editor, Author at Mediastreet

In News

Social Media Marketing: The Role of AI in 2019

March 14, 2019 No Comments

We live in a world where we are incentivised to share. We digitally share our photographs, thoughts and buying habits more than ever before. There is a wealth of data available on consumers and if brands want to capitalise on this through their social media marketing, they need ways to collect and understand it.

However, the need for this data is far surpassed by the fact that it is unwieldy for brands to manage – the volume and velocity of data alone can make it a monumental task to understand. That is why the industry is changing and adapting to make sure this data is much more accessible.

As we’ve seen in the digital marketing sector as a whole, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing rapidly. With applications from voice search to chatbots, there’s a wealth of information that AI is already harvesting. But, there will be so much more it can do with social media in the future.

Assisting with social media marketing analytics

Steve Wozniak, when asked what his dream product would do, said that he’d love something that would give him “more time”. When a 400-millisecond Google delay results in 8 million fewer searches, the speed to insight needs to be lightning-fast.

Companies like Brandwatch, which provide a social listening service, are looking to use AI as a way to reduce the number of hours that social analysts spend looking at brand data. Instead of an average of 3.2 hours a week looking at basic analysis, social analysts could get on with the bigger things while AI makes that data easy to understand and easy to access across an organisation.

The way Brandwatch does this is by analysis the peaks and troughs in the charts and pulling together data from a number of different sources. This is then used to work out why charts may have peaked at a particular point – maybe a social post coincided with a news event from the same industry that drove new viewers to that channel. These AI insights make reporting on social media marketing far more straightforward, since they take out the guesswork of social analytics.

Integrating customer experience with social apps

As with chatbots, AI is becoming more of a feature on social channels, integrating customer care and social analytics through customer service.

As Donika Ruseva, the Digital Owner Experience Coordinator from Jaguar Land Rover, says, “There’s no better way to show off your brand than good customer service”. Many brands use automation to implement holding messages for complaints and comments on social media, to varying degrees of success, but there’s more that can be done with social and customer experience.

Messenger apps, such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, aren’t just for personal conversations anymore, but have become social media marketing platforms in themselves, providing access to both commerce and service apps. Personal banking apps, like Cleo and Plum, can help you save or manage your spending, while retailers like Made.com have created a conversational commerce experience for their customers. While these apps already exist, there’s a lot of scope in 2019 to see more businesses from different industries embracing this new use of messenger platforms.

From these AI apps, businesses can gain information on what their customers are primarily using them for, what aspects are important to them, and what trends occur on a regular basis.

AI and customer care

Supported by AI, businesses can achieve the quick, responsive and transparent response times that today’s customers expect. What’s more, AI can analyse what customers say in tweets, posts or comments.

Using AI to analyse sentiment and recognize key terms in messages to identify positive or negative feedback is already available, but there’s much more that AI can do for the customer care aspect of a business.Many AI systems have machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, and these are key to real-time self-service on customer service platforms. AI can respond to automated queries quickly and generate responses with accuracy and speed that humans can’t match; this is especially effective, as we’ve mentioned before, when applied to chatbots on messenger services.

There are a number of other services that AI can provide in the customer service sector, such as providing an easier way to identify customer issues on social by processing and learning from gathered information, defining customer behaviour patterns, such as when or how they might complain or talk about a product, responding with suitable solutions, products or discounts after receiving complaints or messages, and much more. We’re looking forward to seeing more intuitive measures, developed over the next year and beyond, applied to social media.

By Laura Jensen

Sourced from Business 2 Community

In News

The Benefits Of Digital Marketing For Top App Development Companies

March 14, 2019 No Comments

By Melissa Crooks

hen app development companies are looking to increase their level of reach, they must be willing to place themselves in the shoes of their target audience. App development companies that are able to do will always stand apart from the crowd. Digital marketing brings a wide range of benefits to any business and app development companies need to choose the proper strategy.

Top app development companies are always looking to boost their revenues. Digital marketing is one of the most important bridges that needs to be crossed. It is one of the healthiest marketing methods that can be used. It allows the company to reach out to their target audience more directly. A more healthy promotional environment is also created.

The top app development companies have the ability to cater directly to their clients’ demands and digital marketing is a key aspect of that equation. No matter what the client’s preferences or demands may be, digital marketing is an absolute necessity.

How Do The Top App Development Companies Benefit From Digital Marketing?

1. Global Reach

Any business that is looking to expand their reach will need to rely on digital marketing and an app development company is certainly no different. There are numerous constraints when it comes to expanding a company’s reach and digital marketing provides developers with the ability to surpass them. Digital marketing offers the necessary structure and refinement, so that you can find your chosen audience.

Gone are the days when an app developer had to limit the scope of their ambitions. With social media marketing or content marketing, the target audience is just one click away. In a climate where everyone owns a smartphone, digital marketing opens up a whole new world to the app developers who are ready and willing to embrace the possibilities.

The customer is more likely to remain engaged when an app development company takes the time to formulate the proper digital marketing plan. When the target audience is just one tap or click away, a digital marketing plan is one of the best ways for app developers to make sure that they are able to receive it. Geographical boundaries have been eliminated.

2. Increased Levels of Brand Recognition

The top app development companies have built a strong brand for themselves. Digital marketing is a pivotal part of the personal branding process and if app development companies are going to reach their full potential, they need to prove their excellence. The world of app development has never been more cutthroat and a plethora of different app development companies are competing for the same attention.

The survival rate for app developers is being whittled down on a constant basis, due to the heightened level of competition that is taking place. All it takes is the right digital marketing strategy for an app development company to stand apart. If an app development company wishes to make a name for themselves and maintain a certain level of cachet in the eyes of the consumer, they will need to emphasize brand recognition.

Fortunately, digital marketing provides companies with the tools that they need to accomplish this task. Content marketing, a top notch website and social media marketing all play a role in the company’s level of brand recognition. A brand needs to be recognized by the users that they are reaching out to but the brand must also be adaptable. A digital marketing plan shows the consumer what they are potentially missing out on by heading elsewhere.

3. Digital Marketing Is Easy To Track

Marketing efforts are not as easy to track as they once were. The “spray and pray” approach that app development companies were once able to use is no longer as effective. Digital marketing takes on a greater level of importance in this environment, because it is easy to track and monitor. This lets app developers find out more what aspects of their digital marketing campaign are working and lets them make the proper amendments.

Any marketing campaign is only as successful as the information that is provided and a digital marketing campaign is certainly no different. Digital marketing is especially useful because it provides real time insights that can be utilized quickly. There is no mystery when it comes time to figure out how the digital marketing campaign is affecting the company’s ability to reach the chosen goals and objectives.

No digital marketing campaign is going to be perfect. There are going to be areas that need to be worked on. Instead of relying on outdated marketing tactics that do not provide the real time insights that are needed, digital marketing provides actionable information that allows for the necessary modifications. Any marketing plan in the modern era needs to function as a living, breathing organism that can be altered on the fly.

4. Affordability

App development companies have to consider marketing costs when they are budgeting for each fiscal quarter. While there are some more traditional marketing techniques that will provide the desired results, efficiency has to be considered. In other words, what marketing plan is going to provide the largest possible bang for the buck?

When broken down into these terms, it is hard to match the benefits that digital marketing has to offer from a financial standpoint. App developers who are just getting started out and companies that do not have an unlimited budget are always going to be looking for inexpensive ways to maximize their reach. Removing the financial headache allows the development firm to avoid unwanted issues.

Social media marketing offers no shortage of free portals that allow a developer to speak to their audience directly. The costs of content marketing and a well crafted website are also relatively insignificant. No reputable app development company should be allowing outdated marketing plans to burn a hole in their pocket, not when digital marketing offers all of the same benefits at a fraction of the cost.

These benefits are designed to hold the attention of the consumer and keep app development companies from encountering the usual marketing pitfalls. Boosting revenue and strengthening company branding has never been so easy.

Feature Image Credit: Pixabay

By Melissa Crooks

Author Bio:

Melissa Crooks is Content Writer who writes for Hyperlink InfoSystem, a mobile app development company in New York, USA and India that holds the best team of skilled and expert app developers. She also writes for top app development companies. She is a versatile tech writer and loves exploring latest technology trends, entrepreneur and startup column.

Sourced from The Writing Cooperative

In News

Top Social Media Marketing Tools in 2019

March 13, 2019 No Comments

Sourced from ma-no

Social media marketing is a baffling area. It looks like anyone can do it: Post something (anything!) on social media, look for new content, talk with people, keep filling the Instagram page of your company with your most photogenic team. It sounds like a task for today’s social media age kids.

If you want your ROI to grow, though, that’s not the way to go.

It may look simple, but without economic resources, talented people and the right tools for the job, it is almost impossible to make social media marketing effective. This article will focus on marketing tools for social media. These SMM tools actually stand out because they are user-friendly and continue to improve in response to social media changes and trends.

According to the most important SMM tasks requiring automation, we’ve divided them into three groups: Social media management, social media monitoring, and social media advertising.

These social media social media management tools help you manage the workflow required by social media. So they really make it easier, more organized, less stressful and thus more efficient. Some of our favorites are here.

1. IFTTT

IFTTT is the freeway to get all your apps and devices talking to each other. Not everything on the internet plays nice, so we’re on a mission to build a more connected world.

IFTTT is a website as well as a mobile app. The free service was launched in 2010 with the motto: “Put the Internet to work for you”. However, in recent years it has changed a lot. You can currently connect all your “services” with IFTTT to complete tasks automatically.

There are numerous ways you can connect all your services – and the resulting combinations are called “Applets”.

Applets essentially automate your daily workflow, whether smart home devices or apps and websites are managed. For example, if you own the intelligent lighting system, Philips Hue, you can use IFTTT to automatically turn on a light each time you are tagged on a Facebook photo.

Price: free

2. Buffer

Buffer makes it easy for businesses and marketing teams to schedule posts, analyze performance, and manage all their accounts in one place.

BufferApp lets users manage a range of social media accounts, lining up updates to be shared in the future across a range of social networks.

Every time you find a post you want to share, a tweet you want to retweet, or whenever you write some content that you want to share out over time, you can add it to your Buffer. This places it in a queue and the posts are sent out in order, at times you have pre-selected.

This means that you don’t need to choose a date and time for every single post you want to schedule. You just add it to your queue, and Buffer does the work for you.

Buffer has a smooth, clean interface that is really enhanced by installing its browser extensions – a lot of its best functionality comes from these add-ons.

Price: freemium; paid plans from $15/mo

3. Quuu

Quuu is the number one source for content and the only place where each and every piece has been hand-reviewed in house.

Quuu’s main goal is to increase your follow-up and commitment to social media by helping you post hand-curated content in your niche. Quuu sends relevant, high-quality content from its niche to its users every day, which they can easily program and post on their social media profiles via Quuu scheduler or any other tool such as Buffer or HubSpot.

These suggestions include a link to the content (article, blog post, video, podcast episode…) and a text containing relevant hashtags and social handles (making it easier to tag the author or source).

Price: plans start at $15/mo

4. MeetEdgar

MeetEdgar is another programming tool that stands out for one reason: You can recycle old posts. This is more important than it seems: Content is forgotten and left behind even good and popular content. It is low-hanging fruit and too often a missed opportunity to recycle this old content so that it can get views again.

With MeetEdgar, you organize posts by category, schedule content by category, and then, every time the tool has gone through your scheduled posts, it will automatically post old content from each category so it can get attention again.

Price: $49/mo

Social Media Monitoring Tools

Social media marketing is divided into two processes. One is about the content you and your brand have. You create content, aggregate and share content with your audience and promotional content. The SMM tools discussed above to automate and optimize this part of social media marketing.

The audience is the second aspect of social media marketing. It’s your brand’s online mentions, reviews, questions, compliments, and complaints.

Although posting may be more important to raise brand awareness, it is also important to keep an eye on what people say about you and to respond appropriately. It’s almost impossible to manually find all brand mentions on social media, as people don’t always tag the brand even on social media platforms.

That’s why there are social media monitoring tools: To ensure comprehensive communication with an online audience. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Awario

Are you looking to bring your social media presence under one roof and get usable, real-time insights? Awario lets you join in conversations about your business after crawling the web and finding the people having those conversations.

When the web and social media are saying something about you, the Awario monitoring tool is able to pick up mentions instantly using non-stop monitoring in any language. This lets you respond quickly to what is being said, good or bad. You can then amplify the positive and clarify any negative comments or untruths regarding your brand before they get out of control.

Having a website and social media are now almost requirements for small businesses in today’s digital ecosystem. And once you create your channels, managing the different platforms and interacting with users takes a lot of effort. Being able to do it in one place, makes the task that much easier.

Price: starts at $29/mo

2. Mention

Mention offers real-time social media monitoring, and you can set up alerts for your brand, your competitors, and your industry. With this tool, you can view and respond to each like, tag, or mention (ah, see what they did there?) right in the app. You can also sort mentions by importance or significance, and even set up filters, including by source or by language.

Price: starts at $29/mo

3. Brandwatch

If your budget is much wider, Brandwatch can be your tool. The analytical data of Brandwatch is highly visual: If you are an agency, it is perfect to illustrate the significance of social media marketing for customers.

Price: starts at $800/mo

3. Talkwalker

Talkwalker is another tool at the company level that is without a doubt one of the most powerful on the market. It offers a wide range of filters, subfilters and coverage platforms. It covers not only social media, news sites, blogs, and forums, but also broadcasting, television and printing. The available data is nearly endless.

Price: starts at $9,600/year

Sourced from ma-no

In News

How Effective Is Influencer Marketing?

March 13, 2019 No Comments

By Kaitlin Wernet

When you first created your Facebook profile, assigned your Myspace top 8, sent your first tweet, or uploaded your Instagram square, you probably had a sense that social media would change the way you spent your time, communicated with others, and received breaking news stories.

But as you signed up for your very first accounts or connected with friends online for the first time, you may not have predicted that a shift in the way we communicate online would also change the way we form opinions about where to shop, what to buy, and whose recommendations to trust.

And although the rise of influencer marketing happened virtually overnight, it feels natural, like we’ve never known a world without it. To go a step further, you may not even realize you’ve been a target of influencer marketing, and that may very well be the most successful part of this type of marketing.

In this article, we’ll explore what influencer marketing is, how effective it can be, and what you can do to reap the benefits for your own brand.

What is influencer marketing?

Rather than focusing on the marketing channel, such as email, social media, paid search, or print advertising, or the target audience, influencer marketing focuses on the people who could potentially influence their following to become new customers of a particular product or brand.

So while, yes, it’s Kim Kardashian posting a SnapChat about her favorite athletic wear line or Kylie Jenner talking about her new lip kits on Instagram, influencer marketing goes beyond just those who are keeping up with the Kardashians. Influencer marketing has consistently grown in almost every industry and across all marketing channels, and, truth be told, we’re pretty positive it’s here to stay.

DIFF charitable eyewear is a company known for using Instagram influencers to its benefit. From recent stars from The Bachelor to pageant contestants and fashion bloggers, DIFF’s social media presence is largely filled with photos curated from the feeds of influencers-turned-customers who review their product in exchange for some type of reward. Many times, the benefit can be free products, VIP privileges, or monetary payment.

DIFF’s social media feed reflects their influencer strategy, featuring real people wearing their product.

How to identify an influencer

So, isn’t “influencer” just another name for a celebrity? Yes and no. Because our online lives have opened us up to connecting with more people who share our interests than ever before, we can also follow along with others’ lives in a new way.

Gone are the days of limiting the term “celebrity” to only popular musicians, actors, or writers. Now, as smaller niche audiences gather across all media channels and turn to people they idolize in their own field or industry, the term influencer has broadened.

A survey from Nielsen showed only 33% of consumers trust advertisements, while 90% put their faith in peer recommendations, which is why influencer marketing is definitely something worth paying attention to.

Number of followers

There is no definitive scale to determine an influencer’s status, but their number of followers is the first place to look. Think about it: Never before have we had such accurate numbers for one’s followers or reach. Before social media, we could measure a person’s influence by box office numbers or albums sold, but none of those statistics would come close to the precise measurement we now have in a social media following.

And because social media appears to be a way to gain inside access to the behind-the-scenes of stars’ work and personal lives, it instantly feels more authentic than other mediums. We can see beyond the stage or screen.

This image from Sprout Social shows the types of people you may consider to be an influencer:

Finding an influencer in your industry

Influencers of all levels can be found in almost any industry. Let’s say you run a business that focuses on email marketing (Can you imagine?!). When brainstorming, you may come up with the following ideas for who you could consider influencers:

Entrepreneurs who send lots of emails to their customers
Podcast hosts who talk about marketing
Famous bloggers who send their content via newsletter
Experts in other areas of marketing, such as social media

There’s no magic formula for finding an influencer for your niche, but you want to find someone whose followers listen to them and take their opinions seriously.

Micro and macro influencers

As the number of influencers continued to increase, we needed a way to measure one’s influence, especially when compared to others. While we all know the potential for this to change at any moment, the categories micro and macro influencers have been created as an unofficial way to differentiate various people with moderate to large followings.

Social Media Today identifies micro influencers as those with less than 10,000 followers and macro followers as those with more than that.

While there’s still plenty of gray area when it comes to differentiating between major and minor influencers, the emergence of these terms shows that the number of influencers will continue to expand and you can expect the effectiveness of influencer marketing to grow with it.

As content creators get better and better, consumers will have more choices for who to follow and how to spend time online. It only makes sense that more niches will be created and therefore, brands and consumers alike will have more influencers to look to.

Why influencer marketing works

Since everyone’s following grows over time, some people believe that influencer marketing may be on the decline. But influencer marketing is more than just the people doing it—the authentic connections followers make with influencers is something that, in one capacity or another, will continue to increase.

A trusted friend

Have you ever texted a friend for a recommendation for the next book you should read or asked where she got the jacket she’s wearing? Our personal connections can be our biggest motivators, and we’re much more likely to choose one brand over another if a friend or family member has given us input on a decision.

At its core, influencer marketing is the same thing. With or without a real-life personal connection, we’ve specifically chosen who to follow on social media and have grown accustomed to seeing glimpses into their personal life. We trust them, which is why we’re much more likely to buy something from their already-vetted recommendation versus a paid ad for a product we’ve never seen before.

Here’s an Instagram post by former Bachelor contestant JoJo Fletcher on her favorite hair tools. She currently has 2.2 million followers, making her a macro influencer.

Authenticity: The secret sauce

So, why exactly is influencer marketing so effective?

Because it feels more natural and trustworthy that traditional advertising.

As email marketers, we couldn’t stress the importance of personalization enough, and we’re always trying to write messages for people, not inboxes. But influencer marketing has also raised the bar on authenticity and custom messaging.

No longer will we blindly order something we receive a printed ad for in the mail. We’ll probably look up its Amazon reviews, ask friends how they feel about the product, or look to other online experts we trust.

A study by Mediakix revealed that the influencer market is currently worth over 1 billion dollars, and this number is projected to soon double. But does this mean these type of promotions will remain the same? Yes and no. We predict that authenticity and trustworthiness, two tactics that have far outlasted the rise of influencers, will remain the best way to approach marketing, but as always, the mediums, channels, and people involved will continue to evolve.

More and more influencers are making their full income from their blog and social media, so as their experience rises, the more likely they are to have working partnerships with brands. However, this is an area where you should work hard to preserve authenticity, rather than become just another sponsor of their website or podcast. Keep it real!

One of the longest-running examples of influencer marketing is Michael Jordan for Nike. Here’s influencer marketing at work in an email marketing campaign for Air Jordans, named after the basketball player himself:

Is influencer marketing a good choice for my brand?

As a whole, the influencer marketing concept is worth trying for most brands, but how you do it is completely up to you. Unlike most paid advertising strategies, the formulas to success are not clear-cut, and the input and output can vary greatly for each brand.

For example, you’re not always working with a set amount of money: Now, influence and product have become their own forms of currency. Create a strategy that casts a wide net of potential influencers and hones in on the people who you’d most like to represent your brand to new customers. Be sure that the influencers you work with share the same values as your brand. Of course, people are more unreliable than paid ads you write yourself, but that’s the risk you take in the name of unfiltered authenticity.

Wrap up

As you can see, influencer marketing isn’t just for large brands who have connections with big-name celebrities. Even if you’re an entrepreneur for a small business or feel like your industry doesn’t have famous thought leaders, it’s definitely worth the extra research and effort to explore.

And regardless of your partnership status with influencers, trustworthiness and authenticity should be the focus of your marketing strategy, regardless of brand, industry, or platform.

If you’re a brand looking to share customer testimonials or influencer content with your audience via email, reach out to us for a demo today.

By Kaitlin Wernet

Sourced from Business 2 Community

In News

4 Influencer Marketing Secrets Entrepreneurs Need to Know

March 12, 2019 No Comments

By Andrew Medal

It’s not just about celebrity status and followers

Potentially earning thousands per post, influencers are cashing in on their ability to captivate large audiences and thus heavily impact the purchasing behavior of their followers. It’s clear why brands keep throwing products and money toward these social media stars — influencer marketing works.

The top 50 Instagram influencers have more than 3.1 billion followers, as reported by Social Blade, and overall, 3.028 billion people, or 40 percent of the world’s population, actively use social media.

Here are a few more stats to consider:

Influencer marketing has 11 times the ROI of traditional digital marketing, as reported byTapinfluence.com.
Seventy percent of millennial consumers are persuaded by the recommendations of their peers in buying decisions, as reported by Collective Bias.
Thirty-seven percent of customers place more value on the quality of a post then its sponsorship and 67 percent don’t have an adverse reaction to sponsored content, according to Collective Bias.
Almost 40 percent of Twitter users have purchased a product or service as a direct result of an influencer tweet, according to Twitter.

I grew my first company in 2009 with influencer marketing (before it was even a term), which spiked sales and created crazy brand loyalty in a short time. We went from zero to millions in revenue in under 12 months.

Are you onboard with influencer marketing? If so, here are four tips to working with social media tastemakers you must consider:

1. Co-create with your influencers.

Influencers are a direct extension of your brand, so act like they are. Sew them into the fabric of your company by creating content together. Rather than just telling them what to post, learn about them and their audience and how your brand fits into their daily life.

I recently spoke with Sebastian Merkhoffer for an episode of my new podcast. He said he’s currently recording eight-figure annual revenue for his company, FitVia, thanks mostly to influencer marketing. “Influencer marketing is becoming a standard part of the marketing mix. For us, success in developing our core partnerships has stemmed largely from co-creating content together,” he said.

Merkhoffer said FitVia has influencers bring his products wherever they go. “Recently, we sent a German influencer for a detox weekend where she took her followers, and our team, along for the ride. It’s something authentic and far more engaging than just posting a photo of your breakfast.”

2. Leverage IGTV as the latest go-to social channel.

By 2021, it’s predicted that mobile video will account for 78 percent of all mobile data traffic, according to Instagram.

In June of last year, Instagram released IGTV to compete with YouTube. It wasn’t a home run off the bat, but marketers should stay keen on its advances to come.

“While user engagement with IGTV has been fairly disappointing so far, I expect Instagram to improve the functionality and visibility of IGTV content and put a lot more money behind getting brands to make use of the feature,” predicted Michael Edelmann, senior marketing manager at The Business of Fashion, on Later.com.

As a brand, it’s integral to keep an eye on these shifts to immediately track how your social media collaborators are responding. Are they early adopters to all the latest platforms? Or are they a bit more reserved, and stick with what they know?

As Alfred Lua explained in a Buffer article, “You might also want to check out less-known and less-popular social media platforms as well. For example, Musical.ly, a platform for creating and sharing short videos, has become very popular among teens. Other platforms you can check out include Anchor, Medium and Tumblr. ”

3. Focus on gen Z.

Millennials still hold the reins with more than $200 billion in purchasing power. However, gen Z is on track to become the largest group of consumers by 2020, and according to Millennial Marketing, they already account for $29 billion to $143 billion in direct spending. Gen Z is a growing section of the influencer economy across all platforms, making it vital for brands to consider their future consumer base.

For example, kidfluencers can be a massive opportunity for brands. “More people are looking at kid influencers for product recommendations. It’s definitely a long-term play. It’s building brand awareness and affinity through generations,” Zoe Marans, vice president of MediaKix, recently told Fast Company.

4. Slowly invest in influencer marketing.

Before you jump on the influencer marketing bandwagon, be cautious not to throw your entire marketing budget to YouTube stars. Sure, throwing $1 million at Beyonce to post about your product may reach hundreds of thousands, but that buzz will die in a matter of hours. Instead, start small to figure out what type of influencers will have the broadest impact.

“The key is to invest your budget into influencer marketing slowly,” Merkhoffer said. “I can’t stress how important it is to test, learn and then scale. The process iterates on itself and marketers must stay agile enough to integrate feedback as it comes through, not just once a quarter or annually.”

Even better, if you can use product or swag as payment to start a campaign, that can be an effective way to get influencer buy-in, especially if these are influencers that are already using your brand. As Lua explained, “If you are offering a discount or free samples for their followers, be sure to create a specific discount code or landing page for each influencer. That’s to help you with tracking the effectiveness of your campaign.”

Ready to ramp up your influencer marketing campaigns? Understand that success lies in your marketing team’s ability to nourish relationships that build trust between your brand and your target customer. Make sure you vet your influencers diligently and create a very clear deliverable so that everyone’s on the same page.

Feature Image credit: wundervisuals | Getty Images

By Andrew Medal

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In News

4 Benefits to Advertising on Instagram

March 12, 2019 No Comments

By Robert Katai

There was a time when business owners relied solely on referral marketing.

The “Word of Mouth” strategy was perfect for businesses operating in small communities where every customer could spread the word and attract other customers from the same town or city.

Things changed during the 20th century when radio and television gave people access to more information. However, it was the Internet that triggered one of the most important and most drastic shifts in marketing, business, and lifestyle. It changed the way we communicate and, of course, the way we market and advertise our products and businesses.

Now, there are no limits in marketing and advertising. The Internet makes it easier for everyone. Choose the right platform and the right way to communicate with your audience and success is right around the next corner. Let’s talk about the latest trends in social media advertising and one of the best platforms to deliver your message:

Aim for success and go visual!

Facebook and YouTube, both leading multimedia channels and social communities, are mostly visual.

This is, in many ways, the main reason why they’re so successful.

[clickToTweet tweet=”People react better to images and videos than texts and slogans.” quote=”People react better to images and videos than texts and slogans.”]

People want to see, hear and learn more, but their time is limited. The problem is classic social media platforms are time-consuming.

You need to deliver your message fast and concise to be able to attract fans or customers. And not all the social media platforms promote this kind of communication.

Is there a platform that is visual and popular, easy to access and able to deliver instant messages? Yes, there is, and we’re referring to Instagram.

Why advertise on Instagram?

With more than 1 billion active users, Instagram is a leading social media platform. Not convinced by this number? Well, just a little while ago, Instagram announced its 700 million users milestone. A growth of almost 30+% in a little time tells us more about this platform’s popularity and future potential than anything else.

In simple words, it has become a huge and diverse online community with unlimited marketing potential.

Of course, Facebook has more active users than Instagram. However, shear numbers may not be the first thing to consider when advertising a small business. If you want to successfully promote your small business, you should look first at the relevant data. The statistics are more than just simple numbers calculated in order to attract more users.

According to Forrester, Instagram is the king of social media with a 4.21% engagement rate.

This is a huge number, considering that Facebook and Twitter combined barely reach a 0.10 engagement rate. “Instagram delivered 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter” Forrester ads.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Instagram is the king of social media with 4,21% engagement rate.” quote=”Instagram is the king of social media with 4,21% engagement rate.”]

What are the benefits of Instagram advertising?

Here are the real benefits of advertising on Instagram.

There are more than 700 million users on Instagram and the community is still growing.
Instagram and Facebook are connected. So it’s easier to target your audience based on Facebook data. All budgeting and scheduling tasks, the setup and creation of ads are done through Facebook. So you don’t need to start from scratch and learn about Instagram, once you’ve already used its sister platform for marketing and ads.
Instagram ads are non-intrusive and less likely to annoy your targeted audience.
The engagement rate on Instagram is higher than the engagement rate on any other social media platform.
You can easily integrate Shopify and sell your products instantly.
Instagram measures the success of your campaign based on awareness, reach and recall instead of follower counts, likes or comments.
Most people use their smartphones to read their news, socialize on Facebook or post their own stories and update social media timelines. Most smartphones feature high-end cameras that can shoot photographs to be immediately posted on Instagram. Everybody can be an amateur photographer. Instagram is the best channel for this type of media and it’s why most mobile users have Instagram accounts.
In terms of ROI and cost, Instagram returns the best results. It’s effective and less time-consuming than other online marketing channels.

How to promote your small business on Instagram

There are several options when launching an Instagram campaign. But you need to know from the start exactly what you want and what your target is.

Learn as much as possible about Instagram and Instagram advertising by reading everything you can find online about this topic.

I recommend this exceptional article by Oberlo that will teach you the basics of how to advertise on Instagram.

You’ll have to choose which type of your campaign will be the best for your business.

Basically, there are 2 advertising methods on Instagram, the free one and of course, the paid ads feature.

1. Free marketing

I am sure most people reading this article have already tested and used Instagram. If you already have a personal account you’ll need to set up a new account for your small business.

If you’re selling products, you can integrate Instagram, Facebook and Shopify and instantly sell to your followers. Posting relevant images and videos and build your brand online, and attract more customers and followers.

Be aware that these images should be targeted, attractive and at the same time, of high quality. If you are not a skilled photographer, hire one that can deliver the best images to be successful.

2. Paid marketing

The most profitable method to advertise on Instagram is, of course, the paid one. If you’ve previously advertised your business on Facebook, then you already know how to advertise on Instagram.

Here are the types of ads you can post on Instagram and of course, how can you benefit from them.

Select an editor, such as “Ads Manager”, “Power Editor” or “Facebook API”, choose your objective, choose your audience and your budget.

There are 3 main types of Instagram ads to choose from when starting an online campaign:

1. Instagram Photo Ads

You can tell a story or promote your products online through visually engaging images. Market your small business or brand to a broad audience or target just local customers from your geographic area or hometown.

2. Instagram Video Ads

Create video ads up to 60 seconds long and deliver them to your target audience. Time is very limited these days and I would recommend shorter videos. They’ll get maximum attention and the expected response from your potential and existing customers.

While photo ads are your best choice when dealing with Instagram, videos can be effective if they’re short and have the potential to go viral.

3. Instagram Carousel Ads

These types of ads make Instagram users swipe to see additional images and call to action on your official website to learn more about your products or services. In many ways, a Carousel Ads campaign is similar to a content marketing campaign because it delivers valuable information to users.

The main goal is to get your potential customers to visit your website once you’ve managed to draw their attention.

4. Instagram Stories Ads

Instagram Stories ads are the “new kid in town”. With over 250 million daily users it’s a great way to grow your brand awareness. Just like how Smartketer has done in this case study.

I will finish with a Slide presentation from Socialbakers on why Instagram is important for every small business owner in 2017.

By Robert Katai

Robert Katai is an expert on Instagram. Robert is a Visual Marketer, Blogger and Brand Evangelist Bannersnack. Passionate about visual marketing, Instagram, content marketing and always up to date with the latest trends.

Sourced from NEAL SCHAFFER

In News

How To Build A Brand Through Social Media

March 12, 2019 No Comments

By Sara Bliss

It all started with Twitter for Dummies. It was 2010 and Suysel dePedro Cunningham and Anne Maxwell Foster decided to join forces and launch their own New York-based interior design firm, Tilton Fenwick. A few years prior, Anne and Suysel had pivoted to the design world from advertising careers. To learn the trade, they both worked as assistants to established designers—Anne for Ashley Whittaker and Suysel for Markham Roberts. While Anne and Suysel had years of design expertise between them, they had been in relatively behind-the-scenes roles. To establish themselves publicly as design experts, plus get noticed by press and potential clients, the partners understood that social media could be an incredible tool. Cue the Twitter guide.

“All the magazines were really active on Twitter at the time, regularly hosting chats with hundreds of people in our industry at once,” explains Suysel. Over time, through online conversations, comments, retweets, follows, and DM’s, they were able to get on the radar of editors, design bloggers, designers, and manufacturers who began following them back and retweeting their insights. They used the platform to create their brand identity, sharing their design point of view. It only took them a few months before they landed thousands of followers.

In order to leverage their new connections however, they needed examples of their work as Tilton Fenwick. They started by co-designing Suysel’s house in Upstate New York making it Instagram-ready with lots of color and pattern—now their signature look. It wasn’t long before one of their Twitter connections, editor Michelle Adams, reached out to ask if they could submit a few projects for possible publication. They rushed to finish Suysel’s house, take photographs, and share them with her.

Within weeks, Tilton Fenwick were chosen as designers to watch in a collaboration between Lonny and Traditional Home magazines. Anne and Suysel completed their website, launched Instagram and Facebook pages, and started a blog—just in time for the attention the award brought them. “We knew the importance of a strong digital presence, when more established designers were still shunning social media. They would comment ‘It seems like a waste of time, what is the benefit?’” says Anne. “For us it has been incredible. Social media really opened doors and opportunities for us. It is absolutely what built our business.”

The press attention led to more social media followers and lots of clients. Suysel and Anne estimate 50% of their clients find them through social media. “Even if they discover us through a referral, they immediately go to Instagram to see our work,” says Anne.

As their followers and social media presence grew, brands took note and reached out for partnerships including Duralee where they now have a popular textile line and Target which launched a Tilton Fenwick capsule collection in 2014.

Tilton Fenwick’s Pombal wallpaper for Hygge & WestHygge & West

They have now shifted their focus to Instagram where they have 60,000 followers and an active community of design lovers. It was on IG where they discovered hip, online manufacturers Hygge & West which recently debuted a Tilton Fenwick line of wallpapers. “We direct messaged them on Instagram and asked to show them ideas for a wallpaper line,” explains Suysel. “We asked to meet in person and presented our designs which is what closed the deal. Social media only gets you so far and then you have to connect in real life.”

Here, Tilton Fenwick share their best advice for how to build a brand on social media:

Target the right platforms. Not all social media platforms are created equal. Twitter is more of a conversation, best for sharing industry news or topics related to your brand. Facebook is similar to Twitter but with a much older audience. As a visual brand, we have found Instagram is our sweet spot that allows us share our projects and make connections with brands, editors, and clients. The key is to find the platform that will boost your profile and connect you with your target audience.

Build a brand voice. Make sure that the images and content that you post is consistent with style and imagery of your brand. Consider it like an advertising tool kit and keep it uniform across all platforms.

Post frequently. Post often to create engagement with your audience. On Instagram we try to post twice a week, however we post almost daily through IG stories to stay connected with our followers.

Post visually compelling content. Use photo editing apps like Snapped to make your feed look more coherent, polished, and professional.

Create a unique hashtag. It offers another way for people to find and share your work. Do your research and create a totally original hashtag.

Mix it up. On Instagram, your main feed should be a snapshot of your overall brand. Use Instagram stories to highlight other companies, talent, and things you love. Don’t forget to tag the brand, creator, and photographer to help them get more followers as well.

Separate business and personal. Unless you are a celebrity brand that is selling your lifestyle, it is better to keep the two separate and keep the attention on your brand message.

Connect with influencers: Follow all the influencers in your industry and develop a meaningful conversation with them online. To get on their radar, comment and like their posts. Also post about their work and tag them. You can use DM’s to make an initial connection, but be respectful and only reach out once.

Do it yourself. We do our own social media so that it’s our voice online, it’s our voice DMing, and it is consistent when we meet in person. For a more authentic voice it is better to control your social media platforms.

Remember, that social media can only get you so far. Nothing replaces in-person meetings. We started our conversations with our wallpaper partner Hygge & West over Instagram, but it was when we met in person that our partnership was born.

Feature Image Credit: Anne Maxwell Foster and Suysel dePedro Cunningham of Tilton Fenwick Brittany Ambridge

By Sara Bliss

I am the author of Take the Leap; Change Your Career, Change Your Life which features 63 people who made radical life and career changes. Follow me on Twitter & Instagram.

I write about career pivots. I’ve interviewed everyone including, CEOs, celebrities, founders, athletes, and creatives for outlets like Travel & Leisure, Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal, and in my book Take the Leap: Change Your Career, Change Your Life (Touchstone, 2018). I noticed that the most successful people didn’t follow a linear path, but often had entirely different careers and lives beforehand. It’s a reminder that for many, success happens a little later, that you absolutely can reinvent your life.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Join #AAIToolkit for a once off conversation

March 11, 2019 No Comments

Join #AAIToolkit for a once off conversation with

Paul Hughes, Patrick Ronaldson, Richard Carr and Patrick Hickey, the original Rothco Founders and Partners

on Tuesday 2nd April 2019 from 8.30 a.m. at 1WML, One Windmill Lane, Dublin 2

Rothco: The Highs and Lows will be facilitated by Tom Kinsella Managing Director – Homes, AIB Group

As always at #AAIToolkit, there will be plenty of opportunity for questions from the audience so make sure there is a chair with your name on it:

https://aaitoolkit-rothcohighslows.eventbrite.ie

Be inspired and join the interaction

Free to AAI Members – please register your attendance

€35 + booking fee for non-members
Book now

In News

Should You Use LinkedIn to Grow Your Business in 2019?

March 11, 2019 No Comments

By Eric Goldschein

LinkedIn now has more than 575 Million users……but has their huge surge in members, businesses and content created an opportunity for you? Discover all the answers…

When businesses begin using social media for marketing purposes, they typically start with Facebook and Instagram. And for good reason: These are two of the most popular social media platforms out there, with billions of monthly active users. If you want to attract customers, you should go to where the customers are.

But digital marketing has become more nuanced, and businesses see that targeted efforts on social media are more effective than simply maxing out their marketing budget on Facebook ads. A prime example of this shift in how businesses use social media is how businesses market themselves on LinkedIn.

Early on, many people thought of LinkedIn as something of a glorified networking event—suitable for posting your resume and job hunting. Now, the site has over 250 million active monthly users and has evolved into a professional social network where companies, industry experts, and content creators can interact.

And while it’s clear that businesses now need to optimize their LinkedIn, it shouldn’t just become another social media site for businesses to spend blindly on. Depending on the model and the short-term goals of your business, a LinkedIn marketing campaign may make more or less sense for you than for other companies.

Here’s a breakdown of whether or not your business should use LinkedIn as a digital marketing tool:

B2B Businesses

If your business primarily sells to other businesses, you need to be marketing on LinkedIn. If you’re not already, you’re behind: According to the network, 92% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn above all others, and 80% of marketing leads from social media are through LinkedIn.

If you’re the owner of a B2B business looking to expand your network and potentially find new customers, LinkedIn is where you go.

There are a few important reasons behind this thinking:

Lead Gen Forms

One of the biggest issues B2B businesses face is having to parse through unqualified leads to find the most promising possibilities. According to LinkedIn, they’ve helped solve this problem with their Lead Gen Forms, which they say reduces the cost per lead for 90% of customers.

Lead Gen Forms are pre-filled with accurate data pulled from a user’s Linkedin profile, so you can easily receive their information in just a couple of clicks. Incomplete or inaccurate forms add useless emails to your newsletter mailing list and lead to a loss of possible business due to a poor user experience.

Lead generation forms Via LinkedIn on YouTube

You can also use LinkedIn’s dashboard to track the ROI of your lead generation campaigns, send automated content or offers to leads as a follow-up, and pull your leads off the site for use on other marketing automation platforms.

Improved Pages

In 2018, LinkedIn revamped their Company Pages—also called just Pages—with an eye on using them to foster conversations and connect businesses with customers. LinkedIn added tools like Content Suggestions and Showcase Pages allow businesses to curate better content and promote new campaigns or projects.

If your preferred audience is other businesses seeking the kind of content that your newly targeted efforts and Showcase pages are providing, it’s now easier than ever for them to find you and your work.

Cisco’s LinkedIn Pages feature important, timely topics with a point of view that showcases their brand voice. Via Cisco on LinkedIn.

Business Content Lives Here

If you have content specifically related to trends in your industry such as leadership, strategy, or productivity, LinkedIn is a great place to target a business-savvy audience. From videos to infographics to eBooks and presentations, other businesses know that LinkedIn is typically home to more sophisticated content that can give them actionable advice on how to succeed and grow.

Businesses Looking to Recruit

Whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, LinkedIn is an excellent place to start building your employee brand, which plays a major role in recruitment. Whether you like it or not, your LinkedIn page is usually a factor in whether potential hires consider your offers.

The war for talent is on, and making a good first impression with your LinkedIn page—with a detailed profile, branded imagery, and high-quality content—is crucial.

Here are some best practices for businesses looking to appeal to new candidates on LinkedIn:

Brand your page and your content: Your logo, colors, and company name should be all over your company page, to give it a slick and professional look.
Highlight the voices of your employees: Re-share content and posts that your employees are sharing on their own pages to give people a sense of who works for your company and how they feel about the brand.
Don’t be afraid to engage: Give your company a voice on LinkedIn by sharing, commenting, tagging, and otherwise engaging with other content creators and brands on the site. This humanizes and personalizes your recruitment initiatives, plus creates more opportunities to expand your network. And if your business doesn’t have a large network of its own, how can you tap into the networks of others?

Nike shares logo-branded content featuring their employees, and engages the larger LinkedIn audience with a trending hashtag. Via Nike on LinkedIn.

Recruiting and filling open positions is often an expensive and time-consuming task. By building an engaging and intriguing brand, you’ll drastically reduce overall costs while landing on the radar of influencers and industry leaders.

B2C Businesses Looking for Customers

If you’re a B2C company looking to expand your audience and find more customers, LinkedIn isn’t quite as urgent a need for you. You’re still more likely to get more bang for your buck on channels like Facebook and Instagram.

That being said, any serious business that doesn’t keep their LinkedIn page up-to-date and optimized is simply throwing away possible business. Incomplete profiles can sow seeds of doubt for new potential customers. A profile without search-friendly keywords reduces your visibility on Google. And failing to use LinkedIn at all means missing out on possible networking events, conferences, and other opportunities to find new partners and customers.

B2C companies may not get as much out of LinkedIn from a marketing perspective as B2B companies, but all channels in this day and age should be used to their maximum potential, and this one is no exception.

Entrepreneurs and Sole Proprietors

Finally, whether you’re a serial entrepreneur or a sole proprietor who isn’t sure that LinkedIn can do much for your bottom line, think again.

There is simply no better social network for business networking. By continuing to engage and optimize your page, you increase your chances of attracting venture capital attention, connecting with future partners, and finding projects that you can meaningfully contribute to.

So, should you market your business more with LinkedIn going forward? For the most part, the answer is a resounding yes. Expect the platform to continue tweaking its algorithm and encouraging conversation and content production from brands and creators the world over, resulting in an even greater treasure trove of engagement opportunities.

Additionally, as a small business, your goals can change at any time. You might pivot and begin offering a different kind of service, or enter growth mode and want to start recruiting more heavily. By always being ready with an optimized and high-quality LinkedIn page, you’ll be a few clicks away from a more marketable business.

By Eric Goldschein

Eric Goldschein is an editor at assignyourwriter and a staff writer at Fundera, a marketplace for small business financial solutions. He covers entrepreneurship, small business trends, finance, and marketing.

https://www.fundera.com/

[email protected]

Sourced from Einstein Marketer

In News

The 5 Levels of Mastering Creativity

March 11, 2019 No Comments

By Jeff DeGraff Ph.D.

Here’s how to build your creative muscle.

When it comes to thinking creatively, people’s abilities always have room for improvement. However, it’s unlikely you’re going to become a creative genius like Einstein or Mozart without some natural talent.

Is everyone creative? Sure they are, but in very different ways and to varying degrees. Our democratic longing to make everyone and everything equal has led us to make creative greatness indistinguishable from an act of personal expression. What is lacking is a meaningful appreciation of the different levels of creativity and how we can use them as steps for increasing our own creative potential.

Below are the five levels and types of creativity, from the easiest to the most difficult to master, along with suggestions for building creative muscle:

Mimetic Creativity

Mimesis is a term passed down to us from the Ancient Greeks meaning to imitate or mimic. This is the most rudimentary form of creativity. To improve mimetic creativity, travel to new places and meet new people. Be sure to look for patterns and benchmarks, as well as indicators of success or failure so that you have good ideas about what really works and what doesn’t and why.

Biosociative Creativity

Biosociative is a term coined by the novelist Arthur Koestler in his celebrated book The Art of Creation to describe how our conscious mind, when relaxed, can connect rational with intuitive thoughts to produce eureka moments. Biosociative creativity occurs when a familiar idea is connected to an unfamiliar one to produce a novel hybrid. Brainstorming is an excellent example of biosociative creativity. You can find a variety of brainstorming methods to boost biosociative creativity on my website.

Analogical Creativity

Analogical creativity uses analogies to transfer information that we believe we understand in one domain, the source, to help resolve a challenge in an unfamiliar area, the target. In essence, analogies are bridges that allow our cognitive processes to quickly transport clusters of information from the unknown to the known, and back again. Analogies can also be used to disrupt habit-bound thinking to make way for new ideas. You can develop your analogical creativity through the “imaginary friend” role storming method whereby you imagine what someone might say or do if faced with a particular challenge.

Narratological Creativity

At its essence, narratological creativity is the art of storytelling. Our personal stories are perhaps the ultimate use of narratological creativity as we invent and reinvent the story of our life. In this way something that is deeply personal becomes allegorical or of mythic significance. You can improve your narratological creativity by practicing the art of storyboarding or by engaging in scenario making to project potential courses of action.

Intuitive Creativity

This final and most challenging level of creativity has often been promoted to the realm of spiritual and wisdom traditions. This is where creativity becomes bigger and possibly beyond us; it transcends our individuality. There are several methods for freeing and emptying the mind – meditation, yoga and chanting to name a few. The basic idea is to distract and relax the mind to create a flow state of consciousness where ideas come easily. The approaches to developing intuitive creativity are too numerous to chronicle here; however, free writing is a straightforward way to connect us with our intuitive self by simply observing what flows out of the pen or the tapping of the keys.

As with any learned ability, you have to practice. Even creative geniuses practice all the time. This article from Fortune magazine is a good place to find out more. This video about the five levels of creativity may also be helpful:

Originally published on Quora.

By Jeff DeGraff Ph.D.

Sourced from Psychology Today