Erik Qualman's Blog, page 501

How the Automotive Industry Can Benefit from Digital Marketing

Digital marketing has now become the most important type of marketing for any business with an online presence. Companies all around the world are now focusing more on their online strategies than they are on their offline marketing materials. Businesses have realized the importance of being present on the internet and having a good reputation for internet users. If your business gains a bad reputation online, you can prepare for the worst. You could take the example of what happened to Volkswagen just 3 years ago to know what digital marketing can do.

It has now become crucial for businesses to understand what people want in order to successfully become powerful brands. The best way for them to know what people are thinking is to use digital marketing methods. At the same time, they need to have a very strong social media presence in order to make loyal customers. Just like any other industry, the automotive industry is currently benefitting greatly from digital marketing. Here are some of the ways the automotive industry can really benefit from a sound digital marketing strategy:

Knowing what people want

It is now a common trend for businesses to take online surveys for their products. Even if they are not able to get feedback from all the customers, they have a group of customers who will always respond to such surveys and provide useful information to companies about how they feel about the matter in question. By knowing what people want and what they don’t want, automotive companies can produce products that are according to their customers’ needs. They can have loyal customers and by listening to these customers they can become powerful brands with great reputations.

Hitting The Target Market

One of the biggest benefits of using social media for digital marketing is that companies have a huge target market to reach out to. Unlike conventional marketing where companies just advertise their products randomly, this type of marketing is much more informed. By using their favourite social networking platforms, companies can target the particular segments where they only find people who are potential customers too. By monitoring the activities, trends and behavior of these people the automotive industry can learn what really motivated their target market into making a purchase.

Build your reputation

Before Online marketing, it was extremely tough for a small automotive company with a small marketing budget to complete with the huge automotive businesses such as Ford and Ferrari. In the online world all businesses have a much more level playing field. Through proper search engine optimization, small companies can also come out on top in the search results. With billions of searches being performed every week, these companies can become greatly known if they are able to get to the top positions in search engine results. This is done through pay per click marketing or other organic marketing methods.

Remove Bad Labels

It is true that many big companies’ reputations have suffered because they were not aware of good online marketing ethics, even with a little mistake it is possible to tarnish their image for their customers. At the same time, companies that have a bad reputation in the eyes of their customers can use online marketing methods to win back their customers. These companies can use online social media, blogs and forums to get in touch with their customers and remove any misinformation given to their customers by getting in touch with them directly.

Use Targeted Marketing

Google and other big companies that currently rule the internet world are now helping businesses get access to their huge database of records for their customers. By accessing these records, businesses are able to send their marketing messages to targeted customers or customers who have browsed the internet for something that businesses can sell them. Just like Google, Facebook has also helped many businesses with targeted marketing. Websites that have specific categories for certain listings are also helpful, for instance, Gumtree has a section dedicated to buying and selling used and new cars, which is a great place to find interested customers.  Whilst advertising on sites such as Facebook and Google at scale can be expensive, these costs will be nothing compared to the expenditures of an offline marketing model.

They Can Empower Their Local Presence

Local SEO has gained a lot of attention in the recent years. It would not be wrong to say that it has become one of the primary targets for most companies because of Google’s push towards local search. Automotive dealerships can greatly benefit from local search aspects of the online world. There is a new service about to be launched by Google where people will be able to look at their local results for whatever they are looking for on the internet with great ease. Businesses are seriously working on their local search strategies.

Content Strategy

Almost every car manufacturer is using its online real estate to push its own content strategy that is created to grow potential customers brand loyalty. Rolls Royce are a great example of this, by using new social media network, Periscope when launching their new Wraith Model they were able to grab the worldwide media’s attention and gain a competitive advantage to its competitors by taking those learnings before other companies had given it a second thought. Whilst the campaign’s sole aim wasn’t to push sales of the model, it got the internet and automotive fans alike talking about the brand and was a great success.

Market In Unique Ways

Digital marketing has opened new horizons of marketing for the automotive industry. With the new cab and volunteer driving services such as Uber and Lyft, it has become possible for the automotive industry to market itself in the most unique and powerful ways possible. Automotive industries are now in a position to have their products marketed on the screens fitted into the cars and cabs that are working with Uber, Lyft, and many other similar services. This type of marketing is different in that it captures customers who are engaged and have time to watch the adverts.

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5 Food & Drink Brands to Follow During the Holidays

You might’ve noticed the influx of food surrounding you as the holidays have swiftly approached. With Thanksgiving feasts, office parties, family gatherings and vacation break celebrations, we’re about to hit full-force indulgence. If you’re on board with the eating and drinking train during these kick-off-to-winter months, here are some go-to food and beverage brands worth following on social to do you right for the holidays.

 

1. Chobani

The holidays don’t have to mean weight gain but staying healthy through these tough months filled with decadent temptations doesn’t have to be hard. Chobani Greek Yogurt’s Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook are populated with unique and tasty ways to use Greek yogurt as a substitute in everything from baked goods all the way to dips. Aside from substitution ideas, it also houses daily posts of simple healthy recipes themed around the time of year (like the holidays) as well as healthy fitness tips and inspiration. This is the brand to follow to counter putting on the extra holiday padding.

 

2. Kraft Foods

Speaking of holiday recipes, Kraft Foods is pretty much an integral brand in a majority of the cooking done at this time of year. If you’re ready to embrace holiday feasting and in need of news dish ideas you can’t go wrong with following Kraft in all of its online platforms. The brand umbrellas multiple food extensions include (Jell-O, Oscar Mayer, Cool Whip, and Velveeta…just to name a few) so it is bound to provide a variety of recipes to meet your needs  this social season. Detailed directions on how to cook, make and bake, as well as videos are all included to help users do their best to impress their guests.

 

3. Oreo

If you appreciate food photography and visual appealing treats, check out the Oreo Instagram. It has a light-hearted and fun vibe with fresh images that are sharp and make everything look super delicious. Lots of posts include treats to make with Oreos and list the full recipe in the caption below. Additionally, many of the posts encourage insta-follower engagement, which tends to get everyone in the spirit of the holidays.

 

4. Ketel One

Moving on to the fun part – drinks, which come in plethora during the holidays. Vodka, one of the most mixable of the hard alcohol category, certainly becomes a staple in the winter days. Try following the Ketel One Vodka YouTube channel. You’ll find not only drink recipes but also demos on how to create them which will translate to ensuring the holiday parties is extra cheery.

 

5. Starbucks

#RedCup drama aside, Starbucks is one of the best branders in the world, thus its engagement in the digital space is of high activity. Not only will the brand’s post get you in the mood for the holidays, it’ll also energize you by persuading you to actually go to Starbucks. Through its social channels Starbucks promotes contests quite often. Frequently enough that you could win some seriously cool stuff, all by participating within your own social profile. Think of all the coffee you’ll need after the food coma sets in, as the shopping spree ensues, and for the mid-party slump post lushing on too much wine. Starbucks will perk you up and is definitely clutch to follow during this busy social season.

 

You’re on social media and the internet non-stop as it is, so why not use it to your advantage this holiday season. Food and beverage brands are top of mind due to the endless gatherings that come with the holiday territory. Do it right by following these five brands to rev up a holiday for the books.

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When you have multiple personality disorder…

When you have multiple personality disorder…

Life’s a struggle when you have to keep logging out of Instagram to post your newest before and after pics. Well Instagram has finally realized how annoying that is and has come up with a solution. Hallelujah. The social media site is now allowing users to “tether” among multiple accounts, similar to what Twitter does. Currently the feature is only being tested for Android users, sad face. But the feature will allow posting selfies a more fluid process. The feature is currently in beta, and fingers crossed it’ll update for IOS soon. If you can’t wait for the update apps like Innbx & Schedugram will make teethering a whole lot easier. Deck the halls with happy selfies.  (Source Entrepreneur)

December 1st is for Donating: Today is World AIDS day

If you haven’t noticed yet today is December 1st and Snapchat is rolling out some wicked awesome  geofilters. Snapchat has partnered with (RED) the nonprofit organization that helps increase AIDS awareness. For every snap sent $3 will be raised for RED.  The funds are being donated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and will be available for only 24 hours. The foundation is turning full swing to social media to raise funds. The efforts include a video clip on Instagram and a nice musical number on YouTube with stars Jimmy Kimmel, Scarlett Johansson, and Barry Manilow. The video must reach 330,000 views in order for an additional one million dollar donation. Here’s the video & it’s currently at 12,000 views. Hopefully we can push it over the top.. Consider it a selfless selfie.(Source TNW News)

Your little black dress …

Just got cyber-bullied. Data is showing that online sales trumped in-store Black Friday sales for the first time ever. Online sales soared to 20% and excitingly brick-and-mortar sales rose 3%. Hoorah for the little guys. A big trend we’re not too surprised to hear about is millennials are turning to local retailers, and small businesses for their purchases. How will you shop this holiday season? Let us know by sharing all your shopping secrets with us by tweeting @socialnomics. (Source Koin 6)

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Do HR Professionals Truly Get Social Media?

It’s rare these days to find a company, whether large or small, that doesn’t have some sort of social media presence.

Depending on a few things, like size of company and budget allotments, different people may be handling social media, from the owner of the company to a specific social media director. However, it’s a great idea for HR to get their hands on social media as well.

As the article, “How HR Can Get the Most Out of Social Media” looks at, you should actively engage in social recruitment when seeking new employees.

One way that human resources can use social media is to seek the best employees. Those on the job seeking end tend to gravitate towards social media, so it’s a good idea to get the word out on the company’s end about employment.

At the very least, there can be a link to the company’s website where information about a particular position is available.

You never know who may share a post and it could find its way to just the right person for the job. Job postings are one of the biggest uses of social media from human resources.

Work the Brand

Human resources can also use social media to market the company a bit, and this can actually take a human interest angle.

Social media is a place to showcase employees, whether through awards and accolades or community involvement. New employees can be introduced, and current employees can shine on social media via HR. This is all good for the marketing side of the company.

The public may take on new interest in a company when it sees all the great things its employees are doing; a human side is very intriguing and compelling.

Connect with Current Employees

Not only is social media a great venue for showcasing employees, but it’s also a good place to connect with them.

From happy birthday posts to information on the company picnic to reminders that it’s time to work on your insurance needs, social media is a place to connect and disseminate information.

Social Media Allows Employees to Interact

HR does a lot besides hiring and firing.

There are surveys and collaboration and professional development involved. Much of this can be done through social media.

Social media offers places to connect and collaborate, share ideas and get reminders. A savvy HR department will utilize all of this.

Yes, social media is an excellent tool for finding top talent. HR can certainly use it for this.

But there are also many others way that HR can get the most out of social media, therefore saving a hours of time and making things easier for everyone.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

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Taste How Successful Social Media Can Be

You love to cook.

Your mind constantly goes to new recipes, and you get excited by fresh blueberries and apple season. You dream in flavors of balsamic vinegar and roasted chicken. Have you thought about designing your own cookbook?

Maybe you have and the thought overwhelms you, and all you can see now are unopened boxes of hundreds of unsold cookbooks filling your garage.

But what about an electronic cookbook?

Blogs

One great way to create and share a cookbook is through a blog.

As the following article looks at, if you’re wondering how to make your own cookbook, think outside the traditional pages and go electronic.

Whether you use a WordPress site or something like SquareSpace, you can create a beautiful blog that will electronically preserve and share some of your favorite recipes.

What is great about blogging your way through a recipe is not only family members can share these recipes, but your friends, and well, any followers who may come along, can also read your work.

With creative blogging, you can present recipes in beautiful format with photos to enhance them.

You can present the recipes in a way special to you complete with commentary and photos, whether it’s your family taking part in making the food or shots of a farmer’s market as you hand select the ingredients.

A blog allows you to tell a story with the recipe and make it personal. It’s much more than a notecard or a quickly scratched down version of your recipe.

Social Media

Another way to share recipes is through social media pages.

Whether it’s a Pinterest board or a Facebook group, you can invite your family and friends to add, request and comment on beloved recipes.

It keeps all the recipes in one place, and though it may not be a traditional cookbook, it will be fun to have comments from all the family and your friends along with their personal input.

Sharing Recipes

Sharing recipes is a timeless art.

We all have handwritten notecards in our kitchen from grandmas and moms; some have them from generations further removed.

To compile recipes into one spot and one volume, hardbound or electric, is a wonderful keepsake. You can serve that pound cake on anniversaries or make the spaghetti casserole when your child comes home from college.

When children grow up and venture out on their own, they’ll love having all the recipes in one spot. It’s a beautiful way to preserve memories and tradition, and carry them on.

Sharing and preserving recipes is part of the art of culinary.

We make food to share, why not share the recipes?

By publishing your recipes, you never know where you may go; it may turn into something much bigger than a place your cousin can see how you make your famous frosting.

After all, The Pioneer Woman started with a blog!

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

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What to say when your daughter tattoos her neck …

What to say when your daughter tattoos her neck …

I need some air. Atmotube is changing the way we experience air quality. The pocket-sized device is equipped with sensors that can detect 127 Volatile Organic Compounds and poisonous gases like carbon monoxide. After completing a successful Kickstarter campaign the device is gaining traction because of its benefits for parents, athletes and people suffering from health conditions. Atmotube senses the air quality every ten seconds then pairs with a smartphone app to give the most accurate and real-time information. If the quality dips below a certain level you will automatically receive a notification. Co-founder Vera Kozyr said,“Every day, we unconsciously take more than 20,000 thousand breaths and don’t even think about most of them. Unless we have a problem, we don’t think about what we’re breathing in and how the air might affect our bodies.” Atmotube is just one of several devices aimed specifically at giving everyday people the ability to monitor air quality. #PowerToThePeople. (Tech Crunch)

Bernardi’s #EpicFail

Quotes can be impactful but for conservative senator Cory Bernardi it’s clear he cited his sources wrong. In a tweet to his 15,000 followers he mistakenly quoted a neo-Nazi line rather than Voltaire. The tweet goes something like this, “To know who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” So who does the statement belong to? The American white nationalist Kevin Strom, also neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier. Hhmm we think a crash course in citing the Internet may be needed. (Source: The Guardian)  Guess what – we have that for you.

A Social Media Miracle

Holidays aren’t the only time for miracles. Social media has recently reunited a family with the silver cross medal of their ancestor. The metal was found by Collins Sawler and was missing for 35 years. The medal is specifically cherishable considering they’re only awarded to family members of fallen service heros. Sawler and his daughter looked up the name on the back of the cross on the veterans’ website then immediately turned to Facebook for help. Within hours the rightful owners heard about the news. New hero helps an old hero (Source Atlantic CTV NEWS)

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Too Much Socializing is an Invitation to Trouble

In a day and age when home and Internet security is challenged regularly by criminals, what are you doing to lessen the odds you and/or loved ones will become victims?

When it comes to the former, preventing criminals from getting into your residence takes some doing, but you can be pro-active instead of reactive in order to thwart their attempts.

As for Internet security, a little prevention before a potential problem arises is a great means by which to make life harder for criminals.

When it comes to both tasks at hand, social media plays a bigger role than you likely realize.

Be Pro-active and Not Reactive

While there are many good things that have come out of the Internet being available to countless people worldwide, social networking has also become a prime tool for criminals of all ages.

From thieves looking to break into residences or offices to those who choose to use cyber-bullying as a means to terrorize others, the Internet does have its dark side. How social media plays a role in all of this can be rather easily defined.

In order to lessen the chances of becoming a victim, keep the following tidbits in mind:

Don’t be too talkative – You know how you like to tell family and friends on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. about your upcoming vacation? Stop for a moment and ask yourself if criminals are paying attention too. As more and more evidence points out, it doesn’t take a tech-savvy criminal to monitor an open Facebook or Twitter account, allowing them to discover when someone is away for a period of time. As a result, they basically have an open invitation to your residence. Tone down the social media activity so that you’re not opening you and/or loved ones up to potential problems. If you plan on being on vacation, wait until you return home to post those must-see images and commentary;
Go social in finding the best security – If you’re an American homeowner or renter who has a home security system in place like ADT or a number of other providers, you are certainly not alone. One of the ways to locate the best provider for your needs is by using social media. Look to see what others are saying on social networking sites about their home security system experiences. You can also go to the Twitter, Facebook and other such social pages of providers to learn more about the company, its products, its customer service approach and more. Finally, even give YouTube a look, as it is a great social site to watch videos and home security measures you should be installing;
Loose lips sink ships – One of the worst things you can do is play right into the hands of criminals. Those individuals or groups who are identity thieves will be more than happy when you use social media to talk about your private financial matters. Even simple mistakes like discussing on Facebook or other social sites where you have your financial accounts at etc. can be a recipe for disaster. Any personal information should remain just that, personal.

Social media has myriad of benefits, but only when properly used.

Being too social can be just what criminals are looking for, so know when and where to be social.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

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Digital Marketers Rejoice: Instagram Multi-user Testing and What it Means

Since brands began their “invasion” (we all know consumers felt this way at times) of Instagram, digital marketers have been feeling the pain. There is no way to post seamlessly through the Instagram platform for multiple accounts. It’s led many down the path of testing third party apps, and many particularly into frustration. And typically both.

Now with the announcement of android multi-user beta testing in play, it could be a whole new playing field. What does this mean?

For brands and digital marketers:

Ease of handling multiple accounts. This doesn’t just mean personal and professional (but it does for many of us). It also means for agency and multi-brand folks, the ability to jump from one product line to the next without having to log out.
Assuming this allows for multi-login alerts at the same time, it would provide marketers with easier listening and in turn engagement with the target market.
Saving hashtags, because when you logout, you lose the ability to auto-fill your most recently used hashtags.
Less money spent on third party tools for something a native tool should allow for

For consumers:


Faster response by brands for questions, contests, and engagement with UGC content
Potential to be “seen” by a brand as a significant / loyal consumer sooner
More content they want to see

But for now we wait. We wait for the beta test to expand to iPhone and to all Instagram users (rather than just beta testers). We wait for Instagram to give us what we’ve been hoping for … for far too long.

Until then.
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5 Google Analytics Tips to Optimize Your Social Media Campaign’s Success

Introduction

Social media marketing has demonstrated strength in virtually every

area of business model and business size to which it has been applied. The ability to interact with brand audiences in ways that are entertaining, informative and personalized has increased strong relationship building between online businesses and their customers.

 

More than half of small businesses report sales increase within the first couple of years of active social media marketing, with that increasing to nearly 75% which report consistent return on their social media marketing investment after 5 years.

 

Managing your social media campaign can present many challenges for businesses just getting started with their social media marketing launches. While affordable web design and a good web design company can get your business an online presence, social media marketing requires talent which can at times appear daunting.

 

Fortunately, Google Analytics can provide a wide range of website performance and interaction metrics which can help demystify many aspects of the social media campaign process.

 

In this article, we discuss 5 ways in which Google Analytics provides assistance with managing your social media marketing efforts.

1. Audience Demographics

 

New social media marketing campaigns may not yet have core data about their audience makeup. Google Analytics provides several key pieces of data to assist with identifying these groups.

 

Google Analytics provides information about the age, gender and geographic location of your audience. Insights offered by this data include an international breakdown of your audience as well as valuable marketing data related to age range and gender by percentages.

 

This data can further assist with tuning your social media campaign’s message to address the needs and concerns of these segments as well as provide valuable feedback related to populations where your brand could use strengthening.

2. Acquisition Metrics

Acquisition data is extremely important data which allows you to view how customers are reaching your site. The breakdown includes figures showing link backs from the site of origin such as social media sites and search engine result clicks.

 

Knowing where your audience is coming from can assist you with decision-making knowledge about the performance of your different social media campaigns, which in turn can provide strategic insight for future campaign efforts.

3. Visitor Insights

 

Behavior metrics shows visitor time spent by page, bounce rate and which pages of your website users are interacting most with.

 

Having this information, can help you with determining which pages are the most popular and how long your visitors are interacting with those pages. The data suggests areas to increase campaign efforts and strengthen or eliminate areas which are not productive to the goals of your marketing campaign.

4. Visitor Flow

Behavior flow is related information which shows you the paths which users navigate your website including the pages on which the users most frequently land, which pages they navigate to afterwards and which page they leave your website from most frequently.

 

Having this information is invaluable to increasing user retention as it necessarily points out areas where the visitors most frequently show strong interest as well as those areas in which they lose interest in your website.

 

This information can also assist with understanding visitor conversion metrics, whether they equate to purchase decisions, creating an account, downloading an eBook, posting to a blog or subscribing to your newsletter.

5. Reporting Tools

 

Google Analytics also offers information packed social media analytics reports which provides key social value information in visual format. This data assists you with interpreting conversion and assisted and last interaction data and back tracing which social media campaigns have been most valuable in assisting with your conversions.

Conclusion

 

Getting started with social media marketing can be a little intimidating initially for those new to online marketing. However, Google Analytics offers many insights into user interactions with your website to demystify the performance of your social media campaign.

 

If your curiosity has been piqued, follow this google analytics guide which will get you started with using analytics.

 

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When your face morphs into a Star Wars Character

When your Face morphs into a Star Wars Character

We all know that Apple is as secretive as 007’.ell their recent acquisition has really peaked our interest, especially for you Star Wars lovers. For several months it was completely under wraps whether or not Apple was acquiring Zurich startup Faceshift. Well it’s been confirmed with the official Apple statement going as follows, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” Startup Faceshift Studio creates facial motion capture software solutions, that can be used for gaming, movies, and other animations. If that’s not cool enough, the software was used for the newest  Star Wars movie to make creatures look more humanlike. Wanna see how the software makes you look more like Jabba the Hutt? Check out the video here.  (Source Tech Crunch)

Breakups are painful, Facebook can help

Breakups are the worst and they usually go something like this, crying, eating, and scrolling through social media to distract yourself. Then suddenly you stumble upon a post of your ex smiling and the waterworks start all over again. Well Facebook is here to help soothe your broken heart. Their newest feature “Take a break” will help you after you make an official breakup via Facebook. Once you update your status with the sad news you’ll have the option to limit what your ex can see about you, and your ex’s posts.  The feature won’t show your ex’s updates on your newsfeed and you won’t receive notifications to tag them in pictures. The feature goes both ways meaning you can limit all of your posts so your ex-love won’t see your new life. The changes aren’t permanent, and you can still visit their profile anytime. For more therapeutic remedies check out the cutest cat video the web has to offer. (Source CNN)

Thanksgiving Trivia

Wanna know the average amount of calories consumed on Thanksgiving? Hmm maybe not but the average American consumes about 4,500 calories, equivalent to gain 1.3 pounds. Yikes. Sidenote if you wanted to burn that off you’d have to walk 45 miles. (Source AL)

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