 It is a new decade in 2020. Social Media is a must for your business but you do not have to kill yourself over it to make it work. Here are some tips I found to help you plan your social strategy yet be able to breathe a little in doing it. 1. Focus on building a community Social media isn't just about grabbing attention and growing an audience. It’s also about building an engaged online community. As social media professionals, we have to know inside and out who we want in our communities, and what they want to hear from us. This is often why social media content falls flat - it lacks purpose and reason, and connection to its target audience. Basically, it's just promotion, traditional ad and marketing collateral in a new format. Now, you may say 'well, we want to engage everyone, everyone with a pulse needs to be a part of our online community'. Let’s get real for a second. Your mission and your message is not going to resonate with every single person. If you're a small business or nonprofit organization dealing with a niche issue or a local problem, you have to face the fact that your online community will be a lot smaller than a national organization. Every day, go into your communities (let’s stop calling them platforms) and see what’s working. Answer comments and questions, be present, and don’t over automate. Always be learning about your community and what they're most interested in, what moves them, what drives them, what inspires them. Create content just for them and more will follow from there. 2. Set time to relax! How much time do you have to spend on social media? Is this 100% of your job, or just 10%? The best way to determine how much time social media management is going to take is to clarify how much time you have to devote to it. The truth is that getting results on social media is much like getting results out of an exercise plan - consistency and intention are key. If you have thirty minutes a day to get a quick walk in, that’s better than sitting at your desk all day, every day and getting zero activity. If you can fit an hour walk in once per week, your results will be even better. The same goes for social media - no matter if you have all day, or just an hour a day, to focus on social media, you need to create a time management plan to avoid spinning your wheels and wasting time (which can be so easy to do on platforms that are designed to grab your attention and keep you clicking). Social media management takes discipline and practice, but a time-based strategy like this can be a great way for social media managers to manage their various competing responsibilities. Take a 25-minute break from time to time. 3. Take mental health breaks As noted in the introduction, mental health stress on social media managers is a real thing, and the ramifications are just beginning to be properly understood and reviewed. The "always-on" mentality dominates pretty much every industry right now, but it's especially true with social media. But consistent use of social media can be very hard on your own mental health so taking a step back every now and again is essential, even if it doesn’t seem like an option because there’s just too much to do. This may mean turning off social media notifications when you leave the office. If you absolutely need to respond to something, set aside 10-15 minutes of dedicated time after work to go into each platform, then shut it down for the night. It’s also important to take digital detoxes and vacations - pausing for a moment to come up for air and give your eyes a break from the screen. 4. Just say no to perfectionism What??!! Your content is never going to be perfect, and your social media 'To Do' list will never be fully complete. In many cases, we have to be ok with 'done and imperfect', as it’s better than simply not done at all. Now, by this, I'm not advocating lazy mistakes or letting awful content or automation to take over. But you shouldn’t be spending hours designing and tweaking one single Instagram post, or whiling away the days editing a smartphone video that's going to be 30 seconds long. Attention to detail is great, but perfectionism can be a killer. Get that post up. Edit it later if you find a drastic mistake. Test, see what’s working, then do more of that. 5. Advocate for your own well being Every job has its busy periods, but constantly feeling like you’re struggling to keep your head above water is not okay. Social media managers are often also expected to be marketers, creators, analysts and customer service people. It's no surprise, in the end, that so many of us end up stressed out. If you are a team of one and your work responsibilities amount to three full-time jobs, you have to be honest with your superiors and managers in letting them know that this is not sustainable. Conduct a detailed inventory of your time, listing out as many tasks as possible, and how long it takes to accomplish them. Don’t be afraid to advocate for your work. In Summary The social media landscape is busy, noisy, and overcrowded with a wide range of content types. Sometimes, people can be not-so-nice, sometimes the work feels thankless. Sometimes, it feels like you're doing it all alone. In 2020, ensure you consider your own mental state, and the capacity and scope of the work you're taking on. Being constantly connected can feel addictive, involving - but if you're having to overlook other elements, like spending time with your family, in order to keep an eye on your mentions, that can have significant negative impacts. Take a step back, and assess your workload and habits, as you head into the new year. -Roy Tags: #socialmedia, #contentwriting, #branding, #marketing, #advertising
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 If you haven't yet considered using video content to drive traffic to your blog, now is the time. Video content is engaging and compelling. It's also widely viewed on many online platforms and devices. Here are some tips that I found that do work. Some of them kind of bug me as a consumer myself but they do work and you can pick and choose what you think might work for your blog. Using video is a creative way to drive more traffic to your blog. There are many video platforms and marketing strategies that can help you meet your business goals and make your blog grow. What's more, video content can lead to greater engagement with your brand. In a recent study on video, 53 percent of consumers overall and 66 percent of millennials engaged with a brand by visiting their site or doing more research after viewing the brand's video. Use video platforms While your blog should be the focus of your content creation efforts, it's essential to create content on other platforms, too. Reach a wide audience by creating videos on popular platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo, which make it easy to upload and share content. You can also directly upload videos to your business's social media pages. These videos can help you drive traffic by directing viewers to your website for supplemental or bonus content. For example, a food blogger can create dessert tutorials on their video channel and divert traffic to their blog for the full recipe. Connecting information from a video to a blog is an inventive way to save time recording and to increase blog traffic. Add video content to your blog Written content is the most common form of content found on blogs. But adding a visual aspect, such as videos, can boost engagement and keep people on your site longer. In fact, the aforementioned study found that 29 percent of millennials find video content more memorable than any other content type. Images, movement and sounds come together to make videos highly engaging, thus creating more recall than other forms of content. Make video creation a part of your content strategy with these ideas: • Online courses and tutorials: People frequently search for videos to answer how-to questions and build skills. They are willing to spend time and even purchase access to such content. You can then send viewers to your blog to view supplementary resources and other materials. • Live webinars: Webinars are appealing because they give people a chance to directly connect with a brand and ask questions in real time. This creates a deeper connection by showing that there's a real person behind the brand. You can gain more subscribers to your blog by offering attendees additional content or specials when they sign up for your blog or services. • Vlogs: Vlogs, or video blogs, are personal and nonpromotional. They offer a glimpse into the "real" life of an individual or business. You can use this to build an online audience that's invested in your content. • Interviews: Interviews with experts are exciting and informative. Invite experts in your field, and ask questions that interest your audience. • Product reviews: People depend on reviews as part of their research before buying a product. Creating product and brand reviews can help draw people to your blog. • Event live streaming: Another great idea is to livestream an industry-related event. This needs a video setup, but once done, it's an easy way to create valuable content. Using different forms of video can help you boost your blog’s subscription rate. You can also create email marketing blasts inviting your email list to an exclusive video seminar. Find creative ways to leverage videos to draw in more people to your blog. Take advantage of social media stories Stories are present on virtually all social media platforms today. They are a popular way to share video content, consisting of short videos that last for a few seconds and disappear after 24 hours. Create short video content on these platforms and use hashtags, stickers, polls and text to make people aware of your blog. Humor is a universal feeling, so try creating short stories that entertain and make people laugh. You can also create limited-time offers that create the fear of missing out (FOMO) and drive people to your blog. I personally as a consumer find this method kind of irritating and tacky, but it does work. What's more, Instagram allows accounts with 10,000 followers to create a link to their stories. It's also possible to add a link to a description when using Instagram TV (IGTV). Lastly, don't forget to link to your blog in your profile description. In Conclusion Video content is widely consumed, and is easier than ever to make. It's an effective way to add a face and personality to your blog, making it more engaging to people. Help your blog grow by making video content a part of your marketing strategy. Have questions? Reach out us here at FDMC Digital Media. We will be happy to help! -Roy Tags: #video, #blogging, #vlogging, #contentmarketing, #socialmedia
 Gone are the days when brands can rely on a single video and hope it will appeal to their entire audience, using generic content for mass appeal. Now, with users regularly seeing custom-for-them videos regularly on Facebook sharing birthday messages, their top fans, and their best memories from a year, consumers are expecting more personalization. Considering the sheer amount of video content flooding the feeds, personalization is the way to make sure that your ads stand out and are memorable with your audience. They can also increase social shares, getting you more visibility, and help you make a bigger impact that can lead to more sales and improved customer loyalty. What Does Video Personalization Look Like? Personalization, of course, can be a little tricky. There’s a lot of work involved, and there are different levels of personalization. In this post, we’re going to take a look at how you can create high-converting Facebook video (organic and ads!) that are personalized in the best way. Personalization at a base level can just mean creating ad campaigns that are tailor-made to very specific niches within your audience so that your video ads resonate with them. Video ads are like apples and oranges. As an example, you could have one ad created for busy moms tired of cleaning up a baby's mess, one for pet owners who have dog or cat hair everywhere, and one for dads who like tinkering around the house. Each video will resonate more will each individual audience, increasing the likelihood of a conversion. You can go further, though, and offer true personalization. Think about those videos lets say that Facebook creates every so often, sharing just-for-you videos, showing you how many birthday messages you got and your profile picture with a birthday hat. These are obviously difficult to do at scale… but not impossible. If you remember the Coke ad campaign they did with names on their cans, they promoted their product as a community-builder, but people saw their own names (or the names of someone they cared about) and wanted to go find them in store. Personalized = high converting, even though coke was only doing something that magnets and keychains at tourist traps had been doing for years. It helps people see themselves in a way that relates to your business, and it didn’t require true video personalization. How to Create High-Converting Personalized Facebook Video Ads Creating high-converting Facebook ad video campaign based in personalization can be overwhelming. It’s a big, involved process, and you want to make sure you get it right. Let’s go step by step through the process of creating one of these campaigns so you can jumpstart your own. 1. Take an Audience Interest & Make It Scalable Before you start trying to find quick ways to personalize an ad, it’s important to understand what types of content your audience will want to see on a Facebook video (organic or otherwise). Someone running a pet store, for example, might consider that people want to see videos that remind them of their own pets. You can show dog owners clips of dogs, and cat owners’ videos of cats. You can even get specific, opting for content that’s breed specific. If we’re selling pet food to dog owners, see how this idea could become scalable and personalized:
2. Consider How You’ll Target These Users When it comes to personalized videos, it’s important to understand how you’ll be showing the right content to the right people. In our example above, it wouldn’t exactly make a ton of sense to be showing a boxer owner the video of a Bernese mountain dog. Something more generic, like our dog food example, however, can be a little easier to target. You can target by interest, or retarget based on certain actions your audience has taken. If they’ve checked out a page for breed information and recommendations, that’s a good one to choose. You can also use your database of information if you have any; you could ask new customers, for example, what breed of dog they have and then use custom audiences to reach segmented audiences. 3. Use Flexible Video Templates to Offer Personalization at Scale After you’ve decided what you want to create and how to get in touch with your target audience, you’ll gather the raw video clips and images as needed. This can include free-for-commercial use stock photos if needed. Then it’s time to actually assemble the videos themselves, and the trick here is to use flexible video templates that allow you to swap out images, video clips, and/or text as necessary. This allows you to create a general video for the purpose and then swap out a video of the Labrador instead of the boxer and the text to match. It’s quicker than creating entire videos, and still gives your content that polished look that comes with background music, seamless integration, and special effects. Summary Social media users have higher expectations for video content. They want engaging, personalized, and even interactive content that feels tailor-made just for them. Fortunately for all marketers, there are a few ways you can offer personalized content that suit specific niches of customers without having to actually Facebook stalk and create videos for each individual one. Ultimately, having a solid strategy from the get-go and the right tools in place will make a world of difference. -Roy tags: #video, #marketing, #socialmedia, #facebook, #branding
 Have you gone Live on Instagram yet? If yes, then claps for you! If not, we get it! It can seem like a daunting task to plan a live video and perform under the pressure of real time. But for branding your business, it’s so beneficial that it’s time to start thinking about it. You don’t have to be a network video producer to go live with Instagram. Here are some tips I found that will make your video streaming great. Why you should go Live First, why should you go live? There is a bunch of benefits from going Live for your business. Here’s just a few reasons that you should start planning for your first Live video. Increased engagement Going Live is a great way to show the algorithm that you are here and you are working it. When people join, comment and like your Live video, it shows that people care about your brand and that they want to see more. This makes it more likely that your content will appear in the top of their newsfeed and your Stories won’t get lost. Let’s be honest, we can only click through Stories and scroll for so long. And with all the content that’s being pushed out every day, it’s likely that unless someone highly engages with you, they won’t see it. So being near the top of the newsfeed and the front of all the Stories is important for your business. Anything that’s going to get you some love from the algorithm is something that should be taken advantage of. Story priority Have you noticed when you open Instagram, the first Stories you see at the top say Live under the thumbnail? And they are "ALWAYS" at the front of the Stories? That’s what happens when you go Live! When you go Live, you have an option to post it to your Story after you end your video. Doing this will put your Live video right at the front of the Story feed. Many people just open up Instagram and start clicking through Stories. Since you’ve gone Live, your Story will be the first thing they click on! If it’s something that interests them, maybe they’ll click through to your profile or keep watching! If not, then they’ll keep swiping. But at least you gave them a chance to watch! Instagram Stories are organized similar to the feed. The people who show up at the front are people that you are more engaged with. That means that your Story could get lost way at the end of all of the other Stories from friends and family never to be seen. Going Live will help prevent your Story from getting lost because it will be right there when your followers open the app! Answer questions in real time Going Live is also a great chance to answer questions in real time. People who are watching can type in questions and you can react right away. This takes out the extra steps of having to DM or email to get a question answered. It also helps you seem more approachable and shows that you actually care about your audience. Having an open dialogue with your current and potential customers will enhance the overall experience they have with your brand. In turn, making it more likely for them to be repeat customers and suggest you to a friend! Show your brand personality Instagram is about building relationships! No one wants to engage with a brand that never answers comments, doesn’t have a face to the name and just tries to sell, sell, sell. Going Live helps build that relationship because 1. your face, voice and personality can come through and 2. it’s an open conversation with your followers. Like we said before, it’s about showing people who you are, what you’re about and why you’re awesome! Build existing relationships and form new ones Along those lines of showing brand personality, going Live helps nurture existing relationships and forge new ones. When you go Live, Instagram will notify users to try and encourage them to join. Sometimes I’ve even gotten notifications for people that I wasn’t following. So maybe someone stumbles upon your Live and tunes in just to see what’s up. You’re immediately able to see them join, welcome them to the party and start a conversation. People are more inclined to engage with (and buy from) brands that they trust. Congratulations you just made a new friend by welcoming them to your Live video! And now you have a lead and potential customer. Tips A lot of people don’t go Live because yes, it takes planning and yes, it’s real time. Which can seem terrifying (especially if you don’t do well in front of audiences). Some people are naturals with these situations, but some of us didn’t get so lucky. But seriously, don’t let the fear of speaking live keep you from gaining new relationships! Here’s five tips that might help ease the process: 1. Have a plan and purpose This could be the deal breaker for some. Taking the time to plan out and have a purpose for your Live isn’t something that just happens. Figure out what day/time you have the most active followers so you’ll know when you’ll probably have the most viewers. Once you get more comfortable, sure you might be able to just pop on Live whenever you’re inspired for a quick convo with your followers. But make sure you have a purpose. “I just wanted to come on real quick to tell you guys I had the best coffee today.” Unless there’s actually a purpose to this anecdote, NO ONE CARES. So make sure your Live has purpose in some way. That story might make sense for a coffee shop debuting a new latte art collection, but if it doesn’t add value in some way, chances are people don’t care unless you are big celebrity that has thousands of followers then yea people log on because they are obsessed with that person. So anyway, ahead and think about what information you want to share, what questions or comments you might get and possible answers to those questions. 2. Practice If you’re really nervous about performing under pressure, practice before you actually go Live. You can record yourself and watch it back to see what’s working and what’s not. You could practice in front of a friend that you trust and get their feedback as well! Going Live isn’t like a memorized speech; it’s a conversation! It’s okay to have notes to make sure you hit all the points you want to talk about. We understand if you hesitate and look down. Relax! 3. Have some company to relieve your stress You might also find that it’s easier to have someone with you on your Live video so that you can have an actual conversation. It might seem more natural to have a co-host so you can play off of each other and it’s nice for someone to have your back! You don’t even have to be in the same room as the person because Live has an option to add other users to the Live stream! You could go Live with someone on the complete other side of the world, but it will have the same effect. Maybe you and your business partner are talking about a new product you’re launching. Maybe you’re recapping an event with a fellow social media manager. Whatever it is, it might be easier and more comfortable to have an actual conversation. 4. Keep is personal It’s a great place to show personality. No one expects you to be perfect! Try to talk like you would be talking to a friend (or actually talk to them if you aren’t alone). Don’t try to be something that you’re not. Live is a great way to show authenticity in your company. Talk about things that you are an expert in, are passionate about or that you find interesting. When you’re talking about something that you understand and care about, it comes through! 5. Have fun! Live videos can be totally fun if you go into with the right mindset! If you’re freaking out about messing up then you probably will. But really, who cares if you say uhm or stumble over some words? No one! Like I said, it’s not a memorized speech. Laugh and have a good time and a proactive conversation with the audience that has joined! Mess around with some of the features and get feedback from people. Make jokes and laugh if you mess up. Just be real. And now some live video ideas Still thinking that you can cover all of your bases with Stories and regular posts. Need inspiration? Here are some of our favorite topics for going Live. Go behind the scenes People love to see behind the scenes! Maybe it’s the process for making that new color of lip gloss or a photoshoot for an upcoming event. Behind the scenes make your audience feel like they are part of the journey. They might learn something new about you or your brand, might think it’s cool how your products are made or might get inspired. Going "BTS" also shows your brand’s authenticity, which is a great relationship builder! Answer questions Pull out a list of FAQs that you get. Live is a great time to read through them and answer them. If someone asks a question in an email or direct message, chances are that someone else also has the same question, but maybe hasn’t reached out to ask yet. Answering questions on Live will help educate your audience and maybe even spark new questions that need to be answered. It’s also more personal to address questions in real time than through a message. Sometimes things get lost in translation over the internet, so answering questions Live makes sure your answers are portrayed how you intend them. Tell a story Like I said earlier, just make sure it has a purpose! Even if it’s just a funny story, that still has a purpose: entertainment. People love to see that your brand is approachable and relatable. Try to entertain, inspire, educate or add value in all of your Instagram Lives or people probably won’t want to tune in. Give tips/insights Adding value is one of the most important parts of building relationships on social media. Going Live to share your top 10 healthy breakfast recipes or 5 things to look for when buying a new car or whatever knowledge that you have to share is an awesome topic for Live videos. People can respond and ask questions, which just helps further the conversation and the relationship building. Reveal products or your services Going Live is perfect for launching products or your new service and getting people excited. Reveal your new eyeshadow palette or talk about a new service you’re offering. Show people how your products work, how your clothes look on people or demo a new feature! New is exciting and getting the chance to watch Live is kind of like going to a launch party! Livestream an event Maybe you’re speaking at a social media conference or showing your new product at a convention. Livestream the event! Show people what’s going on while giving them valuable information about your brand! The possibilities are endless! How to get started Once you have your Live video planned out and you’ve determined the best time to do it, here’s how to get the action started. You’ll want to start by updating your Story settings. Go to your profile and click the three lines in the top right corner to open settings. Click Settings > Privacy > Story. Here you can hide people from seeing your Story (and your Live). You can also decide if you want to allow messages from everyone, just people you follow or turn them off. For most of the purposes you’ll be using Live for as a business, you should probably allow messages from everyone. Once you’re all good with your settings, head back to the main page to get going. There are a couple ways to get to Live. Act like you’re just adding a regular Story to your Instagram. You can:
Fun features on Live Here are some fun things you can add to your Live videos:
Tags: #instagram, #videostreaming, #branding, #apps, #socialmedia, #video
 Being in digital media, I am always digging around articles on my line of work. I would be silly not to. I recently came across from very interesting stats on digital media. For businesses considering or even brushing off the fact that they do not need to do any digital media marketing, I think you will find the information I came across a eye-opening for you. The digital advertising landscape is constantly changing to meet the demands of our fast paced consumers. Sadly they are always in a hurry and to them, less means more. More consumers head to digital channels to research, shop and find product recommendations. Just as importantly, they have very specific attitudes towards how brands decide to engage them while they are online. To better understand and for you to get a grasp on the online advertising landscape, here’s a look at some interesting stats that I came across. Much is from Lyfe & eMarketer, a good resource for us in the digital media field.
Digital Video Digital video ad spend continues to climb, according to IAB’s 2019 Video Advertising Spend Report. Marketers report digital budgets have increased 25% year over year. Approximately 86% of marketers are using video content in their campaign outreach efforts. One trend this year are shorter video ads, or bumper ads, that are compelling and grab a consumer’s attention. YouTube and Google both launched 6-second bumper ads as a way to offer brands a creative way to extend brand reach in a short time frame. Native Advertising Advertisers are spending big on native advertising. These ads emulate the look and feel of the media format where they appear, gaining greater acceptance and engagement because they are designed to seamlessly integrate into social feeds and websites versus banners or pop-ups. Some popular formats of native ads include:
Mobile advertising shows no signs of slowing down, In 2018, mobile’s share of the U.S. digital ad market climbed to 63 percent of total digital ad spending. Over 55% of the US population regularly watches video on mobile, and the average smartphone video viewer is estimated to have spent 44 minutes watching videos on their device in 2018. Table users spent 38 minutes. Now in 2019, mobile is predicted to “surpass TV as the medium attracting the most minutes.”
Tags: #socialmedia, #advertising, #marketing, #digitalmedia, #video
 I love to read information in relation to digital media. I have written a bunch of stuff of information I have found that shows digital media, video in particular is skyrocketing in the marketing and advertising world. Here is more proof on the subject.
Keep in mind that your business does not have to be a huge Fortune 500 company to embrace these stats. Any size business can use digital media to market their brand. US digital advertising spend for the first half of 2019 totaled $57.9 billion, an all-time high for the first six months of a year, according to a report from the IAB and PwC US. The record total marks a 17% uptick from the previous half-year mark. Video advertising saw the fastest level of year-over-year growth at 36%, totaling $9.5 billion. The report pretty much states what social media has been accomplishing and that is the rise of non-traditional forms of video, namely connected TV and social video stories, has given advertisers new ways to reach younger audiences cutting the cord. Digital video growth has played a key role in giving 2019 the strongest opening. Businesses are turning to social video stories and connected TV to reach a growing audience of ‘cord-Nevers’ – a younger cohort who’ve never subscribed to cable television and cannot be reached via linear TV ads. Indicators show CTV and addressable TV are on the rise. Mobile advertising accounts for the chunk of digital ad spend at $40bn, a 29% increase compared to the previous year. Audio is on the rise, too. With the growth and advancement of smart speakers and the growing abundance of podcasts, audio spend totaled $1.2 billion, a 30% increase compared to the previous year. -Roy  Social media has been a key communication channel for as long as digital marketing has been around—but social media use, especially with mobile apps is declining. For marketers and digital advertisers, they are in disbelief. But it is true. Since the word social media has been coined, young adults from 14 on up to the early 30’s have ruled the social platforms but now things are changing. Social Media Usage Is Down The recent findings regarding Americans age 12-34 are crazy when you look at trends over the past two years. This study that I found was a real eye opener. Check these facts out:
 The bottom line: Social media usage is dropping at a very alarming rate among Gen Z and Millennials. Kind of surprising isn’t it? Who would ever thought? -Roy Tags: #socialmedia, #marketing, #advertising, #genz, #millinials
 I just had to share some high points from an article I found about older folks using smartphones and engaging in social media. While it is no secret that the younger 20 somethings mostly think that anyone over 40 has no business being on social media or digital apps like Instagram or Tik-Tok, they are there and having fun doing it. Older consumers are finding their comfort zone using high tech smartphones and engaging on social platforms. When it comes to tech and new-media adoption, older generations of Americans continue to gain on millennials. That’s according to the Pew Research Center. For example, while the share of millennials who say they use social media (86%) has remained largely unchanged since 2012, the shares of Gen Xers, boomers and the “Silent Generation” who use social media have all increased by at least 10 percentage points during this period. This year, millennials will turn somewhere between 23 and 38; Gen Xers will turn 39 to 54; baby boomers will turn 55 to 73; while “Silents” will turn 74 to 91. In terms of specific platforms, around three-fourths or more of both millennials and Gen Xers now report using Facebook (84% vs. 74%, respectively). Boomers and Silents have both increased their Facebook use by double digits since 2015. In fact, the share of Silents using Facebook has nearly doubled in the past four years, from 22% to 37%, Pew reports. In recent years, older consumers have also increased their usage of consumer technology in a huge way. Among Baby Boomers for example, smartphone usage has increased from 25% in 2011 to 68% today. Despite a narrowing of the gap between generations, smartphone ownership still clearly declines with age. Per Pew, more than 90% of millennials count themselves as smartphone owners; followed by 90% of Gen Xers; 68% of boomers; and 40% of Silents. As for smartphone-only Web users, 19% of millennials fit into this category, along with 17% of Gen Xers; 11% of boomers and 15% of Silents. Consumer opinion about the role of technology also continues to vary with age. For instance, 73% of online millennials said the Web has been mostly a good thing for society, compared with 63% of Silents. Across the board, American's take on the societal impact of the Web has recently become less positive, according to Pew. Among Gen Xers, for example, those who believe the Web has been mostly a positive force in society declined from 80% in 2014 to 69% in 2018. These are interesting stats! -Roy Tags: #babyboomers, #socialmedia, #smartphones
 So we all know marketing can help you grow your business and take it to new heights — if you do it right. Unfortunately, most marketers make the same few mistakes again and again. When everyone around you is making the same mistakes with marketing, it can be extremely difficult from going down the same rabbit hole. After doing some reading and research, I found some of the most common marketing mistakes businesses tend to make. Here are the five mistakes and how to fix them: 1. Relying on your gut Instinct over data Making assumptions about what will work and what won’t can be a costly mistake, and is one that's also fairly common — even experienced marketers make this mistake. With so many data gathering and analytics tools readily available to businesses these days, there’s really no excuse for marketers to make decisions based on intuition. The deeper you go into data, the better your marketing performance will be. You certainly don't want to make your next move based on your intuition or third-party gossip or “their facts”. You want to see the hard facts about what’s working and what’s not. This doesn't mean you should stop experimenting or stop doing what you believe is right, you should just be as informed as possible. The problem is when marketers rely 80% on the gut and 20% on data. When it comes to marketing, it should be the other way around. 2. Follow the sheep mentality If everyone is adding emoticons in their subject lines, would you use them too? Well, chances are high that you will. In the world of marketing, we all can’t help but be the sheep that follow the rest of the herd around. If our fellow marketers use a marketing channel, then we will use it too. If other marketers are using a marketing tactic, then we will use it too. So, instead of using our rational mind we are more likely to deviate where the majority of the mass is going. Now I am not saying exploring what’s working is wrong. But copying what’s already working is not always the best way either. Think before you leap and become a sheep. 3. Trying every marketing channel but not giving them enough time to produce results Most marketers these days are distracted by the latest shiny object — they try every new channel as quickly as possible. And when they don’t get immediate results, they pull out quickly too. This is a quick and easy way to burn your marketing budget. Just because the digital world is moving at a fast pace doesn’t mean you will get instant returns from your marketing investment, too. Because, no matter the channel — whether it’s Instagram, YouTube, or web push notifications — the audience you’re trying to reach are humans. And, it takes time to build a connection with them and engage them. Also, most marketers keep their focus on trying new channels instead of providing customers with a seamless shopping experience. But if you want to get good returns from marketing you should focus on providing customers an omnichannel experience. 4. Improve your strategy consistently With marketing, no matter how successful or knowledgeable you may be, you cannot afford to rest on past wins and stop learning and experimenting. Especially in today’s world where technology and AI are changing the way marketing is done. Are you following this approach? Are you trying to improve, and if you are, are you doing it consistently? Remember: consistency is key to successful marketing. 5. Forgetting their number one audience When it comes to boosting marketing ROI, marketers are often focused on what they can do get new customers and business. So much energy is poured into bringing more visitors on the site and converting them into customers that it’s easy to forget about your number one audience: Those same customers you already have! There they are. So, do any of these make you clear your throat a bit? -Roy Tags: #marketing, #socialmedia, #advertising, #business
 Ahhh, all those branded online video content. In no other medium is the divide between compelling and worthless more pronounced. Why is this? There’s no question that we’re visual creatures. With over half of our brand being directly devoted to visual processing and with the internet generation’s voracious appetite for video – demonstrated by all those years of content being uploaded to YouTube every day - one would expect video marketing efforts to go down in frenzy. In the vast majority of unsuccessful cases, it is a combination of misjudged messaging and the general feeling evoked by the video. With our heightened perception for this medium, getting the emotional pitch of your branded videos correct is absolutely essential. The power of emotion The power of emotions and stories is long-established, from both a psychological point of view and in marketing. So, is there any science to back this up? Counter-intuitively, human decisions are nearly always based on emotion, not logic. From emotion to logic: The Marketing Video It has been shown that top-of-the-funnel efforts should appeal emotionally. From a marketing perspective, it is simply about getting as many eyes on your content as possible—vetting and nurturing starts further down. While viral videos aren’t right for some brands, a great study into a internet virality confirms the importance of emotion at the awareness stage. Additionally, we are 22 times more likely to remember information when it’s wrapped up in an emotional story than laid out bare. Most of the time, awareness-stage content barely mentions the brand. Appealing to positivity and self-examination is another common tool for emotionally driven awareness videos. The Middle of The Video Message Once you’ve attracted the attention of your viewers, the middle stage is essentially about proving yourself to those who are showing interest. We want to begin appealing to their rational side. We’ve found that brand videos demonstrating company values and their differences from the competition - all while showing a human face and compassion - are a powerful catalyst at this point. Videos need to instill trust and confidence to their potential customers or clients. This is exactly the kind of reassurance people are looking for when deciding between options. The Last Few Seconds…. Your CTA Product videos are the most common type found at this level, and for good reason. Using a product video on say, a landing page can increase conversion rates up to 80%! A recent study showed that one in four consumers actually lose interest in a company if it doesn’t have product videos. Additionally, the many SEO experts out there will know that this will also improve your visibility - indirectly through improved user metrics and directly through video search. But does video content at this stage have to be clinical and serious? The contrast between one over the other gives an indication of the directions you can go. Also, product videos are not the only effective content at this stage. Customer testimonials are powerful hooks to drag customers towards conversion - and usually provide a better opportunity to include emotional nuance. Setting aside the immense engagement received by both videos, these are just two examples of how to inject a bit of life and humanity into practical CTA video content. Keeping emotion in mind Many of these techniques are known by marketers and salespeople, but they are without question worth bringing to the surface and re-examining every once in a while. The power of both emotion and logic as forces of persuasion can be illustrated in a hypothetical social context. When someone discovers a new company, they’ll take delight in explaining to others its powerful branding, creative approach to the marketplace and pleasing social values. We marketers simply need to be aware of this phenomenon, provide the pieces, and then, for once, we can sit back and let the consumers do the work. -Roy Tags: #video, #marketing, #socialmedia, #branding, #advertising, #digialmedia
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