Communicating what your brand is all about, in simple, visual examples, is key to maximizing your Instagram performance. Here are some key tips.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/how-to-use-storytelling-to-connect-with-your-audience-on-instagram/556989/
Twitter is removing the option to tag your precise location in tweets, though you will still be able to do so via the Twitter camera.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitter-is-removing-the-option-to-tag-your-precise-location-in-tweets/557133/
LinkedIn is rolling out some new interview prep tools, including the capacity to test out your answers to common questions via video playback.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-adds-new-interview-preparation-tools-including-common-questions/557130/
Google has announced a range of new ad options, including advanced 3D ad display tools, along with some new options for YouTube promotions.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/google-announces-new-3d-ad-creation-tools-and-new-live-and-ar-ad-options-fo/557123/
Social media can be an excellent platform for connecting with your customers – here are some tips on how to boot your social customer support process.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/4-proven-ways-to-improve-customer-service-using-social-media/557069/
Using the just the right words can help increase your website conversions – check out this listing of action-prompting terms.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/88-compelling-words-and-phrases-to-prompt-website-visitors-into-action-inf/556990/
We hear it often: a podcast host or guest lamenting the fact that something they want to show, or that is happening in the room, doesn’t translate “in this audio medium.” And it’s true: while podcasts have opened up our world in so many ways to new knowledge and experiences, they have their limits.
Consistently crafting and sharing transcripts of your podcast episodes can, in a number of ways, close some of those gaps. It might seem like a luxury that your team can’t afford – in time, money, or resources – and yet we know of a few reasons you might win out for making the effort. Who needs you to transcribe your podcasts?
Many of us don’t think much of throwing earbuds in or a headset on to consume our favorite podcast episodes. But for the 466 million people around the world who identify as deaf or who live with hearing loss, such a practice isn’t always as easy. Sharing the insight, hilarity, or crucial information that you feature on your podcast in more than one medium is a way to confirm and convey your understanding.
Making a transcript available at the same time the episode is released can reduce stigma around a prospective listener having to ask for one; any way that we can lower the barrier for entry in a crowded landscape (540,000 as of 2018) matters. Particularly when a market is crowded, those that can make an experience seamless and stigma-free will rise to the top. Believe it or not, adding a transcript link to your show notes can make a difference in that regard.
As data and information are disseminated in ever-evolving ways, we’re called as a society to find new ways to reference them. Podcasts are one such tool that once elicited a “how do I reference this?” grumble but now have their place as a viable resource.
With that said, however, podcast creators can also make it easy to refer back to material in their shows by using transcripts. As anyone who’s edited a podcast can attest, it can be tedious to advance and rewind a recording in pursuit of that golden tidbit of knowledge (or, in the case of an edit, that weird noise in the background or co-host sneeze). But by placing your podcast’s contents in a reviewable document, you make their job easier…and perhaps endear your show to them as a source in the process.
Okay, so search engines aren’t exactly a group. But adding a transcript to your podcast provides them data that can move your show up in the rankings for a search term. As SEO continues to move away from “keyword stuffing” as a viable or acceptable practice, it instead looks for natural, frequent occurrences that can show a page’s relevance to a search term. Incidentally, regular speech does this well. Especially as you consider that Google prioritizes exact matches to keywords as well as natural synonyms and naturally co-occurring phrases, podcasts and other recorded conversations can easily provide this…if a search engine has a way to find them.
In a lot of ways, audio struggles to achieve virality because it’s not as easily shareable as other forms of media (although podcast apps like Swoot are working to change the “easily shareable” challenge). But creating a transcript can do more than just make your content easier for people to find, digest, and understand; it can make it easier for search engines to find and boost your valuable content.
It’s not always easy to produce a transcript for a podcast. It can often feel more worthwhile to spend that time ensuring quality sound, getting high-profile guests, or making deals to support your show with ads. But we promise, there are benefits to adding transcription to your to-do list, and a few corners of the internet that will be much happier you’ve made your show accessible to them.
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The post 3 Groups Who Need Your Podcast to Have Transcripts appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/3-groups-who-need-your-podcast-to-have-transcripts/
Twitter isn’t the only company learning from the experiments taking place on its twttr app; it would appear that Facebook is borrowing a page from this partially hidden playbook.
Late last week, Facebook announced that it would be ranking comments on Pages and profiles with a lot of followers, with the goal of making conversation more “meaningful.” By that, they likely mean less contentious and polarizing, if the details of the feature are to be believed.
Said Facebook Product Manager Justine Shen in the feature announcement, “ranking […] promotes meaningful conversations by showing people the posts and comments most relevant to them.” Some of the ranking factors are intuitive ones, like boosting comments that have a number of reactions, comments that the original poster has interacted with, or comments that come from friends of the original poster.
Additionally, Facebook will be pulling details from their recently deployed surveys to determine what sorts of comments people want to see.
But some factors seem a bit more vague. The most nebulous is “integrity signals,” an impressive yet vague sounding phrase on the same level as Twitter’s oft-pronounced “platform health,” that will allegedly filter out posts that violate Facebook’s terms and conditions as well as what Shen calls “engagement bait.” Though what engagement bait precisely entails goes unaddressed in the post, I would imagine the team will use a combination and machine learning to identify combative or abusive language. Further, Shen closes the post by saying, “We will continue to take other signals into account so we do not prominently show low-quality comments, even if they are from the person who made the original post or their friends.” I have to wonder what sorts of comments would fall into that category? For example, the relative who uses your posting as a cue to tell you something – however random – in a comment below. Would their remark be lost to the algorithm?
The feature is being deployed automatically for “Pages for public figures, organizations, and businesses,” as well as for select individual profiles that have a lot of followers. However, other users can opt in to use the feature in Settings. Curiously, the ability to rank comments on posts in Groups is unmentioned in this post – an interesting omission in light of the platform’s pivot toward these virtual gathering places. A likely reason? The sorts of contentious comments that are happening “in open air” like Pages or personal profiles, can be less common in Groups. So for now, product managers are focusing on the spaces most likely to breed contempt and aiming to quiet it.
After all, as Shen says early in the announcement, “We’re always working to ensure that people’s time on Facebook is well spent.” In their eyes, reducing the time and energy one spends wading through toxic or combative comments is an effective way to do that. Here’s hoping the feature’s beneficiaries come to agree.
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The post Facebook Follows Twitter’s Footsteps, Ranks Comments to Lift “Meaningful” Contributions appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/facebook-follows-twitters-footsteps-ranks-comments-to-lift-meaningful-contributions/
The definitive report has arrived. Mary Meeker, general partner at Bond Capital and referred to in some circles as “Queen of the Internet” delivered a stunningly comprehensive 333-slide report at Code Conference 2019.
In it, she shared key data points designed to uncover the state of the internet today. And within the report lay an equation for effective and efficient marketing. We’ve broken that equation down here, along with examples from the report and supporting stats. But don’t let this be a substitute- we still recommend exploring the full slide deck in all its stunning detail.
First, a definition of scope. When we’re talking about internet users, as is often the case in Meeker’s deck, at its broadest point we’re talking about half the globe. “Some 51 percent of the world — 3.8 billion people — were internet users last year, up from 49 percent (3.6 billion) in 2017,” Vox shared in their summary of the deck. With that said, “growth slowed to about 6 percent in 2018 because so many people have come online that new users are harder to come by.”
This slow growth of internet users mirrors the slowing growth in internet advertising. Early in the report, Meeker and the report’s other authors share, “While E-Commerce continues to gain share vs. physical retail, growth rates are slowing. While Internet advertising growth is solid & innovation is healthy, there are areas where customer acquisition costs may be rising to unsustainable levels.”
For this reason, the report spends a good bit of time highlighting its equation for effective and efficient marketing—strategies that can mitigate the high cost of customer acquisition:
Effective and Efficient Marketing = One’s Own Product + Happy Customers + Recommendations
It should be no surprise to anyone that a solid product is key to effective and efficient marketing. Especially in a world so hyperconnected as ours, a poor product or a poor experience will be quickly exposed. Meeker bears this out with the help of a 2BrightCove and YouGov survey that indicated a free trial or tier for a product was the most commonly cited reason for trying a new service (42% of participants). Claims of excellence aren’t enough; they need to see it for themselves on a consistent and common-use basis.
And this model can bolster the rest of the business if deployed correctly. Spotify CEO Barry McCarthy, cited in the report, says of Spotify’s freemium tier, “Our freemium model accounts for about 60% of our gross added premium subscribers.” This combination of ad support and subscription has worked wonders for the leaders in streaming music: “the ad-supported service is a subsidy program that offsets the cost of new customer acquisition.” When people can see the product or service and incorporate it into their daily lives before paying, business can soar.
Another service with a freemium model, Zoom, has harnessed the power of creating an experience that users love so much, they’re happy to pay for it…and evangelize for it in the process. Videoconferencing’s occasionally shaky reputation means that people want to try a service and have a good experience before investing. Founder Eric Yuan understands this, and built the experience accordingly: “We really want to get our customers to test our product…it’s really hard to get customers to try Zoom without a freemium product.”
If Zoom’s valuation and subsequent debut as a publicly traded company is any indication, the strategy works. Says Yuan, “we make our freemium product work so well…if they like our product, very soon they are going to pay for the subscription.” He and his team understand the cost of generating new leads can be offset by ensuring existing customers are happy, and so they conduct themselves in a way that ensures this.
Another key element of Zoom’s happy customer strategy? Recommendations. People who had good experiences with the product, who then in turn evangelized about their experiences. Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake was cited in this report about the power of recommendations to their business: “What’s really special for Stitch Fix is that 100% of what we sell [through the utilization of stylists] os based on recommendations.”
Even absent a system of professional consultants, recommendations have been key in the proliferation and success of subscription boxes; a McKinsey report on E-commerce consumers reveals that recommendations are the most popular way (23%) people opt-in to these experiences. What makes your product or service recommendable? Do you have mechanisms to make that process easy? Considering these questions as an integral part of your marketing strategy can make it more sustainable and less costly.
And speaking of questions: despite the extraordinary wealth of information contained in Meeker’s substantial deck, the report acknowledges two variables that could impact the future of effective and efficient marketing. The first, which we’re talking about with increasing regularity, is the impact privacy changes will have on ad targeting. As high-profile data breaches make consumers wary about trusting companies with their data, and as legislation changes the level of access companies have to data, the ability to target may change. And yet, I sense that the ability to enact this formula will remain largely unchanged. Finding the customers who need what you’re making may be different from what we’ve grown accustomed to, but building a strong product for people who like it and are willing to share their experience will remain intact.
An additional question exists for Meeker and Bond about digital TV-based ads for smart televisions, and the impact of second-screen viewing, on ad targeting. Given that 88% of TV watchers are utilizing a phone or tablet to interact during their TV watching, and 71% are looking up things related to what they’re watching, how can marketers capitalize on this new reality? There’s clearly strong potential for adept brands and organizations to get their good products in front of people, forge connections that endear them to new customers, and drive recommendations. And with any luck, strong examples of these strategies will be within the slides of Meeker’s huge—and hugely influential—report next year.
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The post The Equation for Effective and Efficient Marketing, According to Bond’s Internet Trends Report appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/the-equation-for-effective-and-efficient-marketing-according-to-bonds-internet-trends-report/
“We’ve learned that what people expect when they sign up to participate in market research has changed, and we’ve built this app to match those expectations.”
These words, shared by Facebook Product Manager Sagee Ben-Zedeff, accompanied the launch announcement for the company’s new research effort, Study by Facebook. The app, available for Android users in the US and India, iterates considerably from Facebook’s last attempt at market research in scope, but in a number of ways in legitimacy as well.
Facebook Research and its Onavo Protect launched earlier this year, only to be shut down unceremoniously after a high-profile TechCrunch report revealed a number of disconcerting elements of the study protocol. Among them: clear workarounds to Apple’s enterprise developer certificate (the most likely reason that the forthcoming Study app is unavailable for iOS), invasive access to research participant data and mobile usage details, and under-18 study participants.
Here, we take a closer look at their fresh start in these efforts, guided by the principles they’ve set forth as hallmarks of the program.
Transparency has been the clarion call for so many of Facebook’s latest efforts, and their selling point for the program has been to let people know what the program entails in full. To begin, study subjects will know that they’re participating in a Facebook-run study, something that evidently was unclear in prior efforts.
The platform is also not embarking on this process alone; the product announcement revealed collaboration with “Applause, a long-time partner who is experienced in managing this type of market research and works with many other companies in the industry. They’ll manage the registration process, all compensation to participants, and customer support.”
As far as the main part of the study, Facebook has been clear about what they will be looking at and what they won’t. Once in the study, here’s what the company will have access to:
And here’s what they reportedly won’t have access to, or won’t be recording:
And of crucial concern to users, “we […] don’t sell information from the app to third parties or use it to target ads, and it is not added to a participant’s Facebook account if they have one.”
Those who engage in these research efforts will be compensated, although (in a curious lack of transparency) the precise amount has not been revealed. Payment will be coordinated by Applause, and deposited monthly to user PayPal accounts. It’s also worthwhile to note that Study users will be reminded periodically that they are enrolled in the study—a pleasant development, given the access that researchers will have to phone activities.
The logistics of compensation, paired with the limited fashion in which users will be recruited (via ad-only, users cannot opt in unless the ad is served to them organically) will be interesting to see unfold, given the economic differences between the two initial countries of participation: the United States and India.
TechCrunch Josh Constine points out, “[Facebook] has the cash to potentially offer so much to Study participants that it effectively coerces them to give up their data; $10 to $20 per month like it was paying Research participants seems reasonable in the U.S., but that’s enough money in India to make people act against their better judgement.” But absent the details about payment, it’s hard to know precisely how this part of the process will work.
It’s no surprise that Facebook is being so explicit about this element of the process; prior scandal and breaches have understandably made people wary about handing over their data. Being vocal at the outset that information will stay with the company, and not be sold to third parties may help…and yet, might folks be wary about how vulnerable it is to hackers or improper storage?
Additionally, Gizmodo’s Catie Keck poses a worthwhile question: we know that data is valuable, and Facebook is affirming that by offering to pay for it. SMWNYC featured speaker Brittany Kaiser advocates for this model, insisting that companies who want our data should behave this way. Keck mused in her coverage, will users think of their data in a new light once they’re compensated for it? “Would more people use Facebook to collect a small check every month, or would it drive home the fact that this is valuable private information that we’ve been giving away?” Personally, given how sophisticated Facebook’s ad tech is, I wonder if ads for the program are being served to participants unlikely to ask that question.
Ben-Zedeff closes the product announcement with what feels like an earnest promise to undertake this project the right way:
Approaching market research in a responsible way is really important. Transparency and handling people’s information responsibly have guided how we’ve built Study from Facebook.
The foundational principles are set, and they align with the goals that Facebook has been promoting in all other areas: transparency, respect for users, and data security. After embarrassing missteps with prior versions of these initiatives, Study has an opportunity to teach the company something new about its users—and itself.
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The post “Market Research Has Changed”: Inside Facebook’s Renewed Efforts to “Study” Its Users appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/market-research-has-changed-inside-facebooks-renewed-efforts-to-study-its-users/
Facebook is developing a new 'Preview' option to see what your Page posts will look like before you hit 'Share'.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebooks-working-on-a-new-preview-option-for-page-posts/557047/
How do you craft your brand voice? We asked our #SMTLive community for their thoughts.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/smtlive-recap-expertly-crafting-your-brand-voice/556982/
After months of speculation, Facebook has finally revealed details of its coming 'Libra' cryptocurrency offering.
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-releases-details-of-its-coming-libra-cryptocurrency/557081/
In the digital era, social media had made each and every person a storyteller, with the ability to share their lives with the push of a button. This poses the unique opportunity for brands to become a milestone in the life story of their audience.
During #SMWLA, Maya Peterson, Director, Culture and Creative Insights at Viacom Velocity leads a conversation with Boye Fajinmi, Co-Founder and President of The Future Party and Gabrielle Richmond, Director of Programming and Partnerships at Shopify, discussed this topic at length, exploring how much social media has fundamentally changed the nature of experiences by fueling our identity projection, rewiring our connections, and augmenting our memories.
“Who has gone to an experience so they could take a picture of it and post it on social media? Pics or it didn’t happen?” Peterson quips, before underlining that as marketers, when you understand how much your audience’s experience experiences because of social media, you have an opportunity to connect with them more meaningfully.
iPhone’s appear to have enhanced the majority of experiences as opposed to detract from them, although keen festival and gig-goers may argue otherwise.
The intent behind documentation can be whittled down to the desire to express oneself in order to reflect your values or what you think you should be doing. This applies to both brands and people.
At events, only 19 percent say they get distracted by the need to find a good shot, however, almost half say dedicated social media areas at events relieve anxiety, which suggests people are inflicting a great amount of pressure on themselves to remain valid.
When it comes to experience, Fajinimi believes that experience should be part of the story and Richmond agrees, highlighting the five senses and that, if a person is able to interact – touch, taste and hear – as part of the experience, then the desire to share it online will be more organic and purposeful. Authentic too, which is a word thrown around a lot. What audiences see has to make sense to the brand.
Peterson asks whether there are ways other ways brands can bridge the divide between online and social, so it’s not just about finding a picture and Richmond believes this is tricky.
Fajinmi says, “right now we’re in this day and age where we have all these ice cream museums and it’s becoming an overload for people. A big trend is a digital detox. When you’re at the event, you’re actually not on your phone. Focus on experience and share it afterwards.” He also mentions the removal of the like button and how it could possibly give brands anxiety about measuring metrics.
When 52 percent of young people say that the most amazing brand experience changes their perspective, it can be easy for brands solely focus on creating THAT viral moment as opposed to a representation of themselves online. This can lead to audiences feeling like there’s a brick wall between them and the brand – a disconnect.
They conclude that a successful experience looks to educate people. There has to be a takeaway that has aided, developed or changed the receptor.
“Strike a smart partnership,” Fajinmi nods.
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The post How Can Brands Use Experiences to Fuel Identity, Memories and Connections? Make Them Part of the Story, says Viacom appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/how-can-brands-use-experiences-to-fuel-identity-memories-and-connections-make-them-part-of-the-story-says-viacom/
According to the Havard Business Review, in the next 10 years, 75 percent of brands that are on the Fortune 500 won’t be there because as a result of digital transformation.
If brands don’t adapt and listen, then they risk losing relevance. Machines can help them do this but it is with context accessible via human experience that aid them to take effective action. Cultural trends, lifestyle factor, and qualitative research cannot be done by machines alone, currently.
“Limiting social media data to marketing observations is like buying a Ferrari to drop your kids off at school. You’re not using the full potential of the tool,” Benjamin Duvall, the Chief Evangelist at Linkfluence explained during #SMWLA in a session exploring social listening and the importance of combining AI with human expertise.
First, he outlined tracking as a business and brand priority and the number of ways to do this.
As a result of focusing on vanity metrics, social media listening platforms have evolved through consolidation.
You need to consider four things when tracking: awareness, desirability, proximity, and relevance. What is the scale of resonation of your brand and what is the gap between the brand desired equity and the equity actually spread by social media?
He then discussed what he referred to as a social intelligence maturity model. “You need to understand where your company is on so you don’t miss anything,” he explains. “So you aren’t thinking you’re killing it when you’re not.”
The first step is alerting. Where little to no social media listening may be happening and there might even be some skepticism about the value of what’s being said on the social web. A few people rely on basic tools.
The next is monitoring. This discovery period can be quite eye-opening for teams when they start to explore what’s being said about their brand.
Third comes the listening – this is the ‘aha’ moment, where you then ask yourself what you should do with the data you obtain.
After listening comes strategic listening, where what you were doing before becomes truly integrated with your business process. Cross-functional teams are listening, deciding and reporting in real time to informer marketing strategy.
Social intelligence is the fifth and final step – it’s transformative. Data helps drive decision-making and influences budget and investment. This stage is still somewhat aspirational given that many of the tools are soiled.
Overall, Duvall concluded that most importantly, “you need to ensure that when you get social listening data that it’s relevant to the context. Outcomes need to have a strategic change outlook and not just exist as community management.”
Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.
The post Striking The Balance Between Human Expertise and AI: Insights from Linkfluence appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/striking-the-balance-between-human-expertise-and-ai-insights-from-linkfluence/
According to the Havard Business Review, in the next 10 years, 75 percent of brands that are on the Fortune 500 won’t be there because as a result of digital transformation.
If brands don’t adapt and listen, then they risk losing relevance. Machines can help them do this but it is with context accessible via human experience that aid them to take effective action. Cultural trends, lifestyle factor, and qualitative research cannot be done by machines alone, currently.
“Limiting social media data to marketing observations is like buying a Ferrari to drop your kids off at school. You’re not using the full potential of the tool,” Benjamin Duvall, the Chief Evangelist at Linkfluence explained during #SMWLA in a session exploring social listening and the importance of combining AI with human expertise.
First, he outlined tracking as a business and brand priority and the number of ways to do this.
As a result of focusing on vanity metrics, social media listening platforms have evolved through consolidation.
You need to consider four things when tracking: awareness, desirability, proximity, and relevance. What is the scale of resonation of your brand and what is the gap between the brand desired equity and the equity actually spread by social media?
He then discussed what he referred to as a social intelligence maturity model. “You need to understand where your company is on so you don’t miss anything,” he explains. “So you aren’t thinking you’re killing it when you’re not.”
The first step is alerting. Where little to no social media listening may be happening and there might even be some skepticism about the value of what’s being said on the social web. A few people rely on basic tools.
The next is monitoring. This discovery period can be quite eye-opening for teams when they start to explore what’s being said about their brand.
Third comes the listening – this is the ‘aha’ moment, where you then ask yourself what you should do with the data you obtain.
After listening comes strategic listening, where what you were doing before becomes truly integrated with your business process. Cross-functional teams are listening, deciding and reporting in real time to informer marketing strategy.
Social intelligence is the fifth and final step – it’s transformative. Data helps drive decision-making and influences budget and investment. This stage is still somewhat aspirational given that many of the tools are soiled.
Overall, Duvall concluded that most importantly, “you need to ensure that when you get social listening data that it’s relevant to the context. Outcomes need to have a strategic change outlook and not just exist as community management.”
Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.
The post Striking The Balance Between Human Expertise and AI: Insights from Linkfluence appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/striking-the-balance-between-human-expertise-and-ai-insights-from-linkfluence/
According to the Havard Business Review, in the next 10 years, 75 percent of brands that are on the Fortune 500 won’t be there because as a result of digital transformation.
If brands don’t adapt and listen, then they risk losing relevance. Machines can help them do this but it is with context accessible via human experience that aid them to take effective action. Cultural trends, lifestyle factor, and qualitative research cannot be done by machines alone, currently.
“Limiting social media data to marketing observations is like buying a Ferrari to drop your kids off at school. You’re not using the full potential of the tool,” Benjamin Duvall, the Chief Evangelist at Linkfluence explained during #SMWLA in a session exploring social listening and the importance of combining AI with human expertise.
First, he outlined tracking as a business and brand priority and the number of ways to do this.
As a result of focusing on vanity metrics, social media listening platforms have evolved through consolidation.
You need to consider four things when tracking: awareness, desirability, proximity, and relevance. What is the scale of resonation of your brand and what is the gap between the brand desired equity and the equity actually spread by social media?
He then discussed what he referred to as a social intelligence maturity model. “You need to understand where your company is on so you don’t miss anything,” he explains. “So you aren’t thinking you’re killing it when you’re not.”
The first step is alerting. Where little to no social media listening may be happening and there might even be some skepticism about the value of what’s being said on the social web. A few people rely on basic tools.
The next is monitoring. This discovery period can be quite eye-opening for teams when they start to explore what’s being said about their brand.
Third comes the listening – this is the ‘aha’ moment, where you then ask yourself what you should do with the data you obtain.
After listening comes strategic listening, where what you were doing before becomes truly integrated with your business process. Cross-functional teams are listening, deciding and reporting in real time to informer marketing strategy.
Social intelligence is the fifth and final step – it’s transformative. Data helps drive decision-making and influences budget and investment. This stage is still somewhat aspirational given that many of the tools are soiled.
Overall, Duvall concluded that most importantly, “you need to ensure that when you get social listening data that it’s relevant to the context. Outcomes need to have a strategic change outlook and not just exist as community management.”
Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.
The post Striking The Balance Between Human Expertise and AI: Insights from Linkfluence appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/striking-the-balance-between-human-expertise-and-ai-insights-from-linkfluence/
According to the Havard Business Review, in the next 10 years, 75 percent of brands that are on the Fortune 500 won’t be there because as a result of digital transformation.
If brands don’t adapt and listen, then they risk losing relevance. Machines can help them do this but it is with context accessible via human experience that aid them to take effective action. Cultural trends, lifestyle factor, and qualitative research cannot be done by machines alone, currently.
“Limiting social media data to marketing observations is like buying a Ferrari to drop your kids off at school. You’re not using the full potential of the tool,” Benjamin Duvall, the Chief Evangelist at Linkfluence explained during #SMWLA in a session exploring social listening and the importance of combining AI with human expertise.
First, he outlined tracking as a business and brand priority and the number of ways to do this.
As a result of focusing on vanity metrics, social media listening platforms have evolved through consolidation.
You need to consider four things when tracking: awareness, desirability, proximity, and relevance. What is the scale of resonation of your brand and what is the gap between the brand desired equity and the equity actually spread by social media?
He then discussed what he referred to as a social intelligence maturity model. “You need to understand where your company is on so you don’t miss anything,” he explains. “So you aren’t thinking you’re killing it when you’re not.”
The first step is alerting. Where little to no social media listening may be happening and there might even be some skepticism about the value of what’s being said on the social web. A few people rely on basic tools.
The next is monitoring. This discovery period can be quite eye-opening for teams when they start to explore what’s being said about their brand.
Third comes the listening – this is the ‘aha’ moment, where you then ask yourself what you should do with the data you obtain.
After listening comes strategic listening, where what you were doing before becomes truly integrated with your business process. Cross-functional teams are listening, deciding and reporting in real time to informer marketing strategy.
Social intelligence is the fifth and final step – it’s transformative. Data helps drive decision-making and influences budget and investment. This stage is still somewhat aspirational given that many of the tools are soiled.
Overall, Duvall concluded that most importantly, “you need to ensure that when you get social listening data that it’s relevant to the context. Outcomes need to have a strategic change outlook and not just exist as community management.”
Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.
The post Striking The Balance Between Human Expertise and AI: Insights from Linkfluence appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/striking-the-balance-between-human-expertise-and-ai-insights-from-linkfluence/
Social listening can turn “brand noise” into brand insight, competitive intelligence, and sponsorship engagement. It is no different in the sports marketing world.
During #SMWLA, Marla Grossberg, Consumer Insights & Strategy Director for the Milwaukee Brewers, and Nate Bonsignore, the West Coast Regional Manager at Talkwalker, sat down to discuss how social listening and other tools can enable sports marketers to hit a home-run this year.
Because social listening has become more vital to a company’s social strategy, many companies have tried to incorporate this tool. Still, Grossberg talked about her past within companies which were not doing so successfully, despite establishing go-to social media and measurement employees.
“The problem was they weren’t embedded in the teams. They didn’t understand what the brand’s issues or problems were and folks on the teams didn’t understand the tool or social media listening, so they didn’t know how to use [it]. It was this great thing, but it was under-utilized,” Grossberg said.
With an understanding that social media can sometimes be “chaotic or misplaced,” Grossberg elaborated on how brand teams are using social listening to overcome that.
For starters, with the Brewers’ brand, social media is incorporated within the marketing department.
The Brewers brand also uses Talkwalker’s ability to monitor what is happening in their social channels to gain insight on both what users think about campaigns, products, events and the like, and to gauge the brand’s awareness of their consumers, too.
“We found that Talkwalker served two different needs for us that we didn’t even realize,” Grossberg said, “One was about innovation and inspiration for giveaways. Another one was about sponsorships…Talkwaker was a phenomenal way to add value to those partnerships.”
Considering that the sports industry is estimated to hit $80.3 billion dollars by 2020, as Bonsignore mentioned, there is literal value in finding ways to stand out from a social listening perspective.
Making product, content, and event decisions that will appeal to consumers is the ultimate, great result.
Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.
The post Social Listening in Sports Marketing Can Create the Loudest Cheers, per Talkwalker appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/social-listening-in-sports-marketing-can-create-the-loudest-cheers-per-talkwalker/
Social listening can turn “brand noise” into brand insight, competitive intelligence, and sponsorship engagement. It is no different in the sports marketing world.
During #SMWLA, Marla Grossberg, Consumer Insights & Strategy Director for the Milwaukee Brewers, and Nate Bonsignore, the West Coast Regional Manager at Talkwalker, sat down to discuss how social listening and other tools can enable sports marketers to hit a home-run this year.
Because social listening has become more vital to a company’s social strategy, many companies have tried to incorporate this tool. Still, Grossberg talked about her past within companies which were not doing so successfully, despite establishing go-to social media and measurement employees.
“The problem was they weren’t embedded in the teams. They didn’t understand what the brand’s issues or problems were and folks on the teams didn’t understand the tool or social media listening, so they didn’t know how to use [it]. It was this great thing, but it was under-utilized,” Grossberg said.
With an understanding that social media can sometimes be “chaotic or misplaced,” Grossberg elaborated on how brand teams are using social listening to overcome that.
For starters, with the Brewers’ brand, social media is incorporated within the marketing department.
The Brewers brand also uses Talkwalker’s ability to monitor what is happening in their social channels to gain insight on both what users think about campaigns, products, events and the like, and to gauge the brand’s awareness of their consumers, too.
“We found that Talkwalker served two different needs for us that we didn’t even realize,” Grossberg said, “One was about innovation and inspiration for giveaways. Another one was about sponsorships…Talkwaker was a phenomenal way to add value to those partnerships.”
Considering that the sports industry is estimated to hit $80.3 billion dollars by 2020, as Bonsignore mentioned, there is literal value in finding ways to stand out from a social listening perspective.
Making product, content, and event decisions that will appeal to consumers is the ultimate, great result.
Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.
The post Social Listening in Sports Marketing Can Create the Loudest Cheers, per Talkwalker appeared first on Social Media Week.
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/06/social-listening-in-sports-marketing-can-create-the-loudest-cheers-per-talkwalker/
