Social media thrives on interaction; are you doing all you can to engage your audience?

Did you know that Playbuzz.com gained more than 50 million unique monthly visitors within just 10 months of launching the site? How did they do it? Two words: Interactive content!  Social networks have been around for quite a few years now, and they are buzzing with activity more than ever. Making it in the unforgiving environment of virtual social hoops and loops continually inspire action and engagement. Since your e-survival depends on it, we have put together a list of seven creative ways to improve your social media engagement.

1.   Ask Questions (Creatively)

The best and most straightforward way to strike a conversation is to ask questions. However (it being so obvious) you need to be creative. The secret to success is not in the question but in the way you deliver it to your audience! For instance, if…

Chart of the day: People skip video ads because the content doesn't resonate with them

It's a familiar sight now, when watching online videos there is either a video ad before or during. Research carried out by MarketingSherpa found what we'd expect: people just want to watch videos without interruption. But in a world where we need advertising to fund content, there has to be a balance. The next highest answer was that the content doesn't resonate. We've talked before in our guides and blogs about personalisation and how the more personalized the content the more it resonates with customers. Perhaps video ads should be relevant to the specific video content? The research shows people don't want their videos to be interrupted. Facebook recently changed their video advertising to show ads throughout the videos. This research suggests that it may cause more frustration. Respondents…

Agencies are among the most enthusiastic adopters of new marketing automation tech

With the launch of another mind-boggling Martech Landscape by ChiefMartec.com (now deservedly renamed the Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic or Martech 5000), it’s safe to say that there is an increased appetite for marketing automation technology. This category has been growing steadily over the past years and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, it’s so important that marketing automation has now become the top attribute when choosing an ESP, above cost and user-friendly interface according to the recently-published 2017 Email Industry Census.

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What this shows is that most brands and agencies no longer consider marketing…

How to Combine Precision and Empathy for an Effective Effort

To successfully engage potential customers during the sweet spot of their buying journey, marketing leaders and teams need precision and empathy more than automation tools and available media. Programmatic creative — technology that uses data (precision) to automate and accelerate routine, repetitive components of developing an ad — garners plenty of attention these days. The concept enables marketers to quickly create multiple online ads in different formats for different devices targeted to different audiences. It hasn’t, however, automatically triggered effective customer connections and results. That feat requires a little effort, creativity, and lots of empathy on the part of marketers, with that last component being a possible springboard to turn accumulated data into a story that resonates with customers.

Mix Insights and Emotions to Tell a More Compelling Story

Programmatic creative technology is a vital resource in taking the guesswork out of digital advertising.…

How you can stand out in a world dominated by Facebook and Google

Just because you believe something to be true doesn’t make it so. It’s one of my favorite adages, and it has some correlation to what’s going on with our friends over at Facebook and Google regarding digital advertising. I fervently believe this duopoly, as it’s now called, will be impenetrable by other paid media platforms.

But is this true?

These two powerhouses, according to some reports, account for nearly 85 percent of all digital media spend. All other platforms are collectively scrambling for the table scraps. Take Twitter, for example. As far as mobile goes, it controls just 2 percent of the total ad spend — down from 2.6 percent in 2016. The good news is that brand marketers can find efficiencies by focusing on just two platforms with…

6 Social Media updates from the past week

Spotlight story: Facebook Messenger Ads

Facebook has announced that ads will be pushed out on their messenger platform. According to Facebook's chief financial officer, Dave Wehner, the company was about to hit the limit of how many ads it can get into users news feeds. This move to open Messenger for advertising means there is greater capacity for Facebook to serve more ads to more users. Facebook began testing this feature last year with brands in Australia and Thailand, before fully expanding it globally. According to Techcrunch, later this month, a small percentage of users will start seeing ads in the Messenger app’s home tab. These ads will appear between the threads in your inbox, not in your conversations. By clicking the ad you will be taken to the company’s website or their Messenger chatbot. Find out more about Facebooks new Messenger Ads in our…

Facebook will start pushing more adverts out to users due to running out of space in news feeds

Facebook has announced that ads will be pushed out on their messenger platform. Meaning Facebook will be pushing out more ads to its users. Messenger ads have been rolled out because Facebook's chief financial officer, Dave Wehner, admitted that the company was about to hit the limit of how many ads it can get into users' News Feed. Facebook began testing this feature last year with brands in Australia and Thailand, before fully expanding it to businesses globally. According to Techcrunch, later this month, a small percentage of users will start seeing ads in the Messenger app’s home tab. These ads will appear between the threads in your inbox, not in your conversations. By clicking the ad you will be taken to the company’s website or their Messenger chatbot. …

Chart of the Day: Brand Personality on Social Media can influence a customer's decision to purchase a product online.

The use of Social Media in marketing strategies has become increasingly visible. It is important now more than ever to create a positive brand personality online since consumers spend 30% of their time on social media. First, ask yourself why you use Social Media - to raise brand awareness? To resolve customer service issues?

Reasons to use social media marketing:

To raise brand awareness and the company's reputation To resolve customer service issues Improve your organic search ranking and drive traffic to your site To engage with your customers and hear their feedback Or, do you have something else in mind?

Consumers want an honest brand personality on Social Media

In a recent study by Sprout Social (Q2 2017), they found that consumers preferred a more authentic and honest brand personality (86%) over snarky comments or…

How to harness the power of vertical video

Remember the emergent days of online video? Those primitive, pixelated clips were laughable at best. Social media is one of the biggest catalysts changing the video landscape, especially when it comes to creating new outlets for content distribution. With faster internet and smarter phones redefining how video content is consumed, millions of films that were created for the big screen have been repurposed for streaming on handheld devices. Like Hollywood films, today’s digital video ads still have lights, a camera, and some action, but the stage is now your smartphone, and the audience is everyone. Interactive content on Facebook helps people and brands engage with their fans, Snapchat filters make sharing videos more fun, and newcomer app Periscope allows people to share a glimpse into their world. In short, social media has completely upended the way we view and create videos — and one major factor…

Neuroscience reveals how you can nudge your customers into converting

Dr. David Lewis, neuroscientist and author of The Brain Sell, delivered a fascinating keynote speech about customers’ brains when they buy at Ecommerce Conversion World 2017 in March. Here are 3 fascinating insights about your customers and suggestions on how to apply them to your website to increase conversion rates.

Fact 1: People Notice What's Different (or the Same!)

While this may sound contradictory, Dr. Lewis suggests that there are actually 4 factors that make a person stand out in a crowd. There’s something inherently different about the person, such as exceptional beauty or a striking feature The person has made themselves look different, such as with tattoos or colored hair The person looks familiar to you, like someone you know in real-life or from a film It’s someone you’re specifically looking for …