During this interactive session we will cover:
Platform changes you need to know about
Opportunities to increase engagement with sponsored content New tools and techniques for measuring success
3. Social Media Marketing Trivia
1. Which social media platform is considered the second largest
search engine?
2. Which social media platform is poised to bring in nearly $1.5 billion
in ad revenue in 2016?
3. What is the third most popular social media platform among
millennials?
4. Which platform recently announced it will soon allow users to post
updates up to 10,000 characters long?
5. What percentage of online adults use LinkedIn?
5. The Golden Rules of Social Media
Marketing
• Know thy audience
• Quality trumps quantity
• Listen first, talk second
• This isn't 'set it and forget it'
• Tailor the content to the platform
7. Think Mobile First
• In 2015, a higher volume of Google
searches was conducted from mobile
devices than from desktops in 10
countries, including the U.S.
• 51% of the time U.S. adults spend with
digital media each day is from a mobile
device
• 1.39 billion of Facebook's 1.55 billion
monthly active users access the platform
from mobile devices
And the rise of mobile is impacting far more than social media...
• ExactTarget found 27% of consumers will leave a website if it is not
mobile-optimized
8. Is Your Website Social-Friendly?
Best practices to ensure your
website is social- (and mobile-)
friendly:
• Responsive design (scales
to all devices)
– Make sure your forms
are responsive, too!
• Install share widgets on your
blog
• Have links to your social
media pages prominently
featured (typically in the
header or footer) on your
homepage
• Install social media feeds on
your homepage to keep it
looking fresh
9. Where Does Live Streaming Fit in Your
Social Strategy?
• Snapchat is the third most popular social app among millennials
– TechCrunch reports it gets more than 6 billion video views each
day
• Periscope was named one of the top apps of 2015 and has grown to
more than 10 million registered users
• Facebook launched "Live" a video streaming app for celebrities in
August 2015 and made it available to all users at the end of
December
10. Let's Talk About Sponsored Content
• eMarketer studies project...
– Facebook Advertising revenues will increase another 31.5% in
2016, following a 41.8% increase in 2015
– Twitter Advertising revenues will increase 45% in 2016
– LinkedIn Advertising revenues will increase 20.5% in 2016
– Instagram Advertising revenue will increase 149% in 2016,
reaching $1.48 billion globally
11. Sponsored Content, ctd.
Why is sponsored content/advertising on social networks growing so
rapidly?
• Ability to target audiences
– Targeting makes it very economical
• Declining organic Facebook reach
• Ability to measure results
• SEO value
• Opportunity to drive new audiences to landing pages and associated
premium content
– Content generation is on the rise. As more companies implement
inbound/content marketing programs, they are looking for new
avenues to cultivate new audiences as well as drive views,
shares and downloads.
12. Sponsored Content, ctd.
Sponsored content stems beyond Sponsored Stories on Facebook and
Sponsored Tweets on Twitter.
Companies are also embracing sponsored content as part of their PR
and content marketing strategies. And, consumers can't always tell the
difference between the paid and the editorial. A 2015 study by
Contently found 40% of readers can't identify which content is
sponsored on online news and content sites.
13. When Does Sponsored Content Make
Sense?
• On Facebook, it can help grow your page audience and drive traffic to
your website/landing pages
• On Twitter, it can help generate downloads for your content marketing
offers
• On Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, it's a great way to get more
eyeballs on your most important news
• On online news/content sites, when it can give you industry exclusivity
(for example, a sponsored expert column in a key online real estate
publication)
• When you have news or thought leadership to share that is on the brink
of clearing the editorial wall
• When you are trying to generate inbound links for your website
– In some instances, you can link to your blog articles, landing pages
and premium content (whitepapers, e-books, toolkits, etc.) that are
part of your inbound/content marketing program.
15. Video Just Keeps Growing
• Forrester Research estimates 1 minute of video has the
equivalent value of 1.8 million words
• Video ads are projected to be the most popular digital ad
format by the end of 2016
• Facebook averages 8 billion video views each day
– 75% of these views are on mobile devices
16. 5 Types of Videos That Can Help Your
Digital Marketing
• Q&A with thought leaders
• Behind-the-scenes footage
• Event footage - from galas to conferences
• Company profile
• Man-on-the-street interviews
17. Where Is All of This Content Coming
From?
• Social media can be a beast - and a hungry one at that. So,
where does good social media content come from?
• Credible third-party content (think media, trade associations,
research orgs, etc.)
• Original content (unique things you're only sharing on social)
• Existing thought leadership assets (blog posts, bylined articles,
newsletter content, industry conference presentations,
whitepapers, e-books, etc.)
– Inbound marketing is a great complement to social media
marketing. It helps to feed the content beast and ties content
generation and social media marketing together as the basis
of a measurable lead generation program.
18. Common Threads
The most effective social media marketing programs are part of
integrated marketing strategies. They embrace trends and rely on
tried and true best practices to generate measurable results (ROI).
Focus on...
– Consistent messaging
– On-brand visuals
– Being audience-centric
– Providing value
– A consistent frequency
20. Which Trends Should You Embrace?
What are your business goals? How
can marketing help?
When deciding which trends to
embrace, start by asking the following
questions:
1. Which communication channels
are best suited to reaching my
target audience?
2. How much budget can I allocate?
3. What metrics will I use to
measure success?
4. What fits best into my existing
marketing strategy?
21. THANK YOU!
Stay Tuned: Co-Comm University will be back in session this April.
Details coming soon.
Editor's Notes
The four trends we are going to take you through this morning are having a 'mobile first' mindset, the growth of live streaming, an increased need for sponsored content (particularly given consistent declines in FB's organic content reach) and the rise of not only video content but video ads.
Transition: Before we jump into these trends in more detail, we want to take a moment to revisit the basics, which we like to call the golden rules of social media marketing.
Trends aside, the basics still apply. You want to be audience-centric, relevant, engaging, conversational, etc. Social media is a living, breathing beast that you need to keep feeding with content and that you need to monitor consistently.
Marketing goals and business goals should be aligned and social media goals are no exception. You need to set goals and benchmarks at the onset. Every business defines ROI differently, just as there is no one-size-fits-all for which platforms are the best use of resources. Companies are monetizing social (e.g. promote a product in a FB ad and link to a landing page for purchase).
Transition: Now, let jump into this year's social media marketing trends...
What does all of this mean? You need to be on-brand and on-message but you also need to be succinct. You don't want to post FB updates that people have to click "read more" to fully understand the content. Use visuals to support text to make content easier to digest. From what you post to where you link, think about how it will look on a mobile device before you pull the trigger. In 2016, making sure your social content is easy to digest from mobile and that your website is responsive are not choices - they are mandates. Facebook drives nearly 25% of all web traffic - you don't want people to go from a dedicated mobile app to a website that isn't responsive! It's a negative user experience and damaging to your brand.
Periscope and "Live" are essentially the video version of selfies. Content on Periscope and Snapchat is available for a finite period of time. We did the marketing for an international cake and sugar arts show this past September and we saw a lot of exhibitors and attendees going through the show and broadcasting their experiences live on Periscope. The challenge from a marketing and measurement perspective, is you can't catalog and evaluate the content a week or even a day later. People need to be tuned-in in the moment to catch it. The benefit to the users who are tuned in in the moment is that it is unscripted and authentic. If you're going to take the leap to go live on any of these channels, you need to make sure your content is worth tuning in for. Much like PR and media relations, you need a good news hook to grab your audiences' attention.
Let's take a look at Facebook Advertising as an example. You can target audiences by geography, demographics, even interests. You can also upload email marketing lists to define your audience. In some instances, you can even target people who like you competitors' Facebook pages. For the professional services companies in the room, sponsored content on LinkedIn is an avenue to explore. Depending on how much you are willing to invest, you can even target people based on the LinkedIn Groups they are participating in.
On online news and content sites, sponsored content isn't always clearly labeled. For example, a story might look like editorial but it may be the pop-up video ad that tells you the content is actually sponsored.
Sponsored content is part of your advertising program and your content marketing program and our PR/media relations program. It's all part of an integrated approach.
More than 10k page likes from one single “sponsored story” that appeared in target users’ news feeds in 29 days. Generated the highest volume of website traffic throughout the entire campaign.
Think about all of the video content in your own Facebook feed. You have CPG companies showing you how to make recipes in 15-second video clips. We live in a visual world. Need to be constantly thinking about how to make your marketing more video.
You want to capture brand voice, be authentic, be engaging. Give people content they can't get elsewhere. Make them feel valued. Reward loyalty. Make it engaging. Know what you can shoot on a smartphone and when to bring in the professionals. Cross-promote the content across your social networks, put it on your website, in blog posts, in your email marketing. Maximize your investment in video.
Whether you're going to develop more videos in 2016 or ramp up your investment in sponsored content, everything you do need to be consistent with your brand and tied to your marketing and business goals.
Every business is unique and their marketing mix needs to match their goals. If your target audience is active on LinkedIn, than sponsored LinkedIn content may help to amplify the reach of your online thought leadership. If the process involved in manufacturing your product is unique and intriguing, a professionally produced profile video may be a good investment. In service industries, its about the channels that are best-suited to sharing your thought leadership with the right audiences. If your business is very technical, q&a videos with the CEO that live on your blog and are promoted through email marketing may yield strong ROI.