Snapchat and Instagram battle over the future of online video sharing - marketers need to utilise the platform most relevant to their audience.
Marketers aiming to attract a millennial audience need to implement and actively engage with social media messaging apps to reach this active yet time-poor target audience. Millennials are those aged between 18 and 35 who have grown up as digital natives where they access technology at the touch of a button. Their time-poor nature means visual communications and particularly video is the format that can capture their attention quickly and effectively.
Video as a Marketing Tool
Video has become the single most important online format. According to Cisco it is predicted to account for 80% of all global consumer internet traffic in 2019. As a result, marketers have to constantly look at ways at integrating video into their social media marketing mix to keep up with the pace of…
Social media strategy and planning essentials
This is part 9 of my Smart Insights 12 part social media series. In the last part we looked at reporting for social media; in this blog, I discuss what tools you can use to help plan and manage your social campaigns.
Please note that this list isn’t exhaustive. There’s a wide range of tools available, and each person I know uses a different mix depending on business needs. This blog aims to show you the types of tool you need to evaluate; you should then do your own research to find out what gives you're the functionality you need.
Measurement tools
Let’s start by getting the fundamentals put in place. To do social media intelligently, you need to underpin your planning and decision making with accurate data.
Google Analytics campaign tracking
My first port of call is always web analytics + URL campaign tracking. I’m going to…
In its latest update to investors Twitter reported poor user growth now with a total of 313 million monthly active users, the social network added only 3 million users in the past three months and added a total of 11 million new users since the first quarter of 2015.
This chart clearly shows how the growth rate of Twitter is lagging behind that of its competitors. Instagram recently passing the 500 million user mark while WhatsApp and most definitely Facebook are way ahead in terms of user growth.
Data: Company reports; China Internet Watch (compiled by Statista)
Source: www.statista.com
ComScore research has also shown that Facebook dominates both social media by audience and engagement, with 63% of the 18-34 age gap audience accessing the app on a monthly basis and 15 days on average per month that the app has been accessed. Both the ComScore…
Cadbury smashed its campaign targets and enhanced engagement by betting half its digital budget on Snapchat
With pressure on ad budgets, deciding where to spend your marketing dollars is as tricky as ever. When it comes to FMCG brands, TV is still often seen as the safe bet, the 'no one gets fired for buying IBM' option. But primetime TV slots are expensive and harder to quantify in terms of value when there are only ratings measures without direct measures of response via engagement or clickthrough rate or conversions as available for online marketing. For this reason and to reach audiences who are online, many businesses who convert their customers online (eCommerce, SaaS, news sites, gaming etc.) have moved the majority of their ad budgets to digital formats in recent years. It's easy to see why. You can track links, measure traffic, work out the conversion rate and thus establish what…
Periscope proves persistently more popular than Meerkat according to iOS rankings
Live-steaming has created a whole new type of social app, which has already started to have a major impact on how people are using social. Facebook has even sought to co-opt the trend by introducing it's own live streaming feature.
Brands have plenty to gain from live streaming; whether it's streaming a conference, a new technology launch or a behind the scenes video. When considering which live streaming app you should use when starting out with live streaming, the market has a clear answer for you- Periscope. It has been at the top of iOS ranking among social apps since it launched last year, and has pulled far ahead of it's rival Meerkat.
Source: Atlas
Data Source: Apple iOS app store rankings
Date: July 2016
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The latest figures comparing the popularity of social sign-in on different platforms
Social sign-on continues to evolve. The latest reports from social sign-in platforms Gigya and Janrain show that Facebook continues to dominate social sign-in but is plateauing, whilst Google plus is starting to pull out of its long-term downward trend. The other players maintain their smaller shares of the market.
Facebook dominates social sign on when it comes to mobile applications, but the picture is more diverse when it comes for media/publishing websites.
For more information on latest social sign on figures see the latest report from Gigya.
Original post - February 2013: Google+ introduces Social Sign-In
I've explained before why I see social sign-on as a significant…
How Facebook and Twitter have evolved in 2015
Welcome to the first series in an analysis of the biggest things that have happened so far in the world of social media. 2015 has proved to be a busy year where many new features and tools were brought to life with the intention of helping marketers and advertisers get better results.
This post will specifically focus on reviewing how Twitter and Facebook have been working on the expansion of their current features, while in part two I will review other social networks.
There is a strong focus on providing marketers with a set of new advertising features in order to turn paid content into a better experience. New toolkits are also added with the intention of improving video creation and promotion. We have also seen an expansion of analytical tools which broaden the understanding of how to create better campaigns that drive business results. Amongst…
It's maybe not the social networks you expect
13-17 year-olds are the 'digital natives' and with 92% of teens are online on a daily basis, if you are looking to advertise to this market, it pays to know what social platforms they are using.
So which social media platform is the most popular with teens?
The 2015 update of Mary Meeker's Mobile marketing 2015 analysis shows that it's certainly not the case that Facebook isn't used by the teenage audience, but across this heterogeneous age group, Instagram and Snapchat are growing while Facebook and Twitter have declined in popularity between 2014 and 2015.
A recent study from Pew Research Centre highlights that over 70% of teens are using Facebook and these 13-17 year olds are still sharing content across more than one social network. The findings show that Instagram and…
Check out these simple tools and apps for social media management to cut down time and increase effectiveness
As a social media marketing professional, there are certain questions that will constantly be on your mind. What are people saying about your product? Are they talking about it? Do they even know about it? Fortunately, these questions are no longer lost in the wind thanks to the wide variety of social media platforms online marketers have at their disposal.
To drive engagement on social media it is imperative that you consistently share interesting, relevant and fresh content with your audience. But sifting through crates of information on the web is frustrating and time-consuming for companies. Unfortunately, it’s not an exercise most startups can afford to forgo.
Amidst the ever increasing noise on social media, catching the customer’s eye is hardly easy. Your businesses must consistently maintain visibility. Understanding the behavior of your customers and…
Understanding your social media site integration and improving its impact on your inbound marketing
Social media is now a truly established inbound marketing channel, with capacities to re-engage a customer base and influence huge audiences. So much so, that links, buttons and widgets that connect websites to profiles are ubiquitous. Indeed, there is barely a site hosted without them.
I think it is safe to assume that the vast majority of people will consider it best practice to have them on websites, yet how many of us think consciously about their potential impacts on a website?
Creating distraction and exit points without motive
Linking to social media accounts from websites can, of course, be hugely advantageous for a business. However, having scoured websites from a wide range of sectors, it is noticeable that many do not use them in ways that channels users sensibly.
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