The 10 Best Social Media Predictions for 2014

Übersicht der Marketing-Instrumente (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: A business ideally is continually seeking feedback from customers: are the products helpful? are their needs being met? Constructive criticism helps marketers make adjustments to their products and services to adapt to the changing needs of their customers. Source of diagram: here (see public domain declaration at top). Questions: write me at my Wikipedia talk page or email me at thomaswrightsulcer@yahoo.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: A business ideally is continually seeking feedback from customers: are the products helpful? are their needs being met? Constructive criticism helps marketers adjust offerings to meet customer needs. Source of diagram: here (see public domain declaration at top). Questions: write me at my Wikipedia talk page (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Keywords: Best Practices, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, News,Engagement, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, 2014 predictions, social media predictions

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In my years in marketing and media relations, I’ve learned there is one constant: change. If you can’t embrace it, you will wither on the vine. Peeirng into the crystal ball of 2014, I found some excellent prognostication from people that know much more than I do on what’s next in social media marketing. Here are the ten best I’ve found so far.

1. More real-time marketing. From John Kultgen on PR Daily. When the Oreo Super Bowl ad went viral, the wheels were turning in marketers’ heads everywhere.  Kultgen says, “The brand set a new standard for extremely timely and relevant content. Sporting events, awards shows, and season finales became the source of inspiration for many brand’s posts throughout the year.”  Real-time marketers will help fans engage in an experience. Savvy brands will learn how to do it well, not a la Kenneth Cole.

2. Whether your real time is faster than my real time will no longer be the problem. From Marketing Profs. “Marketers will begin taking advantage of new capabilities that enable them to act on insights in the very moment they need to act. Speed of delivery will no longer be the problem. The real opportunity is whether an experience can be delivered when it counts for the business—and when it matters most for the consumer.”

3. Word-of-mouth marketing will take off. From Jason Falls on Social Media Explorer. Falls say that consumers will continue their migration away from sponsored messages and banner ads. “We don’t want the blinking lights of Times Square. We’d rather have the relative peacefulness of a stroll around Greenwich Village.”  Falls says marketers are going to have to migrate to Snapchat, Path, Vine, and any other network that connects people but doesn’t have an established business model. But beware, “you’ll only be there for a year or two before the ads emerge and consumers migrate again.”

4. User-generated content will be the hot content commodity. From Marketing Profs. What many already know, most will start taking advantage of: user-generated content creates loyalty, puts the fan/customer in the driver’s seat, and generates sales. Every fan wears a marketing hat. Rick Mulready dubbed this “embracing fandom” on Entrepreneur.

5. Short form content will dominate. From Julie Fleischer, Director of Media & Consumer Engagement at Kraft (via Content Marketing Institute).  Fleischer predicts that short form sound, sight, and motion will deliver greater viewership and higher engagement than long-form. She predicts, “ brands will compete over who can tell the shortest stories with the biggest impact.” Consumers will be the winners.

6. Niche interest networks will increase in prominence and usage. From Adam Vincenzini on PR Daily. Even though they will never significantly make a dent in the market share of the big channels, they will get more attention in 2014 as marketers who want to stay fresh look to engage the crowd that embraces innovation and change. It’s all about learning to ride the wave.

7. More visual, less text. From Jessica Smith on Social ‘N Sports. Smith cites how images have changed the way we digest social: “photo albums, pictures, and video get 180, 120, and 100 percent more engagement respectively (Facebook).”  We’ll have to push ourselves to keep up with all the channel settings that will enhance visuals for maximum engagement. Note recent Twitter changes.

8. Erasable media. From Dave Kerpen on Inc. Kerpen predicts our desire for the ephemeral will give rise to new channels and move current mainstream social media networks to adopt a disappearing content function. Kerpen attributes this to our increasing desire to personally share with one another. “This means that you’ll have to be prepared to have the results of your hard work in content marketing literally vanish.”

9. Social listening will become a requirement, not an option. From Pam Moore on Marketing Nutz. Moore says, “Brands of all sizes will start to understand that they must invest in social listening strategies, tactics and technologies to truly understand, inspire and connect with their audiences. Managing and protecting brand reputation must start from the inside out.” Preachin’ to the choir.

10. Investment in social media will become a necessity, not a luxury. From Jayson DeMers on Forbes.  As demand for good content and measurable results increase, brands will move from spreading social media duties across existing positions to hiring social media managers, according to DeMers. The era of assigning social media duties to a “tech-savvy, passionate” staff members is over. When companies need outside help, they will be looking for agencies that know social media business, not just social media tools.

There you have it. What’s your best guess at 2014? The comments are yours.

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Ten Best Social Media Predictions for 2014

English: Overview of green marketing activities (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Marketing Metrics Continuum provides a framework for how to categorize metrics from the tactical to strategic. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: A business ideally is continually seeking feedback from customers: are the products helpful? are their needs being met? Constructive criticism helps marketers adjust offerings to meet customer needs. Source of diagram: here (see public domain declaration at top). Questions: write me at my Wikipedia talk page (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: American marketing and social media guru, Stephen Monaco (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 10 Best Social Media Predictions for 2014

Keywords: Best Practices, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, News,Engagement, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, 2014 predictions, social media prdictions

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In my years in marketing and media relations, I’ve learned there is one constant: change. If you can’t embrace it, you will wither on the vine. Peeirng into the crystal ball of 2014, I found some excellent prognostication from people that know much more than I do on what’s next in social media marketing. Here are the ten best I’ve found so far.

1. More real-time marketing. From John Kultgen on PR Daily. When the Oreo Super Bowl ad went viral, the wheels were turning in marketers’ heads everywhere.  Kultgen says, “The brand set a new standard for extremely timely and relevant content. Sporting events, awards shows, and season finales became the source of inspiration for many brand’s posts throughout the year.”  Real-time marketers will help fans engage in an experience. Savvy brands will learn how to do it well, not a la Kenneth Cole.

2. Whether your real time is faster than my real time will no longer be the problem. From Marketing Profs. “Marketers will begin taking advantage of new capabilities that enable them to act on insights in the very moment they need to act. Speed of delivery will no longer be the problem. The real opportunity is whether an experience can be delivered when it counts for the business—and when it matters most for the consumer.”

3. Word-of-mouth marketing will take off. From Jason Falls on Social Media Explorer. Falls say that consumers will continue their migration away from sponsored messages and banner ads. “We don’t want the blinking lights of Times Square. We’d rather have the relative peacefulness of a stroll around Greenwich Village.”  Falls says marketers are going to have to migrate to Snapchat, Path, Vine, and any other network that connects people but doesn’t have an established business model. But beware, “you’ll only be there for a year or two before the ads emerge and consumers migrate again.”

4. User-generated content will be the hot content commodity. From Marketing Profs. What many already know, most will start taking advantage of: user-generated content creates loyalty, puts the fan/customer in the driver’s seat, and generates sales. Every fan wears a marketing hat. Rick Mulready dubbed this “embracing fandom” on Entrepreneur.

5. Short form content will dominate. From Julie Fleischer, Director of Media & Consumer Engagement at Kraft (via Content Marketing Institute).  Fleischer predicts that short form sound, sight, and motion will deliver greater viewership and higher engagement than long-form. She predicts, “ brands will compete over who can tell the shortest stories with the biggest impact.” Consumers will be the winners.

6. Niche interest networks will increase in prominence and usage. From Adam Vincenzini on PR Daily. Even though they will never significantly make a dent in the market share of the big channels, they will get more attention in 2014 as marketers who want to stay fresh look to engage the crowd that embraces innovation and change. It’s all about learning to ride the wave.

7. More visual, less text. From Jessica Smith on Social ‘N Sports. Smith cites how images have changed the way we digest social: “photo albums, pictures, and video get 180, 120, and 100 percent more engagement respectively (Facebook).”  We’ll have to push ourselves to keep up with all the channel settings that will enhance visuals for maximum engagement. Note recent Twitter changes.

8. Erasable media. From Dave Kerpen on Inc. Kerpen predicts our desire for the ephemeral will give rise to new channels and move current mainstream social media networks to adopt a disappearing content function. Kerpen attributes this to our increasing desire to personally share with one another. “This means that you’ll have to be prepared to have the results of your hard work in content marketing literally vanish.”

9. Social listening will become a requirement, not an option. From Pam Moore on Marketing Nutz. Moore says, “Brands of all sizes will start to understand that they must invest in social listening strategies, tactics and technologies to truly understand, inspire and connect with their audiences. Managing and protecting brand reputation must start from the inside out.” Preachin’ to the choir.

10. Investment in social media will become a necessity, not a luxury. From Jayson DeMers on Forbes.  As demand for good content and measurable results increase, brands will move from spreading social media duties across existing positions to hiring social media managers, according to DeMers. The era of assigning social media duties to a “tech-savvy, passionate” staff members is over. When companies need outside help, they will be looking for agencies that know social media business, not just social media tools.

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7 Tips For Integrating Social Media With Your Email Marketing

Social Media Camp – NYC – 2011 (Photo credit: deanmeyersnet)

English: Data from April 2011 Editor Survey that lists Social Media activities (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Renault Ares 836 RZ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Social Media Cafe (Photo credit: Cristiano Betta)

HubSpot Leads Automatically Get Social Media Info and Photo Added to Them (Photo credit: HubSpot)

Social Media Outposts (Photo credit: the tartanpodcast)

December 14, 2013 by Robert Stone Leave a Comment

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When considering social strategies people often think about integration with websites and other media, but integration with email is just as important.

Here’s 7 tips to help you integrate social media with your email marketing:

1. Send a dedicated social email to existing customers – Many brands already have minor visibility for social channels in emails, perhaps some share buttons under email content or all of their social logos at the top or bottom of an email. To really focus your customers response on social, try sending out an email that just directs people to a single social presence. To target further, make sure you send people to the social presence that’s most relevant to them. Send business customers to your LinkedIn page and your younger customers to Facebook or Instagram, that way you’ll continue to communicate with them on the most relevant platform.
2. Email capture on social – You’ll often find that your customer database and your followers on social sites have significant overlap, but there will always be people who follow you on social sites that you don’t have in your database, especially valuable prospects who may not yet be customers. Engage them on social media in a way that encourages them to provide you with their email address. Competitions, surveys, free ebooks or other types of free content often work well. Using these tactics to acquire a following can lead to an unengaged and unresponsive following that’s not brand loyal, however these people are already following your brand on social and you’re simply adding another communication channel for them.
3. Use the data – Now that you’ve got an email database and email addresses for those who follow you on social media you can start to look at the data. How many people overlap? How many are customers? How often do social followers buy our products compared to those who have signed up to our email database?  What percentage of Facebook fans are customers compared to Twitter followers? Asking these questions and finding the answers in the data will help you better understand your customers and prospects and inform future marketing campaigns.
4. Make it easy for people to share – The fewer barriers for sharing content that customers have to overcome, the more they’ll share. Make sure that social icons are clearly visable around content that you want them to share. Don’t overwhelm people with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Bebo, Myspace and every other social site under the sun – focus on what’s best for your customers and serve that dynamically in emails if you have the option.
5. Use social to access networks – One of your most powerful customer acquisition tools is your current customers. People who already buy and love your brand would be happy to share it with their closest 400 friends and family on Facebook, if only you made it easy for them. Pick a segment of your customers who are really engaged with a certain product and incentivise them to share it on social media. People who buy your products are highly likely to know similar people who are right in your target market. Utilise their network.
6. Don’t duplicate content – You should be using your social presence and email databases for different types of communications. Email can be very specific and targeted, and almost a one-to-one conversation. Social should be used for broader engagement of your demographic on that site.
7. Repurpose content – While it’s not okay to simply duplicate, it is a good idea to take great, inspiring content from social media and give it exposure in an email, especially customer generated content which people will trust much more than content that comes from your brand.

Filed Under: Email Marketing, Featured, Guest Post, News Nugget, Social Media, Social Media Management,Social Media Marketing, Social Media Strategy, Tip of the Day

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Engage , Connect, Converse and Grow are the essentials of Social Media Branding And Marketing

HubSpot Leads Automatically Get Social Media Info and Photo Added to Them (Photo credit: HubSpot)

English: Screenshot of the social media toolbox for fundraising (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Social media is no more the next thing. It has grown bigger and has spread like a wildfire. There is a brand karma associated with social media, when it comes to start-ups who grow to become smart-ups. Why do start-ups adhere to social media so vigorously? The reason is simple. They want to converse, collaborate, engage and finally shape the idea.

So what is it that drives the start-ups to channelize ideas through social media?

The golden word is ‘innovation’. It is actually the thought process that matters. The idea is to take ‘the road less travelled’ and to be able to take the risk than to accept failure. With start-ups there is always a ‘wow-factor’ that needs to be attached at every corner – or else the world is always ready to look for a better replacement.

What is the ROI quotient from social media?

– The ROI in case of social media cannot be easily measured. It comes out as “brand recall” and the perception of your brand to your target market.
– Have a clear overview of your present condition and the efforts you need to put in.
– Chain your thought process. Are you thinking outside the box or just following the crowd?
– Is it the right approach or do you need to add a unique factor to get your presence felt?

The reason: You do not want to get lost in the crowd after some time. It is not just being a name, but to evolve as a brand.

Where is the vantage point? Well, you need to know where you want to be:

Be it a business, research, individual entity or community building, it is essential that you have a USP to put forward. If not, you are perhaps on the same level as any other start-up business. Determine the elements that need to be altered first, so you can know where you are going wrong. Listen to your target market and design your product/services subsequently. Revamping is another factor that must be prevalent in your product designing. Every time you will find new markets, new conversion rates and so on. But what you need to pitch is one big idea that will hit the score. To grab a better stand think what you can offer better than the others even if you have many competitors. So don’t just develop an idea. Keep on fostering and nurturing it. Start engaging users and converse to get better conversion rates!!!

What after planning a social media plan? Start cultivating it constantly to acquire that brand equity:

Social media is not a stagnant sphere where the same old concepts rule. It changes every single moment and thus it becomes pertinent that you take a shift likewise. So stay active and make more friends who will protect your image in case there are some bad omens lurking around you. It is true when you have a visible brand, there will be some anti-elements that will try to spoil your reputation. During those tumultuous times, your consumers will be a boon in disguise. The more you connect and converse, the better you emerge out as a trustworthy brand.

There are a few things that you can keep in mind in this regard:

– Be aware of the social media present that can be used for promotion of your company.
– Follow current trends to get idea about the current market or recent events.
– Check out applications that you think can be of any assistance.
– Keep a check out for the updates so you are always on track.
– Ensure that your target market trusts your brand. This takes time – but must not fade away.

The aim is to stay focused, but think differently. Think, develop, create, engage, experiment, share and grow. The journey from start-ups to becoming smart-ups has a silhouette of elements. All you need to do is to break the shackles and do the new!

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• 4 Ways to Create Always-On Content
• Social Videos – Why, Where And How?
• Is Snapchat for brands?

• 

Tags: collaborate, community development executive, Connect, converse, develop, Engage,experiment, grow, Innovation, nabanita roy, ROI, shape, share, Social Media, social media plan,start-ups, think

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The Explosion In Local-Mobile Data Is Rewriting The Rules For Marketers

market 1 (Photo credit: tim caynes)

The Marketing Metrics Continuum provides a framework for how to categorize metrics from the tactical to strategic. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: A business ideally is continually seeking feedback from customers: are the products helpful? are their needs being met? Constructive criticism helps marketers adjust offerings to meet customer needs. Source of diagram: here (see public domain declaration at top). Questions: write me at my Wikipedia talk page (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

BII

The check in is on the way out. But apps that use mobile location data are only becoming more popular.

Providing a useful service that encourages data sharing is the key to a successful location-based strategy. It is also the formula for creating a valuable, ad-supported app, as marketers seek information to power hyper-personalized, targeted campaigns.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we look at how location-based services have changed, what services are doing the best job of enticing users to share their location data, and other data like preferences and habits, and how marketers can then take that information and put it to use for hyper-targeted campaigns.

Here are some of the report’s key findings:

• Location-based services enjoy widespread acceptance, but adoption isn’t growing. Seventy-four percent of U.S. smartphone owners say they use mobile location-based services. That percentage is flat compared to last year.
• Check-ins are becoming passé. The percentage of U.S. adults who reported using local-social networks to “check in,” decreased from 18% in February of last year to 12% this year.
• Apps like Life360 and Waze prosper because consumers feel like they’re getting great value out of sharing not just their location, but other information too.
• Research increasingly supports the notion that local apps and advertising leads to in-store purchases. Mobile-local campaigns allow marketers to nudge customers down the purchase funnel, and “close the loop,” with in-store foot traffic and purchases.
• Geoaudience profiling, geoconquesting, and hyper-local in-store campaigns are three primary strategies used to segment audiences and target consumers based on location.

Access The Full Report And All Our Local-Mobile Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today>>

In full, the report:

• Examines how location-based services have changed now that the check in is on the way out.
• Considers those apps that have done the best job offering a service to consumers and getting them to voluntarily share their information.
• Puts location-based services in the context of mobile in-store shopping among consumers.
• Unpacks the three main campaigns associated with mobile-location marketing.
• Looks forward to emergent trends toward hyper-local targeting, in which retailers use Bluetooth technology and mobile payments in stores.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/location-tech-powers-new-mobile-industry-2013-11#ixzz2lEOuXhKU

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