A briefing on modern social selling
The age of social selling is upon us, although one could argue that it's always been that way. When people make a purchase they tell others. When people have a good or bad experience with a brand they tell others. When people love your products or services they tell others. It's safe to say that people love to share, which is exactly why social networks are so popular.
Selling has always been social, but networks like Facebook and Twitter take that element and amplify it. Today's social selling is completely different, and when you implement it properly, it can do wonders for your brand.
What is modern social selling?
The modern form of social selling involves integrating sale prompts or direct links via social profiles. For example, Amazon allows Twitter users to add items to their shopping cart…
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November 7, 2014
How to measure the marketing effectiveness of video content
Your video is clocking up hundreds of views, which is great. But does that mean it’s successful?
Not necessarily.
A revved up view counter in YouTube may indicate that your video is popular, but it doesn’t tell the full story.
For example, it doesn’t tell you how many people only watched the first couple of seconds before dipping out, if they re-watched any sections or if they skipped entire parts.
Rather than watching views, you need to be measuring a much broader set of metrics.
If, like most people, you choose to host your video via YouTube, the metrics you need to consider lie deep within the analytics section of YouTube.
YouTube Analytics options
YouTube Analytics offers in-depth video data which is much more than just views.
One of the first places to start is the Traffic Source. Find out where your viewers have come from and how long they spend…
Are you at risk of social spamming?
It's well over 10 years since Facebook launched. The behavioural patterns of user groups are now well understood, the advertising platforms are highly developed and the business world across the planet has increasingly become 'social'. Yet the ways in which so many businesses have adopted social media and how they use it for ongoing communication with their customers, is often, in my experience, fundamentally flawed.
While as a marketing community we have learnt so much about social media, when it comes to applying that learning into practice, only comparatively rarely do businesses appear to demonstrate real understanding and consideration of their audience’s requirements.
It is time we re-evaluated our approach as the foundations on which these strategies were built have become eroded. In the following paragraphs, I will pose a few searching questions and outline what I regard as key…
Free Twitter Analytics service and self-serve ad platform rolled out [@SmartInsights alert]
Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Twitter SMB impact research
2014 has seen some great new opportunities for smaller businesses to use Twitter to expand their reach, generate leads and understand the effectiveness of Twitter.
We previously alerted readers to the rollout of the free Twitter dashboard/analytics and the self-serve ad platform. Both updates removed the need for big budgets (minimum $10000) or verified accounts. These updates were great if you were in the right countries, but were limited to the US, UK, Ireland, Canada and select other countries initially.
So this update is simply to share the news that access is now available to many more countries - so do share the word!
A big welcome to @TwitterAdsNord! Self-serve Twitter advertising is now available to businesses in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
— Twitter Small Biz (@TwitterSmallBiz) November 5,…
Visuals and Videos win if you want more ReTweets
We thought this research worth sharing since it's completed by Twitter's own data scientist Douglas Mason. It suggests which types of content marketing via Twitter may be more effective. Mason examined millions of Tweets from verified users (that's big brands and celebs) to see whether some types of Tweets receive more engagement than others.
So, what impacts Twitter engagement?
Is it the hashtag, video, tweet containing a digit, a quote or photo? His findings discovered that there are differences by industry and as expected, they do boost retweets. Though which are more impactful than others? on average, sharing photos boosts engagement more, followed by videos and quotes.
Access the full research via Twitter's blog where you can select the effect for different media sectors.…
The 7 traits of an effective Social Media Marketing Manager
The Social Media Marketing Manager role is now an established role in many large businesses. It's featured as one of the main digital marketing roles in the Smart Insights top 12 digital job descriptions template.
In smaller businesses, social media will be one marketing approach of many that a digital marketing manager will be working on, or social media may be a combined responsibility with SEO and content marketing. But in all cases, as social media continues to evolve, so does the role of the Social Media Manager.
Whilst the first Social Media Managers were mainly responsible for setting up and running a Facebook presence or answering customer service queries on Twitter, their roles now encompass many more skills and attributes. Of course, a Social Media Manager's scope of responsibility will be influenced by…
Will Digits displace other email address-based user sign-in and authentication methods?
Importance: [rating=5]
Recommended link: Twitter Blog Digits announcement
This is another interesting piece of new jargon and associated tech that marketers need to ‘get their heads around’. Here’s a summary of my understanding. I’ve also gone a bit beyond the ‘copy and paste’ summaries of other announcements by digging out a couple of case study examples of brands already using Digits which show how important this could be as part of the overall digital marketing ecosystem. This is why I have unusually rated its importance as 5/5!
1. Digits is a new method of signing on to mobile apps and websites developed by Twitter. Twitter says it will reduce ‘friction’, enabling users to sign in to apps more readily.
2. Digits works by signing in with mobile numbers and confirming using an SMS . It’s similar to two-step…
Are consumers looking for a simple ad free social network?
Ello is a new social media platform designed by a small group of artists and designers. It started as a private network which is now available publicly, but with an 'invite only' membership.
Is it an anti-social media platform to fight back against Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn who are now set on squeezing money out of us as they monetise using advertising and fees for premium add-ons. They're certainly positioning it that way. Or is it a network which is more social and simple to use - in line with their strapline 'Simple, Beautiful and Ad-Free'?
Ello is currently available in beta form only and is only accepting new members by invite only, which some have suggested is restricting growth and goes against the ethos of a social network. However, Google Trends suggests a…
Who uses Instagram by age, gender and country? [Infographic]
With more than 150 million users and 16 billion photos shared to date, Instagram is going from 'strength-to-strength'. For marketers, there are ongoing new features including the recent ads for the UK market, launched in the US last year, and their first ever app - 'lapsed video' which keeps up with the '#selfielapse phenomenon'.
In this GlobalWebIndex's Infographic, we share some profile demographics across the globe:
20% of Internet users now have an Instagram account.
For more ideas on Instagram Marketing, Expert Members can download our Smarter Instagram Marketing guide by Rhian Simms.
…
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook's new ad network?
Importance: [rating=1] Current importance to small, mid-size businesses.
Value: [rating=4] for larger businesses and brands.
Recommended link: Facebook Atlas announcement
What is Facebook Atlas?
1. Atlas is not a new service
There has been a lot of hype around Facebook's recent re-launch of Atlas which you may know as an ad-serving product which has been used for managing display campaigns by large media companies for many years. Facebook purchased the Atlas ad server from Microsoft in early 2013 and are building it into their ad offering.
2. Atlas will offer targeting based on Facebook profile information and remarketing across publisher sites
Atlas will enable targeting of audiences on publisher sites based on their Facebook demographics and interests. Remarketing or retargeting should also be possible - this is an established approach by brands to offer people reminders about products or services. It's unclear…
