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Uncommon Blogging Tactics Are Highly Effective, New Study Shows

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By Matt Southern

A recent study on blogging in 2018 shows that the least common blogging tactics are most likely to be successful.

Orbit Media Studio surveyed 1000+ bloggers and published the statistics and trends in a detailed report.

Perhaps the most interesting portion of the study is an analysis of what top bloggers do differently.

Only a minority of bloggers are doing these things, but a majority of those putting in the work report seeing strong results.

Publishing 2000+ Word Articles

Only 18% of those surveyed are publishing articles of 2000 words or more.

Out of those who are publishing 2000+ word article, 42% say it drives strong results.

On average, the length of the typical blog post is 1,151 words

Publish Articles More Than Once Per Week

Just 21% of bloggers in the survey are publishing articles more than once weekly.

Out of those who publish more than once per week, 46% say it drives strong results.

Blogging frequency has been going down over the past 5 years. In 2018 most bloggers are publishing a few times per month.

Spend Over 6 Hours Writing an Article

A small minority of 13% of bloggers are spending 6+ hours on each article.

Out of those putting in 6+ hours per article, 39% report seeing strong results.

Time spent per article is on the rise, but half of all bloggers spend less than 3 hours.

In 2018, the average length of time to write a blog post is 3.5 hours.

Create Their Own Research

Only 25% of those surveyed say they create their own research.

Out of those publishing original research, 58% report seeing strong results.

Bloggers who conduct original research are 2.9x more likely to report “strong results” compared to those who don’t.

Why Are Most Bloggers Not Doing These Things?

The reason why only small percentages of bloggers are doing these things is that it’s difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.

For most bloggers, it’s not feasible to spend over 6 hours writing 2000+ words and conducting original research.

Many bloggers also have day jobs, so in order to accomplish those actions, they would likely have to hire writers, a research team, and maybe even an editor.

However, that may be a worthwhile investment for businesses looking to drive better results with their blogging efforts.

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

By Matt Southern

Sourced from Search Engine Journal

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What Is Customer Experience Management?

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Customer experience management (CXM) is the management of customer interactions through each physical and digital touchpoint in order to deliver personalized experiences that drive brand loyalty and increase revenue, according to David Clarke, global chief experience officer at PwC.  Brands accomplish CXM programs through a combination of software, analytics, research and data-management systems. In recent years, several brands have infused CXM with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning engines that help manage customer data and predict future interactions to allow brands to serve relevant content.

“Customer journeys are either historical or hypothetical,” said Tim Linberg, chief experience officer at Verndale. “We can guide journeys, but we can’t absolutely dictate them. And, moreover, a truly customer-centric organization wouldn’t try to. What we can do, though, is use behavioral data, customer insights and marketing technologies to better understand and optimize every step of that journey. That’s customer experience management.”

Why Does CXM Matter?

Well, that’s simple: it affects your organization’s bottom line. No longer is making good products enough. According to a report released by Forrester earlier this year, the top-performing CXM brands see a direct correlation between good CXM and rising stocks. The top 20 percent of brands in Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) had higher stock price growth and higher total returns than companies drawn from the bottom 20 percent, according to Forrester researchers.

Further, according to the “Customer Experience Optimization Report” by Econsultancy and Ensighten, 96 percent of company marketers and agency pundits consider customer experience optimization somewhat important or critical. Also, 94 percent of marketers and 79 percent of agency respondents said that higher engagement and conversion rates are among the many benefits of CX optimization.

The future will still be about good CX. According to the 2017 Gartner Customer Experience in Marketing Survey released earlier this year, 81 percent say that in two years they expect to be competing mostly or completely on the basis of CX. And further, PwC’s latest Digital IQ report found that 65 percent of respondents see CX as critical to advancing business performance, and 70 percent see it as crucial to achieving digital transformation.

How CXM Software Helps

A strong CXM program is only as good as the software behind it. Brands need to collect, track, manage, organize, analyze, personalize and execute relevant interactions with customers and prospects and can do this primarily through CXM software. Capterra, a product review site, provides reviews of nearly 300 CXM software platforms.

CXM software can also incorporate systems like CRM, web content management, personalization engines, web analytics and most platforms within the digital experience platform ecosystem. According to Tech Target, CXM software falls into a few buckets that include:

Right CXM Tools for the Right Prospect and Customer

“Every customer, brand and campaign are unique,” ​said Josh Martin, senior director of product marketing for Perfect Sense. “Therefore, delivering a good experience requires tools that allow companies to deliver the right content in the right context at the right time.” Companies, he said, must first understand what customers they want to target. “This usually manifests itself as journey mapping,” Martin added, “and allows content creators, marketing teams, product managers, etc. to create a personalized experience that delivers value to their users.”

Having the right tools — instrumented correctly — is more important than having a lot of tools, Martin added. “A great customer experience,” he said, “allows a brand to meet customer needs and be seen as helpful. To deliver this type of personalized experience across all channels, languages and content types, requires various marketing solutions. At the core is CRM, CMS and marketing automation. In the future, artificial intelligence will help drive content and experience optimization.”

How do you bring good CX to life? By making connections, according to Clarke. Connect goals, POVs, responsibilities and ideas as they flow through the organization, according to Clarke. Connect cross-department teams and budgets to share in the commitment. Connect associate, customer and partner journeys. Connect systems and technologies to provide a platform for iteration, he added.

Technology Does Not Define CXM Strategy

To effectively manage CX, brands should not get distracted by newly available technology, according to PwC’s Clarke. “Imagine your ideal CX: don’t let technology define it,” Clarke said. “Visualize all touch points across the digital and physical world. It is most important to ensure that you are providing customers with what they need, when they need it the most.” This may mean deploying chatbot-based customer service, and other times it may mean reducing the number of clicks to get to purchase.

Brands should be thinking about democratizing CX. “CXM,” Clarke added, “isn’t an out-of-the-box solution. Great customer experiences are owned by the C-Suite and only happen through a matrix of co-dependent connections.” It’s not just on the marketing department to execute CXM. And it’s not just about using a CRM. “It should be on the agenda across functions,” Clarke said. “Having the customer in mind even when thinking of back-office system functionality has an effect on the customer. Don’t silo the responsibility. Everyone affects CX.”

Winning CX Examples

CXM is worthless without executing on good experiences for customers and prospects — and seeing more money for your brand’s bottom line. Here are a few resources that include examples of excellent CX:

Related Article: Customer Experience Measurement: Back to Basics

Putting the Customer First

In conclusion, a good CXM program leads to a CX that is consistent across channels, frictionless and valuable to the consumer, according to Verndale’s Linberg. “The promise of CXM for marketers is the ability to purposely move from ‘ready fire aim’ acquisition and retention tactics to a ‘ready aim fire’ approach that puts the customer first. This move towards true one-to-one marketing is enabled through technologies that unify customer data, and leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive personalization at scale.”

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

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3 Ways to Use Artificial Intelligence to Boost Your Video Marketing

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By Thomas Griffin

By using AI, marketers are able to define a clear target audience, target ads to the appropriate consumer and create a video marketing strategy that’s sure to result in increased ROI. If you’re looking to boost your video marketing using AI, here are three ways to get started.

With technology booming by the second, it’s no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) is shaping the way we market products and services. It can help you tailor your content to create targeted ad campaigns, improve your business’s return on investment (ROI), and create an interactive environment between technology and consumer.

So it’s no wonder that 60 percent of marketers said they plan on using artificial intelligence in their content marketing strategy for the upcoming year, according to BrightEdge. That number is expected to rise over the next few years.

AI allows businesses to better understand their customers so they can market to them more efficiently and personally. And what’s more personal than video? According to WyzOwl, 81 percent of businesses now use video in their content marketing strategies. It’s become essential in connecting to the people on the other side of the screen.

By using AI, marketers are able to define a clear target audience, target ads to the appropriate consumer and create a video marketing strategy that’s sure to result in increased ROI.

If you’re looking to boost your video marketing using AI, here are three ways to get started.

1. Improve personalization.

Consumers will no longer stand for a one-size-fits-all experience. With increased technology, users expect to watch video content that’s best suited to their interests and wants.

Every day over 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube. It’s become one of the best platforms to connect with consumers because of their avid interest in video over other mediums such as text.

Because users want a more personal online experience, you can use AI to give it to them. Personalized marketing brings higher levels of engagement and interaction between businesses and consumers, and shows the consumer that you know what they’re looking for. This gives you a higher chance of converting these customers who feel you’re relating to them on a closer level.

You can use video to send personalized messages to your customers, offer them discounts on their favorite items or services, and create an emotional connection that will make them feel personally tied to your brand.

2. Show video ads relevant to the consumer.

How many times have you been forced to sit through an ad you didn’t know or care anything about? With AI, that won’t be a problem in the future.

A fast way to lose a user’s attention is to bombard them with advertisements completely irrelevant to their interests and lifestyle. They’re more likely to react positively to video ads if they’re tailored to their needs based on their search history, page clicks, and shopping behavior.

Tubular Insights found that 73 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase a product after watching a video that talks about it. This is essentially what ads do. If consumers have to watch them anyway, they might as well see products and services they’d actually use.

AI uses its advanced technology to show users videos relevant to their interests. The more it’s utilized in video marketing strategies, the better experiences users will have because they won’t feel bombarded by products and services they don’t want.

3. Suggest related and recommended videos.

It’s still unknown what exact algorithms YouTube uses to show suggested videos. But what is known is that this function proves highly beneficial for businesses that use them, and the amount of likes, shares, and watch time factors into the equation.

AI uses content you’ve already searched and watched to bring you suggested videos it thinks you’d enjoy. Recommended videos increase the time a viewer watches your content and content similar to it, allowing for a higher chance of conversion. It also continues their engagement and willingness to interact with a brand once they have a better idea of what it’s about.

Video is one of the best methods of getting to know your consumers and figuring out what they’re interested in and what they’re willing to spend time on. The best way to get your videos noticed is to use SEO everywhere: in the title, tags, and description. Stick to your keywords and use long-tail keywords when possible.

Wrapping up

AI is changing the way we do marketing, especially video marketing. This can bring consumer and business closer together, tailor content more specifically, and engage with users in a more personal way. It gives marketers a clearer path to connect with their target audience and craft video content that speaks to them and turns them into conversions.

Featured Image credit: alexdndz/Shutterstock

By Thomas Griffin

I’m president and CTO of OptinMonster, a powerful lead generation tool that’s installed in over 700,000 websites.

Sourced from business.com

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Eight Tips For Creating A Non-Promotional Branded Podcast

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Sourced from Forbes

Many professionals spend their daily commutes and downtime listening to podcasts of their interests — from entertainment to industry-specific shows.

Capitalizing on this growing trend can be a great way to market your business. However, you don’t want your show to come across as too promotional. Below, eight Forbes Agency Council members explain how to stay on-brand while offering valuable content that keeps your audience craving more.

1. Make It Advice And Knowledge-Driven

The goal is not to say what you do. Just talk about what you know. The more you share your knowledge, the more you’ll get out of it. If you are simply talking about your services and how awesome you are, it will be seen as promotional instead of advice-driven. If you show that you know what you are talking about, it is worth so much more than self-promotion. – Jonathan Laberge, Reptile

2. Put Your Audience’s Interests First

Consider your target audience and deliver useful information. Make sure topics are relevant and timely. Be willing to give away some of your “secret sauce” in your podcast. Pushing your brand agenda should be a secondary goal. – Suzanne Rosnowski, Relevance International

3. Treat It As A Thought Leadership Activity

The purpose of your podcast should be to educate your audience — and that is it. Think of it as a thought leadership activity such as a panel discussion at an industry event, keynote or TED Talk. If youraudience is interested in what you have to say, they will begin following you. – Lisa Allocca, Red Javelin Communications

4. Tell Other People’s Stories

Our agency just launched a podcast dedicated to uncovering the ins and outs of the client and agency relationship dynamic. The key is to home in on the interesting stories of your guests. That’s why people listen. They don’t want to hear about the host, they want to learn more about the person on the other side of the mic. Uncover the gems that haven’t already been reported on. – Ashley Walters, Empower

5. Use The 80/20 Rule

Never forget your audience. Step back and think about what they want to hear, not what you want to tell them. You can even compare this to social media marketing. If you want to keep your consumers engaged, only 20% of your content should be directly promoting your company, while the other 80% should inform and entertain your audience. – Lisa Arledge Powell, MediaSource

6. Tell Parallel Stories That Tie Into Your Brand’s Mission

Build your brand promises into the podcast content. For instance, if your company’s primary cause — outside of selling what you sell — is the environment, tell stories related to conservation, energy efficiency, preserving wild areas, etc. You can reinforce what you’re about and what may make you more appealing to a large part of the audience without promoting your products. – Scott Greggory, MadAveGroup

7. Focus On The Problem You Solve

When targeting professionals, you need to learn how to sell without selling. You need to respect their level of intelligence and understand that they can quickly spot someone selling to them and will immediately tune out. Podcast about what problem you can solve or tell a story about how your product or service helped a customer. Make it relational and the good story will lead them to find you. – Amy Juers, Edge Legal Marketing

8. Fulfill A Universal Desire

Humans are motivated by four core desires: First, connect with each other. Second, provide structure. Third, leave a mark. Fourth, a yearn for paradise. Identify the desire your podcast can fulfill for listeners and build a persona that humanizes it for them. Show up consistently and feed your audience with content that offers insight and inspiration. – Katie Schibler Conn, KSA Marketing + Partnerships

Sourced from Forbes

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Why it is (almost) impossible to teach creativity

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By Robert Nelson

Industry and educators are agreed: The world needs creativity. There is interest in the field, lots of urging but remarkably little action. Everyone is a bit scared of what to do next. On the question of creativity and imagination, they are mostly uncreative and unimaginative.

Some of the paralysis arises because you can’t easily define . It resists the measurement and strategies that we’re familiar with. Indisposed by the simultaneous vagueness and sublimity of creative processes, educators seek artificial ways to channel imaginative activity into templates that end up compromising the very creativity they celebrate.

For example, creativity is often reduced to problem-solving. To be sure, you need imagination to solve many curly problems and creativity is arguably part of what it takes. But is far from the whole of creativity; and if you focus creative thinking uniquely on problems and solutions, you encourage a mechanistic view—all about scoping and then pin-pointing the best fit among options.

It might be satisfying to create models for such analytical processes but they distort the natural, wayward flux of imaginative thinking. Often, it is not about solving a problem but seeing a problem that no one else has identified. Often, the point of departure is a personal wish for something to be true or worth arguing or capable of making a poetic splash, whereupon the mind goes into imaginative overdrive to develop a robust theory that has never been proposed before.

For teaching purposes, problems are an anxious place to cultivate creativity. If you think of anyone coming up with an idea—a new song, a witty way of denouncing a politician, a dance step, a joke—it isn’t necessarily about a problem but rather a blissful opportunity for the mind to exercise its autonomy, that magical power to concatenate images freely and to see within them a bristling expression of something intelligent.

That’s the motive behind what scholars now call “Big C Creativity”: i.e. your Bach or Darwin or Freud who comes up with a major original contribution to culture or science. But the same is true of everyday “small C creativity” that isn’t specifically problem-based.

Relishing the independence of the mind is the basis for naturally imaginative activity, like humour, repartee, a gestural impulse or theatrical intuition, a satire that extrapolates someone’s behaviour or produces a poignant character insight.

A dull taming

Our way of democratising creativity is not to see it in inherently imaginative spontaneity but to identify it with instrumental strategising. We tame creativity by making it dull. Our way of honing the faculty is by making it goal-oriented and compliant to a purpose that can be managed and assessed.

Alas, when we make creativity artificially responsible to a goal, we collapse it with prudent decision-making, whereupon it no longer transcends familiar frameworks toward an unknown fertility.

We pin creativity to logical intelligence as opposed to fantasy, that somewhat messy generation of figments out of whose chaos the mind can see a brilliant rhyme, a metaphor, a hilarious skip or roll of the shoulders, an outrageous pun, a thought about why peacocks have such a , a reason why bread goes stale or an astonishing pattern in numbers arising from a formula.

Because creativity in essence is somewhat irresponsible, it isn’t easy to locate in syllabus and impossible to teach in a culture of learning outcomes. Learning outcomes are statements of what the student will gain from the subject or unit that you’re teaching. Internationally and across the tertiary system, they take the form of: “On successful completion of this subject, you will be able to …” Everything that is taught should then support the outcomes and all assessment should allow the students to demonstrate that they have met them.

After a lengthy historical study, I have concluded that our contemporary education systematically trashes creativity and unwittingly punishes students for exercising their imagination. The structural basis for this passive hostility to the imagination is the grid of learning outcomes in alignment with delivery and assessment.

It might always be impossible to teach creativity but the least we can do for our students is make education a safe place for imagination. Our academies are a long way from that haven and I see little encouraging in the apologias for creativity that the literature now spawns.

My contention is that learning outcomes are only good for uncreative study. For education to cultivate creativity and imagination, we need to stop asking students anxiously to follow demonstrable proofs of learning for which is a liability.

Feature Image: We pin creativity to logical intelligence as opposed to fantasy. Credit: Shutterstock 

Explore further: The secret to creativity – according to science

By Robert Nelson

Sourced from PHYS.ORG

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How to Create a Compelling Video for Your Brand At a Low Cost

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By Pooja Singh

In today’s social media era, video content draws more eyeballs than written text, and it’s not surprising why. If made well, a video can tell a long story in a minute, it’s more engaging, more memorable and hence, drives more traffic.

And making videos is not a difficult task, considering the widespread use of smartphones and cameras. The trick, however, is to create one that is as compelling as it is entertaining, especially when it comes to accomplishing marketing goals.

For any business, having a marketing video could be a game-changer, for if it is good there’s a high possibility that the viewers will turn into customers. Founders understand this well, and hence, many pump in a lot of money in creating such videos.

“But you don’t really have to,” says Mike Pritchett, the CEO of Shootsta, a video tech startup that has offices in the US, UK, Singapore and Australia, and boasts of high-profile clients like Qantas, Coles, Downer Group, AstraZeneca and Red Cross Australia .

In this video, Pritchett shares how to create a compelling, entertaining and authentic video without investing too much money.

By Pooja Singh

Features Editor, Entrepreneur APAC

Sourced from Entrepreneur

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4 Marketing Strategies Every Startup Can Afford

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By Juupiner

You don’t need to outspend your competition. You just need to out-think and out-work them.

Do your products sell themselves?

Having a great product is essential, but that alone isn’t enough to make your startup successful. Aside from your fantastic product, you’ll also need a stellar marketing strategy to grow your startup. But for many entrepreneurs, it’s simply not realistic to spend a lot of money to acquire new business.

Instead, consider a few of these cost-effective marketing strategies that can help generate early successes.

Affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is the most cost-effective marketing strategy that works. I believe all businesses — regardless of size — should adopt referral, or affiliate, marketing. I’ve used it with a good deal of success and put it to work in all my online businesses.

Here’s how it works: Encourage people to recommend your products to others, and pay a commission only when someone purchases your products through those referrals.

Start by setting up an affiliate program though networks such as ShareASale or ImpactRadius. You then can promote your affiliate program by featuring it prominently on your website and inviting customers to join the program. Additionally, you can choose the right reward structure — one that’s compelling enough for your network’s members to engage.

Email outreach also can serve as an efficient tool when communicating with influencers:

  • Create a list of influencers and experts in your industry,
  • Send an outreach email requesting they try your product for free, and
  • Explain the monetary rewards they could earn by referring a user.
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Feature Image Credit: Getty

Sourced from Juupiner

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Here Are the 10 Graphic Design Trends to Watch

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By Skuirel

Trends come and go. The graphic design world is always evolving. Some design trends fade away for months, others stay for years. Today we’ll spill the beans on which graphic design trends will generate buzz this year.

Whether you will follow the crowd or set up a new trend yourself – the choice is yours. Either way, it is vital to be up-to-date. We have taken the time to browse the web and find out which design trends will take the leading positions in 2018. We will also reveal some of the graphic design trends which should better stay in 2017.

Year 2018 is pretty much all about imagination off limits. The majority of our examples depict a combination between two or more trends, even though we have focused on each one separately. Hope it sounds promising, so let the show begin!

1. The ‘Little Big Idea’

Moonpig’s rebrand was about sweating the small stuff

“The design theme of 2017 was big impact, but paradoxically the best work achieved it by really sweating the small stuff,” says Chris Moody, creative director at Wolff Olins. “The things I have found the most striking are the consommés – those jobs that focus on something singular and use it to create something with clarity, distinctiveness and beauty: the ‘Little Big Idea’.

“2017 was about simple ideas, executed with intelligence and insight to create real, radical impact. W+K’s work on the Dutch women’s football team was a tiny logo tweak that managed to question heritage, patriarchy and even what a logo stands for. The Moonpig rebrand did more with the kerning of an ‘o’ than a thousand animated cartoon characters ever could.

“If 2018 is going to be as chaotic, channel-hopping and crazy as 2017 was, elegant logic will be the only way to cut through.”

2. Braver colours

The Dropbox rebrand made strong use vibrant colour

“2017 has been a riot of colour, with graphic designers making big, bold choices,” says Shaun Bowen, creative partner at B&B studio. “Perhaps in an effort to inspire positivity after a difficult year in 2016, we’ve seen an influx of bright colours, often with flat graphics and only one or two colours used at any one time,” he adds.

“More and more brands are also using their core packaging hue as the backing colour in posters and supporting graphics.

Max Ottignon, co-founder at London branding agency Ragged Edge, tells a similar story. “We’ve noticed our clients getting braver,” he says. “Fluoro colours and clashing tones have moved away from edgy startups into the mainstream. eBay’s new identity has colour right at its heart, using it as a way to communicate both its breadth and inclusive personality.”

Mireia Lopez, creative director at DARE, concurs. “We’re seeing the use of vibrant colours in juxtaposition with bold imagery,” she says. “This can be seen as a response to minimalism and material design, from using white spaces and clean layouts to unexpected colour combinations and distinct varied typographical styles – and is across all areas of branding as well as digital.

“The new Dropbox brand direction, for example, is doing this with its creative use of images, and corporate identities such as NatWest are shifting to a fresh and modern feel, using the potential of brighter colours to increase higher conversion rates. In my field, digital, this development is probably due the fact that sites can load faster and screens on phones are bigger, so it’s easier to play with images.”

“Using bright colours helps content stand out from meme-filled social media,” notes Nathan Sandhu, founder and creative director of Jazzbones Creative.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article

Sourced from Skuirel

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Which Brands Have The Best Social Media Marketing?

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By Mike Gingerich

We have always witnessed and admired huge marketing campaigns from global top-most brands like Apple, Pepsi, Adidas and Coca Cola among others. These market leaders invest millions of dollars on viral commercials, and influencer marketing that never goes unnoticed. Unfortunately, not every brand has the financial muscles to compete with the giants. But, no need to worry!

In the last couple of years, social media has leveled the ground for marketers. It is no longer about the company size or the budget. Today, any business can use social networks such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and many others to run effective marketing campaigns without spending millions. Additionally, there are several helpful tools such as rank tracking software by serpbook to enhance your digital marketing strategy.

Effective Social Media Marketing (SMM)

In today’s digital world, SMM is undoubtedly one of the most marketing tools for small to large brands in the world. However, some companies have succeeded in social media, while others are still struggling. It all runs down to the strategy.  For effective social media marketing strategy, you need creativity and unique online marketing ideas which involves:

  • Choosing the ideal social media platform(s) for your business – You may target multiple networks with large and active audience.
  • Understanding your audience – Learn their challenges and what solutions they are looking for.
  • Excellent Communication – Deliver your brand message in simple and precise manner.
  • Great content – Generating regular, interesting and readable content for your audience.
  • Evaluating the SMM strategy – A good example is the use of serpbook rank tracker to assess the progress of your strategy.
  • Improving existing campaigns – Use the analytic tools to identify mistakes and new opportunities in the market and make the right adjustments.

For most brands, the main challenge has always been coming up with creative ideas to execute the right strategy. Below are a few top brands with the best social media marketing campaigns.

Top Brands with the Best Social Media Marketing Strategy

  • Reebok – LinkedIn Masters

The brand is known for its quality shoes and sportswear. Reebok SMM strategy focus on multi-platform digital marketing across a range of social networks. On Instagram and Facebook the brand uses colorful fitness and latest Reebok products photos. It also generates informative visual content for the YouTube Channel.

Surprisingly, Reebok stands out for its successful LinkedIn marketing. Their secret is not only regular update posts, it also creates valuable content for its audience as well as shares links to their blog. Reebok understand its audience and uses videos, simple formatting and photos to attract audience and encourage them to read through.

  • Pop-Tart – Twitter Marketing

A legend in production of toaster pastries, the brand’s Twitter account does it all. Pop-Tart maintains a sarcastic voice on Twitter with a target on young and Twitter-biased demographic. The brand mimics popular accounts and are quick to create their version of any viral or trending content. The brand has over 164, 000 followers on Twitter and more brands in the sector have started to copy their style because it pays off.

Pop-Tart SMM success comes from actively interacting with their audience in a funny way. It works because they have identified the right audience and defined a SMM tone that suits them.

  • Peel – Facebook Ads

Peel has become a powerful brand that deals with stylish phone cases. Its strength comes from its massive social support, especially on Facebook. Peel marketers use Facebook ads to showcase the different features of their products. The Facebook strategy has increased its revenue by over 100%. It also runs a visually impressive Instagram feed.  Peel focuses on differentiating themselves from competitor and telling their story through SMM.

In summary, the common thing across the above brand is simple. A successful SMM starts with understanding your audience and choosing a channel that they use most. It is also evident that choosing a style and tone for your marketing strategy is vital and can win you the right followership. Additionally, it helps to try various strategies, measure their effectiveness and focus on one or two that works best for you.

Sourced from Mike Gingerich

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The Marriott Maelstrom: How Did Chain Get Hit So Hard In Breach?

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Despite the massive data breach affecting 500 million guests — one of the biggest such ruptures ever — Marriott customer data has not turned up on the dark web, Jason Hill, head researcher at CyberInt., reports, according to Financial Times.

That may be the only good news Marriott is about to get. The hotel chain announced the breach early Friday morning, and within hours it was facing a major corporate crisis.

For one thing, its stock price slid 6% on Friday to $115. It could have been worse, but then there was the predictable filing of two class action lawsuits — at last count.

In one, reportedly filed in a Maryland federal court, two attorneys — Ed Claffy of Chicago and Stewart Bell of Charleston, West Virginia — sued as aggrieved customers, using the law firm of Murphy, Falcon & Murphy.

“Marriott’s failure to employ reasonable and appropriate measures to protect against unauthorized access to confidential consumer data constitutes an unfair act or practice prohibited by Section 5 of the FTC Act,” the complaint says.

In addition, the Blast reports that a $12.5 billion suit was filed by Ben Meiselas of Geragos & Geragos, and local counsel Michael Fuller of Underdog Law.

“For the past four years, 500 million customers expecting a comfortable worry-free stay at Marriott were instead exposed to one of the largest digital infestations in history,” the complaint states, the Blast continues.

Perhaps even more seriously, the FBI reportedly is probing the breach, as are the attorney generals of four states: New York, Illinois, Connecticut and Maryland.

And, as MediaPost has reported, Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) has called for “comprehensive consumer privacy and data security legislation that requires companies to adhere to strong data security standards, directs them to only collect the data they actually need to service their customer, and creates penalties for companies that fail to meet them.”

Still unknown is whether Marriott will face sanctions under the GDPR. Surely, the Marriott database contains data on EU citizens — and fines from that could dwarf anything that will be meted out in the U.S.

Without assessing blame, one has to wonder: how can such large corporations find themselves in this situation? Are their security systems mere playtoys?

“We don’t yet know the root cause(s) that forced Marriott this week to disclose a four-year-long breach involving the personal and financial information of 500 million guests of its Starwood hotel properties,” writes Krebs on Security. “But anytime we see such a colossal intrusion go undetected for so long, the ultimate cause is usually a failure to adopt the most important principle in cybersecurity defense that applies to both corporations and consumers: Assume you are compromised.”

“Marriott is one of the largest hotel chains in the world,” states Hassan Murphy, managing partner at Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, and a member of the plaintiffs’ steering committee in the breach litigation case against Equifax. “That such a corporation would fail to properly safeguard the highly personal and sensitive information of its guests and customers is inexplicable.”

Murphy adds: “Even more egregious is the fact that Marriott did not discover this breach for nearly four years, and then for months after that discovery failed to tell its customers what had occurred. This conduct constitutes a significant breach of trust and confidence unparalleled in the hospitality industry.”

Bringing this closer to home, such disasters could have a dampening effect on email response.

For example, some people will no longer open an email bill from anyone — they will simply call the company, using the number they have had for years, and pay that way, or send a check to the known address, according to anecdotal evidence.

To recap, Marriott determined on November 19 that the breach, exposing data on reservations made on or before September 10 of this year, had occurred. The data on 327 million guests includes such details as name, email address, mailing address, phone number, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest account information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, and communication preferences, Marriott says.

The chain was alerted on September 8 that an attempt had been made to access the Starwood database in the U.S. Security experts determined that unauthorized access to the Starwood network had existed since 2014. In addition, the firm discovered that an unauthorized party had copied and encrypted data from the database.

The affected brands include W Hotels, St. Regis Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Four Points by Sheraton, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Element Hotels and Aloft Hotels.

“We deeply regret this incident happened,” states Arne Sorenson, president and chief executive officer. “We fell short of what our guests deserve and what we expect of ourselves. We are doing everything we can to support our guests, and using lessons learned to be better moving forward.”

But, to put in perspective, JP Morgan analyst J.P. Greff told Barron that while the timing is unfortunate, “our general view is that any damage done to Marriott’s brand longer-term will likely be minimal, if at all, as the breach isn’t as dire as last year’s Equifax breach, and the company took quick action, and consumers are growing somewhat numb to these events.”

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