customers, who like to use Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms to discover products and then shop online. Reebok is working with tech enterprise Curalate to create the shoppable experience that it believes will be “seamless” and reduce the cycle between discovery and point of purchase.

“Reebok’s online content celebrates fitness communities,” Reebok Senior Digital Manager, Mark Allin, said. “We’ll feature our products in content captured during genuine workouts, rather than simply product shots. This way people are clear as to what our position is in fitness, and can then explore options to purchase. This approach provides a clearer and more consistent message to the user, one considered journey.”

Shoppable content is beneficial for brands in numerous ways. It helps them to meet growing customer expectations regarding high-quality shopping experiences, while also optimising their marketing spends. Reebok says it will now be easier to determine ROI for branded content initiatives, which will, in turn, give them a clearer picture of a consumer’s “ideal” purchasing journey.

UK retailer Very also revealed this week that it has teamed up with Bauer Media for an extensive mobile and online shoppable campaign. Users watching the videos will be able to select items and create a bespoke outfit, while a personalised quiz will offer up advice by a range of style gurus. It will also tap into social media activity to deliver outfit suggestions and humorous fashion=focused commentary.

“In the fiercely competitive online fashion market, we’ve only got seconds to grab our audience’s attention on their smartphones before they swipe on,” Head of Brand at Shop Direct, Andrew Roscoe, said. “That’s why we’ve worked with Bauer on an innovative and impactful campaign, which will be relevant and inspire our target customer for V by Very. We’re proud of this work and can’t wait for it to land.”

Multi brand retailer Shop Director, which operates Very, revealed that almost two-thirds of sales are now completed via mobile devices, so they were eager to come up with a creative solution to engage and interact with a growing number of mobile users. A separate study by Influenster earlier this week found 90% of women prefer to consumer videos on smartphones, so the campaign should be a success.

Aimee

12/Jun/2017

Getting enough eyes on content can be tough. After all, most businesses now have a content marketing strategy, which has increased the amount of content available to prospective customers.

With this increased competition, it’s important to develop new ways to get content seen. One way of doing this is by incorporating a sense of urgency into content, which enables it to gain a higher level of visibility.

Research has found young people spend up to nine hours a day on social media platforms, whether that’s on a computer or mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. This time is usually broken up into smaller periods, often of only a few minutes while waiting for something or taking a quick break.

Because of this, content is often put into the ‘maybe later’ pile if it doesn’t seem important. This is where urgency comes – it provides a way to get prospective customers to immediately access and digest content.

Urgent content

There are various pieces of content that naturally falls into the ‘urgent’ category. News, for example, is tied to current events by its very nature, giving it immediate appeal.

Content that reveals common mistakes has a degree of urgency, as neither consumers or businesses like making mistakes and, if they don’t read the article, they may feel they are leaving themselves at risk of continuing to make errors they don’t realise they’re making.

Likewise, content based on revenue optimisation and cost-saving tap into this sense of urgency, as the audience wants to know how they can improve their financial situation sooner rather than later. Immediate-action content is also seen as urgent as it taps into the audience’s desire for immediate answers.

Make your content more urgent by following these three steps:

Optimise headlines

Almost 60 per cent of all content shared via social media is never accessed, making headlines a crucial element in encouraging engagement.

Most social media users read headlines and immediately make their mind up about the content without reading it. Therefore, while the quality of content is important, there must be a sense of urgency in headlines to encourage the target audience to engage with it.

Utilise trigger phrases

An easy way to increase the sense of urgency around content is to use the right language. By incorporating words like ‘today’ or ‘now’, especially in headlines, will increase the likelihood of content being read and shared. The wording should convey that users will gain instant reward by consuming the content.

Use compelling imagery

Content marketing strategists should put as much time and effort into optimising imagery as they do producing copy and video – not only within the publication, but for the headline thumbnail too. Strong colours make images stand out, drawing attention.

Boosting the urgency of content can have a dramatic effect on its visibility, and see engagement with published material increase. Ultimately, this will increase the audience, which can potentially be converted into customers.

As with all content marketing tactics, the results of urgent content campaigns should be carefully measured to ensure they are having the desired effect.

Aimee

30/May/2017

Content marketing has become a go-to strategy for many businesses in the digital age, with brands choosing to create engaging and promotional material to share with their followers.

However, for any content marketing campaign strategy to be a success, it is vital to have seven key pieces of information.

Set a goal

For any strategy to be successful, a goal is required. Strategists will have many objectives throughout a campaign, but content marketing should focus on the top priority.

Though most firms will be looking to attract new customers and, as a result, make more money, it’s important to dig deeper than that. For example, does your brand want to increase website traffic? Or perhaps boost product awareness? Specificity is important.

Know your target audience

One of the worst ways to start a content marketing campaign is by not knowing the target audience. By knowing who the content is aimed at, the right kind of content can be produced. It will also ensure it is published on the platforms where it is likely to get most engagement and enable it to offer a unique angle that will attract the target audience.

Understand the competition

Research into competitors and the strategies they use is also essential. Search engines are a great way to quickly discover similar companies and brands. Once you’ve done that, it doesn’t take much to identify the ways in which a competitor’s own content marketing is conducted.

Key questions are how are your goals different? Do your target audiences match or overlap? And what differentiating factors could make your strategy fresh and appealing?

Work out which mediums to utilise

There is a vast array of ways to distribute content, from email newsletters and blogs to social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Though there’s no need to limit campaigns to a single platform, it is important to recognise the differences between each so content can be tailored accordingly. For example, content that works on Pinterest is unlikely to come over well on LinkedIn.

Set a message

Rather than simply producing content for the sake of it, identify a key message or feeling that all content produced for that a campaign should have. This includes not only visual stimulus, such as typeface and imagery, but the emotional tone.

Costs

As with all forms of marketing, content marketing has associated costs, and these should be thought about when planning strategies. Budgets could factor into how broad a campaign becomes or what sort of content is produced.

Return on investment

Though return on investment (ROI) can be a challenge to identify, it is important for brands to have an idea of projected returns before embarking on a content marketing campaign.

Put simply, the ROI could be how much the company wants to gain from the campaign; for example, how many new customers should be gained or how much additional revenue should be generated.

These seven pieces of information are essential to give content marketing campaigns the best chance of success. And, by taking the time to research, brands reduce the risk of an expensive strategy not providing the desired ROI.

Aimee

23/May/2017

Social media continues to be extremely powerful when it comes to content marketing. This not only holds true for content published on social media platforms, but the sharing of content published elsewhere, such as blogs.

As such, it’s vital for content marketing strategists to master the skill of leveraging social media platforms to their advantage. There are three key steps to achieving this – grabbing people’s attention, showing change and delivering messages with specific details.

Draw readers in quickly

The internet is vast, and there’s always another website to browse or another social media account to check. Therefore, content marketers must grab people’s attention quickly. This means written content needs to have a snappy headline and opening sentence. The best openings offer surprising examples, uncanny twists and utilise quirky verbs.

For example, it might open with a personal story to engage readers and keep them reading to find out what happens. Alternatively, writers can add a twist to something commonplace, drawing in people that want to know more.

There are signs that long-form content is becoming increasingly important, especially on sites such as LinkedIn and Medium. However, readers still need to be hooked, so the opening remains key.

Show how things change

Once readers are hooked, it’s essential to keep them reading. Delivering human stories in which the protagonist is transformed helps to do this.

An example of this is Bernie Sanders’s America Beyond presidential campaign video, in which an impoverished young boy does poorly at school, but when allowed to go to college he flourishes and ends up becoming a teacher and supporting others.

This campaign kept people’s attention because it made it clear how the protagonist’s life was changed, embodying the campaign’s promise.

Deliver messages using specific details

The internet is heaving with content, much of which is near identical, and social media has allowed everyone to have their say and publish content. This means there are so many blog posts and listicles and selfies that nothing truly sticks. Therefore, it is essential to offer real, authentic stories to truly resonate with readers.

Prioritising specifics might seem counterintuitive, especially for brands trying to reach a wider audience. However, the more focused content is, the more likely it is to stir the feelings, emotions and memories of readers. For example, Arizona State University attracts people to its medical research with one simple sentence: “What if we could detect diseases before symptoms even appear?”

Brands gain followers through the accumulation of small yet memorable moments. It might take more than a single status update for a user to be converted, but gradually, over time, the firms that are best at using social media build draw users in with authenticity and shared human experiences.

People don’t respond well to marketing lingo or clichés, especially young people, but storytelling can draw them into your vision and form a sustainable connection with your products and brand.

Aimee

18/May/2017

One of the most common phrases heard in modern digital business is ‘content marketing’, and with good reason, because the time when content had wide, organic reach of its own accord is long gone.

Now, strategists must skilfully navigate the marketplace to ensure content reaches as many people as possible. And, with the progress made in artificial intelligence (AI), it’s likely this next-generation technology will soon be widely integrated with advertising strategies.

Though some may fear AI, the concept of using machines to simplify life is nothing new. In fact, there’s evidence that shows that having artificial entities carry out work had been thought of as long ago as the early 14th century.

However, when it comes to harnessing AI to carry out content marketing, there’s still a lot of debate.

Auto-generated content

AI can be utilised to create content that strategists can use in marketing campaigns. In fact, technology research company Gartner suggests almost 20 per cent of all content generated by businesses will be created by machines by 2018. Creating optimised content with AI can speed up processing time and save a lot of money.

Harnessing the power of social media

When it comes to social media, AI is already creating a buzz. Both Instagram and Facebook have bet big on AI, utilising it to change algorithms to optimise user experience. Image and voice recognition and sentiment analysis can further enhance this.

Doing this enables brands to drill down to specific members of their audience, giving them the potential to boost leads, conversions and sales.

Change campaigns in real time

One of the huge benefits of AI is that campaigns can be followed, analysed and changed in real time. Using AI tools, huge chunks of data, such as user behavioural patterns, can be analysed on the go.

However, while there are many benefits to AI in content marketing, there are also several disadvantages, the main ones being lack of creativity, inability to provide content with perspective and the authenticity dilemma.

AI is limited in its creativity. While content can be curated, AI tools are not yet at a level where they can discern good from bad. Similarly, content requires a degree of emotional depth to resonate with an audience, but adding perspective is near impossible with AI at present.

Finally, content marketing strategies work best when brands provide their audience with value and authenticity. Human interaction naturally builds trust, as its far more genuine than interacting with AI.

It’s unlikely AI will replace the humans behind content creation any time soon. There remains a need for perception and an emotional tone, something current AI tools are not able to provide.

However, by optimising the positive aspects of AI, such as target audience analysis, brands can take important insights from campaigns while they’re running. This enables them to maximise the potential of content in terms of positive impact quickly and efficiently.

Aimee

08/May/2017

Social media marketing is ever more popular and ever more essential in the twenty-first century, with brands around the world utilising content strategists to connect with target audiences. Still, content marketing can require a complex approach and finding success can be a challenge. By following these six steps, companies can position themselves in the best place to reap rewards by establishing an effective social media marketing campaign.

Understand your consumer base

It is vital for firms to analyse and understand their target audience if they are going to create the right content and connect with potential customers. Consumer bases need to be broken down into segments and businesses need to think about the journey towards a specific product. In general, there are normally three steps to the sales funnel preceding customer acquisition. Therefore, it is essential to know what people want and why they want it.

Decide how to use social media

It’s all well and good taking to social media to connect with customers, but it is important for brands to identify why they are using these platforms. Is it to build brand awareness, provide product education or something else?

Building the community is important and content marketing plans can be dedicated to growing a consumer base of like-minded individuals who align themselves with a brand’s goals, ethics and mantras. Brand awareness is also a good strategy and, in many cases, this can be platform specific. For example, Twitter users will want to analyse data like impressions, new followers, follower count and profile visits. Social media can also be used to effectively boost engagement.

Use the right platform

Though companies might be keen to access every social media platform at once, there are considerable variations between channels, so it is wise to do some research first. For example, a consumer base might be more active on Pinterest than Twitter.

Facebook is the most widely used social media platform and it offers brands a wide variety of opportunities, including live streaming, advertising and the ability to add emojis to content. Twitter, meanwhile, has a very active portion of users, whilst Instagram is expected to go from strength to strength.

Topic research

Having decided which social media platforms are to be used, brands need to begin planning topics for content marketing strategies. Priorities should be placed upon curating relevant, unique and specific posts that will offer value and resonate with any given target audience. Polls can be conducted to establish what consumers are looking for, whilst analysing website data can reveal the topics of most interest to people.

Content calendars

Content calendars should not be forgotten or pushed to the side as unnecessary. Once the first blog post has been produced, it is important to concentration on industry-focused topics consistently and regularly to keep customers coming back for more.

Trust building

Building consumer trust is essential if people are to be nurtured and coverted into followers and, as a result, customers. Potential customers need to be engaged long-term through social media and two-way conversations are great for making individuals feel at ease with a brand. Research suggests it takes eight points of contact with a consumer, at minimum, to gain a sale, and social media can significantly facilitate this engagement.

Following these steps can help unlock the potential of social media and take content marketing to the next level.

Annie

06/Feb/2017

Content marketing strategists are always on the lookout for ways to improve the efficiency of their advertising, whatever the goal, and with digital marketing taking off, developing a campaign with the potential to return great success has become more complex than ever. One platform often used for content marketers, particularly for the distribution of material, is Twitter. This micro blogging social network offers another way to engage with fans and followers via Twitter Moments.

Twitter Moments was first launched to the public in 2016. Instead of sharing a string of unrelated Tweets, users can actually create a story from tweets and multimedia. These are then uploaded to the networking platform as a ‘story’ for followers to engage with. Twitter’s move in this direction shows that the channel is clearly prioritising digestible, concise content that might be able to compete on an even footing with both Instagram and Snapchat.

For content marketers around the world, the Twitter Moments feature offers a great way to improve engagement with fans and dramatically drive return on investment (ROI) levels higher. One digital marketing and media analyst, Rebecca Lieb, was quoted recently as saying “Twitter Moments just leverages what Twitter is already about, which is real-time marketing.”

With this in mind, there are a few ways for advertisers to utilise Moments to their advantage. Firstly, companies can showcase not only their brand values, but the value of their brand in itself. For example, one healthcare provider developed a moment that focussed on their physician assistants. The company included data on the growth of the profession during the past five years, not only sharing valuable data and insights, but telling a story at the same time.

Another route content strategists could take is to use Twitter Moments to actively engage with their followers and brand advocates. It is best practice on social media platforms to actively share quality content from followers. However, this can be included in a Moment too, adding even deeper levels of trust and reputation among fans. It shows that social media teams really are paying attention to what their fans are saying and aren’t simply clicking the ‘Retweet’ button without properly engaging.

Finally, Twitter Moments can be used to help companies make their brand’s message more concise, while shaping their reputation. It is all too easy for messages on social media, particularly Twitter, to become lost or misrepresented, especially if a follower is out to cause trouble. Companies can also use Moments to deliver a statement, highlight specific messages or tweets, or to frame their perspective on a topic. The latter is particularly useful when responding to current affairs. Using Moments in this way enables brands to give a concise and focussed message that can keep reputations intact.

Overall, Twitter Moments can be a great method for content marketers to focus their follower attention on specific content, helping campaigns to find more success. It can also deliver concise messages, safeguarding a company’s reputation from negative press.

Annie

14/Nov/2016

Content marketing certainly seems to be undergoing a revival as many B2B companies begin to realise that such strategies really can be successful. It was only in September that the ‘B2B Content Marketing 2017 – Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends – North America’ report was released. In this report, it was revealed that 62 per cent of companies believe their content marketing efforts for this year have already been more successful than in 2015. However, firms also continue to feel they’re stuck in a rut, largely because they simply do not have the time to prioritise.

Developing a successful content marketing strategy can take time. In fact, of those who said their strategy fared worse in 2016 than last year, 57 per cent admitted it was due to time constraints. Curating content can be extremely time-intensive, and most brands need to dedicate time to both writing content and developing fundamental strategy elements before campaigns begin. For those starting out on their marketing journey, or companies wanting to boost their efforts, there are some important questions to ask.

Brands must initially identify whether content marketing has become an organisational priority. The previously mentioned benchmark report said that 80 per cent of respondents want to generate leads from their content strategies. Growing a business can rely heavily upon lead generation, and if a firm’s aim for its content is to boost these leads, it is vital for content marketing to be seen as a priority. Content marketing is also much cheaper than attending trade shows and can generate leads just as well. Therefore, business priorities might need to be switched around so that enough time can be found for content creation and strategy.

B2B firms also need to ask themselves if they have foundational content marketing apps in place. For example, only 47 per cent of survey respondents are using buyer personas. Meanwhile, 43 per cent use social media calendars, and 62 per cent utilise an editorial calendar. Far higher efficiency can be found when using timesaving tools, helping firms carve out more time for content creation itself. However, foundational elements go beyond physical software aids to the development of new processes, such as a content approval system. These all boost time management and help strategies get the time resources they demand.

Finally, it’s important to recognise whether content is actually being created in an efficient way. All marketing teams need to evolve with the times, and if individuals are not equipped with the skills required for 2016, content creation strategies may well be outdated. Once the strategy for content development has been created, it’s vital for firms to realise that marketers have to be excellent writers with journalistic curiosity and the expertise to tell a story. Writers also need to be well versed in digital marketing, as well as having the ability to adapt their writing to suit various situations and platforms. For those unable to do this in-house, it’s well worth outsourcing content creation.

Overall, businesses must increasingly prioritise the carving out of time for content creation. Abandoning older practices that do not generate enough leads, along with optimising the foundational elements of a strategy, and ensuring that content creation itself is swift and efficient can make this happen.

Newer Posts

Older Posts

Search

EditorialPR Musings
Content Marketing Blog

Snapchat’s ‘Stories Everywhere’ feature unlikely to entice brands

Limited time and money for content ongoing challenge for SMEs

Reebok and Very focus on shoppable content tailored for social media and mobile

How urgency can increase content visibility

7 essential data needs for content marketing strategies

Master content marketing on social media in 3 steps

Content marketing and the role of AI

Content marketing strategies for social media in 6 steps

Improve content marketing with Twitter Moments

Businesses must make time for content marketing