Key social media trends for 2019 that every marketer needs to keep an eye out for and include in their digital marketing strategy, based on predictions from leading industry experts
Social media is ever-changing. Be it new platforms, different consumption habits or varied forms of communication, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp etc. are always coming up with innovative features or affordances that add different dimensions to the platforms. These changes not only help users engage in a number of different ways with their favourite brands online but also give marketers a chance to captivate their audiences through an array of tools and tactics.
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Learn how to find relevant content for sharing as an education provider
Many educational providers have decided to host a blog and become more involved in social media in order to enhance their online presence. Needs are somewhat similar whether they're involved in higher education like Universities and colleges or other levels.
With this comes the realization that blogs require close monitoring, constant up-keep, and interesting content.
People often ask us about the ways education bloggers (be it a student, alumnus, or faculty member) can feed their blog and social media profiles on a regular basis. Admittedly, this can be difficult at the beginning, but with the right tools and practices, the entire blog experience can be easy and really enjoyable.
Six tips to find and create relevant content for your education blog
Tip 1. Curate content that interests you
Identify blogs or sites that explore topics that matter to your students and affiliate organizations. As…
Techniques to improve your results from your LinkedIn Ads
Marketers using LinkedIn’s Advertising Campaign manager often achieve poor results when testing the Ad platform for engagement and impact. Below are 3 reasons and possible solutions why marketers often fail with LinkedIn advertising:
1) Understanding LinkedIn’s context and the intent of users
The purpose behind LinkedIn is to provide an environment which “connects the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful’ Where marketers very often fail on LinkedIn Ads is pushing out solutions and products expecting similar clicks and conversions to that of Google Adwords where users are actively searching for product information with a high intent to purchase.
Fundamentally, this is because on LinkedIn you are often reaching customers at a difference stage in the buying cycle where users are making professional connections, having conversations with their networking on groups rather than purchasing services directly.…
Amazon's recent data breach, Taco Bell's fun marketing campaign, Facebook funding new journalists, Instagram launching new shopping features and Pinterest creating new shopping tools with key US retailers
The last week has seen some positive changes across social media platforms, aimed at making the shopping journey simpler as more people head to social for purchase inspiration.
With Instagram adding yet more new features to help brands make the most of tagged products and Pinterest proving its relevance in the world of online shopping, brands definitely need to start looking at their social media shopping strategy.
As well as these updates, this week's news roundup takes a look at Amazon's data breach and Facebook's latest announcement that it will be funding the training of new British journalists. We also explore Taco Bell's latest marketing campaign to announce it's first London location.
Find out more about five of the biggest stories from this week:
…
Facebook's new smart speaker, LinkedIn's re-built Pages, Twitter cracking down on "suspicious" follows, $100 billion worth of digital ad spend and the UK increasing festive ad spending in 2018
Social media platforms have made some interesting announcements over the next month. From re-building a part of the platform from the ground up to help improve engagement to launching smart speakers. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all in our weekly news roundup once again.
We're also exploring the success of digital ad spend so far this year, showing that traditional forms of advertising are taking a back seat to social media and video.
Of course, we can't get away from taking a look at Christmas advertising, especially with the John Lewis advert being released this week. It seems that Christmas ad spending in the UK is getting a boost as the high street hopes to increase footfall.
Find out more by reading five of the…
One of the most underrated aspects of digital advertising is ad placements. Advertisers tend to think that choosing an advertising channel is where their campaigns begin and end. Unknown to them, knowing where to place ads can help determine how strong or how weak of an impact a certain ad will have on audiences.
Before we delve into the power of Facebook as an advertising platform, here are some fast facts and figures from the 2018 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.
72% of marketers use Facebook ads.
34% of survey respondents say Facebook ads allow them to measure their return on investment (ROI).
Marketing teams’ top reasons for advertising on Facebook vary from brand exposure to website traffic and lead generation.
Since Facebook ads are helping many businesses in various aspects of marketing, it might be wise for you to turn to Facebook as a channel…
Chart of the Day: Snapchat and Instagram dominate teens' favourite social media platform
Piper Jaffrey has released the results from its twice-annual survey of US teens into their favourite brands, websites, and social media platforms. The results show that Snapchat and Instagram have been pulled away from their competitors in the minds of the American youth.
Snapchat has held the top spot since the Spring 2016 survey, and now has a dominant 46% of people stating it's their favourite platform. Instagram has seen a major upswing from the Spring 2018 survey, moving from 26% to 32%.
Interestingly, Instagram's growth in popularity hasn't encroached on Snapchat, but it seems to have made a huge impact on Twitter. Facebook's status as 'most popular social platform' has more than halved from 12% (in Spring 2015) to 5%, while Twitter has plummeted from 21%…
Chart of the Day: Facebook still used for group events - Instagram top for following brands
Much has been made of Generation Z abandoning Facebook for the likes of Instagram and Snapchat. While Facebook has reportedly been dropping in popularity among teens since 2015, the Center for Generational Kinetics has conducted research in how Gen Z use different social apps and suggests it still comes top for some aspects of their social lives.
The CGK's State of Gen Z report found Facebook was still preferred over other platforms when users wanted to create and check a group event. When it comes to individual behaviour (posting selfies or videos of themselves) Snapchat was top, while Instagram was the most used platform when members of Gen Z wanted to follow a brand.
An interesting trend in the results found that female users outpaced…
Facebook vs. Instagram: The better platform for your business
Beginner marketers consider launching a social media campaign. Experienced marketers launch a social media campaign on Facebook. Smart marketers study all social media platforms and launch successful integrated social media campaigns on the platforms that are best for their business.
Let’s be honest, social media marketing is a versatile, cost-effective and powerful tool to use for marketers and small business owners alike. It helps to reach the target audience, boosts sales, increases brand recognition, enhances conversion rates, boosts traffic to your website and even, improves search engine rankings. No wonder, then, that more and more businesses decide to include social media in their marketing strategies.
In fact, according to Statista, investments in social media advertising are forecast to grow from 32 billion dollars in 2017 to approx. 48 billion dollars in…
Social media strategy and planning essentials - Recommended dashboards and tools for creating social media marketing reports for different reporting periods
This is part 8 of my Smart Insights 12 part social media series. In the last part we looked at resource planning for social media; in this blog, I discuss what data you should capture and report to measure the impact of your social media marketing campaigns.
To frame the conversation, I’ll cover four different type of report:
Daily dashboard
Weekly KPI report
Monthly roll-up report
Quarterly strategy review
Reporting scope and goals
It’s important to understand the context, and limitations, for reporting. The data you have access to depends upon your business resources and scale of social activity. For example, many small businesses don’t have subscriptions to social media monitoring tools like Audiense and Buzzsumo, so won’t be able to include data from these in their regular reports. Focus on what data you…
