Erik Qualman's Blog, page 628

Put That Google+ Page to Work for Your Business

Many businesses are already feeling overwhelmed when it comes to keeping up with social media sites.

However, Google+ is worth the effort. Small businesses that use Google+ effectively draw large crowds and create a lot of brand buzz.

With that in mind, take a look at just some of the positive impacts Google+ can deliver for your business:

Improve Search Engine Optimization

A Google+ page improves your search engine optimization in Google. You can easily tell visitors about your business and post your content to Google+.

When customers conduct a Google search they may land on your Google+ page as opposed to your business page. It’s likely your Google+ page will be ranked highly by search engines if you fill out your profile completely and remain active on the site.

Install a Google+ Badge on Your Website

Install a Google+ badge on your website and users can share your content on their Google+ sites. This makes your content easily share-able around the web, which can increase your exposure.

It’s a simple and quick way to encourage visitors to tell their friends about their company. The more your content gets shared, the more visible your information will be to potential customers.

Hashtags Draw in More Customers

You can create your own hashtags or if you choose not to, Google+ will sometimes create this for you.

This allows people who are searching for specific content to find you more easily.

Connect Your Other Social Media Profiles

Google+ allows you to connect your other websites and social media profiles all in one place.

This can make it easier for visitors to see that you have a blog or a relevant Facebook page, for example. Google+ seems to be the best social media site for connecting all of your content in one place.

Gain Authority

Gain authority with your content by making it known that you are the author.

Your photo will appear next to your content in search engines. You can use your own photo or your business logo.

Users are much more likely to click on content that includes a photo. You’ll stand out ahead of the competition in Google searches when a photo appears next to your content.

Engage With Other Users

Engage with other people on Google+ to gain more followers. You can further conversations by giving others a +1 or by making comments about their content.

Engaging with others helps you to network with others in your field. It can also help you to gain authority and attract new customers.

Get Your Employees Involved

Get your employees involved and you’ll increase your Google+ influence.

Your employees can create their own Google+ profiles and participate in sharing content and giving your business content an added bonus with +1s.

Attract Local Attention

There is a lot of benefit to small business owners who are only looking to gain local attention.

A Google+ local profile can help you stand out from the competition when customers are looking for businesses in their own communities, allowing you to effectively be recruiting in social media, in this case for customers.

Customers can review your business as well. This keeps your content fresh and gives other potential customers information about your business.

Google+ does not require much time or skill.

It can however, make a big difference in how much attention you’ll gain for your business.

Photo credit: slashgear.com

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Highlighting the Best of the Best on Social Media

Flower image from Shutterstock

For many brands, social media gives you the opportunity to experiment with different platforms and cadences. Most often, you won’t know what’s most effective for reaching — and keeping — your audience until you stumble upon it. This leads many companies to sign up for as many services as it can, throwing everything against the wall and hoping that something will eventually stick.

When it came to launching Offset, a collection of premium stock photos, the marketing team wanted to focus on channels that it deemed the right fit. Beyond identifying Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr as the best options and opportunities to make a mark, they also wanted to take a slightly different approach with the platforms. For instance, on Instagram, they opted to post less but still regularly with themes and collaborative encouragement that would appeal to the existing Instagram audience. What’s worked out is how well the company’s high-end imagery, with special attention to food, outdoors, and fashion photography, lends itself to the social experience.

When done at its best, social media can complement, reinforce, and broaden the brand. One of the things that you can find on Offset’s homepage is an emphasis on the contributors to the collection. They are veterans who are showcasing some of their photographic work for the first time, and Offset knows how valuable that story is to tell. When it came to populating content on the company’s Tumblr, the marketing team decided that instead of filling the feed with just an array of beautiful it would choose an artist to highlight and feature each week. Over the course of several days, you get to see a selection from the contributor’s portfolio. You can call this a form of hyper-curation, the process of picking out truly the best images from an already heavily-curated collection.

The way Tumblr is built, too, gives Offset the chance to highlight a selection of images as a gallery. For the viewer, this offers a more visually-inspiring look. Tagging posts has also proven valuable to help the posts get surfaced, discovered, and shared. Every image chosen has a purpose, and doing it this way makes the collection feel more personal and relevant.

Depending on the given season or holiday schedule, the marketing team will opt for a contributor that perfectly matches those emotions. The marketing team studies the biographies of Offset’s contributors to find just the right fit. On social media, people will find just a taste of the colors, style, and beauty and be drawn in. From there, some of the followers will hopefully click through and go check out the fuller collection on the Offset site. These images and illustrations appear authentic within the more photography-inclined social channels. Having a supreme curatorial touch and specific strategy takes Offset the extra mile.

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How To Become An Authoritative Figure Within Your Niche

When trying to become an authoritative figure within your niche, people will turn to you for information and advice. In short,you must become the trusted source of information within your specific niche. There are a number of ways to become the authority on a particular topic, ranging from being first to report about a recent event, to building a relationship of trust with your audience.

First on the scene

Timing is key, being an authoritative figure in your niche means that people turn to you when looking for breaking news. Twitter is key here, real time updates help to provide concise and informative information, complimented by a clear profile with backlinks to a well informed blog or website. When people are coming to you when they are looking for the latest news for their particular interest, it is more than likely that they will want to read more than just 140 characters, having a informative blog to back up your tweets will convert one time viewers into regular readers.

Being first to report can also mean being first to create a valuable and interesting piece of content that people want to read and discuss. When things happen that are related your specific area, it may be unhelpful to make a simple statement that many others will be making, take the time to be original, put time and thought into an original piece of content that will start a discussion. People will come back time and time again for interesting, thought provoking and good quality content and it is these people that will eventually come to think of you as an authoritative figure within your niche.

Quality not quantity

 

An authoritative niche figure

In order to become an authority figure, trust is key. Clear, well informed and quality research will have people coming back again and again. Once the trust of a few has been gained, it is likely that they will refer you on to their friends and colleagues, expanding your audience of trusting readers. Making sure your content is of a high standard is important, particularly when it comes to facts and figures. Content that is factually correct increases trust and helps build an audience that comes to you for well researched and interesting content. When it comes to becoming an authoritative figure, sometimes all it can take it a double checking of the facts, when this is sorted, you wont need 3 posts a day to have people reading your blog. This being said, it is important to be regular with your content, even if it is only a post ever other day.

Are you experienced?

Professional experience, or at the very least thorough professional knowledge will help people view you as an authority figure within your niche. When they can see that you are well informed about a topic, particularly professional knowledge, they view you as a reliable source of information that has a real insight to the topic that they are interested in. Whilst many people don’t have the knowledge right now, the internet is home to more than enough resources to inform themselves about the industry side of their particular niche. From this point onwards, they can use this knowledge as a base to create interesting and quality content that people will trust and value

People interested in your particular niche may be spread all around the internet, on blogs, on twitter even Reddit or Facebook, so don’t forget to have an online presence in places that people talk about your niche. This doesn’t necessarily mean your content needs to be stored in these places, but having a page or profile where people can find easy links to your niche content will help increase readership. It also might be worth considering web marketing to promote your content, this, however can be a daunting task, one that needs to be done properly. Sometimes it is worth looking into what an online marketing company can do for you in terms of SEO or advertising.

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Employers Can Be More Social When Looking for Help

Did you know that 92% of employers use social media to hire employees (according to a survey by Jobvite?

The most popular social media tool is Facebook, followed by Twitter as a close second. Using social media to look for qualified candidates is quick, easy and almost always free.

Qualified candidates also understand the importance of having social media accounts, so you as a business owner are more likely to get the people on board who will make a difference in your company.

Why social media?

The amount of qualified candidates you will reach through social media is astronomical.

Facebook has more than 700 million users, and sites like LinkedIn allow you to do specific searches to find the exact candidate you’re looking for. Seems overwhelming, but there really is no better way than by means of social media to hire future employees.

How to use social media when looking to hire

There are dozens of ways to use social media when looking to hire.

You can post the job opening to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blog, have friends ‘share’ the posting to their social media sites to get your ad in front of even more potential candidates and even search for the candidate yourself on sites such as LinkedIn.

You can use social media to brag about your company and the fun atmosphere you provide, plus share that your company offers an incredible benefits or bonus package. The more you share and show off your company, the more qualified candidates you’ll attract!

Being successful at hiring via social media

Hiring via social media, though relatively easy, is not for inexperienced companies who don’t have an online presence.

The best way to make hiring via social media effective is by building and maintaining and online presence that separates you from the pack. As with anything, though, this takes work. You’ll need to spend a good amount of time networking online in order to come into contact with as many businesses and individuals as possible.

The bigger your social media network, the more likely you are to be successful with finding qualified candidates. If you can afford it, you may even want to consider hiring someone to specifically handle your social media accounts.

Other ways to find qualified candidates

Another great way at finding qualified candidates is through current employee referrals.

Ask your best employees if they wouldn’t mind using their social media accounts to post job openings at your company. Most people won’t mind doing this at all, and you may land yourself an extremely qualified candidate. You could also consider offering a small bonus to current employees that bring in (and get hired) qualified candidates.

Remember, the only way you’ll be successful with hiring via social media is if you’re a large force in the online world. This takes time, commitment and knowledge.

If you’re in the process of building a company, jump on the social media bandwagon as soon as possible.

You don’t need to wait until you’re ‘established’ in order to get a company Facebook page or Twitter account.

In fact, the sooner you dive in, the more success you’re going to have with social media (this not only goes for hiring, but also for growing your business and making sales in general).

Photo credit: luc.edu

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Getting Real with Social Media

Social media isn’t really just for being social anymore.

It’s turned into a professional method for reaching more customers and bringing in more clients. You can hardly find a company any longer that at least doesn’t use some form of social media to its advantage.

In some fields, this is even more advantageous than others. Real estate is a big one for social media, and more and more of the big Realtors are utilizing it for their marketing needs.

Buyers and Sellers

Buyers, as well as sellers, use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other forms of social media in their search to buy or sell.

Realtors need to up the ante and use it as well or else they might get tossed aside. Sellers can post on social media with video, interactive feedback, and more, and of course, the buyers can even look inside homes now before any realtor lets them in with a key.

So what should realtors do?

Realtors need to incorporate social media into their daily work.

Set up informative social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube. Not only do Realtors need to feature their properties, but they also need to feature themselves.

People like to work with someone they mesh with, and often will check out profiles before working with a Realtor. If one doesn’t have an up to date profile, it could be a deterrent, showing that their work may not be up to date.

Make it easy

If you go to some of the big name Realtors around, you can gain some easy insight on their social media game, which gives you an idea of how current they are.

For instance, on Coldwell Banker’s homepage, you immediately see the social media icon widget bar, and it’s quite full. They’ve got Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Google +, and WordPress.

Likewise, ReMax has Facebook, Twitter, Google +, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Keller William’s home page is embedded with a YouTube video of seller secrets as well as a widget bar featuring Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Photobucket, Flickr, LinkedIn, Pinterest as well as a blog. And it’s not just homes being featured – you can learn about tips for selling or buying, current trends or top areas to buy in. As a buyer or seller, the social media is at your fingertips on these sites.

From there, you can get to individual Realtor’s pages, and these should have the same widgets for social media.

A Realtor should be featuring new home listings on social media, as well as proudly showing sold homes.

Social media is a place to boast successes, and as a Realtor, you want to showcase yours. This way prospective and current clients can easily see your achievements as well as what you do to sell or find just the right house.

A Realtor needs to utilize social media; it will save him and her time as well as the time of their buyers and sellers.

It’s easy, it’s helpful and it’s how the market is working now.

Use it and use it well. Your business will thank you for it.

Photo credit: encore-realty.com

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How to Use Social Media with Webinars to Boost Sales

Legendary New York disc jockey Barry Gray of WMCA revolutionized radio in 1945 when he held his telephone up to the microphone to broadcast a live call from big band celebrity Woody Herman. Today’s talk radio hosts continue to thrive by using the same combination of wireless broadcasting and listener engagement.

But businesses are only beginning to realize how the integration of webinars with social media offers the same potential for engaging audiences. Socially-supported webinars provide a powerful platform for generating leads, boosting audience participation, and facilitating follow-up with attendees.

Why Webinars?

Webinars make sense for businesses because they’re popular and cost-effective. Recent research showed that during a six-month sample period, 18 percent of companies ran a webinar one to three times per month with an average of 28 attendees. Considering the relatively minimal investment needed to promote and run a webinar as compared to other promotional strategies such as advertising and direct mail, the number of leads per event represents an excellent return on investment. Add this to the 1.15 billion users currently on Facebook, and you can see how leveraging webinars can multiply your revenue.

Building User Connections

Coca-Cola, Texas HoldEm Poker, and celebrities such as Rihanna, Eminem and Shakira, have Facebook “Like”s in excess of 66 million, notes InsideFaceBook.com. For small businesses, even a few thousand likes represents significant outreach. This illustrates why social media offers a great lead generation tool for promoting webinars.

One way to use social media to promote webinars is paid advertising. Placing ads on Facebook, Google and YouTube connects you with users who fit your target demographics.

Building your own social following is another way to generate publicity for your events. Sharing valuable content of interest to your target audience can attract prospects to your Facebook page or Twitter list, giving you opportunities to invite them to your events.

Blog-based email marketing is a third way to generate leads for your webinars. By placing interesting content on your blog and creating an incentive for visitors to join your mailing list, you create your own in-house promotional network. Partnering with other list owners can expand your in-house outreach exponentially.

You will get the most leverage out of these tactics if you integrate your webinar registration page with your mailing list. This uses your event to build your list, giving you a platform for promoting future engagements.

You can monetize this model by charging for access to webinars. Of course, you’ll get more attendees to free events, so one tactic you can use is to offer a complimentary webinar up front, and use it to extend an invitation to a paid premium follow-up. Offering attendees a discount gives them an incentive to sign up for the paid event.

Engagement with Webinar Users

Radio talk shows let listeners call in, engage the host, and share their views on air. Social media support lends webinars the same appeal. While attendees are watching and listening, they can post feedback on Facebook for discussion with their peers and the presenter.

It’s challenging running a webinar and answering feedback at the same time, so a wise strategy is to enlist your staff and followers to help field Facebook comments. Assign or encourage key people to interact with attendees and help you answer their questions and comments. Your business could also employ a live help service to answer questions quickly during the webinar. You can let others handle the bulk of the discussion, and focus your own interaction on answering the questions that most demand your expertise.

Leveraging Your Events

Business management genius W. Edwards Deming, who helped jump-start the Japanese economy after World War II, said that profit comes from repeat customers. Profitable webinars are ones that generate follow-up business. There are several ways social media can help advance this strategy.

First, provide superlative customer support. Live discussion can enable staff and group members to handle questions and problems. Pinned comments can answer frequently asked questions. Uploaded files can perform the same function, as well as offer additional resources.

You can also use social media to conduct follow-up market research after your webinars. Ask attendees questions to learn more about their needs, how well your content addressed their concerns, and what they’d like to see in future events.

A final way to capitalize on webinars is by extending follow-up sales offers. One of the easiest ways to do this is to repurpose webinar content as a commercial product. This can be done by recording the webinar itself, creating an infoproduct in another medium that complements the content of the presentation, or bundling recorded content with other material that adds value for attendees.

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Has It Come Time to Hire a Social Media Manager?

No matter which way you look at it, social media is quickly becoming a full-time job for businesses both large and small.

And, whether it’s juggling a business Facebook page or staying on top of the company Twitter account, businesses that hire social media managers are usually glad they did.

So, with social networking stability in mind, what are the benefits of hiring a social media manager for your business?

The Social Landscape is Always Changing

Social media is basically a form of technology, and like technology, it’s always changing.  Unless you have someone on your team that’s on the forefront of social media, then by the time you figure out one networking technique, the cyber world will already be on to the next.

It’s a social media manager’s job to be socially savvy, current, and invested in the various directions social networking is headed. So, if having someone on staff that’s familiar with all the changes social media takes on a daily basis is the only benefit of hiring a social media manager, then that’s reason enough.

Being Socially Savvy Takes Time

Do you have a blog that you haven’t touched in three months or a Twitter account that’s non-existent?

It’s probably because those things take time not only to upkeep, but also to perfect. With a social media manager, you’ll have your business’s networking taken care of, which gives you more time to do your job.

Yes, hiring a dedicated social media manager will cost your business money, but it’s a crucial position. Social networking not only gains your business an online presence and credibility, it’s also worth its weight in marketing gold.

Valuable Content is Invaluable

Quality content is a large part of having a respectable social media image.

If your business doesn’t have the time or the wherewithal to be as socially conscious as possible, it’ll show in the content. That’s why social media managers are so crucial.

Along with the idea of social media managers having the time to keep your business’s networking on track also comes the idea that what they do post and Tweet and update is quality. After all, a consistent online presence and quality, engaging content go hand-in-hand when it comes to being social.

Whether it is posting the latest update on the company’s brand or knowing the importance of when it is time to remove articles from Google that question your business reputation, having someone in that role makes it easier on everyone.

Social Media is a Marketing Strategy

Gaining an online presence is one thing, but gaining an online following in the form of loyal customers is another. In terms of marketing potential, a social media manager is an online marketer as well as a mobile marketer.

Major companies like New York Life and Volvo know this and that’s why they’ve hired not only social media managers, but entire networking teams to market their business and brand image to various online audiences. Whether it’s promotional content or pay-per-click advertising, social media is more than just being social.

So, from time saving efforts to social marketing strategies, social media managers will help your business stay ahead of the networking race.

Photo credit: bestsocialmediamanager.com

 

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Data Mining

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5 Companies on Top of Social Media

Social media is an ever-growing component of many companies’ marketing strategies.

It’s not hard to see why: More than 67% of online adults in the United States were using social networking sites as of December 2012. This makes social media an effective way to reach a large number of potential customers.

A few companies who are running effective social media campaigns include:

1. Capital One

Already known for quirky, memorable advertisements on television and other traditional platforms, Capital One has built a strong social media presence, as well. In 2012, the company ran a Twitter contest to name the 2012 College Mascot of the Year, attracting more than 120,000 voters.

Capital One also uses other networks to get its message out.

On Pinterest, it ran a “12 Days of Pinterest” promotion that showcased products from a few of its retail partners. It also joined LinkedIn to create a community for business travelers called Jet. This community gives users news, tips, and resources while on the road.

2. Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic has become the unofficial face of the health care industry on social media.

It reached that status by providing top-notch information and education to customers through Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, along with other social platforms.

While the clinic can’t provide specific answers to many patients’ medical questions due to strict regulations, it gives general advice via Twitter chats and a weekly radio program. Mayo Clinic’s YouTube channel is another popular destination for online users, with information on medical issues like sports injuries, exercise, and surgeries.

3. Novo Nordisk

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Novo Nordisk is another medical company who gets the power of social media — but not just for sales.

The company’s main focus for its social networking campaigns is to inform consumers to help improve the level of medical care.

Novo Nordisk’s social platforms help them connect with patients, helping the company educate people about diabetes and other conditions. The company also runs several Twitter accounts, including some that focus on public policy — again, to help keep consumers informed.

4. Mariott

Using Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, Marriott International shares gorgeous photos of some of its most exotic destinations to generate interest and customer engagement.

The focus of the hotel chain’s social media presence is on delivering relevant content to help create interactions with customers, rather than on coaxing users to their websites.

Additionally, Marriott’s customer care team keeps track of the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages, keeping an eye out for questions and concerns from customers and travelers.

The company delivers a bit of fun with its My Marriott Hotel Facebook game. The game lets players manage a virtual Marriott kitchen, earning their way to other areas of the hotel.

5. Mercedes-Benz

Starting with its “Owner Stories” Facebook page, Mercedes-Benz builds powerful customer engagement with its social media profiles. Other ways the company keeps its customers coming back is through giveaways, sponsorship deals, and YouTube tutorials to explain their cars’ technical features.

These companies show that social media is useful to businesses for more than just marketing.

By educating customers and providing them with valuable information about their various industries, these companies build dedicated fan bases who help them spread their messages.

Photo credit: phandroid.com

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You Won’t Get on a Wheaties Box by Playing Call of Duty

Since the dawn of man, we have valued the strong. Our hunter-gatherer ancestry cherished the capable, and those who were physically fit provided for the existing communities. The strong were a necessity then. In Ancient Greece, the Olympics were created as a celebration of the human body, and the strength of young men. Wars erupted and the form of a strong man became the ideal of society, as a necessary and respected role within society. That idea, has still not changed, and the hunter-warrior is, unfortunately in many cases, still revered today and has become a strong root for misogyny and other forms of sexism.

Today, the sportsman has replaced the warrior as the ideal strong man. Achilleus and Herakles were replaced by Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali, and the athletic man is still respected for what they are capable of doing with the human body. These men are heroes, like the Greek ones before them, and we treat superstars like demigods. We feel so strongly for sports because they have roots from a survival instinct, and have a strong sense of masculinity associated with it (which is perhaps why female professional sports leagues struggle to gain traction).

Video Games, and games in general, exist for an entirely different reason. They were found to pass time, not as a necessity for survival, but as a comfort in times of peace. As such, the archetype of a video gamer has more or less remained the same, a non-fit young male who is typically portrayed as a geek. Organized professional gaming, also known as electronic sports or eSports, don’t have the same reverence as their real-life counterparts have.

However, the times have changed with gaming, as the boundless nature of games are slowly being revealed, the average gamer is 30 years old, and the average game purchaser 35. The longevity of a video game hobby can last well into later life, but sports take a toll on the body. The sportsman is almost always a fit young person, the bodily ideal since antiquity because they need to be, but the gamer is slowly evolving to represent the norm today, an average person: someone like you or me, there is no outward showing of a skilled gamer. Fifty-eight percent of Americans play video games. Forty-five percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (31 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (19 percent). Fifty-one percent of U.S. households own a dedicated game console, and those that do own an average of two. Sports players are representative of a physical elite, the young and the strong, but video gamers are gaining mainstream action, and the typical gamer is as common as you or me.

Games that are popular, however, do tend to be the ones that represent masculinity, and pump they are designed to pump testosterone. First person shooters are by far the biggest releases today in mainstream game studios, for a masculine association with the military, but other genres like the third person Role Playing Games like The Last of Us or Mass Effect and racing games like Forza and Gran Turismo also represent the societal adoration of manliness. Main characters tend to be representative of a bodily ideal (first person shooters with soldiers, main characters typically in their prime), and we can see that with the popularity of Duke Nukem in the 90s, an almost caricature of male tendencies. Females are largely portrayed as damsels in distress or weak, saving Princess Peach comes to mind.

Electronic sports don’t have a Michael Phelps. Watching a League of Legends tournament, most of the players are small young players who look like they can’t lift more than 20 pounds, and this is why eSports will fail to gain a mainstream following anytime soon. Professional gamers are not athletes. You can’t see the hard work these people put into their craft like you can on athletes: there aren’t any muscles. When I see Robert Griffin III, I can see that he’s strong, but this is not the case with professional gamers. You can’t see on the outside how good a video gamer is, or is perceived to be. Electronic sports have no heroes, no demigods.

Actually, I see eSports similarly to how I view professional poker. There are no young people who idolize professional poker players, every bar isn’t playing the World Series of Poker, and there isn’t a parade in the home town for the winner of the World Poker Tour. Professional poker players are largely out of shape: there’s nothing sexy about the players.

However, that discredits what professional poker has been able to achieve. Poker is vastly more popular now than it was before. Every Vegas casino has a poker room now with sit-n-go tournaments, and Texas Hold-em became extremely popular. Professional poker couldn’t get mainstream because their players weren’t sexy, but they were able to achieve something far different: the game itself is now sexy.

I can see electronic sports benefitting in the same way that professional poker did to amateur poker. The games that professionals play can be played by the layperson, much like how Texas Hold ‘em is now the favourite poker game over five card stud because of the popularity of the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour. So maybe in gaming, we’ll see a rise of PC gamers over console gamers by those who want to emulate a professional experience. Yet I see more potential for eSports than I think poker ever had.

I look to Korea and East Asia, where professional gaming does seem to have gained traction. The games that are played aren’t Call of Duty or Need for Speed; it’s Starcraft, a strategy game. Perhaps, the success of eSports lies with a changing perception of a human ideal. We don’t see that professional video gamers are going to be good superficially based on height and weight, but we do see that they are very quick and smart in gameplay. Maybe the success of professional StarCraft in Korea is indicative of a larger movement in a changing of a human ideal: we are valuing intelligence more than physical strength now. Thomas Hobbes said in the Leviathan:

For as to the strength of body, the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination or by confederacy with others that are in the same danger with himself. And as to the faculties of the mind, setting aside the arts grounded upon words, and especially that skill of proceeding upon general and infallible rules, called science, which very few have and but in few things, as being not a native faculty born with us, nor attained, as prudence, while we look after somewhat else, I find yet a greater equality amongst men than that of strength.

So maybe, we have come so far as a race to have changed the things we valued from the beginning of society. Perhaps we developed enough technology where physical strength is becoming irrelevant, and masculinity is thrown out for wit, and that’s how electronic sports can succeed. An entire overhaul of societal perception is being set by professional hobbyists. With a growing disdain for gender constructs and overt masculinity, perhaps a success in electronic sports will show that we, as a society, finally value brains over brawn.

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