editor, Author at Mediastreet

In News

REFLECTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA SPEND: WHEN TO SHAKE UP THE MARKETING MIX

August 25, 2020 No Comments

This year has ushered in a period of upheaval and recalibration. As consumers explore the societal issues surrounding them, a social reckoning has begun. Consumers are setting new standards for employers, brands and public figures and are closely watching who adheres to these expectations.

Simply sharing a statement is not enough. Instead, brands must promote change by putting their money where their mouth is. In some instances, this means significant donations or investments in diversity and inclusion within the organization. For others, it means re-evaluating partnerships with companies or individuals who have become complacent in the fight for social justice.

The #StopHateForProfit movement on Facebook is the latest example of this. On July 1, Business Insider reported that more than 500 brands had committed to the #StopHateForProfit movement, pausing ad spend on Facebook and Instagram in order to voice their concern over the spread of hate speech and misinformation on the platform. As of August 11, that number had more than doubled.

From my perspective, this movement is incredibly powerful and stems from the simple truth that companies today vote with their dollars. Where and with whom they spend their money exposes more about their social ethics than what they say. And paid media is arguably one of the biggest driving forces for how brands show up and support our digital world today.

This movement has aimed to inspire change within Facebook as a business. My company’s work with content creators and in influencer marketing has shown me, however, that some content creators could be negatively impacted as well. Aside from pausing ad spend with Facebook directly, I’ve observed that many brands have also stalled or pushed out influencer marketing campaigns, which has inadvertently affected content creators whose livelihoods depend on sponsored content.

There’s an important differentiation here that brands should consider: Most influencers today operate as small businesses, and Facebook is not a part of the transaction between brands and creators. So pulling money away from holistic digital marketing campaigns in this manner doesn’t end up affecting Facebook’s bottom line — only the creators’.

As we collectively work to adjust how platforms combat hate speech, from Facebook and beyond, I encourage brands to consider whether they can continue supporting and empowering creators who are spreading positive messages and bringing communities together on a daily basis. Influencer marketing offers an incredibly diverse ecosystem of backgrounds, interests, talents, lifestyles and audiences for brands to tap into. If you’re working with creators who align with your brand’s values, you can create a natural dialogue among consumers and products or services and tie it to the world around them.

Today’s content creators also have the power to drive awareness and action around pertinent societal issues and have the audience engagement necessary to incite real change and shape a better tomorrow. Yet, while the industry is on track to be worth up to $15 billion by 2022, I still run into the same misconceptions about how only certain brands are a fit for influencer marketing, how complicated the process can be and the ultimate return on investment.

At a base level, every brand is a fit for influencer marketing campaigns, as long as it’s partnering with the right creators. Although it’s mostly touted as effective for direct-to-consumer brands, there are a multitude of options for creators and platforms to reach even the most niche audiences, whether it’s small business and entrepreneurship tips, auto repair or human resources software solutions.

For more unconventional brands looking to pursue influencer marketing, it’s important to start by really understanding which channels your audience is on and partnering with the relevant creators from there. A younger audience looking for how-to videos might call for YouTube, whereas an entrepreneurial audience might call for LinkedIn or Twitter.

Another major benefit of influencer marketing is closer visibility into who is seeing your message and the content it’s integrated within. With automated advertising on social media and the internet more broadly, there aren’t enough checks and balances to ensure that your advertisements aren’t being placed against content that is deemed unsafe or unsuitable for brand safety guidelines. From my perspective, influencer marketing can help mitigate that fear because the message is integrated into the content directly and shared with a specific audience that is already tuned into that particular channel.

At the end of the day, I believe a campaign focused on disseminating helpful, timely information with the appropriate content creators is still a viable option for brands interested in partnering with influencers. This type of marketing gives brands the opportunity to bring together diversity in background, thought and interests. Instead of having a few blanket advertisements for different audiences, brands can leverage influencer marketing to communicate with audiences through the authentic voices of creators.

That said, when pursuing an influencer campaign, it’s essential to execute it thoughtfully. This will allow you to uplift the creative process for the content creators, as well as ensure that your brand is truly engaging with audiences in a genuine way and never forcing or disrupting the content itself.

Amid all the uncertainty, 2020 has inspired immense societal change and re-evaluation. Social media giants have work to do in mitigating the spread of misinformation and hate speech, and influencer marketing offers brands a powerful antidote by putting resources behind creators who are inspiring lasting, positive change.

Facebook is but one example of a platform on the wrong side of a controversy. These moments have happened before, with YouTube and “Adpocalyspe,” and I believe they will continue to happen in the future. Such challenges are inevitable — when the cards are on the table, brands must evaluate their responses and take decisive action.

For brands that have participated in influencer marketing in the past, I see now as the time to invest in more variety, support the small businesses and entrepreneurs we call content creators, and foster creativity and dialogue where we can.

Feature Image Credit: GETTY

By Ricky Ray Butler.

Sourced from AdAge

In News

How to Use Technology and Social Media for Business Growth

August 25, 2020 No Comments

By Zeinab Mehdi Poor.

What business doesn’t use technology? Yes, that is the unmistakable sound of crickets. But here’s another, more pertinent question: which businesses maximize their use of technology to generate revenue? The world is abuzz with technological chatter, with the noisy flux of shifting processes, incoming apps, innovative start-ups and increasingly simplistic digital tools which help us streamline our businesses and make a bigger splash for less cash.

As a business leader, you’re constantly learning. Searching for new growth strategies, emerging trends in your industry, and new products and services is a consistent part of your routine. Technology is about innovation and innovation in business is all about doing things differently so as to supply better products and solutions, and an improved service to customers.

If you are a business owner or leader means you’re constantly learning.

Researching new marketing strategies, emerging trends in your industry, and exciting new products is certain to be a continuing a part of your weekly grind. But are you furthermore may maintaining with similar changes in technology? If not, you’ll be missing out on tools which will make your life easier and your business stronger. Technology isn’t just essential for day-to-day business processes, but it also can help companies to realize growth and success when utilised effectively. Successful businesses don’t view technology simply as how to automate processes, but instead use it to open up new ways of doing business. But are you furthermore may maintaining with similar changes in technology? technology is helping firms of all sizes fulfil their business potential. While the pace at which technology is evolving is faster than ever before, these advancements present a range of growth opportunities for business leaders.

Technologies help you reach more potential customers, around the clock.

Various types of content marketing increase the visibility of your business far beyond your local community—often on a reasonable budget. Technology can help business owners leverage capital in smarter, more effective ways. In some cases, using technology provides greater efficiency and versatility, making it a natural progression for processes you may already have in place in your business. In others, you may need to make some adjustments to reap the benefits of tech-friendly alternatives. Use digital technologies for more effective marketing.

Businesses are now operating in an era where having a strong digital presence is essential, not only for success, but often simply for survival too. The lack of a strong digital presence is thought to be a contributing factor in the failure of many SMEs, half of which are failing in their first five years of existence. With limited marketing budgets, SMEs got to be wise about how they utilize digital technologies for max impact.

They key is to develop a clearly defined digital marketing strategy, including your aims, your tactics and how you’re going to measure performance. Many companies are digitally active, but not following a defined strategy. This can lead to resources being wasted and opportunities being missed.

Here are ways technology can help your business grow

1. Use a high-quality VoIP system

The benefits of using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) should be obvious, but if you’re still tempted to use the conventional or analog system in your office, know that you could be missing out massively. Using the internet to make calls far cheaper and means you can log in anywhere in the world, conduct videoconferences, discuss important deals, and otherwise stay on top of things as if you were in the office. Mobility, functionality and adaptability are the three key benefits of putting in VoIP, which has undoubtedly enhanced communication within the business world and led to increased productivity across the board.

2. Don’t be afraid of video

A lot of business owners are afraid to put themselves out there: to add a face and voice to the text-based voice which narrates their online story. But embracing video, whether within the sort of live videos and ‘stories’ on social media or product-, category- or topic-led videos on your website, are often a winning strategy. Not only will it help to build brand transparency, making browsers feel like they’re getting to know you, but it will help to stimulate engagement.

3. Connect with people.

One of the best features of technology is the ability to communicate and connect with other people right at the fingertips. More people in the United States are leaning towards the use of technology for connectivity. It has become an essential and worthwhile part of not only an individual’s life but also his business. Technology is a great tool to get in touch with customers and employees. Nowadays, even remote working is a theme. When it involves modern technology, sending targeted emails and newsletters to the designated customers can lead one to grow his or her business over time.

4. Technology as a mean of security.

Apart from the many benefits of using technology for business owners, the best one is how it impacts the security of the business. Technology can be used to prevent any hacking done by hackers over the original work of authorship. In this way, issues like copyright infringement and other copyright laws get easily bypassed. Usage of the proper amount of technology or rather information technology can prevent any breach of security. With active firewalls and encrypted passwords, avoidance of this particular problem, in the long run, is possible.

5. Save on IT spending

Cloud-based technologies help businesses grow with technology by providing state of the art tools without the high cost usually related to huge enterprise software programs. Web based technologies allow multiple users to collaborate during a single document or provide unlimited data storage. Cloud technologies eliminate the necessity for IT departments and therefore the solution providers perform backups, tuning and upgrades as a part of their offering. Small business owners can access their data from any location at any time. These tools are often free or pay as you go eliminating the need for long term contracts.

Social Platforms for Business Growth

Social platforms helps you connect with your customers. What are the advantages of using social media for business? Consider that there are now quite 3 billion using social networks across the world and these people are using social to interact with brands. Social networks offer you the chance to interact directly with customers and fans, and likewise give them the prospect to interact directly together with your brand.

Unlike traditional media, which offers only one-way communication, social media may be a street . If you would like customers and followers to be engaged, you’ve got to be engaged yourself. Stay active and answer comments and questions on your own social media posts during a way that’s appropriate to your brand. Here are reasons why investing in social media may be a wise business move.

1. Build Awareness

If people don’t realize your business, they can’t become your customers. Social media boosts your visibility among potential customers, letting you reach a good audience by employing a great deal of your time and energy . And it’s liberal to create a business profile on all the main social networks, so you’ve got nothing to lose. Define what you would like to urge out of social media to develop a social media strategy. does one want new customers to get your services? does one hope to bring more local shoppers into your stores? By keeping your strategy specific, you’ll determine which social media channels are the simplest fit your business.

2. Improve Search Engine Ranking

There’s a lot of debate around this subject , but rock bottom line is that, this social media can (and will) improve your program ranking. How? The domain authority increases when the social media share rate increases. This results in an improved program ranking of your pages. But it’s quite just that. Many consumers visit your social media profiles before heading to your website to urge a far better understanding of your brand before they create a sale .

3. Social media is cost-effective

As more social networks add algorithms that filter what users see in their news feeds, your organic content may stray within the shuffle. cash in of the low-cost advertising features offered by the social networks to market your content and special offers. Some social media advertising is cheaper than traditional advertising, so you don’t need to spend tons of cash to increase your audience, and grow your business.

4. Tell Your Brand’s Story

Using social media may be a good way to share your brand’s mission and share stories. Effective stories can have an excellent impact on your brand’s image. they will be simple or extensive counting on what you think that are going to be best .

5. Boost sales

No matter what you sell, social media can assist you sell it. Your social accounts are a critical a part of your sales funnel—the process through which a replacement contact becomes a customer. As the number of individuals using social media continues to grow and social sales tools evolve, social networks will become increasingly important for product search and ecommerce. The time is true to align your social marketing and sales goals.

Feature Image Credit: Pixabay

By Zeinab Mehdi Poor

Sourced from Entrepreneur India

In News

How Gymshark Became A $1.3 Billion Brand, And What We Can Learn

August 25, 2020 No Comments

By Jodie Cook.

Sports apparel brand Gymshark has just hit a $1.3 billion valuation after securing investment from General Atlantic. The company, started by Birmingham U.K.-born Ben Francis in 2012, now age 28, has entered into a strategic partnership in order to expand further internationally. General Atlantic will take a 21% stake in the business following the deal, which marks Gymshark’s first ever investment round.

Gymshark began life as a supplements company, before moving into clothing. The apparel, initially consisting of gym vests and t-shirts, was sewn and screen-printed by Francis, his brother and a group of friends after Francis’ grandmother taught him how to use a sewing machine. Francis said, at first, they were just making clothes they really wanted to wear themselves. They enjoyed learning how to create and fulfil the orders they had received, and priced items based on what sounded about right. Here’s how they grew so fast and here’s what entrepreneurs can learn from their approach.

Staying humble

This motto is displayed on walls at Gymshark HQ, and the #stayhumble Instagram hashtag is peppered with selfies from Gymshark fans and team members. Steve Hewitt, Gymshark’s CEO, advised that, “It takes zero talent to work hard and zero talent to stay humble; if you get those things right you will always do well in your journey.” Further advice from Hewitt is to “Learn to fail fast” and “Own as much of the supply chain as you can.”

The lessons: Staying humble is far harder the more success and fame you achieve. Keep things as simple as possible for as long as possible, scale with demand, and remember where you came from. Never underestimate the contribution of those around you and the fortune you’ve been granted.

Focusing on customer needs

Gymshark has a clear target audience of 18-25-year-olds whose lives revolve around fitness, fashion and music. They do not deviate from the audience and everything they do is aimed at their needs. Customers are looked after. In 2015 Gymshark suffered a website outage on Black Friday, resulting in customers not being able to get their deals. Whilst this might have broken many companies, Gymshark’s founder personally hand-wrote 2500 apology letters to customers, including discounts, who weren’t able to purchase during the crash.

The lessons: Proudly exclude everyone except your target audience so you can focus solely on them. Double down on the customer experience. Test your site, and test some more. Utilise the best technology to create exceptional customer touchpoints, via your website and in-person. If you do mess up, own the mistake, respond in an exceptional way and carry on.

Being visionaries

Part of Gymshark’s mission statement reads: “In everything we do, be true to our own vision and respectful of others. We are here to bring ideas to life. There is no idea too big, or too small… We are not future-proof. We are the future.” The brand is known by its fans for putting its own spin on timely topics. During the U.K.’s lengthy lockdown Gymshark employed otherwise out-of-work personal trainers to present on its gym workout app. They raised £180,000 for the NHS with their #NHSsweatyselfie campaign and their own version of the last Black Friday was #blackout, whereby the entire website was rebranded to match the theme.

The lessons: Dream big with what you could achieve and how many people could be involved. Plan your calendar of activity far in advance and be prepared to respond to last-minute events with hard-hitting campaigns. Explore everything that your target audience is already talking about and work out how to make it relevant to your brand in a big way.

How Gymshark became a $1.3bn brand, and what we can learn

GYMSHARK

Building an influencer community

Gymshark were the earliest adopters of the influencer marketing model, partnering with YouTubers including Lex Griffin and Nikki Blackketter. Now, the brand markets products through its community of Instagram influencers and YouTubers and sponsors a range of athletes, each of whom operate at the top of their game. The athletes include Irish professional boxer Katie Taylor and Ross Edgley, who in 2018 became the first person to swim (1780 miles) all the way around Great Britain.

Francis said, “From the point of view of the athletes we work with, we want to create a real, strong team that speaks to our values. And we work with them for a long, sustained period of time.”

The lessons: Don’t think of influencer marketing as a quick smash and grab, think of it as building relationships with people over a long period of time, for the benefit of both of your brands. The goal isn’t shallow and fleeting promotion. Be prepared to invest in the process and communicate you’re looking for long term. Do the research and keep standards insanely high.

Assembling a dream team

The brand’s HQ houses 500 team members and aims to “create a culture where every morning feels like Christmas morning” according to Hewitt. The Solihull campus also has Gymshark Lifting Club, a state-of-the-art strength training centre reserved for team members and invitation-only athletes.

Although Francis is founder and owner, he has opted out of the CEO role, explaining the decision in a YouTube video called “I’m not Gymshark’s CEO anymore” and recognising, “The most difficult thing for me was learning to trust others to do the things in the business that I used to do.” He also asserted, “You need to constantly be around people who give you a reality check, people who are better than you.” and admitted he rarely communicates via email, saying it’s too slow and he prefers to talk to his team.

The lessons: Hire the right people for the right seats, ensure alignment with vision and values and leave them to get on with executing. As the owner, you don’t have to be the CEO if that’s not your jam, you can design your own role. Work out how to give your team more and more, to ensure their best work and their pride at working for your brand.

Documenting everything

Gymshark uses its busy social media channels to document its entire journey. Videos and images appear regularly, whenever it opens a new premises or takes a new step. There are professionally filmed and edited walkthroughs of Gymshark HQ, Gymshark Lifting Club, plus the in-person events and behind-the-scenes photoshoots by different members of the team. There are topical updates in response to COVID-19 and how it affected their community and fans, as well as explainers of the decision behind getting involved in certain campaigns and opting out of others.

The lessons: The global brands set up before the 2000s didn’t have chance to document their journeys in such detail, but if they had they might be stronger today. Documenting every part of a brand’s journey lets its customers feel like they are getting an inside look. Use social media to be transparent. Everything you do can be remarkable content as long as it’s planned and executed exceptionally.

Building the founder’s profile

Francis has his own YouTube channel, with 162k followers, where he answers in-depth Q&As about his company and role, including how he grew the business and challenges he overcomes. He also uses it to announce news and share his own journey. Francis works with so many influencers, it makes sense that he practices what he preaches.

Video titles include, “My favourite apps for running Gymshark,” “Full explanation: the future of Gymshark” and “Creating the world’s greatest office.” It’s content of substance and it amasses messages of support, congratulations and secures customer loyalty.

The lessons: In documenting everything, include the founder. Be prominent as a company founder. It’s interesting. People want to know what you’re doing so they can associate with your success. They like to tell people when they first found out about you. Hold yourself accountable to staying humble and being personable. Create the public persona and control the news channels. Break the stories before the media do.

Emulate Gymshark’s journey by dreaming big but staying humble, documenting and sharing every part of your journey, including from the founder’s perspective, building long-term relationships with influencers and surprising and delighting your growing customer base.

Feature Image Credit: UNSPLASH

By Jodie Cook

Since starting my social media agency in 2011 I have been fascinated by the influences that create entrepreneurs. I co-wrote a series of children’s storybooks, Clever Tykes, which develop positive, resourceful and creative behaviour in 6-9 year olds; they are now read in every primary school in the United Kingdom and I’m determined to replicate this in countries across the world. I was included in Forbes’ 30 under 30 social entrepreneurs in Europe 2017 and gave a TEDx talk with the title ‘creating useful people’. I’m big on travel, lifestyle design and helping people access the freedom that modern entrepreneurship should bring.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

How to Analyse Instagram Stories: 7 Metrics to Track

August 24, 2020 No Comments

By NANCY CASANOVA.

Want to know if your Instagram Stories content is working? Wondering how to make sense of Instagram Stories Insights?

In this article, you’ll discover seven key Instagram story metrics that reveal what content piqued users’ interest, where interest may have dropped off, and whether people are taking action and engaging with your stories.

#1: Find Out How Many People Watch Your Entire Instagram Story

The completion rate metric can give you a feel for how engaging your Instagram Stories content is. A high completion rate means people are taking the time to watch or tap through each slide (a single photo or video posted on your story) until reaching the end. This can help you determine whether you’re posting too many slides or the right kind of content for your audience.

To calculate this metric, divide the total number of viewers of your last Instagram story slide by the number of people who saw the first slide.

reach of last slide / reach of first slide = completion rate

Let’s say your first Instagram story slide had a reach of 152 and your last slide had a reach of 108. Your completion rate would be 71%.

Example: 108 / 152 x 100 = 71% completion rate

Upload a Complete Series at Once

When posting to Instagram Stories, batch-upload all of the slides in a series instead of posting them individually throughout the day. By uploading them in one segment, you can more easily determine the completion rate and analyse how the series performed from beginning to end.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

By NANCY CASANOVA.

Sourced from Social Media Examiner

In News

The Future Is Here Now: How Covid-19 Has Changed Consumers, Now And In The Future.

August 24, 2020 No Comments

By Gary Drenik.

On March 11 a national emergency was declared, and states quickly began locking down. The economy turned down to a trickle. By early May almost all states began to gradually reopen in phases. Now, 90 days later, Prosper Insights and Analytics August survey of over 7,500 consumers provides insights into how much they say their behaviours have changed and how they expect to behave in the future. When viewed over the course of the last 90 days there are some consistent behavioural changes occurring. These consistent changes may be emerging trends that the marketplace needs to be aware of. Below is a quick recap:

Impact of Covid-19

Consumers continue to be quite concerned and are even slightly more concerned than they were in May. These concerns are carried over to their concerns about the economy and a pessimism towards the government solving the crisis.

Concerned/very concerned about Covid-19 crisis: May 71% August 68%

Covid-19 Impacts your view of the economy: May 84% August 80%

One of the biggest impacts from Covid-19 has to do with the delivery of health services via telehealth. Every month since May this service has increased dramatically. For many who put off going to a doctor or hospital telehealth seems to have filled an important need. There is a great deal of consistency, from May to August, for emotional well-being with anger and feeling disconnected from family and friends representing significant segments of the adult population. With several vaccines entering last stages of approval many are not willing to take them especially younger folks.

Avoiding Doctors’ offices/Hospitals: May 41% August 27%

Have used telehealth during Covid-19 pandemic: May 22% August 31%

Believe a vaccine would make you feel comfortable about returning to pre-Covid-19 life: May 58% August 54%

Impact of Covid-19

PROSPER INSIGHTS & ANALYTICS

Will take an approved Covid-19 vaccine: August 44%, of those aged 65+ is 55% and 25-34 years old is at 41%. This question was not asked in May.

Prosper Aug 2020 Yes will get Vaccine

PROSPER INSIGHTS & ANALYTICS

Impacts on Individuals economic well-being/workplace

More of those laid off during Covid-19 expect to return to work but they also anticipate an impact to their earnings. Fewer also expect the economy to return to the pre-Covid-19 level. Most who are now working from home would rather continue working from home and that the workplace will be a social distance environment.

Those who are laid off and believe they will be rehired: May 77% August 67%

Think Covid-19 crisis will impact future earnings: May 45% August 46%

Think economy will return to pre Covid-19 level: May 51% August 46%

Those now working from home rather than office who want to continuing work from home: May 46% August 63%.

Think social distancing will become workplace policy: May 68% August 71%

Social Impacts

Social distancing practices appear to be a long term trend as a majority agree with social distancing policies, say they will change social behaviours in the future and plan to continue to practice social distancing in the future.

Those who agree/strongly agree with social distancing policies:

May 73% August 74%

Agree/strongly agree they will change their social behaviours in the future:

May 59% August 57%

Plan on continuing to social distance in the future:

May 83% August 84%

Impact on Retail Behaviours

Retail behavioural changes have been the most apparent due to lockdowns put in place by Governors of states back in March. These changes appear to have accelerated the digital shopping changes which have been gradually gaining ground over the past 20 years. Consumers say they like the experience which also helps them fulfil their social distancing desires. A majority say they will change their shopping behaviours in the future. Many prefer contactless checkouts. Walmart meets the needs best in brick and mortar world while Amazon is far and away the online choice. Both have increased their perceptions since May. Product shortage issues have also declined compared to May.

Agree they will change purchasing behaviours in the future:

May 51% August 50%

Walmart has the best in-store selection for what they are looking for:

May 20% August 25%

Amazon has the best online selection for what they are looking for:

May 40% August 48%.

Having trouble finding items in stores: May 31% August 23%

Having trouble finding items online: May 15% August 11%

Media coverage

One of the fastest growing survey responses is how the media is handling the coverage of the Covid-19 crisis. In August the percentage of people who believe the media coverage of Covid-19 is becoming too political is at 40% which is up from May. This growing distrust may be even more worrisome since 78% believe there will be a second wave of Covid-19 later this year.

Believe the media coverage of the Covid-19 crisis has become too political: May 39% August 40%.

Based upon what consumers have factually stated over the last 90 days, don’t be surprised to see a world where social distancing practices continue with many former office workers now working from home and shopping online…Oh wait that world appears to be here now.

Complimentary Coronavirus/Covid-19 findings are available at AWS Data Exchange. To learn more, click here: Strategic Insights: Coronavirus Covid-19 Consumer

Feature Image Credit: TIERNEY – STOCK.ADOBE.COM

By Gary Drenik.

I cover consumer-centric insights and analytics that provide executives with solutions needed to drive strategy. I am the CEO of Prosper Business Development where, for more than 20 years, we have provided market leadership and developed contemporary solutions to help Fortune 500 companies navigate change that impacts their business. I got my start in the radio industry.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

How to Create Strategy of Social Media Marketing For 2021

August 24, 2020 No Comments

By RuhaniRabin

In the past decade, social networks have actually been an interesting new frontier in advertising and marketing. It has a lot going for it as a marketing system: it’s cost-free, it’s audience-driven, it’s enjoyable, as well as it can be extremely effective. But if you intend to make use of social networks to grow your organization, it’s inadequate to post whatever you feel like, whenever you feel like. Having a well-researched, social media content strategy indicates the time and sources you invest in social media sites advertising won’t go to waste.

In this article, we will direct you with the full program of establishing a brand and the market. If you have a specific product or intend to offer an authentic product with Ecommerce, after that this is the right location to learn. For an effective eCommerce company, prompt service and reliability are important. Well, to begin a company with social media marketing services India we should have something to offer. This thing could be a product or a service depending upon your understanding, picks a product or service.

Tips to create a social media marketing strategy

Research Your Audience

To be successful with your social media advertising and marketing campaign, you have to target the right audience. If you intend to profit, interacting, and engaging with your audience is crucial in today’s advertising and marketing. You need to recognize that your target audience is since that’s the only means you can meet their needs and address their problems. Regardless of how terrific your web content is if you don’t target the ideal target market your social media advertising strategy would not work. Researching and also recognizing your target market is among the most important social media advertising and marketing tasks. With your social media posts, you might be creating a great deal of attention, but you may not be producing leads or sales as you are creating content for the incorrect audience. Survey the clients to get a better understanding of who they are as well as the responses they seek in a business.

Post valuable content Consistently

Providing high-quality information constantly is one of the most important social media ideas for organization. Among the best ways to enhance interaction on social networks and build the brand is by consistently providing value and top-quality web content to social media customers. Your target market is more likely to trust your recommendations and advice when you generate value without taking anything in return. It is essential that all the content you develop and publish for your customers’ matters, fascinating, and offer value. Once you understand your audience, you will build valuable content that meets their desires and offers value to them.

Custom-made content for Each Platform

Great social media sites marketing methods would certainly focus on creating individualized posts for each social media platform, as opposed to dispersing the same message throughout all profiles. Each little bit of material that you post on social media has to be thought out intelligently. If you’re simply uploading to share something you are not going to profit from social networks advertising. Each social media site’s platform is based upon a set of principles. Every content uploaded ought to be curated appropriately. The purpose of the content ought to be in harmony with the function of the system. LinkedIn is an ideal system to network with professionals. Also, only the viewers interested in your brand will join the group giving you more qualified leads.

Use Less-Known Operating Systems Too

There are numerous various other social networking websites that are not as popular as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube but are slowly getting popularity in their particular niche area. Discovering large and also small social media systems on the macro in addition to an on-line micro degree will certainly help you develop a base for your company. A personalized social network site, Pinterest, allows customers to publish, conserve as well as, take care of pictures and also video clips through collections typically referred to as Pinboards. It additionally helps other individuals’ jobs to be surfed according to their specific choices. Pinterest has the capacity in your niche to boost traffic on your site, your income, and your reputation and authority. A fantastic online search engine that discovers and recommends internet material in the form of blog sites, articles, pictures, as well as videos to match a person’s tastes.

Develop Interaction with Projects

Engagement is the missing piece of the challenge when trying to increase your impact on social networks. So you need to work to develop enjoyable occasions for your followers to profit from social media sites advertising. The even more followers that engage with your profile, the more likely they will reconsider it for brand-new updates in the future. When you develop a contest on any one of your social network profiles that are attached to a typical or trending subject, you inadvertently create the opportunity for individuals to engage and also attach based upon a shared passion. On the internet, free gifts have progressively gained popularity as brand-new social networks businesses are seeking means to boost their audience. Marketers will certainly give consumers a complimentary item or present card, in exchange for sharing your message as well as labelling buddies.

Utilize the Right tools

Choosing the proper tools is one of the most crucial social media sites marketing tips and also techniques. The tools you choose will determine the power of all of your advertising and marketing methods for social media. Use tools to boost the process in social media sites will aid you to conserve time as well as make points take place much faster. You can’t afford to invest more time on social media sites than you should. You will certainly have to identify which social media sites automation platform you will certainly utilize to configure your social web content. Measure the choices-each business has various needs and expectations.

Examine Your Results

You need to check your outcomes and analyze them frequently. Tracking the performance and reviewing them will aid you recognize when you are doing things right. Tracking as well as reviewing your results is an action that requires special focus. There is no point in making as well as applying techniques if the results don’t enter your favor. To track and assess the social media sites advertising strategy, the complying with metrics need to be born in mind:

By RuhaniRabin

In News

Amazon’s ad business is pandemic-proof

August 21, 2020 No Comments

By Marc Bain.

Groceries and cleaning supplies aren’t the only things Amazon is selling during the pandemic.

The e-commerce giant is peddling plenty of advertising space to companies hoping to give their items prime placement in front of Amazon’s legions of shoppers. The demand has kept Amazon’s ad sales strong amid Covid-19, even as its big tech competitors in digital advertising, Google and Facebook, suffer slowdowns.

Those two companies have dominated the online ad market, accounting for roughly 61% of digital ad spending by one estimate. But Amazon has been making inroads in recent years, and Covid-19 has pushed companies to devote more dollars to retail media, according to market research firm Forrester.

“Retail media—which, in its simplest form, refers to digital ad placements on eCommerce websites bought by consumer goods brands to influence the customer at the point of purchase—is booming during the pandemic,” the firm said in an Aug. 12 report. “In fact, Amazon’s advertising revenue didn’t miss a beat in Q2, growing at 41% year over year, while Facebook recorded its slowest ad revenue growth since going public and Google’s ad revenue declined for the first time ever.”

Amazon doesn’t report advertising revenue separately, but it does report “other” sales that it explains “primarily includes sales of advertising services, as well as sales related to our other service offerings.” In the quarter ending June 30, those sales jumped to $4.2 billion, while Facebook’s and Google’s ad businesses struggled over the same period.

Amazon has defied a broader slowdown in digital advertising as companies in hard-hit industries such as travel cut their expenses and marketing budgets.

In its report, Forrester pointed to retail media benefiting from factors that include e-commerce adoption, the large budgets consumer packaged goods companies maintain for retail marketing, and the fact that more retailers are offering media platforms. CVS, for example, is said to be readying its own ad network, and Walgreens is testing digital displays on the doors of coolers in its stores.

Whether the shift of ad dollars toward retail continues may depend on how e-commerce fares as the pandemic plays out, and on advertisers’ willingness to move money out of Google and Facebook.

For now, at least, it’s another way that Amazon looks poised to emerge even stronger than before.

By Marc Bain.

Sourced from Quartz

In News

New era for Entrepreneurship

August 21, 2020 No Comments

By Narendra Shyamsukha.

The pandemic has caused many businesses to turn the digital route. Some changes, however, may be here to stay in the post-Covid world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned out to be one of the most significant disruptive events witnessed by this generation. From mainstreaming remote working, cutting global travel to a comprehensive digital shift, the outbreak has changed the way businesses are executed.

One of the most notable elements of this transformation is the way organisations have been forced to embrace digital marketing to be able to survive the crisis and transform the way they attract and engage customers and clients.

As people are forced to stay indoors, there has been a shift to a space where businesses and customers interact less physically and more through the online route. There has been a surge in organisations seeking to create new websites or update existing ones, creating elaborate social media campaigns and launching new e-commerce channels. Intelligent content creation and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) are other elements that are receiving fresh focus. Organisations that embrace this transformation quickly and more comprehensively are the ones that are more likely to survive. Here are some phases of entrepreneurship that are adjusting to the “new normal”:

The age of webinars: As live conferences and face-to-face activities take a back seat, organisations are working out new ways to engage with customers. Webinars have emerged as a popular way to achieve digital thought-leadership and getting quality leads. At the same time, customer engagement is also taking place within these digital discussions. That’s why there is a sea of webinars to spread the message. Even when the crisis ebbs, people are likely to continue to conduct part of their thought-leadership events through webinars, as they serve the same purpose at a fraction of the cost. Webinars have filled the gap of traditional conferences and are likely to become a mainstream marketing strategy.

Increased usage of data analytics: As organisations increase their digital presence, the importance of creating useful databases has increased. With people spending more time on social media, their chances of seeing advertisements on such platforms or coming in touch with content marketing blogs are greater. This is why organisations now need to create valuable databases, analyse them and use this information intelligently to reach out to the target audience. Tracking the pattern of consumer behaviour, online traffic patterns, analysing which content retains the customer and getting a break up of which products are enticing what type of customers are essential elements of data analytics that organisations need to use to boost their online sales.

Content is the king: Businesses must focus on expanding their social media presence by creating intelligent and attractive content. With the shift from outbound to inbound marketing, it becomes essential to engage consumers in subjects they might find interesting. However, content distributed on social media should not be only promotional in nature; it must be knowledge and awareness-based as well. It must engage consumers emotionally through human interest stories rather than blatantly promoting the product.

By Narendra Shyamsukha.

Sourced from THE HINDU

In News

Explained: The curious case of fake views, ghost followers and buying influence online

August 21, 2020 No Comments

By Maryam Farooqui.

While buying followers and likes is not new in India, Badshah’s involvement in this social media scam is leading to questioning of all high-profile accounts.

Many found it hard to believe that Indian rapper Badshah’s song ‘Paagal’ last year recorded 75 million views in a day and surpassed the mark set by Korean band BTS for their video ‘Biy with Luv’ that had hit 74.6 million views in 24 hours in April last year.

Even YouTube had rejected the claim of the Indian rapper.

In the Indian music space, there were murmurs of Badshah benefitting from fake followers and fake views.

In July 2020, when Mumbai Police started investigating the issue of fake profiles following the complaint of Bollywood singer Bhoomi Trivedi about a fake Instagram profile posing as her official account, it brought to light the social media scam in India.

In fact, Mumbai Police so far have investigated 20 high-profile celebrities including actors, directors, models, sports personalities, among others. Reportedly, Mumbai Police have found over 200 celebrities involved in buying fake or ghost followers.

A 2019 report by the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) revealed that actresses such as Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are among the top Bollywood celebrities in India who have bought fake followers.

Now, the first question that comes to mind is why the need to buy followers? Aren’t these celebrities famous enough?

For a song to be declared a hit, it needs at least two million views on YouTube in 24 hours; you are considered an influencer if you have millions of followers, and if you wish to be a mega influencer you need to have over five million followers but the number varies from platform to platform.

A lot of views and many followers mean more popularity and stronger influence on social media. For influencers, then be it a social media star or a film star, these metrics result in more brands showing interest in their profile which in turn results in higher value for their posts.

For example, the ICMP report pointed out that while Deepika Padukone charges over Rs 1 crore for a social media post, Priyanka Chopra charges double of Padukone at Rs 2 crore.

But who are these fake followers?

It’s a mix of man and machine. So, there is botting which is automated fake accounts or bots. On Twitter, there are three types of bots. A scheduled bot keeps posting at regular intervals like every hour in a day. A watcher bot posts messages depending on new posts on Twitter. And amplification bot follows, tweets and retweets.

Along with bots, there are real people but with a fake identity who do all that a bot does for their clients. So, companies selling fake followers get people on board to make fake profiles with fake names and random profile pictures. There are companies across the globe that are offering fake followers.

What is the cost of buying fake followers? And who are selling fake followers?

Buying fake followers doesn’t seem to be an expensive affair. A Delhi-based firm Social King offers 100 followers for Rs 250 and 20,000 followers are available for Rs 17,500. The rates seem affordable when compared to the kind of money influencers make from brands for their social media posts.

Along with fake followers, one can buy likes as well, which come at a cost of Rs 12,000 for 10,000 likes on Facebook and Rs 34,000 for 200,000 likes on Instagram. And if someone is looking to get 10,000 video views then that would cost around Rs 1,361.

There are variations in rates depending on the kind of fake followers a client expects. So, for a steady base of followers which means that these followers won’t unfollow later, the cost could start at Rs 150 for 100 followers.

When it comes to bots, low-quality followers can be bought at Rs 2,500 for 10,000 followers; the same number of mid-quality and high-quality followers come at the price of Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,500 respectively.

Like Social King, there are many companies including followerskart.com that are selling fake followers in India. In fact, Mumbai Police have identified 100 websites in India that are selling ghost followers.

How does the issue of ghost followers affect brands?

Brands associate with followers for engagement. But what engagement with consumers can brands expect when most of the followers an influencer has on the profile are fake? This has led many brands to wonder if spending on influencer marketing is beneficial at all.

When brands consider metrics like trending and views for the success of a campaign, it becomes difficult to gauge how effective the campaign was as we know how these metrics can be easily bought.

Hence, such metrics do not give the right impact to the brand as brands are engaging with a limited number of people. And this also means that while brands are paying huge sums to influencers for large engagements thanks to their huge follower base, brands may not be getting the right returns.

Why fake followers or fake views is a big issue for influencer marketing?

In times of COVID-19, influencer marketing has picked up pace as spends on other mediums like print and outdoor have gone down drastically. Even on TV, advertisers are cautious due to the tough times. Plus, people are online now more than ever which is giving brands to advertise a stronger reason to take the help of influencers to market their products. But the issue of fake views or followers can be a big blow to influencer marketing space which saw a 20-30 percent increase in spends during the lockdown. While connecting with an influencer, most brands look for quantity and the social media scam of buying followers tells us that a huge number of followers not necessarily mean more engagement for brands.

How to recognise fake accounts?

According to Sandeep Goyal, Chief Mentor of the Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB), the fake element in the follower data for politicians, television stars and TikTokers would be as high as 90 percent and 80 percent for Bollywood and cricketers.

But there are ways one can spot a fake account or a fake follower.

So watch out for—-

Sudden spike in followers: A large follower base is achieved not overnight but over a period. A TikTok influencer had said in an interview to Moneycontrol that she managed to get 40,000 followers after working hard for over a year.

Check profile of followers: Recent accounts engaging with only influencers could be fake followers. Plus, their bio would also be basic.

Look out for likes and follower ratio. So, if an account has more followers and less likes, they have bought followers. Similarly, if an account has more likes and less followers, the likes were bought.

Can those buying fake likes and followers be punished?

While there is no specific law, Goyal points out that the option is to take recourse to Section 468 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with committing forgery of a document or electronic record for the purposes of cheating.

By Maryam Farooqui

Sourced from money control

In News

Website Best Practices Checklist: 9 Web Design Best Practices

August 20, 2020 No Comments

By Macy Storm,

Did you know that 89% of people shop with a competitor after a poor user experience? If your website isn’t up to par, you risk losing leads to your competition.

Luckily, we’ve created a handy checklist that you can use to make sure your website has everything you need to attract new leads and keep them engaged on your site pages.

Keep reading to get our website best practices checklist and be sure to subscribe to Revenue Weekly to get actionable insights on how to market your website better!

Establish your target audience

Before you dive into the nitty-gritty of your website, you need to ensure that you know exactly who you’re targeting. To create a website that best serves your audience, you should analyze your typical site visitor to collect information like:

Demographics
Buying habits
Income and occupation
Pain points
Hobbies/interests
And more

When you have in-depth information about your audience, you can develop your site to better meet their needs.

Once you know the specific characteristics of your target audience, you can start answering important questions like:

What does my audience want from my site?
What site components are fundamental for providing my audience with a better experience?
What information is more important to my audience, and how can I get it to them?

This tactic is one of the most important web design best practices for building an effective website. When you can answer these questions, you can start building a site that has your audience in mind.

Establish your style guide

As you develop a plan for your site’s design, you must create a style guide. A style guide ensures that your website keeps a consistent brand image and is cohesive across the board.

When you create a style guide, you establish information like:

Website color scheme (3 or 4 colors)
Font style
Image style
And more

Essentially, your style guide should give details on how pages on your site should look. Not only does it help you establish your brand identity, but it also ensures that no matter who works on your site, they have a guide for how to design different elements on the page.

Create an insightful navigation

Next on our list of best practices for web design is to create organized and functional navigation. Your navigation bar is a critical component of your site.

If users can’t find information fast, they’re likely to leave your site. And after that bad experience, 88% of people are less likely to come back to your site.

When you create your navigation, it’s pivotal that you use the right headings to separate your information effectively.

So, let’s say that you own a clothing store. Instead of having a generic “Clothing” tab to include all your products, you may break it down into tabs like “Men,” “Women,” and “Kids.” Tilly’s navigation bar is a prime example of how you can break down your navigation.

This navigation is simple and easy to follow. Users can find the product category that’s relevant to them and see subcategories of different types of products that fall under the main category.

Create an effective layout for each page type

Page layout is a critical component of your website. You want to ensure that you’re setting up pages in a way that provides a fantastic user experience for your audience.

Your page layouts may differ depending upon the page, but you’ll want to have a general layout for similar page types. It will help you ensure consistency and keep your site cohesive.

So, for example, if you visit Macy’s women’s clothing page, there is a grid of photos that showcases some of their product categories.

If you navigate to the same page for men’s clothing, you get a similar setup — a photo grid showcasing their product categories.

A similar format helps create a consistent image for these product pages across the board. It also helps users know what to expect as they browse around your site, which makes them feel more comfortable.

Establishing your page layouts is one of the most important web design best practices because it helps you build a consistent and familiar site for your audience that encourages them to continue browsing.

Compress images on your site

Next on our website best practice checklist involves images on your site.

Images are a valuable part of your site. They help create points of interest on your page and break up the text, and you want them to be high-quality images too. Grainy or low-res images make people think your site is less trustworthy.

Integrating all these high-quality images can cause your site’s load time to suffer. If your site doesn’t load quickly, you’ll lose leads. Users expect your website to load within two seconds, so if it doesn’t, you risk losing leads.

The best thing you can do is compress your image file sizes. You can use a tool like Kraken to compress image file sizes without compromising the quality.

Bonus item to check off: In addition to your photos, make sure your videos aren’t bogging your site down, too. Host your videos on third-party platforms, like YouTube or Wistia, and embed the code on your site. It will keep heavy video files from slowing down your site.

Utilize white space

One of the most important web design best practices is that you need to use whitespace. When you’re building your website, you don’t want to overload it with text and visuals. Crowded pages will leave your audience feeling confused and overwhelmed and may even cause them to leave your website altogether.

To keep your site clean and easy to browse, don’t be afraid to use white space. In this example, from Target, you can see how they use white space on their pages to keep users engaged with the important information in the middle.

White space will help you keep your audience focused when visiting your pages and allow them to browse through your site with ease.

Design call to action (CTA) buttons that pop off the page

People will browse through your site to learn more about your products or services and if they like what they see, they’ll want to learn how to take the next steps. Without a call to action (CTA) button, your audience won’t know how to proceed in the buyer journey.

You must create CTA buttons that pop off the page, so your audience doesn’t miss them.

In this example from Igloo, you can see that the blue CTA button stands out on the page, as well as the yellow button to pay with PayPal. Both buttons catch the shopper’s attention and make it easy for them to see how to add the product to their cart or to pay with PayPal.

CTA buttons are extremely valuable for helping you guide your audience to the next step. Whether you want them to sign up for an email list, buy a product, or contact your business, CTAs can help you get people to take that step.

Make sure your website is mobile-responsive

Having a mobile-responsive website is one of the most critical best practices for web design. With over 50% of Internet traffic coming from mobile, you must offer a site that works on handheld devices.

Creating a mobile-friendly website will help you boost user engagement and earn more conversions for your business. In fact, 67% of users are more likely to buy from a mobile-friendly company. So, if you haven’t optimized your site for mobile, you’re missing a prime opportunity to earn conversions.

The best way to make your site look great on mobile is to integrate responsive design. Responsive design enables your site to adapt to whatever device a user uses. Whether it’s a smartphone or tablet, your website will adjust to fit the device’s screen.

As a result, you’ll provide a better experience for your audience and keep them engaged on your site.

Optimize your website for search engine optimization (SEO)

The last item on our website best practices checklist is to optimize your website for search engines. You’ll want to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) to help your site rank in search results.

SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank in relevant search results. It involves strategies like:

Researching and optimizing for relevant keywords
Ensuring your site load quickly
Making sure your site is mobile-responsive
Creating content to drive traffic to your site
And more

If you’re going to put the time and effort into building your beautifully designed site, you want to ensure that it’s optimized to rank in search engines so you can drive valuable traffic to your site.

Put these best practices for web design into action

Now that you’ve seen our website best practices checklist, you’re ready to start optimizing your website for conversions. But if you find you need to make a lot of changes and it feels overwhelming, you don’t need to do it alone.

Our team at WebFX is here and ready to help. We have over a decade of experience in creating websites that engage and delight users. We have a team of award-winning designers and we’ve designed more than 1,100 client websites. Not to mention, web design can help you improve sales — and we can get you started.

Want to get started? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our web design services!

By Macy Storm

Sourced from WebFX