Showing posts with label ads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ads. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
What to blog about?
So on Facebook and LinkedIn today I did a post that we would be doing 15 blog post this month.
Why?
Because we know blogs are great for SEO and they give you lots more space to write than Twitter, LinkedIn. More space means more you can go deeper into what your company is all about.
Plus, we have been lagging behind because we get wrapped up with day to day stuff.
Yet, as someone who has been helping companies with social media for over 4 years, I know how tough this is going be.
So, how do you come up with 15 blog post a month?
Here are a few suggestions on some blog topics....
There is always news about the company--- for example you will be closed or open on Labor Day. You can reintroduce people to older products in new and fresh ways, share industry news, find funny or inspiration cartoons or photos (these often get lots of attention), coverage of upcoming trade show-(fall trade show season is about to start), create longer tech/informational pieces (these get lots of attention yet take more time to develop), ask questions about the state of the industry( these are tough-- the right questions to as most are pretty shy online), share employee/customer photos (always a good one), new hires, etc.
Well, this is 1 out of 15....14 to go.
Need help with blogging, we might be able to help. Contact us at 407-432-7706
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Google's Local Snack Pack Shake-Up: What You Need to Know
Local SEO has seen the biggest shake-up since Google launched their first local algorithm, Pigeon, just over a year ago. On Thursday, August 6th, people began to notice that the usual 7-packs that frequently showed up in the search results for local businesses were suddenly replaced with 3-packs in the desktop search results. It initially wasn't too alarming, but as the hours passed it was obvious Google had changed the face of local search in their search results.
By the end of that day, 3-packs had completely replaced all the 7-packs across all verticals and across all countries. This was an unusual move for Google, since they commonly tested out local changes that only rolled out to specific countries. But this change was for everyone everywhere.
By the next morning, less than 24 hours after the first changes were noticed, Mozcast confirmed what everyone suspected: 7-packs were history and 3-packs were all the rage.
Mobile-centric
As mobile usage continues to grow higher and higher, Google has changed their desktop search results to appear more similar to the mobile-specific search results; the 3-packs fit perfectly on the screen for mobile users.
Regardless of what you search is for, it is those top three spaces that make up the screen real estate for a mobile user, along with the Google map that appears for some local queries. Google's removal of all 7-packs brings desktop the same user experience as mobile users have been getting for some time.
Here is how the local pack appears on mobile.
And the same search on desktop now.
The look and feel is pretty close now for both desktop and mobile searches.
Google has always been very focused on user experience regardless of the product or platform, so it isn't at all surprising to see local as yet another area where Google is changing desktop to match the mobile user experience.
How much traffic was in the bottom of the 7-Pack?
Google doesn't make changes to the way they present search results without a lot of testing—tests that are often noticed by SEOs. Ever since we first saw the 3-packs make their first appearance, many SEO experts were concerned that Google could make a change to show more 3-packs than 7-packs. This is now a reality, and it has huge implications for any local business with more than two other competitors.
Just how much traffic were those sites listed in positions 4-7 getting? For Google to make this change, it is very likely those results weren't clicked on nearly as much the top three. But again, this likely comes down to positioning and screen real estate. In mobile, even if they were showing 7-packs, it is the top three that fill the mobile screen, making those 4-7 spots invisible until someone scrolls down.
This is something that Andrew Shotland from Local SEO Guide agrees with. "I would imagine that Google was seeing far fewer clicks and calls from the listings after the first three," says Shotland. "So they probably figured , 'what's the point of presenting them?' "
But even if businesses weren't getting much traffic from the 4th to 7th spots, it was still a branding opportunity. These websites were getting exposure, particularly on desktop, and they are now missing out on that important branding.
Other changes
Along with the new 3-packs everywhere, Google also made some changes to the 3-packs, and not everyone is happy about these changes.
Addresses
Google removing specific addresses and only showing the street names in a 3-pack does promote people actually clicking through, which can be a good thing for those who aren't in the top three.
Here is how it appears in the pack for both desktop and mobile. Note the street address but no street number.
Even initially clicking through to the additional results or on a listing still shows no address on the left side. It is only once you bring up the panel result on the right that you finally see a full address.
However for those who are looking on mobile, even when they do click through to the "more" option, you still don't see full addresses, and it is still those top three results from the 3-pack that will be displayed at the top of the screen. If a mobile user clicks on an individual listing in a pack, they go to the store's card listing page which looks almost identical to the card on the right of the desktop search.
So yes, there's the potential to get traffic even if you aren't in the top three from those clicking through to get an address, but it will likely be more for desktop searches as opposed to mobile.
Ratings
If you are in a restaurant-related business, your ratings are going to become even more crucial. Google has added an option for searchers to select only businesses that are above a certain rating, currently choosing from two stars and higher, three stars and higher, or four stars and higher.
With searchers faced with the option, it doesn't take much to realize that of course users are going to be selecting the ones with four stars or higher. So while having good ratings has always played an important part in local SEO, for restaurants this should be at the top of the marketing priority list.
Some smaller towns may not see the ratings selector if there are not enough restaurants with ratings available. In an area with plenty of restaurants, though, the ratings drop down (and likely the additional drop downs for cuisine, price, hours and Zagat) will appear.
We also know that Google likes to test small before unleashing it everywhere. So businesses should anticipate that this star rating selection drop-down is going to appear for other local related searches in the 3-pack, even if just on a testing basis.
If your business is in a highly populated area or there are many competing businesses in the market, you should start thinking about those stars now so you're prepared if and when Google expands this rating selection. It would be very unlikely Google would give any advance warning about this kind of change, in order to prevent the possibility of businesses spamming reviews, so working on getting reviews will become a necessity unless you are already fortunate enough to have plenty of 4-star or higher reviews.
Diminishing role of Google+
For now, it will still be important for local businesses to claim their profile pages. We are still seeing links to the Google+ profile page when those businesses come up in the regular organic search results, even if they have been removed from the local 3-pack.
Even in the local 3-pack we are now seeing photos for local businesses shown through the Google Maps display, and not through Google+ as they were in the past. This is a very significant change for Google; while we knew they were moving the photos product from Google+, some thought business photos would migrate to the new Google Photos product rather than Maps.
Here is an example of a local business's photos on Google Maps:
Of course, we also know the Google is changing how baked-in Google+ is with the rest of their services. But for now, businesses should consider it business as usual in terms of claiming their Google+ page and directing reviews to it, as for now, this is where Google is still getting their reviews. "Continue focusing on Google+ reviews as well since those are the only reviews Google is showing in the Local Pack," says Brian Barwig with Integrated Digital Marketing.
New businesses & reviews
Unfortunately, with this new change it has become very difficult for someone to leave a review for a business that currently does not have any reviews listed. In fact, it is next to impossible.
Right now, if someone wants to leave a review, they can just find the local listing, click the reviews link and then choose to leave their own. But for a business that has no reviews, you can't actually get to the page that has the option to leave a review:
There is a workaround if you can manage to find the Google+ page for the business, but in a world where businesses need to make it as easy as possible to leave a review, many won't jump through the hoops required to leave a Google review and will head to leave one on Yelp instead, if they leave one at all.
In fact, for this location of the Walking Company, we couldn't find a Google+ page to leave a review but we did discover the Yelp page for this location on the first page of the search results.
With ratings and reviews playing a role in local SEO, Google's oversight in this area is surprising and it is hopefully being corrected. Any new businesses and those businesses who do not have any current Google reviews will be at a severe disadvantage if this isn't fixed in the very near future.
Coupled this with the fact we see ratings being given a greater emphasis in the local results with the ratings selector, it definitely puts new businesses or those without any reviews at a disadvantage.
New sponsored marketing model
Implications of home service ads
Google is testing the new home service ads, which look very similar to the local packs, but are sponsored results. It is currently testing only in San Francisco and only in two professions: for those looking for plumbers or locksmiths.
Here is the sponsored 3-pack as it appears in the search results:
And you click through to see this page:
However, many local SEOs are worried this program will expand to other cities and professions, making the local pack turn into a "pay for play" situation.
"This is my fear as well," says Barwig. "This new Local Pack looks similar to those ads and it could be Google's intention to simply replace the Local Pack with ads or integrate ads directly into the Pack."
It would be very easy change for Google to make, and for many searchers, a very seamless experience where they likely wouldn't even realize it was a sponsored result, since they do look so familiar to the 3-packs many expect to see for local searches.
"If there are only 3 precious spots," says Linda Buquet, from the Local Search Forum. "It's easier to command a premium."
Google's lead generation
With these home service ads currently handled as per lead basis, it also opens up a new revenue model for Google. But on the opposite side of that, it is yet another way businesses would have to spend in order to get the traffic and business from Google.
I can see a scenario where these ads are the 3-pack," says Shotland. "If that's the case, then Google will have successfully transitioned to the old yellow pages pay-to-play business model, and we Local SEO types will need to spend a bit more time of lead optimization."
What about those penalized by Panda and Penguin?
The sites that will be hit particularly hard with this new change are those that were previously penalized by Google, either with Panda or Penguin. Right now, penalized local sites still show up in the local pack, even if they are impossible to find in the regular organic search. This is because Google will still show local listings for any website in the local pack, even those that are penalized with Panda or Penguin.
But now these sites are looking at a situation where only the top three sites are going to be on the first page of results. Sites that are looking to replace that pack listing with a regular organic listing will not be able to do so if they are penalized. Previously, even if they didn't make the top three, but were somewhere in that top seven, they were assured that their business was still visible on that all-important first page of Google search results. But this new 3-pack change can really hurt a penalized local business if they aren't appearing in that pack.
Google began a Panda refresh in July, and it is expected to last several months. This is good news for local businesses caught up in that filter, if they have made the changes necessary to be clear of Panda. If they start making changes now, they need to wait until the next Panda update to begin ranking again.
But for those who have been impacted by Penguin, it is been almost a year since we've seen the last update to that algorithm, and we still don't have timeline for when the next one will be. Penguin-impacted local sites should make it a priority to get those bad back links removed from their sites before we do see the next update or refresh to Penguin.
What about the new user experience?
Everyone has an opinion now that all the 7-packs have been removed. While some think it is great for user experience, many marketers have huge concerns about how users will interact with them, especially since most things would require a click through to the secondary listing page.
"It's possible users think this new design is such a poor user experience they click on the Map in order to get the full 20 Pack of listings," says Barwig. "Factors such as Click Through Rate, Bounce Rate, Time on Site and Content may be even more important now. If a website is poorly designed and doesn't have much information, a user has 19 other businesses they can compare against. Again, time and analysis will show if those 3 spots are as coveted as we think."
And since these 3-packs were driven by user experience, we will see if this change does indeed become permanent, although many agree it is here to stay unless Google changes up something dramatically for local on mobile first.
Top 3: When you're in & when you're not
Sitting pretty in the top 3?
There are those who have retained a spot in the new 3-pack. But even those who have a coveted spot in the 3-pack still have reason to be concerned. Local SEO is just to get more aggressive now that people are fighting for the top three links instead of just the top seven. Over half of those appearing in the 7-packs are suddenly gone, and everyone will want a shot in the new 3-pack.
There is real danger in being too complacent when it comes to rankings in Google. Just because you have a spot there now does not mean you can stop optimization efforts for local SEO, especially since your competitors will be ramping it up.
Many businesses that were previously happy just to appear somewhere in the top seven and have never done any local SEO up to this point will certainly begin marketing themselves better online. Sometimes those are the ones who suddenly sneak up out of nowhere, once they actually start their local SEO efforts, since they usually have nowhere to go but up.
Linda Buquet also made a great point for those local SEOs who are able to consistently get their clients into those top three spots: "If you are really good and usually get your clients in the top 3, then this update just knocked out 42% of your competition!"
Consolation for those outside the 3
Not all local SEOs are convinced that being outside of the top 3 is as bad as it initially sounds. First of all, we are still gauging the changes in traffic with the new 3-packs, especially for those who were accustomed used to seeing their businesses in the 7-packs.
"Google pushed out a major update and we are evaluating the new landscape to determine next steps," says Barwig. "It's too early to begin losing our minds. Analyze the pack, test ideas and track the results."
We have also seen Google roll back changes before, so while this change seems very permanent, it might not be. But SEOs have also learned never to underestimate how Google might change things suddenly – Google could decide next month that 2-packs or 4-packs are the new normal.
"Google has a history of pushing out updates and either slowly rolling them back or continuing to tweak the update until results finally settle," says Barwig. "There is a good possibility Google will make some additional changes/updates to this Stack Pack and things will shake out again."
Optimizing in a 3-Pack world
Getting into the top 3: Focus on organic
While local SEO has plenty of nuances that are very specific to local, there are also a lot of aspects of regular organic SEO that play a role in local rankings in Google. And it is going to be even more important for local businesses to work on regular SEO too.
With the old blended 7-pack algo, organic ranking pretty much controlled the ranking order," says Buquet. "But now using all the right ‘Local Hooks' is even more important than ever."
"Focus more on good solid organic SEO, both onsite and offsite. That will help boost your rank plus even if you can't make the top three, it will help your organic ranking. Many consultants I work with say top organic beats top local ranking anyway."
Of course, SEO should all be "white hat" Google-approved SEO techniques. While you may see some businesses dominating in your space using "black hat" or spam techniques, for the most part they tend to see short-lived success, and you can always file a spam report for websites spamming Google. But do make sure your own SEO is squeaky clean, since Google could take a look at other competitive sites in the same market or even specific keyword results.
Getting into the top 3: Focus on links
While links have been a significant part of local SEO, some businesses didn't even have to bother much with getting them, simply because their market wasn't competitive enough.But this is certainly changing.
"Good solid backlinks are probably more important as well," says Buquet. "In the past I didn't even need backlinks to rank clients and could do it just based on Places optimization and onsite. But now I'd say certainly in competitive markets backlinks are pretty key."
Don't forget that even nofollowed links serve a purpose, so don't automatically skip a link opportunity simply because it is a nofollow link.They can still send referral traffic, they can serve as a brand reminder and you never know if the linking site will decide to switch to dofollow links in the future.
Getting into the top 3: Focus on citations
Some market areas were just not competitive enough that citations and directories made a significant difference, while for others it was crucial. Be sure all your citations and directories are accurate and complete.
"My initial analysis started to paint a picture that citations were still important," says Barwig. "Make sure your clients are listed on the big directories, are feeding into the data aggregators and that the listings are 100% filled out and correct."
Buquet agrees. "I would also be sure citations are in order."
For those not familiar with the citations they should be considering for their city or state, Moz lists the best local citations for cities in the US as well as by industry.
Citations are particularly important for those local businesses that do not have their own website.When Google can't pull data from an official site, they tend to pull information from other third party sources, which might not always be accurate.
Getting into the top 3: Marketing priorities
Local SEO is more than just link building, reviews, and directories. But many businesses were able to skate by with minimal SEO if they weren't in super-competitive local business areas such as law offices or restaurants. But with those 4-7 spots now gone in desktop, skating by isn't good enough anymore.
Shotland feels that marketing and PR will play a much bigger role for many businesses wanting to complete.
"One piece of advice: I just spoke to an attorney who is spending six figures on PR and they rank #1 in their market for some pretty high-value legal terms," says Shotland. "They have an SEO company to get the basic SEO pieces right and advise the PR program, but they are really invested in marketing. So my one piece of advice is get used to the idea of investing in marketing, not just hiring link builders."
We aren't just talking about the standard press releases, of course. Think beyond that, whether it is outreach to industry experts, local promotions or teaming up with complimentary – but not competitive – businesses in the same neighborhood as your local business. There are always great opportunities to get your name out there, and some will come with a bonus link.
Competitive analysis
For those who are currently residing in the top three positions for the new 3-packs, that doesn't mean it is time for you to sit back and reap the rewards. Those top three spots have become much more competitive than it ever was when there was a 7-pack.
If you are in the top three, you are going to want to be even more aware of every move your competitor makes, especially those you know will make a push for the top three. Monitoring back links will be crucial. Yes, even for those businesses you think are not doing any optimization at all, because sometimes their marketing and links are unsolicited. You can't foresee such things as a new link from the local Chamber of Commerce, a link because they sponsored a charity or even a popular blogger who does a review, complete with a nice juicy back link.
Set up alerts for each of your competitor's business names so that you get notification if they have a news story written up about them, you are aware of it. The same with any press releases, reviews, or anything specific to your particular industry that could be seen as a new promotion opportunity.
But rest assured, if you sit back and do nothing to improve your local SEO someone will be able to knock you out of that top three.
Local SEO in Google is an evolving process and we have seen two major shifts in how Google handles local searches over the past year.Local businesses have to learn how to adapt with the changing times or risk being left behind, and this means catering to local SEO in a 3-pack search result world.
Whether hoping for more Google+ reviews or deciding how to handle traffic when Google has brought their new lead ads to your vertical, local SEO has become much more complicated than it was just over a year ago. But it is those local businesses who are not only capable of evolving on the fly, but are also able to see the larger picture in the entire search results that will dominate the new SERPs. At least until Google decides to turn the industry upside down once again with brand new local SEO changes.
About jenstar — Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland.
Monday, March 30, 2015
sagmeister & walsh refreshes frooti mango juice campaign with indian motifs
mar 26, 2015
sagmeister & walsh refreshes frooti mango juice campaign with indian motifs
sagmeister & walsh refreshes frooti mango juice campaign with indian motifs
all images courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
sagmeister & walsh has conceived the visual identity, graphics, social strategy, advertising and animation graphics for frooti, one of the largest and oldest mango juice brands in india. the new york-based graphic design studio sourced the bright, bold and playful color palette used throughout the campaign from the indian culture, making sure the visuals would stand out in the crowded advertising landscape of the region. with packaging designed bypentagram, sagmeister & walsh were able to create a miniature world revolving around a series of eye-catching juice boxes, cleverly arranging tiny people in participation with the product. scaled models of vehicles, people and plant life interact with the frooti packaging and mangos (kept full-scale) allowing the two objects to identify as the ‘hero’ of the story assembled in each shot.
frooti holli
video courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
‘when stefan & I visited india’, walsh explains about the research and inspiration behind the campaigns, ‘we noticed how most of the billboard campaigns used a similar language: lots of text heavy ads or straightforward images of people / product shots. there are also numerous size formats and billboards often overlap each other. the result is that the advertising landscape in many areas looks extremely busy and nothing stands out as everything speaks in a similar language. noticing this, we designed frooti’s campaigns to be very simple and graphic with bold colors. looking at the heavily commercial and busy ad landscape, we loved the idea of creating images that had sweetness or humor. these graphics will be posted all over the country on billboards, above shops, and painted on the sides of buildings. whether its a mango hula hooping, a couple kissing behind a mango sunset, or a group of friends riding down a mango blimp, we tried to create imagery that could make people smile.‘
‘we also conceptualized games, a social media strategy, a cocktail recipe website, and a digital platform for all things frooti.’ walsh continues. ‘this included creating creating many smaller stop motion animations videos. for these shorter videos we brought the mango to life, giving them a sense of playfulness and character. over time on their instagram account we will continue to release videos to this series. the graphic language is very adaptable to telling all kinds of stories: already we’ve released little stop motion videos celebration the holi festival, the win of the last indian cricket team, and mangos hugging for valentines day.’
frooti cricket
frooti spring 2015 – behind the scenes
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Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Forrester: Mobile Is The Anti-Channel
Forrester: Mobile Is The Anti-Channel
- by Sarah Mahoney, January 2, 2015, 8:42 AM
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While most marketers continue to think of mobile as a channel — one that runs somewhat parallel to its Internet presence — a new report from Forrester Research says it’s time to reverse that perspective. “Mobile eliminates the notion of channels by blurring the distinction between the physical and digital worlds,” writes analyst Julie A. Ask. And brands like USAA, using mobile as a way to sell expanded services; Starbucks, which is continually finding new ways to streamline purchasing, or Guinness building passionate beer communities, are finding that “mobile generates new revenue, improves customer relationships and reduces costs throughout all channels.”
But few companies are prepared. Forrester estimates that less than 4% of businesses are ready to take advantage of the opportunity presented by mobile, and even then, fail to take into account its rapidly expanding definition. It’s not just phones, she says, but watches, cuffs, glasses and even lighting systems.
“We still see most of our clients cramming PC experiences onto phones when they should be thinking in terms of mobile moments instead,” she writes. Among the executives it surveyed, 47% planned to spend $500,000 or less externally to build up their mobile services. “This budget barely pays for the analytics, messaging, testing, and marketing solutions on which most enterprises depend.” And only 45% have at least five developers in-house.
The best strategies, she writes, are those that find ways to interact with consumers at specific stages in the six-step customer journey:
*Discover Getting consumers who are not yet customers to engage isn’t easy, but financial brands, such as Intuit or USAA, “manufacture mobile moments by offering consumers tools to manage their finances, cars, and homes — and opportunities to buy new services in those moments.”
*Explore With 43% of American smartphone owners saying they’ve researched a product via their device in the last few months, savvy marketers are finding ways to make mobile research easier, driving total transactions, not just digital sales.
*Buy In 2014, U.S. consumers bought about $24 billion in goods via mobile and used their devices to pay for $52 billion, “whether they are in-store with a mobile-enabled associate, paying remotely, paying bills, or engaging in peer-to-peer payment methods.”
Giving customers mobile access to both pricing and inventory increases their shopping confidence.
*Use Increasingly, consumers expect support through apps, updates and notifications. Basis, for example — a fitness and wellness wearable that gathers information on steps taken, sleep, and heart rate — comes with an app which walks consumers through behavior changes.
*Ask Mobile can be a low-cost self-service tool for customer support, and “is at its best when it streamlines customer interactions, saving them time and saving you money.” One example: American Express uses [24]7 to resolve potential fraud through an interactive mobile phone experience, instead of a regular voice call. In addition to saving millions in operation expenses, “nine out of 10 consumers gave the experience at least four out of five stars.”
*Engage Sharing reviews, comments, and tips allow customers to create their own communities, fostering brand loyalty and customer passions, like the Guinness Pub Finder app. Mobile extends those communities by making it easier to post photos and videos. Marketers benefit “from crowd-sourced content and a brand affinity that paid media can’t buy.”
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Sunday, January 4, 2015
The 'Social Media Phase Of The Internet' Is Over
Fred Wilson says "the social media phase of the Internet ended" in 2014.
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/fred-wilson-on-what-happened-in-2014-2014-12#ixzz3Nu1LQL77
Wilson, perhaps more than any other venture capitalist, spotted the emergence of social media early and profited from it. His firm, Union Square Ventures, invested early in Twitter, Tumblr, Zynga, Foursquare, and a few others.
In a post looking back at what happened in 2014, he says social media is pretty much dead.
"Entrepreneurs and developers still build social applications," says Wilson. "We still use them. But there isn’t much innovation here anymore. The big platforms are mature. Their place is secure."
Messaging apps have replaced social media apps, says Wilson.
"Messaging is the new social media ... Families use WhatsApp groups instead of Facebook. Kids use Snapchat instead of Instagram. Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp in February of this year was the transaction that defined this trend."
Wilson thinks messaging and mobile moved into the enterprise in a big way in 2014. He says Slack, the fast growing group chart, is the "poster boy" for this trend.
Here is Wilson's complete list of what happened in 2014:
1/ the social media phase of the Internet ended. this may have happened a few years ago actually but i felt it strongly this year. entrepreneurs and developers still build social applications. we still use them. but there isn’t much innovation here anymore. the big platforms are mature. their place is secure.
2/ messaging is the new social media. this may be part of what is going on in 1/. families use whatsapp groups instead of facebook. kids use snapchat instead of instagram. facebook’s acquisition of whatsapp in february of this year was the transaction that defined this trend.
3/ the “sharing economy” was outed as the “rental economy.” nobody is sharing anything. people are making money, plain and simple. technology has made renting things (even in real time) as simple as it made buying things a decade ago. Uber and Airbnb are the big winners in this category but there are and will be others.
4/ the capital markets have moved to the internet. we call it crowdfunding but what is really going on is raising money is a great application of a global platform that connects billions of people in real time. i don’t know the total amount of capital that was raised on the internet across all sectors (equity, debt, creative projects, charity, helping a person in need, real estate, energy, etc, etc) in 2014 but i am sure it is in the tens of billions.
5/ mobile OS has become a stable duopoly around the world. but android is splintering into google android and non google android and that may lead to new large players. 2014 was a big coming out party for xiaomi. if and when they come to the US, things will get interesting. they are the new (and better) samsung.
6/ mobile and messaging has started to impact the enterprise. slack is the poster boy for this trend in 2014.
7/ youtube became a monster. it always has been. but in 2014 youtube emerged as the place for entertainment consumption for anyone under 16. and these youngsters are going to grow up quickly. watching The Interview on YouTube was a fitting end to an amazing year for the king (and queen and joker too) of Internet video.
8/ we finally got rid of files. dropbox, google drive, soundcloud, spotify, netflix, hbogo, youtube, wattpad, kindle, and a host of other cloud based services finally killed off three letter filenames like mp3, mov, doc and xls. spending a week in the caribbean with young adults and bad internet was the tell on this one for me. they don’t even have mp3s on their iphones anymore!
9/ the net neutrality debate emerged as a national political issue with Obama’s endorsement of Title II regulation of the last mile of the internet. it is unclear how this issue will resolve itself but the public has spoken loudly and clearly and politicians understand that the internet needs to remain open for innovation and we can’t let the monopoly carriers and cable companies mess that up.
10/ cyberwarfare, cybercrime, cyberhacking, and cybersecurity was by far the dominant theme of 2014. if anyone had their head in the sand on this one before this year, they don’t anymore. this is our new normal. the US takedown of North Korea’s internet last week, and the state department official’s comment that “i guess accidents can happen” is a moment to remember as we head out of 2014 and into our future.
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/fred-wilson-on-what-happened-in-2014-2014-12#ixzz3Nu1LQL77
Friday, January 2, 2015
28 Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2015 From the Pros
28 Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2015 From the Pros
By Cindy King
Published January 1, 2015
Published January 1, 2015
If the changes in 2014 are an indicator, there will be a lot more changes in 2015.
To get a grip on what the near future may look like, we tapped the knowledge of 28 social media pros.
Here’s what they had to say.
And if you’re curious, here were the 2014 predictions.
#1: Video Becomes the Content of Choice
In 2015, video will dominate as the social media content format of choice. Further, regular video segments, like podcasts and blog posts, will come into their own as a form of content that drives social engagement and other marketing goals.
Let’s look closer. In August 2014, Facebook surpassed YouTube in the number of video views via desktop according to comScore. It’s important to note that YouTube still has more views across all devices. As of September 2014, Facebook attracted a billion video views per day, a roughly 30-fold increase since July.
Based on SocialBakers’ data, video posting moved away from YouTube towards Facebook in 2014. While these results still show YouTube ahead, the trend favors Facebook.
Also, Facebook videos receive significantly more shares than YouTube. This makes sense because sharing and engagement are at the heart of Facebook interactions.
YouTube is the best-performing social media platform to drive trackable sales,according to AOL’s Convertro research. It’s the first, last or only platform touched.
Earlier in 2014, Convince and Convert’s Jay Baer introduced his Jay Today, a 3-minute video. Baer cross-promotes and posts this content.
Here’s how nimble marketers can jump on this 2015 video trend:
Create your own regular video episodes. Take a page from Jay Baer’s playbook. His cost is under $125 per episode!
Provide the five key types of content your target audience seeks. Use Marcus Sheridan’s “They ask, you answer” approach. Record your employees who know the information, but are challenged to put their words in print.
Get your customers into the act. Videos captured with a smartphone are much easier than writing a review. Make it easy for customers by setting up an area of your establishment to encourage them.
Heidi Cohen, president of Riverside Marketing Strategies.
#2: Information Density Creates Hurdles
To me, there is one mega-trend that is like an enormous hammer forging nearly every idea and innovation in our marketing world today: Fighting through information density.
By 2020, the amount of information on the web is expected to increase by 600% (and some believe that number is low!). The challenge of cutting through the content shock and earning a share of the limited customer attention span is the marketing challenge for the foreseeable future.
This reality is behind important shifts occurring in the next year:
Business migration away from Facebook. The drop in organic reach has been apocalyptic for many businesses. Why? There’s too much content on Facebook and the company is forced to ratchet down the reach. We’ll have to either spend a lot more money on Hollywood-quality content, a lot more money on advertising or both. This will force some businesses to reconsider Facebook as a viable channel and enable a migration to less noisy venues.
Emergence of new content forms. As the web adapts to and adopts these new realities, it will drive innovations that help businesses stand out. I predict that we’ll see some interesting new content forms develop in 2015. A couple of areas ripe for innovation are interactive video and new types of short-form visual content.
Fighting through filters. New apps and filters are emerging to help consumers make better content choices. One example is Zite, which filters content for you as it learns about your preferences. As more people turn to these apps to sort the clutter, the marketer’s attention will turn toward the new challenge of getting messages through these new filters.
These are just a few of the many implications of this trend. The conversation on the web will turn from “content” to “ignition”—how do we get our message to cut through and compete?
Mark Schaefer, educator, consultant and author of Social Media Explained: Untangling the World’s Most Misunderstood Business Trend.
#3: SlideShare Becomes the YouTube for Business
Instagram is to Facebook as SlideShare is to LinkedIn. In other words, look for SlideShare to emerge as the key social network for business professionals to find and share bite-sized pieces of content while on the go in 2015.
SlideShare is currently where you create, distribute and consume presentations, and it’s a great tool for B2B marketers to do content marketing for their target audience. Good presentations drive page views, leads, SEO juice and often long-lasting evergreen content. In 2014, SlideShare added video capabilities for LinkedIn influencers. In 2015, SlideShare will extend video to their entire audience. Watch for SlideShare video to become YouTube for business.
If you’re a B2B business or a marketer who represents B2B clients, make sure SlideShare is squarely on your radar for 2015.
Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likeable Local, chairman of Likeable Media and author ofLikeable Leadership: A Collection of 65+ Inspirational Stories on Marketing, Your Career, Social Media & More.
#4: YouTube Declines as Social Networks Embrace Hosted Video
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn will show preferential treatment to video content that is hosted on their own platform. This means that marketers will be uploading original video content to each social network (and not just short videos).
The social networks will give extra exposure to uploaded videos because they keep users on the platform longer and provide unique advertising opportunities. This distribution of video will radically transform the way marketers work with video.
Michael Stelzner, founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner and author of Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition and Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged.
#5: Social Conversions Become Easier
Social micro-conversions will become an active and successful strategy with every business in 2015.
Currently, businesses look to promote on social media, direct traffic back to their site, introduce a call to action and then drive the visitor through the conversion. The needed behavior is rife with trouble, because it requires the consumer or prospective business to take many steps.
I believe we’re going to see a lot more methods across social media that provide direct action through engagement. It may be a purchase through a tweet, mobile click to call, a Facebook registration or a Pinterest purchase, which bypasses the funnel and drives the social user directly to a conversion.
Some of the technologies will be integrated directly into the platforms, but others will be available through third-party applications. Either way, the ability to convert will be drawn closer to the audience and the activity.
This is a fantastic evolution in social media, because of the apparent lackluster conversion performance that companies are seeing when attributing conversions directly to social media activity. I believe its impact is vastly underestimated by businesses right now. By minimizing the steps and complexity, the conversion can be accomplished much easier. As a result, we’ll see a growing improvement in social media conversion performance and attribution.
Douglas Karr, CEO of DK New Media and founder of the Marketing Technology Blog.
#6: Paid Ads Become Unavoidable
In 2015, social networks will continue to find ways to push businesses into their advertising programs.
We already know that Facebook plans to stifle organic promotional posts in the news feed starting in January 2015, and that Twitter hasn’t ruled out implementing a Facebook-like algorithm for their news feed. Instagram is still busy expanding their advertising platform, and since they’re owned by Facebook, an algorithm that limits organic posts from businesses and brands could easily be added into the mix.
Hence, social media marketers who might have avoided social advertising in 2014 will be forced to embrace it in 2015.
Kristi Hines, freelance writer and professional blogger.
#7: Local Search Expands Google+
The rise of Google+, through Google Local Search results, will be a phenomenon in 2015.
Google has created the infrastructure to enable businesses to easily appear in Google search, and so many businesses still haven’t claimed their listings.
Once they have five reviews, the stars will be shown. The ‘star game’ will start to play out in 2015: authentic reviews will rise to the top and small businesses will have the chance to shine.
Even though stars are generally not considered to be a main ranking factor, we may all be surprised by their importance in search. By coincidence, above, the listing with the most stars is showing first in the local listings box. Yet generally, stars are considered as social proof, which in turn allows people to feel trust in their decision to click. More stars, more trust.
Combining this with the ability to access good-quality local data through tools such as Spheres (will be live by the end of December 2014), many offline businesses will be taking their first steps into social media.
Once this happens, further social media services can then be supported, including content sharing across multiple platforms.
Google is not in a hurry to bring business into their ecosystem, but this time next year will see a push where it gains even more ground and connections back into the real world.
Martin Shervington, author of The Art and Science of Google+: A psychological, user friendly and sometimes even humorous guide to this new social layer and a marketing consultant.
#8: Tech Innovations Change Marketing
I don’t think we’ll recognize the future of social media! It’s hard to know what will have a greater influence on social media in the future—hardware design or software innovation?
With hardware innovation like Oculus Rift and D-Wave’s Quantum Computer popping up seemingly overnight, there’s no telling how hardware will affect the way we interact on social. And it most certainly will affect it, making engagement more intuitive, more in-time and more realistic than ever. Imagine what fully experiential quantum data integration will do to social interaction. The most active post on my Facebook page right now is a raging debate over having chips implanted like they’re doing in Sweden.
And then you have folks like Dr. Mark Sagar who recently introduced the first fully responsive, CGI, artificial intelligence baby.
I was sitting in the audience as his baby evoked very real emotional response in myself and in those around me. The future is here and the hashtag is #CrazyCreepyCoolTech!
What hopefully will remain the same, as the future of social spirals into the stratosphere, is the necessity and continuation of true engagement and connection. Whether these technologies will make them easier or more difficult, and whether people will rebel or adopt, remains to be seen.
Viveka von Rosen, a LinkedIn expert, speaker and trainer and the author of LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day.
#9: Silos Break Down
In 2014, there was still a massive disconnect between brands and consumers due to a misuse of social media as a communication tool at the brand level and a misunderstanding of who the customer actually is.
This will be the year brands wake up to the reality that social media is a relationship-builder and not a one-way bullhorn. They will embrace the conversation, knowing that in order to establish meaningful connections, they must break down the social media silo they have created.
Brands will also recognize that the continued humanization of the brand is essential. As digital marketers, we talked about this at length in 2014. However, I continue to see brands speaking at consumers rather than with them. The mental shift to “tell a story,” not simply push a message, will happen.
Look to brands like Charmin, Oreo and Barkbox as prime examples of social media done right. Each one has created a fun, entertaining and interactive brand persona. They understand their audience and work to deliver content that is targeted and consistent in message, voice and branding.
But brands won’t make this shift on their own. To succeed, they must align themselves with the correct individual who can transform their vision and mission into a vibrant online personality. Gone are the days of knowing “a little something” about social media and claiming expertise.
In 2015, brands will ask potential social media marketers: Can you create a voice and inspire customers to take action or do you simply publish pre-created content? Do you have a deep understanding into integrated strategy and can you lead a team efficiently and effectively? That distinction will become glaringly evident as brands seek top talent to put a face on the brand.
While most brands will not transform overnight, there’ll be a significant push and willingness to embrace risk in order to get there.
Rebekah Radice, founding partner of Imagine WOW.
#10: Campaign Focus Shifts to Experience
In the information-driven and consumer-empowered world, relationship capital is the only business metric that stands the test of time. Brand love and customer advocacy is what takes care of the business bottom-line. To truly earn the trust and loyalty of educated, tech- and social-savvy, global, connected millennial consumers, it isn’t enough to distract them with short-term dazzle campaigns. To ignite and keep customer advocacy long-term, companies need to show that they care by repeatedly enabling meaningful experiences.
But to do so, they need a full 360-degree view of their customer, located centrally and accessible to any department within the company. That way—no matter where the customer comes from, who (s)he reaches out to and what the issue is—the company can enable the best experience possible at every touchpoint. Businesses also need to employ people who not only possess the right skillset, but also the right mentality; people who are passionate about serving their customers. And last but not least, they need to have integrated technology that can support the cohesive company-wide strategy.
It will take time and effort to accomplish. Executives will need to work on breaking the internal silos (not the easiest task), bringing the right people and technologies on board and establishing the integrated processes internally. But in the fast-changing digital era, where just having a great product isn’t enough anymore to gain a competitive edge, relationship-building and experience enablement is the only answer to not only business survival, but long-term prosperity.
Ekaterina Walter, Global Evangelist at Sprinklr and a bestselling author of Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook’s Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg and The Power of Visual Storytelling: How to Use Visuals, Videos, and Social Media to Market Your Brand.
#11: Paid Media Becomes Necessary
In 2014, we witnessed several changes in the way businesses are forced to approach Facebook marketing—first with the drop in organic reach, then the death of the like-gate and now the announcement of how Facebook plans to reduce the amount of promotional content coming from brands in the news feed. We should not be surprised if other networks eventually follow the same path.
In 2015, we’ll see the rise of paid media. Small businesses will have to get more educated about how to accelerate the distribution of different types of content at different stages of the sales funnel if they want to survive.
But we’re past the like-collecting days and more businesses are understanding the need for a well-designed structure that delivers different types of content to segmented groups of their audiences at the right moment in the marketing cycle. The best way to control the potential reach and manage the segmentation is through paid media.
There are two key things we learned this year that we need to consider in 2015: you can no longer rely solely on organic reach to make a significant impact, and paid media leads to more conversions than organic media.
Your focus should be on learning more about the individuals in your audience, as well as understanding how to segment your prospects, whether there is already a connection with your business or not. Plus, establish who needs to see what and when, and determine how you’re going to deliver each specific message.
Francisco Rosales, founder of SocialMouths.
#12: Republishing Grows Reach
Facebook spent 2014 tightening the noose on social marketers, and with an algorithm change taking effect in January, shows no signs of stopping in the new year. On top of that, other networks like Twitter continue to grow more crowded, which means getting noticed in a feed or a timeline gets harder and harder all the time. Therefore, reach for individual posts is dropping.
Anyone with a Facebook page can tell you that reach has plummeted, and the reach on any given post is a fraction of what it would have been a year or two ago. That’s why in 2015, marketers will focus on getting cumulative reach by republishing their updates multiple times. Instead of posting an update once and hoping for the best, they’ll post an update again and again. Instead of trying to take out one large slice of pie, they’ll take multiple smaller pieces that add up.
Republishing updates like this may improve reach in more ways than one, because it can afford marketers more time for one-on-one engagement. By spending less time writing unique updates that may or may not hit their targets, marketers will be able to dedicate more time to interacting live with their fans and followers, encouraging the type of engagement that Facebook values and rewards with more consistent organic reach.
#13: Campaigns Become Platform-Agnostic
We’re going to see marketers shift their focus back to “platform-agnostic marketing.” Savvy marketers are realizing that the social space is becoming increasingly fragmented, and creating unique campaigns for each channel is difficult and expensive. For the last few years, you could create a campaign just for Facebook and get good results. But now your audience is everywhere—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and others—each with different reach and engagement.
Along with increased fragmentation, marketers are seeing increased costs to just to have their messages seen. There isn’t a free ride anymore. To get the most from your marketing dollars, you’ll have to be in more places at the same time.
The best bet is to have one clear goal (increased engagement, sales, data collection, etc.), and then be “everywhere.” In 2015, marketers will create centralized platform-agnostic campaigns that achieve these goals, regardless of where the audience comes from.
Jim Belosic, CEO of ShortStack.
#14: Fans Demand Personal Interaction
Next year will see increased demand for personal interaction with fans and followers. This means that fans today want to get to know the people behind the logo or brand and want to see who it is they’re engaging with.
Companies that have already grasped this concept are not only seeing a lot more interaction on their content, but also building up a higher level of trust. This approach lets their fans know there’s a real person behind the company who cares about what they have to say and is there to respond.
A great example of this is demonstrated by Gary Vaynerchuk, who started up a new online video series called the Ask Gary Vee Show.
The aim of the show is to highlight current topics in the world of social media and answer questions submitted by fans through the hashtag #AskGaryVee. Where the show separates itself from others out there is that Gary presents the whole show face to face, with the camera giving his followers that personal interaction as he reads out loud and answers user-submitted questions.
This is a great way for Gary to consistently engage his fans, since they can submit questions through using the hashtag and then tune in to see if their question got answered. The key to building these stronger relationships in 2015 is going to come from personal-style content. More importantly, companies will need to respond to their communities in a timely manner.
Ravi Shukle, Facebook marketing specialist and the host of the new podcast, Crown Your Community.
#15: Social Media Goes Niche
In 2015, I foresee the rise of a smaller, more personal social media trend that focuses on niche groups and specific, shared qualities or interests.
We’ve always shared with specific people or to small groups through “dark” channels like email or text messaging right alongside our broader social media sharing. In the coming year, I predict that this type of sharing will begin to get more notice from marketers and app developers.
The emergence of new, more focused social media networks like Ello and This—even Facebook’s experimental Rooms—as well as the explosive growth of apps like Snapchat that allow users to target a specific social media audience, indicate that this groundswell may have already begun.
Combine this with the increasing challenge of getting noticed in Facebook’s crowded news feed and the announcement that a Twitter algorithm is likely on the way soon, and the stage is set for some big changes in the way we communicate socially.
For brands, this change could mean exploring new and diverse social media spaces on an authentic human scale, as you find your community wherever they might gather.
Courtney Seiter, content crafter at Buffer.
#16: All Social Networks Offer Paid Visibility
The majority of the social networks will copy Facebook’s model for displaying information to their users. That means other social networks will begin filtering what posts your friends or followers see.
Why? Because there is a lot of noise on these social sites, which causes users to decrease their engagement. Sure, as a user, you can unfollow or unfriend certain people. However, if the majority of their posts are great, you still want to see what they have to say. You just don’t want to see the junk.
In addition to improving user experience, this model can help these social sites generate extra income. For example, any additional revenue that publicly traded companies can squeeze from their users means higher stock prices.
Although most people or companies won’t pay to guarantee all of their posts are seen by others, larger companies will. Paying for the visibility of their content will ensure they are getting traffic and the brand exposure they’re looking for.
If you want all of your content to be seen without having to spend any money, share high-quality content or updates on a regular basis. Also make sure the majority of your followers are interacting with your content. For example, if you don’t know half of your friends on Facebook, you can’t expect them to be as engaged as your real friends would be. For this reason, you may be better off unfriending those users. Having interested followers will produce higher engagement rates, which will prompt the social network to show your content to more people.
#17: Marketing Requires a Combination Approach
No longer will there be social media marketers who focus on only one network. They will be extinct!
Integrated social media marketing will become a “must” for implementation. For too long marketers have been doing “Facebook marketing” and “Twitter marketing” plus other marketing in isolated silos. As we’ve seen in 2014 with Facebook reach, if a business focuses on only one social platform, changes to that platform can be disastrous. Therefore, the importance of integrated marketing will headline 2015.
Smart marketers will need to use a combination approach. They’ll need to focus on multiple social networks and the ways to use them in power combinations. For example, sharing on Twitter a video or image your brand posted to Facebook can add value to the Facebook post. Marketers will have to find ways to weave together and drive social traffic from one network to another.
Brands need to think cohesively about their “online social marketing plan” that uses their website as the foundation for great content and then integrates cross–social platform sharing to enhance reach and boost engagement from one platform to another.
Below is a great example from Peg Fitzpatrick. She starts with a great blog post on her website, which is then socially shared.
In this example, Peg shares to Google+ and refers back to the post on her website. It also incorporates a “Pin it for later” convenience option that when clicked allows the user to pin the image to his or her own board on Pinterest. So it includes multiple social networks for sharing, all of which drive back to her website where she has email opt-in forms to grow her email list.
This is the integrated, synergistic online marketing approach that marketers will need to implement in 2015.
Mike Gingerich, co-founder of TabSite.
#18: Visual Content Ups Its Game
Visuals, visuals, visuals! This will be the year we see marketers take images and videos to the next level. Over the past couple of years we’ve seen visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram skyrocket in popularity. Plus, more recently, videos have become more popular on Facebook.
We’ve also seen tools come on the scene that make creating awesome visuals super-easy and fun to do. Canva has made image creation a breeze and mobile apps such as PicStitch and Wordswag put the power of creating interesting images and videos for Instagram right in our pockets.
No longer are great images limited to businesses with huge budgets for professional photographers and graphic designers. Now, businesses with the smallest budgets can create images for their content. This is a good thing because consumers will expect higher-quality images. In the early days of Pinterest and on Instagram almost anything could get attention with repins or likes. Now there’s so much competition on these platforms, not just any image will do.
Great visuals also go a long way in helping people establish trust with your online presence. Have you ever been to a doctor’s office with outdated furniture and old magazines in the racks? Unless you’ve been seeing that doctor for a long time, you might question his or her professionalism. Not using images in your content or using bad outdated ones can reflect negatively on your business. People could think of your business as less professional or less reputable.
On the flipside, when it comes to videos, I predict that we’ll see them become less produced and more relaxed and natural. There’ll no longer be a need to set up a studio with a production crew for every video you create. Social media audiences will find the spur-of-the-moment videos created on a smartphone more relatable and engaging.
Cynthia Sanchez, writer and podcast host at Oh So Pinteresting.
#19: Marketers Take Control of Content
We are tribal by nature. As such, I believe there’ll be a continual move toward common-interest communities that fuel our innate need to tell stories and communicate as a group. This includes Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, group boards on Pinterest and Google+ communities. Hashtags will also continue to shine on Instagram and Twitter as a way to stake our claim to a topic or niche and build community by curating content around that topic.
When you establish a group on any of these platforms, both the founders/admins and the people who join the group actually want to find each other. They are looking for conversations about mutual interests. They want to see your content in a place where they’re not distracted by main news feeds.
It’s not surprising that many businesses are reporting the benefits of establishing a Facebook group separate from their Facebook page. As pay-to-play becomes more of a necessity for having your content seen on Facebook, the popularity of groups brings a degree of control over what content we share and how we communicate with each other.
In my experience, the best communities are those that focus on sharing content and helping each other instead of being about promotion. If you build trust as someone who brings people together and guides them to share and support each other, you’ll build relationships with the people who matter most to your business, without giving “reach” a second thought.
Donna Moritz, founder of Socially Sorted.
#20: Hashtags Build Collaborative Communities
This will be the year of the collaborative community. On- and offline there is an opportunity to build relationships and expand our sphere of influence from communities outside our own. We should become more relaxed about sharing what we do and who we know. I call it “lead with giving.” In this evolution of how to do business, everyone wins.
The hashtag is the anchor of the social media revolution. A single hashtag connects a conversation across Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. From these conversations, a community can quickly be formed; people with common interests are united. These conversations are also the place where businesses conduct their most powerful market research.
Today, even when you can’t physically be at an event, you can still join the conversation, thanks to the hashtag. Be a part of the conversation before, during and after the event to get the total experience!
Build your community through your expertise and your experiences. This mindset will help transform how we receive information and how we communicate our knowledge. Make 2015 #InstaAmazing.
Sue B. Zimmerman, founder of Insta-Results™ and author of Instagram Basics for Your Business.
#21: Paid Media Becomes the Norm
Paid media isn’t going away. In fact, budgeting for paid media will be more important than ever, as it will be more integrated with earned and owned media.
This year, we saw social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram introduce ads to a number of businesses as they strove towards monetization. Next year, we can definitely expect them to make a worldwide rollout.
The use of social media will only continue to rise as the number of people who join these social media channels climbs. We can expect organic reach to continue to decline as the volume of content on these networks increases.
To make up for the decrease in organic reach and to get content across, businesses will need to pay to play or watch their content wash away. Soon the idea of free attention will vanish and paid media will be the norm.
I believe this is a natural progression, since there are only a number of things we can see at any single time.
The increasing competition to get content across will in turn evolve paid media into another level, as businesses try to satisfy consumers’ thirst for good content. Native advertising and sponsored posts garnered a lot attention from businesses this year. We can expect better integration and coherence with its platforms moving forward.
While most people might find this disturbing, I think if paid media continues to evolve, we might just get good actual content.
Aaron Lee, social media manager, entrepreneur and the grandmaster of customer delight at Post Planner.
#22: Visual Marketing Explodes on SlideShare
The recent upgrades to SlideShare put it in place to be the hottest social platform in 2015. LinkedIn owns SlideShare.
LinkedIn started delivering solid traffic to blogs in 2014, as well as on-platform publishing. SlideShare will seal the deal as a viable social platform, proving that LinkedIn is no longer just for finding a job.
SlideShare offers an easy way to create an enhanced version of a blog post or repurpose a presentation. Building your visual brand across the web has proven to be a powerful piece of the branding puzzle. A great SlideShare can help showcase your expertise and build thought leadership.
Solid features of the upgraded SlideShare:
- Upload infographics to SlideShare
- Download leads from views of your SlideShares
- Keynote author status for select accounts, offering special features and wider exposure
- Customizable profile page
- Clickable links at the end of the presentation, which direct traffic to your website
- Integration with Haiku Deck, so you can create a presentation directly in SlideShare
- Analytics
A fun way to showcase a SlideShare is to make a GIF of your presentation using GIF Deck. Embedding a SlideShare into your blog post or post published on LinkedIn is a snap with the provided embed codes. You can also add them into your next email blast. And they look great on mobile!
With its versatility, link-building opportunities and lead gathering, it’s hard to deny SlideShare’s value to your content marketing bottom line. Add SlideShare to your content marketing plan and see how it can boost your visual marketing in 2015!
Peg Fitzpatrick, co-author of the upcoming book, The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users and a social media strategist.
#23: Social Marketers Become Selective
Social media is becoming increasingly competitive and complex. If it was possible to be a social media expert three years ago, it’s definitely impossible today. And it becomes even worse as we enter 2015.
Specialization is unavoidable. No one can be a Facebook expert, Twitter expert, Instagram expert and Pinterest expert all at once. On top of that, the advertising options offered by each of these platforms are becoming so complex that mastering them requires an enormous amount of testing, experimenting and learning.
You can’t do it all (let alone do it all well), so you’ll have to make choices.
As a consequence, business owners and marketers will have to change the way they approach social media and be much more focused on the things that work for them, while getting rid of the ones that don’t. Will 2015 be the year you’ll delete your Facebook page, remove your Instagram account or stop your Facebook advertising? Maybe.
In order to do that, measure your results on social media to make sure you invest your time well.
Take a step back. List the social media efforts that paid off back in 2014 and the ones that didn’t. Then make some hard decisions, based on what you can measure.
The only way to handle the growing complexity of the social media marketing world is to be selective. And you need the right data to make the right choices.
Emeric Ernoult, founder of AgoraPulse.
#24: Direct Buying Becomes Mainstream
In 2015, both Twitter and Facebook will introduce the Buy button and we’ll see significant sales happening through these platforms. I don’t imagine that you’ll be buying products for a few hundred dollars, but you will hand over micro-payments. For example, it makes perfect sense for authors launching a book to offer it for sale directly on Twitter and Facebook.
We know that Twitter and Facebook are already testing this out. I think that they both will partner with Stripe to do all the payment processing.
LinkedIn will follow with a similar payment system, but I don’t see this happening until 2016.
As people get used to handing over smaller amounts of money, Facebook will develop a marketplace for products and services in years to come. Why not go shopping with your friends online?
Ian Cleary, founder of RazorSocial.
#25: Social Media Marketers Rebrand
The popularity of the search term “content marketing” is gradually catching up with “social media marketing,” and service providers will react by broadening their services and repositioning their brands.
This trend started with SEO companies a few years ago when content marketing emerged as the most sustainable (and safest) way to improve search rankings. But as demand for content marketing services grows, social media marketers will be next to jump on the bandwagon.
Companies looking for content marketing services will need to look deeper into the history of each service provider to learn the legacy and favorite strategies of each. In other words, the branding of marketing companies will converge, but the “flavors” of the providers won’t.
Content marketers with different backgrounds will continue to focus on different channels.
Social media marketing backgrounds drive results through content, connections and micro-targeting through social ads.
- PR and communications backgrounds drive results through strategic messaging and high-level outreach.
- Search engine marketing backgrounds drive results through technical on-site fixes and tactical outreach.
But in the end, the demand for social media as a specific service will continue to exceed the demand for content marketing services in 2015.
Andy Crestodina, principal and strategic director at Orbit Media and the author ofContent Chemistry: An Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing.
#26: Businesses Embrace Owned Digital Assets
In 2015, I believe there’ll be a renewed focus on building and growing owned digital assets such as websites, blogs and communities. Social media has offered tremendous content distribution and engagement opportunities over the past few years, but it’s become much more noisy, expensive and difficult to reach your audience. Additionally we don’t own our space or our connections on social networks, and the rules are changing constantly.
To reduce these risks, businesses will seek out alternative avenues for content distribution, such as creative partnering, influencer marketing and niche content-sharing platforms to achieve more targeted visibility and engagement. Also, content curation as an “owned” content strategy becomes more prominent and acceptable.
This will be the year of social media awakening as more businesses realize that owned digital assets build greater long-term value with less risk.
Stephanie Sammons, founder and chief strategist at Wired Advisor.
#27: Video Creates Engaging Experiences
As humans, we each define a positive experience differently. When we have experiences that go above and beyond expectation, we want to share them and engage our friends and followers. To benefit from this innate behavior, companies need to think through and create world-class shareable experiences for their audience.
Since videos are likely the easiest ways to share a moment, video marketing will take off in 2015 in ways we’ve never seen before.
Video gives us the most context around people, companies and things over any other online medium. Start thinking about video as experiential. This is where 3D glasses and video start to give us the ability to play with video and experience stories, shopping and interactions in new ways. (Remember that Facebook bought a 3D company in 2014.)
It seems like loyalty and its definition have changed overnight. Customers who want different things will expect and deserve a personal experience in 2015. So give them unique, engaging experiences. And use video and creativity to do it.
Bryan Kramer, CEO of PureMatter, host of the From the Author’s Point of View podcast and author of There is No B2B or B2C: It’s Human to Human: #H2H.
#28: More Apps Support Anonymity
The web has gone back and forth on anonymity. In the early days, everything you did online was anonymous. But that eventually moved to you having to use your real name because of hate messages, bullying and even crimes. If you weren’t going to say what you had to say using your real name, the web decided you probably shouldn’t be saying it at all.
In 2014, anonymous social media apps such as Whisper, Secret, YikYak and Facebook Rooms emerged and gained popularity fairly quickly. Once again, we can air our grievances with little risk of real-life consequences.
There are two big reasons for this: We miss our privacy a great deal and communities of commonality are important. We see this with Pinterest and Foodspotting andInstagram.
That is why a social media trend in 2015 will be anonymous apps.
We want to go back to the days of yore when we could go to a website, enter anonymously and make friends with like-minded people. We want the serendipity of making new friends around the globe, without necessarily knowing any of their demographic information. We want to be able to say what’s on our minds without having the backlash of the social media mob.
Of course, nothing we post online is really anonymous, but these social networks will continue to gain steam, and more will be introduced because we like the veiled privacy of it all.
Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich, Inc.
What do you think? Do you agree with these social media marketing predictions? Do you have any you’d like to share? Please share your comments below.
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