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One challenge, which isn’t new, is the battle for consumer attention. If you’re looking to grow your user base, is there a best way to cost-effectively attract valuable users? I’m increasingly convinced the best way is by harnessing a concept called social proof, a relatively untapped gold mine in the age of the social web.
What is social proof? Put simply, it’s the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something. It’s also known as informational social influence....
The Archbishop of Canterbury has criticised social media for fermenting disagreements, exacerbating what ought to be face-to-face fallouts into wider digital spats with correspondingly inflated consequences.
Writing on his Lambeth Palace blog, the Most Rev Justin Welby, discussed Twitter rage and avoided seeking to ‘set everyone right on everything’ through the medium of online chat forums.
In few professions has the emergence of social media been such a double-edged sword as public relations. On one hand, the “citizen journalism,” blogging, and content-sharing platforms for all types of media have fundamentally altered the traditional print-based business model of professional and trade publications. Information scarcity has been replace by information overload.
There are fewer professional reporters and editors, and they inundated with more noise: it’s estimated there are now four PR professionals for every full-time journalist in the US.
On the other, given their skills in relationship-building and content development, PR professionals (should at least) have a natural knack for social media success. And recent changes to Google’s search algorithm which place a premium value on earned links—the kind generated by effective PR and social media engagement—have increased the value PR professionals bring to maximizing overall brand visibility....
Whether 2015 promises to be a mobile-first, social media driven year for brands and the people who work behind the scenes for them, social media is no longer considered “new” – it plays a major role in the lives of billions of people globally, who they trust, how they communicate and make buying decisions.
To find out what social marketers may expect, I asked over 30+ social media influencers on what they view as forthcoming in the year ahead. Here’s what they had to say....
For any business, creating an online presence is a must these days. Majority of the people across the globe engage in transactions over the internet. So, it is quite essential for businesses to perform their marketing endeavors online.
Which platform is the most effective these days for marketing products and services? Ask this question to different business owners. The unanimous answer will surely be social media. According to Statista, there are already about 1.79 billion users in social media in 2014. And it is projected to reach about 2.44 billion by 2018. This is surely going to give social media a boost as a major marketing platform in near future.
Almost every year, new trends emerge for social media. With 2015 round the corner, it’s time to have a look at some of the most anticipated social media trends for the year....
Earlier this year, Instagram was leading the pack as the fastest-growing social platform. Now, it's Tumblr and Pinterest, which have edged out the picture-sharing app for greatest increase in active users.
Tumblr's active users grew by 120% in the last six months, according to new stats released by the Global Web Index first spotted by TechCrunch on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Facebook's active users grew by just 2%.
Pinterest comes in behind Tumblr with a 111% growth in active users, who are users that say they've actually used the site with some regularity. Earlier this year when GWI released numbers, Instagram was on top but has dropped to third place. Of the top eight, in fact, Facebook is in last place, behind LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Google+....
It’s that time again: When I look ahead to 2015 to predict social media marketing trends we can expect over the coming year. If you want to see what I predicted for 2014 (and whether those predictions came true), you can do so here: - The Top 7 Social Media Trends That Will Dominate 2014 (written Sept 2013) - The Top 7 Social Media Trends Dominating 2014 (written July 2014).
But without further ado, here are my top 7 social media marketing predictions for 2015!...
To honor women who “rock” the social web, we’ve been publishing a list for the past 4 years and 2014 marks the 5th. That’s about 100 social media pros we’ve featured ranging from marketers to business owners to those using social media to advance a cause.
Many of those honorees have reached out to share they’ve benefitted in many ways from those lists ranging from general notoriety to career advancement.
During research within my own personal network for the 2014 list, I noticed an impressive group of social media marketing pros in the tech space that represent some of the top brands from IBM to Adobe to Intel.
This group of 15 women represents some of the talented executives and practitioner social media smarties that me or my team at TopRank Online Marketing have had the good fortune to work with, collaborate with on projects or meet (IRL or virtually).
For anyone interested in advice from some of the most successful executives and managers in the social media marketing world, this is a great group to follow....
Some Internet memes rely on added sugar and mysterious ingredients to extend their shelf lives, as we discussed yesterday. Others, such as “Alex from Target,” are like French black truffles — not only are they wild, rare and out of the reach of most of us but they also require highly sensitive snouts to root them out.
Let’s get to the nut graf: “It turns out that Alex from Target is not a marketing ploy and he’s an actual, genuine person and bagger,” who just happened to be “fangirled” for his “super hot” looks while doing his job on the line in Texas, TMZ reported with all due exuberance yesterday.
In fact, according to TMZ’s blurb accompanying its video report, “Little Al's employer tells TMZ the Internet phenomenon is 100% genuine grassroots.”Lest you think this story is strictly for the tabloids, consider this revelation from the New York Times’ Leslie Kaufman: “The Alex phenomenon became the subject of news articles on the websites of Time, the Washington Post and CNN over the last two days. TheDallas Morning News tried furiously to confirm just which Target he worked for.”
And that’s nowhere near the half of it....
I’ll beg Dr. Barnes to forgive me the editorial liberty I’ve taken with this headline, but that’s my takeaway after finally reading the UMASS Dartmouth Study: The 2014 Fortune 500 and Social Media: LinkedIn Dominates As Use of Newer Tools Explodes.
My interpretation of the results are completely different than those of the researchers who concluded:
“The 2014 Fortune 500 has now fully embraced new communications tools that have taken so many other sectors by storm.”
“These giant corporations are demonstrating an interest in experimenting with new tools.”
“This is a group that now seems comfortable and even excited with its newfound ability to engage its vendors, partners, customers and others in ways that could not have been imagined when most of their corporations began.”...
Whether you are new to social media or a long-time veteran, by now you have probably realized that incorporating visuals in your social media profiles and posts makes all the difference. The only challenge: social networks are constantly adding more features and their changing visual components. It seems like every other week I have to go into our social networks and figure out the right size of cover images, post images and edit our campaign according to the latest updates.
It has become incredibly difficult for businesses to stay on top of all of these changes, and a lot of people are asking, what should be the size of my company’s Twitter header? Can I post the same picture on Twitter that I shared on my Facebook feed or will it be distorted? Can I add call to action on my cover photo?
Below we will go over a few of the big recent visual changes on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn and how you can make the most of each when marketing your business.
As someone who writes about social media a lot, I am often asked why a brand’s social media programs isn’t working like the business owners thinks it should be.
There is a lack of education on the topic of social media. There are also a lot of misguided social media gurus and consultants out there who believe that gaining a large number or a giant audience within the platform is the most important item to accomplish.This trickles down to the company owners and leaders. Let’s clear the air with eight reasons why the problem is not social media....
New practices need new language to describe them. When IDC's smart, experienced, forward-looking, clients and special guests got together at our recent Marketing Leadership board meeting in New York, I jotted down these terms they used as particularly useful as describing their challenges and ideas....
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This infographic from SurePayroll, illustrates peak times and guidelines for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Google +. They are all different, but what most share in common is to avoid posting early morning on the weekends, or after 3 pm on Fridays. Start posting at the right time, to get the best results....
For better or worse, younger consumers are more able to form meaningful relationships through digital channels.
That, at least, is according to new research from digital marketing agency Deep Focus, which based its findings on a survey of 901 “mainstream” 18-34s, and 302 18-34 “trendsetters,” late last year.
In fact, more than one-third of this demographic now consider “eLationships” as meaningful as in-person relationships, Deep Focus finds.
Plus, nearly a third (32%) of the young respondents reported feeling “close” to people they had only met online, while more than three-quarters (76%) said they had friendships based solely on social-media interactions....
What you want social media to do for your business, and what real people want and expect from businesses in social media are fundamentally different. This expectations disconnect and dissonance is the nucleus of all that is wrong and difficult about social media from a company perspective.
In Q4 2014, Hubspot released new research called The Social Lifecycle. In this project, they interviewed 600 consumers about where and what and how they want to intersect with brands in social media, in both a marketing and customer service context.
Several interesting findings in this research, and I was particularly intrigued because the new book I am working on focuses on the impact of speed on business and society.(that’s the first time I’ve mentioned the new book, so consider that the early preview to the tease to the coming soon)....
Today we’re celebrating the 5th and final version of the 25 Women Who Rock Social Media – 2014 edition from TopRank Online Marketing.
Nearly 100 women have been recognized over the past 4 years and the feedback I’ve received has been amazing – just like the women featured on the lists. Publishing these posts has also introduced me to some incredible individuals that are accomplishing amazing things – creating impact and making a difference – through social networking and social media content....
These are the trends that stand out from working with midsized clients, and that influences what I advise to them.
In part 2, I will look at what other digital marketers I respect are saying and what trend data is worth keeping in mind as you up your digital marketing game for 2015....
"Relevance is a search engine’s holy grail. People want results that are closely connected to their queries.”
This quote is from Marc Ostrofsky, an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and New York Times Best Selling Author. When it comes to online marketing, whether it be SEO, social media or paid advertising, being relevant is absolutely essential.
Online marketers want their Facebook posts to get hundreds if not thousands of comments, their tweets to get retweeted for the world to see and their search engine queries to catapult towards the top of Google.
Nobody wants to be standing in the corner at a New Year’s Eve party without having someone to kiss at midnight. The same can be said for digital marketers. They crave attention and in this competitive industry, having your content and website remaining relevant is a must if you want to succeed.
If you follow the 6 crucial steps to stay relevant in the digital marketing landscape in 2015, online marketers will be seeking your expertise on how you gained so much ground on the competition....
Despite the difference in setting, the people who come into your website aren’t all that different from people who shop in a store. Your storefront is just a virtual one. Just like shoppers casually walk through a store, letting their eyes wander, so too will your readers scan your content. People don’t read from beginning to end in most cases, they usually browse, looking for specific cues that entice them to read on.
People on the internet are looking for several things when they visit your website, these actionable concepts will be further exemplified in the coming approaches, but keep these characteristics in mind as you read...
Our Average Attention Span Is Now 8 Seconds – 1 Second Less Than A Goldfish
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, at the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the average attention span of a human being has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013. This is one second less than the attention span of a goldfish. That’s right, goldfish have an attention span of 9 seconds – 1 second more than you and I.
According to the source, this is due to “external stimulation” like all that content marketing we’re producing and distributing across all the social media channels....
So what would you do if you only had 30 minutes to spend on social media?
How would you prioritize your tasks so you make the absolute most of your valuable time?
I tend to find pockets of time throughout the day where I wish I could be as productive as possible in windows here and there. When a 30-minute window opens up, what should I be doing to maximize my time on social media?
Here are some ways I’ve attempted to use my 30-minute chunks, and maybe they’ll spark some ideas for your marketing spurts as well. I’d love to hear what solutions you’ve found, too!...
Chanel posted its first Instagram photos and videos Monday and already has 1.8 million followers. The images-based digital platform doesn't allow users to see exactly when companies or people join it—like Twitter does—but it appears that the brand opened its account some time ago, built up a considerable backing organically and then finally saw fit to post content. An email inquiry to the Paris-based company went unanswered.
As The New York Observer reported, the posts were born from a campaign party Chanel threw Monday for its new TV spot starring supermodel Gisele Bundchen. The brand's first Instagram post was a video (see below) that features a brief snippet of the commercial and garnered nearly 40,000 likes. Chanel's social marketing team then followed up with eight photographs from the soirée that collectively drew 158,000 likes....
You already know social media marketing is a channel that can drive traffic and sales, but the question is: are you actually seeing an increase in traffic or sales?
Chances are you are not. Why? Because you are using obsolete tactics that aren’t effective anymore.
If you want to change that, just avoid these 7 strategies
The following tactical methods have been proven to produce twice the amount of social media with only half of the effort. The great thing about this approach is that higher output on social media generally produces a greater level of engagement.
Here’s how to do it.
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Aileen Lee suggests that a "mixed salad" of various types of social proof is most effective. Find out how.