This post is the second in a three-part series with practical tips for marketers to pursue social and digital innovation. Read the first post on maximizing your personal social media usage here.
Want to be the go-to guy or gal on your team with the flashiest new apps? The one dressing Instagram photos with never-before-seen filters and stamps, using emoticons our Japanese counterparts only released yesterday?
It can be time-consuming to stay current in social and digital media, so here are some effective ways to quickly surface and assess the hottest toys.
1. Assign yourself playtime. My playtime is Sunday evening after “Mad Men.” I pull out my iPad and iPhone and I furiously start downloading new apps. I jump over to the Featured and Top Charts sections of iTunes to see if there are any new additions. I download them, bring them to the forefront, launch them, create a new account, follow the top accounts (if applicable), invite a few friends and make time to revisit them later in the week. If it’s a photo app, I try out some photos and push them out to Facebook to see how they look. If it’s a news app, I load it up... Read more
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Current and Relevant: How to Find the Coolest New Tools on the Block
Tags: 22squared, apps, digital media, ipad, iPhone, iTunes, mad men, mashable, readwrite, Social Media, techcrunch, the next web, Uber
Posted in Emerging Platforms, Entertainment, Opinions, Social Media | No Comments »
One, Two, Three More Steps to Improve Your Branding Score
As consumers we know “brands” simply as a particular product or service we like or dislike. However, as a business owner we know there are several factors to be considered before consumers can truly identify and trust a specific brand. In a perfect world, everyone would be a great target for all marking and brand identities but that’s not the case. Let's cover the three main steps to creating an interactive branding message that your consumers can begin to connect with!
1. Logo – (Noun) “A symbol adopted by an organization to identify its products or services” We all know it’s never about what you have, it’s about how you use it that makes the difference! Since you've spent the time and/or money on this masterpiece called your "logo," make sure it shows up everywhere including business cards, social media sites, and any other promotional materials. Your logo is your company's identity in a picture and the more you show it off, the quicker your brand recognition will grow.
Does this really matter, you ask? Consider this… how likely are you to remember a random fast-food restaurant you visited when they use generic bags and soda cups versus the restaurant that brands every cup and... Read more
Tags: advertising, branding, content marketing, Facebook, marketing, online marketing, Social Media
Posted in Email, Search, Web Analytics, Websites | No Comments »
4 New Values Affecting How Buyers Perceive You
Perception (Photo credit: Genna G)
A key component of understanding buying decisions is gaining a reality check on how buyers perceive you and whether you match to their criteria. How well organizations are perceived will serve as one of the primary influences shaping buying behaviors and purchase decisions.
Buyer research can reveal many aspects of what comprises buyer perception. Buyer experience is now becoming one of the most important factors contributing to and influencing perceptions. The new digital age is introducing new types of criterion buyers place a value on, which can directly affect their perceptions:
Buyer Experience: previous as well as current experiences can have an enormous impact on how buyers perceive you. Do you think waiting an extra day to return a call was no big deal? Think again.
Engagement: evidence is building on engagement being a factor in shaping buyer perceptions when making purchase decisions. What the "engagement experience" tells buyers can make a big difference. This differs from buyer experience in this way: when you ask customers and prospects to engage - meaning interact - it better not be painful.
Knowledge: the sharing of knowledge and insight is fast emerging as a one area shaping how buyers perceive companies. Content marketers need... Read more
Tags: buyer experience, buyer persona, buyer personas, content marketing, content strategy, marketing, Social Media, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Media Planning & Buying, Opinions | No Comments »
Community Managers Are Not Corporate Slaves
Corporate America has long since relegated social media to the post of the intern or sole staffer, which in many organizations is tantamount to servitude. These people work 24 hours a day. Market leaders like Ford, Dell, and Coke, have moved beyond this model of social, yet still, we run into companies that apply this outdated methodology. Their expectation that this system will attain the same performance level displayed by fellow department peers, with fewer resources, no less, is mind-boggling.
However, this has all been said before. What’s changed is that there are now several trends within smart organizations that are moving social media out of this model. This paradigm shift can be harnessed by every brand, at an appropriate level. How you build the case for this, is part of understanding the value that social media delivers.
Three years ago, there was a Social Media ‘checkbox’ placed at the bottom of every marketing plan that was checked off simply by creating a Facebook page. Today the CEO asks the CMO what his Social Media strategy is. Times have changed. The job has also changed drastically, where Facebook pages have expanded, and Twitter is mandatory. Companies must now... Read more
Tags: community managers, corporate, Social Media
Posted in Opinions | No Comments »
Three ways to get the most out of your out-of-office social media activity
This post is the first in a three-part series with practical tips for marketers to pursue social and digital innovation.
Ever since my start in the world of digital and social media marketing, I’ve noticed that our kind is separated into two groups: those who go home after the workday and swear to lay off Facebook and the like, and those who cannot stop browsing those same platforms until their eyes shut for the night.
As someone who belongs to the latter camp, I’ve found that my personal social media activity has helped me throughout my career. Boiled down into three brief bullets below are what I believe to be easily adoptable best practices for getting the most out of your social media habits – and a way to never feel guilty about scrolling through a feed!
1. Follow competitors and industry-leading brands
This is an obvious one, but many in the field simply hit the “Like” button and never end up seeing content from these brands. You may also be tracking them in a dashboard during the workday or see them in an end-of-week report, but you may likely lose the context in which the content shined (or failed). Use a Twitter List... Read more
Tags: #followateen, 22squared, Facebook, Facebook Timeline, George Takei, Instagram, Keek, Kendall Jenner, NastyGal, Rob Delaney, Social Media, twitter, Twitter Music
Posted in Opinions, Social Media | 2 Comments »
