Erik Qualman's Blog, page 516

Give Your Content Marketing a Social Push

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In order to successfully run a business in 2015 and beyond, social media should be a must, not an option in your branding plans.

Sure, some business owners (probably more than there should be) think social media is either a waste of their time, too expensive or doesn’t provide relevant feedback to see truly if it is working for their brands. If you as a business owner share any of these thoughts, change that today and not tomorrow.

As the business world evolves, especially in today’s information age where businesses and consumers have access to products and services virtually 24/7, it is critical that the former don’t take social media lightly.

So, why is promoting your brand via social media a necessity?

Consumers Are More Social

First and foremost, business owners need to remind themselves that more and more consumers are socially active these days.

Whether it is going on a company’s Facebook and Twitter pages to look at products and services, see customers’ feedback or reading reviews about one’s business, consumers are turning to social media in droves. As a result, your business needs a presence there. Along with the above-mentioned sites, being accessible on sites like Instagram, Pinterest and even YouTube will only benefit your brand.

With that in mind, it is all too important that your content marketing efforts on both your website and its links on social media be top-notch.

In the event you have content marketing which is stale, uninformative and full of errors or just plain boring, you will turn off consumers’ quicker than a rate in your prices.

So, how do you get the perfect content marketing formula?

One way to go about it is by considering hiring SEO agency services for your content marketing needs.

By doing so, you accomplish several things. They include:

Having professionals overseeing your content marketing needs – You may be over-stretched and/or green in the area of content marketing. Having someone with experience in this area allows you to focus your strengths elsewhere;
Having someone promote your content – One of the biggest keys to having a well-organized content marketing approach is making sure your content is promoted on the right venues and regularly. If you have hit-and-miss efforts on posting your content to sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, many viewers will be first-time and one-time viewers. While you don’t necessarily have to post every day, it is important that you or your SEO provider post in a consistent manner;
Having a key focus on what attracts – When your content marketing is promoted via social media, it is crucial that the proper keywords are used to link back to your site. This is another reason that the option of hiring an SEO provider is a good idea. They can do analysis and keep track of what keywords do well and which ones should be retired permanently or put on hold for a while.

When it comes time (hopefully you’ve arrived at that point now if not sooner) to take your content marketing efforts social, think about how best to do it.

If you’re not totally comfortable and/or qualified for such an endeavor, finding someone who is can make all the difference.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

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How To Write Engaging Facebook Posts

One thing that every social media marketer knows is that Facebook has been around for a long time, so finding new ways to engage your own Facebook fans is crucial to maintaining your following. If some of the content you publish there doesn’t stand out and has the same feel as previous posts, your followers will begin to ignore it until some eye-catching content draws their attention.

Here are some ways you can start to engage your audience:

Emotion symbols engage followers

Statistics have indicated that adding a smiley face to a post can lead to a spike in the number of likes by up to 57%. Comments on the post can rise by 33%, while shares show a 33% increase too (the data is provided by Hubspot). So, don’t neglect emotions when writing your Facebook posts and see how your followers take posts with emoticons.

Visual content is important

Don’t just use dull words on your Facebook page. Liven up your posts with relevant images, or run a short but engaging video. This can be a great hit to newcomers to your page. Not all pictures can be a fit and some experimentation is required, but a study undertaken by Taggs does reveal the importance of visual representation on Facebook pages. The same study found that product pictures without people were preferred to those with people. What’s interesting, partial body images, such as a foot or a hand, seem to attract Facebook fans the most!

What About Evergreen Content?

Posting evergreen content is another way to keep your audience. These posts are always relevant and stay interesting whenever a reader goes to your Facebook page. For example, for a business this could be something key to your product. Post with the information that your followers often need is always there and they can refer to it at any time. They could also direct their friends to your page, knowing that the solution to their problem that may be required will still be there. So, take advantage of resharing evergreen posts – here are great tips from Buffer.

Keep your post short

Don’t expect your followers to have too much time to read your posts. Keep each post down to just two or three sentences and leave a gap before your call to action.

Call to action

Once you have posted your short post and added a photo you should now ask your f to respond which could be clicking the like symbol. A call to action is essential to assess your strengths.

Use the power of links

Make sure you include links to your website’s content. Facebook team’s findings show that people react better to posts Facebook can help with the marketing of your product but it’s your website that will clinch the deals and do your selling. So, make sure you direct them to the appropriate landing pages and blog posts. The link could be embedded in a clickable photo or the product name.

Updates are important

Updates really matter, so don’t leave your Facebook page completely static. Just having evergreen content is no guarantee of anything. Recently, a Zappos update included a picture of a heart and it received in a mere twenty two hours 718 likes, 8 comments and 22 shares. Zappos had put other posts in throughout that time period, but the heart proved to be the most liked.

Be 24/7

We all know how important fresh stories and news are to Facebook. So, just a small tip: keep your business mobile devices with you. They should be at hand just in case you have a bright idea but you are away from your computer. Great ideas come and go in a flash, breaking news should be posted on your Facebook page immediately to attract more eyeballs. Facebook for business is all about being on the go 24/7.

Why are likes, shares and comments so important?

Most people like to see what everyone else finds interesting. It’s sort of a herding instinct. If one of your products on your Facebook page has numerous likes, other followers will want to know why and are quite likely to follow any link to find out what you have to offer. This refers to comments and shares in particular.

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Getting Up and Running With Video Marketing

I am asked on many occasions, what is needed in order to produce videos. Questions range from what hardware is needed, what software is needed, and what is the cheapest, fastest way to do it. The one question that I don’t hear very often is “How do I do video SEO?” That question actually has a more consistent, concise (ok, not that concise) answer. More than likely the answer to the video SEO question is an easier one to find, so it is not frequently asked. Instead, people are always looking for the shortcut on the video production end.

I am not here to tell you what you should use or how you should do it. I have my ways of doing it and my process. However, that doesn’t mean that my way is the right way for you. Instead, I’m going to offer you some “considerations.” I’m going to give you some ideas of what you should think about before venturing into video marketing. This is basically what I cover in my video strategy coaching sessions, so you are getting it here, for free.

You have read a couple “video” terms, so far, in this article and let’s put them in context with how they relate to one another. First, you have the “video production.” That is the “getting the video done” part. There is also “video post-production” (which is something we do) where the video that is recorded is edited. Then, there is “video SEO” which is the process of optimizing the video (i.e. description and title) to perform well in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) and especially in Google and YouTube. The term “video marketing” could be defined in several different ways. It could be the overall process (including video production; video SEO). It could be the strategy portion and include “video pre-production” which is the planning and strategizing that occurs before the production (recording). We are using the term in this more generalized context. We are not discussing specific strategies related to video marketing, at least not in this article.

The Quality Question

This is a big one for us. In our company, we insist on quality. For the most part, 80-90% of the web video content out there does not focus on quality. Now, before you get mad at me and think I am accusing you of poor quality web videos, realize where I am coming from, and it should make more sense. Ok, maybe I am accusing you (and us!) of poor quality. But, that isn’t a bad thing. Let’s look at it in context.

First of all, my background is the education at what is now the Los Angeles Film School. I am a videographer and also a pro sound engineer. Yes, I produced some work for bands in Los Angeles before I decided to take the stage and marry a sound engineer. Now, I don’t do as much sound engineering because I don’t have to do it.

Back to the quality question and how this relates to you. Some of the best videos out there are the quick videos that are “filmed” on a smartphone. They capture the moment, and often times go viral. There is also some really high-quality web videos put out by popular brands, which also go viral.

Are you catching a glimpse of where I am going with this? First, are you a large brand? If so, you probably have the money to go for the high-quality web video and also have the money for the high-quality promotion of that high-quality video so that it is guaranteed to go viral.

Are you a little smaller company with a little tighter budget? Then, you can actually aim for that innovative capture on your smartphone and let the community do the work for you, in getting the web video to go viral. It is ok that your web video is not what would be considered the highest quality in sound engineering and videography.

If you are reading this, and you are ready to just go out there and do it with the smartphone, then you are all set. You know what software you need (the built-in camera app in your smartphone and youtube.com), and you have the hardware (smartphone). You have solved your quality question, and you are ready to implement you video strategy.

 

 

The video, above, gives a little cross-section of videos that are quality renditions that include decent videography and sound engineering techniques, but there are also quite a few that may lack the technical aspects. They are still very entertaining!

Some Fun Alternatives

There are some tools out there where you can create whiteboard videos, animations, and more (loosely still referenced as “video production”). If you are a little bit technically minded and are able to follow directions, you can use some of these tools yourself, without hiring a videographer. This is an answer to those people who want to know how to get it done and get it done fast, but do not want to use a smartphone. Remember, these tools are not necessarily “fast,” and they do require some skill, but it is within the realm of possibility.

YouTube – You can do some basic editing right within the YouTube site, without additional hardware/software.
Sparkol – Create whiteboard videos (also called explainer videos) online, with this tool. It takes a little while to get the hang of it but once you catch on, it gets easier.
PowToon – Want animations? Check out this site. You can also create explainer videos on this site, too.
Microsoft PowerPoint – did you know that you could create a PowerPoint presentation and export it as a video? It isn’t glamorous, but it is doable.
Google Hangouts on Air – this is how we do it for HangoutQueen. You can even record yourself talking to a camera and if you have it hooked up to your YouTube, it only takes the time that it takes to do the hangout.

Don’t Forget the Basics

So, we have talked about quality (probably more than you would like to talk about it) and we have given you some ideas on how to put together other video media. There is one last consideration to cover. It is one that is often overlooked. That is the computer hardware, disk space, and recovery.

I actually do get quite a few people asking me what type of computer to use. Personally, I use an Apple Mac. I also use Final Cut Pro for my professional video productions. You can use a Windows computer, as well. The key is that the computer processing power matches what you are producing.

For example, if you are using your smartphone to capture video and upload it straight to youtube.com, then you don’t even need to worry about the computer processor speed because you are not using it. If you are doing what we do and creating high definition professional videos, then you need a powerful computer. We even used a quad server to process our videos, to really get the power that we needed.

This isn’t some ego trip. It is about the ability for the software to complete what you have asked it to do and to be able to do that in a timely fashion. Before we got the server, I had a high def video file that actually took 40 hours to render. The rendering process is that point where you have made all of the changes you need to make and the software pulls it all together for you and exports out the final version. Usually, that isn’t even the “final final.” There is still a compression point to get it ready for the web (small enough for the web), which takes more hours. Ok, all you smartphone users, aren’t you glad you are not doing the 40-hour render?

In addition to a powerful enough computer, you also want enough disk space to store these files. Do not depend on Youtube or Vimeo to store your videos. You want to have a copy on your hard drive, as well. Also, in some cases, if you are doing video post-production, you may want to keep a copy of the video project file (that is that file where you are snipping and adding music, etc.). That way, you can make changes and produce other versions of your video later (i.e. Instagram snippet videos). We recommend picking up some 5T drives at places like newegg.com and archiving your files.

The final piece of the basics is the backup process. You don’t want to forget this step. Many times people say, “Someday I will get around to that.” It isn’t until they have a crash and realize that ten years of work is gone that they realize they should have done it earlier. We use Apple Time Machine. You know those drives you picked up at NewEgg? Hook up one of them as your Time Machine backup drive. Apple makes it pretty easy to set and forget and that way you will have all of your files to show off to your grandkids.

There you have it, three basic considerations to include in preparing for your video marketing strategy. There are many more considerations, but this should get you going and last a little while… at least until tomorrow

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Millions of Fingerprints Stolen In Breach

THE STORY – FINGERPRINTS STOLEN IN BREACH

Cybersecurity, hackers, breaches. These are all things that have become way too familiar recently. And it is about to get even more familiar. Last spring, the Office of Personnel Management suffered a nasty breach said to be one of the biggest data breaches ever. Hold on tight because it just got bigger.  (Source: theSkim)

What to say when you thought TSA clearance was bad…

Yesterday the government gave us an update and said that 5.6 million fingerprint records were stolen.  Yes, 5.6 million.  This reveals that much more was stolen than OPM thought.  Who has these fingerprints and what they are using them for is still TBD. (Source: BBC News)

DA SKIM

Things are about to get real awkward. U.S. officials have blamed the breach on China. The U.S is staying on the down low about this though. Chinese President Xi Jinping is on his first visit to America and on his agenda is a talk with President Obama about cybersecurity. Cue the tension. (Source: Reuters)

Quote of the Day: “Thank you my robot assistant…I mean Siri.”

Siri helps us on a daily basis. Finding us restaurants, sending text messages or providing a laugh when she doesn’t understand. Well the robot we all love is getting an update. Siri is becoming hands-free to iPhone 6S users. Need Siri but don’t want to hold down the button? All you have to do is say, “Hey Siri” and she will start listening. The feature used to be available on older iPhones, but the iPhones had to be charging for “Hey Siri” to work. Now Siri will be listening to you whether it’s in the bottom of your purse or under your couch cushions. How convenient. (Source: The New York Times)

In case you missed it…

Yesterday the apocalypse almost hit. Facebook was down for 30 minutes and everyone lost all chill. How can we go on with our workday without Facebook access?! Thankfully, Twitter was working so everyone could share their confusion/anger/feelings with the world.  Turns out Facebook was just experiencing some technical difficulties. Carry on. (Source: CNBC)

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Getting Started with Social Media for Your Small Business

Social media is the new driving force behind a majority of the marketers to promote their business. Competition is tough, and getting a wide and loyal customer base is quite an overwhelming task. Social media is only going to grow in the coming years. If you are not marketing on it, then you are most likely missing a large chunk of the pie and letting your competitors having a field day. By the time you realize this, it will be too late and the best time to get started is now.

The question to ask here is: if you are looking to adding new customers, how are you going to add it?

The simplest answer that comes to your mind is stealing them away from your customers. Initially, this may not seem the best way to move forward, but it is the only way to take leaps and strides in a short period of time.

1. Listen to the rumor mills

They may not always turn out to be true, but you should always lend at least an ear to them. Attend the regular community dinners and events and keep an ear on the ground. It is crucial to know your enemy’s strengths and weaknesses and exploit them at the right time. Social media also plays a very important role as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. are very important sources for these information.

2.  Poaching through LinkedIn

Regularly check the Linked In profile of your competitors and see who they are connected to. This is a pretty easy way to check out which customers can be targeted. Additionally, Linked In profiles can also be used to poach the best performing employees of your competitor. After identifying the customers who you want to target, approach them and lure them to your business and let them know how you are much better.

3.  Don’t hesitate to spend some money

Keywords are open to buy to get more prospects clicking on a website. Getting the right keywords ensures that your website is exposed to the highest number of prospect clients.

Another thing to wonder about is what exactly you can offer a customer to get them to jump ship to your company or business. It will cost you some money, but that should be compensated by the growing business that they bring.

Adding infographics, video content and better optimization to your content can also help in improving your business.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ are some of the prime networks that every company, big or small, young or established need to have an active presence on. It is absolutely inexcusable for any business that want to thrive to not be tweeting!

Once you optimize your social channels for success, you will convert visitors to customers apart from quality consumer service, luring visuals and quality content.

In conclusion, here are some of the social media strategies that you should develop and stick to.

1.    Have a game plan and stick to it

Investigate how active your competitors are, and then create the adequate benchmark for yourself. Be active, but be careful to not overdo it. Take the help of social media managing platforms like Hootsuite, TweetDeck etc. to help schedule posts and tweets on your social feeds, access performance analytics.

2.    Treat each medium as an individual entity

Each social channel has and has to be treated as a separate entity. You have to optimize content according to the features of that channel and develop strategy according to that.

3.    Immerse yourself in customer service

A customer who posts a query on your social media timeline must get an adequate response within a respectable time frame. Otherwise, the dissatisfied customer can cause a lot of harm to your business and reputation. On the flip side, a timely and qualitative response can add lots of good will to your brand and enhance its reputation thereby spiking your business.

Ensure that a first responder is assigned to post and monitor each channel that your brand has a profile on.

Lastly, always be creative and interactive. Use giveaways, personality and a sense of humor to engage followers and convert them from just visitors to shoppers and buyers. Organize regular competitions to ensure maximum interaction between the company and your followers.

Always develop a vision keeping in mind the long term benefits. Attracting new customers who are currently giving revenues to your competitor is all about offering a better deal or an overall experience that what they are currently receiving and at a substantially lower rate than your competitor.

However, getting and poaching new customers is not enough, you will have to develop and retain a huge base of loyal customers and this is where your social media strategy comes in handy.

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All I Want for Christmas is a Tumblr Shirt

All I Want for Christmas is a Tumblr Shirt

Tumblr is doing what no other social media site has done before. For their 10th anniversary they are introducing a fashion line featuring clothing with popular Tumblr posts. Tumblr has partnered with Print All Over to make your wardrobe one to be jealous of, hmm maybe you’ll finally win best dressed this year. Fashion meet Forward.

Popular designs have come from Andrew B. Myers, Brian Vu, John Karel, & more. All of the designs were inspired by the diverse Tumblr community, and represent actual users. Prices start at $30 and range to $250 — but it might just be the price you pay to look “so fresh, so clean.”  (Source Inquisitor)

Turn It Up a Little Louder…

It’s nearing the end of the week and if you find yourself crying in your cup of joe since it’s not Friday, here’s something that may help. Scientists recently announced the most feel-good song ever. Queen’s 1979 smash hit “Don’t Stop Me Now.” The hit is played in a major key, with a fast tempo that is 10 BPM faster than the average pop song. Neuroscientists deemed that the most upbeat songs are played in two major keys. Keep this in mind the next time you want to make a fan favorite Youtube Video ( Source: Today). Glad our scientists aren’t wasting their time on little things like that thing called global warming.

Fox and Donald Trump are Breaking Up ..

Just in case you missed it, The Donald announced on Twitter that he is breaking all connections with Fox News. The tweet goes something like this, “ @FoxNews has been treating me very unfairly & I have therefore decided that I won’t be doing any more Fox shows for the foreseeable future. We wonder if this is seriously permanent. (Source OnPolitics)

 

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That’s Why Your Writings Are Run-Of-The-Mill

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin

You write a lot. You do your best to make your writings interesting, useful, inspiring, and sharable. You try hard.

And you understand what an exhausting work writing may be.

Sometimes, motivation and inspiration walk with a limp; you get tired of writing, your productivity falls, your writings become run-of-the-mill, and you understand that… But deadlines attack, and you deliver work despite of its imperfection.

It is high time to change it, no?

Have you ever thought that your productivity and quality of your writings might rely heavily on the place you belong to, while working: your writing office, a room where you write, your surroundings, etc?

Wherever your writing office is, it should be organized by the book if you want to rock as a writer. (Check out the infographic created by Emily Johnson, the best review writer at Omni Papers, at the end of this post. Oh yes, you are not mistaken: they have titled it with “a cabinet”. Make way to archaisms!)

Any proof needed? Here we go!

 

How desks influence your writing

What does your writing desk look like? Is it a total mess? What do you have on it? The proven fact is, that getting rid of unnecessary things and organizing your desk, you increase productivity by at least 15-20%).

Take a look at your writing desk and check if you have the following things there:

a desk lamp with 3500-4000 Kelvin light;
live plants to clean the air and reduce stress;
stickers to write down ideas and important tasks;
a cup of green tea to work smarter.

Plus, your writing office should be divided into two different zones: one is for computer work, and another zone – for non-computer work. When you are tired of your computer but still want to continue working, you can lay on a sofa with your laptop, smartphone or tablet in hands.

Changing your body pose does a power of good, too.

 

How light influences your writing

Do you know that three main factors influence your productivity: live plants, open windows, and… daylight? Those working in daylight are more active and concentrated than those working in artificial lighting; researches prove that daylight impacts our health and productivity positively.

What does it mean for those who write? Try to organize your workplace in a way you could write in daylight as long as possible (place your table by the window, for example).

Are you a night owl who prefers working nightly? Then you should think of choosing a right color temperature for your desk lamp: 3500-4000 Kelvin light stimulates brains and influences productivity, while warm temperatures of 2700-3000K relax and send us to sleep.

 

How walls influence your writing

What is the walls color at your workplace? If walls are beige or gray, you need to repair this nightmare immediately.

The University of Texas claims, that white, beige and gray colors cause sadness and depression, therefore influencing our mood and productivity. So, now it is clear why some writers are struck with creative blocks so often, isn’t it?

Choose blue or green colors for your walls: they are soothing, and they serve good for increasing effectiveness of our work.

 

What about comfort?

Writing your books or blogs, you spend much time at your table every day. As far as you understand, your health does not like it. Want to write better? Think of giving your workplace an ergonomic makeover: change some equipment to make it more comfortable and healthy:

Use an all-in-one PC: it combines advantages of both PC and laptop, letting you clear some space from frustrating wires.
Think of ergonomic chairs that support lower back and encourage good posture.


Try sitting/standing desks (practice-based studies show that standing work influences our health better); reduce a number of your sitting hours to influence your productivity. Sad statistics is, about 12% of deaths per year happen due to a lack of physical activity; so, it would be a good practice to stand up every 20 minutes and spend 1-2 minutes standing.
With the above statement in mind, you might want to try mini elliptical trainers that combine all benefits of athletic tracks, steppers, and bikes. They are perfect for workplace, as you can put such a mini trainer under the table and continue your work, doing physical exercises at the same time.

 

Inspiration needed?

Organizing your workplace, you should not forget about small but important details that might help you get inspired and make your writings flourish.

It is clear, that everyone has their own source of inspiration, and something that works for one writer will not work for another one. That is why, think of something that motivates and inspires YOU in particular, and decorate your writing office accordingly.

 

For example:

put some inspirational pictures or quotes to a wall;
put photos of your kids, friends, or relatives at your table.

Flowers, books, wallpapers, pets, food, music – inspiration may come from everything! Help it strike you, organizing your workplace carefully.

Working environment influences your productivity heavily. Structure it, put everything to its place, add inspiration – and you will save your time, increase your productivity level many times, and be delivered of the content everyone wants to read, share, and bookmark.

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Volkswagen CEO Resigns Amid Cheating Scandal

THE STORY –  Volkswagen CEO Resigns Amid Cheating Scandal

Volkswagen has been in trouble recently. With their emissions test cheating scandal being discovered earlier this week, all eyes have been on them. On Tuesday, CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned. (Source: USA Today)

What to say when your teacher calls you out…

Winterkorn said in a statement, “I am shocked by the events of the past few days. Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group.” He accepted responsibility for the scandal saying, “As CEO I accept responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and have therefore requested the Supervisory Board to agree on terminating my function as CEO of the Volkswagen Group. I am doing this in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrong doing on my part.” (Source: USA Today)

DA SKIM

A new CEO has not been appointed yet but is expected to be named on Friday. Amid the criminal investigation and 11 million rigged cars, the new Volkswagen CEO has their work cut out for them. (Source: USA Today)

Quote of the Day: “To all the new Instagrammers: Welcome!”

We all know that Instagram is popular. But did you know it’s like 400 million popular? In a blog post released yesterday, Instagram said more than 75% of Instagrammers live outside the United States and that more of the last 100 million members to join lived in Europe and Asia. Congrats Instagram! We love the food pictures and selfies that you bring to our smartphones.

In case you missed it…

If you have not been watching the news, Pope Francis is in America. This is his first time during his papacy that he has visited America so it’s a big deal. His five day, three city tour has been much anticipated and caused a lot of reactions online. Twitter decided to join in on the Popemania and have special emojis that appear next to the hashtags: #PopeinAmerica, #PopeinDC, #PopeinNYC and #PopeinPhilly. The emojis include a cartoon of the Pope’s face, Capitol dome, Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell. You know it’s important when Twitter makes personalized emojis. (Source: TIME)

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The ‘Dislike’ Button: What Does this Mean for Businesses and Brands?

Following the news that Facebook will start rolling out the dislike button option for its users, it is no surprise that marketers, businesses and brands alike may start to fear the possibility of targeted disapproval online.

However, founder Mark Zuckerberg has not yet mentioned what the dislike button will mean for business pages on Facebook. Will the button only exist as an option for individual posts or for pages as a whole? If the latter in fact becomes a reality then brands, businesses and even ‘community pages’ may be in for a shock. This seems unlikely for the time being, but as the finer details of this feature have not yet been explained, it seems to be up to the imagination of the general Facebook public.

What is more likely would be sponsored posts and general Facebook marketing posts to come equipped with a pesky ‘dislike button’. More dislikes than likes wouldn’t be detrimental to a brand’s Facebook presence, but over time it could be.  A post with an overwhelmingly negative response, and visibly so will have a lower click through rate, and inevitably could lower the conversion rate of an entire campaign. With that kind of negative advertising, Facebook as a marketing channel could be tainted for a considerable amount of time.

The solution to this is simple however. Tighten your Facebook strategy. Treat it with as much importance as any other marketing campaign, rather than just isolating it as ‘social media’. Aim to construct a brand which is impossible to hate. A strong brand and with an online presence which your users cannot fault will limit your intentional dislikes.

Being creative can help you stand out in the sea of other businesses advertising on Facebook. A unique brand, no matter how wacky it is will help get users on your side, not to mention the fact they will remember you when it comes down to making those all important decisions.

For example, popular franchise estate-agents, Ewemove have made their mark online by adopting the friendly female sheep, ‘Ewenice’. This personalises the brand in a way that a simple text ad could not do. What is more, their simple yet effective colour scheme and theme goes a long way. They certainly stand out and are memorable, which is imperative in an age where internet users are bombarded with information on an hourly basis.

Obviously you cannot control the random accidental or malicious dislikes you are likely to receive. This is where the dislike button’s existence could cause you some grief. It is all well and good when your direct competitor is receiving dislikes in the 100’s but when these competitors have it in their sights to bombard you with dislikes this is when marketing starts to get dirty.

Hopefully the clever people over at Facebook will concoct a motion that will apply the dislike functionality to Facebook business. With a structure in place, the like and dislike option could actually enhance your Facebook marketing efforts.

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Cookie Tracking: What You Can Do to Prepare for Future?

Many advertisers and webmasters are now preparing for a cookie-less digital advertising future as Google tries to constantly change its web browsing usage guidelines. Owing to these changes, online advertisers need to change their marketing research tactics that will be more ready to embrace the future of a cookie-less web browsing activities in the future. Instead of feeling panicky and adamant about the way Google is forcing online marketers to take a different direction in promoting their website, it is high time gauge your ability to adapt to these changes and here are some insights on how to prepare for the future.

What are tracking cookies?

A tracking cookie is a small piece of information which is collected during the web browsing activity of a user. It is also known as browser’s cookie or HTTP cookie which works to collect the data involving the browsing activity of an internet user each time they visit a particular website. Whenever they visit again that particular website, the tracking cookie will then send the browsing activity information to the visited website about the previous activities of the user. Some find the tracking cookie to be invasive to a web user’s privacy. While the cookies do not work like a virus or a malware, it is capable of collecting information like the user’s IP address, credit card information, passwords, most visited sites and many others. Most tracking cookies are harmless and mainly used for marketing analysis by most websites.

The potential threats viewed by digital marketing analysts with the cookie-less requirement for web browsing is that they are being precluded from using a very convenient and effective schemes of analyzing their target market behavior by using cookies. While Google has already declared its intention of a cookie-less transaction, Microsoft is likewise pursuing the same road. Mozilla, on the other hand, is already preparing their latest Firefox browser update that will block tracking cookies as its default feature. What this means to the digital marketing professionals and analysts is it is high time to prepare for the future of conducting a market analysis independent of tracking cookies.

Standardizing data collection independent of cookies

Blocking a tracking cookie is actually optional upon the web browser users. An internet user may opt to block the tracking software from a website they visit or not but with the upcoming updates of web browser with the no tracking features, it is likely that not all web users will be spending the time to manually enable their browser’s tracking cookies feature. Thus, because of this insight the Digital Marketing Alliance together with the Interactive Advertising Bureau are looking for other means of using a different data collection process that will be more independent from tracking cookies. They also require the establishment of a standardized regulation on how a tracking technology may be introduced to the consumers and web users without compromising the user’s privacy.

Workshops and trainings are progressively conducted by digital marketing and advertising leaders in order to establish a self regulatory mechanism on tracking web user behavior while defining their technical options. They aim to find a solution of using a tracking mechanism that has the same transparency and notices made by the traditional cookies without relying so much from web browsers.

Preparing for the future of cookie tracking

Because the changes on how cookie tracking will be implemented in web browsers appear to be indispensable in the future, here are some ways to help you prepare to reduce its impact in your online marketing strategies using tracking cookies:

1.       Educating the web browser users

You will likely become more prepared with these changes if you leverage on educating your website visitors about the tracking cookie software running on your site. Your best bet is to make your website visitors understand how enabling the tracking cookie on their browser will help you in your market industry analysis and research. Updating your privacy policy will help you reach out to your audience and making them understand about the scope and limits on the data obtained from their web browsing activities. This can, in a way, help you obtain your visitor’s consent to allow the tracking cookies to run on their browser.

2.       Explain the usage of third party cookies

It is common for web browsers to block third party cookies in order to make sure that the date collected from a browsing activity is sent to the proper recipient. Because of the stringent regulations on how tracking cookies may be used and allowed to be collected, you can always explain to web users how the data of their browsing activities are collected and how their web browsing experience and functionality will be affected when they disable this feature. Complement this effort by explaining on your privacy terms to your website ranking visitors.

3.       Obtain your website visitor consent

Your ultimate goal is to convince your website visitor to consent the tracking cookies to run on their browser. Without their consent, there is not much you can do to successfully use the tracking cookies’ ability in providing you the comprehensive data you need for marketing analysis when the same is blocked by the web browser by default. You have a better chance of obtaining consent from your visitors by using less legal terms on your terms and conditions when using your website and try to add more transparency in its content instead. This will educate your visitors better without either scaring or confusing them with the legal terms that you use on your site. It is best to provide a separate data consent agreement for this purpose in order to emphasize to your readers this option. If you are using another independent digital tracking technology, you can introduce the same by providing the users the information they need in understanding how it works in collecting their data and for what purpose they will be used. This will help you obtain their consent more conveniently.

While this may be a difficult process from the beginning, acting as early as now in preparing for the cookie-less web browsing trend will help you to enhance your ability to embrace these changes for the near future.

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