The State of Content Marketing 2014 and Beyond

If you do research on Google Trends you will notice something intriguing: The term “social media marketing” grew big time from 2009 to 2011 but is now leveling off. In the meantime, the term “content marketing” has really picked up in 2013 and is on a noteworthy upwards trajectory. You will realize that these simple graphs tell a larger story about today’s marketing landscape.

Where It All Started

About five years ago, social media hit an inflection point. Facebook introduced the “Like” button and a few months later surpassed MySpace to become the number one social network in the United States. Ashton Kutcher battled with CNN to reach 1 million Twitter followers and Oprah sent out her first tweet in all caps.

Forward-thinking brands saw the potential to reach their audiences with more engaging and responsive messages. New technologies, services, and job descriptions emerged to handle this new trend. And thus social media marketing took off. It took a while, but eventually even the most skeptical and stodgy brands got on board.

Where We Stand Now

Now, as we dive well into 2014, we live in a world saturated with social media.

This year’s Academy Awards is a great example: some 11.1 million Facebook users contributed to more than 25.4 million interactions (updates, comments, likes) and of course, Ellen’s record breaking Oscar selfie which has been retweeted a stunning 3.4 million times, beating the “Four more years” photo posted on Barack Obama’s Twitter account (no social media slouch himself) which had previously held the record with 781k retweets.

Brands have entire teams devoted to “Social” and a suite of software products to help them manage dozens of accounts on various platforms. 77% of the Fortune 500 have Twitter accounts, another 70% are on Facebook and the numbers continue to grow.

But this flurry of activity has given way to new challenges. The easy work of monitoring and publishing have become solved problems. Simply “being on” various social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr and more is not enough. Simple slogans like “joining the conversation” become meaningless unless you have something of value to contribute.

The question on every marketer’s mind is now: “What do we say?”

Where We Go from here

Creating great content at scale is the new challenge of every marketing team, ours included. Just as social media marketing sparked a series of tools, processes, and job titles, the new age of content marketing requires new forms of marketing infrastructure. Ultimately, it boils down to one fundamental task: creating compelling narratives around your brand.

What stories will you tell?

What's the Value of a Facebook Fan

Does Your Company Embrace Social Media?

It seems like everybody has an opinion about the value of social media, but very few companies tuse it to its full potential. Think about how you employ social media in your personal life — to ask for recommendations or advice from friends, to share photos and moments from your life, and to stay in touch. Very few people act Social Media Robots. So why do companies?

In the following video from Virgin, leading minds of the Digital world talk about their experiences

Social Customer Service [Infographic]

The New Challenge

In the past, brands tackled customer service issues by way of a primary channel -- the god old  'call center.' But now, companies must also monitor, respond, and engage in a variety of social channels.

If a brand is unskilled in social media customer engagement, adapting customer service programs to new channels can be challenging: brands might default to reactivity -- essentially, playing 'defense' -- when faced with disgruntled customers online.

However, making reactivity the foundation of your social customer service strategy causes brands to view customer relationships as things to 'manage,' rather than opportunities to proactively add value to the customer experience.

Have a look at the Infographic below (thanks to my friends @ Bluewolf)

Effective E-Mail Marketing Step-by-Step

E-Mail Marketing is still an integral part of most successful marketing campaigns. It is an important communication tool, builds customer relationships and can help increase your ROI. But as in many other marketing fields if used incorrectly it annoys your target audience and can seriously backfire.

There are some very important points to consider while building your e-mail marketing campaign. The following 10 tips are designed to help you get your campaign on track.

1. Use your campaign to start a dialog

Start communicating with your prospects. Do not send out pure marketing pitches but aim to enhance your message with relevant information and ask your (future) customers to participate in discussions. Social media integration does not hurt either as you can divert the conversation to platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Google+. 

2. Don’t just concentrate on the Opening Rate

Of course statistics like the opening rate of your e-mails are important. But focus the overall evaluation of your e-mail campaign not just on this aspect. Look instead into where your website hits originate, the number and frequency of visits, content shared on social networks and so on.

3. Fragmentation

Try and take into account the behavior of your target audience. Who is opening your mails, who shares content, who is buying your product or service? Use this data to segment your audience even more and utilize it to specifically target certain parts of your data base in future campaigns.

4. Concentrate on your Message

Always remember that you want to convey a message with your campaign. Don’t forget to customize this message to the profile and interests of your customers.  I also advise you to tailor different messages for different segments of your audience.

5.  Automate wherever possible

By largely automating your campaigns you will save time, which can be invested in your strategy and quality content. Try to link parts of your campaign to certain triggers (for example reactions of costumers, comments and so on)

6. It’s all in the Mix

Try out different styles and techniques. Send out your mails on different days to different customers and include surveys where appropriate. Like this you can gauge the reaction in real-time and adjust your e-mail campaign accordingly where necessary

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7. Make sure that your mails are deliverable

The best campaign is useless if your message doesn’t reach the customer. Just check you junk folder and you will know how many mails do not reach you. This is why you have to test your mails before you initiate your e-mail campaign. Avoid Spam-Trigger words such as “free”, “click here”, “unique opportunity and so on. Have a look at this list: Spam-Trigger-Words-List (Thanks Karen!)

8. Testing is the Alpha and the Omega

In order to achieve optimal results with your campaign, it is essential to check it thoroughly: are all elements displayed correctly? Do all the links work? Does the automatic segmentation work properly? Also check if the mail reaches its destination - ideally, you have a ready test group from which you get immediate feedback.

9. Analyze the Results

For this you don’t necessarily need complicated charts and graphics. Use whenever possible the analysis capabilities of your Software and choose a easily readable and concise format that facilitates the analysis. Incorporate your findings into your campaign to achieve even better results in the future.

10. Integrate Social Media

By adding social share buttons to your mail, you give your customers the opportunity to transport the communicated content like text, pictures, videos, events etc to other platforms and let them spread the word for you.

Did I forget anything? Please share it in the comment section below. Thanks!

The Hectic Life of a Social Media Manager

A big THANKS to my friends at dailyinfographic

How to Build Your Wordpress Site: A Step-by-Step Guide

Thanks Pamela Wilson (www.copyblogger.com)!

All you have to know about your Social CV

There are many things you have to keep in mind nowadays when you are looking for a job. One of these things the importance of streamlining and tweaking your online presence to make it attractive for HR managers and head-hunters.

Read more about this in my post "Job-Search and Social Media Presence" and have a look at the great infographic rrom Debbie Lawrence (thanks for sharing!!)

The Best Free Social Media Monitoring Tools

Facebook, Twitter & Co. are enjoying great popularity on the web. But most people (and companies) do not really know how to monitor the impact or howto measure their social media engagement.

There are countless tools out there for this, but which are the best ones? Let's have a look!

1. Addictomatic

Addictomatic searches a variety social media sites and networks, such as Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and WordPress. Moreover, the tool lists the main search engines, including Yahoo, Bing and Ask. For some queries, however, the accuracy of the results suffer from the amount of scanned pages. Still, Addictomatic provides a good first introduction and overview. www.addictomatic.com.

2. Backtype

Backtype measures the impact of a particular online article. The user enters the articles URL into the searchfield and will get a graphical analyses and a performance analyses (clicks, tweets, comments, likes etc.). Rough data preparation is free, but there is a charge for more detailed data. www.backtype.com

3. Boardtracker

Die meisten Monitoring-Tools ignorieren Foren zugunsten von Facebook &Co. Boardtracker ist jedoch speziell für das Überwachen von Foren entwickelt worden – und funktioniert dort auch recht zuverlässig. www.boardtracker.com

4. Compete.com

Compete compares the traffic of up to three web pages. So you can quickly see where you stand in comparison to your competitors. The charts, however, are not very exact. www.compete.com

5.Google Alerts

Google Alerts is probably the best known and most widely used monitoring tool. Free unlimited monitoring of searches, blogs, websites, videos and other channels. Whenever the your search term shows up, you get an email with the appropriate link to the site.  www.google. com / alerts

6. GoogleTrends

GoogleTrends shows you the most search terms on the web.

Individual tags can be evaluated to show you annual and spatial 

comparisons. www.google.com/trends

7. Hootsuite

Hootsuite reminds layout-wise of a typical Tweet-Deck. It provides a simple introduction to the monitoring of Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare and multiple individual users can be monitored (including Facebook Fanpages). 

www.hootsuite.com

8. Socialmention

Socialmention is a cool tool that offers several search options, and a total of over 80 different networks and channels can be scanned. Despite this functionality, the tool is completely free. www.socialmention.com

These are just a few tools out there.... What is your favorite? Let me know in the comment section.

Job-Search and Social Media Presence

Looking for a job? Streamline your Social Media profiles!

A new study from the US has just revealed how HR departments evaluate their candidates. Employers turn to social media sites like Facebook when deciding to even call a job candidate for an interview. Research from a global security software company revealed that more than 90% of human resources professionals search for unprotected social media profiles in order to asses an applicant’s suitability. 

What employers find online has a huge impact on the job seeker’s chance of even getting an interview. The study was based on surveys of 230 human resource departments in the US and the UK.

Researchers found that job candidates who display inebriated photos on their social media sites reduce their chances of getting granted an interview by 84%, while 90% of HR Managers considered scantily dressed pictures a reason not to set up an interview.

Other actions seen on social media that can cost an applicant an employment opportunity include evidence of unbearable behavior, negative or derogative comments about previous employers, extremist views or political/religious comments.

Overall, nearly 50% of hiring managers have turned down potential candidates because of something they saw on their online profiles.

So much for personal data protection…. But what can you do about it?

How to ensure Privacy on your Social Media Sites

1: Make the most of built-in privacy and safety features

When you register for a social networking account, you'll be asked for certain personal details and should be advised how this information will be used - in other words, what will be public and what will be private on your profile.

If you have a public profile, it can be seen by anyone searching the social networking site and might also be available to people searching for profiles using a search engine, such as Google. On the other hand, a private profile allows only invited friends and members of chosen networks to view your content. 

To help members interact safely with their friends online, many leading social networking sites provide privacy and safety information and tools. You can stay in control by using built-in features such as ‘Add friends' (to allow only chosen people to view your profile) and ‘Ignore' (so you can block unwanted approaches from someone in particular). 

You should also review your ‘friends' list regularly and remove anyone you don't want to see your profile.

Finally, talk to your friends and family and ask them not to post or tag photographs of, or information about, you on their social network profiles without getting your permission first. This will help to keep you safe and your information secure.

2: Think before you post

Anything that is publicly available online could be seen by your students and other people so, before you post any information or images, consider whether it could cause you embarrassment or potentially damage your reputation or career.

Even if you have set your social networking profile to private, think twice before posting comments or images that could be misconstrued by anyone in your network.

Use your professional judgment when it comes to your digital space, just as you would in the real world.

3: Report any concerns you have

Don't suffer in silence if you're concerned about content on, or contact made via, a social networking site. Report it to a senior manager and your e-safety coordinator first of all.

Many of the leading social networking providers have reporting mechanisms and contact details on their websites so that you can report what has happened easily and quickly. Just look for the ‘Help', ‘Customer Care' or ‘Report Abuse' buttons on the social networking site.

4: It works both ways –Use your profiles in your favor

Be clever and give them what they want! Knowing that HR departments monitor your social media profiles, you can use them in your favor. If you for example are applying for a job in banking, post some informative articles about this sector on your blog or link some industry specific, favorable items on your Facebook page.

The Cost of Social Media Marketing

Nowadays when you talk about modern PR and Marketing, everything revolves around Social Media, the new internet. Everything and everyone hangs out on social networks, be it on blogs or in other online communities which makes it the logical choice for smart and effective marketing efforts. Until not so long ago only big and reputed organizations dared to venture into these unknown realms, but in the meantime everybody heard about the nearly endless possibilities of being present in the social web and nearly every business wants to be there and get a piece of the cake. 

Social Media is Cheap!

That is the common misconception. In the beginning this might be true, but just a little further down the road most businesses realize that that is NOT true! It is pretty easy to create a company profile or a fan p age but the constant updating and actualization requires a lot of resources.

One of the most common problems professional social media marketing providers like Foxfang Digital Solutions encounter is that companies actually think that Social Media in general is not that expensive and that the price-plans of Digital Agencies are exaggerated. A Facebook or Twitter Profile for example is quickly established they argue – but what comes next? Do the fans and followers come all by themselves? I don’t think so!

 It’s true that you can get a lot of followers in a relatively short time, but what about the quality? In the end, like any other marketing activity, Social Media Marketing is all about getting new customers, isn't it? What do you do with 10k followers but not a single lead generated?

No doubt one of the targets of a social media campaign is to work on increasing your followers and fans, but this is a long-term goal and doesn’t happen overnight. The major task is to engage and interact with your community and build a real acceptance for your brand.

We are on the Social Web - LOVE US!

Let’s say you reached 10’000 fans on Facebook and already have 1000 followers on Twitter – you think your work is over now? Wrong! Now the actual work starts! It is extremely important now that you engage your followership and don’t disappoint them. Because they expect that you offer some kind of compelling and engaging content. If you fail to do so you will see their numbers dwindle. Your fans and followers are not stupid and there are enough of bad examples out there, companies whit a pure marketing presence who lost the loyalty of their audience after a short time and wasted their whole effort.

The message is quite simple: Community Management is an intense and time consuming effort. Either you allocate internal resources or you outsource it to an external expert – in both cases it costs you. But if you opt to go with external consultants it will be significantly cheaper.

The Chase for the ROI of Social Media

What is the return on social media? Can you measure it? What metrics are appropriate for suitable measurements? The question of the ROI currently enjoys much attention in the corporate world. This is mainly due to the fact that the general interest in Social Media Marketing has increased considerably, and naturally the question of the return on investment of such marketing practices is being raised.

Most protagonists agree that (for the time being) the ROI for social media marketing is hard to measure. After all, even when it comes to traditional media, marketing controlling is an inexact science because it mostly focuses on global contexts which have little significance for practical purposes on a small scale. Does that mean that the search for the ROI of Social Media doesn’t make sense?

From a business perspective it is always important to know how the income is compared to the capital invested. Therefore the holy grail of questions when it comes to social media is: Is there a return on investment in social media and if so, how do you calculate it exactly?

There are many arguments against a general ROI of your social media engagement. Imagine a football team in which “Social Media” is one of the players. And now let’s try to measure how big the part of this player was in the overall success of the team. This would be far from simple as there are so many factors to consider. However, I would like to look at this subject from different angles.

To measure the ROI of social media, you first have to be clear about what metrics are likely the most accurate. How many different ways to measure it are there? How do the different platforms provide me with comparable figures? What metrics from traditional marketing (eg “Reach”) can I apply to Social Media? ........

Amber Naslund created some theories on her blog in which she gives more details regarding the measurement of SM success on which I agree in principle:

1. If you don’t measure anything else, social media measurement isn’t the problem.

2. Measuring Success is not the goal

3. Measuring the activity is not as important as measuring the results

4. Measured values should always be determined by the objectives

5. Causes and correlations are different things

6. The Interpretation of the Analysis it trickier than the measuring

7. Not all Metrics can be standardized

9. Measurement Reports are only the beginning and not the end

10. Measuring Success doesn’t have to be complex to be effective

11. Performance measurement is an ongoing process of adjustment.

12. Never underestimate the cultural and operational factors

13. Measuring Success is more important than just the ROI

And most of all:

14. “Social Media is not measurable” is just an excuse!

If we get down to the point the calculation of the Social Media ROI is rather simple, but varies from case to case: The Social Media ROI is the Return on your Social Media Goals! The odd characteristic of the social media return is that you can define it to be essentially anything you want it to be!

In reality, social media return is the value that you receive from your social media campaign. 

For instance, if the objective of your social media campaign is to drive sales, then your social media return is the number of sales that you can attribute to your social media campaign.

Instead of sales, say your goal is to drive consumer insights. In this case, your social media return is the quantity and quality of the consumer insights you get from your fans and followers.

A third example of social media return is brand awareness. If your goal is to drive awareness of your brand, then your social media return is brand awareness.

I could give many more examples, but the point is that social media return is the value that you derive from social media based on the goals of your campaign

About the Author: Foxfang Digital Solutions is the leading provider of online marketing solutions in India, well known for running highly popular and effective campaigns across all platforms. Have a look at our website: www.foxfang.com or contact us directly: info@foxfang.com

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9 Quick Tips for Successful Social Media Marketing

Although everything has been said about it, one gets still surprised by the number of people who have no clear idea about ​​social media marketing.  The only thing that people are starting to realize is that it is not a walk in the park to initiate a social media campaign. A good and effective social marketing offensive is definitely as complex as any other media advertisement campaigns.

Primarily, it is not about commercial campaigning, but sustained presence. This leads to new contacts and new opportunities for companies, as well as strengthening their existing customer relationships and branding effects. The following 9 tips for successful social media marketing may contribute to a better understanding.

1. Stay on Top and Update Regularly!

One of the most common mistakes is that businesses euphorically build their profiles on any given platform, are thrilled by how many people “like” it or follow them, and then turn around and concentrate on other things which seem more important at the time, apparently without realizing what kind of damage they do to their reputation and their brands. You don’t have to write a new blog post every single day, but I think it is not too much to ask to update your status on Facebook,Twitter & Co. on a daily basis.

People fail to realize that these messages are the foundation of their relationships in the social networks and that they leave an impact on potential customers who may visit the profile in order to gain an impression of the provider. Irregular or infrequent updated profiles may indicate unreliability or inactivity. And never forget that your competition is just a click away , waiting to convert these potential customers into regular clients.

2. Do Not Pitch!

As already mentioned before, social media is about building relationships and not about troubling some random contact with your newest business idea. Direct advertising is frowned upon and how you get in touch with someone has also something to do with respect. 

Not everyone who is interested has an immediate requirement but may keep you in mind for future projects. A pitch in social media is totally inappropriate and destroys more than it could ever achieve.

3. Communicate!

You don’t have to comment on every single post or respond to everything which is being said on your profiles. But to turn a blind eye also doesn’t cut it. It’s like in the real world; How can we possibly come in contact with somebody without communicating?

Get involved, reply to comments (where it seems appropriate), contribute to some interesting discussions if you have something to say and time permits.

4. Think First, Then Post!

What you write on the Internet is public and it will be there forever. Keep this always in the back of your head before you post something instead spontaneously posting everything which crosses your mind.

5. Handle Criticism with Style!

We all have a bad day every now and then and it will happen that somebody posts something negative on your profile. Let it be there and do not delete it! Unless there is something you have to correct, simply ignore it.

One should also remember that everyone makes mistakes and not every criticism is unjustified

or undeserved. React to legitimate criticism with humility and merely explain your position, OK?

If there are several critical comments, it is not necessary to respond to every single one individually. Give a well thought-through general statement and show your followers that you really care about them. And then, and that’s really important, analyze what mistakes you made to prevent them in the future.

6. Share other Content!

Rather than always to post your own content, you can and should also link to post created by others. However, the problem remains that you have to consider first whether the post is relevant. The posting you consider to link on you pages must be related to your own sphere of expertise as well as relevant to your audience. Prevent to be perceived as just another “Retweeter”.

7. Do not just share Business Content!

There is no reason to hide the human side of your company, to the contrary! Is there a BBQ or something extraordinary in everyday life which was photographed or filmed by your employees?  Publish it! Such content always conveys a positive image.

8. Set a Weekly Trend!

To share something once a week at a given time will set a trend that will be rapidly picked up by your followers. This could be for example a specific content or an “offer of the week” if you run a retail establishment. Trends always spread and will bring traffic and increase customer loyalty.

9. Guide Users to your Profiles!

It’s great to promote yourself through social media but it shouldn’t stop there. It is equally important to draw attention to your platform from the outside. A great way to do this is to create an e-mail signature with direct links or to put QR-Codes on letterheads and business cards. There is also nothing to be said against a “like us” link on your website.

About the Author: Foxfang Digital Solutions is the leading provider of online marketing solutions in India, well known for running highly popular and effective campaigns across all platforms. Have a look at our website: www.foxfang.com or contact us directly: info@foxfang.com

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