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Understanding Facebook Emoticons Can Impact How You Advertise on Social Media

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Not all “likes” are equal.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

While the trusty “like” button is still the most popular way to signal approval for Facebook posts, a computer model may help users and businesses navigate the increasingly complicated way people are expressing how they feel on social media.

In a study, researchers developed a social emotion mining computer model that one day could be used to better predict people’s emotional reactions to Facebook posts, said Jason Zhang, a research assistant in Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology. While Facebook once featured only one official emoticon reaction – the like button – the social media site added five more buttons – love, haha, wow, sad and angry – in early 2016.

“We want to understand the user’s reactions behind these clicks on the emoticons by modelling the problem as the ranking problem – given a Facebook post, can an algorithm predict the right ordering among six emoticons in terms of votes?” said Zhang. “But, what we found out was that existing solutions predict the user’s emotions and their rankings poorly in some times.”

Zhang added that merely counting clicks fails to acknowledge that some emoticons are less likely to be clicked than others, which is called the imbalance issue. For example, users tend to click the like button the most because it signals a positive interaction and it is also the default emoticon on Facebook.

“When we post something on Facebook, our friends tend to click the positive reactions, usually love, haha, or, simply, like, but they’ll seldom click angry,” said Zhang. “And this causes the severe imbalance issue.”

For social media managers and advertisers, who spend billions buying Facebook advertisements each year, this imbalance may skew their analysis on how their content is actually performing on Facebook, said Dongwon Lee, associate professor of information sciences and technology. The new model – which they call robust label ranking, or ROAR – could lead to better analytic packages for social media analysts and researchers.

“A lot of the commercial advertisements on Facebook are driven by likes,” said Lee. “Eventually, if we can predict these emoticons more accurately using six emoticons, we can build a better model that can discern more precise distribution of emotions in the social platforms with only one emoticon – like – such as on Facebook before 2016. This is a step in the direction of creating a model that could tell, for instance, that a Facebook posting made in 2015 with a million likes in fact consists only 80 percent likes and 20 percent angry. If such a precise understanding on social emotions is possible, that may impact how you advertise.”

The researchers used an AI technique called “supervised machine learning” to evaluate their newly-developed solution. In this study, the researchers trained the model using four Facebook post data sets including public posts from ordinary users, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, and showed that their solution significantly outperformed existing solutions. All four sets of data were analysed after Facebook introduced the six emoticons in 2016.

The researchers suggest future research may explore the multiple meanings for liking a post.

“Coming up with right taxonomy for the meanings of like is another step in the research,” said Lee. “When you click on the like button, you could really be signalling several emotions – maybe you agree with it, or you’re adding your support, or you just like it.”

And we as marketers know, the more you understand how your market feels, the better you can tailor your advertising to them.

 

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Buyer Behaviour: Love Trumps Budget When Your Customer is Buying Sentimental Items

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People will always pay more when being led by the heart and not the head.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Brides and the bereaved beware: You, like many shoppers, may have a tendency to reject thriftiness when your purchase is a matter of the heart, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

People are reluctant to seek cost-saving options when buying what they consider sacred – such as engagement rings, cremation urns, or even desserts for a birthday party – for or to commemorate loved ones. The paper, published in Judgment and Decision Making, is the first to examine the implications of this phenomenon.

Even when they identify a less expensive alternative to be equally desirable, people choose the more expensive of two items. They also avoid searching for lower prices and negotiating better prices when the goods they’re buying are symbolic of love.

“People’s buying behaviour changes when they’re making purchases out of love because it feels wrong to engage in cost-saving measures,” said Peter McGraw, associate professor of marketing and psychology at CU. “People abandon cost-saving measures when it comes to sentimental buys because they want to avoid having to decide what is the right amount of money to spend on a loving relationship.”

The findings highlight how wedding, funeral and other industries can exploit consumers, said McGraw.

In one part of the study, which involved nearly 245 participants, the researchers asked attendees at a Boulder wedding show about their preference between two engagement rings. The attendees nearly always chose the more expensive ring when deciding between a more expensive ring with a bigger carat and a less expensive ring with a smaller carat.

“It’s important to be aware of this tendency not to seek cost savings because, over a lifetime, consumers make many purchases that are symbolic of love — whether for weddings, funerals, birthdays, and anniversaries,” said McGraw. “The loss of savings can really add up and put people in compromising financial situations.”

So how can we apply this to a marketing situation? If you are selling goods or services for sentimental events, play up the quality, not the price.

 

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Most Businesses Invest in Social Media Marketing to Support SEO Strategy

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Adapting SEO priorities to the customer journey and balancing organic versus paid search shape SEO strategy in 2018, according to new survey.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Social media marketing is the leading SEO service priority among businesses in 2018, according to new research from Clutch and Ignite Visibility. Over 90% of businesses that invest in SEO also invest in social media.

The survey of 303 marketing decision-makers reveals that most tend to shape their SEO strategy based on the SEO services they prioritise and the challenges they face.

Top SEO Priorities 2018

Two factors impact the direction of a business’ SEO strategy: The shifting customer journey and whether the business focuses on paid search or organic SEO services.

Organic SEO services include:

  • On-site optimisation – web design, site infrastructure, blogging
  • Off-site optimisation – content marketing, social media marketing

Over 40% of businesses that invest in SEO focus on organic services, compared to 19% that focus on paid search.

Businesses that focus on organic SEO are more likely to use in-house staff for general marketing, such as content marketing and social media. Over three-fourths (76%) of businesses that focus on organic services use in-house staff.

On the other hand, businesses that focus on paid search are more likely to hire an SEO company. More than two-thirds (68%) of businesses that focus on paid search hire an SEO company, compared to just 37% that rely on in-house staff.

Top SEO Priorities 2018 (PRNewsfoto/Clutch)

“Paid search complements organic SEO by providing feedback on keyword research, audience targeting, and effective ad copy,” said Eythor Westman, head of paid media at Ignite Visibility.

How businesses adapt to shifts in the customer buying journey is another factor that shapes SEO strategy. The rise of mobile search drives changes to the customer buying journey.

SEO experts agree that customers use their mobile devices to learn about a company through social media and site content before converting to make a purchase.

“Now, somebody Googles a keyword. Then they click on a top ranking term like, ‘SEO company.’ They read our blog and click around social media,” said John Lincoln, CEO of Ignite Visibility. “Then, they convert three weeks later after they feel comfortable with you.”

In response, businesses prioritise SEO services that facilitate the customer journey. Along with social media (20%), businesses rate creating content to earn links (15%), and mobile search optimisation (14%) as their top SEO priorities.

Read the full report here.

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Advertising is Getting Good with the Gays

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The advertising industry seems to have the power to shape society’s view of gay people. And it is going hard on proving it. 

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

The past 15 years have seen a dramatic increase in the presence of gays in advertising. Every ad seems to be getting good with the gays.

The media has transformed the stigmatised stereotype of gays into a new, socially desirable image of stylish consumers with high-end taste.

This marketing strategy affects the way gays understand themselves and influences the meaning of gayness for society in general, explains Wan-Hsiu Sunny Tsai, assistant professor of advertising at the University of Miami School of Communication, in a study published by the Journal of Advertising.

“The findings illuminate the influential role of advertising in informing and shaping personal identities and highlights the often ignored socio-political dimension of advertising, Tsai says. “In other words, when marketers argue that no matter who they target, ‘it’s just business,’ their marketing messages actually have broader, cultural impacts on the minority community.”

According to the study, five specific strategies emerged within these minority consumers to interpret the messages catered to them:

  • Gay men accepted the perception of “higher disposable income of gay male households” and transformed material consumption into a definition of self-worth. “I was on many consumer panels because I fit the profile of gay men who have disposable income and travel a lot,” one participant said.
  • Participation in the mass market was equated to membership in mainstream society. “We got money. We contribute to the corporation. We contributed to big business. We got families. We are part of the mainstream now,” a participant said.
  • Targeted advertising was identified as an essential step in achieving social political inclusion. “Consumer rights and citizenship, civil rights are intricately connected. And when we express our identity as a consumer, that reinforces and strengthens our identity as a citizen,” a participant said.
  • Perpetuating problematic depictions of gays as effeminate men or lesbians as “sexualized femme” was tolerated in the interests of social inclusion. “I was ambivalent when watching this commercial. It’s playing up the stereotype. But for me, if you can see gay people on TV, it’s positive,” one participant said.
  • Participants were willing to give up something of their subcultural identity for the sake of total acceptance in society. “When we are truly accepted in the society, we will just blend in… even that might mean sacrificing our uniqueness,” a participant said.

The next logical question is, how do you target your particular message to the gay community, if you want to attract their business? We await the next study…

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How Facebook’s Changing Algorithms are Impacting Publishers

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A study based on 33,000 videos posted by almost 300 publishers shows that for publishers, the struggle is real.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Social video creation platform Wochit today reported that Facebook’s de-prioritisation of publisher and brand content is already having a negative impact across video metrics.

The annual report  builds on insights published in the company’s quarterly indexes, informing brands, media companies and publishers of video trends and how to best leverage them to drive success.

So here is what you need to know:

  • Views are declining: Following significant increases in the first half of the year, declines of 8-15 percent in the second half point to the impact of changes in Facebook’s newsfeed.
  • Square is the winning format: As mobile is increasingly becoming audiences’ first screen, this format is proven to have a significant advantage over other aspect ratios, particularly in the increasingly important “comments” metric, which averages 5 times the average received by non-square video.
  • Video’s “1 percent” persists: The 1.2 percent of videos that get more than 1 million views continue to have a disproportionate level of engagement, receiving 38.7 percent of total views and 58.3 percent of total shares across all videos. While a higher number of page followers boosts the chances of virality, the number of smaller publishers achieving this level of success proves it’s not the only factor.
  • Longer videos get better results: Increasing in number but still a minority, videos longer than 90 seconds have considerably higher per-video metrics, receiving 52.1 percent more shares and 48.2 more views on average. This trend bodes well for the monetization opportunities of Facebook mid-roll, only applicable to videos of at least this length.
  • Average engagement per video is highest across all metrics in Latin American countries, with nearly triple (269.6 percent) the shares, 253.3 percent more reactions, 166.8 percent more views and 134.3 percent more comments.
  • All video is not created equally: Some content is simply more viral-ready, more a function of effective production techniques and compelling storylines rather than the result of artistry.
  • “In the Know” titles are popular but don’t perform: While video titles purporting to show something the viewer NEEDS to know are common, these videos receive considerably fewer views (15-70 percent fewer!) than average.

“While we’re only seeing the headlines about Facebook’s latest changes now, our 2017 report shows the impact is already setting in, and this makes it even more important for brands and publishers to know and act on trends,” said Wochit CEO Dror Ginzberg. “And let’s remember that, even with algorithm changes, Facebook is second to none when it comes to opportunity to reach and engage with audiences. The best way to capitalise on that is to focus on delivering great video storytelling that will create meaningful engagement with your audience. This was true before Facebook’s announcement, is relevant across platforms as well as owned and operated sites, and it will remain true after it.”

 

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Could Social Media Be The Ultimate Customer Service Channel?

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Could social media be realising its true calling as the ultimate customer service channel?

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

According to a new study released today, overall satisfaction is highest when customers ask questions or make requests via social media.

The study was conducted by J.D. Power, surveying people who were customers of mobile network operators. Said Peter Cunningham at J.D. Power, “Personalised feedback, rapid-fire response time and interaction with live humans are some of the primary factors driving the highest levels of customer satisfaction with customer service. And, increasingly, customers appear to be finding that formula through alternative channels such as social media. That doesn’t mean call centres and brick-and-mortar stores are no longer relevant; in fact, personalised assistance via phone, app and face-to-face are still critical to customer satisfaction.”

Following are key findings of the 2018 studies:

• Social channels will become front line for customer service

Among customers who ask a question or make a request, overall satisfaction is highest in the social media channel (838 on a 1,000-point scale) and the app channel (835). By contrast, overall satisfaction scores average just 797 among customers who handle these requests on the phone with a representative.

• The human touch still matters

Satisfaction tends to be much higher when customers use a channel that provides personalised feedback. For example, assisted care satisfaction is 26 points higher than unassisted care satisfaction (819 vs. 793, respectively), and satisfaction is 824 among customers who ask their question in the store channel vs. 797 among those who speak with a rep over the phone. Additionally, among customers who ask a question or make a request through their carrier’s app, overall satisfaction is 845 when they think they are interacting with an actual person vs. 800 when they think the system is automated.

• Video plays a key role

The channels with the highest first-contact resolution incidences are online videos (92%) and mobile app to research information (90%). Among customers who view an online video from their service provider, 34% say they “definitely will not” switch to a new carrier in the next 12 months vs. 21% among those who use the phone automated response system.

• Not-so-immediate gratification via email

While social, app-based and face-to-face customer support are prized by consumers for their personalised, rapid response, the average customer service response time via email is 32 hours.

Could Social Media Be The Ultimate Customer Service Channel? Soon, perhaps, it may be the ONLY service channel.

 

 

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Advertising Influences Millennials to Buy More Often Than Baby Boomers

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Millennials are more likely than older generations to try a new brand or product after seeing or hearing an advertisement. And who says advertising doesn’t work! It totally, totally does.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Millennials are more likely to make purchases after seeing or hearing advertisements compared to Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and other older generations, according to a new survey from Clutch, a B2B ratings and reviews firm.

About 81% of millennials surveyed – those ages 18 to 34 – made a purchase after seeing or hearing an advertisement in the last 30 days. Baby Boomers and other generations over age 55, however, were not quite as influenced by advertising: Among those consumers, 57% made a purchase as a result of an advertisement.

These findings illustrate millennials’ higher tendency for “impulse buying” when it comes to new products and brands.

“Baby Boomers have already gotten set in their ways in regards to the brands they prefer, so an ad might not convince them to buy something,” said Rob Albertson, managing director of Bandwidth Marketing. “There’s an aspect of spontaneity in millennials that would cause them to try something.”

Millennials also trust advertising mediums more than older generations; 64% trust TV and print advertising, and 51% trust online and social media advertising. About 54% of Baby Boomers trust TV and print advertising, and just 27% trust online and social media advertising.

Millennials trust advertising more because they have more resources available to help them discover if a brand’s message is misleading.

“Baby Boomers come from a time when there were a lot fewer regulatory bodies in advertising,” said Julie Wierzbicki, account director at advertising agency Giants & Gentlemen. “For example, cigarettes used to be advertised as good for you, and we found out that these brands we thought were great were lying to us. Millennials feel like brands have to be honest because there’s so much more information out there, and if you’re doing things in a fraudulent or misleading way, it’s going to eventually come out.”

Consumer income is also a factor in advertising influence. The study found that 83% of consumers with a household income over $100,000 were more likely to make a purchase as a result of an advertisement, compared to 68% of consumers with household incomes of less than $49,999. This is due to a higher disposable income and more spending power.

Overall, advertisements influence 90% of consumers in their purchasing decisions, and consumers—regardless of generation—are most likely to make a purchase after seeing or hearing an advertisement on TV and in print.

Consumers view traditional advertising mediums – TV, print, and radio – as the most trustworthy, while they view online and social media advertising more skeptically.

The survey shows that advertising continues to influence consumers in their purchasing decisions, and businesses should advertise in order to reach consumers.

 

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Practical Tips For Integrating Video Into Your Marketing

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By Mandy Pennington

It’s a beautiful thing when you find a marketing strategy that people want more of. Every day, we’re shown thousands of advertising messages, most of which we’re blind to. But believe it or not, 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers – a key statistic that should be your call to action for adding video into your strategy.

Video has changed our browsing experience for good. YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of total internet users, and is one of the most frequently used search engines. More video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years. We create video narratives of our lives through vlogs or dedicated YouTube channels.

Why Video Matters

Sure, people may want to see more video content, but what value does it really offer? Research and case studies show that video can aid in fundamental brand activities like building trust, establishing credibility, and generating engagement.

Have you ever felt frustrated by a key message not sinking in with your audience? Video may be the tipping point. Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. Anyone who sells a product with some assembly or explanation required can appreciate the importance of information retention in their customer base.

The benefits are clear – and it doesn’t hurt that 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.

How Can I Add Video To My Marketing Strategy (Without Making Ads)?

Enriching your user experience with videos that aren’t just ads is all about reaching people in their micro-moments, or the moments when we turn to our devices for answers when we want to know something, do something, buy something, or go somewhere.

By understanding a user’s intention when engaging with your marketing (i.e. those learn, do, go, or buy activities), you can create videos that add value to their experiences and lead them down the path to conversion. In fact, according to Visually, adding video to a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more, and home page videos can boost conversions by 20%.

The key to incorporating video into your marketing strategy is to get intimately familiar with:

  • What is visually interesting and valuable to your audience
  • What people are searching for
  • What the intention is behind the searches

Here are a few ways to apply those insights in a practical way to improve engagement, conversion rates, audience perceptions, trust, and social reach.

Q&A Sessions: No matter what industry you’re in, there are bound to be questions. Video Q&A sessions with members of your team or industry thought leaders can be a great way to reinforce your position as a knowledgeable and trustworthy resource for information and guidance when your customers need it most. Plus, it can drive additional search traffic to your content properties by reaching searchers when they have a query in mind. For example, Warby Parker has a help-related YouTube channel that gives video answers to frequently asked customer service questions while also capturing search traffic from prospective customers looking for answers.

Product Demonstrations/How Tos: Your customers are looking for ways to use and understand your products or services, so why not meet them at the moment when they start their research by creating a video that can show what you do or what you offer in action? Explainer and product demonstration videos can be a powerful marketing tool when you have a product that pays to show in use or in greater detail, especially if you can find a unique way to present the information. Just take a look at Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” Series which showed the power of the product by introducing unexpected – and funny! – use cases.

Testimonials: Adding video testimonials to your site or social channels can also be a powerful strategy by tapping into buyer psychology. Demonstrations of concensus or endorsement by others with like qualities or characteristics through social proof can instill a greater sense of trust and be a powerful persuasion tool. As a case study, ChowNow uses professionally-produced video testimonials to sell their benefits while showing real customers in real situations. Don’t just tell, show.

Social Media Storytelling: Social platforms have evolved with user’s growing demand for more video content. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter have video features to enrich the experience of participating in an online community. Brands can easily post videos to their social accounts or even livestream as a way of adding context to their brand stories. Buzzfeed does this effectively by launching its own original shows/programming, distributing across social, and livestreaming to its already engaged audience. Video content is frequently shared throughout social channels to increase reach – and it works. Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.

Education & Conversation: Sometimes you have a customer base that wants to continue learning. Why not make video content to educate and start a dialogue? Take wine, for instance. Wine Library TV understood that shopping for wine is a highly personal and customizable experience that can be improved by giving customers a bit more information about what they’re shopping for and how to make better choices. Branded video content can also create and redefine conversations that are important to your audience in ways that can start entire movements.

Cross-Promotion: Besides enriching your website and social media efforts, video can be a helpful tool for content cross-promotion. Authors often use video teasers or trailers as a way to sell audiences on their latest book. Conferences share clips or recorded sessions to sell the value of the event prior to tickets going on sale. Publishers turn blog posts into video presentations. Musicians make music videos or lyric animations to further the reach of their latest releases. Try incorporating video trailers, teasers, and previews as a way to give your content additional mileage while generating interest through a new interpretation of your work.

A Few Best Practices To Keep In Mind

  • Have a goal in mind before you film and align the video content you create with stages in your customer journey.
  • Making a testimonial? Be genuine and focus on the benefits.
  • Add transcripts to your YouTube video description, landing pages, or blog posts where videos are embedded so that your video content is more accessible for search.
  • Include captioning as part of your recorded video to ensure a better user experience, as 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound.
  • Suit the video to the distribution platform, especially on social.
  • Boost your video’s adoption through supporting it with paid advertising. Don’t rely simply on organic views to get your content seen.
  • Keep it short and sweet. Videos under 90 seconds see an average retention rate of 53%.
  • Practice product video mindfulness. As you consume video content, ask questions about whether or not it’s clear, tells a story, or adds value to the brand. Don’t copy, but learn from what other brands have done successfully through video.

Tools To Get Started

Starting with video can be as simple as using your built-in laptop, tablet, or smartphone camera. With technology at our fingertips, it’s never been easier to make and share a video.

But there are some tools that you can use to make, edit, share, and measure videos in your online marketing efforts:

And of course there are live streaming or social in-app solutions too! Key principles to keep in mind no matter which tools you choose to use: make sure the video looks good, sounds good, is accessible, and offers solid content. As Brightcove reports, 62% of consumers are more likely to have a negative perception of a brand that published a poor quality video.

But beyond these DIY solutions, you can also look to partner with a trusted video production company who understands your marketing goals and can collaborate with you. There’s nothing wrong with seeking out help from the pros.

Measuring Video Success

View stats may seem great, but are they really telling you what’s happening with your video content?

Measuring the effectiveness of your videos is a must-have for any marketer and there are lot of ways you can approach the subject of KPIs. For some brands, awareness and hit stats are all they want to see, but if you really want to see the impact of the content you’re producing, you have to look at engagement stats. What’s the average view look like? Where do people stop watching? How do they interact with the links or transcripts? What actions do they take on the page after watching the video?

Google BrandLab has a great resource on how to determine the right KPIs for your video marketing efforts by aligning measurement with marketing goals.

Ultimately, it’s all about being mindful and attentive to how video adds value to your overall marketing strategy – and there’s a lot of value to be enjoyed by brands who can incorporate video effectively.

By Mandy Pennington

Mandy (Boyle) Pennington is the Director of Internet Marketing at Net Driven. She is also a published freelance writer, lecturer at Marywood University, and co-founder of NEPA BlogCon. She enjoys theater, not taking herself seriously, and all things food.

Sourced from searchenginepeople

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Don’t Use Cute Kids While Advertising Your Charity – Your Campaign Will Backfire

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If you are selling clothes, use all the cute kids you want. But if you are advertising a charity, you need a different kind of kid.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

When it comes to asking a stranger for help, being young, pretty, and the opposite sex greatly improve your odds. But when it comes to children suffering from the likes of natural disaster, poverty, or homelessness, a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that less attractive children receive more help than their cuter counterparts.

“Many charitable organisations use children in advertising and promotional materials. Our research examines how the facial attractiveness of the children in these campaigns affects the empathy and help received from adults,” write authors Robert J. Fisher and Yu Ma (both University of Alberta).

Too cute. Next!

In a series of four experiments, participants were asked to visit fictional websites where they were asked to consider sponsoring a child from a developing country. The authors then systematically varied the levels of attractiveness of the children featured on the websites as well as their levels of need.

Results showed that when the children were portrayed as having a severe need (for example, orphaned as a result of a natural disaster), their facial attractiveness had no affect on helping responses. In contrast, when their need was not severe, participants felt less compassion and sympathy for an attractive child compared to an unattractive child in an identical circumstance.

Also too cute. Go home!

The authors explain that this negative effect of attractiveness occurred because participants inferred that the attractive children were more popular, intelligent, and helpful than their less attractive peers. They also observed this negative effect despite the fact that the children in the studies were obviously too young to care for themselves.

These results offer practical implications for how children are portrayed by disaster relief agencies, children’s hospitals, and other charities. “We believe our research offers a positive and hopeful perspective on human behaviour because it suggests that when a child is in obvious need, even strangers can feel compassion and offer aid irrespective of the child’s physical appearance,” the authors conclude.

Fundraisers and marketers for charities, take note!

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