Social Media Archives - Page 31 of 38

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How brands’ use of online celebrity influencers is maturing

February 16, 2018 No Comments

The search by brand marketers for consumer engagement has led to the continued growth and funding of the social media influencer that has made millionaires of some vloggers and online celebrities the world over.

However, as these seemingly normal people have grown their fame, demand by brands for their audiences has similarly grown and the rules and regulations around their ability to promote products became a problem for marketing regulators. And in that time some have developed that relationship to become the face and voice of individual brands they truly connect with. Examples are endless, from Cole LaBrant and Mackenzie Davis to Maia Mitchell, who have used different platforms and shared their own life skills and insights to develop personal fan bases. And as Facebook changes its newsfeed algorithm to drive more personalised content to the fore, over media content, those organic relationships will become more coveted by advertisers.

According to research by blog discovery website Bloglovin’ 32% of marketers saw influencer campaigns as being essential to their strategies, with 41% admitting to seeing more success from their influencer campaigns over their traditional advertising.

“Brands are learning,” states Peter Willems, head of marketing activities and sponsorship for world footballing body, Uefa, while speaking on a panel organized by FCB Inferno about influencers and his experience of working with them through the launch of a new project alongside freestyle soccer skills channel, F2.

“Brands are more and more trying to put the objective first. We believe in data but we struggle a little bit with specific target groups, especially youngsters, and therefore one of the objectives of working with F2 was to grow our database within that specific target group. We believe at the moment that influencers can help us there.” he continues to explain, adding that sharing the objective with the influencers who are involved in the collaboration is now crucial too.

Willems also cites the comparison over the share prices of Adidas and main rival Nike as examples of how powerful the use of influencers can be in delivering sales, with Adidas having spent years now working with online personalities to achieve global growth and product awareness.

“For me, the biggest problem has to be how you measure success, which is still in its infancy to show what it can bring and what it can do,” Willems continues.

That problem around measuring return on investment is definitely to be an issue that brands entering this burgeoning sector face, agrees Laura Visick, head of social for FCB Inferno.

“There are soft and hard metrics that we can put in place such as reach and engagement which can be given to the influencers themselves to benchmark against their own content and to identify how things are resonating. One of the most important things is upfront identifying what the objective is and articulating what success looks like to ensure that everyone is on board.. there are a huge number of ways to work with influencers,” she explains of the clearly maturing marketing strategy, where one celebrity tweet is not seen as success in itself.

“The ASOS model is a good one. They are building a group of influencers that are engaging with and advocating the brand all of the time, and there are a few campaigns that we are seeing coming through that the moment that are very similar. They are building a group of ambassadors who are engaging with the brand and creating a very authentic relationship rather than a ‘one-hit-wonder’,” she continues, adding that that course helps create more robust measurements.

Using tools to help monitor and achieve return on investment is an obvious route. Verena Papik, director of marketing EMEA of Musical.ly, says it is important for brands to understand why each tool is being used and used to meet specific set goals and objectives.

She also advises that brands and influencers set objectives that see both succeed together.

“When brands and influencers really collaborate together, and they include a tool like Musical.ly, it is to add value to each other. Everyone is getting lost in setting goals and achieving data numbers, numbers of posts; but in reality is actually about adding value to each other,” she explains. “For a long term relationship you definitely have to understand what benefit the other party can actually bring to this partnership.”

Influencer, Bangs Carey-Campbell, fitness editor at Elle Magazine and blogger, advises that brands recognise the importance of not just paying online celebrities to pose with one-off products but to agree an ongoing strategy and to really follow through on the partnership for the most successful collaborations. She also advises that influencers understand the brand’s perspective rather than forcing their own ways of working fully, too.

“It’s about finding that middle ground when creating content. Especially if you are being paid to do that. You do have to understand from a brand’s perspective that they have a certain job description and certain markers that they have to achieve even if they are not 100% clear on them. It can be tough from the creative’s point of view as you have a way that you like to produce your content, but that’s why the brand got in touch with you. It can be tough to find that middle ground but as a creator, if that is the direction that you want to take your brand in, and you want to be more involved with other brands, you have got to be willing to meet in the middle somewhere. It’s not compromising your material. It’s finding a way to work together and find a way to be flexible,” she relays but later offers a reminder to brands that they are working and partnering with individual people, and not to forget that and treat them as a soulless commodity.

There is a long way still to go for the brand and influencer model, and the bubble has far from burst judging by the growing numbers offering their services and audiences to brands, however another piece of advice that all contributors agreed with was that influencers were more successful if they offered authentic insights and had achieved success in the fields their audiences held interests in. Otherwise it was likely that such influence would be fleeting and of little long-term commercial value in tandem.

By Stephen Lepitak

Sourced from THE DRUM

In News

Marketing Survey: Spontaneous Sex is the Best Kind

February 14, 2018 No Comments

Keep this in mind if you are marketing sexy products.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

What does a company that makes sex products do for their annual Valentine’s sales push? They do a survey, to find out how best to market to their customers. And here are the results.

Valentine’s Day, it seems, is starting to suck for everyone. Singles have made it their own anti-holiday, full of memes and proclamations about the commercialisation of the day. But what about couples? Is it all it’s really cracked up to be?

A company called K-Y undertook a survey to find out how to best market their sex products to customers. And it makes for depressing reading. What was once thought to be a romantic and sexy day has become an experience full of pressure and hype. Pressure to buy the right card, pick the sexiest lingerie and have the most mind-blowing sex of your life – and you only have one day to make it all happen.

According to the Love All 365 survey, half of Millennials feel they are missing out if they don’t have sex on Valentine’s Day, but more than 60% of them report that the sex doesn’t live up to the hype. That’s a lot of lead up for a big letdown.

The survey further illuminates the Valentine’s Day tension by revealing that while 82% of people are more likely to have sex with their partner on Valentine’s Day, 83% report that sex is best when it’s impulsive versus planned. Preparing for sex at Valentine’s Day is certainly a faux pas many couples are guilty of committing in spite of the fact that, as the statistics affirm, our preference is for spontaneity.

The good news is that 97% of couples report that having good sex with their partners makes them feel more connected.

“We don’t want couples saving their ‘sexy’ for special occasions, when great sex can and should happen any day of the year,” said Nadja Korner, Marketing Director of K-Y. “Good sex helps strengthen the relationship, so instead of putting all your romantic energy into nights like Valentine’s Day, surprise your partner with that special sexy something on an unexpected night. After all, the essence of pleasure is spontaneity.”

So if you are creating an advertising campaign using a sexy theme, keep the idea of spontaneous sex in mind. Especially if you are targeting Millennials. ■

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In News

Targeting Teenagers with Your ads? Here are the Four Personas to Appeal to

February 12, 2018 No Comments

Academics have identified four distinct personas of social media user that teenagers describe as shaping how they behave on social media.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Young social media users are categorised as either acting like the Geek, the Internet Celebrity, the Victim or the Lurker depending on their levels of online activity and visibility, University of Sussex academics say.

The categorisations are based on interviews the researchers conducted with children aged between 10 and 15-years-old for a new book, Researching Everyday Childhoods, published by Bloomsbury last month.

The interviews revealed many youngsters were increasingly savvy about maintaining their privacy online, often being motivated to protect themselves by unpleasant past personal experiences or negative incidents that affected classmates.

Dr Liam Berriman, lecturer in digital humanities at the University of Sussex, said: “Our research found that concerns about staying safe online created an atmosphere of intense anxiety for young people, even if they had not directly experienced any problems themselves. The young people we spoke to felt a great weight of responsibility for their safety online and were often motivated by the concern of being labelled a victim.”

“While there has been a lot of negative media coverage around teenagers’ interaction with social media, our findings are more hopeful that teenagers are responsible users of social media, are very conscious of the dangers and make considerable efforts to protect themselves against those risks.”

Teenagers navigate between the desire to be praised and recognised online and anxieties over the risk of opening themselves up to criticism and trolling. Among the four personas is the Internet Celebrity who is able to best use the latest trends and increasingly values “visibility of the self” through Instagram, Snapchat, the selfie and YouTube vlogging.

The internet celebrity

But academics also identified how young people are experimenting with and enjoying invisibility online. They describe the Lurker as someone able to avoid peer dramas arising through platforms such as Facebook, whilst still engaging in fun peer activities such as stalking their favourite music bands online.

The lurker

The Geek, meanwhile, uses invisibility to anonymously share and promote their amateur media creations online, such as music videos or fan fiction writing. The academics described how the Geeks’ long hours of labour on projects risked parental concern that their behaviour was obsessive or addictive.

The geek

Professor Rachel Thomson, professor of childhood and youth studies at the University of Sussex, said, “What is distinctive about these active social media users was the entrepreneurial character of their practice, with ‘play’ re-envisaged as a form of economically rewarding work. By gaining an audience, young people are aware that they could capture advertising and corporate sponsorship. The dream is to ‘go viral’, establishing a career as a cultural creator.”

The research also highlights the risks contained in a world dominated by personal visibility with the Victim left to suffer personal exposure and shame following the creation and display of intimate material such as sexting and the loss of control of this material.

The victim

The Victim’s high visibility is often out of their control with their presence and heightened without their consent as private material is extracted from them and exchanged under false premises.

This can vary from the frustration of being tagged in photographs and the creation of an unflattering digital footprint through the activities of others to the more invasive techniques of fraping, where a person’s online identity is hijacked without their permission, or sharing of intimate photographs.

Dr Berriman said, “These examples reveal the impossibility of non- participation in the world of social media. A teenager does not necessarily have to create an online persona, it is something that can be created by others.”

This is great food for thought for anyone trying to catch the attention of teenagers online. You may even need to consider four different approaches when targeting the teen market. Thanks, science!

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In News

Using Social Media in This Way Can Actually Be Good for Your Health

February 12, 2018 No Comments

By Lana Bandoim

Social media has become an easy scapegoat. From creating unrealistic parenting standards to hurting your mental health, social media gets a bad rap. Although comparing yourself to others on these networks can lead to social media envy and depression, there’s a positive side that may benefit you. A new study from the Journal of Consumer Psychology reveals that microblogging on social networks may actually be *good* for your health. Yes, you read that correctly!

Defining Microblogging

The researchers defined “microblogging” as sharing status updates on Facebook or Twitter. However, they didn’t include individual pictures or one or two-word captions. Microblogging has become a way for people to share details about their personal lives with a broader group of friends and family that may not be located nearby. Whether you need to vent about a difficult day at work or need support after getting some bad news, social media is a relatively easy platform to help release your emotions.

Benefits of Microblogging on Social Media

The study found that people who already have social anxiety were more likely to microblog after experiencing negative emotions (those who were lower on the scale of social anxiety tended to DM or reach out to people in-person). So for people who already feel a little isolated from others or may be uncomfortable directly talking to someone about their feelings, social media networks can be a safer space to do so to regulate their emotions.

“When people feel badly, they have a need to reach out to others because this can help reduce negative emotions and restore a sense of well-being. But talking to someone face-to-face or on the phone might feel daunting because people may worry that they are bothering them. Sharing a status update on Facebook or tweet on Twitter allows people to reach out to a large audience in a more undirected manner,” says Eva Buechel, one of the authors of the study.

Buechel warns that relying solely on social media for communication with others is not ideal, but having a platform to express certain emotions is better than not having one at all. So go ahead and let yourself have a Facebook rant every now and then; it really can be good for your health.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Lana Bandoim

Lana Bandoim is a freelance writer and editor. Her work has appeared on Yahoo! News, CNN iReport, The Huffington Post, Lifescript, Healthline, and many other publications.

Sourced from BRIT+CO

In News

You Might be Paying too Much for ads on Google and Bing

February 8, 2018 No Comments

Before you dish out money to bid for a top-ranked ad position on a search engine, you may want to pause and make sure it’s actually going to pay off.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

New research out of Binghamton University, State University of New York suggests that instead of just spending to get that top spot, advertisers should be considering other factors as well to ensure they are getting the best results from their sponsored search advertising campaigns.

Sponsored search advertising involves paying search engines, like Google and Bing, to bid for placements on the search results pages for specific keywords and terms. The ads appear in sponsored sections, separate from the organic search results, on those pages.

“The common belief in sponsored search advertising is that you should buy the top ad position to get more clicks, because that will lead to more sales,” said Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Marketing Chang Hee Park. “But the fee for the top position could be larger than the expected sales you’d get off that top position.”

Park, with the help of Binghamton University Professor of Marketing Manoj Agarwal, analysed data collected from a search engine and created a model that can forecast the number of clicks advertisers could expect in sponsored search markets based on four factors:

Rank in the sponsored listings
Website quality
Brand equity
Selling proposition

The model gives advertisers a way to quantify the expected clicks they’d get by adjusting these four factors, while also taking into consideration how their competitors are managing these four factors. This could enable advertisers to find a perfect blend of the four factors to ensure they are getting the most out of what they are paying for their ad positions.

It may also indicate that they should be spending more money to bolster their brand or website rather than amplifying their offers in top ad positions.

“Using this model, you may find that paying less for a lower ad position while investing more in improving your website is more effective than spending all of that money strictly on securing top ad positions,” said Agarwal.

This applies especially if your competitor has a poorer-quality website, but is spending more than you on securing top ad positions.

Their model found that poor-quality advertisers that are ranked higher in ad positions drive consumers back to the search results page, leading consumers to then click on advertisers in lower ad positions to find what they are looking for.

In contrast, they also found that a highly-ranked good-quality advertiser results in significantly less clicks for all the advertisers ranked below them.

“It’s more likely that in the top position, all advertisers being equal, you’ll get more clicks. But depending on these four factors, as well as the quality of your competitors, you may find that you’ll get more clicks in the second or the third position,” said Park.

“Conceptually, this is not a new idea, but now the model can help determine this by accounting for multiple factors at play at the same time.”

Advertisers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from this research.

Park and Agarwal’s model found that simply reordering the listed advertisers could result in significant changes in overall click volume (the total number of clicks across all advertisers) for search engines.

“Because they often charge on a pay-per-click model, search engines can now simulate which ordering of advertisers in a sponsored search market results in the most overall clicks and, therefore, most revenue” said Park. “Search engines may want to consider charging advertisers in a way that gives the search engine more flexibility in determining the order in which the ads in sponsored sections are displayed.”

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In News

Understanding Facebook Emoticons Can Impact How You Advertise on Social Media

February 7, 2018 No Comments

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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In News

There’s New Rules on Social Media for Singles

February 2, 2018 No Comments

This is fascinating stuff about humans and what they are doing with each other.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

A study released today by dating site Match takes a look at what their members are doing with their dating life. The annual survey of 5,000+ single people living in the U.S. makes for interesting reading. While the results apply to the U.S. market only, the information can be useful for marketers and advertisers selling products into American markets.

So here’s the scoop.

“Singles are fundamentally redefining courtship in healthy and creative ways,” says Dr. Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist and Chief Scientific Advisor to Match. “Some hang out for months before they kiss; some hop into bed immediately; and many begin with the traditional first date. Courtship is expanding – and all these tactics are proving successful for launching love. Moreover, the first date is taking on important new significance: where it used to be just a casual look-see, now the first date often signals the official beginning of a romance. And singles want to define every step toward love – with a host of new rules on social media. Most exciting to me, 72% of singles would date ‘across the aisle.’ For most singles, romance is more important than politics. I’m not surprised. The human brain is built to love.”

THE FUTURE OF DATING

Today, more than half of singles have tried online dating or dating apps. In fact, in 2017, the internet was the #1 place where singles met their last first date.

Friends? Sex? First Dates? Three paths to romance: Today’s singles are looking for something serious (69%) and they have an array of ways to get there.

1) 40% build the friendship first, known as hanging out, where they skip the sex and haven’t gone out on an official first date.

2) 55% of singles have had a Friends with Benefits relationship.

3) 44% of singles have gone out on an official first date. And many singles pursue a combination of all three strategies at one time or another.

Hanging Out: “Hanging out” has become a new path to find companionship and 29% of singles who have been hanging out with someone has had that relationship turn serious. Many singles believe that a wider array of behaviours are appropriate when hanging out than when on an official first date, including:

Splitting the bill is more permissible when hanging out (48% approve versus 29% who approve of this on an official first date)
Inching toward physical intimacy. Only 37% of singles say kissing is OK when hanging out, while 64% believe this is appropriate on a first date.

Friends with Benefits: 55% of singles have had a Friends with Benefits relationship and 45% have had one turn into a committed relationship. However only 19% actively seek out Friends with Benefits relationships (27% of men and 12% of women), and 88% of women and 73% of men say “it just happens.” Most are friends first, before the benefits (71% of men and 80% of women). Most singles agree that:

Close friends of your Friends with Benefits are off limits to date (62%) and 69% of singles agree that close friends can’t be told about your relationship.
One must disclose all other current sexual partners: 61%
Birth Control or Condoms must be used: 92%

The First Date. 44% of singles went on a first date in 2017 and today, there’s new significance placed on this occasion. Singles have stricter rules about what is appropriate on an official first date compared to when in a Friends with Benefits relationship or Hanging Out, including:

Asking you out 2-3 days in advance is appropriate first date behaviour (54% approve compared to 27% approve of asking you out the day of the date).
Having a first date at a nice restaurant is more acceptable on a first date (59% of singles approve compared to only 22% believe fast food is OK for that first date).
Perfect Ending: Half of singles approve of just a peck on the cheek while on the first date and 64% of singles approve of kissing.

The More, the Merrier: 40% of singles have dated more than one person at a time. And it’s not just Millennials. Gen Xers are 129% more likely and Boomers are 224% more likely than Millennials to have dated more than one person at a time. It’s not just men either. More women (69%) than men (51%) have dated several people simultaneously. And few singles (19%) who had dated multiple people at the same time do it because they want to have sex with multiple partners.

New Etiquette on Social Media: Nearly two-thirds of singles use social media at least once a day, although women use it more than men (72% of women; 59% of men). But there are rules emerging:

Before the first date – Create Boundaries: Less than one-fifth of singles say it’s OK to friend someone on Facebook (19%), follow them on Instagram (17%), add them on Snapchat (19%), or Like a photo or post (20%) before the first date.
After a few dates – Start to be more Social: 36% of singles say it’s time to start following a date on Instagram; while another 33% say they’ve already started; 75% of singles are also friends on Facebook and 76% are direct messaging.
Committed Relationship – Making it official: 52% say it’s acceptable to friend their friends, 66% say it’s time to make it Facebook official (although 13% say they’d never do this), 66% say it’s acceptable to change your profile picture to a photo of you two; and 64% say changing your phone screen to a couple photo is fine when in a committed relationship.

DATING ADVICE FROM WOMEN

At a time when there’s increased focus to respecting boundaries and paying closer attention to what people want, new data explores how the modern single can become a more conscientious dater.

How women want to feel on a first date: The #1 way women want to feel on a date is comfortable (79%), followed by happy (35%) and liked (27%).

What women say is appropriate on a first date: On a great first date, 94% of women want their date to compliment her appearance, to be waiting for her when she arrives (90%), to hug her (82%), kiss her on the cheek (71%) and insist on paying the bill (91% of women approve of this however 45% think it’s appropriate to split the bill).

What women say is NOT OK on a first date: Checking your phone regularly on the first date is the #1 turn-off for women with only one in 10 women thinking this is appropriate, while 1 in 4 men think this is OK. Other turnoffs include:

Drink #3. More than 80% of women think it’s not appropriate to have more than 2 drinks on a first date.
Rude to wait staff – 38% of women find this a turn-off.
Arriving more than 15 minutes late (1 in 4 men think this is OK first date behaviour).
Asking a woman for a bite of her food/drink – 58% of women don’t like this.

GOOD SEX, BAD SEX & ROBOT SEX

What makes good sex? “Americans are having long overdue conversations about people’s diverse sexual lives, respect, pleasure, and consent,” says Dr. Justin Garcia, gender studies endowed professor and research scientist at The Kinsey Institute, and Scientific Advisor to Match. “Singles of all ages, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, and genders report that an enthusiastic, caring, and communicative partner are the key ingredients for a pleasurable sexual experience, which further emphasises that affirmative consent and mutual respect and engagement is paramount to good sex.”

Good (Consensual) Sex: Regardless of gender or sexual orientation, 83% of singles regard a caring partner and enthusiastic partner as the top ingredients of good sex, followed by communication (78%), being a good kisser (76%) and achieving an orgasm (75%).

Bad (Consensual) Sex: 82% of singles consider too much talking, no passion (74%), little movement (63%) and bad kissing (62%) as the major don’ts of sex.

It Gets Better Over Time: The best age for sex? Single women are having the best sex at age 66 and Men at 64.

“Mostly Hetero“: 62% of singles are interested in some form of a threesome (81% of males and 47% of females) and 39% of straight singles are interested in having a threesome that includes someone of their own gender.

Bad Sex Bell Curve: Satisfying sex rarely happens spontaneously. So while 14% of singles say bad sex during the first time is a deal breaker, the majority of singles expect partners to develop “good sex” after a few rolls in the hay. However, women are 70% less tolerant of bad sex than men.

Robogasms: There has been much discussion about the threat of robots taking our jobs, but what about our places in the bedroom? One in four singles would have sex with a robot, yet nearly half of singles would consider it cheating if their partner had sex with a robot.

THE TRUMP EFFECT

Love Trumps Politics: Even in this intensely-charged political climate, singles put love first. The overwhelming majority of singles (72%) would cross party lines to date. And only 10% of singles view being a Republican as a deal breaker while only 5% regard Democrats as a no-go.

How’d You Vote? It Doesn’t Matter: In 2017 singles were more apathetic about a partner’s voting habits than they were in 2015, before President Donald Trump was elected. This includes a potential partner who:

Did not have an opinion on key issues. Only 13% of men and 19% of women regarded this as a deal breaker in 2017; while in 2015, 32% of men and 37% of women regarded it as a deal breaker.
Did not register to vote. Only 12% of men and 19% of women regarded this as a deal breaker in 2017, while in 2015, 21% of men and 29% of women thought this was a deal breaker.
Did not know who was running: Only 23% of men and 35% of women regarded this as a deal breaker in 2017, while in 2015, 34% of men and 39% of women regarded this as a deal breaker.

Political Civility…Coping with Different Views: In 2017, the largest percent of singles (45%) said they would try to understand the other’s perspective; 26% of singles changed the subject; or politely told their date they didn’t agree (41%). Only 5% of singles would leave immediately.

Don’t Ask, Do Tell: 54% of singles think the current political climate makes it more important to find out about a potential partner’s overall political views. But when it comes to the first date, less than a quarter (23%) are willing to ask. Only 16% of men and 18% of women think the current political climate makes them more likely to talk politics on the first date. Most avoid hot button topics–suggesting that, for singles, love trumps politics.

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Small Businesses Use Social Media Instead of a Website, Despite Risks

February 1, 2018 No Comments

A new survey indicates that 1 in 5 small businesses use social media in place of a website. Many assume a website is cost-prohibitive and may not consider the risks of not having one.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

More than one-third (36%) of small businesses do not have a website, according to the websites section of the fourth annual Small Business Survey conducted by Clutch, a B2B research firm. One in five small businesses (21%) selectively use social media instead of a website in an effort to engage customers.

The survey indicates that small businesses consider cost a bigger concern than the potential repercussions of not having a website.

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram attract small businesses by cultivating a highly engaged user base. However, relying solely on social media may be a risky strategy for businesses.

“Whenever you put all of your eggs into someone else’s basket, it’s risky,” said Judd Mercer, Creative Director of Elevated Third, a web development firm. “If Facebook changes their algorithm, there’s nothing you can do.”

Facebook recently announced changes that potentially increase the risk of using social media in place of a website. The social media platform plans to prioritise posts from family and friends over posts from brands.

This new policy may make it more difficult for small businesses to reach their audiences through social media. As a result, websites are expected to regain importance among businesses – as long as cost is not considered an obstacle.

Among small businesses that do not currently have a website, more than half (58%) plan to build one in 2018.

Some Small Businesses Say Website Cost is Prohibitive, But Others Cite Costs of $500 or Less

More than a quarter (26%) of small businesses surveyed say cost is a key factor that prevents them from having a website. However, nearly one-third of small businesses with websites (28%) report spending $500 or less.

Small businesses may not be aware that some web development agencies offer packages that defray costs by dividing website construction into multiple phases or sliding rates for small businesses. “You don’t necessarily need to launch with your first-generation website,” said Vanessa Petersen, Executive Director of Strategy at ArtVersion Interactive Agency, a web design and branding agency based in Chicago. “Maybe just start small.”

Mobile-Friendly Websites Becoming Standard
Businesses that do have websites are moving en mass to mobile friendly ones, the survey found. Over 90% of respondents said their company websites will be optimised for viewing on mobile devices by the end of this year.

In addition to the 81% of company websites that are already optimised for mobile, an additional 13% that say they plan to optimise for mobile in 2018.

Clutch’s 2018 Small Business Survey included 351 small business owners. The small businesses surveyed have between 1 and 500 employees, with 55% indicating that they have 10 or fewer employees.

To read the full report and source the survey data, click here.

In News

Our Obsession With Social Media is Changing the Plastic Surgery Industry

January 29, 2018 No Comments

Wanting to look good in selfies is causing a boom in cosmetic surgery.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

An organisation called AAFPRS is the world’s largest association for facial plastic surgery. It represents more than 2,500 facial plastic and reconstructive surgeons throughout the world. And they have just released their annual survey, which shows what we are all doing to our heads to look better.

Like it or not, selfies have had a huge effect on how we perceive and project ourselves – in front of the camera and off.

Selfie Awareness Is Here To Stay

For better or worse, “selfie-awareness” is more than a fad. In 2017, 55 percent of facial plastic surgeons saw patients who want to look better in selfies (up 13 percent from 2016). First identified by AAFPRS members more than three years ago in the annual survey, the trend continues to gain steam and transform the facial plastic surgery industry.

Says AAFPRS President William H. Truswell M.D., “Consumers are only a swipe away from finding love and a new look, and this movement is only going to get stronger.”

And people aren’t at all ashamed of their surgeries. In fact, they are documenting the procedures and sharing them online to seek solidarity and company throughout the process. From public healing diaries to A-list and Insta-celebs baring all on their social media accounts, nothing is off limits when it comes to sharing one’s enhancements and aesthetic edits. From lip injections to chin implants to ear lobe reduction, social media users of 2017 have no shame in sharing their road to self-confidence.

Don’t Mention Age

Surgery is no longer a hush-hush topic. But talking about age is. In 2017, the phrases “anti-aging” and “you look good for your age” were taboo. There is now a focus on health, vitality and empowerment rather than a number.

“This emerging segment is knowledgeable about high tech skincare and sun prevention and starts with facial injectables before they turn thirty,” says Dr. Truswell. “As more Millennials come of age and gain disposable income for aesthetic treatments, our members have seen steady growth in the demand for cosmetic procedures.”

In fact, the average number of procedures performed by AAFPRS members has increased 25 percent since 2012. More than half (56 percent) of AAFPRS members saw an increase in cosmetic surgery or injectables with patients under age 30 last year and over four-fifths of treatments in 2017 were cosmetic non-surgical procedures.

No matter the treatment, a natural-looking outcome is paramount for patients, with 33 percent stating a fear of looking unnatural as their top concern.

The Working Environment

A full 57 percent of facial plastic surgeons reported patients’ desire to stay relevant and competitive at work as a major driver in the decision to have a cosmetic treatment. Advancements in non-invasive and combination technologies are allowing men and women to refresh their appearance with little to no downtime taking them away from work.

Some of the most requested procedures were tailored to these specific lifestyle concerns. Eyelid procedures to look less tired were reported as a rising trend by 73 percent of members along with combined non-surgical procedures by 72 percent of members.

Predictably, Botox remains the most popular minimally invasive procedure for both women and men, followed by fillers and skin treatments.

As for our noses, we all want them changed, apparently. In surgical trends, rhinoplasty leads the way year after year (performed by 97 percent of surgeons in 2017) followed by eyelid surgery, called blepharoplasty (95 percent) and facelifts (88 percent).

Botox was ranked first for women followed by rhinoplasty. However, for men it was reversed with rhinoplasty as the top procedure followed by Botox.

The number of hair transplants in the sample jumped by more than 538 percent in that time span. Non-invasive fat reduction and Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are newer procedures that facial plastic surgeons are also seeing requested more often.

“PRP is the next frontier, and facial plastic surgeons are eager for more data to illustrate what it can do for skin rejuvenation and how it can be used in combination with lasers, energy based devices, and microneedling and even hair restoration.” says Dr. Truswell.

So it looks like none of us will be aging gracefully. We’d better get good with our local plastic surgeon, seeing as it doesn’t look like this plastic surgery boom will be ending anytime soon.

In News

The Media is Now the Least-Trusted Institution Globally

January 25, 2018 No Comments

So, which citizens trust their media the most? And the least?

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Let’s start with the USA. The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust in the U.S. has suffered the largest-ever-recorded drop in the survey’s history among the general population. Trust among the general population fell nine points to 43, placing it in the lower quarter of the 28-country Trust Index. It is now the lowest of the 28 countries surveyed, below Russia and South Africa.

The collapse of trust in the U.S. is driven by a staggering lack of faith in government, which fell 14 points to 33 percent among the general population, and 30 points to 33 percent among the informed public. The remaining institutions of business, media and NGOs also experienced declines of 10 to 20 points. These decreases have all but eliminated last year’s 21-point trust gap between the general population and informed public in the U.S.

“The United States is enduring an unprecedented crisis of trust,” said Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman. “This is the first time that a massive drop in trust has not been linked to a pressing economic issue or catastrophe like the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In fact, it’s the ultimate irony that it’s happening at a time of prosperity, with the stock market and employment rates in the U.S. at record highs. The root cause of this fall is the lack of objective facts and rational discourse.”

Conversely, China finds itself atop the Trust Index for both the general population (74) and the informed public (83). Institutions within China saw significant increases in trust led by government, which jumped eight points to 84 percent among the general population, and three points to 89 percent within the informed public. Joining China at the top of the Trust Index are India, Indonesia, UAE and Singapore.

For the first time media is the least trusted institution globally. In 22 of the 28 countries surveyed it is now distrusted. The demise of confidence in the Fourth Estate is driven primarily by a significant drop in trust in platforms, notably search engines and social media. Sixty-three percent of respondents say they do not know how to tell good journalism from rumour or falsehoods or if a piece of news was produced by a respected media organisation. The lack of faith in media has also led to an inability to identify the truth (59 percent), trust government leaders (56 percent) and trust business (42 percent).

This year saw a revival of faith in experts and decline in peers. Technical (63 percent) and academic (61 percent) experts distanced themselves as the most credible spokesperson from “a person like yourself,” which dropped six points to an all-time low of 54 percent.

“In a world where facts are under siege, credentialed sources are proving more important than ever,” said Stephen Kehoe, Global chair, Reputation. “There are credibility problems for both platforms and sources. People’s trust in them is collapsing, leaving a vacuum and an opportunity for bona fide experts to fill.”

Business is now expected to be an agent of change. The employer is the new safe house in global governance, with 72 percent of respondents saying that they trust their own company. And 64 percent believe a company can take actions that both increase profits and improve economic and social conditions in the community where it operates.

This past year saw CEO credibility rise sharply by seven points to 44 percent after a number of high-profile business leaders voiced their positions on the issues of the day. Nearly two-thirds of respondents say they want CEOs to take the lead on policy change instead of waiting for government, which now ranks significantly below business in trust in 20 markets. This show of faith comes with new expectations; building trust (69 percent) is now the No. 1 job for CEOs, surpassing producing high-quality products and services (68 percent).

“Silence is a tax on the truth,” said Edelman. “Trust is only going to be regained when the truth moves back to centre stage. Institutions must answer the public’s call for providing factually accurate, timely information and joining the public debate. Media cannot do it alone because of political and financial constraints. Every institution must contribute to the education of the populace.”

Other key findings from the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer include:

Technology (75 percent) remains the most trusted industry sector followed by Education (70 percent), professional services (68 percent) and transportation (67 percent). Financial services (54 percent) was once again the least trusted sector along with consumer packaged goods (60 percent) and automotive (62 percent).
Companies headquartered in Canada (68 percent), Switzerland (66 percent), Sweden (65 percent) and Australia (63 percent) are most trusted. The least trusted country brands are Mexico (32 percent), India (32 percent), Brazil (34 percent) and China (36 percent). Trust in brand U.S. (50 percent) dropped five points, the biggest decline of the countries surveyed.
Nearly seven in 10 respondents worry about fake news and false information being used as a weapon.
Exactly half of those surveyed indicate that they interact with mainstream media less than once a week, while 25 percent said they read no media at all because it is too upsetting. And the majority of respondents believe that news organizations are overly focused on attracting large audiences (66 percent), breaking news (65 percent) and politics (59 percent).

It’s a brave new world, and we as marketers must realise that placing any marketing cash with distrusted media outlets could mean a very big waste of our advertising spending power.