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| The Difference Between a Boss and a Leader Posted: 22 Dec 2013 05:30 AM PST Not all bosses are great leaders and not all leaders are bosses. Do you know the difference between a boss and a leader? Which should you aspire to be?Everyone has a boss. Even bosses have bosses whether they work for major corporations or small businesses. Owners of such enterprises themselves have the shareholders or customers to answer to in order to keep the business moving and growing.
In today's fast-paced, competitive and money driven society, the boss has, in many cases, ceased from being a leader and has strictly become a higher up who spouts orders and expects them to be obeyed without question. Such behavior has resulted in businesses being filled with disgruntled employees who no longer work for the common good of the company, but reluctantly show up to their "job" in order to draw a paycheck or become ravenous dogs fighting it out for the top spots so they can give the orders. However, the underlying attitudes produced by such actions can be quite damaging to a business as bosses become chariot taskmasters cracking whips to drive their employees onward towards the goal. It is much healthier for all involved if companies hire and nurture leaders who are willing to take the lead positions and pull their employees forward by example. The major difference between bosses and leaders is that bosses create disharmony, reluctance and internal fighting which can make reaching the goal difficult while leaders provide encouragement, pride and cooperation which not only drives the business to reach the goal, but quite often surpasses the goal. In a race between the two chariots, the one being drawn by the leader will ultimately reach the finish line before the one being whipped and prodded by a dictatorial task master. The employees of the leader will also have elevated spirits that are rearing and raring to tackle the next race. Characteristics of the BossAlthough 'boss' is generally defined as a person who is in charge of overseeing workers, its use as an adjective reflects someone who gives orders in a manner that is domineering. This, in a nutshell, is the root characteristic of a boss. The boss tends to only work towards the goals set by their higher ups so that they look good. Because profits have become the 'golden idle' of business, bosses tend to exploit those under them by paying them the least amount possible while extracting the most work that they can. The boss drives his underlings onward through fear and intimidation. They set their authority as the supreme law for those under them who are expected to serve and toil without question. They demand respect simply based on their position and, if questioned, will dole out swift punishments or offer severe threats that send the brow-beaten employees back to their laborious tasks in the rank and file system. Characteristics of the LeaderA leader also has the authority to manage, but they tend to have a much more positive influence. 'Leader' is synonymous with 'conductor' and is defined as the principal performer of a group such as the lead horse in the chariot scenario. The leader takes charge by example and those under his influence are encouraged and given direction accordingly. The leader provides an admirable example for his employees to follow. He inspires his followers to perform and reach towards his level of expertise which, in turn, improves their skills and experience. The team is, therefore, strengthened by the leader's example as they are provide clear guidance and all are exalted in their abilities. Employees of the leader are also edified and made to feel an active part of the business whole. This is because the leader encourages his employees to make suggestions, offer ideas, discuss pros and cons, all of which strengthen the fabric of the overall business. A leader may spend the extra time and money on morale-building activities or additional training like error prevention or leadership training because he or she knows it will benefit the company's employees and enrich them as people. Comparing Results – Which is best, being the boss or leadership?When comparing bosses and leaders, the leader garners real respect through his example while the boss demands respect through his position of authority only. The well-being of employees is also guarded and attended by the leader whereas the boss's only concern is the level of productivity and meeting goals. The 'we' and 'let's go' expressions of the leader builds pride, confidence and a sense of belonging with his followers, but the 'I' and 'you go' attitude of the boss breeds isolation and inferiority. When it comes down to bottom-line results between a boss and a leader, the leader inspires much greater productivity and success which are often thwarted by the driving, authoritarian nature of the boss. Employees being led forward are much happier, more productive and more creative than those driven forward by demand. In order for a business to thrive and flourish, it requires the full cooperation, effort and positive energy of its employees. For that atmosphere to exist, employees need those that assume the lead position, guide by example and inspire them to pull together towards the common goal of success.  |
| The Future of Content Marketing: 50 Experts Share Their 2014 Predictions Posted: 22 Dec 2013 04:00 AM PST Content Marketing has become an important tool for companies who wish to establish their online presence, and create a relationship with their customers / users. However, with the influx of content via Social Media and other channels differentiating oneself from the “noise” is a big challenge. With the growth in various technologies and solutions marketers hope to do just that, as the new year brings on a new view towards content marketing. We asked experts and practitioners of Content Marketing to share their insights and predictions on the future, and various trends that companies should focus on in the upcoming year. The Future of Content Marketing: How Will It Impact Businesses?1. Joseph McKeating, Founder of Pulsar Strategy - @josifmck In 2014, content marketing will continue to dramatically transform the public relations and media industries. Poor writers and communicators will be weeded out of reputable public relations agencies. An increasing number of traditional journalists will leave the media industry to help companies tell their stories and form strong relationships with customers. Both will lead to a more educated public used to on-demand information and advice. 2. Sloan Gaon, CEO of PulsePoint - @sloaner Programmatic will solve native's scale issue: Expanding on the above, native advertising – which has been the darling of the industry for the past two years, but has yet to truly take off due to its inability to scale – will start to be offered programmatically. Brands like Red Bull, AMEX and L'Oreal have already successfully made the leap to becoming great content publishers, as traditional publishers like NYT, AP and Hearst are starting to think more and more like marketers. Yet for the 'right ad at the right time' to finally become the 'right content at the right time', content marketing will need become seamlessly integrated and distributed through advanced targeting technology via ad exchanges and RTB platforms. 3. Walter Blake Knoblock, President of Felix Exi – @WBKnoblock
4. Derek Merdinyan, Founder of VideoIgniter.com - @VideoIgniter Limited attention spans plus an abundance of new content formats suggest that higher quality, visually rich pieces of content that communicate concisely will give marketers an edge over those solely relying on text-based content to communicate their messages. 5. Adi Bittan, Co-founder & CEO of OwnerListens.com - @adiownerlistens 2014 will be the year of video in content marketing. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, are now or will soon allow video ads in consumer content feeds. With videos becoming cheaper to produce and platforms such as Veed.me opening up access to affordable creative talent, even small businesses can produce high quality videos. Expect to see many more content marketing videos in 2014! 6. Frank Strong, Communications Director at LexisNexis - @Frank_Strong Content consumers will gravitate towards thoughtful, insightful and well-researched long form content. It will perform better in search, more actively share and attract traffic from a community that seeks relevancy and actionable information. Businesses will take content production seriously by investing in experienced or especially talented professionals that can connect the dots in a respective industry like no other. Blogs produced by companies from Moz to Buffer App are already demonstrating the influence of this approach to content – and we’d all be wise to follow in our niches. 7. Steve Susina, Marketing Director at Lyons Consulting Group – @ssusina When firms first started with content marketing, the goal for many was simply to get something produced. In 2014, marketers will be challenged to create content tailored to each stage of the buyer’s journey. Some content for top-of-funnel lead acquisition, different content to help with product selection, and still more for on-boarding and retention marketing. 8. Sara Flick, Manager of Content Strategy and PR for ZOG Digital - @ZOGDigital Google will start to rely more heavily on authorship and social signals to determine credibility and authenticity of content. Therefore, we expect more brands to recognize the value of content marketing as part of their digital strategies. As more brands and industries start utilizing content marketing, it will drive competition for users' interests. Starting to think through a content strategy early can help marketers solidify their place as a thought leader. 9. Diane K. Danielson, Chief Platform Officer of Sperry Van Ness International Corporation - @dianedanielson In 2014, smart content marketers will segment their messaging to reach distinct target markets. No more one size fits all. 10. Alessandra Ceresa, Director of Marketing at GreenRope - @MissAleCristina I believe that we are going to see an increase in B2B content marketing. More and more B2B companies are going to be developing highly specialized content as their means of gaining trust with leads, as well as offering a sense of expertise in their respective industries. Businesses will focus on content that will assist in the sales process, versus content for lead generation. 11. Leigh Ann Benicewicz, Senior Account Executive at LEWIS PR - @lewisprus Consumers shouldn’t, and won’t, tolerate multiple marketing channels. In 2014 they will laser focus on the platforms that matter and discard those that don’t. What does this mean for the big players? Will rumors of Facebook and Twitter’s slowing user growth cause them to lose their position as top dog? Or will they rebound with new features for marketing professionals? The answers are still up in the air, but I believe newer platforms, such as Pinterest and Instagram, will gain in popularity and importance. Meanwhile better known marketing platforms will find themselves in a survivor-style battle to stay relevant, with consumers readying their votes for who’s going and who’s staying. 12. Henry O’Loughlin, Marketing Manager at TakeLessons - @henryoloughlin A huge part of content marketing is capturing contact information through lead forms. Until now, if you filled out one lead form, you’d receive one content piece (whitepaper, eBook, etc.). In 2014, one form will get you access to all of the company’s gated content. Once marketers find an easier way to track behavior behind the scenes, the entire process will improve for everyone involved. 13. Kim Lombard, Founder of UPRISE Media - @UPRISEmedia Due to the most recent round of SEO updates, content marketing will only get more vital for businesses. Any businesses who were on the fence about the value of original content will officially convert, and any who don’t will be left in a vortex of third page Google searches. This will over-saturate the internet with content and make competing for the attention of your audience even more difficult. 14. Dave Rigotti, Senior Marketing Manager at Bizible - @drigotti
15. Richard De Pass, Managing Director at Spotlight Media and Publishing - @rdepass Developing the Brand Beyond Advertising Rather than simply displaying their products, smart businesses in 2014 will take their content marketing to new levels of interaction with prospects. Smart businesses will build relationships with future clients by using short form gifs, images and videos that introduce their business in an innovative way. By using sound, sight and motion to engage the attention of their audience, smart businesses will put themselves in the best postion to succeed. 16. Michael Shepherd, President/CEO of The Shepherd Group, Inc. - @shepherdgroup Content marketing in 2014 will feature more short-format video and rich-media executions. More video blogs will debut and marketers will find inspiration from big brands such as Coca-Cola’s Content 2020 initiative. 17. Wayne English, President of WebContentRx - @WebContentRx Content marketing will go down in flames unless businesses aren’t taught how to use it properly. The secret is to publish material that’s useful. Content marketing is not just another place to advertise. People will not consume content unless it’s pertinent, helpful, and well-constructed. As we like to say, “Your content will either get read, or get lost.” 18. Rachel Parker, Founder and CEO of Resonance Content Marketing - @resonancecont In 2014, small businesses will “bust out of the blog” and really start leveraging video, infographics, podcasting, and other formats formerly dominated by larger organizations. In embracing these formats, SMBs will be able to better leverage their closeness to their customers in delivering the right content to the right people, in the right place, at the right time, and in a format that fits their preferences. 19. Jessica L. Levin, President and Chief Connector of Seven Degrees Communications - @JessicaLevin In 2014 Content Marketing will start to be once again called "just marketing." Although companies will get better at hiring people who can produce content internally. I believe that tools like Facebook ads will evolve to help marketers better reach their target market with the right message at the right time so that rather than simply ads, valuable information will be shared and spread. These will be cheaper options than some of the marketing automation tools out there and should force those products to become more budget friendly. 20. Atchison Frazer, CMO of KEMPTech - @marchitexture The future of content marketing is all about data-driven content origination and curation that are optimized for organic SEO (nonPPC), highly relevant and targeted, that will redefine the Long Tail principle - isolating segment of one topical resonance profiles, not necessarily state of mind to buy profiles. Marketers will design and build their own ’nurturing stream’ software to customize and track results of content asset ”performance” in a systemic fashion. 21. Wayne Liew, Founder of Sprout Geek - @WayneLiew Businesses to start adopting analytical approaches to content marketing. As businesses spend more resources on content marketing, business owners and marketers will need to start measuring the effectiveness of different types of content using tools such as Google Analytics. This approach allows marketers to have a sense of direction when it comes to content creation and to justify their investment to management. 22. Boni Satani, SEO Specialist at Cygnet Infotech - @bonirulzz Content marketing is still limited to few content formats like articles and Infographics. Next year we may see great focus in creating different forms of content ranging from podcast, vblogs, quiz content and creative content format. The focus on creating long resourceful content will be back – as that in most of the cases it helps generates lots of value for users as well as publishers 23. Lori Feldman, President of The Database Diva - @lorifeldman Marketers will get better at database segmentation so they are able to develop more relevant content to more subgroups of their community, rather than a “one size fits all” effort. This will result in more engagement with their companies by more people. 24. Heather Carson, President and Co-Founder of Onboardly - @heatheranne This year, opinion will trump information in 2014. There seems to be a surge of more thought-based / in-your-face content emerging – whether or not it’s sourced adequately. Seeing less ‘how-to’s’ and ‘tips’ posts in favor of posts that inspire. People are using content to convince, rather than simply educate, more than ever. Those who will win in the end, will pair a powerful opinion with factual data. 25. Sam Ford, Director of Audience Engagement at Peppercomm - @Sam_Ford Companies will put increasing budget behind telling their own stories and will continue their evolution toward acting as content producers. Innovative organizations will treat creating engaging content as a company-wide initiative beyond just marketing that impacts every part of the business. As a result, emphasis will shift from the volume of content created toward the editorial direction of the company’s content as a whole and the continuity for the overall story the company is telling. 26. Kimberly Kurimski, Brand Manager for We Rock Your Web - @kkurimski I believe consumers will become more engaged on social media sites, video will be more prominent for businesses, humor will be the go-to for grabbing consumers' attention, and a higher percentage of people will access their content on a mobile platform. 27. Oliver White, Head of RebelLabs - @RebelLabs The key to successful content marketing in 2014 for the average company is in cultivating and transforming the knowledge & experience of specialists inside your organization into regular, meaningful contributions that educate, challenge and entertain your primary audience. This impacts business by creating a content ecosystem that highlights your expertise, relates (ideally) back to your commercial interests, and enables smoother conversions to product down the line with increased brand familiarity. 28. Emily Long, Online PR Specialist at Web Talent Marketing - @webtalentmktg Content marketing is all about the consumer's needs and user experience. It is a key part of capturing a consumer's attention — which is at an all-time premium in this digital age. With that in mind, we predict content marketing will play an absolutely vital role in achieving success as a digital marketer in 2014. We will see a decrease in contrived guest blogging and an increased number of marketers building valuable relationships with journalists for content creation. We also predict an increase in the importance of market research — businesses need to first understand who their audience members are and what they are looking for before implementing an effective content marketing strategy. 29. Carly Fauth, Director of Marketing and Outreach at Money Crashers - @MoneyCrashers Video and image-based content and infographics will occupy a greater space in the overall content marketing realm. Social media websites that promote that type of content, such as Pinterest and Instagram, will continue to improve in popularity. More content creation will be outsourced next year as well. Mobile content will also be more prevalent. Businesses must adjust their content marketing strategy to include these key elements if they want to be successful in 2014. 30. Hillary Berman, Small Business Fanatic and Founder of Popcorn & Ice-Cream - @popcornicecream With so much buzz surrounding content marketing, I expect small businesses and franchises will seek opportunities to license and share content. While creating original content can be time consuming, the risks associated with ”borrowed” content can be substantial. Third-party content is intentionally generic – often limiting relevance to any one business. Additionally, a quick Google search easily shows readers that one business’ content is identical to another. Content for content’s sake is useless. Businesses should stick to relevant content that provides real value and information of interest to their customers and followers for content marketing to prove its merits. 31. Jason Robbins, CEO of ePromos Promotional Products - @epromos All businesses need to be in the content game in 2014 – they can’t afford to sit it out anymore. Content is king, and in 2014, I expect marketers to use new mediums such as video to share content with their audiences. It’s all about educating and driving awareness in fresh, creative ways. 32. Rebecca Dubow, Account Coordinator at Opencommunications - @RebeccaDubow Brands will translate engagement into specific business metrics. Engagement will be measured content unit by content unit or campaign by campaign, and at a specific moment in time, rather than by aggregate measures over a period of time. The success of one piece of content might be measured by referral traffic while another piece might be measured by conversions. Likewise, social content and interactions will drive more readily to e-commerce platforms. 33. Kurt Andersen, Executive VP of Sales Enablement and Marketing at SAVO - @SAVO_Group Content marketing is hot, BUT – Marketers appreciate the metrics they receive from content marketing, but Forrester Research has found here's very little return on it − 80% of qualified nurtured leads don't move forward after the sales handoff. To be fair, this conversion rate isn't any better than what's realized through other means of marketing. In 2014, marketers will look at this trend closely and find a method to demonstrate ROI from content marketing initiatives.
34. Ian Fitzpatrick, Chief Strategy Officer, Almighty - @ianfitzpatrick I think 2014 is the year that more organizations adopt the idea that content isn't solely a marketing tool, but rather a form of product or service that they offer — an additional layer of utility or entertainment on top of the things they already deliver. Fundamentally, it will be a shift from the cynical — content as an acquisition tool — to the empowering — content as a tool for facilitating great customer experiences. 35. Derek Slayton, CMO of NetProspex – @NetProspex Content Marketing is just a fancy/trendy way to refocus marketing efforts on orienting everything around the customer viewpoint – and then using content strategies to create engagements that take THEIR view of the world and help shape it to enable them to see the value in the product or service your company is offering. That’s a long way of saying that content marketing is becoming the marketing department. So the industry will continue to thrive – and disappear at the same time. New capabilities will focus on creating interactions and conversations through content to drive deeper engagement (and help prescriptively navigate) as potential customers work their way through the buyer journey. 36. Corey Post , Founder of Agile Leverage - @coreypost Marketers will continue to embrace content marketing as they confront further Google updates – or penalties – and lack of keyword data. Those that create a well thought out content strategy – one that incorporates the voice of the consumer, relevant distribution channels, resource allocation, and "problem-solving content" – will, through considered implementation, have the opportunity to win big through higher lifetime value and ARPU, increased brand loyalty and decreased churn. 37. Adam Connell, Marketing Manager at UK Linkology – @AdamJayc As more and more businesses invest in content marketing more effort will be needed to cut through the noise, ultimately though it will give small businesses a chance to use their expertise to craft great content that will enable them to become an authority within their market sector and grow their business. 38. Rich Blackwell, Creative Lead at Metia - @BlackwellRich Simply pushing content to your customers isn't a successful marketing tactic; you must consider how they're likely to respond, give them the means to do so, and embrace it. Understanding the fundamentals of two-way communications will pay off. Two-way communications occur when content is pushed out to be consumed with the expectation and means for recipients to respond, for example, a tweet or a post within a group discussion on LinkedIn. 39. Michelle Garrett, Owner of Garrett Public Relations - @PRisUs Content marketing is all the rage and will continue to be in 2014, which is shaping up to be the 'year of content marketing'! This is good news for PR pros, who are steeped in creating content with press releases, blogs and customer stories, as well as through media relations which generates news articles—which, of course, creates even more content to use in your marketing. 40. Alex Boyce, Chief Strategy Officer at Woven Digital - @alexboyce “Content marketing is becoming inherently more social – as adoption continues to increase and users are turning to mobile devices as their 'first-screen' experience, the ability of content creators and businesses to reach them is contingent upon providing an easy, elegant and authentic experience. Businesses who fail to focus on mobile will fall behind in 2014 and those that embrace platform-agnostic content syndication and tie it back to a user's social graph will emerge as winners. 41. Neil Myers, President of Connect Marketing – @connectpr Many people are focusing on 2014 being the year of content marketing. That's not really true – content marketing reached critical mass over the past few years. What we are seeing with our clients is how content marketing is effecting how marketers perceive, value and create content. Take video. Companies historically have used video to push what they wanted to say to their prospects. Content marketing is changing that by encouraging marketers to focus more on what their prospect wants to learn about. That means in 2014 we'll see less talking head interviews from executives, and more chalk talks, customer case studies and tutorials. Or, how about infographics? Whereas past infographics have focused on putting colorful graphics next to statistics, content marketing demands a narrative. We're seeing infographics shift to visual stories as opposed to pretty pictures with numbers. And it is not just content style, but also content volumes. Companies have moved from a focus on occasional videos to trying to keep their video channel pipelines full. Overall, we see 2014 as the year content gains purpose. 42. Amanda Elam, Marketing Director at EarthIntegrate - @EarthIntegrate The future of content marketing is entirely dependent on and driven by the consumer. The more information they want and the faster they want it will determine which brands succeed and which fail based on their availability to match their consumers need for information. The faster and more local a brand can make their content, the more business that brand will win. We believe brands are going to begin focusing on meeting this need by embracing technology like distributed marketing platforms in order to allow for the fast, hyper localization of their content. 43. Andrew Caravella, VP of Marketing at Sprout Social – @andrewcaravella From brands across many industries, I think we’ll see a needed increase in strategic, relevant content that centers around social customer care. Beyond reactive responses to sensitive issues like a delayed flight or mixed up food order, brands will take a more proactive approach to content that anticipates audience needs. They’ll create and deliver content, ideally using various mediums, that answer questions, provide resources and stimulate helpful dialogue to increase repeat conversations and ongoing customer engagement. 44. Vincent Dipas, Partner at Agency 33 – @Agency33 In 2014, content will make/break purchase decisions. There will be an unforgiving expectation that content is engaging *and* diversified (by type e.g. written, audio, video, as well as by channel/platform e.g. social (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) and/or freemium download (webinar, whitepaper, e-book, etc.), Additionally, consumers will demand content is accessible on any/all technologies at hand *and* optimized for each/all technologies. SEO results will depend on content more than ever before. 45. Angela Shugarts, PR Strategist at Frankly Communications – @angelashugarts The future of content marketing will be less about recycling content from what’s available in the digital ecosystem and more about personal stories that establish an emotional connection with customers. Content that is humorous, sad, joyful, or just plain weird resonates with customers more than snappy catchphrases or memes. Unlike fleeting digital trends, content marketing strategy in 2014 will be focused on getting to know the local customer, his family, and his dog…where they shop, where they eat, and how technology plays a part in their individual lifestyle. Multiply this strategy by billions and you’ve got yourself a solid andmeaningful content marketing strategy for 2014. 46. Devan Brown, Content Specialist at Anvil Media – @devan_brown2
47. Shahed Ahmed, Vice President of Content Strategies at Merritt Group - @shahed4 The importance of good content is going nowhere. Whether via search today, or the semantic web tomorrow, customers will look for and find only the quality, relevant content. In 2014, more marketers will realize that quality and relevance, and not channel-hopping, is the key to great content marketing. Relevance will mean the need for better analytics of customer behavior and needs. And, quality will mean building a narrative that is customer-focused and shareable. 48. Joseph Bachana, President and Founder of DPCI - @joebachana In order for content marketing initiatives to succeed in 2014, marketing executives will need to align their strategy with the right set of supporting content technologies. By integrating digital asset, content management, and workflow management technology, organizations will be able to more effectively deliver well-curated content across multiple channels. 49. Brian Tervo, President & CEO of TIE Kinetix - @TIEKinetix Organizations will take advantage of content marketing to drive lead generation and thought leadership for their brand, especially when delivering partner programs with a channel community. Channel syndication solutions are one way to support the distribution side of the content marketing strategy. Syndication gives partner marketers the control to influence the entire marketing and sales funnel, from awareness and engagement through to user experience and support. And, since it's automated, it allows partners to focus their time on selling. 50. Cliff Pollan, CEO and founder of Postwire - @cliffpollan In 2014, sales applauds marketing as they actively use marketing’s content to close deals. Thanks to analytics linking reps’ content sharing activities to revenue recognition, marketing will ensure their latest and greatest content is put directly in the hands of their sales team, rather than relying primarily on marketing automation systems to disseminate it. Reps will personalize the content for each prospect to create more meaningful discussions and close deals. What are your predictions on the future of Content Marketing? Share them in the comment section below. Click here for more 2014 predictions.  |
| 5 Things You Might Not Know About Content Marketing Posted: 21 Dec 2013 01:00 PM PST Whether you've been running a content marketing campaign for months or years, you might be surprised to learn a few facts you don't know. Take a look at these five little known realities which relate to the content you're creating and use them to boost your content marketing strategy… 1. Your Fans Want Good Content More Than You Think:Sure, you want good content — but did you know your fans want it, too? According to Content Plus, interesting content is actually one of the top three reasons people follow brands online. That means the content you're creating and sharing is about more than SEO or branding — it's about drawing an audience that's waiting for you. What kind of content is good content? "90 percent of customers find custom content useful," says Kevin Alley at PR Daily. In other words, they want to see highly relevant, customized data that relates to your industry and speaks to their needs. Consider these examples of creative, interesting, custom content marketing:West Elm: This home goods store makes the most of the holidays for its customers with December sales, seasonal blog posts, and a Facebook album showcasing its 20% off sale, for example. Home Depot: Home Depot is a retail store on top of its content marketing campaigns. From its seasonal Pinterest boards to its regularly updated blog filled with DIY tricks, this company constantly offers custom content to its followers. Hubspot: Inbound marketing software company HubSpot uses custom landing pages to connect with followers and promote its products. Tollhouse: Drawing on its target audience's values and interests, Tollhouse ran the clever "Bake the World a Better Place" campaign, which involved commercials that showcased heartfelt baking moments. As these examples demonstrate, there are many formats to content marketing, from blog posts to videos to social media updates. What they all have in common is an understanding of audience and a crafting of content based on that. 2. Content Marketing Is about Engagement:Sure, you might think you know this one already — but does your content marketing show it? Far too many brands get lost churning out content without a purpose, despite 68% believing engagement is their top priority. If you post months of creative blog posts but no one sees them, what good are you accomplishing? If you churn out interesting boards on Pinterest but your audience doesn't respond to it, you're not meeting your goals. So how can you increase engagement in content marketing? Consider the following tips: a) Be More Interesting: The single biggest step you can take to increase traffic and connect with fans is also the hardest: Be more interesting. Do some casual market research and look at companies in your industry engaging well with fans — What are they writing about? How are they doing it? And, most importantly, how can you be more interesting than that? b) Promote Your Content: Before someone can engage with your content, he or she has to know it exists. So to boost traffic and views, QuickSprout recommends emailing your content the day it goes out (via newsletter or promotional email with landing page), posting it to social media (Tweeting three or four times throughout the week, posting to Google+, posting to Facebook, pinning photos, etc.). They also recommend regularly connecting with other bloggers (and occasionally emailing them personally about something you've posted), and making promotion a daily activity. c) Respond to Readers: Whenever possible, when someone @replies you on Twitter, comments on a blog post, or reshares your Facebook post, respond. When someone asks you a question, answer it. This is the key for building community and engagement around your brand. 3. Leveraging the Power of Influencers Expands Your Reach:When you want your content marketing to reach farther (and, let's be honest, who doesn't?), you need to leverage the power of the influencers. Find the people in your industry — bloggers, authors, social media big-wigs, etc.—with large, engaged audiences, and find ways to connect with them. 4. Growing an Audience is Hard Work:Large audiences are not born overnight. They come through consistent, high-quality work, plain and simple. So put your nose to the grindstone day after day, growing your content skills, and eventually your work will show it. 5. It's Not about You; It's about Them:"One of the biggest mistakes I see in the online world is people making their engagement efforts all about themselves," says SrinivasRao at Search Engine Journal. If you want to write content that converts visitors into customers, you've got to write content that's about your audience. Instead of writing about your company and your products, write about the rewards that they bring to your audience. Make your content about them instead of you, and you make it powerful. Your ThoughtsHow could you implement the information in this post into your content marketing efforts from now on? What changes will you make? What other facts about content marketing do you consider to be little known? Please leave your comments below.  |
| Why Your Marketing Strategy Failed Posted: 21 Dec 2013 12:00 PM PST As any honest, seasoned marketer will admit, we've all participated in campaigns which fizzled – campaigns that didn't produce results to match our expectations and expenditures of time and money. The question one has to ask oneself at these times is what do you do about it? Before I give you my answer, let me illustrate it with a story. I've launched and marketed five companies during my career: four were successful and one was a spectacular failure. It consumed more dollars in startup capital than the other four combined, ran at a loss for its entire life, and kept me awake every night for the five years of its existence. But here's the thing: that one company taught me more about marketing than the other 4 put together simply because it was a failure. When you guess correctly that something will work and it does, you don't really understand why it did, you simply enjoy the result. When it doesn't work and you agonize over why it didn't, you learn something even if it's just what doesn't work. When a campaign doesn't work, when it fails to do what you need or want it to do, your choices as a marketer are to:
The sad truth is that in the more than 30 years I've been doing this, I've found that the above list is the actual order in which most people deal with marketing failures. And part of this is because, until recently, marketers did not have much data to analyze in the manner I'm suggesting. We're the folks, after all, who've been known to say half of my marketing budget is wasted; I just don't know which half, right? But with Inbound Marketing and Automation systems able to provide priceless insight for free, there's no excuse today for not using data to pinpoint marketing failures. Perhaps it's because marketers just don't know that today's Marketing Automation systems accumulate data which reveals: · the actual page of your website where the prospect lost interest and left · which online (and yes, even print) ads engage people and which turn them off · the calls to action which prompted the right actions versus those which failed to convert visitors to prospects. With today's Marketing Automation systems you can (and should) calculate the Return on Marketing Investment of every campaign. You can (and should) do a post mortem of every campaign to establish why it worked (if it did), or why it didn't work (if it didn't). You should not guess, or pray, and you certainly should not hire an expensive expert who will also guess or pray. You really should use real data on your very own prospect's behavior to create campaigns that really work. Today's marketing automation systems can be had from as little as $200 a month so please don't tell me it's too expensive to try. If you're not using data to drive your marketing process towards ever improving results, what are you waiting for? One thing is certain: in today's competitive environment and with marketing spend under a closer and more exacting scrutiny; if you don't start using science instead of intuition, you're not going to compete effectively for much longer. So I'll ask again: what are you waiting for? Good luck with it all. Image via Shutterstock  |
| Is a Memorable Customer Experience a Differentiator? Posted: 21 Dec 2013 10:00 AM PST Differentiating Customer Experience |
| 23 Tools to Optimize WordPress for Search & Conversions Posted: 21 Dec 2013 09:30 AM PST WordPress has revolutionized the way bloggers and businesses create websites, publish content, and build a cohesive online presence. Because this platform makes it so much faster, easier, and cheaper to put up a website, there are a lot more blogs and websites for you to compete with these days. That's why it's vital for you to optimize your site as much as possible, so you can increase conversion rates and boost traffic. Use these tools and resources to optimize your WordPress website for more conversions and traffic so you can leave the competition in the dust. SEOThere are two ways to increase the total number of conversions on your website: increasing the number of visitors, and increasing the proportion of those visitors who convert. While SEO is mainly about increasing traffic, when done right it also contributes to conversions. Make sure your WordPress website has complete and robust SEO optionsThis means choosing a premium theme or installing top-quality plugins. Two of the best SEO plugins for WordPress are:
Use persuasive, descriptive meta titles and descriptions to encourage searchers to click through from SERPs and social media to your site. Strong meta data reels in the most interested and qualified visitors, so it helps you get more traffic and can help boost conversion rates. Submit a sitemap so search engines crawl all the pages of your siteWhile you can submit your sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Toolsmanually, it's much easier to use the XML Sitemaps plugin. This tool automatically updates your sitemap and pings Google, Bing, and Ask.com whenever you update your site. The more the search engines crawl your site, the better your website tends to rank in search results. This also ensures searchers find updated, useful content, attracting not just more traffic, but more qualified traffic. Don't forget to make your sitemap available on your website, so visitors can use it to easily find what they're looking for. This makes your site more usable, which contributes to higher conversion rates (and makes search engines like your site even more). Setup breadcrumbsIncluding breadcrumbs is easy with the Yoast Breadcrumbs plugin. Search engines love them because they build strong internal links. Visitors love them because make navigating your website a breeze. By creating a better user experience, you get stronger SEO and higher conversions. Take advantage of tags and categoriesOne of the best things about WordPress is that it quickly and easily makes silos and subpages for you, which creates keyword- and content-rich pages that search engines like and which help visitors find what they're looking for. Here are 3 ways to make the most of your tags and categories:
Analytics and TestingTesting and measuring are critical for conversion optimization for every website. The following tools make analytics and testing easier for WordPress sites in particular. Start using analyticsIf you're not already using an analytics platform, create a Google Analytics account today! It's free and gives you lots of data and customization options. Without an analytics platform, you won't know what your conversion rate is or have any ideas of what to change to improve it. Compile data from multiple analytics toolsFor getting control over the numerous analytics tools out there I use segment.io. It makes it much cleaner to integrate and turn on / off various analytics solutions such as KISSMetrics, Mixpanel, or CrazyEgg. They have a correlating wordpress plugin that makes it super simple to integrate. Test, test, test!To conduct split tests and multivariate tests, you can use the powerful (and pricey) suites likeOptimizely (with its plugin) or Visual Website Optimizer (and its plugin) for any WordPress site. These are best for large websites and businesses who do lots of testing to improve both overall conversions and specific, smaller goals. Often you'll be testing variations of full pages instead of a small tweak here and there. If that's the case most of the time for you, the Market Optimizer plugin might be more cost effective. For basic do-it-yourself A/B testing, Google Analytics offers Google Content Experiments, and there's a plugin to make it easy to use. Speed up your websiteThere are lots of ways to improve site speed and performance, and some of them can get pretty technical. But making your WordPress website as fast as possible can have a big impact on conversions, since visitors aren't going to wait around for a page to load. The faster the site loads, the more visitors you'll retain, giving you more traffic to convert and more chances to convert them. First, figure out how fast your site currently is with Google PageSpeed Insights and the Pingdom Website Speed Test. Using multiple speed test tools gives you a more accurate picture of your site's current speed. This benchmark will help you see progress. The easiest way to improve site speed is to remove unnecessary plugins and code. Test again to verify any changes in speed. If removing extraneous plugins didn't improve your site speed, or if your WordPress website is still slow, the next tricks to try are caching, content delivery network, deleting revisions, and offloading static content. Check out these resources to learn more about speeding up your website:
WordPress Conversion Optimization Tools for Specific Pages and ElementsSo far we've covered tools that affect the conversion optimization of your entire WordPress site. But there are plenty of individual places on your website that also need to be optimized for conversions. Here are the tools I recommend for these important specific pages and elements. Boost form conversion ratesGravity Forms is an excellent plugin for creating robust forms, and it's easy to optimize for conversions. With one client we implemented the following recommendations and saw conversion rate for the form increase by 50%.
Sell more with ecommerce pluginsIf you want to turn your WordPress website into an ecommerce platform, the right plugin makes it easy and boosts conversions. Digital Access Pass is a popular and relatively comprehensive plugin used to sell digital products and content on WordPress. Check out the stuff in the forums around integration with Google Analytics to make the most of it. Build landing pagesLanding pages help you improve conversion rates by focusing on a single goal and eliminating choices that distract visitors from that goal. OptimizePress is a theme with corresponding plugin designed to make it easier to create landing pages on WordPress websites. LeadPages is another powerful landing page builder with full WordPress integration. More WordPress Conversion Optimization Tools and TipsIn addition to the tools explained above, these conversion plugins can help you conduct small split tests, make your calls-to-action more visible, and more. Investigate them fully before installing, and make sure to verify the data they give you with other analytics programs so you can make the best conversion-boosting decisions. Tools can only get you so far in your quest to optimize conversions on your WordPress site. Titles, images, colors, copy and more should all be tested as well. This post from Six Revisions outlines several more ways you can optimize your WordPress website for both search engines and conversions. What conversion optimization tools have you used on your WordPress site? Share in the comments!  |
| Social Gifting Startup Giveter Raises First Round Of Funding Posted: 21 Dec 2013 07:10 AM PST Social gifting space in India finds support from investors. According to Techcircle, Relevant e-solutions Pvt. Ltd. the startup behind Giveter, an interest based social gifting over Facebook, has raised its first round of funding from a group of investors. Though the exact amount remains undisclosed, Avinash Saxena, Co Founder, Giveter, shared that it is just under $500,000 (or less than Rs 3.1 crore). The first round of investment has been led by Binny Bansal, Co Founder, Flipkart, Anand Lunia-led seed fund India Quotient and 5ideas Startup Superfuel, an early stage venture capital initiative launched by Pearl Uppal and Gaurav Kachru. The Gurgaon based company launched last year in August was earlier reviewed by us. The platform allows you to shop smartly over the web and suggests you with gifts for your friends on Facebook depending upon your interests and activities It has also announced the launch of its second venture-Roposo, a similar recommendation engine focused on fashion category. The couple of weeks old Roposo will work on the same algorithm as Giveter and help users find fashion products based on their liking. Talking to TC, Avinash informed that the idea to introduce a second platform in the same niche gives the ability to provide both platforms justified presence. The company does not want to compromise on both categories. The funds raised will be used to build the technology and enhance awareness of the brand among users. It will also be used to build a team that would help build algorithms, improve user interface and UX and marketing. The year old company is already getting close to 300,000 people on Giveter every month. Going further the startup wants to focus on user acquisition for both the platforms. It is good to see the investment fraternity backing the social gifting space in India, especially after Delhi based social gifting startup, Giftology owned and operated by Sama Web Innovations Pvt Ltd., had to shut shop due to differences in the relationship of Founder and Investor over returns the space could generate.  |
| 2013: Where Are We At With CRM, Customer Experience and Customer-Centricity? Posted: 21 Dec 2013 07:00 AM PST What can we learn from Havas Media's 2013 Meaningful Brands survey?For me, the highlights from the survey report are:
It would appear that the case for making a shift towards a 'meaningful brand' is compelling according to Havas Media and yet most brands do not show up as meaningful. This shows up as interesting for me given all the talk-spend on brand, branding and brand building. Let's shift perspective and take a look at the situation through the eyes of Customer Experience. What is the state of Customer Experience at the end of 2013?In her November post, "Sucking Less" is Not a #CX Strategy, Annette wrote: "Are organizations seeing the value of delivering a great customer experience? Clearly they pay lip service, but we know that actions speak louder than words. Do they really get it? No. There's no real commitment of time, resources, and budgets to initiatives that improve the customer experience. I spend a lot of time talking to prospects and clients about how to sell the value of customer experience to company leaders. It's so disheartening ….." My experience resonates with Annette's. And our experience is not unique – talk with Customer Experience professionals and you get a taste of how difficult it is to move the Customer Experience ball beyond conducting VoC surveys and collating-publishing the results. So what is going on here? If Tops are VCs and Customer Experience is seen as investment then the Tops do not see the value of investing in Customer Experience ventures. What is the state of CRM at the end of 2013?It occurs to me that large established companies have spent large sums of money in the name of CRM – usually in procuring and implementing so called CRM systems. What is there to show for this investment in terms of generating superior value for customers and cultivating meaningful profitable relationships with customers? As I look around I find that the single customer view is just as elusive today as it was when Siebel was promising it, through the adoption of its CRM suite, back in 1999. The gulf between the talk and the reality continues to stun me. So many companies still struggle to work out the totality of their relationships (products purchased, interactions) with their customers. I notice that many marketing, sales and service (customer, field) processes are just as broken today as they were in 1999. Why? Because too many people implemented CRM to automate the existing way of doing business. It occurs to me that the challenge of getting the marketing, sales and service folks to genuine work together to build meaningful relationships with customers is beyond almost all companies. These functions and the people in them continue to work in silos, pursue their functional objectives, and work to their particular style. I notice that the state of fragmentation within the marketing function is higher today than in 1999 due to the proliferation of digital channels. Marketing has become so complex that a whole industry, marketing automation, has grown up with the aim of automating marketing with a view to taking the complexity out of it. Why do organisations continue to grapple with the same challenges despite their investments in CRM and Customer Experience?Having been in the field since 1999 I am struck about how little has really changed despite all the changes that have occurred outside and inside organisations. What is going on here? Why is this the case? It occurs to me that most of that which has taken place in the areas of CRM and Customer Experience has occurred in the domain of doing. And this doing has arisen from the same old domain of being. And as such, the mode of being has poisoned-corrupted all the doing. How best to illustrate this? Think King Midas. Whatever King Midas touched it became gold. Being has that kind of power: every action is tainted with the being that gives rise to it. Yet, those who have walked the CRM and Customer Experience path have been oblivious to this corruption because the the current style of showing up in the world is so taken for granted that it is invisible to us: "The way of life of a culture is not an explicit set of beliefs held by the people living in it. It is much deeper than that. A person brought up in a culture learns its way of life the way he learns to speak in the language and with the accent of his family and peers. But a way of life is much broader than this. It involves a sense for how it is appropriate and inappropriate to act in each of the social situations one normally encounters; a familiarity with how to make sense of things and of how to act in the everyday world; and most general of all, a style, such as aggressive or nurturing, that governs the actions of the people in the culture although they are normally not aware of it. We can think of it as a cultural commitment that, to govern people's behaviour, must remain in the background, unnoticed but pervasive and real." - All Things Shining, Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly This sense of the being, of the default 'style', of organisations (and the people who work in them) is spelled out clearly by Vik Maraj in an interview published on the Huffington Post where he talks about the challenge of transforming the not for profit sector: "Question: What is the over-arching challenge in the not for profit sector? Answer: We act mostly inside of a context of charity not empowerment. Very few people are "learning to fish". And this is a societal issue not just a not for profit issue. Question: With respect to the not for profit sector, what is the truth that we don't want to talk about? Answer. We compete with each other with a smile on. We protect ourselves. And we collaborate in an opportunistic way. And the game is rigged such that this behaviour is almost inevitable. And the rigging is usually done by a decades old governmental policy……. At first some of the obvious challenges are a lack of funding, a lack of resources, a lack of volunteers, turnover, a lack of being valued, lower salaries, lack of training and development, lack of policy, political unwillingness, the economy, etc. There are many more that I have not mentioned and what they all have in common is that none of them are the real problem. Question: What's the real problem, and what's the answer? Answer: The real problem is that we don't collaborate and align our vast, often duplicated resources, talents, and mandates, to have a collective voice. Collaboration is both a missing mindset as well as a missing process. We mostly define collaboration as "getting together". As one of our clients said, "[we act as] independent islands chipping away at symptoms". Almost all transformative change started with a series of small groups led by a few courageous people. They came together to tell the truth to one another, did the tough work to get over their differences, and then whole-heartedly went after an intolerable circumstance that each could not surmount on their own! The answer is to move from a "me or you" mindset to a "me and you mindset" and to stop pretending that we are always noble or even often noble! Question: If this is the answer, at least one powerful answer – so then why aren`t we doing it? Answer: Good question. Given the common goals, overlapping skillsets, and in many cases overlapping client bases and services, why aren't we truly collaborating and coming together to increase the power of our voice and share resources, information, and talent? Why? The answer is that there is too much self-interest and survival thinking to allow for this. Making it and surviving forms an almost inescapable context within which people operate. If you are awake and have any lived experience of the for profit sector you will see the parallels. Summing up, excellence in CRM and Customer Experience requires a transformation in the character (being) of organisations (and the people in the organisations especially the Tops) not just a change of clothes to project a more 'customer friendly' personality. This is a challenge that few have taken on wholeheartedly – arguably the CRM and Customer Experience fixes were actions designed to bypass the need for a genuine shift in being, in transforming from extractive capitalism to conscious capitalism.  |
| Social Media is ESSENTIAL: 2014 Trends Posted: 21 Dec 2013 05:15 AM PST
Brian Solis: "This year marked social media's move into the mainstream. Social media is now part of our fabric of society, like mobile phones and computers — it's a staple of our everyday life." SMM continues to expand exponentially and you should be on board with the 2014 trends; otherwise you may just be shouting noise with a plugged up megaphone or simply lost at sea. Since its inception, SMM has exploded the opportunities and platforms for both B2B and B2C. The online digital office provides YOU with a GLOBAL reach but only with the right strategy and planning for your brand. It is a mandatory tool for businesses of all sizes. You can't NOT have a presence if you want to be found, talked about, and grow your revenue. You will want to be "linked in so you are not left out." 2013 offered a great deal of tools, tips, platforms, and innovations, but what still stood out? Content Marketing! It is a must have, must do, in your marketing arsenal. Uberflip's infographic clearly outlines the trends and potential for CM. Remarkable content reaches your audience. It is shared. It is talked about. It has the potential to reach pain points and have an impact on your buyer. As one of the main 2014 trends, you need to consider how YOU will bump up your efforts, your blogging, your website and all of your content, to seize the attention of your audience. If you don't, your competition will be serving the entree. In a recent study by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute their results demonstrated that 93% B2B organizations now use content-based tactics for their marketing promotions and 73% specified they now produce more content than the previous year! Other projected social media trendsJustin Pearse:
Juliet Stott:
Ben Barone-Nugent:
Jayson DeMers:
TwinEngine
WOW Isn't that an extensive list of social media projections!? How can a business possibly manage to stay on top of the trends, research the current tips, tools and best practices, never mind maintain all of the social platforms? It sounds so painful and extremely time consuming when you need to run your business, attend to your clients, troubleshoot and every other day to day task. That is just way too much for one person to consider. BUT what if you had a team? A vested partner perhaps to help you:
While you are very cognizant of the FACT that social media is a necessity for your business, it may not represent the best use of your valuable skills and talents. It isn't your core genius! Your passion! Your job! BUT it is a requirement to help promote your online marketing efforts and generate income.  |
| The 2014 Buzzword That Will Transform Customer Service Delivery Posted: 20 Dec 2013 07:50 PM PST
As customer satisfaction scores continue their descent (from 82.1% in 2011 to 77.6% in 2013/14) alongside first contact resolution rates (from 85.2% in 2009 to 73.1% in 2013/14), there is a change in organization, business processes and vocabulary that will need to take place from "contact center" to "customer engagement center." The move to put engagement ahead of service efficiency is a change that almost every department is beginning to get behind. A recent executive survey found that customer engagement is the top concern keeping CMOs up at night, and under that customer engagement umbrella falls creating sustainable and engaging customer relationships and providing an effective customer experience. More Than Words What will it take for contact centers to become customer engagement centers? It's much more than just semantics. While contact centers have evolved to serve customers via phone, email, support ticket and perhaps a few other channels, customer engagement centers will centralize all channels and their analytics to go beyond customer service to a customer experience. According to Gartner's definition, a customer engagement center (CEC) refers to "a logical set of technologies and business applications that are engineered to provide customer service and support, regardless of the interaction (or engagement) channel. The goal of the CEC is not only to provide service to customers as they move among communications channels — including social media and community forums — while retaining the customers' context, but also to deliver the appropriate business rule to determine the next best action, information or process with which to engage the customers." Notes Gartner VP and Distinguished Analyst Michael Maoz, "by 2015, organizations that have not embraced the concept of the customer engagement center will lose customers to competitors that have." According to the 2013/2014 Dimension Data Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report, there's a lot of work to be done to transform the average contact center. The survey of more than 800 participants across 11 industries shows that only 32% of those surveyed have a social customer service offering, 29% an SMS capability, 28% chat support and 20%, a smartphone offering. But there are brands that are leading the charge in the change. Earlier this month, GM announced the official opening of a Customer Engagement Center on its GM Technical Center campus, where business consolidations will bring 300 advisors and 35 GM managers to the state-of-the-art facility by the end of the year. "We recognize that our front line of customer advisors is directly connected to our bottom line," said Alicia Boler-Davis, senior vice president Global Customer Experience and Product Quality. "Instead of focusing on closing cases as quickly as possible, we're focused on listening to our customers and satisfying them as quickly as possible." The Start of Something Big With analysts promoting the transformation from "contact center" to "customer engagement center" (read Michael Maoz' The Beginnings of the CRM Customer Engagement Center or Elizabeth Herrell's Are Contact Centers Becoming Obsolete?), will big brands embrace it? With customer satisfaction and first contact resolution displacing agent call handling capacity as the top indicator of 2013/14 contact center operational performance, hopefully it will generate some buzz.  |
| 5 Social Media Predictions For 2014 Posted: 20 Dec 2013 06:15 AM PST As you're beginning to wind down and get ready to stuff your face and put your feet up this Christmas, chances are, if you're in the digital industry, you'll be looking forward to how social media will evolve over the next twelve months and which big changes will shake up the industry. So I'm sure you've already noticed, but we're extremely opinionated here at Bubble, so I thought I'd follow in Amy's footsteps (who made her SEO predictions here) and throw my two cents in on the ever-changing world of social media. Without further ado, here are my top 5 social media predictions for 2014: 1.) Snapchat as a Promotional Tool Snapchat has amazing marketing potential – and we'll see a huge uptake of the app by companies over the next 12 months. Now that Facebook is out of the frame (I'll come on to that later), there's space for a new social media platform to come in and offer itself as an exciting and new way for companies to market their brand. The great thing about Snapchat is that it offers an exclusive and personal way of connecting with your audience, and with 30 million active users, it's not really a social platform that can be ignored. Plus, any company that turns down a $3 billion offer from Facebook gets a huge thumbs up from the Bubble team! 2.) The Death of Facebook With its ever-changing algorithms and money-grabbing isolation of brands, it won't be a huge surprise to see a massive decrease in active users on the world's largest social network. Now, I know it's painfully obvious that I'm not a huge fan of Facebook on this blog, but the response to this post about their push of paid advertising at the expense of SMEs has led me to believe that the site will see an overwhelming loss of activity on brand pages as their managers refuse to pay for advertising on a dying platform. Best come up with Plan B, eh Zuckerberg? 3.) Increase in Social Media Advertising Over the past few weeks, we've noticed lots of e-mails from Twitter pushing their promoted tweets etc (nothing to do with their float on the stock market, I'm sure…), and with Pinterest's promoted pins launching in October, LinkedIn's sponsored updates and Facebook's dedication to forcing businesses to pay-to-play, 2014 is going to hit SMEs the hardest in terms of social media marketing as they try and compete with the big brands for visibility. No longer is it enough to create great content and engage with your existing fans on a personal basis, you've got to pay for it. And don't get me started on Facebook's auto-playing video ads in news feeds, that's more for my next point… 4.) Visual, Visual, Visual With the rise of Instagram, Snapchat and Vine, a surge in popularity of Pinterest and Twitter integrated pictures on feeds, 2014 is definitely the year for visual marketing. Any social media manager worth their salt knows that pictures and videos get a higher engagement than other content, and social media platforms know this too, so that will only increase over the next 12 months. And with Facebook jumping on the bandwagon (as ever) with auto-playing videos ads in timelines, there will be no getting away from it next year. The great thing about visual content is that it's short, easily consumable and very easy to create. Plus. with YouTube being the second most popular search engine after Google – there's no way you can afford to ignore it in your 2014 marketing strategy. 5.) Increase in Employees Using Social Media As social media becomes an increasingly vital part of any company's marketing strategy, it won't be a surprise to see more and more employees being trained in creating and sharing social media content. I would expect them to be coached as brand ambassadors, giving a company more of a voice as they strive for a more personal approach to social media marketing. Employees may be asked to contribute more to blogs, engage with customers on behalf of the company and have input on the content being shared on various platforms. This will give employees more responsibility and encourage them to be more interested in a company's identity. So there we have it, my top 5 social media prediction for 2014. Of course, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Do you agree with my predictions or do you have some of your own?  |
Social media marketing is not fading away. As 2013 comes to a swift close, SM Marketers are looking back at the year in review and projecting some potential future trends for the coming year.
Omni-channel, customer experience, big data, little data, Nexus of Forces – all of these words and phrases will continue to generate buzz as we head into 2014, but there's one that will dominate the customer service landscape (or so we hope) in the new year, and that's customer engagement center.
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