editor, Author at Mediastreet

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I Wrote the Book on User-Friendly Design. What I See Today Horrifies Me

May 11, 2021 No Comments

By Don Norman.

The world is designed against the elderly, writes Don Norman, 83-year-old author of the industry bible Design of Everyday Things and a former Apple VP.

More people than ever are living long, healthy lives. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the average life expectancy is 78.6 years for men and 81.1 for women. More relevant, however, is that as people grow older, their total life expectancy increases. So for those who are now 65, the average life expectancy is 83 for men and over 85 for women. And because I’m 83, I’m expected to live past 90 (but I’m aiming a lot higher than that). And these are averages, which means that perhaps half of us will live even longer.

Those of us who are still active and healthy at advanced ages–I qualify–discover that we aren’t quite as capable as our younger selves. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t healthy and workable–I still have a very active job and travel on business around the world, but I have to admit that I’m getting slower and weaker, with diminished eyesight, hearing, taste, touch, and, well, almost everything physical. The number of active, healthy oldsters is large–and increasing. We are not a niche market. And businesses should take note: We are good customers often with more free time and discretionary income than younger people.

Despite our increasing numbers the world seems to be designed against the elderly. Everyday household goods require knives and pliers to open. Containers with screw tops require more strength than my wife or I can muster. (We solve this by using a plumber’s wrench to turn the caps.) Companies insist on printing critical instructions in tiny fonts with very low contrast. Labels cannot be read without flashlights and magnifying lenses. And when companies do design things specifically for the elderly, they tend to be ugly devices that shout out to the world “I’m old and can’t function!” We can do better.

What Older Consumers Want and Need

As we age, we have more experience with life, which can make us better decision-makers and managers. Crystalized intelligence, it is called, and it gets better with experience. A caveat is that we often face physical changes that designers fail to account for into their work.

Vision deteriorates. The lens of our eyes harden, making focusing more difficult. I used to be able to read tiny text by holding it close to my eyes, but my inability to focus at close distances defeats that activity. Floaters and debris start accumulating inside the eye, which scatters the light on its way to the retina, reducing contrast and making it more difficult to see small, low-contrast objects. For the increasing number of people who have cataract surgery, the eye’s lenses have ben replaced with plastic, which usually have a fixed focus. (Artificial lenses that can be focused are under development.) A flashlight has become an essential item, whether the one built into many phones or carried separately, because illumination makes tiny type easier to read although even then, a magnifying glass might be useful.

Hearing decreases. High frequencies are first to go, which also tends to impair directional sensitivity, which in turn makes it more difficult to attend to someone in a crowded, noisy environment. Loud restaurants are torture. So, more and more, my wife and I select restaurants by their noise level rather than by their food quality. At home while watching TV, whether shows, streaming events, or movies, we always turn on the captions, which often block critical parts of the image. Even worse, when a film shows someone speaking in a foreign language, the film often translates the words, but so too does the closed captioning, and the two are placed on top of one another, making both attempts to help the viewer completely unhelpful.

Bad Design Abounds

The problems I face are much milder than those faced by millions of aging people. With so many of us needing better devices, why are so many things still designed in ways that defeat our ability to function?

Take the screen design for Apple’s phones. The designers at Apple apparently believe that text is ugly, so it should either be eliminated entirely or made as invisible as possible. Bruce Tognazzini and I, both former employees of Apple, wrote a long article on Apple’s usability sins ,which has been read by hundreds of thousands of people. Once Apple products could be used without ever reading a manual. Today, Apple’s products violate all the fundamental rules of design for understanding and usability, many of which Tognazzini and I had helped develop. As a result, even a manual is not enough: all the arbitrary gestures that control tablets, phones, and computers have to be memorized. Everything has to be memorized.

These thoughtless, inappropriate designs are not limited to Apple. New technologies tend to rely on display screens, often with tiny lettering, with touch-sensitive areas that are exceedingly difficult to hit as eye-hand coordination declines. Physical controls are by far the easiest to control–safer too, especially in safety-critical tasks such as driving a car, but they are disappearing. Why? To save a few cents in manufacturing and in a misplaced desire to be trendy. Speech can be a useful substitute for physical controls, though not as helpful as proponents claim.

Then there’s the aesthetic problem. When products are developed for the elderly, they tend to be ugly and an unwanted signal of fragility. As a result, people who need walkers or canes often resist. Once upon a time, a cane was stylish: Today it is seen as a medical device. Why can’t we have walkers and canes for everyday use, to help us in everyday life, to carry our packages, provide a way to sit when we are tired, or viewing some event, and yes, to maintain our balance? Make them items of pride, stylish enough that everyone will want one.

Everyone Needs Better Design

Do not think that thoughtful design is just for the elderly, or the sick, or the disabled. In the field of design, this is called “inclusive design” for a reason: It helps everyone. Curb cuts were meant to help people who had trouble walking, but it helps anyone wheeling things: carts, baby carriages, suitcases. Closed captions are used in noisy bars. As Kat Holmes points out in her book Mismatch, all of us are disabled now and then. Some of us have permanent disabilities, but all of us have suffered from situational and temporary problems. When outside in the sun, the text message that just arrived is unreadable: wouldn’t it be nice if the display, whether cell phone, watch, or tablet, could switch to large, higher contrast lettering? Are elderly people handicapped? Maybe, but so is a young, athletic parent while carrying a baby on one arm and a bag of groceries in the other (and perhaps trying to open their car door). Ride-share bicycles and scooters cannot be used by people who need to carry bulky packages. Everyone has difficulty hearing people in noisy environments. Noise-cancelling headphones are for everyone, not just the elderly. Almost anything that will help the elderly population will end up helping everyone.

The Promise of Good Design

Jeremy Myerson, a designer at London’s Royal College of Art (and a good friend) curated an enticing exhibit at London’s Design Museum entitled “New Old,” that explored the potential for design and designers to enhance the experience of our later lives (described in this Fast Company article “Why you should be designing for your 73-year-old self). Walkers, scooters, and shopping carts for the elderly tend to lack any semblance of grace or elegance. Not so the “scooter for life,” designed by the British firm PriestmanGoode, which has three wheels for stability and a sleek pouch for storing groceries.

Powerful lightweight motors and batteries promise to motorize many new things, including walkers, wheelchairs, bicycles, tricycles, baby carriages, and shopping carts. I’ve even seen electric surfboards. If these devices are stylish and useful, they will empower everyone, from the very young to the very old. Moreover, once the stigma attached to devices that look medical is eliminated, we will see more elderly adding to their activities, and more 90-year-olds surfing. One of my 90-year-old friends just started scuba diving. Age is not a barrier.

Are there any other examples of promising designs for older people? Yes, but they are surprisingly difficult to find. They are so rare that when they are found, museums put on them on exhibit and newspapers write articles.

Looking Ahead

Designers and companies of the world, you are badly serving an ever-growing segment of your customer base, a segment that you too will one day inhabit. Isn’t it time to reform: to make things that are functional and stylish, useable and accessible? Every ailment that I described that impacts the elderly is also present in people of all ages. Designs that make it easier for elderly people often are of equal value for younger people. In fact, for everyone. Help the elderly, and the results will help many more, including yourself, someday.

Feature Image Credit: Photo by Alex Macro/Getty Images

By Don Norman

Don Norman is a leading authority on the design of emotional pleasing and useable technology. He is the author of Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design, a former vice president at Apple, and professor and director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego.

Sourced from Pocket

In News

Top Email Marketing Trends to Watch For in 2021

May 11, 2021 No Comments

By Gaurav Sharma

Spam isn’t cool, but video emails are

Having survived the rise of Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other social media platforms, email marketing still has huge marketing potential. More than 4.4 billion people worldwide are expected to be using email by 2024. Such a massive user base makes it a powerful platform for businesses to directly reach out to their target audiences.

But a cookie-cutter approach isn’t enough. Gone are the days when you could randomly send out mass emails to promote your latest offers. As the way people interact online changes with new devices and technologies, it’s important that your email marketing strategy keeps up with the evolving times.

Look back upon some email marketing trends that caught our attention in 2020. Some of them are still effective, so you can leverage them again.

Videos in emails are a hit

Video email marketing can be a great way to convey a lot of information without making your emails text-heavy. For tutorials and how-to videos, it’s a great platform. What’s more, 91% of consumers revealed that they watch an explainer video to learn more about a service or product.

It’s also important to prioritize concise content over wordiness. Long paragraphs can look cluttered and make your email harder to read.

Responsive design is important

Forty-six percent of all email opens come from mobile devices. With such a large number of mobile users, responsiveness proved to be a crucial factor to create successful email campaigns. Mobile-friendly templates enabled users to read and view emails seamlessly, even on smaller screens.

Spamming is not cool

For the past couple years, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has tightened restrictions on spam emails. Now the majority of users only receive emails that they have actually opted for. As privacy becomes more important for users, email marketers are beginning to open up to the idea of adding an unsubscribe button to give them the option to opt out as well.

If recipients are unable to find an option to unsubscribe, they can mark your email as spam. Being identified as a spammer can affect your spam score and overall sender reputation. This, in turn, can further affect your email deliverability. To avoid this, you should always add an unsubscribe button that is easily visible.

Spamming can also be detrimental to your brand’s reputation. According to Adam Robinson, CEO of GetEmails, an email marketing platform, you should “pull unengaged people (off your email list) after three days to protect your reputation.”

Data is everything

With dwindling attention spans, users quickly want to know what’s in it for them with every brand interaction. If you want them to engage with your emails, you need to provide relevant experiences to them based on their preferences.

In fact, 72% of consumers engage only with those marketing messages that are tailored to their interests. With advances in machine learning, personalization isn’t just restricted to adding a subscriber’s name in the subject line. You can store user data and send them celebratory emails on birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions. Chipotle uses this strategy to engage their subscribers and even offer them a special gift.

Through predictive analysis, you can also find the most optimal times to send your emails. All in all, you can control every little detail to ensure that your email marketing campaigns are engaging for your target users.

It’s all about integration

In 2021, the biggest mistake an email marketer can make is to believe that it’s OK to operate in a silo. Even when consumers aren’t checking their inboxes, they are likely to be active on social media channels and visiting other websites. They can reach you through multiple touch points, so you need to take a unified approach to their customer journeys.

To take a more integrated approach, you can add social sharing buttons to your emails. When someone opens your email, it allows them to share your email content on social media platforms.

Interactivity is most engaging

Interactive elements can instantly make even the most mundane ad copy engaging. When you give people something to play with, they are more likely to be interested. By adding an interactive element, you can get the reader engaged. Interactive maps, polls, quizzes, GIFs, games and other such elements can add some fun to your emails.

You can also tease your product with a cool rollover effect. When a user hovers over a particular element, it can reveal some part of the product. Nike used this effect creatively to showcase product tips and descriptions in their email campaigns.

Looking ahead

As data and interactivity take centre stage, email marketing is slated to become more personalized and engaging. Marketers who want to create successful campaigns also need to be cognizant of the fact that unsolicited emails aren’t welcome. If you haven’t started working on your email marketing strategy for the next year, it isn’t too late. Get started now.

Feature Image Credit: studiostockart

By Gaurav Sharma

Gaurav Sharma is the founder of Attrock.

Sourced from ADWEEK

In News

Facebook has unveiled its Clubhouse challenger and here’s what you need to know

May 11, 2021 No Comments

By John Glenday

Facebook is looking to find its voice with the roll-out of a series of audio features over the coming months.

A new category of audio products and features serves as a battle cry to Clubhouse, the invitation-only audio platform that has generated significant word of mouth, as Facebook joins increasingly aggressive moves to bend the ear of listeners.

What is Facebook launching?

Over the coming months, Facebook will unleash a succession of audio-centric features, such as Live Audio Rooms for people to participate in live conversations – a direct ’homage’ to the popular Clubhouse app.
Reportedly ready for an April launch, the literal chat room also bears more than a passing resemblance to Twitter’s Spaces feature.
The full-throated embrace of sound waves also includes the launch of Soundbites, a utility for people to generate and share brief audio clips of their own making.
Both facilities are expected to be made available to a small number of creators in a matter of weeks with users also able to make money from either format, although Facebook hasn’t clarified if this will be open to anyone or solely established creators.
Last but not least, Facebook will also permit members to listen to podcasts without leaving the confines of the walled garden.

Why should marketers care?

Facebook’s enthusiastic embrace of a new medium of communication closely mirrors that of competitors such as the invitation-only Clubhouse app to enable natural-sounding, real-world engagements.
The resulting opportunities span the full spectrum of human speech, providing Facebook with a megaphone to amplify its utility as a home for speeches, lectures, conversations and conferences.
Calls to embrace sound have only grown louder since the imposition of lockdowns, while the rapid growth of Clubhouse has provided ample proof that public demand is rapacious.
Laying claim to his share of this growing market, Mark Zuckerberg told The Verge editor Casey Newton at the launch: ”Audio as a medium just allows for longer-form discussions and exploring ideas. You can get into topics that frankly are a lot harder to with other mediums. And audio, I think, is just a lot more accessible because you can multitask while listening.”
Zuckerberg’s ears doubtless pricked up upon hearing that Clubhouse has been downloaded 4.7m times since its April 2020 (according to Apptopia), with 3.7m of those installs occurring in the opening months of 2021.
This rush of sign-ups was further fueled by an appearance by Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg on a Clubhouse talk show, further elevating its profile.
Clubhouse operates using an ad-free model but offers marketers the chance to host events and discussions of their choosing, enabling them to target very specific audiences.
This has already been embraced by Pernod Ricard, which hosted a series of themed conversations to coincide with Black History Month, joining other brands such as Milk Bar, Kool-Aid and Politico which have built a presence on the platform.
The Drum’s own Sam Scott recently delved into the opportunities presented by this soundscape for brands by exploring the opportunities and the pitfalls of opening your mouth.

By John Glenday

Sourced from The Drum

In News

20 Social Media Analytics Tools for Small Businesses

May 10, 2021 No Comments

By Samson Haileyesus

Social media analytics tools are essential to measuring social media ROI — that is, your company’s return on investment from using social media. If you are a social media manager or own a small business, you are going to need the best tools you can find. The same goes for those involved in influencer marketing or digital agencies that run social media campaigns.

Great tools make your job easier, save precious time and give you insights into each of the social networking sites that your company or clients are active on. They also help you shine in front of clients or others in your company. Luckily there are plenty of tools available. Some are free or offer a free version with limited features suitable for small start-ups. But if your needs are more robust, and you require a paid tool, many of them offer a free trial so you can check out the features in detail before you buy. We’ve included the best tools for small businesses of all sizes in our list.

What are social media analytics?

The definition of social media analytics is the systematic collection and evaluation of data that helps you measure how well or how poorly you are doing on social media. After all, resources are limited in most businesses. You can’t afford to spend time and money on activities if they don’t pay off. The analytics tools in our list help you decide where to spend time, how to maximize your efforts, and how to gain insights into your audience (see data analytics tips).

Analytics tools are different from social media management tools. There are plenty of tools that help you post updates on social media channels and even schedule content in advance. Those are not the kind of tools we mean. Below we are mainly focused on tools to understand and measure your social media performance.

Best Free and Paid Social Media Analytics Tools

We’ve assembled a list of the best social media analytics tools appropriate for small businesses. Click on one of the tools in the list below or scroll down to learn about what makes each the best in class.

Analytics Tools Provided by the Social Networks

1. Zoho Social

image: zoho

Touted as among the best Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software Zoho through its social media analytics tools Zoho Social offers some great tools to manage your social media outreach from a single platform. You can schedule publishing posts through an intuitive publishing calendar, monitor campaigns and create custom reports. The monitoring dashboard gives you the ability to easily to measure the pulse of your campaign and respond in real-time to engage with your audience. Zoho Social starts with a standard monthly billing of $10 that allows you to manage one brand across seven channels. The robust agency plus costs $300 a month and enables the management of 30 brands across a whopping 140 channels.

What it does:

Zoho Social is the part that enables you to understand your social media audience and how they engage with you.
You can listen to multiple channels from a single dashboard and respond in real-time.
You can also dig deeper into each post to measure their reach and engagement.
The integration with Zoho Desk makes Zoho Social ideal for a comprehensive social media outreach where you can create tickets from social media for your support team to see and resolve them from Zoho Desk.

What’s it great at:

It offers the complete package from managing your social media accounts,
publishing, monitoring and offering cutting-edge analytics.
It supports Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
It is compatible with mobile apps for Android and iOS.
It also seamlessly integrates with Zoho CRM for greater collaboration.

2. Hootsuite

image: hootsuite

Hootsuite is another social media management tool. As social media analytics tools go, it helps manage posts, collaboration, scheduling and analytics. With it, you can automate posts, schedule them and take key performance metrics to gauge the performance of your marketing content. The starter package is set at $19 a month with support for 10 social media channels and unlimited scheduling capabilities for one administrator. The enterprise package offers a customized solution.

What it does:

It comes with all the bells and whistles you might need for your startup or growth stage as a small business when it comes to social media analytics tools.
It integrates with all social platforms including Facebook and Instagram so your social media analytics and management are done from one platform.
Hootsuite Impact also integrates with tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and your ad accounts on the various social platforms.
It comes with a complete toolbox for all your social media needs which includes contact management, conversion tracking, keyword filtering, customer targeting, multi-account management, and much more.

What’s it great at:

You have the ability to monitor multiple social media streams that include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and WordPress blogs.
It comes with capabilities that include scheduling posts in advance.
User-friendly analytics data.
Team collaboration.

3. Buffer Analyze

image: buffer

Buffer Analyze offers simple and easy social media analytics that includes comprehensive features for managing your social media streams. It helps you easily manage multiple social media accounts, allowing you to customize post-times and schedule posts. It offers a built-in social media analytics tool and gets recommendations to expand reach, engagement, and sales. The starter package for this social media analytics tool is $15 per month. And it allows you to analyse eight social channels and up to 100 scheduled content posts. The business tiered package comes at $99 per month you can analyse 25 social channels and a whopping 2,000 scheduled posts for six administrators.

What it does:

You can measure your social media performance by comparing paid and organic results.
Track engagement from social accounts.
Measure stories, individual posts and hashtags and see if you are reaching targeted audiences.
Reports can be generated in PDF or images that include charts.

What’s it great at:

Scheduling posts.
Analytics.
Cross-posting, so all your social media posting are consolidated in one place.

4. Sprout Social

image: sproutsocial

Sprout Social is a social media management tool that offers a good mix of management and analytics to meet the needs of most small to midsize businesses. This platform focuses on social management, data, and employee advocacy. Pricing for Sprout Social starts at $99 monthly and you can analyze up to five social profiles, an intuitive all-in-one social inbox, social media CRM tools, compatibility with both android and iOS mobile apps, and more.

What it des:

Sprout Social has a dashboard that helps you manage social media channels as well as your brands in one go.
The Instagram stories analytics tool comes with a series of pop-up questionnaires to help you better determine your company’s needs allowing you fashion your social media experiences.
It is backed up with a strong social CRM platform and a help desk.

What’s it great at:

Well organized dashboard.
Seamlessly works with Twitter and Facebook.
Scheduling posts.
Discovery capability in terms of your followers, interactions, mentions, and likes.
Analytics.

5. Studiorific

image: studiorific

Studiorific offers an all-in-one social media analysis platform that hosts all social management tools for scheduling engaging posts and reporting. You are able to put all your social media accounts under one roof for seamless integration of your digital content. Studiorific offers a real bargain with lifetime access to its starter package at only $29 for a one time purchase. This allows you to manage 12 social accounts, unlimited scheduling capabilities; image and video storage; a built-in image editor, analytics and much more.

What it does:

Track your social media accounts for posts performance and engagement.
Attract users in actual time.
Its analytic tool helps you optimize your marketing plan and opt to send and receive direct messages from Instagram users right from your Studiorific dashboard.
Has a photo editing tool to customize image size for all of your social media networks.

What’s it great at:

Competition analysis.
Works across several social media channels.
Post scheduling.
Built-in image editor.
Analytics.

6. Sendible

image: sendible

Sendible is a social media content management platform designed with agencies in mind. The platform brings all your social networks together into a centralized hub that helps you execute your strategy for multiple brands at scale. Pricing for this social media analytics tool starts at $29.00 per month. This allows you to analyze 12 profiles and generate eight quick reports. Sendible offers a 14-day free trial as well.

What it does:

Customize and preview posts on each social media platform and also keeps image pixel quality. Thanks to its built-in editor you can also design your own graphics using Canva.
See when your audiences are most engaged on Instagram so you know the best times to post. Collaboration is made easy with Sendible as you can set up approval workflows and keep your posts on-brand.
Use its one-click reports to pinpoint your most engaging content or choose to build and automatically send custom reports.

What’s it great at:

Competition analysis.
Works across several social media channels.
Post scheduling and auto-response.
Tracking visitors.
Analytics.

7. Keyhole

image: keyhole

Keyhole comes with a real-time dashboard that shows you how many people posted with your hashtag, along with the number of retweets, likes and impressions your campaign is generating. The dashboard captures a detailed overview of your entire campaign and mentions all details and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) you need. Keyhole’s Suite comes at $59 per month and has a free trial available as well.

What it does:

With the metrics it provides you can set your specific KPIs and measure results accordingly.
You can monitor all your campaigns in one go.
Discover and track influencers.
See the performance of the content.
Monitor brand health.
Get real-time actionable data and reports.
Gain insights on trends and conversion rates.

What’s it great at:

Real-time tracking of campaigns, hashtags, and keywords.
Influencer and new client identification.
Event and engagement tracking.
Customized alerts.
Analytics.

8. Rival IQ

image: rivaliq

Rival IQ helps deliver analytics and competitive intelligence to help your digital marketing. The solutions offered include the ability to show the data and easily make informed decisions, improve results, and better understand your competition. BRival IQ pricing starts at $199.00 per month, a free trial is also available.

What it does:

By using competitive benchmarks and comparative analysis Rival IQ sends you alerts whenever your competition posts high-performing content, such as boosting a post on social media.
Helps you move quickly to respond to and counter-messaging in actual time.
It integrates with Google Analytics to get a complete understanding of your customers’ journey.
Get a free head-to-head report against your main competitor on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and see how you stack up.
Helps you to uncover new opportunities, identify trends, and track results across all major channels and the web.

What’s it great at:

Actual time dashboard showing how many visitors posted with your hashtag.
Tracking retweets, likes and Impressions on campaigns.
Dedicated Influencers metrics.
Analytics.

9. Social Report

image: socialreport

Social Report management platform offers solutions that include advanced scheduling, social networks monitoring, analytics, one-click reporting, smart automation, and more. When it comes to tracking performance Social Report offers everything from your Facebook pages and Twitter profiles, to business reviews, website site performance and blogs. Users can quickly and easily organize their data by customers or business. The pricing starts at $49.00 per month, you can start it all with a 30-day free trial.

What it does:

Gives you the option to not only track your own social profiles but your competition as well.
With its Smart Inbox, you have the capability to get all of your social messages across all of your social media profiles gathered and organized in one stream.
Apart from publishing content in several accounts at once, you can also send the content you schedule to your teammates for administrator approval and tracking the content.
Once you dive into the stream, you will be able to engage, join conversations, and respond directly to customers.

What’s it great at:

Advanced scheduling.
Social network monitoring.
Analytics.
One-click reporting.
Smart automation.

10. Planable

image: planableThis social management tool comes with a dashboard that helps you manage multiple social media platforms in one place. Planable’s dashboard has a great visually focused user interface that helps even the novice amongst us to easily navigate through content management, automated publishing, customer engagement across multiple accounts. Planable unfortunately does not provide analytic and reports solutions for your business. Pricing for Planable starts at $39.00 per month in addition to a free trial.

What it does:

Planable’s strong suit is creating, planning, and approving posts and it is considered among the best social media tools.

What’s it great at:

Centralized social media content management.
Planning and scheduling.
Analytics.
Social media post preview.

11. Loomly

image: loomly
Loomly offers a calendar-based social management platform for businesses. Pricing begins at $25, allowing you to manage up to ten accounts. You can start with a 15-day free trial to learn more. Solutions offered by Loomly include automated publishing and ads management.

What it does:

Helps users to engage and respond to audiences and measure outreach in terms of organic vs ads post overviews.
Offer notifications from emails, push, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.
Ideas for content in posts, trending topics, and RSS feeds
Monitor date-related events and social media best practices.

What’s it great at:

Centralized social media content management.
Planning and scheduling.
Analytics.
Collaboration.
Post ideas.

12. Sociamonials

image: sociamonials

Sociamonials has social media analytics tools that help you manage multiple social media accounts that include Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google my Business, LinkedIn and YouTube. The Social Pro package comes with a monthly $19 subscription for managing up to ten social profiles including Facebook, Twitter and unlimited scheduling capabilities. A free 14-day trial is available for those interested in trying this tool out.

What it does:

Run contests, tweak content,
Find influencers and capture leads.
Analytics for traffic, brand awareness, Return on Investment (RoI) and more.
Post scheduling.

What’s it great at:

Brand tracking.
Automated publishing.
Conversion tracking.
Customer targeting.
Contact database.
Email marketing.
Multi-campaign.
Analytics.
Keyword filtering.

13. Agile CRM

image: agilecrmAgile CRM has an all in one CRM that includes automation of all your sales, marketing and service efforts in one single platform. This cloud-based SaaS service comes with a mobile-ready feature allowing you to make tweaks while off location. It has a free version for users and the starter kit comes at $8.99 per month.

What it does:

It comes with a contact management tool for all your accounts.
Analytics to track stages and milestones.
Voicemail automation.
Appointment scheduling.
Lead scoring.
Email tracking.

What’s it great at:

Social suite.
Landing page builder.
Ticketing analytics.
Marketing automation.

14. Cyfe

image: cyfe

Cyfe offers an all-in-one social management app that helps you easily monitor and analyze all of your business data in one, organized place. Cyfe has a free version where you get two fully functional dashboards and a 30-day history. The starter package comes at $29 per month and it includes unlimited widgets; custom logo; custom themes; and unlimited data exports.

What it does:

Users can connect and pull data from their advertising, email, monitoring, sales, finance, SEO, social media, support, and web analytics accounts- all in one go.
Cyfe’s unique selling point is that it helps you make business decisions by automating all of your business data into a single and highly-organized view thus saving you time from gleaning over spreadsheets.
See performances on your social media, analytics, marketing, sales, and support together.
The choice of reports in various formats including PNG, JPEG, PDF, and CSV formats

What’s it great at:

All in one monitoring.
Collaboration.
Monitor multiple campaigns.
Scheduling.
Analytics.

6 Analytics Tools Provided by the Social Networks

The third-party social media tools above have many advantages, not the least of which is a centralized dashboard to see stats from multiple networks in one place. However, don’t overlook the networks’ own analytics. While you can only get statistics and insights from that particular network, they can be very useful especially for those who spend most of their time on just one or two platforms. Here is a review of what six social media Networks provide for free:

Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights helps you track likes, page views, and more. This gives you valuable insights to help you track and measure your outreach efforts. With Facebook Page Insights you get access to detailed analytics for your Facebook Page where you can see which campaigns are working well and those that need more tweaking. You also learn how your audience interacts with your content and improve your results over time.

This tool helps you understand your Facebook audience so that you can create better-targeted ads and create more compelling content. You can see actions on your page; the number of views; likes generated by your content; fan source responsiveness followers; negative feedback; and orders. Facebook even has a dedicated resource center including free tools for small businesses that help you boost your online engagements both for Facebook and Instagram.

Instagram Insights

Instagram offers insights to help you learn more about your followers and page performance. You can learn about the demographics of your Instagram audience and track the performance of your Instagram posts and Stories. Instagram Insights lets you can view your audience’s engagement with specific posts, stories and IGTV videos. It is a free tool that gives you a great overview of your page’s performance in terms of the number of accounts reached, content interactions, followers, and approximate earnings. Each of these Instagram metrics comes with a detailed breakdown.

LinkedIn Analytics

With LinkedIn Analytics you gain valuable data regarding the performance of your LinkedIn page. It includes the receptions towards your updates including videos posted. The tool also provides a breakdown of visitors and followers including the number of likes, shares, comments, and mentions. Additional analytic tools include LinkedIn Career Pages, as well as access to Talent Brand analytics that help you measure your talent pipeline, talent flows, talent attraction, and application behaviour. With the Pipeline Builder analytics, you can see metrics based on timelines ranging from the past seven days to 12 months. You can also customize the timeline to suit your particular needs.

Pinterest Analytics

With Pinterest’s Metrics tab, you will be able to track the number of pins created from your website to help you glean the average amount of daily content pinned from your website. You can also look at the number of repins users have used from your website on to their own boards, which helps you increase the exposure of your content to people who are not currently following your account. At the same time, you can also see the daily average number of people who saw your pins for both pins and repins. All in all Pinterest’s analytics come with a total of six metrics: pins; repins; most clicks; most repinned; visitors and visits; and reach.

Twitter Analytics

Twitter analytics uses graphs and reports to show the performance of important metrics. These include your top tweet, top mention and top follower(s). Additional insights include the number of tweets sent; number of visits your Twitter profile received; the number of mentions your account received; followers gained and tweet impressions received over a period of time. These also come with the number of impressions on videos, tweets, video completion rates, audience insights, and conversion tracking.

YouTube Analytics

YouTube analytics provides you with data about your videos’ performance including watch time, viewer demographics, traffic sources, impressions, subscribers and revenue. This comes in handy if you want to understand whether audiences like the content you produce, and what can be done to improve your videos’ performance. You can also segregate the data based on the playlist, time period, devices where your video was viewed, comments, and shares to decipher the nuances of your visitors.

What should small businesses look for in social analytics tools?

Depending on which social media analytics you decide to use here are some of the essentials you should be looking for:

Comprehensive analytics: Besides looking for a social media analytic process that crank out numbers, look for one that gives you further insights. This includes engagement, likes, demographics; conversations, hashtags, and even competitor’s performance. So there’s no need to flip through different systems just to get the results you need – these come in handy for tweaking your outreach. If your social media analytics tool integrates with Google Analytics it would help in building robust reporting.
Integration across social media platforms: Look for a solution that offers analytics for social media across the board that measures Instagram, Facebook and other data. This will help you get a good perspective on the performances on your various social media handles.
Offers customized team tracking and collaboration: Besides how you measure your social media analytics it should help you customize how you share, plan and collaborate across teams.
Multiple reporting options: A key component in analytics is in the manner in which reports are generated. Look for the best social media analytics tools offering data and reports in multiple formats this could be in PDF, JPEG, PNG or even .xls.
Additional tools: In addition to analytics look for tools that help you edit pictures as well as integrate with other Customer Relations Management System (CRM) solutions. Particularly integration with a CRM system will help you convert your engagement into leads thus helping you go up the ladder of engagement.

Finally, if you run a marketing agency or are starting a social media business, look specifically for agency features. These include the ability to track performance results by client, deliver white-label reports with your brand, or offer multiple client logins. Whatever your needs, make a list of your top requirements so that you don’t miss any as you evaluate the options.

Image: planable

By Samson Haileyesus

Sourced from Small Business Trends

In News

iOS App Tracking: How to stop iPhone and iPad apps from sharing what you do

May 10, 2021 No Comments

By Dan Grabham

– Apps need your permission to track activity across different apps in iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5

(Pocket-lint) – Apps that track you across other apps and websites on iOS, iPadOS and tvOS will now have to ask your express permission to do so. The move marks a shift in how apps can operate on Apple’s mobile operating systems and how apps can target you

All apps now have to detail what they track on the App Store (in a section called App Privacy). If they haven’t submitted details for this yet, they will be mandated to do so when they next submit an app update to Apple.

How to unlock your Face ID iPhone with Apple Watch when wearing a face mask

This is coming as part of the new iOS/iPadOS/tvOS 14.5 update. Apps have been able to ask for this permission in earlier versions of iOS 14, but now it will be mandatory.

Apple calls this App Tracking Transparency and it means users will now have to opt into their devices giving over information on their use. You’ll see a pop-up message like this when loading apps after they’ve been updated.

Apple

The new requirement has stoked the ire of some, especially Facebook, who rely on tracking to target ads. Your Apple device tracks what you do in apps using an anonymised Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) – this means that Facebook can serve you ads for the item you’ve just searched for on eBay.

Google has a similar thing called Google Advertising ID or GAID. These essentially tie your activity together in a way that means you can’t be personally identified. They make ads more effective for advertisers but should – in theory – also make them more relevant to you. Facebook argues tracking gives you a “better ads experience” but it has already warned investors that Apple’s move could hurt its advertising business.

App Tracking Transparency means apps now have to ask for permission to use that shared information. Of course, you could still be targeted by the information you provide such as searches or previous purchases within a particular app – so you’ll likely still see ads personalised for you.

Apple

Apps can’t circumvent having to ask for this permission according to App Store rules, nor restrict app functionality depending on whether you’ve given permission to track. Equally, they’re not able to pass on other information, such as an email address or username to others.

Apple’s own apps will also comply with these rules, but as per Apple’s privacy policies, it doesn’t share information it collects about you with other companies.

Users have previously been able to access per-app Privacy settings, but have not been asked permission. You can also globally disable tracking for a period should you wish to.

How to disable ad tracking on your iOS/iPadOS device, either per app or globally.

Go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking. You can then see a list of apps you have enabled for tracking and toggle any one of them off.

Apple

At the top is a global setting – you can turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track. This means you won’t see any pop-ups from apps and will stop any new apps from asking for permission to track.

If you have already given permission to some apps to track you, you’ll then be asked whether you want to continue to allow them to track or stop them from that point onwards.

Apple

By Dan Grabham

Sourced from Pocket-lint

In News

10 Things Your Artificial Intelligence Initiative Needs to Succeed

May 10, 2021 No Comments

By Lisa Morgan

In the race to implement AI, some companies may overlook important details that can mean the difference between success and failure.

The rush is on to implement in a battle for competitive advantage. However, in the haste to implement, some organizations are stumbling because their initiative lacks a solid foundation.

“People want to solve problems with AI just because it’s AI and not because it’s the best solution,” said Scott Zoldi, chief analytics officer at analytics decisioning platform provider FICO. “It has to be soup to nuts. How are we going to develop AI from a governed perspective of having a governance process that talks about the data, the success criteria and the risks from both a project perspective and an ethical perspective?”

Some AI initiatives falter because the thinking that went into them was inadequate. For example:

The AI initiative is created separately from the business strategy so it fails to make a strategic impact.
The success criteria are overly broad because they fail to include a success metric (E.g., “We want to be more competitive” as opposed to “We want to reduce fraud by 15% while reducing the number of false positives by 30%.”)
The change management aspect wasn’t considered so the initiative faces resistance.

“Shared capabilities or shared data across business units is becoming more important than the autonomy of individual units,” said Marco Iansiti, David Sarnoff professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, who heads the technology and operations management unit and chairs the Digital Initiative. “This causes all kinds of difficulties in traditional organizations because all of a sudden, you have a person who runs investment banking that has never shared anything with the person who runs wealth management. And all of a sudden, they are both interested in leveraging some of the same algorithms and some of the same components. They have to standardize because before they didn’t have to.”

The use of AI has become such a strategic issue that CEOs are getting involved in defining what their company’s AI strategy would look like.

“Earlier, we were seeing it was the CIO, CTO and some CXOs, but now the leading CEOs realize that this is going to redefine the future of their industry and the future of their own company,” said Arnab Chakraborty, global managing director, applied intelligence North America lead at global consulting company Accenture. “They’re looking at this as a reinvention of their business in the context of where things are headed with AI.”

Some of the common missteps can be avoided or minimized by thinking through the initiative in a holistic manner and involving those in the value stream who can help think through the various aspects — opportunities, risks, potential impacts, success factors, data requirements, compliance issues, governance, etc. Other success factors follow.

Feature Image Credit: Gorodenkoff via Adobe Stock

By Lisa Morgan

Lisa Morgan is a freelance writer who covers big data and BI for InformationWeek. She has contributed articles, reports, and other types of content to various publications and sites ranging from SD Times to the Economist Intelligent Unit. Frequent areas of coverage include … View Full Bio

Sourced from InformationWeek

In News

1 out of 4 of your Employees Feel They Don’t Fit In. Here’s Why That Matters, and What to Do About It.

May 7, 2021 No Comments

By Alexi Robichaux

Employees who have a high sense of belonging are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and more engaged at work. Leaders can set the tone and make a tangible difference for teams and individuals.

Leaders, researchers and productivity experts talk endlessly about teamwork, but teams don’t exist just because an org chart or a boss says they do. To turn a group of individuals into a team, you need them to feel like they belong to one. To feel included is a basic human need. When we belong, we create a safe environment where everyone is willing to offer their diverse perspectives, and take in others’, in service of their team and their shared objectives.

Belonging is central to success in the modern workplace. And it’s an area where the data shows many leaders could easily improve. In fact, one in four employees feel they don’t belong at work, according to recent research from my company, BetterUp. The good news is the same research also suggests simple interventions that can increase belonging and team performance.

The business case for belonging

That fact that 25 percent of your workforce may feel left out is disheartening on a human level. We are all hardwired to want to feel part of a tribe. But it also impacts performance. When employees feel they can’t be their authentic selves at work, when they feel left out, when they feel their talents are not properly welcomed, their performance takes a hit.

In fact, a multi-year Google research project found that the most important factor for a team’s success isn’t the IQ or talent of its members. Instead it’s psychological safety — the feeling that your colleagues appreciate you and have your back. Our own research at BetterUp shows that employees who have a high sense of belonging are 10 times more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and more than twice as engaged at work.

These findings make psychological sense. Humans are less creative when they feel threatened and less loyal to groups and organizations they feel aren’t loyal to them. The research is clear: Belonging is objectively good for business.

Happily for leaders, fostering belonging is not rocket science. You no doubt learned the basic principles of inclusion back when you were in kindergarten. The key insight here isn’t complex interventions, it’s an awareness that the same principles of kindness and fairness apply on the playground and the professional realm. A shift in mindset that views businesses less as machines with cogs and wheels and more as ecosystems made up of people in search of connection and self-actualization, helps leaders reap all the benefits of a strong sense of belonging. Here are a few specific ways to foster that feeling:

1. Acknowledge exclusion

Empower your team members to take control of situations of exclusion. When you sense that someone is feeling excluded or that their ideas aren’t being properly valued, don’t stay silent. Simply engaging in a conversation non-judgmentally about the situation and giving them the space to talk about their experience and feelings can actually increase their sense of belonging. Listening alone is enough to start to move the needle.

Start with something like, “I noticed that we talked right past your comment about the data on the dog-owner market. That surprised me given you owned that customer data. What did you make of that?” Never force a conversation, but if your colleague is happy to talk, you can take your intervention a step further by asking, “What would you change to make sure everyone feels included?” It is everyone’s responsibility to foster belonging.

2. Be an ally

You don’t need to wait for someone to feel excluded to take action. One of the best ways to build a culture of belonging is to remind yourself regularly of the importance of including everyone and treating teammates fairly.

Managers and leaders play a critical role in supporting belonging and inclusion. Managers are the primary driver of employee experience — directly through their interactions and decisions and indirectly by setting the tone for the team through their behaviours. Building a culture of inclusive leadership should be central to any leadership development efforts.

Ask yourself: Am I hearing from everyone on my team? Make a list of team members and periodically track how often they comment across meetings and virtual platforms for a week. Address patterns and imbalances by being deliberate in inviting people into the discussion, slowing meetings down or using collaborative documents or other asynchronous activities to solicit input rather than a free-for-all discussion.

As a leader, praising allies who are supportive and stick up for colleagues demonstrates you value belonging. Think of these actions as an immunization against exclusion and the damage it can do.

3. Gain perspective

Exclusion thrives in darkness. Shine a light on the problem with open conversation and you’re likely to see problems of lack of belonging diminish. Encourage team members to reflect on their own experiences of exclusion and to discuss how to better help others who face similar challenges.

These interventions are straightforward. The only trick is having the courage to actually do them, and the earlier you start, the more benefits you’ll see. Rather than attempting to repair damage caused by exclusion, be proactive. Sow the seeds of belonging in your workplace now by reflecting on the value of belonging and beginning thoughtful conversations around the topic.

That can be harder than it appears on paper, so if you’re nervous about how to proceed, a coach, therapist or other trained pro can help guide you. The research is clear that this small investment in belonging will pay off in higher performance and well being down the road.

By Alexi Robichaux

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In News

How to Pitch Your Ideas in 10 Minutes or Less

May 7, 2021 No Comments

By Carmine Gallo

Use these three strategies to quickly grab your audience’s attention.

There’s something magical about 10 minutes, and smart entrepreneurs know it.

John Medina, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington, says we have a built-in clock that causes us to tune out of a pitch, presentation, or lecture after 10 minutes. Fortunately, there are proven ways to make the most of that time.

As a communication coach, I know this 10-minute rule is true. For example, Richard Branson used to hold pitch competitions at his home on Necker Island. Each entrepreneur was given 10 minutes to pitch their idea. Branson told me that if you can’t get the idea across in 10 minutes, it’s too complicated.

Similarly, two years ago, military instructors teaching advanced tactics in nuclear weapons proliferation asked me to speak to their class at an airbase in New Mexico. The class had been assigned one of my public speaking books to help them communicate concisely.

One instructor told me, “These officers will be sent to the Pentagon and other parts of the world after this class. They will be asked to share their analysis of a situation at a moment’s notice with senior leaders. And they’ll get 10 minutes to do it — if they’re lucky.”

So whether you’re pitching to a celebrity entrepreneur, sharing key ideas to leaders, or on a call with a potential investor, here’s how to make the most of the 10 minutes you have by answering three questions.

1. What’s the idea?

Journalists often say “don’t bury the lead.” A pitch or informational presentation isn’t a novel where your audience has the patience to wait until the end to find out what happens.

Michael Moritz, an early investor in Google, once told me that Sergey Brin and Larry Page explained their idea in one sentence. “Google organizes the world’s information and makes it universally accessible.” In one sentence, Moritz was hooked.

The same strategy works for an informational presentation. If you’re meeting to discuss the new budget, start with a headline:

“Hi, everyone. You’ll be happy to know that, thanks to our team’s great work, we’ve been approved for a budget increase of 10 percent over last year.”

In one sentence, you’ve got their attention. Now you can answer the second question every person has on their mind.

2. What’s in it for me?

I recently met with a senior manager at one of the world’s largest tech companies. He said sales professionals are taught the 10-minute rule before pitching the company’s services to potential customers — but it’s the first 60 seconds that really count.

A sales pitch might begin like this: “We ran the numbers. By adopting our service, you’ll be saving your company millions of dollars, which your CEO will love to hear, and it’ll cut the time you spend installing updates by 50 hours a month.”

This powerful opening pitch accomplishes two things: It tells the listener that they’ll look like a hero to the boss, and they’ll get precious time back to spend on other activities.

Sell the benefit of your idea as soon as possible.

3. Do you have a story or example?

Few people will remember every detail on your slides, but they’ll remember the stories you tell. Storytelling is an ancient rhetorical technique to transfer information. Today, science is proving that it does, indeed, work like magic.

A CEO of a company that sells software once told me that its top sales staff were those who used a relevant customer story or case study in the first 10 minutes of their presentations. The sales data proved it — good storytellers have a distinct advantage.

So the next time you’re on deck to present in-person or on a Zoom call that’s scheduled for 30 or 60 minutes, make no mistake, your audience will tune out after 10 minutes. They may remain on the call, but their attention will drop dramatically.

Your job in the first 10 minutes is to identify your big idea, sell the benefit, and tell a story. Your audience will love you for it.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images. Illustration: Inc. Magazine

By Carmine Gallo

Sourced from Inc.

In News

Recommendations to personalize your value proposition

May 7, 2021 No Comments

By Andrés Silva Arancibia

How do I know if I am on the right track of personalization? These are some of the key elements that you should consider.

I still remember on television in the 90’s when the commercials interrupted the best moment of “our” movie, but worse still, it was what in that commercial they tried to sell us, because it often corresponded to a product that did not quite fit with our interest. Those were the times of publicity that “shot” the flock. How far were we from a Netflix? How distant were we from personalization?

In 30 years the world changed to place personalization at the epicentre of strategy. These days, new consumers demand unique content and experiences. Thus, the most valuable companies on the planet are focused on product personalization, marketing and the customer’s shopping experience.

In a hyper-connected world like the one we are in, if the company fails to establish a personalized and fast bond with the client, it has no chance of surviving in this new decade 2020-2030 “governed” mainly by new generations such as millennials , genZ and gene alpha, which do not respond positively to analogous strategies and tactics typical of the 80s and 90s.

You may be interested: Why the ‘Save Ralph’ short went viral

Commercial management now seeks to connect the brand with its customers in a much more individualized way and in real time, which imposes great challenges of creativity and innovation, which allow us to design fast, convenient and unique shopping experiences for each client that us. visit. However, the stark reality is still far from approaching these standards. A recent McKinsey (2019) survey of senior marketing leaders found that only 15% of CMOs believe their company is on the right track with personalization.

All of the above said, here are three key recommendations to personalize your value proposition:

1.- Personalize your value proposition at all online and offline contact points with the customer

Each contact with the client translates into an experience, and as such, the client will always be evaluating it based on their expectations.

2- If you really want to personalize your value offer, you must ask yourself and answer questions that allow you to know your customers deeply:

What are your customers’ favourite products and what other products would they love to buy? What type of offers and what type of message do your customers respond best to? How much have they bought in the past and when should they buy again? How do your customers buy? and What are your favourite channels?

If you can answer these fundamental questions, then for each person who comes to your website or point of sale, you could create a shopping experience completely tailored to the needs, wishes and demands of your customers, with each step carefully planned to nudge them gently toward that important purchase.

3.- Place your attention on brands that are leading the creation of personalized experiences for their customers

The Sephora case that received the perfect rating for its experience on its website and its email. Walmart which has also earned perfect ratings for its mobile experience and high ratings for its email marketing experience. Nike is always looking to hyper-personalize its marketing by intelligently using the aggregated data of its customers. Netflix that has customization and speed in its DNA. Their service not only shows you recommendations for movies and series based on the content you’ve seen, but it even customizes the covers of the movies, giving prominence to the actors or actresses with whom you are most familiar. And when it comes to customer behaviour targeting, predictive analytics, and personalization, Amazon is the number one company. Its personalized and contextualized advertising is the great commercial value of this e-commerce giant. From individualized website content to personalized emails and offers, Amazon offers dynamic messaging tailored to the customer, based on real-time data.

In conclusion

We can then think that companies are leaders in their industries, when they manage to personalize the relationship with their customers in a valuable way. And this is not mere speculation. In a 2019 study, Monetate described the ROI of personalized marketing very well. In this study, they found that personalized marketing drives growth, as 93% of companies with an “advanced personalization strategy” experienced significant revenue growth.

As Arthur Conan Doyle said “You get good results by always putting yourself in the other’s shoes and thinking about what one would do if it had been the other.” We are on the verge of a new era and His Majesty personalization is entering through the front door.

Feature Image Credit: Depositphotos.com

By Andrés Silva Arancibia

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In Uncategorized

How Google’s Path To Ecommerce Looks Different Than Amazon’s

May 6, 2021 No Comments

By Laurie Sullivan

When talking about “the elephant in the room” these days, it’s sometimes difficult to determine which one. It depends on whether you’re speaking about ecommerce or advertising, but perhaps not for long.

Google My Business (GMB) is increasingly playing a role as a local mediator. Historically, someone would search for information online, contact a small business, go to the retail store, or look up directions. Slowly, the company has been integrating GMB into Maps and into people’s lives and their routines.

This past year, as people dealt with COVID-19 and lockdowns, the industry focused on the growth of ecommerce, but something a little more complicated and interesting happened, said Greg Sterling, vice president of marketing insights at Uberall.

“The internet is now the starting point for everything, either ecommerce or local offline transactions like food ordering, pick-up in store or curbside pickup,” he said.

Google is trying to put its services in the centre of the online-to-offline experience, which includes Maps, product inventory, and search. There’s a lot of money at stake, he said — and Google is trying to influence it all, from reviews to remarketing.

“Last year, I estimated at one point, casually, at least $10 trillion of U.S. economic activity is impacted by the internet,” he said. “That’s probably underestimating it, but if GDP is between $20 trillion and $21 trillion, at least half is impacted by the internet in some form. That’s much more than ecommerce.”

When Inside Performance asked whether Google will become an ecommerce engine, Sterling said the company is headed in that direction. Increasingly, more transactions are happening through Google, including services such as appointments.

The future is a hybrid model of online and offline, Sterling said. GMB is an important part of that strategy.

Last week, Google announced that it is on track to bring more than 100 AI-powered improvements to Google Maps, such as a feature that provides the ability to navigate through indoors spaces with Live View, powered by a technology called global localization.

The technology uses artificial intelligence to scan tens of billions of Street View images to understand the consumer’s location, and helps to understand the precise position and placement of objects inside a building such as on store shelves, in airports, or transit stations, as well as retail stores in malls.

Live View can help someone find the nearest elevator and escalator in an airport, or locate an ATM machine.

“One of the ways you compete with Amazon is you let people know where locally they can buy some of the items they search for online,” he said. “Amazon is trying to compress delivery times to remove the physical store advantage.”

While Google is trying to expose inventory online that’s in local stores to give people a sense of where they can buy it and take it home, online direct-to-consumer brands are moving offline. They got their start online. If you’re a direct to consumer brands and you online have an online stores, you’re vulnerable, Sterling said.

“You need pop-up stores — something Nordstrom is doing,” he said. “You don’t need to build out stores, but you need to give them the experience of the brand.”

By Laurie Sullivan

@lauriesullivan,

Sourced from MediaPost