chatbots Archives - Mediastreet

In News

Is ChatGPT really the new Google? We dug into the numbers.

August 25, 2025 No Comments

There’s a belief that we’re ditching web search for chatbots to find news, information and products. The truth is more complicated.

There are regular headlines suggesting chatbots like ChatGPT may be taking over for Googling. Maybe you’ve also started using artificial intelligence instead of Google to hunt for hiking boots, news about flooding in Texas or Roblox game tips.

To separate truth from belief, I dug into the numbers. What I found was that our use of chatbots is growing fast but that Google search still overwhelmingly remains our front door to find online news, information and products. Sorry, AI bros.

Web search may be losing some ground to AI, but we rely on it so much that chatbots are barely making a dent. The data suggests that Google has nearly 400 times the usage of ChatGPT for some news and information.

Chatbots for news

Similarweb, which studies our website activity, said last month that ChatGPT is a massively fast-growing way that Americans are finding online news articles.

About 25 million times from January through May this year, we landed on a news website after clicking a link in ChatGPT — up from just about 1 million times a year earlier, according to Similarweb. Wow.

(The Washington Post has a content partnership with ChatGPT owner OpenAI.)

But in the same five months, Americans landed on news websites about 9.5 billion times from using web search engines including Google and clicking on a link, Similarweb’s director of market insights, Laurie Naspe, confirmed.

Put another way, for every American who asked ChatGPT for information and landed on a news website to learn more, 379 people used Google to do the same thing.

Important caveats: We behave differently when using chatbots for information compared with web search engines.

Chatbots (including the “AI Overviews” in Google search) paraphrase information from news articles about Samsung’s latest smartphone or online reviews of air purifiers. You might rarely click a web link to find out more, as you do with conventional Google searches.

That behavior is causing carnage for websites and alters the Similarweb numbers. When we use ChatGPT to summarize news events and stop there, it doesn’t show up in Similarweb’s web click data.

However you interpret the numbers, Google remains for now a dominant way Americans find news websites.

Chatbots vs. search

A different report, by web analysis firm Datos by Semrush and software company SparkToro, found that about 11 out of every 100 of our website visits from a computer is to Google and other search engines. AI technologies — including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude and more — account for less than 1 out of every 100 websites we visit combined.

The report shows a huge increase in the amount of web visits to chatbot sites in the past year, but we’re still using search websites many times more.

“Search is one of the most popular and fastest-growing features in ChatGPT,” an OpenAI spokesperson said. “We’re investing in a faster, smarter search experience and remain committed to helping people discover high-quality news and information.”

Google said it generally doesn’t comment about its market share.

SparkToro CEO Rand Fishkin did some related number crunching and found that chatbots were even punier compared with search.

He made educated assumptions to compare how often we’re using ChatGPT to find the kinds of information for which we’ve typically used Google, such as learning about the Golden Gate Bridge or comparing options for an air conditioner.

Fishkin found that we’re doing more than 14 billion Google searches a day compared with at most 37.5 million Google-like searches on ChatGPT. Google, in other words, has about 373 times the comparable usage of ChatGPT.

Important caveat: Fishkin’s educated guesses are just one data point. Fishkin also wasn’t counting our use of chatbots for tasks we don’t do in search, such as summarizing a long report or writing a bedtime story. And some of our time with Google search is now with its AI Overviews and AI Mode, though it’s hard to measure how much.

There have been other imperfect but useful analyses that have suggested we’re doing more Google searches and using chatbots more, too. At least hundreds of millions of people use ChatGPT each week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in April. While the numbers aren’t comparable, Google’s web search has nearly 5 billion users.

So are chatbots killing Google search?

The answer, like our habits, isn’t that simple.

In my conversations with people who oversee websites, some of them said they are overhauling their strategy to attract readers and viewers like you, because they believe fewer people will find them from web search links and more from chatbots. Your favorite websites are willingly or grudgingly adapting to chatbots that might kill them anyway.

It can also be true that we constantly misjudge how fast new technology is replacing our old habits.

It might feel as if people buy everything online, but e-commerce accounts for just 16 percent of all the stuff that Americans buy. Until very recently, Americans still spent more time watching conventional cable or free television than streaming on TVs, according to Nielsen.

And for now, the use of ChatGPT for news and other information remains puny.

“When everyone else is talking about it and the media’s writing about it, a new technology can feel far bigger than it is,” Fishkin said.

Feature image credit: Illustration by Elena Lacey/The Washington Post; iStock

By Shira Ovide

Shira Ovide writes The Washington Post’s The Tech Friend, a newsletter about making your technology into a force for good. She has been a technology journalist for more than a decade and wrote a tech newsletter at the New York Times.

Sourced from The Washington Post

In News

PR pros have discovered how to influence the chatbots: Talk to a journalist

May 27, 2025 No Comments

By Ben Smith

The Scoop

As the sprawling public relations industry scrambles to figure out how to buffer its clients’ brands and reputations through the new medium of artificial intelligence chatbots, some firms have reached a surprising conclusion: The best way to get your client’s message into the output of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and the rest is by talking to journalists.

Firms, whose services now often include regularly testing clients’ reputations with AI models, are finding that authoritative publications — including declining local news outlets and specialist trade journals — shape the results of chatbot queries about a given company far more powerfully than a social media campaign or Reddit thread could. The result is a striking reversal of the status quo at a moment when PR executives had begun to enjoy the social media-era option of ignoring journalists entirely.

“Earned media still matters, but not the way people think,” said Carreen Winters, who leads the reputation practice at MikeWorldWide, using the trade term for independent reporting.

The firm is launching a service called “PreBunk” that’s designed, according to a draft press release shared with Semafor, to provide an “ongoing proactive ‘education’ of the LLMs about your company and its reputation.”

Consumers, according to Winters, say, “I’m not going to trust earned media — I’m going to trust the internet.” But these LLMs’ sources lead back to journalism, something she said can sometimes be a hard sell to executives who thought they no longer had to deal with pesky reporters.

“Sometimes it’s a small trade publication that your client has said, ‘Nobody reads that anymore,‘” she said. “Sometimes it’s a hometown newspaper.”

Other firms are reaching similar conclusions. “Earned media and owned content [that is, pages on a company’s own website] are the primary drivers of how GenAI platforms recommend and describe brands and products. It’s not even close,” said Brian Buchwald, who leads Edelman’s global product, data and AI strategy. He said the firm carefully tracks the sources of LLM answers, which vary widely based on industry and brand. LLMs’ assessments of an enterprise tech company’s reputation, for instance, drew from Wall Street Journal coverage and research reports from Gartner.

“You can make a big difference very quickly with the right content and campaign choices and who writes about it,” he said.

Rand Fishkin, the founder of the audience research firm SparkToro, wrote last year that, for instance, LLMs appear to rely heavily on professional review sites like Eater when recommending restaurants. For brands looking to stand out, “that’s gonna be a PR process and a pitch process, but is it worthwhile? Absolutely,” he wrote.

He recently headlined another post: “Unpopular Opinion: Public Relations is the Future of Marketing.”

Know More

The PR industry is navigating the rise of AI in parallel with the overlapping but more technical SEO trade, which is adjusting its sights from bringing clients’ websites up search results to elevating them in AI excerpts on Google and elsewhere. One place they converge is in encouraging companies to add pages to their website aimed at LLM, not human, consumers.

The SEO professionals are finding, however, that for now AI is largely relying on the same rankings that search engines use — though sometimes in unpredictable ways. A brief from the enterprise SEO marketing company BrightEdge, for instance, cites as “one of the most important discoveries” about Anthropic’s Claude the fact that it relies on the lesser-used search engine Brave for its rankings; companies will need to ensure they’re being indexed by Brave to feed their official line to Claude. Another brief wrestles with the subtle differences between Google’s AI Overviews and more traditional search rankings, with the LLMs answering “anticipated questions,” not just the ones consumers are asking.

The SEO field has long been engaged in a game of cat-and-mouse with Google and other search products, and spokespeople for LLM companies didn’t respond to inquiries about how they view these efforts.

Ben’s view

There’s something heartening, from the perspective of the humans in the media business, about the practice of gaming digital media becoming less technical, after a long march in which advertising and marketing were essentially swallowed by adtech and practices like SEO.

Dealing with LLMs is “more like traditional PR than it is like SEO,” Ben Worthen, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who founded the agency Message Lab, told me.

That’s good news, in particular, for the PR industry, which gainfully employs its share of human beings, as well as some former journalists.

But even if the LLMs find this kind of authoritative journalism valuable, and even if companies will pay to employ publicists to pitch their stories, it’s not clear where that process meets news organizations’ business models.

For instance: What, exactly, is a trade publication that offers valuable and authoritative service to LLMs even as humans stop reading it? A research service for AI? If the handful of firms training and maintaining LLMs really think that the authoritative reporting on small industries or local areas is valuable, they may have to pay for it — because nobody else seems to want to.

Room for Disagreement

The darkest warnings about the power of AI have to do with the “liar’s dividend” that renders accurate journalism pointless. The theory is not that deepfakes will persuade people to believe anything in particular, but that they’ll make people disbelieve everything. Bobby Chesney and Danielle Citron coined the term in a 2019 essay arguing that “a sceptical public will be primed to doubt the authenticity of real audio and video evidence. This scepticism can be invoked just as well against authentic as against adulterated content.”

Notable

AI relies on original journalism, a Brookings Institution report argued: “Without access to human-created, high-quality content that is a relatively accurate portrayal of reality — and that journalism provides — the foundational models that fuel machine learning and generative AI applications of all types will malfunction, degrade, and potentially even collapse, putting the entire system at risk.”
Or, as Joshua Rothman put it in a relatively optimistic New Yorker essay, “A.I. could improve the news — if it doesn’t destroy it in the process.”
The AI effect on search is here, as searches in Safari recently fell for the first time ever, according to an Apple executive.

Feature Image Credit: Generated by Gemini

By Ben Smith

Sourced from Semafor

In News

How AI Is Changing The Way We Communicate: The Future Of Interaction

April 7, 2025 No Comments

By Kurt Allen

The way we communicate has evolved dramatically over the last decade, with the technological advancements of smartphones, social media and instant messaging changing the global landscape.

However, one of the most transformative shifts in communication today is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). From personalized chatbots to speech recognition systems, AI is fundamentally altering how we interact with both machines and other people. This article delves into the impact of AI on communication, offering a statistical view of its influence and potential future.

1. The Rise Of AI-Driven Communication Tools

AI-powered communication tools are proliferating across both personal and professional spaces. Businesses are integrating AI into their customer service, while individuals are adopting tools like voice assistants, predictive text and even AI-generated content. According to a report by Statista, the global market for AI-based chatbots alone is expected to reach $1.34 billion by 2024, up from $190 million in 2016. This growth indicates not only the popularity of AI solutions but also how rapidly they are being adopted across industries.

AI-driven tools such as natural language processing (NLP) allow machines to understand, interpret and generate human language. For instance, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri rely heavily on NLP to respond to verbal queries. The increasing sophistication of these systems has led to a surge in voice-based interactions. A 2021 survey from Voicebot.ai found that 58% of U.S. adults reported using voice assistants on smartphones, smart speakers and other devices, highlighting the shift toward voice as a primary mode of communication.

2. AI’s Role In Real-Time Communication

One of the most powerful applications of AI in communication is its ability to facilitate real-time interactions. AI can assist in translating languages instantly, helping bridge communication gaps between people who speak different languages. Google Translate, which employs machine learning techniques, has drastically improved over the years. The introduction of neural machine translation in 2016 allowed for more accurate translations by understanding context and sentence structure.

Moreover, AI-driven transcription services are making meetings, interviews and educational sessions more efficient. A 2021 report by PwC highlighted that 86% of executives believe AI will play a major role in the way their companies conduct meetings, with many relying on AI to transcribe, summarize and analyse discussions.

3. The Explosion Of Chatbots And Virtual Assistants

Another area where AI is profoundly changing communication is the widespread use of chatbots and virtual assistants. These tools are reshaping customer service, marketing and even internal communication. AI-powered chatbots are not only capable of handling simple queries but are also becoming increasingly sophisticated through machine learning, offering personalized responses and even emotional intelligence. For example, IBM’s Watson can process natural language, understand context and engage in complex conversations, which is a step forward from traditional scripted responses. This increased capability is encouraging businesses to integrate AI chatbots into their customer support systems.

The growing reliance on AI for communication is not limited to businesses; it’s also impacting social interactions, suggesting that AI’s influence extends beyond formal communication to casual, day-to-day exchanges.

4. Ethical And Privacy Concerns In AI Communication

While AI is revolutionizing communication, it also raises concerns regarding privacy, data security and ethical considerations. AI systems require vast amounts of data to function effectively, often pulling from personal conversations, email exchanges and social media interactions. This raises the question of how this data is stored, accessed and used.

According to a 2022 survey by Pew Research, 81% of Americans feel that the potential risks of AI—particularly regarding privacy and data misuse—outweigh its benefits. Furthermore, 72% of survey respondents expressed concern about AI systems that could manipulate public opinion or spread misinformation, particularly in social media settings.

As AI continues to play a role in communication, it will be crucial for governments and businesses to develop guidelines and policies to ensure responsible usage. For example, Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has set a precedent by establishing strict rules around data collection and usage, especially for AI applications. However, as AI’s influence expands, more robust global regulations may be required.

5. The Future Of AI In Communication

Looking ahead, the future of AI in communication holds exciting possibilities. From real-time language processing to deep learning algorithms that can predict the nuances of human conversation, AI is poised to continue changing the way we interact. As AI becomes more advanced, its applications will likely expand into even more personal areas, such as health communication, education and entertainment.

The key to understanding AI’s future in communication is recognizing its role not as a replacement for human interaction, but as a supplement to it. By automating routine tasks and offering real-time insights, AI can free up humans to engage in more meaningful, creative and emotional exchanges.

AI is reshaping the way we communicate in profound and far-reaching ways. From voice assistants to chatbots, language translation tools and workplace collaboration platforms, AI is enhancing the efficiency, speed and accessibility of communication. However, as we embrace these innovations, it is essential to address the ethical, privacy and data concerns that come with this technology. With the right balance of regulation and innovation, AI has the potential to make communication more inclusive, seamless and impactful than ever before.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Kurt Allen

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Kurt Allen, CLSSBB, Vice President, Marketing & Communications at Notre Dame de Numur University. Read Kurt Allen’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

CEO of WPP, world’s biggest advertising agency, falls victim to elaborate deepfake scam

August 2, 2024 No Comments

By Shannon Thaler

The CEO of WPP fell victim to an elaborate deepfake scam that involved voice-cloning the boss to solicit money and personal details from the company’s workforce.

Mark Read, the CEO of WPP, a London-based communications and advertising company whose clients include Dell, Wendy’s, Victoria’s Secret and Coca-Cola, saw his voice cloned and likeness stolen by fraudsters who created a WhatsApp account seemingly belonging to him.

They were using a publicly available photo of Read as the profile picture to trick fellow users, according to an email explaining the scam and sent to WPP’s leadership earlier reviewed by the Guardian.

The WhatsApp account was used to set up a Microsoft Teams meetings with another WPP executive.

During the meeting, the crooks deployed a fake, artificial intelligence-generated video of Read — also known as a “deepfake” — including the voice cloning.

They also tried using the meeting’s chat function to impersonate Read and target a fellow “agency leader” at WPP — whose market cap sits around $11.3 billion — by asking them to hand over money and other personal details, according to the Guardian.

“Fortunately the attackers were not successful,” Read wrote in the email obtained by the Guardian.

“We all need to be vigilant to the techniques that go beyond emails to take advantage of virtual meetings, AI and deepfakes.”

A WPP spokesperson confirmed to The Post that the attempt at scamming the company’s leadership was unsuccessful.

“Thanks to the vigilance of our people, including the executive concerned, the incident was prevented,” the company rep added.

It wasn’t immediately clear which other WPP executives were involved in the scheme, or when the attack attempt took place.

WPP’s spokesperson declined to provide further details about the scam.

“We have seen increasing sophistication in the cyber-attacks on our colleagues, and those targeted at senior leaders in particular,” Read added in the email, per the Guardian, in reference to the myriad ways in which criminals can impersonate real people.

Read’s email included a number of bullet points that he advised recipients to look out for as red flags, including requests for passports, money transfers and any mention of a “secret acquisition, transaction or payment that no one else knows about.”

“Just because the account has my photo doesn’t mean it’s me,” Read said in the email, according to the Guardian.

The Post has sought comment from WPP, which includes a notice on its Contacts landing page that its “name and those of its agencies have been fraudulently used by third parties.”

Deepfake audio has been on the rise as deepfake images have become a hotly debated topic among AI firms.

While Google has recently moved to distance itself from the dark side of AI, cracking down on the creation of deepfakes — most of which are pornographic — as it deems them “egregious,” ChatGPT maker OpenAI is reportedly considering allowing users to create AI-generated pornography and other explicit content with its tech tools.

Deepfakes like the graphic nude images of Taylor Swift, however, will be banned.

The Sam Altman-run company said it is “exploring whether we can responsibly provide the ability to generate NSFW (not-safe-for-work) content in age-appropriate contexts.”

“We look forward to better understanding user and societal expectations of model behaviour in this area,” OpenAI added, noting that examples could include “erotica, extreme gore, slurs and unsolicited profanity.”

OpenAI’s foray into creating fake X-rated content comes just months after it unveiled revolutionary new software that can produce high-caliber video in response to a few simple text queries called Sora.

The technology marks a dazzling breakthrough from the ChatGPT maker that could also take concerns about deepfakes and ripoffs of licensed content to a new level.

By Shannon Thaler

Sourced from New York Post

In News

How chatbots helps boost your SEM game

April 23, 2024 No Comments

By Sarishti Arora

In the realm of digital marketing, especially within Search Engine Marketing (SEM), the role of chatbots is transformative. These digital assistants, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), have reshaped how businesses interact with their audience. Chatbots in SEM are not just tools; they’re strategic partners that enhance user engagement and streamline the customer journey.

Picture this: You’re browsing a website, searching for a specific service or product. Instead of navigating through a maze of pages, you encounter a chatbot. This isn’t any ordinary chatbot—it’s designed to understand your needs, offer solutions, and guide you through the site effortlessly. This is enhancing engagement with chatbots at its finest. Through seamless interactions, these AI-driven entities provide personalized responses, making your search more efficient and less time-consuming.

What are chatbots?

Diving deeper, you might wonder how chatbots manage such tasks. It’s simple yet sophisticated. Utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning, they’re able to pick up on your queries, understand the context, and initiate conversations that feel incredibly human. Whether it’s midnight or midday, they’re always at your service, ensuring no query goes unanswered.

But it doesn’t stop there. SEM chatbot strategies have evolved to where chatbots now play a crucial role in marketing campaigns. They collect valuable insights about user preferences and behaviours, allowing businesses to tailor their SEM strategies more effectively. This data-driven approach not only boosts engagement but also enhances the overall user experience, thereby fostering loyalty.

Incorporating chatbots into your SEM efforts can significantly elevate your brand’s digital presence. They’re not just about facilitating smoother interactions; they’re about creating meaningful connections. As you dive deeper into the digital era, understanding and leveraging the power of chatbots will undoubtedly be a game-changer in your engagement strategy.

The rise of chatbots in digital marketing

In the fast-paced digital marketing landscape, staying ahead means constantly adapting to new technologies. Chatbots have emerged as a groundbreaking tool, shifting the way brands interact with their audiences. These AI-driven assistants are not just reshaping customer service; they’re redefining the entire customer journey.

Chatbots have carved their niche by offering round-the-clock assistance. Unlike human agents, they don’t need breaks or sleep, ensuring your business is always online, ready to engage. This 24/7 availability massively boosts your SEM efforts, as potential customers can receive instant responses at any hour.

Moreover, the evolution of AI has allowed chatbots to deliver personalized experiences. They can recall past interactions and preferences, making each conversation feel one-on-one and authentic. This level of customization is key in enhancing engagement, a primary goal for any SEM strategy.

But it’s not just about answering queries. Chatbots in SEM are strategic assets. They can guide users through your website, suggest products or services, and even help fill out forms or complete purchases. This hands-on approach in directing traffic can significantly uplift your site’s conversion rates.

SEM chatbot strategies are becoming indispensable. By incorporating chatbots, you’re not merely streamlining communication; you’re also gathering insights. These AI companions can track user behavior, noting which queries come up repeatedly or at what point users tend to leave the site. Such data is gold dust for refining your SEM campaigns, making chatbots invaluable for not just engagement but also for strategic planning.

Lastly, chatbots are instrumental in keyword research. They reveal real-time, unfiltered customer language and questions, which can inform your content strategy. By aligning your SEM efforts with actual user inquiries, you enhance your brand’s visibility and relevance.

In the realm of digital marketing, chatbots offer a dynamic way to bridge the gap between your brand and your customers. They’re not just tools for efficiency; they’re your partners in crafting a more engaged, responsive, and understanding brand presence online.

Understanding the synergy: Chatbots, SEO, and conversions

Diving into the dynamic world of digital marketing, the collaboration between chatbots, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and the pursuit of higher conversion rates stands out as a game-changer. Embracing this synergy not only propels your brand forward but also elevates your engagement strategies on all fronts.

Cost efficiency

Chatbots emerge as financial savants in SEM, reducing overheads without compromising quality. By automating responses and engaging consumers, you’re investing in a tool that boosts your digital marketing efforts at a fraction of the cost associated with traditional customer service channels.

Instant support

In the fast-paced digital arena, immediacy is key. Employing chatbots ensures your customers receive answers to their queries instantaneously. This rapid interaction not only answers customers’ pressing questions but also subtly nudges them closer to making a purchase, enhancing your SEM performance considerably.

Multi-tasking capability

Handling multiple queries concurrently, chatbots in SEM demonstrate unparalleled efficiency. Unlike human agents who can engage in only one conversation at a time, chatbots can interact with numerous customers simultaneously, ensuring no query goes unanswered. This capacity not only elevates customer experience but also significantly contributes to enhancing engagement with chatbots.

24/7 availability

The digital marketplace never sleeps, and neither should your customer support. Integrating chatbots into your SEM strategy ensures your brand is always there to greet and guide your customers, regardless of the time or day. This round-the-clock availability not only boosts engagement rates but also plays a crucial role in converting interactions into tangible results.

Chatbot marketing: Beyond conventional methods

In today’s digital marketplace, your brand’s voice needs to stand out. Chatbots offer a fresh avenue for doing just that, propelling marketing methods beyond the traditional. By integrating chatbots into SEM, you’re not just following trends; you’re setting them. Chatbots facilitate a dynamic interaction with your audience, ensuring questions never go unanswered. This ensures Enhancing Engagement with Chatbots isn’t just a catchphrase but a tangible reality for your brand.

Marketing automation with chatbots

Embrace the power of automation and watch as your SEM efforts soar. Chatbots work tirelessly, handling numerous inquiries simultaneously, which not only optimizes your resources but also keeps your audience engaged. Whether it’s guiding a visitor through your site or offering personalized product recommendations, chatbots in SEM embody efficiency and effectiveness. They’re the relentless workers that ensure your marketing engine runs smoothly, 24/7.

Building a chatbot marketing strategy

How chatbots helps boost your SEM game | News by Thaiger — PHOTO VIA: Shantanu Kumar FROM:Unsplash.com

To leverage SEM Chatbot Strategies effectively, you must first understand your audience’s needs and preferences. This involves setting clear objectives for what you wish to achieve with your chatbot—be it lead generation, customer service improvement, or sales conversion. Next, tailor your chatbot’s voice and responses to reflect your brand’s personality, making sure it aligns with your customer’s expectations. Remember, a well-crafted chatbot marketing strategy doesn’t just enhance engagement; it transforms it, creating a seamless journey for your customers from first click to final purchase.

Embracing chatbots in your SEM strategy isn’t just a step toward innovation; it’s a leap toward redefining customer engagement and boosting your digital marketing efforts. With the ability to offer personalised assistance 24/7, chatbots not only enhance the user experience but also significantly improve your conversion rates. They’re a powerhouse of efficiency, capable of handling multiple inquiries without breaking a sweat, ensuring your brand remains responsive and engaging at all times. Remember, the key to unlocking the full potential of chatbots lies in understanding your audience and tailoring your approach to meet their needs. By doing so, you’re not just staying ahead of the curve; you’re setting new standards in customer engagement and SEM success. So, take a leaf out of the book of leading companies and integrate chatbots into your SEM strategy today

Also, unlock 2024’s top social media strategies for viral success. It’s a world where strategies evolve at the speed of light, and staying ahead means being in tune with the latest trends and techniques. You’re not just posting content; you’re crafting experiences that resonate with your audience. In 2024, the game has changed. It’s about understanding the nuances of each platform, leveraging cutting-edge tools, and engaging with your community in meaningful ways. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just stepping into the arena, mastering these strategies is key to unlocking the full potential of your brand on social media.

Feature Image Credit: Mariia Shalabaieva FROM: Unsplash.com

By Sarishti Arora

Sourced from Thaiger

In News

5 Examples of eCommerce Chatbots That Will Increase Sales and Revenue

July 21, 2022 No Comments

By Srushti Shah

Chatbots today are revolutionizing the manner in which people shop. They are providing improved customer experiences in product selection, shopping, customer service, and more.

According to Statista, an estimated 2.14 billion people purchased goods or services online in 2021.

Image Source

The number of active chatbots is growing at its quickest rate yet. In 2017, Facebook Messenger had 100,000 chatbots, which quickly rose to 300,000 within 12 months. This rapid expansion shows that the collaboration between humans and chatbots is and will continue to improve as time passes.

If that isn’t indication enough of how useful people find chatbots, take a look at the stats below:

40% of millennials claim that they use chatbots daily
64% of internet users say round-the-clock service is the best chatbot attribute
67% of millennials say that they are more likely to shop from websites using a chatbot

Do you want to know how this theory of eCommerce chatbots works in practice? Let’s take a look at Masha.ai, a shopping assistant chatbot by Facebook Messenger.

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Masha.ai began as an experiment to help customers reduce the amount of time they needed to accomplish their shopping and soon grew in popularity among users. The chatbot, which was designed to assist buyers with shopping options and assist them in placing orders, also provided consultation to its users and sent them news of new stock updates.

The need for eCommerce chatbots

You can save a great deal of time for both your employees and consumers by using a chatbot while also improving your revenue.

Let’s look at the most popular eCommerce use case – placing orders online. As an eCommerce business owner, you must guide customers through the three stages of the customer journey before they make a purchase:

Awareness
Consideration
Decision/Purchase

On paper, the development appears to be straightforward. However, it might be challenging to properly guide online shoppers through all three stages.

So, what do you do here to help prospects along the customer journey so that they end up at the Decision stage more frequently?

Simple. You deploy a chatbot.

These bots can be built to offer a variety of services to prospects while gently nudging them towards the final stage. Here’s how to do it:

Engage during the Awareness stage: A chatbot can go beyond simply luring prospects to your brand and the problem(s) that your product(s) solve. They can even engage them in a unique way that distinguishes your business and prepares them for the next stage.
Inform during the Consideration stage: It is up to you to educate leads to assist them so that they progress smoothly to the consideration stage – a job well-suited to a chatbot. These bots can tell consumers your brand’s story, promote your products, and pique the curiosity of potential buyers as well. These bots can also service customer queries and satisfy the objections of prospects so that they are more ready to buy.
Convert at the Decision stage: Bots can make the purchasing process simpler and more appealing. Furthermore, they can follow up with individuals who were on the verge of converting and encourage those who did purchase to return and buy again.

5 Examples of successful eCommerce chatbots

Chatbots that are well-designed can have a favourable impact on customer experience. The channels on which they are most popular are often the ones with the best user experience and simplicity of interaction. What role do chatbots play in the world of big brands? Let’s take a closer look.

1. Nike StyleBot

Brand: Nike

Industry: Sports apparel, accessories, and equipment.

Major takeaway: Chatbots can improve conversions for retail campaigns.

Key stats:

The average click-through rate (CTR) is 12.5 times higher than other brand campaigns
Conversions improved by 4 times the brand average

In an effort to promote Nike AirMax Day, Nike considered adopting a conversational marketing campaign that utilized a chatbot for the purpose. An AI eCommerce bot, aka the Nike StyleBot, the brand brought its exclusive Nike ID platform to Facebook Messenger. Customers could create their custom shoe designs or go through previously submitted versions for ideas.

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Among other things, users can communicate with the chatbot in natural language and receive multiple-choice responses in the form of text, interactive buttons, gifs, and photos. Of all the functionalities, though, the customized sneaker-creation one remains the most fascinating part of the bot. All you have to do is submit a photograph of your favorite pair of shoes and select a color theme from NIKEiD. The opportunity to play with colors and create their own sneakers all through the chatbot helped make Nike StyleBot a huge hit.

2. Michael Kors

Brand: Michael Kors

Industry: Fashion

Key stats:

Gained more than 350,000 active users
55% decrease in inbound service volume
90% containment rate

Major takeaway: AI chatbots can reduce service volume and improve customer satisfaction.

Michael Kors spent the year 2018 focusing on creating and deploying an improved chatbot for its worldwide audience. The chatbot that came about not only provided existing deals and item suggestions but also supports consumers in making the right purchase by redirecting them to their eCommerce store to complete the transaction.

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Michael Kors’ chatbot also provides FAQ help and reroutes customers to real human agents when the need emerges. The chatbot allows you to learn about the brand’s products. Users can ask the bot their questions and it will respond and keep them interested.

The chatbot not only continues to attract new clients but also accurately responds to more than 80% of consumer concerns and retains them with a 90% containment rate.

3. Sephora Kik Bot

Brand: Sephora

Industry: Beauty and makeup

Key stats:

Achieved a 4.4-25% increase in conversions across platforms
18% of Sephora’s customers now make purchases online

Major takeaway: Chatbots can provide personalized recommendations to foster a unique virtual shopping experience.

Mary Beth Laughton, Sephora’s Senior VP of Digital Marketing, delivered a keynote speech in which she announced that Sephora would partner with Kik Messenger to create a chatbot to provide its clients with engaging shopping experiences. Users could now have one-on-one chat experiences via phone with Sephora’s Kik chatbot.

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If you have ever been inside a Sephora store, you’ve definitely been startled by the vast array of items. This is where Sephora’s Kik bot comes into play. Users can learn about makeup through Sephora’s video clips, special tips, and photo tutorials seamlessly. What’s more, Sephora’s Kik bot also assists users in discovering the items used in makeup tutorials and recommends top-rated items for a specific category.

4. Betty Bot

Brand: GearBunch

Industry: Apparel and accessories retail

Key stats:

Hit $100,000 in revenue within the first month of operation
Increased overall revenue by $5,000,000 in a span of 12 months

Major takeaway: Chatbots can act as personal shopping assistants to improve engagement.

GearBunch is a clothing company established in the United States that specializes in goods with unique patterns. Their highest-selling and most popular products are women’s leggings, but they also sell other apparel like caps, accessories, and shoes. They also designed a chatbot named Betty to assist with sales.

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Betty operates as a personal shopper for users, recommending certain products and even intervening when a user fails to convert. As a consequence, prospective buyers who would otherwise be lost can be reengaged and persuaded to buy. If a customer does not convert after their first encounter with Betty, the bot targets them by:

Offering discount coupons: GearBunch sends out sale notices and coupon deals to its customers. Given that 48% of consumers believe they are more likely to purchase a product sooner than usual to take advantage of a deal, this is a highly beneficial tactic for GearBunch.
Following up on cart abandonment: If a user adds something to their cart on the GearBunch website but does not purchase it, the bot will contact them again. It will send a cart abandonment notification to the consumer via Messenger that also contains a link to take them back to where they left off.

This has aided GearBunch in increasing conversions by offering its users a personalized shopping experience and assisting them in finding the perfect product, increasing the likelihood that they’ll convert.

5. Freddy Bot

Brand: HelloFresh

Industry: Meal-kit industry

Key stats:

Improved conversion rate by 64%
Increased message volume by 47%
Decreased response times by 76%

Major takeaway: AI chatbots can decrease response times to provide improved customer satisfaction and consequently boost conversions.

HelloFresh is a meal kit startup established in Berlin. In 2017, their Facebook page released Freddy, a chatbot, to assist them:

Increasing message volume from prospective buyers
Reducing the time it takes to respond to those messages

Freddy began this exercise by interacting with visitors in an innovative way as they progressed through the Awareness stage. It enticed prospects with engaging, seasonal content to lure them in. For Black Friday 2017 and 2018, HelloFresh made Facebook posts containing a question or a riddle. Whenever a user gave the correct answer, Freddy would contact them over Messenger and send them a promo code. This campaign was so successful in 2018 that it had a conversion rate of 64%.

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The HelloFresh team also gave Freddy a few amusing features in order to offer visitors a distinctive brand experience that would retain them by keeping them interested. Freddy’s Breakfast Quiz, for instance, is the perfect example of an engaging way for users to learn about HelloFresh’s products.

Freddy paid off big time as part of this bot effort in the following ways:

Once configured and deployed, the process of delivering discounts, generating leads, and closing purchases were essentially totally automated, saving the team at HelloFresh both time and energy.
It provided users with a memorable, delightful experience with the brand, increasing their likelihood of conversion and/or re-engagement in the future – an important part of this stage in the customer journey.

To bot or not to bot?

As the chatbot examples above demonstrate, the future presents nearly endless possibilities for eCommerce companies.

Irrespective of the industry you are from, a chatbot may increase your brand’s performance and revenue by attracting new customers, teaching them about your offerings, and improving customer satisfaction by lowering the time it takes to respond to support issues.

So, regardless of which method you adopt, this revolutionary technology can help your brand improve its performance to reap substantial benefits.

By Srushti Shah

Guest author: Srushti Shah is an ambitious, passionate, and out-of-the-box thinking woman having vast exposure in Digital Marketing. Her key focus is to serve her clients with the latest innovation in her field leading to fast and effective results. Working beyond expectations and delivering the best possible results is her professional motto. Other than work, she loves traveling, exploring new things and spending quality time with family. Reach out to Srushti Shah on Twi t ter or LinkedIn

Sourced from Jeff Bullas

In News

4 Major Marketing Trends for 2020 and Beyond

July 8, 2019 No Comments

By Alp Mimaroglu

Do you know what ‘on-SERP SEO’ means in the marketing universe? You’re not alone, but you are missing an opportunity.

Can you believe it’s almost 2020? When I began my marketing career over a decade ago in 2009, I could hardly imagine what I’d be doing today as a marketing leader at an enterprise organization …

… especially with technology. But each year, new and disruptive technological innovations are forcing marketers like me to evolve our best practices. Digital marketing, once the only game in town, has given way to multichannel marketing; and today, we are rapidly approaching the omnichannel marketing age.

And that can be overwhelming: As the rate of marketing innovation continues to accelerate, most organizations are having a hard time keeping up. But the good news is that new ways of doing things bring new opportunities. Here are four major marketing trends I see developing among organizations for 2020 and beyond:

1. Optimizing for on-SERP SEO

Ever hear of zero-click results? You’ve probably seen them. A zero-click result is a search result in which Google automatically provides the answer to the search query in the form of an automated snippet.

For example, if you type in ,“What is the temperature in San Francisco?” Google will automatically provide you a result it generates on its own. You’d actually have to scroll down to see the Adwords results and organic search results.

Google auto-populates search results for much broader queries, as well. Everything from “What is a cryptocurrency?” to “How do I create a marketing funnel?” has a snippet that may prevent a searcher from scrolling down to see more results.

Why is this significant? Because 61.8 percent of search results in Google are now zero-search results, according to data from Jumpshot. As a result, more and more keywords are becoming less profitable.

While the automatic snippet sometimes comes from a website that ranks somewhere on page 1 of the search engine results page (SERP), companies are unsure how to optimize their content so that Google chooses them over anyone vying for the same spot. Needless to say, this is a concerning development for any business that markets or advertisers on Google.

Opportunity: The brand that figures out on-SERP SEO first will have a huge competitive edge.

2. Advertising on smart speakers (and optimizing for voice search)

Another major development in recent years has been the proliferation of smart speakers. In 2018, around 56 million smart speakers were sold to consumers, according to Social Report.

Yet despite the growing number of households asking Alexa, Siri and Google Home questions, smart speaker marketing and advertising opportunities have been scarce. But this seems to be changing.

In 2017, for example, Google Home users noticed that a universal ad for Disney’s Beauty and The Beast began playing shortly after scheduled morning announcements, called flash briefings. These types of ads were rare and infrequent at the time, but are now growing in popularity.

In 2019, we’re seeing better, less invasive, examples of branded advertising on smart speakers. One of the most customer-friendly ways to advertise on smart speakers is to make what’s called a “branded skill.” For example, if you tell Alexa “Ask Patrón for a cocktail recipe,” Alexa will respond with a diverse selection of possibilities, courtesy of the premium tequila maker. This strategy works:. Patrón gets more than 6,000 queries a month for its Alexa skill, according to Digiday.

Opportunity: Try the “branded skill” approach for your branded advertising, for a more customer-friendly tone.

3. Optimizing for voice search

Granted, most brands may not be ready to explore smart speaker advertising just yet. But in the meantime, they should explore optimizing their content for voice search.

According to Google, 20 percent of all Google search queries now take place through voice search. Even more telling is that 71 percent of all mobile users between the ages of 18 and 29 use voice assistants on their smartphones, according to Thrive Analytics.

Needless to say, it probably makes a lot of sense for all businesses to start optimizing their content for voice search, not just big enterprises. There’s a lot of advice from marketing experts on how to do this, and it seems that the consensus is that making content more conversational does the trick.

Opportunity: With most search happening on smartphones, optimize for voice search.

4. More chatbots and, yes, even more content!

Finally, as I’ve explained before, written content isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Not only is it predicted to be the marketing activity that will make the largest commercial impact three years running (according to Smart Insights), but written content is also the main throughput of chatbots, which are expected to see increased usage in 2020 and beyond.

According to a recent study by Juniper Networks, as AI-powered chatbots grow in popularity and sophistication, retailers can expect to cut costs by $439 billion annually and increase sales by $112 billion, by 2023. With numbers like that, it’s not too hard to see why large organizations will continue investing in newer and more helpful chatbots.

But chatbots aren’t useful just for big business. Any business that has a website with traffic can benefit from a simple chatbot that answers the most common visitor questions and helps convert visitors into warm leads.

Opportunity: Chatbots will help you cut costs.

Marketing is changing, and marketers must change with it

When I first got my feet wet in the marketing world, I couldn’t have imagined that I’d be helping run digital marketing transformation programs. But that’s what it takes to stay competitive in the world of 21st-century marketing.

It’s almost 2020; have you looked into any new and innovative ways to spend your marketing dollars? Or how to double down on the marketing channels that work best for your business?

Because if you haven’t, I guarantee your competitors have.

Feature Image Credit: ipopba | Getty Images

By Alp Mimaroglu

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In News

The Enormous Power of AI and Chatbots for …

January 11, 2019 No Comments

By Alice Berg

The bots are here and they here to stay. See, despite the chatbot phenomenon has gained ground only a few years ago, it has since become a full-on revolution worthy of the attention. In fact, by 2024, the bot market size is expected to exceed $1.34 billion. And as you ponder on that, it is also important to note that in 2019, at least 40% of large business ventures will implement the use of chatbots.

Let’s take a look at some AI applications in business in 2019 and beyond.

Chatbots and AI in Customer Service

Presently, bots have already delivered impressive results in customer service. Many businesses have rolled out chatbots to help them in distributing useful information and engaging the customers. For instance, Starbucks uses a system that allows customers to easily and quickly place orders using voice commands. The good chatbot will tell you the total price of your order plus when it will be ready.

Another noteworthy customer service company that uses bots is Lyft. Customers of the service can use online chat (Slack or Facebook) or AI voice chat (Amazon) to request for rides on the service. Lyft’s messenger bot offers the customer vital details. It shows the car model, a photo of the license plate, and the location of the driver.

Here are some practical ways you can use bots in your customer service business:

In the Automation of FAQs

Ask anyone if they read the FAQ section of a website, and you will probably get a hard and repetitive “no.” Rather than customers reading the questions, they would opt to email the company their queries. By leveraging chatbots and artificial intelligence, businesses can use appropriate documents to respond to any relevant questions.

As the Internal Help Desk

When an external customer service agent does not have an answer to a customer’s query, logically they would refer to the internal desk. And more often than not, this desk has to respond to the same questions over and over again. By using bots, internal customer service agents will not have to respond to common concerns.

In Offering Confident Responses

Interactive bots can ascribe a confidence score to their response. And if the score is below the threshold you had set, the bot will automatically contact a live agent and come back with a more satisfactory answer. In turn, the bot through Machine Learning can respond to similar queries in the future.

AI in Online Marketing and E-commerce

Some players in e-commerce have already started leveraging AI, and by the end of 2019, we can expect mainstream acceptance of the same. E-commerce companies such as Sephora, Asos, Sun’s Soccer, 1-800-Flowers, and Nitro Café are some of the companies that are already bringing in dollars in profit by deploying bots.

So, how can e-commerce stores and marketers use bots? For one, they can be used in customer support. Personalization is the key to every marketing strategy. And so far, bots have proven to be quite useful in providing personalized responses as compared to email or social media. People can express themselves much more freely when talking to chatbots. Therefore, to connect more with your customers, you can use a bot to interact with them and build or improve brand loyalty.

Another way e-commerce players are using artificial intelligence is in building interactive sales funnels. Marketers can use AI to group their customers and sell their products or services. A bot offers an opportunity to be dynamic and engaging. If a customer declines to try your service or product, the program can analyze the possible reasons to avoid the cases in the future.

You can also substitute emails with AI. By using a messenger chatbot, you significantly increase your click-through rates as compared to email. Most online marketers are already using chatbots to get information about visitors on their site as pop-up messages.

Some other benefits of using artificial intelligence in e-commerce include recouping abandoned carts, upselling after purchases, generating leads, providing useful AI algorithms for product recommendations, and boosting customer retention.

“83% of people who shop online need support, 56% prefer to get a text message, and 38% of people consider chatbots are even more useful. It is, therefore, good business to invest in a bot as an online entrepreneur,” – noted Andrew Ortiz, marketing specialist at Skillroads.

AI Online Chat in Tourism and Hospitality

Chatbots are already among the top technology trends in tourism and hospitality businesses. And in 2019, there are expected to be adopted on a wider scale. Bots are helping companies in this sector to reduce costs while also providing an excellent user experience. So far, bots have helped tourism and hospitality companies increase customer satisfaction. Some of the firms that have already witnessed the good results of using AI applications include Marriot, Snap Travel, KLM, Waylo, and Wynn.

You can use a bot in your business for different reasons. For instance, you can use it to engage customers before, throughout, and after the trip. Bots can send prospective and existing customers links to personalized content on hotels, destination sites, top restaurants, and so forth. Once a customer has booked a room, for example, a bot can come in to help them check in, request service, suggest activities, order meals from the restaurant, and more. Upon checking out, a bot can assist in collecting feedback and comments from customers.

Bots can also help in personalizing the customer experience. By doing this, they eliminate competition based on pricing. Customers often consider factors such as location and brand along with the price when choosing hotels. A bot can thus assist you to send out personalized packages to your customers and appeal to them. They help you put together all activities that interest the target audience and market the package to them specifically.

Chatbots and artificial intelligence can also be used in anticipating customers. By using predictive analysis, a hotel owner can identify future patterns and send out targeted campaigns to customers. For example, in 2014, Roof Inn used flight and weather data to predict the customers that were likely to face cancellations of their flights. In turn, they were able to send out campaigns on mobile devices to customers in locations that were likely to experience harsh weather. So what can we take from this? Bots can help in anticipating problems and addressing them way before they happen.

Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services and Banking

Financial tech companies such as Fintech are already causing waves in the industry by introducing bots. By 2020, it is expected that 85% of customers will use Fintech Chatbots to manage their bank transactions. Currently, some big banks are already using bots. These include Visa, MasterCard, Chase, American Express, Capital One, PayPal, Barclays, Ally Bank, and Bank of America.

So, how are financial companies using bots? First, Chatbots and AI are helping in smart messaging whereby they warn customers about dangers or other issues affecting their accounts. Second, they can also give you personalized tips on things you can do with your finances. Moreover, they can help you know how you are using your funds, how you are repaying your loans, and how you can save more money. And not to forget, bots are offering customers around-the-clock support and useful insight that improves customer experience.

It is important to note that, bots are expected to save financial institutions over $8 billion per year by 2022.

AI in Human Resource Management and Hiring

One of the big beneficiaries of AI has to be HR and recruiting. Bots have become integral in virtually all aspects of the employee lifecycle from sourcing, to screening, to interviewing, and finally to hire.

Employers are also using bots to boost customer engagement. These systems act as a bridge that connects employees to the existing job systems thus giving them better experience at the workplace. Maya is one of the companies that is automating all the stages of recruitment. SAP, Wade & Wendy, Loka, and SGT STAR are some other firms that are also using bots.

AI in Voice and IOT

Voice-powered assistants are increasingly becoming popular. Alexa, by Amazon, is one of the pioneer voice assistants and accounts for up to 70 percent of the market share. Come 2020; it is projected at least 128 million smart speakers will have been sold.

Final Thoughts on AI for Business

As an entrepreneur, AI is a tech trend to watch out for if you are keen on staying relevant, growing your business, and making a profit. Chatbots are cost-effective, time-saving, and most importantly give your customers a personal touch.

By Alice Berg

Alice Berg is a career advisor, who helps people to find their own way in life, gives career advice and guidance, helps young people to prepare for their careers. You can find Alice on Twitter and Medium.

Sourced from RUHANIRABIN

In News

Chatbots – the ecommerce tool nobody is measuring

May 24, 2018 No Comments

This is a viewpoint from Duncan Keene, UK managing director of ContentSquare.

Conversational commerce offers great opportunities to improve the customer experience. But, the quality of that experience is not a given; behavioural analytics are essential if organisations are to maximise the value of chatbots and drive up both engagement and revenue.

Chatbots are at the centre of the conversational commerce movement and are fast becoming a part of everyday life for most ecommerce brands. They’re changing the way brands interact with their visitors and adoption rates are rapidly growing. Chatbot technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated and while the debate remains contentious about chatbots replacing human customer support agents, they are undoubtedly becoming more ‘human like’ in their ability to respond to a diverse range of commands, questions and even emotional sentiment.

The Holy Grail for many ecommerce teams is to truly understand how visitors behave and navigate through their sites on both desktop and mobile. Brands have been building towards this for over a decade with varying degrees of success; but in terms of analysing the behaviour of visitors when it comes to chatbot interaction, most teams are in the dark regarding the effectiveness of their automated bots. This is a huge grey area for the vast majority of organisations and is doubtless a source of lost revenue.

Aside from price and product, the quality of experience is proven to be one of the most effective ways to compete for consumers’ hearts and wallets: this continued lack of understanding regarding the way consumers interact with chatbots could be extremely damaging to a brand.

Understanding the UX

A poor chatbot experience will cause significant user frustration and risk damaging both brand engagement and perception. Organisations cannot afford to introduce chatbot technology without proactively monitoring and optimising the way in which visitors interact with chatbots from day one.

The ability to measure behavioural analytics is essential to understand how customers are interacting with chatbots across a website. It enables companies to rapidly identify problem areas and ensure they can be addressed, as well as pro-actively enhancing the experience based on trends in user behaviour. For example being able to see a visual map of visitors’ chatbot ‘journeys’ can identify high drop offs and site exit rates at a particular stage of a conversation.

Brands can also explore how specific visitor segments then behave after a bad chatbot experience – do they continue browsing on the site, end up making a purchase or instantly leave? The ability to rapidly identify and remedy such problems will be key to minimising revenue loss and brand damage.

Fully utilising chatbot UX analytics will also enable brands to explore the most effective time to deploy the bot on a visitor’s desktop or mobile journey; while further insight can inform the order of the questions surfaced, the effectiveness of various answers and the way different visitor segments behave when engaging with a chatbot.

OUI.sncf has developed a transactional chatbot where customers can book their train tickets. The bot is available on Facebook Messenger, Google Assistant (and Google Home by extension) and its own website. OUI.sncf is an early adopter of this technology and customers can do everything from searching for specific departure dates to booking season tickets.

We have been working on integrating a UX analytics tool so the digital UX teams can see how customers behave when interacting with the chatbots. This provides valuable insights which are key to improving this aspect of the customer journey.

Pascal Lannoo, digital customer experience director, OUI.sncf, believes conversational commerce is more than just a trend:

“It is a true new personal interface with our customers. We truly believe conversational will be a major channel for additional revenues, increased engagement and a stronger customer relationship.”

He adds that using an analytics tool helps the company understand what users are experiencing with its chatbot, identify pain points and be able to react much faster.

Conclusion

While chatbots are becoming an increasingly mature and widely deployed technology, in reality organisations still have much to learn about the way consumers interact with chatbots to maximise the value of conversational commerce.

It is likely that as consumers become more familiar with day to day chatbot exposure, their behaviour will change and evolve – just as it has with websites over the past decade. The ability to track and understand this evolution will be important for companies to further improve that experience and fine tune the way in which chatbots are introduced within the consumer journey.

By Duncan Keene, UK managing director of ContentSquare.

Sourced from tnooz

In News

5 Social Media Marketing Trends to Watch Out For in 2018

March 5, 2018 No Comments

Make sure to keep an eye out for these five social media marketing trends that are taking over the digital marketing world in the upcoming year.

Did you know that on an average, we scroll through at least 300 feet (90 meters) of content daily? Not every brand’s campaign grabs our attention. It is a difficult and competitive game, as brands are trying harder to grab our attention, while our attention span has been reduced to a mere eight seconds. Brand strategy in the coming years will try more than ever to connect with their audiences across a variety of social platforms. It becomes imperative that your campaign works, more so taking into account the speed of feed. We have curated a list of five trends that we believe will impact your social media strategy in 2018.

Adopt Chatbots

https://giphy.com/gifs/11FyVJOvLleR5S

Gone are the days when chatbots meant unresponsive, hilarious and outright ridiculous software. Today, chatbots can do a lot more than just solve customer issues or order pizza for you. Various studies state that 20% of business content could be machine generated by next year. When we teach machines how to create authentic and engaging stories, the potential for advertising and marketing will become multifold. Chatbots interact with the users and deliver the solutions that they are looking for at the speed of light. Bots are developing to become smarter and empathetic. This engagement feels personal, from the user’s perspective. Chatbots are definitely a must-try social media marketing strategy in 2018 for your business.

Momentary content makes for good engagement:

Snapchat was the early adopter of momentary content. Instagram and Facebook followed suit, owing to the huge popularity of Stories format in a short time. These content are ephemeral and disappear in 24 hours. Brands are creating a whole new digital marketing strategy for their momentary content marketing. Having your stories appear at the very top of your follower’s feed keeps your brand at the top of their mind. Many brands do a live story session with a subject matter expert. This helps the user look out for the brand more so as to not miss an informative session. Ephemeral content marketing strategy is something that you should try in 2018!

Augmented reality boom

Augmented reality blurs the line between reality and computer-generated content by enhancing what we see, and hear. The adoption of augmented reality on mobile phones is a quick and easy way for brands to reach their target audience. Many brands are taking their products right inside the homes of users through exclusive filters. IKEA has released an app called Place which allows users to preview how the furniture would look in their homes before they buy. As more people get warmed up to augmented reality, more people will start to feel like they are missing out on things and want to become a part of it. However, you would also have to check where your strategy fits. Make sure your AR adds value for the user and don’t simply create one for the sake of it.

Influencers are here to stay

Influencer marketing has grown so much over the last two years that the popularity has made it difficult to know whom to trust. Consumers expect genuine reviews from genuine influencers. Brands must seek to work with relevant influencers with industry background or knowledge. Viewers are already bored of seeing brands engage popular influencers who promote teeth whitening and a mobile phone app with the same vigor. In 2018, try and create worthwhile relationships with influencers and maintain them. Influencer marketing is going to become more authentic with brands moving to real experts instead of social influencers.

Make more videos

We are addicted to mobile phones, and we love our videos. In 2017, 90% of the most shared content on social media was in video format. If you are not using videos yet, you will have to quickly start using them and master the art of capturing the user’s attention in the first 3 seconds. Video is the quickest and the closest way you will come face to face with your target audience. As with everything, you need to have a clear strategy before creating a video. Taking advantage of Facebook Live and Instagram Live is also a smart strategy. Ensure that the video is of the highest quality and engaging. You will also have to consider making the best design and make sure to add subtitles to attract users when they are watching with sound off.

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