Social Advocacy and Politics: Another Swipe at Social Media Engagement Predicting the GOP Primaries

This week Governor Rick Perry suspended his campaign to seek the Republican nomination to be president. As a watcher of the candidate's social media performance, I am not surprised. Especially in these early days, social media buzz about the candidates should be a good predictor of electability. As voters look at their choices, their willingness to engage with them in front of their friends is a good indicator of the candidates' viability. As voters become less willing to engage with candidates, especially if their behavior suggests they are increasingly unwilling, candidates should and will consider dropping out of the race.

Over the past two weeks we have seen some dramatic (and some not so dramatic) changes in the level of Facebook activity (Likes, Comments, Shares and Posts) for several GOP candidates, as reported by USA Today's Facebook Barometer. Looking at the table below, we can see which candidates are moving on this measure.

Five big shifts stand out in the data. On the positive side, Mike Huckabee increased his Facebook activity more than six-fold, largely due to his grandstanding with Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis over her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Similarly, Ted Cruz jumped his activity by about 10% for tagging along with Huck in Kentucky (giving rise to speculation about a Huckabee-Cruz ticket).

On the red side of the leger (see, I used "red" in a different manner than typically used when discussing GOP candidates), Trump, Walker and Christie all saw very large drops in Facebook activity. Trump tallied more than 23 million less engagements than he did last week. But before you get all teary-eyed, note that the 18+ million engagements he did get were still more than five times the number that his closest rivals got (Cruz, Huckabee and Carson). So, in Trump's case, the drop is more a measure of how high he soared last week as opposed to how bad he did this week,

Scott Walker and Chris Christie, on the other hands (do I have that many?), experienced slides this week that are particularly troublesome. Walker's engagement stats dropped by about half, from over a million to just over 500,000. Unlike Trump, who dropped by more than half, Walker simply does not have as much room to give.  As we can see on the Total Facebook Activity table below, Walker dropped from fifth place last week to eighth place this week. Christie also had less than half the engagements this week as last week and for his part, he had even fewer engagements to give than Walker. Christie also dropped in total engagements from eighth to tenth. Trump, of course, remained firmly entrenched at the top of the list.

These numbers suggest that Walker and Christie's campaigns are struggling to energize voters. And while their engagement numbers are a bit higher than Rick Perry's, they are not so much higher that their campaigns can easily avoid Perry's fate. At this point, the factor most likely to keep Walker and Christie in the race, if their poor engagement statistics persist, is their hubris. Neither has experienced the humbling that Perry has in his two efforts to win the nomination, and their track records for ego-driven politics are strong.

As for the not-so-dramatic results in Facebook activity, George Pataki, Jim Gilmore and Carly Fiorina saw virtually no change from last week. For Fiorina, she remains in the thick of things with nearly a million engagements each of the past two weeks. But Pataki and Gilmore are going nowhere. And it seems unlikely that their campaigns will last much longer.

The final impact of social media on the elections will not be known for some time, yet. But in the short-run, the case for social media's impact on the sorting out of the large GOP field of candidates keeps getting stronger.

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Original source: Social Advocacy and Politics: Another Swipe at Social Media Engagement Predicting the GOP Primaries.
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Focus on Customer Service: Wink Frozen Desserts [PODCAST]

Wink Frozen Desserts may not yet be a household name, but this ice cream company is changing lives – at least East of the Mississippi – one scoop at a time. Created especially for people with lactose intolerance, celiac disease, and certain food allergies, Wink's line of frozen treats allows those who thought they couldn't enjoy ice cream get a taste of the frozen favorite again. Jordan Pierson, the Chief Marketing Officer at Wink, took some time to talk with Dan Moriarty and me about Wink's dedication to its niche customer. While the company's slogan, which refers to its ingredients, is "less is more," that ethos definitely does not apply to their customer service.

Some of the most quotable moments of this episode of the Focus on Customer Service podcast include:

"Because we're food, we like to use Instagram, we like to use Pinterest, we like to use Facebook to showcase who we are.""For the most part, Twitter is a customer service hotline for us.""Whatever your product is, not everyone on the planet is going to like it, and you have to roll with the punches on that."

Here are the highlights of Episode 13 and where to find them:

0:50 – The background on Wink Frozen Desserts and how Jordan joined the team

2:20 – Wink's customer service strategy

5:30 – How a niche audience affects Wink's social media strategy

7:16 – Which channels customers use for service

8:53 – Online communities and other engagement opportunities

11:19 – Jordan shares a memorable interaction with a fan

13:20 – Jordan's advice for other companies trying to succeed in social care

Thanks to Jay Baer for nominating Wink Frozen Desserts to appear on the show. If you have had a great customer service experience on social media, please tweet us using the hashtag #FOCS and we will try to interview that brand on a future podcast.

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Original source: Focus on Customer Service: Wink Frozen Desserts [PODCAST].
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The Most Discussed Topics on Twitter Over Summer [Infographic]

One Direction's announcement of their upcoming hiatus inspired 15 million tweets between August 21st and 24th. Kanye West's MTV VMA bombshell – that he intends to run for President in 2020 – generated more than 247k tweets per minute on August 30th. These are just two of the events that lit up Twitter over Summer, highlighted in a new infographic released by Twitter which examines the most resonant conversations on the platform in recent months. And while everyone's likely well-aware of the key topics and moments of interests discussed, there are also a couple of interest tidbits in amongst the data – things like there were 100,000 tweets per day about ice cream.

In itself, the info provided in here is interesting, and a reminder of the key topics that occupied our thoughts over the period. But it's also a good indicator of what's resonating with Twitter audiences right now, what's of relevance, and likely to be of relevance, to social media users. Tapping into these conversations and trends can be hugely beneficial for brands, when done the right way. While you always need to do your research before jumping into any trending conversation to ensure you're aware of the context, engaging with audiences on topics they're most interested in can increase relevance, reach and brand recognition for savvy marketers.

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Original source: The Most Discussed Topics on Twitter Over Summer [Infographic].
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Hacker-For-Hire Website Owner Unmasked

In November 2014, a hackers-for-hire site called Hacker's List starting offering their services to the public. "Need to break the law, but lack the technology chops to do it yourself?" asked tech writer Lisa Vaas. "Now, as they say, there's an app for that."

The site matches hackers with clients anonymously. Think Task Rabbit for your more unseemly online activities. It's Craigslist for private espionage. As you might imagine, it became very popular very fast. 

Need to find someone? Want to steal an email password or break into a Facebook account? Need someone to hack into your college's website to change a grade. Users on Hacker's List are looking for all these kinds of services.

The owner of the site was also anonymous. Some wondered if the website was a sting operation set up by the authorities. Other wondered if it was joke.

Now, Charles Tendell, who also owns a cybersecurity consulting firm in Denver, has stepped forward as the man behind the screen.

According to the New York Times, Tendell considers himself a "an ethical hacker who helps companies and individuals fight back against the bad guys operating online."

"I never expected it to turn into what it is," Tendell told the New York Times. "I was testing the waters and wanted to see if it works."

The website collects a fee for every completed assignment, but it is unclear if Hacker's List will work as a business. About 4,000 potential jobs have been posted on the site, but only 250 completed, according to Tendell. The New York Times reporter Matthew Goldstein points out that "the propensity is for people to use it as a way to search for hackers willing to break the law as opposed to doing legitimate online investigations and surveillance."

The site has been criticized for condoning illegal activity. Twitter suspended its account, which tweeted out new request for jobs. As well, hackers have tried to take down the website itself.

Erik Solomonson, a blogger who played a role in unmasking Tendell, says that Tendell's claim to be a "white hat hacker" while owning a service that may profit from illegal activity is not appropriate.

Tendell defends Hacker's List. "No one is going to complete an illegal project through my website," he told the New York Times.

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Original source: Hacker-For-Hire Website Owner Unmasked.
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#SMTLive Looks at Telecom and Making the Complex Simple

Everyone once in a while here at SMT we like to do a deep-dive into a specific industry to see how analytics, customer service and social are driving the changes that are unique, or universal, to business around the globe. 

One such web event was our Best Thinker webinar about the telecom industry, sponsored by IBM and starting Neil Beam from ATT, Rizwan Kassim from Ultra Mobile and Matthew Twomey of IBM.

The challenge in this industry is acceleration — a global explosion of providers (like the super-fast growing Ultra Mobile) and a big bang of new products and services while at the same time, for traditional providers like ATT, a need to provide traditional support.

Digital transformation is Beam's job one.  Deciding how to prioritize from all the choices that a telecom marketer has to make can be guided by decision-making trees like the one that Twomey provided (below).  But the biggest challenge, not surprisingly, is the cultural one.  In an industry where churn is the recurrent concern, how do you design an adaptive culture that can react and respond in as close to real-time as possible?

I invite you to listen to the webinar in it's entirety – there are some great slides here from IBM.  Also feel free to check out the tweets in the accompanying Storify.

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Original source: #SMTLive Looks at Telecom and Making the Complex Simple.
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Marvel vs. DC: Who's Winning on Social Media?

The Marvel Comics vs. DC Comics rivalry is almost as old as the comic medium itself. But now that we've entered the era of blockbuster superhero movies making billions of dollars in the networked world of 21st century social media, there is quite a lot at stake in the social strategies of these ostensible comic book companies' movie studios. So who's winning the social media battle between Marvel and DC? Well, I could be magnanimous and say that each side has its strengths and weaknesses and other even-handed things like that, but it wouldn't be the truth. Marvel is winning. Because it's the one having the most fun.

It is important to know that, when it comes to comic book and superhero movies, the PR efforts of movie studios are as much about reassuring fans that they understand and will protect the characters as much as it is about promoting films. Comic book readers can be fickle (and I would know, I am one), and it can break a fan's heart, and more importantly create a lot of bad buzz, when they see a studio 'missing the point' of the characters that they know and love. So, what is Marvel doing right?

Rather famously, Marvel was set to release the first trailer for their summer tentpole feature Avengers: Age of Ultron in the middle of a broadcast of their spin-off television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was a smart, synergistic strategy to get the tailer out to their hardcore fans, who were probably watching the show anyway, and boost the show's ratings by getting those excited about the movie trailer to tune in for the TV show. And then the trailer leaked a week early.

Marvel did the smart thing and rolled with it. The leaked trailer was a blurry, pixelated mess, so Marvel quickly uploaded an HD copy of it. And rather than give up on the synergy with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., they still included the trailer on the show, but with extra footage to entice fans further. Most importantly, they even cheekily referenced the whole mess in a meta tweet:

Laying the blame at the feet of the evil organization that played the villains from Captain America: The Winter Soldier was clever social marketing. And it saved the company the trouble of sending out endless DMCA takedown notices to sites hosting the leaked trailer in a futile game of digital whack-a-mole while they waited a week to release the real thing. In terms of dealing with a social media crisis, it was a win. (It should also be noted that while Marvel handled the leak well in public, it has also made efforts to discover the source of the leak and protect its brand.)

Meanwhile, DC Comics has … put out photos of the Batfleck? Maybe, because DC hasn't had the opportunities Marvel has had, they could still show as much of a sense of humor, but it hasn't happened yet. Instead, there have been a lot of promotional pictures that haven't been entirely well received, and a super serious trailer for their own upcoming blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

The thing is, it isn't just the fact that Marvel's social media team knows how to deal with a crisis that makes them the winners here. What separates Marvel and DC in their approach to social media is that Marvel seems to be honestly jumping into the spirit of its own stories and characters, while DC is just promoting its movies. Marvel's twitter feed is fun and light-hearted. DC's twitter feed, well, promotes DC projects and properties. Which is fine, but doesn't do much to change the general view that while Marvel's movies are fun and joyful, DC's are gritty and dour.

Here's the best example: Marvel's character Deadpool has a movie coming out next year starring Ryan Reynolds. This is Deadpool:

Via Marvel Comics Database

Deadpool is an irreverent fan-favorite character in the Marvel universe who is a deadly assassin who also happens to be deeply insane. In the comics he breaks the fourth wall regularly, constantly mentions to other characters that they are in a comic book, has conversations with his own narrator, and can see the little yellow boxes of text that follow him around everywhere. He is a very weird and strange character. So how does this relate to social media? The Deadpool movie's twitter account is following exactly one other twitter account:

If you wanted to reassure your fans that yes, you understand the spirit of the characters you are putting on film, that you get it, this is exactly how you do it.

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Original source: Marvel vs. DC: Who's Winning on Social Media?.
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6 Ways to Use Social Data to Manage a Crisis

As every PR professional knows, a crisis can happen at any time. With the growth of social media and a 24 hour global news cycle, the speed and scale at which a crisis can spread is faster and larger than ever before. Inevitably, this has made crisis management difficult, especially without the help of specialist tools. But with the right social intelligence software, PR and Communications teams can better manage a potential crisis situation.

Social data is particularly helpful in two stages of a crisis: detecting a problem and managing the crisis. The following will explain how you can use insights from Talkwalker IQ Apps, to manage these two stages quickly and effectively.

Understanding the sentiment towards your company, brand and/or client is the first step towards detecting a potential crisis. Spikes in negative and even neutral activity should be treated with caution as they could be the first indicators of an oncoming crisis.

The above metrics give you an instant idea of whether you are facing an impending crisis. By looking at the share of sentiment you can see what proportion of mentions of your company or brand are positive, negative or neutral. The two mention gauges (middle) give you the total numbers of results and the total negative results with an indication of how this has changed from the previous period.

By looking at spikes in negative (or even neutral mentions) you can quickly see whether potentially problematic online discussions are on the rise. By comparing the volume of total mentions to the volume of negative mentions you can instantly get an idea of the scale of the issue you are dealing with.

Having tracked the timing and the volume of negative mentions, you now need to quickly understand where the issue is originating and what it is about.

The top two tables show you which media channels critical conversations are originating from divided by levels of engagement, potential reach and number of results. The three theme clouds below them show you the main topics linked with your brand, the negative mentions linked with your brand and the negative hashtags.

By knowing which media channels are generating the most conversation you can start to target your crisis communications accordingly. Understanding the topics and hashtags linked to your brand helps you get a deeper knowledge of exactly how the crisis is being discussed which, in turn, gives you an idea of how to shape your messaging.

A world map of mention locations shows you where social conversations are taking place and the volume of discussion in each region.

For global brands in particular, knowing which countries or regions to focus on can help save valuable time when devising a global communications strategy, especially if actions need to be coordinated with regional partners.

Once you have detected a crisis that needs to be dealt with, the next step is managing that crisis and digging deeper into its causes and the way in which it is spreading.

The top three gauges show you the total level of mentions and engagement as well as the potential reach of these mentions. The ticker shows whether this level has increased or decreased in comparison to the previous period. The line graph below them shows levels of positive and negative mentions over the last seven days.

With this information PR professionals can track the progression of a crisis situation with hard social metrics and see whether the problem is increasing or decreasing. The engagement and potential reach figures give a sense of how far the crisis has proliferated and how much interest it is generating among the online public.

The top two charts show the reach and engagement of mentions about your company  divided by media types (top left) and the sentiment chart (top right) shows the positivity and negativity by media type. The theme clouds below them hone in on just the negative topics and hashtags that are being discussed in relation to your brand.

By understanding the reach, engagement and sentiment by media type, you can quickly see which media channels are having the biggest effect on your company's social reputation. By cross referencing the sentiment with the engagement level for example, you can hone in on the problem areas and present your message more effectively on those platforms.

The top results (top left) show all the results classed as negative across all media channels whereas the results on the top right show only negative Twitter results. The table below them shows the Twitter accounts that have posted the largest number of negative results sorted by the level of engagement they have generated.

Influencers are a key part of any communications strategy in the social media age and understanding exactly what they are saying about your company is critical. Engagement figures help you to establish exactly who is the most influential, helping you prioritise your communications activities.

Managing a crisis is never easy but intelligent social listening can help you save time and find crucial insights quickly. Talkwalker IQ Apps for Crisis Management display only the most relevant social metrics so you don't lose precious minutes searching for the relevant graph or creating the appropriate dashboard.

By following these six steps and using fast, easy to use and intuitive software you can make sure that your next crisis doesn't spiral out of control.

Image Credit: Adnan Islam on flickr.com. 

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Original source: 6 Ways to Use Social Data to Manage a Crisis.
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How to Appeal to (and Appreciate) Millennials in the Workplace [INFOGRAPHIC]

Much has been written about the generational gap between boomers and millennials in terms of the way they do business, but like it or not, someday millennials will take over the workplace. And one day, when that happens, those millennials will bring their ideals with them.

The best way to handle this shift might be to embrace it.

All that said, what are some ways the older generation can help the young? What facts are key to understanding (and appreciating) this oft-debated group, the millennials?

They're the most diverse…AND the most educated.They value happiness and passion in their jobs more than practicality or duty.At work, they appreciate opportunities to lead, to collaborate, and to do good, as well as opportunities to work remotely.

See this infographic from CEDR Solutions below for more. 

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Original source: How to Appeal to (and Appreciate) Millennials in the Workplace [INFOGRAPHIC].
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Snapchat Adds New Features, Allows Users to Re-View Snaps (for a Price)

?Snapchat is probably the most divisive social network going around at the moment. For regular users, it's an amazing tool, serving both personal and business purposes for many. But a lot of people still don't get what all the fuss is about – for many Snapchat still carries the baggage of being that crazy app that kids use to share naked photos of themselves, an initial perception that's it's moved away from but is still associated with, at least to some degree.

And it's kind of both. Not so much a sexting app, but it's brazen, with its bold colors and the ability to scribble on your photos and add filters. Snapchat's focus is on fun, on providing a way to mess arounf and do what you like on social without the ongoing consequences of that content sticking around or being shared amongst your wider networks of family and friends. So you can embarrass yourself, you can be foolish, and you can do this knowing that the content will soon disappear and no one will be digging it up again in future and holding it against you. And while there are tools to capture Snapchat images and you can't just snap with impunity, the platform facilitates humorous, engaging interactions which can be as restricted or open as each user chooses.

Staying true to this path, Snapchat has today announced two significant updates. The first is the addition of 'Lenses'. Lenses enables users to add animations and effects to their selfies, transforming themselves into everything from elderly citizens to horrifying monsters.

Horrifying.

Lenses is powered by Looksery, a face modification app that Snapchat acquired for around $150 million. Looksery was originally a video chat app that enabled people to alter their appearance on their videos, making themselves look like cats or a pandas, but it had problems establishing itself as a new platform in an increasingly competitive market. Merging with Snapchat enables them to utilize their technology on a wider scale, within an already established network.

The addition of Lenses is already generating buzz online, with many users (like the ones above) posting pictures of their new looks through the function. Also, if you see people doing this to their phones:

Now you'll know why. It's a great addition to the app and goes completely in-step with Snapchat's style and audience appeal.

The more significant element of this update is the option to re-view your snaps. In some ways, this goes against the entire ethos of Snapchat – as noted above, while most people know there are ways to capture snaps to ensure they live on beyond the set time limit on each, the concept of disappearing content is still, at core, what Snapchat is about. Or maybe 'was' all about is more accurate. In recent times Snapchat has deviated from this path – the introduction of 'tap to view' back in July acknowledged that people can and will save snaps (the original idea was that people had to hold a finger on screen to view content, which stopped them from taking screenshots) while the 'Replay' function, which enables users to re-watch one snap per day, has been in place for some time. In this sense, adding the ability to re-watch snap content is not really a big change, but it is still a significant step.

Also, while you can re-watch snaps, the option does come with a catch – you're gonna' have to pay for it.

From the announcement:

"Today, U.S. Snapchatters can purchase extra Replays, starting at 3 for $0.99. You can use a Replay on any Snap you receive, but you can only Replay any Snap once. They're a little pricey — but time is money!"

This is an interesting angle for monetization, though one that seems pretty low-risk – if you don't want to use it, don't, just continue on as you always have. The majority of Snapchat's revenue, currently, comes from its Discover platform, which enables publishers to share content with Snapchat's user base via an unintrusive, additional area in the app. Discover has been pretty well-received, with some publishers seeing more than 1 million unique viewers per day. But Snapchat's valuation is high, with recent funding putting the app's value at around $16 billion. A price tag like that comes with expectation, and Snapchat will no doubt be exploring various avenues to increase monetization options with a view to an IPO. If Replays prove popular, this could be a quick and easy win in this regard, whilst also enabling the company to capitalize on its key strength in user engagement.

It's an interesting announcement from Snapchat – a fun addition and a commercial proposition, rolled into one (very short) blog post. Lenses will no doubt get the focus here, which is good for Snapchat as it takes attention away from the slow shift towards monetization, which could alter the user-experience over time. In taking the focus off this aspect, they avoid it becoming a bigger issue – had they just announced Replays by themselves there'd be all sorts of talk of the platform's need to make money and the necessary changes such moves will entail. Instead, regular Snapchatters are focused on morphing their faces, snarling at their phones and, importantly, using the app. And no doubt some of those Lenses-modified images will justify a few re-views.

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Original source: Snapchat Adds New Features, Allows Users to Re-View Snaps (for a Price).
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Which Social Networks Do People Trust the Most?

There's some new data coming from Adweek about how people use social media to learn about new products. This infographic created by Carlos Monteiro summarizes the results of the Accenture Interactive's Acquity Group's 2015 Next Generation of Commerce Study, which takes "a deep look into social habits across demographics."

"Our study looks at the way digital technologies such as social media are shaping customer preferences," Accenture Interactive managing director Jay Dettling told Adweek. "Marketing is witnessing a huge shift in what consumers expect from brands during their buying journey. The insights and data points provided in our report will help marketers better understand how consumers want to digitally engage with products and services and help them create updated experiences that resonate."

Some of the key takeaways: Some are not surprising, for example, millennials are likely to buy products that appear in their feeds, but seniors are not. Some things are unexpected, for example, people tend to trust Facebook more than print newspapers.

Want to use the most trusted kind of message to reach your audience? Then make a funny video. Least trusted social network? Snapchat. 

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Original source: Which Social Networks Do People Trust the Most?.
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Germany Partners With Facebook to Combat Rise in Hate Speech Caused by Refugee Crisis

Via Shutterstock

Social media is a double-edged sword. For all the improvements it brings to the efficiency and ubiquity of connection and communication, it does not guarantee any quality of content. As with any tool, it can be used to help or to harm. Such is what Germany is dealing with right now, as the country becomes one of the focal points of the current refugee crisis in Europe, and experiences a concomitant rise in illegal hate speech.

The cause of the refugee crisis is too complex to fully explain here (Vox has a good summary of what's happening) but the results are clear; a humanitarian crisis the Continent hasn't seen since World War 2. According to Amanda Taub of Vox, "more than 19 million people have been forced to flee their home countries because of war, persecution, and oppression, and every day an estimated 42,500 more join them."

Many of them head toward Europe, seeking a better life. And while most European nations are attempting to either refuse entry to refugees, turn them back, and limit the number they accept in, Germany has a declared aim of accepting 800,000 refugees.

This has lead to a great deal of anti-refugee sentiment in Germany, and, naturally, a lot of that sentiment ends up on social media. Now, via Reuters, come the news that Germany is partnering with Facebook to censor the rising level of hate speech on German social media. After a meeting with Facebook officials on Monday, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas announced that a task force was being created with Facebook, ISPs, and other social networks "with the aim of identifying criminal posts more quickly and removing them."

It should be here noted that Germany takes a much more circumspect view of hate speech than does the United States. Displaying the Nazi flag, for example, is illegal outside of historical or educational context, as is Holocaust denial. And Volksverhetzung, or 'incitement to hatred' is a criminal act. Posts of this nature are illegal on social media in Germany, and are often removed, but the crisis has meant a flood of hatred that many social networks have been unable to fully address.

I have certain issues with this kind of censorship. I've often thought that social media has a certain 'pressure release valve' quality to it, where people can say the ugly things they have to say online so they don't end up saying it to actual people, which could incite real acts of violence. But I admit that my viewpoint might be naive. The echo chamber effect of social media may actually encourage the repulsive views of racists and hate-mongers when they find theyhave large numbers of people agreeing with them online. That can be emboldening, and may itself lead to violence.

If those who are posting hate speech on social media see that they are being censored, will they, as a consequence, take their hate into the real world? Or will Germany's policies on hate speech help quell the potential for violence? I don't know the answer. Germany is simply taking steps to more strictly enforce its laws on social media. My hope is that the refugee crisis will be addressed fast and effectively, so that they won't have to do so for very long.

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Original source: Germany Partners With Facebook to Combat Rise in Hate Speech Caused by Refugee Crisis.
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Kardashians Launch New Apps During NYFW

In one episode during the last season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Kim asks Khloe and Kourtney to sign off on using their likenesses in her wildly successful app, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. The app, which made over $74 million last year, mirrors Kim's own life, and incorporating the whole family was necessary to keep the app fresh and realistic. Kourtney, however, was unimpressed by Kim's offer, wanting to make some of that money for herself, and eventually served her sister with a cease and desist letter. This drama filled up an entire 22-minute episode.

Well, it seems they have smoothed things over and struck a new deal, as this week all the sisters took the stage in the Soho Apple store to announce their respective apps in the middle of New York Fashion Week, claiming their spot as both fashion and social media queens.

Each of the five new apps (one for each sister) is personalized to fit that particular Kardashian or Jenner. What kind of content do the apps have? Users will have access to personal video diaries, makeup and fashion tutorials, exclusive live-streaming events, workout tips, giveaways, and more.

Kourtney's app hasn't launched yet, but fear not, Kardashian fans: hers is coming late down the pike, to arrive next month. Kourtney said hers will be focused more on interior design and mommy tips.

The monetization model is simple: each app will have free content as well as subscriber content, and getting past that subscription paywall costs $2.99 per month. The apps were developed by Whalerock Industries, whose pitch to celebrities is, according to Fortune Magazine, "that celebrities can become their own media moguls by controlling the types of content they can release, and charge for." Many of the sisters are extremely popular on Instagram and Snapchat: Khloe, Kendall, Kim, and Kylie are all in the top ten most followed Instagram accounts, and Kylie's Snapchat videos seem to be in celebrity news every week. If the women can mobilize that massive social media following and push traffic to their apps, a huge amount of money is to be made.

Will the apps make the rest of the sisters as much money as Kim's did? If initial numbers are anything, it looks like Kylie might be the new Kardashian/Jenner queen of social. Two days out, Kylie Jenner's app has topped the charts on downloaded free apps, beating out Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Business Insider reports that the other sisters' apps didn't do so badly, either, scoring spots in the top 20 and beating out Spotify, Google Maps, Pinterest, Uber, and Twitter in the rankings. With this kind of fan base and star power

While it's easy to mock the Kardashians' wispy cloud-thin reality television personas, it's harder to mock their social media success. Kim Kardashian has long reigned as one of the most powerful people on any social platform she goes to, and is among the first celebrities to monetize that with an app. At the Soho event she wisely recommended authenticity and consistency for social media success. And whether it comes naturally to them or comes from being very well-managed, maybe it's time we acknowledge their business savvy. In any case, watching what happens with these apps will likely result in a huge lesson for social marketers of all stripes. 

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Original source: Kardashians Launch New Apps During NYFW.
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Social Media Addiction: How Does It Affect You?

For the majority of social media users, the first thing they do when they wake up in the morning is check their Facebook and then hop over to Twitter to see what's going on in the world. Whilst this is seems like normal behaviour to some, many researchers are beginning to label such behaviour as addiction. So, whilst it's quite clear that social media is here to stay, let's take a look at what that could mean for the millions of users around the world who are glued to their smartphones.

Usage Increases in Narcissists

According to research from the University of Derby, it was found that the average smartphone user spends 3.6 hours a day on their devices. The researchers also found a link between narcissism and smartphone usage. Dr Hussain, a psychology professor at the university, commented on this link, adding that there is "a significant positive relationship… between narcissism and addiction to the phones, suggesting that the more narcissistic a person is, the more likely they are to be addicted to their smartphone."

Whilst this seems like a strange link to make, it's understandable that a constant wariness or obsession with oneself could lead to an excessive interest with how one is portrayed online and how others receive said portrayal.

Separation Creates Anxiety

Ever felt a little restless after your phone has been out of battery for a while? Well, the University of Missouri investigated what happened to users when they were separated from their phones, and found some shocking results. Not only were subjects displaying signs of anxiety, elevated heart rate and a higher blood pressure, they also had diminished cognitive skills.

The lead author of the study, Russell Clayton, said in a statement: "the results from our study suggest that smartphones are capable of becoming an extension of ourselves such that when separated, we experience a negative physiological state."

Attention Creates Accidents

Our phones demand our attention and as soon as we hear that notification sound, we'll drop everything to find out what or who it is. Worryingly, this also extends to when we're driving, with new data suggesting that 22% of fatal road traffic accidents involve mobile phones.

In fact the majority of drivers who are pulled over for using their phone have it in their hand (66%), and not to their ear (33%). This strongly suggests that the problem is no longer drivers making phone calls but instead using their phones to text or surf the internet, suggesting that the need to check their phone is so great that they will disregard the law and, ultimately, their safety.

Bad Temperament Attracts Addiction

Whilst you'd think that addiction would cause a bad temperament, it seems that it's actually the other way round. According to a study by the University of Baylor, "a person who is moody and temperamental may be more likely to be addicted to their cell phone than more stable individuals". The theory behind the study was that those who were frequently in bad moods would reach out to their phones in an attempt to "mood repair."

Getting over Addiction

Whilst smartphones do make our lives easier in many ways, they can quite easily become a burden. If you feel like you're spending too much of your time experiencing life through a screen, it may be time to put some distance between you and your phone. After all, we weren't born with a phone in our hand. Here are some quick tips to take control:

Stop Notifications

You have the choice of whether or not you want your apps to send you notifications, and you can change this in your settings. For apps that you don't need notifications on for, simply turn them off.

Go Silent

The most common way we get side-tracked by our phones is when it makes a noise and interrupts us. By putting it on silent you can decide when you want to look at it, and you take control.

Leave It

We weren't born with a phone in our hands so we don't always need it there. Take the opportunity to leave it at home sometimes and you'll be surprised how liberating the quietness can be.

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Original source: Social Media Addiction: How Does It Affect You?.
http://www.jretechnology.com

eConfused? How Marketers Can Leverage Freelancing Sites

There are millions of articles out there on how to use freelancing websites like Elance, Fiverr and others to help sell your goods and services. The articles detail how a freelancer can offer his or her services online and set a bid price for the work they promise to do. We've seen this model executed a million ways. What this brief aims to offer is a roadmap on how marketers of any shape and size can utilize these freelancers for particular services that might be of use. From a simple logo, to a 3-D rendering, to a voiceover, to a website design—it is clear there is a lot out there and understanding how to navigate these waters is vital for the success of any marketer willing to dip into this pool of talent.

Elance (see below) has been at the game the longest—started in 1999 in Silicon Valley and ranking globally by Alexa at 616. Currently, Elance states they have "3.6 million registered freelancers who have earned over $1.4 billion from the service." In 2013, Elance acquired one of the other dominant forces in this space, oDesk, which has helped propel the company to new heights.

Freelancer, which started in 2009, has truly focused on the international market as their founding in Australia suggested. Currently they rank globally at 1103 on Alexa and have a limited footprint domestically.

Fiverr is another newcomer to the space, but has grown the fastest. Since launching in 2009, the company has experienced rapid growth– with the transaction volume growing 600% since 2011. Additionally, Fiverr.com has been "ranked among the top 100 most popular sites in the U.S. and top 150 in the world since the beginning of 2013."

Pretty much anything you want can be done. From the short, one-off graphic to a more complex website buildout and everything in between. Regardless, a brief list may help here:

Graphics & DesignOnline MarketingWriting & TranslationVideo & AnimationMusic & AudioProgramming & TechAdvertisingBusinessData EntrySourcing & ManufacturingLegalData ScienceAdminEngineering & Architecture  

It goes without saying that if you need something else that isn't on this list, you can still probably find it on these sites.

One of the trickier parts of these services that makes it tough for a marketer is there is very limited feedback and traditionally each step of the feedback process costs money. For example—you might give a voiceover artist some notes and obviously the script to start—but if you have changes that need to be made after the first go-around it is going to cost you. Same thing goes for design—changes? Gonna cost you. That is why internally we have stuck to some simple and definable outputs in this space because the feedback loop needs to be limited. If you are designing a full, interactive website on one of these services—good luck. Not to say it can't be great, but I would probably quote the adage, "you get what you pay for" on one of those. For us, our products are a bit more definable: here is a small business loan and here is how it works. If I got into the complexities of the entire product it would make this a much more difficult proposition.

One other note I would leave for the marketer who is thinking about using these services to create materials is the very slight—but highly-impactful shift that occurs regionally. By this, I mean that the slight changes in language, usage and even graphics can have a gigantic impact on these products. For example, if you are contracting with a nice young lady in Manchester, England, her creative collateral pieces may say, "Colourful Designs" when talking about a boutique retailer. She didn't make a mistake—she just used the Queen's English. Same goes for a voiceover or even a legal document.

Quite simply, just be cautious and clear. There are great and quick services here and they can help anyone drive great content to their customers. But the prices are low for a reason—so just be smart about it!

Freelance / shutterstock

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Original source: eConfused? How Marketers Can Leverage Freelancing Sites.
http://www.jretechnology.com

Bad Blood: Great Marketing or Great Flop?

After what seemed like weeks of hype building, teasers, and endless promotions, Taylor Swift's latest music video "Bad Blood" was finally released at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday. Hundreds of fans had been eagerly anticipating the video, however, it was met with strongly mixed reactions.

This begs the question: what kind of marketing message did Taylor send? And was it even what she was going for?

No matter your position on the quality of angsty teenager music that Taylor Swift produces, no one can deny that the multi-million dollar singer knows how to leverage her fans. She began tweeting hints about the video days before its release and built anticipation for the video to ensure that she had a large base of people viewing and sharing it seconds after it premiered. And you can bet fans did; the video was propelled to the top of the Billboard Real Time charts and Social 50 overnight.   

Since over 93 percent of marketers are using social media to promote their products this is certainly a great strategy on Swift's part. Add in an all-star lineup of ridiculously famous females from all areas of entertainment, give them bad-ass alter egos, and promote them using powerful movie-poster-like images and Taylor hit marketing gold. Even people that don't traditionally listen to her music were enticed to watch.

Taylor Swift hit the ball out of the park with her marketing strategy for "Bad Blood,"  but that is about as far as it goes. Although, the video had no lack of guns, explosions, and star power that certainly made viewers admire the lethal capabilities of the female characters, none of the awesome power or collaboration was used to fight corrupt government, unfortunate human conditions, or even discrimination by the opposite sex. They were used to fight each other.

Jessica Chou puts it best in her article reviewing the music video when she describes it as, "a montage of hot chicks duking it out against a backdrop of explosions — essentially, a Michael Bay trailer cut with Mean Girls."

It is no secret that the song and video is largely about Taylor's reported falling out with fellow pop superstar Katy Perry. Some reports have even suggested that the entire video was built around the idea that Taylor could round up a network powerful women on her side should she need to defend herself. The video seemed to send the message that she is not a woman in Hollywood to be messed with— she's won this popularity contest.  

Perhaps the most ironic part of the entire video is the fact that Taylor has openly spoken out about the negativity of girl fights on Canadian television show Tout le monde en parle: "One thing I do believe as a feminist is that in order for us to have gender equality we have to stop making it a girl fight, and we have to stop being so interested in seeing girls trying to tear each other down. It has to be more about cheering each other on, as women."

In the case of "Bad Blood" one has to wonder if the message Swift is trying to send is actually the one received by her viewers. If her goal is portray herself as a feminist who rebuffs 'catfighting' in favor of cheering on fellow women, she has most assuredly missed her mark. If her goal is to promote gender equality by refuting ideas of female celebrities as sex symbols, again, she has failed through her choice of scanty leather outfits.    

Although Taylor promoted the video impressively by using nearly every technique in her marketing tool kit, her message is exceptionally murky which ultimately is where her strategy fails. It seems as though the one and only clear message here is: do not get on the bad side of Taylor Swift unless you want to be the focus of one of her passive aggressive songs.

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Original source: Bad Blood: Great Marketing or Great Flop?.
http://www.jretechnology.com

10 Facebook Fan Page Marketing Sins to Avoid

When starting out, it may have seem like an easy task to create a solid fan base via Facebook marketing. Everyone's on Facebook these days, right? Surely there's an audience waiting to jump on and Like our page and keep themselves updated through our posts? Right? Unfortunately, it just isn't that easy.

It goes without saying that not all Facebook Pages take off. The ones that do are targeted, strategic and avoiding making any of these common errors – you should avoid them too. 

Since social media is all about interaction and communication – being 'social' – there's no reason to make your fan Page all "broadcast". In order to make your brand come alive, not only do you need your fans to show interest in you, you need to show interest in them and what they have to say.

Facebook has its own set of rules for everything – this includes how you promote your brand on Facebook. When creating your Facebook company Page, you're required to agree to Facebook's page terms which have an extensive list of rules on promotions, offers, and Page content that need to be thoroughly understood before you begin promoting.

Your Facebook Page isn't going to run on its own, that's a given. Successful Facebook marketing entails serious commitment of time, effort, and attention.

Even if you do spend enough time creating content for your Page, it won't necessarily get a bucket load of Likes within a week. Your content should be unique and engaging with a variety of posts to mix it up (photos, videos, tags, campaigns, etc).

Measuring your marketing success is crucial to ensure that you're giving your Facebook Page due diligence. Any effective form of marketing requires measurement. For Facebook Pages, this translates to analytics based on traffic, conversion/sales, posts, comments, likes, PTA (people talking about this), response time, etc.

Marketing without a strategy is like starting a business without a plan. What do you intend to achieve with Facebook marketing? How many "fans" are you looking forward to enticing and to fulfill which company goal? How do you plan to entice those fans? Without goals, strategies, and tactics in mind, you're on track to achieving less-than optimal results.

Facebook's tools and mechanisms may be more comprehensive than you think – it isn't until you have entirely explored the medium and the options available to you that you can fully understand what's possible. Some SBO's make the mistake of not even trying to get into the technicalities, uses, or features of the network (i.e. exploring Facebook Insights).

Since you're marketing, you'll obviously have a few promotions and pitches you want to make on your page. However, since this is Facebook (not entirely advertising) your Page shouldn't be all about promotions. Provide more 'value' to your Page by relaying information, interacting with fans, answering queries, and offering how to's.

Every social media channel has its own style of communication. A 140 character post that makes perfect sense on Twitter may not make any sense at all on Facebook. Similarly, the tags you use may differ (@ or #). Don't give your fans a reason to stop following you on one platform because they're already following you another which has essentially the same stuff.

Humans are visual, and social media is VERY visual. Other than your posts, your Facebook Page, tabs, and other images should be well-thought out in terms of design. With an information overload, you can't expect your leads to Like or sign up on a page that doesn't "catch the eye".

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Original source: 10 Facebook Fan Page Marketing Sins to Avoid.
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4 Underutilized Keyword Research Tools to Create Content that Drives Targeted Traffic

We're all starting to learn that the changing face of SEO means that the better your content, the higher the ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). That doesn't mean that you can't still get ahead through better utilization of keywords, though.

Understanding how to use the right keywords to create content that drives traffic is still an essential component of a good content marketing and SEO strategy.

Rather than using traditional methods of finding keywords, such as Keyword Tool or Google Adwords' Keyword Planner, fresh techniques should be employed to go beyond the basic and overused results being populated. While these more well-known / out of the box tactics are great for beginners, they rarely delve deep enough into what your audience is really looking for, or provide the competitive edge you need in rankings.

These four keyword research tools can be helpful in crafting content that's designed to drive targeted traffic straight to your blog, website, or product pages:

Turning to Amazon for keyword research can be a time-consuming process, but can result in a well worth it surge of targeted traffic when done correctly. Using Amazon as a keyword resource is done by scouring through reviews, a process often colloquially referred to as 'review mining.'

Copywriter and content marketing pro, Joanna Wiebe, describes the concept behind review mining best—"Instead of writing your message, steal it. Steal it directly from your prospects."

'Stealing' your keywords—or a keyword phrase—directly from your customers or prospective customers is smart for a couple of reasons. First of all, you're giving your customers exactly what they want (after all, they're the ones who said it first!).

Secondly, taking what's been said requires virtually no creativity on your part; instead, you're just mirroring what your target audience says right back to them.

Start by finding your product, or a product that's similar to the product or service for which you are marketing, on Amazon. For this example, we'll use mops. Not the most glamorous of products, but still relevant. You're a business that sells mops; you want to find strong keywords that will effectively target prospective customers.

Find a mop that's similar to yours (or is yours) on Amazon, and read the reviews.

As you read through reviews, use this Google Spreadsheet for keyword research and make note of strong words or phrases, emotional triggers or comments that are repeated. For the reviews above, some words or phrases that stand out are:

Eco-friendly mop (short tail)

Lightweight mop (short tail)

No streaks mop (short tail)

Microfiber mop head can be washed (long tail)

Picking up any small amount of dirt (long tail)

Can moonwalk after mopping

Then, use the above keywords or keyword phrases–or even just one really good quote, like the moonwalk after mopping–to create your content. According to Joanna Wiebe, when this tactic was applied to generate content for a rehab facility called Beachway, the result was a more than 400% increase in clicks, and more than 20% increase in lead-generation form submissions.

The key to success behind using Amazon for review mining is to focus on what people are saying. Before conducting a review mine, ask yourself: who are my target customers, what is their problem, what solution can I offer, and what piece of content can I provide?

Quora is a question-and-answer website, completely user-run; i.e., users ask the questions; other users answer the questions. You can use Quora to search a topic that's within your business's niche, identify keywords in questions related to that topic, and then cross check those keywords with Google's Keyword Planner for relevancy.

Depending upon which ones you identify to be most relevant, you can craft content that utilizes those keywords. Much like the Amazon method, using Quora as a keyword research tool provides you with insight into exactly what users are already searching for.

For this example, let's pretend your industry is within the cooking niche. To begin, type the word cooking in Quora's search bar – the most popular search queries on that topic will appear.

Then, choose a niche question or keywords from a niche questions and run it through Google Adwords or Keyword Tool. "Common cooking mistakes" would probably make for a great content piece topic.

The results are a lot more robust than your average search, and make it easier for you to generate more original content pieces than the same played-out ideas saturating the web.

From the list above, you could use one of the most commonly searched terms, like "Common Cooking Mistakes and How to Fix Them," or "Common Cooking Mistakes and How to Avoid Them" as the foundation of your next article.

With Google's Keyword Planner being the go-to (and slightly overused) source for so many performance marketers these days, the value of a simple and basic Google search is often overlooked. There are two awesome ways that Google can be used an effective keyword research tool to created targeted content.

First, Google Autocomplete: the feature of Google search that automatically fills in what it thinks you're going to type based on other common search queries, as well as your own search history.

Let's use the phrase, "How do I…" as an example.

If you're in a specific niche, you can use Google Autocomplete to find out what questions users are asking. These questions on their own often make great blog or article topics.

To use the cooking example again, consider:

Remember, questions that users ask are your customers' and potentials' problems; they ask the question to find a solution. These types of keywords fall under informational intent, and when you can write an article on a user-specific problem, that's great content marketing.

The second way to use Google for keyword research: Google related searches. At the bottom of a Google SERP, there is a list of related searches. These related terms can be used as keywords to generate content topics.

This is similar to autocomplete. Take a look:

You can use the above–which remember, are commonly searched terms (what the user wants to know), to find keywords or get topic ideas. If you want to find out how frequently searched each term is, you can still run it through Adwords to determine average monthly searches / competition, and whether it's the right keyword or phrase to focus your efforts on.

Yahoo! Answers is often dismissed as a quirky and erroneous source of user-generated information. While it may not be the best place to turn in a situation where an expert opinion is of need—it is a fantastic place to:

Find real people with real problems (your target audience)Learn what your target audience is talking aboutGain access to a wide range of information within your nicheOh, and Yahoo! Answers also has more than seven years' worth of data to dig through, meaning that you'll have no shortage of material to research and use to target traffic.

Begin by typing an issue or niche topic into Yahoo! answers. For this example, we'll use the phrase, "dog training."

From the get-go, you can use Yahoo! Answers' autofill feature to learn what people are asking / talking about.

Scour the questions in your niche, and keep an eye out for specific problems. The below is a great example — the user wants to know how to house train their adult dog, a common problem amongst canine owners.

In addition to keeping an eye out for problems, and creating a thorough list of those that you find, try to extract common words and phrases. For this example, puppy, dog, eliminate, house train, and potty train are the most common words used.

You can use this audience problem to create a piece of content like, "Three Tips for Housetraining Your Adult Dog." Within your own article or blog, incorporate the most commonly used keywords and keyword phrases that you extracted from users' questions and answers.

There's no doubt that conducting thorough keyword research is a time-consuming process.

According to the data, yes.

In one example provided by expert Neil Patel, long-tail (four keywords or more) search keywords increased traffic to his website by 91%. While you shouldn't expect a near 100% increase by incorporating keywords chosen to drive targeted traffic, there are few who would make a claim against the essential nature of good keywords and keyword phrases.

After you find your keywords using the tools above, make sure you incorporate them into your content naturally and effectively for optimal success. Keywords should make their way into a content piece's title, into the section headings (h2s), and spliced carefully throughout the article or blog in a way that reads naturally.

For more tips on finding keywords that will drive traffic read Outbrain's article on How to Choose Keywords that Will Drive Your Content Strategy.

What other tips for conducting keyword research that drives targeted traffic to your content would you add to this list?

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Original source: 4 Underutilized Keyword Research Tools to Create Content that Drives Targeted Traffic.
http://www.jretechnology.com