Social Media Essentials: Catch up with the latest updates in social media

Welcome to our weekly summary of what's happened in social media this week. This week we look at Twitter revoking verified accounts, we update you on the top Instagram stats for 2018 and LinkedIn rolls out its Career Advice mentoring program.

Facebook rolls out news feed ads with direct links to messenger experiences

For the first time ever, Facebook announced that businesses will be able to drive targeted audiences to Messenger and keep them engaged with new tools.With Messenger Platform 1.3, businesses can promote their Messenger experiences with news feed ads that directly open Messenger conversations. According to Facebook, this new ad format: Can combine the powerful audience targeting and selection capabilities of ads on News Feed, and the identity and canonical nature of Messenger conversations. We believe that as examples such as Absolut Vodka, Tommy Hilfiger and Activision…

Chart of the Day: Hot email marketing skills

Email marketing - the job where you can wear many hats (even the weirdest ones)

I don't need to tell you, my little email geeks, that email marketing is a very diverse role. No one ever starts out to be an email marketer, they are from many different backgrounds or skills. For example, I was a developer first and then my situation changed and ultimately fell in love with email marketing.

The hot skill for 2018

We all have a more dominant skill and with each year the demand for those skills change. In my chart this week, we have three big changes between 2015 and 2017. The more dominant skill is Marketing at 49.2%, which has grown in demand since 2015. Next is Development, which has the largest increase to 26.2%. The third has had…

Having trained hundreds of people over the years on how to get the most from LinkedIn, today I’ve shared some quick tips which you should find immediately actionable.

LinkedIn has had some bad press over the last few years. Too many recruiters, too many people spamming it with innocuous posts and too many people treating it like a more personal social network, which it simply isn’t. My experience of the platform has been far from that reality. I’ve had nothing but success from leveraging this corporate stage but I believe that has far more to do with my mind-set towards it and how I use it for the B2B business environment I operate in. [si_guide_block id="82119" title="Download FREE Resource – 10 common social media marketing mistakes guide" description="Our actionable guide to avoiding common social media marketing mistakes to help you avoid the pitfalls that limit engagement with your target audience."/]

Just a recruitment…

A new type of content discovery platform which allows professionals to improve their knowledge and keep track of quality content in a single feed via a Google Chrome new-tab extension

It’s Monday. Your inbox shows a gazillion emails and most are from blogs you’re subscribed to. You already know that about 90% of them aren’t that relevant to you and that some 9% of them are lack of added value. You pick up your mobile and scroll through the Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter feeds. While scrolling, you see a post about the latest content marketing technique. This post already has 400+ likes, some are your colleagues, but while you skim through the article you say to yourself “why have all these professionals liked this article? It’s full of basic fluff”. These days we are consuming our content mainly through blog subscription and social media. We…

What can we expect from the wearables market in 2018? These are the top wearable statistics to inform your 2018 technology and media innovations strategy

The wearable technology market is a hot topic of discussion among many marketers. But it still feels unclear for some brands how they can adapt their marketing strategy to this new trend. According to a report from Juniper Research, wearable advertising spend is estimated to reach $68.7 million by 2019. opening up new opportunities for marketers.

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Chart of the day: New research reveals that bloggers are getting results across a few metrics, whilst most are blogging less often than daily

Over 1000 bloggers took part in a survey for Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media, they were asked a range of questions about how often they blog, the types of media they use, blog promotion and whether blogs are delivering results for them. As in the B2B world (and even in B2C) blogging is such a commonly used technique, which often gets a lot of time from marketers, but does it work? The results are positive. Bloggers are blogging less often, most bloggers publish weekly rather than daily, but bloggers are spending more time than ever writing blog posts. The message "quality over quality" certainly seems to be true. Bloggers are not publishing loads of content for the sake of it, there is a clear focus on quality. Better, longer…

Facebook video ads really could be the silver bullet that creates a huge bottom-line impact

For as long as I can remember, marketing professionals have been proclaiming that Facebook is dead. A little extreme, right? Well, continually declining reach, boosted posts and ads that deliver untargeted fans and traffic, and the need to throw big money to generate any meaningful ROI have all contributed to this frustration.

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To be fair, as social networks go, Facebook is harder to crack than some of the others. There are some Facebook marketing hacks you can test that will certainly help, including: Tagging contributors, fans, and experts in posts to extend reach Commenting and liking as your page, not your personal account The use of visual…

Chart of the Day: Which personalization techniques are most popular?

There are now many website personalization services available (our listing identifies 28), but how popular are they? This new research is useful to businesses considering adopting website personalization since it explores how many businesses are using different types of personalization. The benefits of personalization are compelling, regardless of the type of business. Once set up, it can automatically deliver an improved customer experience and increase conversion by recommending relevant products and customers to nudge visitors along the customer journey. Such recommendations services are well-known and widely deployed in ecommerce, especially retail, but there are options to use them in other sectors like travel and financial services. Our article identifies 4 categories including B2B, where personalization services can recommend the 'next-best content' to nurture prospects.

How Widely Adopted Are Different Personalization Techniques?

Across all companies surveyed, more companies are using personalization for email marketing (72%)…

8 ways by which AI will affect comprehension of data, analyze and utilize data as well as shaping the development of digital marketing tools

Earlier this year, Toyota’s usage of AI for its Rav4 Marketing Campaign got the jaws dropping and the eyes widening. IBM’s Watson had struck again – a Machine Learning (ML) program that used an algorithm to generate ad scripts! The campaign is an example of how Toyota agency-of-record Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles is using what it calls "creative programmatic." The agency wanted to connect the Toyota's Rav4 crossover to the favorite activities of individual consumers but in an unpredictable way. So, Saatchi fed Watson the world's top 1,000 activities - like biking, dancing, and cooking - and asked Watson to pair two activities that had low probabilities of being matched. The agency then used the pairings to create 300 unique videos, which targeted at users on Facebook and Instagram. This is…

Why these 10 ecommerce features are essential to your online marketing efforts

Choosing the best ecommerce platform for your needs is difficult. You've got dozens of choices, and it can be hard to tell the difference between the truth and the marketing hype. When you factor in your shopping list of features to consider and the parameters specific to your situation that go into the decision, it's easy to get overwhelmed, which makes it even easier to make the wrong decision. And the stakes are high. [si_guide_block id="79186" title="Download FREE Resource – 10 ecommerce mistakes" description="Explore the top 10 ecommerce mistakes and how to avoid them. Ecommerce is a fast-moving environment and we actively keep our mistakes up to date so you’re always making the most of your marketing"/] Making the wrong decision can leave you spending way more than necessary to set up your online shop with all of the features you need,…