This article originally appeared on CoreyPadveen.com.
There are a few important changes LinkedIn needs to make in order to save itself from a disastrous fate.
If you happened to catch a glimpse of LinkedIn’s stock price over the last week or so, you might have noticed a straight line downwards on Friday February 5th. That wasn’t a glitch; LinkedIn’s stock price has fallen by over 40% (at the time of writing) since it announced lower-than-expected earnings and lowered projections for the coming year. Investors are losing their patience.
Despite having a great core product (which LinkedIn very much still does) many of the efforts of the professional network to expand have not yielded strong results. In fact, in a lot of respects, those expansion efforts have rather resulted in an almost ‘worst case scenario’ outcome.
This is not to say that LinkedIn has missed the mark every time it has done something; the acquisition of SlideShare in 2012, for example, was a brilliant move and continues to be among its best. But some of the more universal oversights have cost the network dearly, and there are a few pain points that need to be addressed as soon as possible in order to end the slide into penny stock status (though that’s still a long way off – we hope).
Spamalot Central
Facebook is consistently working on its algorithm in order to ensure that the content you see is what is most relevant to you. The result has been quarter-over-quarter growth in average session time, engagement per post, engagement per user, and more metrics that have come into existence since the advent of social media in the world of marketing.
LinkedIn has taken a slightly different approach.
In order to encourage engagement among its users, InMail exists (which guarantees a user will see the message). Of course, users pay for that privilege, but is accommodating the users who pay for mass (spam) messages like that really worth the detriment that does on the user experience as a whole?
How often do you receive unsolicited messages on LinkedIn offering to sell you traffic, invest in a business opportunity, or, in some cases, enlarge or enhance something? In the last month alone, I’ve been included on over a dozen chain-style message threads (another issue) from users (and including users) with whom I’ve never connected. I pay close attention to who I allow into my professional circle, but all that seems to factor into is my feed content, and has no influence on what kind of trash I’m sent from peddling affiliates.
A better spam filtration system needs to be put in place by LinkedIn and it needs to be put in place fast. More and more users (as exhibited by time on site and people I’ve spoken to) are using LinkedIn for little more than a place to host a resume and highlight some skills, rather than a network where actual business can get done. These filters don’t need to be all that complicated either for them to work (and improve the experience).
First, these kinds of promotional messages (and chain messages) should be restricted to second or third points of contact. Introductions (with character limits or standard content set by LinkedIn) should be the ONLY content that non-connections are allowed to send at the outset. If someone send me something along the lines of, “Thanks for connecting, I look forward to talking to you a little bit more about how we might be able to work together!” I’ll be significantly more likely to look through his or her profile, see what it is they do and, if I see potential, engage with the user and open up a professional dialogue.
I wonder what kind of horrific return these affiliates and marketers see when they purchase InMail packages and generate nothing. That might be a nice short term gain for the network, but as we have seen with this year’s earnings reports, it’s not a solution.
Improved Ad Dashboards
Advertising is any social network’s (even a professional one’s) bread and butter. So, as we’ve seen with Facebook – the shining example of social advertising that marketers love – constant improvements should be made to a dashboard in order to make it simpler, more effective and more evolved. This is an area where LinkedIn has really struggled.
As someone who has been involved in social advertising for years now, it is not hard to tell which network (of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) has seen the slowest evolution in its ads platform. As Facebook and Twitter have introduced new capabilities and made the management of campaigns and creative much more efficient, LinkedIn has done little to evolve its dashboard.
It has certain undergone some aesthetic changes, but ad campaigns function in an archaic fashion. It is almost as if marketers are publishing magazine ads and hoping that they work. Why do I say this? Well, ads can be created…but that’s about it. Editing is a nightmare (if not entirely non-existent) and as you create varieties of your creative, your campaign become overwhelmingly populated with different variations. For a network that is built on professionalism, the ads dashboard is far too disorganized.
A simpler, more tasteful segmentation, like that of Facebook’s setup (which modelled itself after Google) would make life much easier. Moreover, the ability to edit ads and feature proper creative to populate a link preview (as opposed to a tiny window with a fraction of what’s actually on the ad) would go a very long way in driving marketers to use LinkedIn ads more frequently.
Improved Ad Placements
And again with the ads.
Most marketers can agree that the age of the banner is dead. And yet, the right-hand side ad lives on. Granted it is a viable bit of real estate, and LinkedIn has done a better job than Facebook of optimizing the appearance of the RHS ad (instead of several ads scrolling, one appears in a noticeable box at a time) but for advertisers the value is in sharing content to a targeted user’s feed.
That can still be done on LinkedIn, but where both Facebook and Twitter have the network beat is in how to drive traffic from these ads. As noted above, the tiny image that populates a link is completely worthless. A large, eye-catching piece of creative with a clear call-to-action and a different visual structure than a regular post or update is what makes an ad worth the marketer’s budget. LinkedIn needs to make changes to how creative we can get with those ads.
There is no denying the viability of the audience on LinkedIn. Barring those users that are simply sharing spam (I’ll get to that again in a second) there is the most targeted group of people active on the network than any other social platform. So it would make sense that LinkedIn charges a little bit more than other networks for its ad space, but you’re paying five, ten even twenty times as much per click (trust me I’ve done the comparisons) for an ugly, boring ad that can’t be changed once you click ‘Start’.
Ads need to be more visually stimulating if marketers are to see results from them, and their placements need to be more apparent in the timeline than simply allowing users to create Sponsored Updates.
User Purge
LinkedIn has registered about 414 million users. Based on the content I mentioned above that floods my inbox, I wouldn’t flinch if you told me half of those were spam.
OK – maybe not half. But you get my point.
It’s time for LinkedIn to clean up its network. Hitting that critical mass is exciting, and it means charging more for advertising, but as more bots and tactless affiliates join the network, the value of that ad space goes down. Now, the cat is out of the bag as far as how people are using the network. Several are using the online space to store a resume. Others are using it to share content and find a new job. Recruiters are using it to find those users. And so, so, SO many are using it to tell me about an amazing business opportunity that I need to act on or sell me traffic.
To rebound from this devastating hit, LinkedIn may need to sacrifice a huge portion of its user base. That might seem counterintuitive, but one theme that has been apparent in a lot of what LinkedIn has done has been short-term thinking. This is looking at the value to marketers in the long-run.
Conclusion
Nothing here is vastly complex. I’m not suggesting a paradigm shift in how the network functions or what it offers. These are existing models that simply need a tweak.
Of course, this won’t happen overnight. It will take time and it will take just as much (if not more) time to see the effects of this working. But I really do believe that in order for LinkedIn to survive this downward spiral, it needs to look towards simplification, rather than expansion.
As Wall Street begins to shake and the memories of 2000 start to creep back up in their minds, they are taking good hard looks at what is working and what is not. Right now, there is a lot about LinkedIn that scares them. But the potential is certainly there and the product is fantastic. Taking heed of a few of these suggestions might just help it get back into the good graces of the powers that be (and drive up active advertiser numbers as well).
What do you think LinkedIn needs to do to come out of this mess?
4 Social Media Metrics that Connect to Your Business Goals
/by Corey PadveenThere are certain ways to leverage social media metrics in order to drive results when it comes to your business.
There are plenty of great measurements that marketers can (and should) pay attention to when it comes to efforts on social media. But in order to really capitalize on the economic value of these social media metrics, it is important that the majority, if not all of them, are tied to business goals. Social media should be used as communications tools, and like any aspect of your communications strategy, they need to be measured in relation to how they are helping your bottom line.
Lead Generation
Of course, lead generation is key. But too often when marketers or social media managers share content to different networks, there are no tracking mechanisms in place to track leads. Moreover, the lead generation features available on networks like Twitter and Facebook (often through advertising) go underused.
Link tracking and site tracking (using urchin tracking in your links, for example, or behavior flow/goal analysis on your website) matter. While you can rely on your website tracking software (e.g. Google Analytics) to do the work for you, you’ll want to ensure that once those social-driven visitors have made it to the website, you create goals and track those leads in order to better your content strategy and improve the way in which you leverage social media in order to acquire leads. In terms of advertising, making a small investment in things like boosting your Facebook Page call-to-action, create Twitter lead gen cards and taking advantage of Facebook’s new lead gen ad option are great ways to go about driving that financial return from your networks.
Inbound Social Links
The growth of your inbound social links and subsequent traffic are key to the growth of your business from several angles. As your inbound links from social grow, it is indicative of the relevance of your content (particularly the content being shared to the respective network). This helps you improve the investment you make (both from a financial and time perspective) in your content strategy. The second reason why this is a hugely important metric has to do with search.
Here are the correlative data of social with respect to the rankings of some of the most powerful sites on the web:
Though Google says that these social signals do not directly change search rankings, the reality is that the correlation between this social clout and high rankings is on par with traditionally (and still) important metrics like number of backlinks and click-through rate. High rankings are good for business.
Customer Service Capacity
With Social Care (customer service on social media) one of the many benefits is the increased capacity that your customer service representatives can now handle. That increased capacity means that the 75%+ of consumers that want their issue addressed by an agent within 60 minutes have a higher likelihood of seeing that happen. Considering 80%+ of those simply want to be heard by an organization (and don’t necessarily care if the issue is resolved, as it oftentimes can’t be) it means your brand’s reputation stands less chance of being hurt by any issues and a good chance of actually improving in the public’s eye.
From an economical benefit standpoint? That has to do a lot more with money saved than money earned (directly, though improved brand reputation is a factor to consider). With a higher volume that can be handled by your customer service team, it means there is less need to employ such a significant customer service staff. Of course, this works best if you are just getting started, but in terms of transition, it could mean becoming a leaner team down the road as these improvements make an impact.
Conversion Tracking
Just as with lead generation, you’ll want to take advantage of all of the opportunities that come with conversion tracking. Simple pixel tracking or social integration with your eCommerce or CRM are readily available and make your ability to track socially-driven conversions infinitely easier. Apart from tracking social conversions from the obvious reasons, why else would you want to look at this metric? Again, this has just as much to do with money management as it does with money making.
Everything you’re doing with social media takes an investment. Whether you’re investing financially in something like ads or spending time and other resources making social work, there is an investment. When you minimize your investment only to those strategies that work, your profits are maximized. That’s the goal here. It’s not simply paying attention to those conversions to see how much money was made, but rather to pay attention to those conversions to ensure that whatever you are investing in is leading to increased revenues. You might love a strategy you developed, but if your target audience is not responding to it, or they are, but not in a way that you had hoped (for example, likes instead of signups) then you need to cut that one loose and focus on those efforts that are working.
Conclusion
There are a lot of ways to tie social to your business, but when it comes to what you’re measuring, these are some of the most important metrics out there. Of course, they are not always going to be black and white. You might (and almost definitely will) need to get creative with what you’re looking at, but there is always a way to tie economic growth to social communications, and it’s a must if you want to see social help you grow.
How Web Behavior Shifted in 2015 [Infographic]
/by Corey PadveenAddThis created a great infographic to showcase how desktop and mobile web behavior shifted across the globe in 2015.
It’s not too surprising to see that one major web behavior shift has to do with the continued rise of mobile. At this point, the numbers (though still very impressive) are not surprising. Mobile is becoming more commonplace, though this infographic from AddThis clearly shows that this trend is not universal. There are still several regions around the world where desktop is still largely favored, but the regions where this is true decreases every year.
What is perhaps most interesting (from a marketing standpoint) is the regional breakdown of the five most active markets for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn above the norm. This gives some important insight into where international marketing initiatives might have a higher impact, and how best to allocate some of those international resources in order to ensure that they provide the greatest return possible.
Take a look at all of these interesting facts and figures in the infographic below.
Properly Analyze Your Social Data [eBook]
/by Corey PadveenTaking control of your social data is easier than you might think.
In our latest instalment of our ‘How 2 with t2’ eBook series, we cover a topic that has long been a focal point of the marketing world: social data. For a lot of marketers, this is an intimidating topic. The industry has framed social data as an almost divine entity, far too complex and vast for any average marketer to comprehend. In this eBook, our goal is to simplify the concept and highlight some of the easiest ways any marketer can start to use these data.
The topics covered include the process of sourcing some of the most valuable data that exist for both the brand and industry, structuring these data in order to identify certain opportunities, and how best to execute campaigns that leverage these new opportunities.
Ultimately, the objective is simple: we want marketers to think small about BIG DATA!
Find out more by downloading the social data analysis eBook here.
What Is Exhaustive Audience Marketing?
/by Corey PadveenThe concept of Exhaustive Audience Marketing has the potential to save marketers big dollars on their advertising efforts – if they take the time to learn about the applications.
We have regularly written about the tremendous potential that exists when it comes to our proprietary Incremental Bidding System, and the potential that can be extracted through the practice of Exhaustive Audience Marketing is no less impressive.
When it comes to social advertising, budgets can go a very long way. We’ve conducted several studies internally to determine the value of a dollar on social media versus other media (primarily SEM dollars) and have found that when it comes to social, your money packs a punch. Sometimes upwards of a tenfold value punch. But to extract that value, there are certain practices that need to be observed. An Incremental Bidding System is a part of that, but the umbrella under which that practice is housed is referred to as Exhaustive Audience Marketing, a concept developed by t2 Marketing.
How It Works
Though the concept can extend to media outside of Facebook advertising, we’ll focus primarily on the social media giant for simplicity.
If you’ve properly analyzed your audience data, then you’ve likely developed hypertargted audience clusters made up of similarly defined users. Of course, this goes a step further than traditional demographics (especially when we’re talking about Facebook). A hypertargeted cluster, though smaller than, say, an email list, is made up of users that not only fit similar traditional demographics, but also follow similar behavioral patterns, interests and buying tendencies.
For each of these clusters, you’ll have created ad sets with tailored messaging based on the criteria mentioned above. Now it’s time to take those ads and push them to an audience with a significantly higher likelihood that they will convert. But you don’t want to spend more than you have to. How do you do it?
Let’s think of our audience as a series of ripples in the water.
Right at the center is your most relevant audience. These are the prospects (though few in number) that fit your targets almost exactly, and that have the highest likelihood of engaging with your content (seeing as how it was designed to appeal specifically to them). In that first circle is a group of prospect somewhat larger that come very close to that ideal audience, but aren’t exact.
As you move further and further out, the pools grow, and while the audience becomes somewhat less exactly targeted, the audience members are still relevant in some capacity, though not necessarily an audience that is apt for immediate engagement. They may take a little extra push, but they still fall under the umbrella of prospects.
You can also think of it in terms of a lead score, but with somewhat more of a social makeup. Your marketing efforts become a little bit more exhaustive as you reach the users on the outskirts of this pool, and therefore, the cost to acquire or engage these users might be somewhat higher.
Incremental Bidding Systems
It is here that Incremental Bidding Systems come into play. These individuals are all capable of being engaged with at different prices. For those prospects that fall exactly in the middle of the pool, you can acquire those audience members for next to nothing (if not nothing). An exceedingly low bid (possibly even lower than what Facebook recommends in some cases) still has potential. They key is to extract that potential fully before moving up to another increment.
When running a Facebook ad campaign, you may feel inclined to allow Facebook to set the ‘optimal’ bid for your ads, but you can rest assured that while you will receive clicks, you’ll burn through your budget much faster and receive a fraction of the potential clicks that could come.
Why would you pay $1.03 for a click that could be obtained for $0.24? When you know that there is an option to avoid that, you’ll certainly choose that option. Essentially, you’ll want to pay attention to the click-through rate and the click volume you’re receiving in the backend of Facebook on a regular basis (daily if not hourly, depending on the length of a campaign).
When you begin to see those two numbers dip (shown in red above), you’re likely reaching the end of the potential at a certain bid. At that point, it’s time to increase your bid (slightly) in order to extract the potential at another level. This process should continue until you’ve completed your budget. In other words, exhaust your audience potential at each bid level before increasing your bid.
If you run two campaigns side-by-side, one with Facebook automatically optimizing your bids, the other with a strategy like this one implemented, you’ll quickly see a difference. Although it might take a little more work, you’ll see exceptionally higher results.
Conclusion
Exhaustive Audience Marketing is not something that comes about easily. It requires an understanding of your social and audience data, the creation of hypertargeted audience clusters and associated content, and a good understanding of how Facebook’s ad system works. These are not skills that are developed overnight, but if you take the time to learn what can be done and implement these systems properly, you can expect significant results.
Look for more information on Exhaustive Audience Marketing and Incremental Bidding Systems on the t2 Marketing blog!
A Few Ways LinkedIn Can Turn Itself Around
/by Corey PadveenThis article originally appeared on CoreyPadveen.com.
There are a few important changes LinkedIn needs to make in order to save itself from a disastrous fate.
If you happened to catch a glimpse of LinkedIn’s stock price over the last week or so, you might have noticed a straight line downwards on Friday February 5th. That wasn’t a glitch; LinkedIn’s stock price has fallen by over 40% (at the time of writing) since it announced lower-than-expected earnings and lowered projections for the coming year. Investors are losing their patience.
Despite having a great core product (which LinkedIn very much still does) many of the efforts of the professional network to expand have not yielded strong results. In fact, in a lot of respects, those expansion efforts have rather resulted in an almost ‘worst case scenario’ outcome.
This is not to say that LinkedIn has missed the mark every time it has done something; the acquisition of SlideShare in 2012, for example, was a brilliant move and continues to be among its best. But some of the more universal oversights have cost the network dearly, and there are a few pain points that need to be addressed as soon as possible in order to end the slide into penny stock status (though that’s still a long way off – we hope).
Spamalot Central
Facebook is consistently working on its algorithm in order to ensure that the content you see is what is most relevant to you. The result has been quarter-over-quarter growth in average session time, engagement per post, engagement per user, and more metrics that have come into existence since the advent of social media in the world of marketing.
LinkedIn has taken a slightly different approach.
In order to encourage engagement among its users, InMail exists (which guarantees a user will see the message). Of course, users pay for that privilege, but is accommodating the users who pay for mass (spam) messages like that really worth the detriment that does on the user experience as a whole?
How often do you receive unsolicited messages on LinkedIn offering to sell you traffic, invest in a business opportunity, or, in some cases, enlarge or enhance something? In the last month alone, I’ve been included on over a dozen chain-style message threads (another issue) from users (and including users) with whom I’ve never connected. I pay close attention to who I allow into my professional circle, but all that seems to factor into is my feed content, and has no influence on what kind of trash I’m sent from peddling affiliates.
A better spam filtration system needs to be put in place by LinkedIn and it needs to be put in place fast. More and more users (as exhibited by time on site and people I’ve spoken to) are using LinkedIn for little more than a place to host a resume and highlight some skills, rather than a network where actual business can get done. These filters don’t need to be all that complicated either for them to work (and improve the experience).
First, these kinds of promotional messages (and chain messages) should be restricted to second or third points of contact. Introductions (with character limits or standard content set by LinkedIn) should be the ONLY content that non-connections are allowed to send at the outset. If someone send me something along the lines of, “Thanks for connecting, I look forward to talking to you a little bit more about how we might be able to work together!” I’ll be significantly more likely to look through his or her profile, see what it is they do and, if I see potential, engage with the user and open up a professional dialogue.
I wonder what kind of horrific return these affiliates and marketers see when they purchase InMail packages and generate nothing. That might be a nice short term gain for the network, but as we have seen with this year’s earnings reports, it’s not a solution.
Improved Ad Dashboards
Advertising is any social network’s (even a professional one’s) bread and butter. So, as we’ve seen with Facebook – the shining example of social advertising that marketers love – constant improvements should be made to a dashboard in order to make it simpler, more effective and more evolved. This is an area where LinkedIn has really struggled.
As someone who has been involved in social advertising for years now, it is not hard to tell which network (of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) has seen the slowest evolution in its ads platform. As Facebook and Twitter have introduced new capabilities and made the management of campaigns and creative much more efficient, LinkedIn has done little to evolve its dashboard.
It has certain undergone some aesthetic changes, but ad campaigns function in an archaic fashion. It is almost as if marketers are publishing magazine ads and hoping that they work. Why do I say this? Well, ads can be created…but that’s about it. Editing is a nightmare (if not entirely non-existent) and as you create varieties of your creative, your campaign become overwhelmingly populated with different variations. For a network that is built on professionalism, the ads dashboard is far too disorganized.
A simpler, more tasteful segmentation, like that of Facebook’s setup (which modelled itself after Google) would make life much easier. Moreover, the ability to edit ads and feature proper creative to populate a link preview (as opposed to a tiny window with a fraction of what’s actually on the ad) would go a very long way in driving marketers to use LinkedIn ads more frequently.
Improved Ad Placements
And again with the ads.
Most marketers can agree that the age of the banner is dead. And yet, the right-hand side ad lives on. Granted it is a viable bit of real estate, and LinkedIn has done a better job than Facebook of optimizing the appearance of the RHS ad (instead of several ads scrolling, one appears in a noticeable box at a time) but for advertisers the value is in sharing content to a targeted user’s feed.
That can still be done on LinkedIn, but where both Facebook and Twitter have the network beat is in how to drive traffic from these ads. As noted above, the tiny image that populates a link is completely worthless. A large, eye-catching piece of creative with a clear call-to-action and a different visual structure than a regular post or update is what makes an ad worth the marketer’s budget. LinkedIn needs to make changes to how creative we can get with those ads.
There is no denying the viability of the audience on LinkedIn. Barring those users that are simply sharing spam (I’ll get to that again in a second) there is the most targeted group of people active on the network than any other social platform. So it would make sense that LinkedIn charges a little bit more than other networks for its ad space, but you’re paying five, ten even twenty times as much per click (trust me I’ve done the comparisons) for an ugly, boring ad that can’t be changed once you click ‘Start’.
Ads need to be more visually stimulating if marketers are to see results from them, and their placements need to be more apparent in the timeline than simply allowing users to create Sponsored Updates.
User Purge
LinkedIn has registered about 414 million users. Based on the content I mentioned above that floods my inbox, I wouldn’t flinch if you told me half of those were spam.
OK – maybe not half. But you get my point.
It’s time for LinkedIn to clean up its network. Hitting that critical mass is exciting, and it means charging more for advertising, but as more bots and tactless affiliates join the network, the value of that ad space goes down. Now, the cat is out of the bag as far as how people are using the network. Several are using the online space to store a resume. Others are using it to share content and find a new job. Recruiters are using it to find those users. And so, so, SO many are using it to tell me about an amazing business opportunity that I need to act on or sell me traffic.
To rebound from this devastating hit, LinkedIn may need to sacrifice a huge portion of its user base. That might seem counterintuitive, but one theme that has been apparent in a lot of what LinkedIn has done has been short-term thinking. This is looking at the value to marketers in the long-run.
Conclusion
Nothing here is vastly complex. I’m not suggesting a paradigm shift in how the network functions or what it offers. These are existing models that simply need a tweak.
Of course, this won’t happen overnight. It will take time and it will take just as much (if not more) time to see the effects of this working. But I really do believe that in order for LinkedIn to survive this downward spiral, it needs to look towards simplification, rather than expansion.
As Wall Street begins to shake and the memories of 2000 start to creep back up in their minds, they are taking good hard looks at what is working and what is not. Right now, there is a lot about LinkedIn that scares them. But the potential is certainly there and the product is fantastic. Taking heed of a few of these suggestions might just help it get back into the good graces of the powers that be (and drive up active advertiser numbers as well).
What do you think LinkedIn needs to do to come out of this mess?
Marketing Trends to Watch For in 2016
/by Corey PadveenWhat are some of the top marketing trends we need to be aware of in the coming year?
It is no surprise that marketers can expect some pretty dramatic shifts in the norm over the course of 2016. The speed at which new media evolves has led to the marketing world changing significantly as every year passes. While some marketing trends for 2016 are to be expected, there are others that are somewhat unprecedented.
So what exactly can you expect?
Mobile Will Eclipse Desktop
This should be the most obvious one. At this point, Google has reported that in ten countries, mobile has already surpassed desktop searches. You might even be reading this article on your smartphone.
Photo Credit: KPCB
2015 was the year that websites went mobile first. Google made it clear that websites without a mobile-optimized experienced would now not only have a difficult time ranking highly, but would be penalized. (Remember ‘Mobilegeddon’?)
In the coming year, we will see this mobile-first trend continue. As more of the world moves away from the desktop, so will the share of mobile searches and activity rise.
A Rise in Dedicated Apps
App indexing has been around for some time, but only now are brands starting to realize the value that app indexing possesses. Just as mobile search and traffic will continue to trend upwards, dedicated mobile applications will begin to overtake mobile-friendly websites.
What will be interesting, however, will be the shift in search structure. As venues such as the App Store and Google Play become more crowded (as if they weren’t already crowded enough) will users turn more to search engines when searching for apps, or will these native app houses be remodelled to function more as a search engine themselves?
Marketing Automation Will Reach the Masses
If you haven’t used a marketing automation system (like Marketo or Pardot) yet, that might be because of the oft-prohibitive price tag that accompanies these robust technologies. But as with anything tech, it is only a matter of time before the products reserved for the enterprise elite become more readily available to the small and medium sized businesses.
In 2016, marketing automation will certainly begin to play a much bigger role in the lives of SMB marketers. While the core functionality might not be as robust as the tools listed above, there will certainly be much more available to marketers than ever before when it comes to automation.
Photo Credit: Smart Insights
Practicality in the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things has been around for some time now, and the novelty, though still there, has started to wear off slightly. Now, engineers (and, subsequently, marketers) are looking for more practical uses for the phenomenon.
While the connected home and the connected city are exciting macro-scale applications for the IoT, the connected buyer journey is of particular interest to any marketer. We are always looking for ways to personalize the buying experience and, perhaps more importantly, to retain customers for a longer period of time by building a relationship in a shorter timeframe. All of that is possible with the Internet of Things, and we can expect some new developments in that field this year.
Conclusion
It is amazing to think about how quickly the digital world evolves. Just a few years ago, much of what is outlined above seemed like something out of a science fiction movie. Now we are on the precipice of the greatest explosion in technological advancement ever (yes, even more so than in the past!).
For marketers, this means faster evolution and more to pay attention to, but it also means more possibilities. Which marketing trends are you most excited about?
Social Media Hurdles Faced by Not-For-Profits
/by Corey PadveenThe not-for-profit world is apt to benefit from social media, but there are certain hurdles that make it slow to adopt.
Not-for-profit social media channels are booming with content, but the speed at which the industry adopts new practices (and viable social advertising channels) is generally slower than average. There are a lot of factors that can contribute to this.
Last week, t2 was a sponsor of the Miami event for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and a lot of interesting conversations took place wherein certain key struggles of the industry became apparent.
Budgets Are Limited
One thing that is (quite obviously) required when running a campaign of this sort is a budget. Gone are the days of free growth and easily obtainable virality. Now, most networks force brands and organizations to rely on a pay-to-play model. In the world of not-for-profits, that’s a luxury most do not have.
What budgets exist have been assigned to traditional fundraising practices, like events and direct marketing. And this lack of discretionary resources hints at another major issue…
Knowledge of the Platform is Limited
While a fairly top-level understanding of new media and some of its more advanced concepts is a reality that many marketers face, there is a key differentiating factor when it comes to the world of not-for-profit social media. For not-for-profits, that lack of in-depth knowledge of these platforms means that the little budgets that do exist might be wasted on an area where marketing teams are unsure of how to use them.
Social advertising, though easily accessible by any Page manager, requires an understanding of optimization practices. Much can be done with a limited budget, but without a knowledge of practices like incremental bidding and ad dollar optimization, that limited budget disappears very quickly.
Sticking with Familiarity
Events have been the backbone of the fundraising world for a very long tie. Huge investments are made in events and the results are funds raised (naturally) as well as an increase in exposure and awareness. Those are wonderful benefits, but Avectra (now Abila) conducted a study that found some interesting information.
On average, not-for-profits are spending $1.33 to raise $1.00 when it comes to events. Of course, there are other significant benefits, and in the long run much more is raised, but in terms of finding a balance in order to prevent these immediate losses, social could be a great ally. It’s simply not understood in order to drive those results.
Ready to Pivot
One particular item of note is the excitement that a lot of these not-for-profit marketers expressed when discussing social. While virtually every not-for-profit present (and any NFP we’ve spoken to or worked with in the past) had a presence on social media, it has been used largely to share content. Now there are clear opportunities to drive fundraising efforts (with more than simply gimmicks) and not-for-profit marketers are ready to make that shift.
Conclusion
Expect the transition to this new way of fundraising to take some time, but not as much time as it might have taken some years ago. Over the last few years, we’ve seen a boom in audience activation campaigns for not-for-profits (think of crowdfunding and peer-ro-peer initiatives). With the trend we noticed in Miami, we can expect to see much more of this in the months and years ahead.
What Is Content Curation? [Video]
/by Corey PadveenWhat is content curation and what are some of the best content curation tools?
Sometimes, one of the fastest ways to build your presence and acquire new fans and followers is to find and share some of the greatest content on the web. Of course, you’ll always want to have a focus on creating your own great content, but sharing (and, naturally, properly attributing) third-party content across your social channels through the process of content curation can be a major asset.
So what exactly is the process of content curation, and what are some of the pieces of technology that make this process simpler? Watch this short video and find out how you can start curating the best content across the web to fire up your brand building process.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
/by Corey PadveenWe would like to wish every one of our readers a very happy holiday season and a happy New Year!
As we approach the holidays, we’ll be taking some time off from posting content to the blog, but we would like to leave you with some wishes for a very relaxing and joyful holiday season, and a very happy New Year! We’ll be back early in 2016 with lots of great new content, videos, infographics and much more!
Creating a Social Media Dashboard in Google Analytics [Video]
/by Corey PadveenCheck out the latest edition of our instructional videos on Google Analytics!
Now that we have covered some of the basic components of our Google Analytics dashboard, it’s time to start delving into some of the more detailed and customizable aspects of the software. In the latest instalment of our video series in conjunction with the Social Media Strategies Summit, we tackle the creation of a custom social media dashboard in the backend of your Analytics system.
For a lot of marketers, creating customized reports and dashboards can seem like a daunting task. Out of the box, Google Analytics is more or less what-you-see-is-what-you-get. That is both a blessing and a curse when you’re looking to pull in very specific data. Luckily, the steps involved in building something like a social media dashboard are much simpler than one might think!
Watch the video below to learn how you can start creating custom dashboards in Google Analytics, and be sure to check back regularly for more great insights and useful instructions about the website tracking and analytics tool!